Don’t get tripped up by these common misconceptions.
By Starr Hall   |  Entrepreneur.com

Do you remember the story of Chicken Little? If one person tells you the sky is falling, you laugh at him. But if you’re told the same story over and over, pretty soon you believe it. This also rings true with branding–just because everyone else is saying or doing something doesn’t mean that it works.

Time and again I see entrepreneurs throw thousands of dollars away trying to grow their businesses with traditional branding techniques because everyone else is doing it. These branding myths can break a company before it even gets off the ground. Times have changed–technology has created new ways to build and brand your company; traditional techniques don’t always work anymore. Being aware of the following five myths will help you avoid these mistakes and save countless hours of frustration.

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By CarolAnn Bailey-Lloyd. Follow her @CarolAnnB.

If you’re new to online business and are trying to surf through the sometimes murky waves of the Internet, then the first thing you need to do is take a deep breath and relax. Nothing can get you more worked up than your own nerves doing a hoodoo number on your mind.  I’m going to offer you a few tricks of the trade I’ve learned along the way and hope that you’ll benefit in some small way.

1. Market Research and Analysis: This is where successful marketing plans spring to action. Justifiably, clients (or buyers) must want to achieve specific goals, so usability and receptiveness are crucial components that ultimately become the deciding factor for potential purchases. Analyze your products and/or services. Obviously, you must have a great product or service to offer your potential buyer.

Here are a few questions you should ask yourself:

• Consumer Demand: What is it about my product (or service) that makes it essential to consumers? What sets my product (or service) aside from other competitors or like products?
• Communication/Presentation: Do I inform my potential consumers with detailed accuracy? Is my product (or service) being presented in its best light? Can I improve its viewer-ability?
• Amenities: Do I offer any special tools or tips (e.g., videos, workshops, eBooks, etc.) that enhance my products and/or services?
• Accessibility: Is my product (or service) easily accessible and within reach?
• Branding: Do I have a memorable slogan/brand? (e.g., Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef?”)
• Quality/Affordability: Is my product (or service) affordable, and does it offer quality? Are financing or other loan options available?

2. Strategic Planning and Implementation: Examine your current marketing and advertising campaign to determine the best way to meet and exceed consumer expectations and demand. Try to discern which tactics are working and which ones aren’t. That doesn’t mean you have to entirely abandon the processes that you are utilizing, but it does mean that you might need to take a second approach as to how you go about your day-to-day web operations. After you’ve explored trends, applications, and web 2.0 marketing strategies, it’s time to jot down a plan of action to create real sustainable wealth in your professional business. Remember too, that two heads are always better than one; so get a professional (or personal) opinion from a friend or colleague to get her reaction on your commercial appeal.

3. Website Development and Promotion: The most critical aspects of marketing your product or service online are to know the foundation of Internet marketing and how to successfully harness the power of the World Wide Web at the stroke of your fingertips. How? Since the conception and birth of the Internet, advertising has taken on dramatically new angles, and is steadily climbing to popular ranks among the masses.

While large audiences still prescribe to network and cable television programs, the Web audience is growing by leaps and bounds. Aside from being a vital instrument for student and professional research projects, the Internet has become an ever-expanding media outlet for entertainment, information, work and direct-advertising. By integrating all points of a strategic marketing campaign, virtual web advertising agencies are able to assist clients with interactive ad campaigns that help promote exposure to clients (services and/or products).

In addition to frugal facilitation of free online marketing tools like PR-Inside.com, Free-Press-Release.com, and various online article distribution sites, Web 2.0 technologies are reinventing the way online businesses and professionals perform and succeed in today’s tough economic environment.

* Emerging web 2.0 technologies (e.g.: Twitter, FaceBook MySpace, LinkedIn, VOX, Me2everyone; Google Reader, FriendFeed, Mixx, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Blip.fm, YouTube, HolisticTwitter, InSocialMedia, Wordpress, eBlogger, etc.) are excellent networking tools to help brand you and your services (or products).  *Psst…Twitter is my personal favorite social networking site, but I’m not telling anyone!

Don’t forget to utilize Meta tags and basic hotmail coding including anchor text links and linked graphics to enhance your web presence and visibility. This means using keyword/keyword phrase-rich, original content as copy and as distributable articles to assorted article-hosts.

To your success!

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.

It can enhance both partners—or put a dent in one. Make sure you pick a partner that’s a good fit with your company’s products, values, and image

By Steven McKee | Businessweek.com

The moment Roger Penske announced his planned acquisition of the Saturn brand from GM, Saturn dealerships around the country initiated a spontaneous and organic co-branding campaign, erecting banners and billboards to celebrate the alliance.

Saturn of Wichita’s advertising proudly proclaimed: “Finally, a car guy owns a car company.” Scott Davies, owner of the dealership, explained the resulting traffic increase by saying: “People want to buy from someone they like. A lot of customers won’t buy a car from GM, but they will buy a car from Roger Penske.” That’s why Davies—and many other dealers like him—were so eager to associate Saturn with Penske.

It was an odd and unintentional (at least from GM’s perspective) co-branding effort, but it paid off. Saturn’s marketing director, Kim McGill, said the Penske announcement led to a 35% sales jump in June over the prior year.

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Many who are starting out in business, or just beginning to do business for themselves, labor under a misconception that ‘branding’ is something you do after you start becoming successful. We are all so used to hearing the term ‘brand’ referring to a large conglomerate or supermarket chain or vacuum cleaner that we tend to allow the idea to remain associated with size and success and not with us and our first, small steps in the business world. It’s a misconception because branding doesn’t only refer to big brands, it is a term and a set of concepts which equally refers to small businesses, one person businesses and individual people. From big brands to small, from corporate brands to personal branding - it’s the brand that’s the key. Who you are, what you stand for, and how that information is communicated to others, as a total identity, is your brand.

The core concept of ‘branding’ is the idea of managing expectations. This is done by developing a set of qualities or characteristics which, together, form the personality of a ‘brand’, much like a fiction writer would create a set of qualities to describe each of the characters in his story. These qualities are known as the ‘brand DNA’ and, figuratively speaking, they together represent the blueprint of the brand; much like DNA establishes the unique characteristics of an organism. Establishing this set of qualities in the minds of customers and managing their expectation s to associate these qualities with the companies products and services is what is known as ‘branding’ - like a hot iron on cow hide.

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Five ways to look like you make a lot of money without spending a lot.
By Scott Gerber

In today’s cluttered, hypercompetitive marketplace your business can’t afford to make a poor first impression. Every touch point that leads to your company needs to impress, motivate and inspire a prospective customer. You may have a great product or service, but to be taken seriously, clients need to believe that you’re on the same playing field as the bigger guys. Even if you’re a consultant that works from a home office, you’ll need to position your company as a polished brand that touts confidence, experience and quality. Fear not. Here are five simple tips for branding your business to create the illusion that it is a global corporation with an army at the ready — all without breaking the bank.

1. Website
   Your website is the center of your brand universe. Simplicity is the key to looking like a big fish. Less is more. A clean, easy-to-navigate two-page site with useful content will make your company look far more established than a cluttered 20-page site with long-winded fluff. Design your site with the needs of your user in mind, not your ego. Sites that try to be everything to everyone will often become nothing to anyone.

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New communications and PR tools offer marketers less costly (and equally effective) alternatives for building brand and product awareness
By Rachel Meranus   |   March 04, 2009

Tough economic times are forcing many companies to cut back marketing and advertising budgets. According to figures released by the Publisher’s Information Bureau in January, consumer magazine advertising pages dropped nearly 12 percent in 2008. While cost cutting may be necessary to remain solvent, forcing your marketing department to go on a crash diet can cause companies to lose the momentum and brand awareness they’ve built up through long-term campaigns.

Just because times are lean doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your hard-earned market share. Use this economic downturn as a chance to supplement your marketing and advertising activities with targeted public relations campaigns that capitalize on the brand awareness you’ve already cultivated.

So how do you do more with less?

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Customer testimonials are like gold. Learn how to mine them.
By John Williams — Entrepreneur.com

Whether your business is local or global, you can make a tremendous brand impression by telling stories–real-world stories that illustrate how your business has helped customers.

Customer stories work for you several ways. First, they’re memorable, making your business and brand more memorable, too. They stick in people’s minds, especially if they strike a particular chord with readers or website visitors. For instance, a story about how your service team went the extra mile for a customer could make a lasting impression on people tired of the lousy service they get elsewhere.

Second, stories sidestep the jaded skepticism with which audiences greet empty-sounding promotional claims. “We go the extra mile for you!” Yeah, right. Instead of spouting slogans, stories demonstrate the underlying truth without sounding boastful. A story giving a few details about how you walked the walk for one real, live human being will do more to build your business and brand than a thousand slogans will.

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Let’s get the bad news over with: To say that the U.S. economy is facing the most challenging economic time since the Great Depression is not an overstatement. Last week, employers shed almost 600,000 jobs. Today, 11.6 million Americans are out of work. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate has officially risen to 7.6%.

“This is the largest 13-month job loss since the payroll employment series began in 1939,” Christina Romer, the head of President Obama’s White House Council of Economic Advisers, said in a statement on February 6, 2009. “These numbers, and the very real suffering of American workers they represent, reinforce the need for bold fiscal action. If we fail to act, we are likely to lose millions more jobs and the unemployment rate could reach double digits.” Read article…

Customer testimonials are like gold. Learn how to mine them.

Whether your business is local or global, you can make a tremendous brand impression by telling stories–real-world stories that illustrate how your business has helped customers.

Customer stories work for you several ways. First, they’re memorable, making your business and brand more memorable, too. They stick in people’s minds, especially if they strike a particular chord with readers or website visitors. For instance, a story about how your service team went the extra mile for a customer could make a lasting impression on people tired of the lousy service they get elsewhere.

Second, stories sidestep the jaded skepticism with which audiences greet empty-sounding promotional claims. “We go the extra mile for you!” Yeah, right. Instead of spouting slogans, stories demonstrate the underlying truth without sounding boastful. A story giving a few details about how you walked the walk for one real, live human being will do more to build your business and brand than a thousand slogans will.

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by Robbi Gunter

Promoting your business is one of the primary keys to solvency. There is no point in having a product or service to offer on the marketplace if you don’t let anyone know it exists. It is the responsibility of the promotions department in your business organization to let the public know you have products and to create a demand for those products. Using promotional products is a tactic for branding your organization correctly.

Familiarity and Goodwill

Branding your business is an essential part of promotions since it involves getting the public familiar with your company name or logo and having it invoke a feeling of trust and confidence when it is seen. Delivering more or better than you promised is the foundation for creating the reaction you want when people see your logo. People that receive promotional items as gifts are eager to show them off because the items are unique. Read article…