DEFENDING YOUR BRAND ONLINE

1. Build an online presence. The time to build an audience is before you need it. You need people for whom you add value, a small army of followers, if you will, who can help you when you need it. This is why every CEO, brand manager, and department leader should create a blog, a Facebook page, and get active on Twitter.
   It’s really not that difficult, even for the technically challenged. If you really don’t have a clue, enlist the help of a co-worker—or perhaps even your children!
   If I had to select one place to start, I would pick Twitter. Then I would create aFacebook page. Finally, I would start a blog. I don’t think there’s a less expensive way to create brand equity than by using these three tools.
   
   
2. Monitor the conversation. You must use online tools to monitor what is being said about your company and your brands. I use Google Alerts to monitor news and blogs. I use Summize to monitor Twitter. These tools enable you to engage in the art of “digital listening.”
   As a result, I know within minutes when someone mentions me, my company, or one of my brands. I know precisely what is being said, by whom, and how I can respond if I chose to do so. It’s never been easier to eavesdrop on what your customers are saying. And it doesn’t cost you a dime.
   
   
3. Respond quickly to criticism. Like the old ad says, “speed kills.” If you don’t respond quickly, you lose control of the conversation. It takes on a life of its own. For example, though David Alston has blogged about his bad experience with Uhaul at least twice (see here and here), no one from UHaul has posted a comment in response to either of his posts.
   A friend of mine, Anne Jackson, had a bad experience with American Airlines. SheTwittered about it as it happened on April 6, 2008. She then blogged about it a few days latter under the title, “American Airlines is the Devil”. Some 38 people commented on the post, many with their own American horror stories.
   Anne told me that she gets about 3,500 visitors a day to her blog. Another 1,000 or so people heard about her experience via Twitter. If American had been monitoring their brand online, they could have been the first to comment on her post. Instead thousands of people read about her experience, and then they read comments on her blog from other American customers who have had bad experiences.
   For the record, on May 29, American called Anne, apologized for the “mix up” back in April, and gave her 7,500 award miles. Amazingly, it took them almost two months to respond. How many people read about Anne’s experience in the meantime? And, oh, by the way, the original post is still up and American has yet to post a comment.
   
   
4. Admit your mistakes. Why is this so difficult? When you screw up, the only—and I mean ONLY—acceptable response is to take full ownership. “Sir, I am so sorry that you have had this experience. There is no excuse. We made a terrible mistake, and we’re going to make it right.” If you catch yourself apologizing and then using the word “but,” stop dead in your tracks and back up. That little conjunction should be like a blinking red light, indicating that you are not taking ownership.
   Unfortunately, the use of “but” completely negates the apology. To quote Dr. Phil, “You can either be right or you can be happy.” You can go a long way toward fixing a problem by simply accepting responsibility rather than blaming the customer or some other factor.
   If you are going to apologize—and you should—make it a full apology. Avoid the word “but” like the plague. Take the hit to your pride and own the problem. The customer is always right. Even when he isn’t.
   
   
5. Understand the lifetime value of the customer. I first heard the concept in Carl Sewell’s excellent book Customers for Life [affiliate link]. Sewell was a Cadillac dealer in Dallas, Texas. It didn’t take him long to figure out that his customers were worth more than a single transaction. He calculated that every customer is potentially worth $332,000, if he returns every few years and buys a new car. (The book was written in 1990, so at today’s inflation-adjusted prices, it’s probably worth twice that.)
   Now consider American Airlines. The lifetime value of their business customers are, I’m sure, worth tens of thousands—perhaps hundreds of thousands—of dollars. Fortunately, my experiences with American have been mostly positive. But if I had a bad experience like Anne’s, think of the implications.
   For the fun of it, let’s do the math: Last year, as the CEO of Thomas Nelson, I spent more than $12,000 with American Airlines. Now let’s assume that I travel about the same amount every year, over a 40-year career (from age 25 to 65). Based on this, in simple math, unadjusted for inflation, my lifetime value to American Airlines is $480,000. That’s a big number.
   But this only begins to scratch the surface. That’s what I am worth to American—just me. But what about everyone else in my circle of influence? We probably have 200-plus employees a year traveling on American flights. We have our Women of Faith andRevolve speaker and production teams. I also have those who follow me on Twitter(currently over 33,000) or read my blog (currently over 100,000 a week). The “ripple effect” is significant. Millions of dollars are at stake.
   But I am only using the American as an example. Again, I want to emphasize that my experience with them has generally been good. All things being equal, they are my airline of choice. My point here is more personal: What is the lifetime value of yourcustomers or constituents? Have you ever stopped to calculate it? Not only do you need to understand what is at stake, but so do your people. It is literally the future of your business and your brand.
   
   
6. Empower your employees to solve problems. As a customer, there is nothing worse than having a head-on collision with bureaucracy. We’ve all been there. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I’ll have to check with my supervisor.” Or worse, “I’d like to help, but we have a policy against that.”Tim Ferriss, author of the bestseller, The 4-Hour Workweek [affiliate link], tells his employees and contractors,

   Keep the customers happy. If it is a problem that takes less than $100 to fix, use your judgment and fix the problem yourself. This is official written permission and a request to fix all problems that cost under $100 without contacting me” (p. 105).

   I think that’s a reasonable approach. In fact, I would raise the ceiling to $200. I also request that employees notify their supervisor after-the-fact, so that if there is a systemic problem that led to the bad customer service, it can be addressed and fixed once-for-all.
   Ferris goes on to note, “Its amazing how someone’s IQ seems to double as soon as you give them responsibility and indicate that you trust them” (p. 106). It amazing how fast you can turn a bad customer experience into a good one when you empower frontline employees to solve problems immediately, without delay. Nothing communicates to your customers that your company values them more than this.
   
   
7. Exceed your customers’ expectations. Every customer problem is an opportunity to create a WOW experience. But it’s not enough to meet their expectations, you have to exceed them. Anything less is merely restitution. It just gets you back to even.
   Recently, I was having some memory problems with my MacBook Pro. I took it to theApple Retail Store. The “Genius” (that’s literally what they are called) fixed the memory problem quickly, which is what I expected. He then returned my computer to me and said, “Mr. Hyatt, I hope you don’t mind, but while we were checking your computer, we noticed that the battery was not seating correctly, so we went ahead and replaced it with a brand new one.” Wow! Now that’s customer service—and one of the reasons I keep buying Apple products!

One final thought: It’s also a great idea to listen to the conversations about your competitors. For example, if the Marriott had a Google Alert setup for “Sheraton” they could listen online for customers who get frustrated with their Sheraton experience enough to blog about it. When it happens, they could be the first to post a comment:

I’m sorry you had such a bad experience at the Sheraton. I can’t speak for them, but I can tell you that the Marriott has been ranked #1 in the world for customer service by both Expedia and Hotels.com. As an incentive to give us a try, I’d like to extend a 20% discount to you and your readers. When you make your reservations, simply give the operator the following promotional phrase: “Experience the Difference.” You can also use this if you make your reservations online. We look forward to serving you.”

Source::::http://michaelhyatt.com/defending-your-brand-online

Ad Of The MONTH

“Smoking causes premature ageing”

Agency: Euro RSCG Australia

Creative Director: Rowan Dean

Copywriter: Ben Clare

Art Director: Patrycja Lukjanow

Photographer: Chris Cordeiro

Few Mc Donald's facts

Route2Jobs Classroom Lecture Schedule

In India, on an average 2 to 2.5 crore candidates appear for various Job entrance exams like Bank P.O., Bank Clerical, exams every year for vacancies available in various sectors. "Route2jobs provides excellent online as well as classroom coaching to clear these exams with special tricks & tips to be used in exams for better efficiency & time management. It is not only economical but also students can attend lectures from home or anywhere at their own convenient time or can even come down to attend classroom coaching to clear their doubts."

 

Tattoos | Art, body, brand, relevance

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Harvard Business Review’s observations: cool.

I found it interesting that the Harvard Business Review would be identifying the tattoo as a point of relevance to analyzing trend. But of course, it — the trend content — really comes from a hiring agency. Personally, I find (to the notion of the Human Brand) that the idea of the tattoo is actually compelling; it’s a story unto itself. Seeing one on a person, I’m immediately drawn to ask: “Why?” And “what’s that mean?” More often than not, it’s less to deep symbolism and more to the expression of a personal liking. “I’ve always liked unicorns.” Or — “it’s a knot” to capture the retort of two recent queries. Many times, sadly, people don’t know — they don’t have a story; it’s “something that I got.” Such a statement reminds me of a flu bug, an infection — “I contracted it.”

The opening daily factoid, from HBR. With the following links that relate more to the nature of how tattoos might affect hiring. Right now, for example, I can’t imagine asking any of the people that work for me — “do you have a tattoo?” It’s none of my business.

I was working in weekend in Portland, and went to Café Vita — there, all the women wore tattoos. Two were interesting and complexly symbolic, the others were poor, faded, blue and washed out, like the pigment was beginning to slide under the skin. Given that it was raining, I couldn’t tell if others were wearing this form of marketing, outside of the café. But the mark, the statement, the storytelling, it’s there — it’s everywhere.

But that’s the point — being branded — being marked, literally is about staking a claim to something that’s relevant to the person, as well as to their sense of themselves, and potentially their story. There are, to that end, two stories that relate to this positioning — about actual brands that are tattooed.

One, a person.

My daughter Gabrielle wanted to celebrate her relationship with — and the passage of — her Mother, whose initials were KAR, Kathleen Angelique Roberts.She asked for help in designing a tattoo that would symbolize her connection — not only with the initials, but as well the heart, which was a symbol of power to the heart and hands icon of her Irish background. That’s one reference, shown above.

Another is working on the international brand, Sebastian Professional, it wasGirvin’s role in partnering with the team at Procter & Gamble to frame the strategic and visual nature of the positioning of the brand.

One of the elements that we’d created, given the strategy and demographic inclinations of the brand — hair as art and personal experience — the notion of a brand tattoo, literally a kind of abstracted monogram was created for the brand: Sebastian. To reach to the visualization, you can gather something of this frame below.

To the nature of the brand tattoo, our configurations and studies for the master brand book are gathered — the ideation of approaches, implemented as well in the product line up.

That idea of tattoo, human brand space, extends into the conceptions of cultural implications — surely, for ancient and prehistoric markings, primitive signs and markers of transition, humanized evolution and event notching. I’d written earlierabout the notions of tattoo and the concepts of “kustom kulture” – moving to the fringes of the 50s post war self examinations — and the pin-striping of war and being out there, on the fringes of adventure. In that context, the tatt marks where one has been, what’s been accomplished — and like the notion of the tattoo being “appropriate to the person” not the other way around — it was a symbolic skin.

Don Ed Hardy (above) crossed from the concept of tattooing expert — and yakuza skin patterning aesthete — and the founding driver of the creativity of the Don Ed Hardy brand bridged the idea of tattooing being the brand — a stylistic patterning language of his visual essence — along with a grouping of products that spread out the word.

The investigation of tattoo and brand — human brand or marked personalization — is, indeed about the link to story and persona; one story becomes another, one venture becomes another transformation and the marking of that adventure — and what that marking might mean — therein lies the power of the visible. Brand, story — they sync up, the fire of the telling with the relatedness of the transcription. Sharing – the imagery moves from one place to another. Whether it’s the flaming skulls of kustom kulture and pin-striped hot rods of the 50s-60s, or it’s the Phantom skulls of the present, the snowboarding piratical bones crossed, it all reaches to the same place — “this is my story, this is where I live) or dream, in aspiration, to be.”

Spread the colors!!

Happy Holi to all freinds out there..enjoy and have fun but play safe!!

How to add Facebook Background Image, Transparent Facebook theme?

Wow, I never thought of customizing  Facebook profile with lot of features such as adding Facebook background image to Facebook profile, changing Facebook background color, Fixing Facebook columns and much more. If you’re in a mood to revamp your Facebook profile, then go for it.

Beautify Facebook extension for  Mozilla firefox completely revamps your Facebook profile and gives you a new experience browsing Facebook. Just install Beautify extension and login to your Facebook account, you can see the changes effect. 

What is Sodium Acetate?

Sodium acetate is the sodium salt of acetic acid. It's also the primary flavoring in salt and vinegar potato chips.

No special equipment of measuring is required. You can pretty much eyeball the whole process.

Note : This is a bit smelly and can irritate the eyes and skin.

This process is not sufficient to produce "hot ice". Too many contaminants. If you want to get a purified form for use in "hot ice" experiments, there's an Instructable by indigoandblack that should help. It's more involved but much more likely to get the results you want.

Standard Disclaimer: Not liable for damages due to use or misuse. No warranties expressed or implied. For educational purposes only. Safety goggles may be required during use. Void where prohibited. Your mileage may vary. Unauthorized personnel only. Ceci n'est pas une pipe.



You'll need:
- sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)
- acetic acid (vinegar)
- microwavable glass or ceramic containers
- coffee filters
- spoon

Visual merchandising: The Art of Presentation

Visual merchandising is the activity of promoting the sale of goods, especially by their presentation in retail outlets.(New Oxford Dictionary of English, 1999, Oxford University Press). This includes combining products, environments, and spaces into a stimulating and engaging display to encourage the sale of a product or service. It has become such an important element in retailing that a team effort involving the senior management, architects, merchandising managers, buyers, the visual merchandising director, industrial designers, and staff is needed.

Visual Display

Why VM??

It helps educating the customers about the product/service in an effective and creative way.
It establish a creative medium to present merchandise in 3D environment, thereby enabling long lasting impact and recall value.
Setting the company apart in an exclusive position.
Establishing linkage between fashion, product design and marketing by keeping the product in prime focus.
Combining the creative, technical and operational aspects of a product and the business.
Drawing the attention of the customer to enable him to take purchase decision within shortest possible time, and thus augmenting the selling process.

Display:

A retailer's window is the most controllable element in relation to image and must match their merchandise's target demographic. Display windows may communicate style, content, and price point. They can be seductive, exciting or based on emotional stimulus through stimulation, or evocation of all five senses. Another direction taken by retailers who rely on volume sold is price-based selling. These clearly emphasize value for money with easy and obvious ticketing.

The best store windows can generate great excitement and are a talking point. They contribute to the environment by entertaining pedestrians, while simultaneously communicating the products and services on offer.

For a retailer willing to exploit the full potential that a window gives, the image-building process can be exciting and have enormous potential. A fashion retailer, for instance, will often change a window weekly to show the latest items on offer. A glance into a shop's window by a passerby establishes the time of the year and, very likely, a timely contemporary event. It might combine seasonal and festive points of the year such as Back-to-school, Spring, Summer, Easter, Christmas, New Year approaching, Diwali, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day etc. At other times the propping may be based on color schemes, materials or cultural themes.

http://soft-web-marketing.blogspot.com

Mumbai: A "Brand" new Destination

Mumbai, the city of dreams is India's largest city(by population) and is the financial and commercial capital of India as it generates 6.16% of the total GDP. It serves as an economic hub of India, contributing 10% of factory employment, 25% of industrial output, 33% of income tax collections, 60% of customs duty collections, 20% of central excise tax collections, 40% of India's foreign trade and 4,000 crore (US$868 million) in corporate taxes.

When it comes up to branding, Brand Mumbai has constantly endeavoured for a rise in the quality of life. Itnever ceases to surprise you. It has surprised the world with its cosmopolitan culture, humaneness and creativity. It is constantly innovating in every field, be it music, Bollywood, management or science. It has a conducive environment for new ventures to begin healthily and for old ventures to grow steadily.

Today Mumbai is considered the hot destination to invest in with a bunch of multinational brand making a huge investment in city. Experts say that by 2015, Mumbai would have 70% of world's top luxury brands with dedicated outlets in outskirts of the city.

With a rapid growth in its infrastructure, the city  of dreams may open a gateway to new opportunities.  

Brand Elements!!

There were probably mentioned before, one way or another all across this blog, and not only. I just feel the need to remind them and put them in a structure. No brand can live without them, all efficient brands have them.

The most important elements of a brand should be:

Brand Position

• Who is addressed by company’s branded products or services. What the company does and for whom
• The company’s unique value and how customers benefit from products and/or services
• Key competitive differentiators, what makes the brand be chosen, be different from its competitors

Brand Promise

• The ONE most important thing that the brand promises to deliver to its customers — Every time!
• What customers and partners should expect from every interaction, how should they feel as brand’s customers

Brand Personality

• What the brand is to be known for
• Personality traits that customers, partners, and employees use to describe the company. What comes to the (potential) customer’s mind when addressed about the brand

Brand Story

• The company’s history and how the history adds value and credibility to the brand
• A summary of products/services/solutions

Brand Associations

• Physical artifacts: name, logo, colors, taglines, fonts, imagery
• Ideally, it must reflect the all the above statements about the brand and the company.

http://ping.fm/ck7i0

Diamond Care

Regularly inspect your diamond jewellery to spot a loose stone or bent prong before it's "too late." It's a good idea to have your diamond jewellery examined and cleaned at least once a year by a professional jeweller.

Everyday exposure to creams, skin oils, hairspray, household chemicals and other substances can cause buildup that will dull your diamond's brilliance and sparkle.

Diamonds are the hardest substance known, but coatings and other materials used to enhance them can sometimes be removed by harsh cleansers and vigorous scrubbing, making it even more important to clean the gems with care.

• Soak your diamond ring in a warm solution of mild liquid detergent and water.
• Use a soft brush if necessary to remove dirt. Soft is the word—don't use a brush with bristles that are stiff enough to scratch the ring's metal setting.
• Swish the ring around in the solution, then rinse it thoroughly in warm water. Block the drain or put the ring in a strainer to keep it from slipping away!
• Dry the ring with a lint-free cloth.
• If the ring needs extra help, you may use a wooden toothpick to carefully push dirt away from the stone and setting.
• Fragile settings and estate jewelry won't take kindly to being scrubbed with a toothbrush, so use a soft touch. Then, just rinse the diamond with water and wipe with a soft, lint-free cloth.

If your jewellery has other gemstones, use a cleaning method that takes care of the less durable stones.

http://www.diamondexporters.net/about-usour-history/news-feeds

Our Services

Indian businesses top in web 2.0 usage

Eyeing incremental benefits at low costs, 75 per cent of the country's firms use web 2.0, taking India to the top of 17 developed and emerging nations where the interactive medium is used by businesses, according to survey. 

The reasons for taking to web 2.0 services, which encompasses popular websites like Twitter , YouTube and Facebook , are myriad - like performing IT functions, public relations, sales, marketing and customer service, the survey commissioned by anti-virus maker McAfee has found.

"In India, market pressure proved to be a big driver for firms to adopt web 2.0 in their businesses. Around 78 per cent of our respondents from India cited interaction with customers and partners as the primary reason for adoption," McAfee director, Channel and Alliances for South Asia, Ambarish Deshpande told reporters in Mumbai.

The global survey, conducted by research firm Vanson Bourne and US-based Purdue University's CERIAS research group, covered 17 countries.

Businesses in emerging economies like India and Brazil lead when it comes to adoption of web 2.0, while those in the US, UK, Australia and Canada are not so active on web 2.0, the survey said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/internet/Indian-businesses-top-in-web-20-usage/articleshow/6830015.cms

Google to make image transfer faster

Internet search leader Google has developed an image format called WebP, which promises to make transfer of images over the web faster by reducing the size of files, a company executive said.

WebP, which Google is hoping will replace the popular JPEG format, reduces file size by 39 per cent on an average, without affecting its quality, said Krishnendu Choudhary, a member of the five-member team that developed the technology.

"Since 65 per cent of web traffic comprises of images, WebP would make the web faster," Choudhary, an engineer from Google's Bangalore centre, told reporters.

"The degree of compression is adjustable. So, a user can choose the trade-off between file size and image quality," he added.

WebP is also supported by Google Chrome, the company's web browser.

Released a couple of weeks ago, it is an open source project. Three engineers from India were among the five-member developing team, he said.

Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) was a committee formed in 1986 and it created the popular JPEG standard, used to store and send images over the net.

Branding through Trend Process

A brand cannot have a static set of qualities it must change swiftly with time based on the times and characteristics of the target market (consumer’s needs and desires). This is volatile at times and to steer through these waters one must sail the ship “brand in question” through a trend process. You as a marketer should recognize the qualities the consumer identifies with when buying your product or service. To help evaluate the trend of your brand you can have the following steps.
A brand cannot have a static set of qualities it must change swiftly with time based on the times and characteristics of the target market (consumer’s needs and desires). This is volatile at times and to steer through these waters one must sail the ship “brand in question” through a trend process. You as a marketer should recognize the qualities the consumer identifies with when buying your product or service. To help evaluate the trend of your brand you can have the following steps.
The first insight is what the trend signals are. You can seek professional’s views and stay future focused.  A new discovery can be the next trend. It can come from mainstream research or a chance finding. Trends are often rooted in culture. You need to look at key influencers in architecture, design, media, art, technology, social media, politics, religion, the economy, even healthcare. A look at signals in a few disciplines could help find the right trend. One needs to know if the trend has peaked or is new. You do not want to have a trend that is dying. The trend storyline should be infused into the brand essence. It should be an experience, evoking touch, taste, smell, and sounds. All of these will enhance the brand experience.
Next is the name of the brand. It plays a role in the marketing based on trends. You need to have an audience for your brand. It is the consumer who will help a brand through their purchase power live or die. The segment chosen will decide this. They will have an emotional connect with the brand. You need to align your brand with the demographics for the new trend. This is done by doing extensive and good research.
Keeping your eye open you need a dedicated group of trend spotters in your team for good results. You need a view from the top to bottom to define your brand category. You do not want to be the chaser but the leader. If you find a valid trend try to be the leader and stick to your positioning firmly. It can reap great rewards. Do not run away from the battle in the midst of your trend positioning. It will spell disaster if you do so. The next step is application of the brand into the living space of the consumer. This is a challenge, as the marketer must understand their brand’s essence and visual positioning. He or she must zero into the consumers’ mind or risk and then adapt them.
Trend analysis and application can be an exhilarating process to explore. These are an important part of the marketing process. The trend through method can be very helpful in the branding process.

Digant Sharma December 15, 2010 0 comments full post »

How to keep Brand Loyalty in High Luxury Segment

It is easier to reward a customer who buys luxury in the $200,000 segment than to serve one who spends a million dollar plus. To serve such a customer requires sincere eloquence.  It can be a problem at times. Identifying such a person is not difficult but to satisfy them is a real challenge. You have pressure on you not to lose them and you have to make their experience out of the world. They will usually spend time with associates and build close relationships with them over time. You need to make a loyalty system that serves these customers that is unique.
What is the solution? You need on-the-ground intelligence with shopper data to identify a loyalty reward the luxury consumer finds of real value. These are shoppers who can literally afford anything they want, remember; there is no question of need. Rather, it comes down to delivering a one-of-a-kind service or experience that falls squarely within their values.
Luxury loyalty programs need to be escalated with the value of the shopper earning them. The higher perks and package make the customer feel rewarded and unique. After all these people are not in need of simple things they can afford all most anything.
The ultra-luxury segments the game is different. The customer in this segment defines the game. Some examples of this reward for shopping are given below. The shopper wants to be the only one and would not like someone to wear the same dress or have the same bag. There is a rough competition for gaining, wooing such a shopper.
A retailer can for example partner with a gourmet chef to serve a charity only dinner for people who donated a million dollars for a plate. The meal would be one of a kind and the publicity of being seen at the 100 people dinner would be priceless.
Top retailers should not just rely on standard incentives to engage the luxury good buying class for their loyalty is far more important. They can get important insights from the store staff that was collected and use the information to make the shopping experience of the special class divine. The sales associate who can gauge the shopper’s values, her social calendar and the circles with which she socializes.
A thorough understanding of the merchant’s loyalty program throughout the store, from the stock room to the register is needed. The store should train its best associates on just how their good actions benefit the entire company.
An example of this is a luxury suiting and dress shop may match what the celebrity’s wear with a social calendar in the area where all the high-class affluent people will come. The suiting and shirting selected and matched to the social calendar for the persons who shop will be one of a kind and help him maintain their loyalty with this insight.
The use of unique distinguished rewards for the high class luxury spenders by retailers will effectively recognize the top 10 percent of their clients and will also allow them to expand at shopping segment to represent 15 percent or 20 percent of the total.
If a service or an experience is unique it can causes the luxury shopper to shift his/her spending from one retailer to another. Just giving reward points will not necessarily do the trick – they may simply be used toward buying an item she would have gotten anyway. But imagine giving an invitation only evening with the city’s top designer! It is priceless!
“Thank you” to a shopper who just spent $1 million at your stores would require creative currency. The shop and its associates would have to do all you can to ensure his/her loyal business. They would have to offer a one-of-a-kind reward. They would have to do something that cannot be duplicate and repackaged by the shops competitor a few paces in the store next door or online.

Digant Sharma December 15, 2010 0 comments full post »

Black Hat Tactics and White Hat Tactics

The black hat system in SEO is like playing a game. Those who adopt black hat tactics are gaming the entire system. The System’s game is Google. Usually, Google, I hope, tries to present the best search result to whoever uses Google when they search the net. But are you sure, always sure, that it comes up with the best results? Google wants to present the best results to its users so that it helps Google rake in revenue.

As a professional SEO, we try to do everything that is white hat or a bit black hat to get Google to see our page as being more relevant than our competitor’s pages.  But is it more relevant? Who decides? Google uses a secret algorithm and countless examples of Google not find optimal page in the SERPs can be located over the years. So Google is not the best arbiter.

Considering a black hat tactics: a company can acquire old well-indexed websites, and then infuse it with back links to their web page. The old links were NOT part of the original content of the site and perhaps they are also not even relevant to the content of that old well-indexed site. This is a black hat tactic using Google’s system cheat a bit so that you get ahead in the game.

People cheating in small incremental ways often believe they will not get caught. In game theory this is known as the “Tragedy of the Commons” – people take a little bit from the group to benefit themselves much, but hurt the group in a tiny way. What the problem is those little hurts add up to one big sum for the entire group.

Emphasizing a key phrase in Meta tags, H1’s, links, etc, is ALSO like the game theory. The gaming is in a lesser sense than acquiring a large site. Judging the ethics of this, can one really talk of the degree of ethics in these two methods to score in the game with Google?

With Google one tries to play the game to rank higher than others. The black hats are simply trying out methods to be ranked higher than the white hats; they are in comparison doing what most SEO professionals are doing only in a greater degree.

SEO’s should discourage use of various unethical black hat techniques as they can simply put, their site at risk of being penalized deserving a Google cleansing. In my opinion it will be foolish to put a website at risk by adopting black hat technique. This issue is a matter of risk management and not involving morals.

If you notice over the years the SERP have died a long and painful death. Google comes up with new additions to its secret system of enhancements causing SERP to be less relevant: like instant search, local results, etc.  The only sites which tend to ride the wave are those that have good content rich (phrases and content). The results are based on the searcher’s demographics or behavior. Hence one should as a SEO focus more on creating content that is rich in relevant clouds of words and phrases. One should try to play the game and be more relevant rather than being perceived as relevant. This will take you out of the realms of black hat and be white hat.

Digant Sharma December 15, 2010 0 comments full post »

To Do or Not to Do: Slaying the Cash Cow

The market today is highly competitive and is not static. New and fresh ideas come from an alertness of new possibilities that may arise in the marketplace. It is very challenging for iconic brands to take advantage of new opportunities and still be considered relevant in the market. Iconic brands have been known to lose their shine a long time before their cash generating ability dies. Once the iconic cash cow brands lose it appeal in the market it is very difficult or even impossible to revive itself.
Here are a few examples of iconic brands that held on to their heritage at the expense of innovation. They should have slain their cash cow earlier.
Sears was once the leader in mail order. It stuck to the old redundant system (its cash cow) but the future changed with the internet coming through and Amazon.com adopted new technologies to become the new leader leaving behind Sears the leader of past. If Sears killed it cash cow and had adopted net selling it too would have been a dominant force.
Another example Xerox corp that invented laser printing it stuck to this as company positioning (as it was its cash cow).  HP exploited the technology and became the industry leader in laser printers. If Xerox had slain the cash cow for a new exploration they would have been like HP a formidable force.
Yet another example is Kodak the inventor of digital photography, but glued to its dying film business leads to a dying firm with less profits (it failed to slay its cash cow). Other companies took advantage of the technology and innovate to become the new leaders e.g. Cannon.
It seems successful companies are the ones who have no problem killing their cash cow brands. An example is Apple Inc. it has done this over and over again. Killing cash cow product brands has been the hallmark of every Apple product innovation since the Macintosh.  There may be many more like Apple, whose marketers routinely reinvent, reposition and realign their brand innovations at the expense of their most sacred cash cow brands.
The blade and razor manufacture Gillette is a good example of this–first killing its highly successful single-edge razor blades in favor of the TRAC II, then killing that with another innovation– the adjustable twin blade Atra brand.
The marketplace with numerous brands is moving too rapidly to rely on the momentum of scale and history. There so much choice today. Evolving the meaning of an iconic brand is a tricky business. Managers of iconic brands are naturally boxed in by the heritage the brand represents in people’s minds. When heritage represents “old and tired”, it’s nearly impossible to change that perception in people’s minds.
Brand managers with enlightened management and the insight stay the course, can leverage their iconic brands and pave the way for newer and more relevant expressions of the original value that people continue to care about. With all the revenue pressures facing marketers today, the difficulty to know when to slay the cash cow for a new cow.

Digant Sharma December 15, 2010 0 comments full post »

Brand Consistency Maintenance

Some companies are capable of differentiating their brands well, and continue to do so in the volatile market space. Take the brand Apple. They have the following differentiation:

• They have a history of innovation (iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc.)
• They use clever simple user interfaces in their products.
• All the products have a uniformly consistent “look and feel” — Apple icon, styling, and metallic color.
• They are served by a company’s well-known co-founder and CEO in Steve Jobs
• They are as a company a very viable alternative brand to Microsoft-based PCs, and have a cult like following among its users and patrons.

The tactics needed to maintain brand consistency:
In the first instance the product/service must have a brand promise that is clear, compelling, unique and believable. It should be found at all the points and delivered to the customer where ever he or she may come in contact with the brand. This should be a deliberate effort on the firm’s part.

• What is needed is a highly thought through brand identity system that should be distinctive yet flexible, and that can be used in a variety of ways in the future.
• The Identity standards should be maintained by strict protocols in place which is an enforced brand identity which can be done through a digital asset management system.
• The company can have a brand identity manager who works round the clock to oversee a brand identity council
• The firm should have very strict brand licensing requirements that should include the requirement of a strict fit with the brand promise, identity and quality standards.
• The company should have a crafted specific brand personality, brand archetype and brand voice and visual style that can be applied to the brand as appropriate in its presentation.

There are numerous companies that seem to have a bunch of products competing with themselves (toothpaste or shampoo are examples). How do they manage with so many products?
The execution of the branding in such cases is what will help and help them keep brand consistency. First off importantly, the brand needs to be differentiated at the parent or umbrella level. This achievement allows separate sub-brands to be successful and appeal to different user segments. Each segment will have different sets of needs.
An example is the cola industry. There are several Coca-Cola variations (Diet Coke, Coca-Cola zero, etc.) as there are for Pepsi-Cola. In order to be a success in the market, they both need to be differentiated at the parent brand level. Looking at the credit card industry you will find the same tactic being done Visa versus MasterCard versus Discover versus American Express. While all credit card brands may now have gold or platinum cards, there still needs to be a perceived different from American Express and Discover for example.
How can a company create a brand identity that is applied across a varied product line?

• The brand could have a distinctive color coded banding
• The products could have an odd size.
• The products could be all related in some way, perhaps all their written introductions could start with the same words
• They can have the same color banding and same type fonts of the same size
• They could have the same caps/covers laid out in a formulaic way, with similar visual elements.
• The products could have similar cover material, often of the same distinctive texture.

This approach could be used to any brand that needs to have its identity applied across a variety of products and services. In this way brands can maintain their brand consistency and do well in an ever competitive and changing marketplace. If you have any comments do add them below our blog.

Digant Sharma December 15, 2010 0 comments full post »

Keyword Search

This article is a basic article where Google keyword search use is explored in basic searches. The start of keyword search is quite easy you need words that describe a product being sold, an area of business or service provided. The example used in this discussion will be Santa Costume for Xmas! Examples of keywords will be “Santa suit”, “Santa costume” or “Santa costume shop”.
You can make a list of your keywords after brainstorming then use Google keyword tool you can choose the current system or old one by clicking on the options. The keyword can be entered in this case “Santa costume” then press the get key word button.
You get numerous words, change “Match Type” to “Exact’ and hide “Advertiser Competition” and “Global Search Volume”. Since I am looking for local sites I will click on “Local Search Volume” sorting to them in order of most searched. This gives a list of keyword ideas and their volumes “exact” gives a better idea of those offering the same service or costume you are looking for. The hidden advertiser and competition information will come handy only if you are designing an Adwords Campaign. You can use Seomoz’s Open Site Explorer and manually record the Page Authority, Domain Authority, the amount of linking root domains for each of the sites in top positions. This tool will let you know of sites rank any rank below 25 can be potentially overtaken by correct SEO tactics. You will find the top 10 sites with keywords this is the real challenge. They have the keywords of high rank.
You can look at the content of the websites ranking high and judge the content. You will get an idea why the key word rich content is ranked high? You can see what keywords are needed for “Santa costumes”.
Now you may have a fair idea about the keywords which are popular and give good ranking. But Santa suits are a seasonal thing hence using Google insights will tell you the months of the year your keywords are in demand. Restrict it to the country you are in and data of last 12 months only. Santa suits are popular in December. You will find other keywords which are not found in the ranking pages these are used by people to get the sites they are gems (words that have less competition). They will give you high conversion rates.
Take these keywords from the final list and put them in your site and content you may have on your page. Santa costume cheap Santa suit and Jolly Santa costumes for example. You want to limit the keywords to 70 characters or less. Remember to put content that people would want to read all of these should help your Santa site rank higher, be linked more and do well with your SEO effort.

Digant Sharma December 15, 2010 0 comments full post »

Canonical Tag: An Issue

The implementation of the canonical tag is a bandage for duplicate content issues. It may be a quick fix and is a hot topic with SEO’s today. This article examines the using it. Many SEO experts feel that it is too easy and can be used improperly. They also feel webmasters will screw up entire websites when they use it
Should it be stopped or used? – I do not feel it is the best solution. It is like a temporary dressing on a wound. It will not heal the wound just help a bit. What will its impact be on Google Analytics? That is question explored in this article.
I found it to mess up the analytics. There are issues with duplicate content. On large sites, the duplication of content is nearly impossible to avoid. A good Content Management Systems also will not solve every issue. At some point either you or some other website links to a page that exists in two places. For all the reasons pointed out in articles above, you need to fix this. Should one use a 301 redirect, or the (rel canonical tag), that is the question?
Canonical doesn’t fix the issue. Sure, the search engines might use it to figure out that they are the same page and rank only 1 of them so you’re not competing with yourself.  Even though you used the tag, two distinct pages still exist. Since both are linked to from somewhere on the Internet, visitors will be visiting two different pages.
This means your Analytics data is splitting the data between pages. It doesn’t realize that they are the same page. It can’t read the canonical tag.
E-commerce websites often have duplicate content, and it has been a huge issue for years. Sometimes a product sits in two different categories, like a tomato being both a fruit and a vegetable. Ecommerce platforms like to know how visitors found the content, so that leads to:
ourfood.com/vegetables/tomato.html
and
ourfood.com/fruits/tomato.html
The tomato.html page is the same, just found in two different URLs. It should be noted that many of the most popular e-commerce platforms have solved this issue by not using URL path tracking. The custom platform all of our clients live on are still a little old and have not fixed this issue yet. Different sites on the platform have numerous pages that are duplicates.
When one wants to go look at page specific data, I can’t just look at 1 URL. In this case with the tomatoes, I have to look at 2 still.
One of the ways I look at long-tail traffic is through total number of keywords bringing traffic and total number of landing pages. This does not fix the real issue behind duplicate content.
Suppose there are only 5000 products on the site and fewer than 100 category pages. How do I know which products are actually being indexed? Is Google indexing the same 5000 products 7 times each and ignoring 1000 of them.
In this case, canonical tags have not solved the problem.  One will see that landing page numbers are unusually high. This means Google is still not entirely able to figure out whether or not a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable or both.
Clearly, in our case the root of the problem is with our platform. Implementing canonical tags has seemingly reduced the number of indexed pages by about 25%. Whoever thought one would be hoping for fewer pages indexed? It is a temporary fix; to solve our duplicate content problems we need to fix our platform and use 301 redirects on all the duplicate pages. The (rel canonical tag) has made is a major issues with Google Analytics. It should not be one’s solution to duplicate content issues.

Digant Sharma December 15, 2010 0 comments full post »

Branding Gambit

What is a brand? What is the difference between brand vision and organizational vision? What are brand values and organizational values?”
If the brand is the organizational brand, there is no difference between the brand vision and values and the organizational vision and values. If the brand is not the organizational brand, then its vision and values could be different from the organization’s vision and values.
A brand has elements:-
The target audience/customer who can be at a primary, secondary, or tertiary.
The brand essence which is in the form an adjective, or noun.
The Brand promise so and so brand name delivers an one or two relevant, unique and highly compelling benefits to target niche customer in the product/service category because of these proof points.
The Brand archetype is a pioneer, achiever, or advocate.
The Brand personality which is 7 to 12 adjectives that best describe the brand as if it were a person. Often, the brand positioning statement is crafted into a (2 to 7 words) tagline or (20 to 50 words) “elevator/praising speech” for the brand.
Organizations have their missions, visions and core values. For organizational brands, missions, visions, core values and brand positioning statements are related to one another and it is advantageous for them to be approached together. One should keep the mission statements to 7 to 25 words, vision statements to 7 to 15 words and core values to 5 to 10 values in total. This approach often helps to give good results and is very effective.
Is a brand just one word in the mind of the consumer? What is your definition of a brand?
A brand happens to be a personification of an organization or its products and services. A brand can stand for something. A brand can make a promise to a niche group of target audiences. It can possess a specific character and a personality and should create an emotional connection with its customers.
For a person a brand means one thing; they only associate one or two things with any given brand. Some association examples are: Clorox with bleach for cleaning and Bayer with aspirin for pain relief and Sunkist with citrus fruits and McDonald’s with fast food.
Branding managers will ask questions: “Does that primary brand association in people’s minds cause people to want to use our products or services?”  They also ask is it unique and purchase motivating? Or is it neutral? Or worse yet, is it negative?
The main purpose of brand positioning is to get people to primarily associate the one or two things that will most cause them to want to purchase and use your brand over competitive alternatives.
Brands should strive to deliver on those promises. They need to do that through their actions and the way they treat their customers.
A very good brand example is the Disney Inc. brand it stands for “fun family entertainment.” Family is a code word for wholesome, something you could feel comfortable doing with your children or your grandparents. Disney Inc. is known to give this brand promise with its movies, theme parks, cruises and other types of products. The coherence of its brand is to must make sure that all of its products and services deliver on the promise of “fun family entertainment.” If you like our blog do write in comments section what your thoughts may be?!

Branding through Trend Process

A brand cannot have a static set of qualities it must change swiftly with time based on...

How to keep Brand Loyalty in High Luxury Segment

It is easier to reward a customer who buys luxury in the $200,000 segment than to serve...

Black Hat Tactics and White Hat Tactics

The black hat system in SEO is like playing a game. Those who adopt black hat tactics are...

To Do or Not to Do: Slaying the Cash Cow

The market today is highly competitive and is not static. New and fresh ideas come from...

Brand Consistency Maintenance

Some companies are capable of differentiating their brands well, and continue to do so in...

Keyword Search

This article is a basic article where Google keyword search use is explored in basic...

Canonical Tag: An Issue

The implementation of the canonical tag is a bandage for duplicate content issues. It may...

Branding Gambit

What is a brand? What is the difference between brand vision and organizational vision?...

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The first insight is what the trend signals are. You can seek professional’s views and stay future focused.  A new discovery can be the next trend. It can come from mainstream research or a chance finding. Trends are often rooted in culture. You need to look at key influencers in architecture, design, media, art, technology, social media, politics, religion, the economy, even healthcare. A look at signals in a few disciplines could help find the right trend. One needs to know if the trend has peaked or is new. You do not want to have a trend that is dying. The trend storyline should be infused into the brand essence. It should be an experience, evoking touch, taste, smell, and sounds. All of these will enhance the brand experience.
Next is the name of the brand. It plays a role in the marketing based on trends. You need to have an audience for your brand. It is the consumer who will help a brand through their purchase power live or die. The segment chosen will decide this. They will have an emotional connect with the brand. You need to align your brand with the demographics for the new trend. This is done by doing extensive and good research.
Keeping your eye open you need a dedicated group of trend spotters in your team for good results. You need a view from the top to bottom to define your brand category. You do not want to be the chaser but the leader. If you find a valid trend try to be the leader and stick to your positioning firmly. It can reap great rewards. Do not run away from the battle in the midst of your trend positioning. It will spell disaster if you do so. The next step is application of the brand into the living space of the consumer. This is a challenge, as the marketer must understand their brand’s essence and visual positioning. He or she must zero into the consumers’ mind or risk and then adapt them.
Trend analysis and application can be an exhilarating process to explore. These are an important part of the marketing process. The trend through method can be very helpful in the branding process.

Digant Sharma December 15, 2010 0 comments full post »

How to keep Brand Loyalty in High Luxury Segment

It is easier to reward a customer who buys luxury in the $200,000 segment than to serve one who spends a million dollar plus. To serve such a customer requires sincere eloquence.  It can be a problem at times. Identifying such a person is not difficult but to satisfy them is a real challenge. You have pressure on you not to lose them and you have to make their experience out of the world. They will usually spend time with associates and build close relationships with them over time. You need to make a loyalty system that serves these customers that is unique.
What is the solution? You need on-the-ground intelligence with shopper data to identify a loyalty reward the luxury consumer finds of real value. These are shoppers who can literally afford anything they want, remember; there is no question of need. Rather, it comes down to delivering a one-of-a-kind service or experience that falls squarely within their values.
Luxury loyalty programs need to be escalated with the value of the shopper earning them. The higher perks and package make the customer feel rewarded and unique. After all these people are not in need of simple things they can afford all most anything.
The ultra-luxury segments the game is different. The customer in this segment defines the game. Some examples of this reward for shopping are given below. The shopper wants to be the only one and would not like someone to wear the same dress or have the same bag. There is a rough competition for gaining, wooing such a shopper.
A retailer can for example partner with a gourmet chef to serve a charity only dinner for people who donated a million dollars for a plate. The meal would be one of a kind and the publicity of being seen at the 100 people dinner would be priceless.
Top retailers should not just rely on standard incentives to engage the luxury good buying class for their loyalty is far more important. They can get important insights from the store staff that was collected and use the information to make the shopping experience of the special class divine. The sales associate who can gauge the shopper’s values, her social calendar and the circles with which she socializes.
A thorough understanding of the merchant’s loyalty program throughout the store, from the stock room to the register is needed. The store should train its best associates on just how their good actions benefit the entire company.
An example of this is a luxury suiting and dress shop may match what the celebrity’s wear with a social calendar in the area where all the high-class affluent people will come. The suiting and shirting selected and matched to the social calendar for the persons who shop will be one of a kind and help him maintain their loyalty with this insight.
The use of unique distinguished rewards for the high class luxury spenders by retailers will effectively recognize the top 10 percent of their clients and will also allow them to expand at shopping segment to represent 15 percent or 20 percent of the total.
If a service or an experience is unique it can causes the luxury shopper to shift his/her spending from one retailer to another. Just giving reward points will not necessarily do the trick – they may simply be used toward buying an item she would have gotten anyway. But imagine giving an invitation only evening with the city’s top designer! It is priceless!
“Thank you” to a shopper who just spent $1 million at your stores would require creative currency. The shop and its associates would have to do all you can to ensure his/her loyal business. They would have to offer a one-of-a-kind reward. They would have to do something that cannot be duplicate and repackaged by the shops competitor a few paces in the store next door or online.

Digant Sharma December 15, 2010 0 comments full post »

Black Hat Tactics and White Hat Tactics

The black hat system in SEO is like playing a game. Those who adopt black hat tactics are gaming the entire system. The System’s game is Google. Usually, Google, I hope, tries to present the best search result to whoever uses Google when they search the net. But are you sure, always sure, that it comes up with the best results? Google wants to present the best results to its users so that it helps Google rake in revenue.

As a professional SEO, we try to do everything that is white hat or a bit black hat to get Google to see our page as being more relevant than our competitor’s pages.  But is it more relevant? Who decides? Google uses a secret algorithm and countless examples of Google not find optimal page in the SERPs can be located over the years. So Google is not the best arbiter.

Considering a black hat tactics: a company can acquire old well-indexed websites, and then infuse it with back links to their web page. The old links were NOT part of the original content of the site and perhaps they are also not even relevant to the content of that old well-indexed site. This is a black hat tactic using Google’s system cheat a bit so that you get ahead in the game.

People cheating in small incremental ways often believe they will not get caught. In game theory this is known as the “Tragedy of the Commons” – people take a little bit from the group to benefit themselves much, but hurt the group in a tiny way. What the problem is those little hurts add up to one big sum for the entire group.

Emphasizing a key phrase in Meta tags, H1’s, links, etc, is ALSO like the game theory. The gaming is in a lesser sense than acquiring a large site. Judging the ethics of this, can one really talk of the degree of ethics in these two methods to score in the game with Google?

With Google one tries to play the game to rank higher than others. The black hats are simply trying out methods to be ranked higher than the white hats; they are in comparison doing what most SEO professionals are doing only in a greater degree.

SEO’s should discourage use of various unethical black hat techniques as they can simply put, their site at risk of being penalized deserving a Google cleansing. In my opinion it will be foolish to put a website at risk by adopting black hat technique. This issue is a matter of risk management and not involving morals.

If you notice over the years the SERP have died a long and painful death. Google comes up with new additions to its secret system of enhancements causing SERP to be less relevant: like instant search, local results, etc.  The only sites which tend to ride the wave are those that have good content rich (phrases and content). The results are based on the searcher’s demographics or behavior. Hence one should as a SEO focus more on creating content that is rich in relevant clouds of words and phrases. One should try to play the game and be more relevant rather than being perceived as relevant. This will take you out of the realms of black hat and be white hat.

Digant Sharma December 15, 2010 0 comments full post »

To Do or Not to Do: Slaying the Cash Cow

The market today is highly competitive and is not static. New and fresh ideas come from an alertness of new possibilities that may arise in the marketplace. It is very challenging for iconic brands to take advantage of new opportunities and still be considered relevant in the market. Iconic brands have been known to lose their shine a long time before their cash generating ability dies. Once the iconic cash cow brands lose it appeal in the market it is very difficult or even impossible to revive itself.
Here are a few examples of iconic brands that held on to their heritage at the expense of innovation. They should have slain their cash cow earlier.
Sears was once the leader in mail order. It stuck to the old redundant system (its cash cow) but the future changed with the internet coming through and Amazon.com adopted new technologies to become the new leader leaving behind Sears the leader of past. If Sears killed it cash cow and had adopted net selling it too would have been a dominant force.
Another example Xerox corp that invented laser printing it stuck to this as company positioning (as it was its cash cow).  HP exploited the technology and became the industry leader in laser printers. If Xerox had slain the cash cow for a new exploration they would have been like HP a formidable force.
Yet another example is Kodak the inventor of digital photography, but glued to its dying film business leads to a dying firm with less profits (it failed to slay its cash cow). Other companies took advantage of the technology and innovate to become the new leaders e.g. Cannon.
It seems successful companies are the ones who have no problem killing their cash cow brands. An example is Apple Inc. it has done this over and over again. Killing cash cow product brands has been the hallmark of every Apple product innovation since the Macintosh.  There may be many more like Apple, whose marketers routinely reinvent, reposition and realign their brand innovations at the expense of their most sacred cash cow brands.
The blade and razor manufacture Gillette is a good example of this–first killing its highly successful single-edge razor blades in favor of the TRAC II, then killing that with another innovation– the adjustable twin blade Atra brand.
The marketplace with numerous brands is moving too rapidly to rely on the momentum of scale and history. There so much choice today. Evolving the meaning of an iconic brand is a tricky business. Managers of iconic brands are naturally boxed in by the heritage the brand represents in people’s minds. When heritage represents “old and tired”, it’s nearly impossible to change that perception in people’s minds.
Brand managers with enlightened management and the insight stay the course, can leverage their iconic brands and pave the way for newer and more relevant expressions of the original value that people continue to care about. With all the revenue pressures facing marketers today, the difficulty to know when to slay the cash cow for a new cow.

Digant Sharma December 15, 2010 0 comments full post »

Brand Consistency Maintenance

Some companies are capable of differentiating their brands well, and continue to do so in the volatile market space. Take the brand Apple. They have the following differentiation:

• They have a history of innovation (iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc.)
• They use clever simple user interfaces in their products.
• All the products have a uniformly consistent “look and feel” — Apple icon, styling, and metallic color.
• They are served by a company’s well-known co-founder and CEO in Steve Jobs
• They are as a company a very viable alternative brand to Microsoft-based PCs, and have a cult like following among its users and patrons.

The tactics needed to maintain brand consistency:
In the first instance the product/service must have a brand promise that is clear, compelling, unique and believable. It should be found at all the points and delivered to the customer where ever he or she may come in contact with the brand. This should be a deliberate effort on the firm’s part.

• What is needed is a highly thought through brand identity system that should be distinctive yet flexible, and that can be used in a variety of ways in the future.
• The Identity standards should be maintained by strict protocols in place which is an enforced brand identity which can be done through a digital asset management system.
• The company can have a brand identity manager who works round the clock to oversee a brand identity council
• The firm should have very strict brand licensing requirements that should include the requirement of a strict fit with the brand promise, identity and quality standards.
• The company should have a crafted specific brand personality, brand archetype and brand voice and visual style that can be applied to the brand as appropriate in its presentation.

There are numerous companies that seem to have a bunch of products competing with themselves (toothpaste or shampoo are examples). How do they manage with so many products?
The execution of the branding in such cases is what will help and help them keep brand consistency. First off importantly, the brand needs to be differentiated at the parent or umbrella level. This achievement allows separate sub-brands to be successful and appeal to different user segments. Each segment will have different sets of needs.
An example is the cola industry. There are several Coca-Cola variations (Diet Coke, Coca-Cola zero, etc.) as there are for Pepsi-Cola. In order to be a success in the market, they both need to be differentiated at the parent brand level. Looking at the credit card industry you will find the same tactic being done Visa versus MasterCard versus Discover versus American Express. While all credit card brands may now have gold or platinum cards, there still needs to be a perceived different from American Express and Discover for example.
How can a company create a brand identity that is applied across a varied product line?

• The brand could have a distinctive color coded banding
• The products could have an odd size.
• The products could be all related in some way, perhaps all their written introductions could start with the same words
• They can have the same color banding and same type fonts of the same size
• They could have the same caps/covers laid out in a formulaic way, with similar visual elements.
• The products could have similar cover material, often of the same distinctive texture.

This approach could be used to any brand that needs to have its identity applied across a variety of products and services. In this way brands can maintain their brand consistency and do well in an ever competitive and changing marketplace. If you have any comments do add them below our blog.

Digant Sharma December 15, 2010 0 comments full post »

Keyword Search

This article is a basic article where Google keyword search use is explored in basic searches. The start of keyword search is quite easy you need words that describe a product being sold, an area of business or service provided. The example used in this discussion will be Santa Costume for Xmas! Examples of keywords will be “Santa suit”, “Santa costume” or “Santa costume shop”.
You can make a list of your keywords after brainstorming then use Google keyword tool you can choose the current system or old one by clicking on the options. The keyword can be entered in this case “Santa costume” then press the get key word button.
You get numerous words, change “Match Type” to “Exact’ and hide “Advertiser Competition” and “Global Search Volume”. Since I am looking for local sites I will click on “Local Search Volume” sorting to them in order of most searched. This gives a list of keyword ideas and their volumes “exact” gives a better idea of those offering the same service or costume you are looking for. The hidden advertiser and competition information will come handy only if you are designing an Adwords Campaign. You can use Seomoz’s Open Site Explorer and manually record the Page Authority, Domain Authority, the amount of linking root domains for each of the sites in top positions. This tool will let you know of sites rank any rank below 25 can be potentially overtaken by correct SEO tactics. You will find the top 10 sites with keywords this is the real challenge. They have the keywords of high rank.
You can look at the content of the websites ranking high and judge the content. You will get an idea why the key word rich content is ranked high? You can see what keywords are needed for “Santa costumes”.
Now you may have a fair idea about the keywords which are popular and give good ranking. But Santa suits are a seasonal thing hence using Google insights will tell you the months of the year your keywords are in demand. Restrict it to the country you are in and data of last 12 months only. Santa suits are popular in December. You will find other keywords which are not found in the ranking pages these are used by people to get the sites they are gems (words that have less competition). They will give you high conversion rates.
Take these keywords from the final list and put them in your site and content you may have on your page. Santa costume cheap Santa suit and Jolly Santa costumes for example. You want to limit the keywords to 70 characters or less. Remember to put content that people would want to read all of these should help your Santa site rank higher, be linked more and do well with your SEO effort.

Digant Sharma December 15, 2010 0 comments full post »

Canonical Tag: An Issue

The implementation of the canonical tag is a bandage for duplicate content issues. It may be a quick fix and is a hot topic with SEO’s today. This article examines the using it. Many SEO experts feel that it is too easy and can be used improperly. They also feel webmasters will screw up entire websites when they use it
Should it be stopped or used? – I do not feel it is the best solution. It is like a temporary dressing on a wound. It will not heal the wound just help a bit. What will its impact be on Google Analytics? That is question explored in this article.
I found it to mess up the analytics. There are issues with duplicate content. On large sites, the duplication of content is nearly impossible to avoid. A good Content Management Systems also will not solve every issue. At some point either you or some other website links to a page that exists in two places. For all the reasons pointed out in articles above, you need to fix this. Should one use a 301 redirect, or the (rel canonical tag), that is the question?
Canonical doesn’t fix the issue. Sure, the search engines might use it to figure out that they are the same page and rank only 1 of them so you’re not competing with yourself.  Even though you used the tag, two distinct pages still exist. Since both are linked to from somewhere on the Internet, visitors will be visiting two different pages.
This means your Analytics data is splitting the data between pages. It doesn’t realize that they are the same page. It can’t read the canonical tag.
E-commerce websites often have duplicate content, and it has been a huge issue for years. Sometimes a product sits in two different categories, like a tomato being both a fruit and a vegetable. Ecommerce platforms like to know how visitors found the content, so that leads to:
ourfood.com/vegetables/tomato.html
and
ourfood.com/fruits/tomato.html
The tomato.html page is the same, just found in two different URLs. It should be noted that many of the most popular e-commerce platforms have solved this issue by not using URL path tracking. The custom platform all of our clients live on are still a little old and have not fixed this issue yet. Different sites on the platform have numerous pages that are duplicates.
When one wants to go look at page specific data, I can’t just look at 1 URL. In this case with the tomatoes, I have to look at 2 still.
One of the ways I look at long-tail traffic is through total number of keywords bringing traffic and total number of landing pages. This does not fix the real issue behind duplicate content.
Suppose there are only 5000 products on the site and fewer than 100 category pages. How do I know which products are actually being indexed? Is Google indexing the same 5000 products 7 times each and ignoring 1000 of them.
In this case, canonical tags have not solved the problem.  One will see that landing page numbers are unusually high. This means Google is still not entirely able to figure out whether or not a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable or both.
Clearly, in our case the root of the problem is with our platform. Implementing canonical tags has seemingly reduced the number of indexed pages by about 25%. Whoever thought one would be hoping for fewer pages indexed? It is a temporary fix; to solve our duplicate content problems we need to fix our platform and use 301 redirects on all the duplicate pages. The (rel canonical tag) has made is a major issues with Google Analytics. It should not be one’s solution to duplicate content issues.

Digant Sharma December 15, 2010 0 comments full post »

Branding Gambit

What is a brand? What is the difference between brand vision and organizational vision? What are brand values and organizational values?”
If the brand is the organizational brand, there is no difference between the brand vision and values and the organizational vision and values. If the brand is not the organizational brand, then its vision and values could be different from the organization’s vision and values.
A brand has elements:-
The target audience/customer who can be at a primary, secondary, or tertiary.
The brand essence which is in the form an adjective, or noun.
The Brand promise so and so brand name delivers an one or two relevant, unique and highly compelling benefits to target niche customer in the product/service category because of these proof points.
The Brand archetype is a pioneer, achiever, or advocate.
The Brand personality which is 7 to 12 adjectives that best describe the brand as if it were a person. Often, the brand positioning statement is crafted into a (2 to 7 words) tagline or (20 to 50 words) “elevator/praising speech” for the brand.
Organizations have their missions, visions and core values. For organizational brands, missions, visions, core values and brand positioning statements are related to one another and it is advantageous for them to be approached together. One should keep the mission statements to 7 to 25 words, vision statements to 7 to 15 words and core values to 5 to 10 values in total. This approach often helps to give good results and is very effective.
Is a brand just one word in the mind of the consumer? What is your definition of a brand?
A brand happens to be a personification of an organization or its products and services. A brand can stand for something. A brand can make a promise to a niche group of target audiences. It can possess a specific character and a personality and should create an emotional connection with its customers.
For a person a brand means one thing; they only associate one or two things with any given brand. Some association examples are: Clorox with bleach for cleaning and Bayer with aspirin for pain relief and Sunkist with citrus fruits and McDonald’s with fast food.
Branding managers will ask questions: “Does that primary brand association in people’s minds cause people to want to use our products or services?”  They also ask is it unique and purchase motivating? Or is it neutral? Or worse yet, is it negative?
The main purpose of brand positioning is to get people to primarily associate the one or two things that will most cause them to want to purchase and use your brand over competitive alternatives.
Brands should strive to deliver on those promises. They need to do that through their actions and the way they treat their customers.
A very good brand example is the Disney Inc. brand it stands for “fun family entertainment.” Family is a code word for wholesome, something you could feel comfortable doing with your children or your grandparents. Disney Inc. is known to give this brand promise with its movies, theme parks, cruises and other types of products. The coherence of its brand is to must make sure that all of its products and services deliver on the promise of “fun family entertainment.” If you like our blog do write in comments section what your thoughts may be?!

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