Helix Design blog posts

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BRAND BUILDING ON SOCIAL MEDIA – A COUPLE OF DO’S & DON’TS

DO : Try to Provide Real Value

Conjure an image of your perfect customer and think – what do they like? What different types of information might they be interested in? It doesn’t have to directly relate to your business or product, it just needs to be interesting to your audience.

THE POWER OF A GREAT BRAND STORY AND HOW TO CREATE ONE

In business we engage with our customers on many levels, though the usual marketing message of ‘we sell this, you should buy this’ principle, isn’t going to leave a lasting impression or a memory that will engage with anyone on a deeper level.

MAKE A HAPPIER BRANDING DIFFERENCE ONLINE

It was Coca-Cola’s legendary Walter Landor who famously said, “Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.” Being online, there are multiple channels to express your brand’s personality.

WHY I DECIDED TO REFRESH MY BRAND

Now we know what our business stands for, and what our customers can expect as valued clients.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT A BUSINESS SHOULD HAVE A MISSION STATEMENT?

A mission statement is a short statement of why a business exists; what its overall goal is; identifying the purpose of its operations and what kind of product or service it provides; its primary customers or market and where it operates.

HOW TO WRITE A POSITIONING STATEMENT

A Positioning Statement is a distillation of what your business does and for whom and is comprised of 4 parts; the target, the category, the thing that makes you different, and the payoff. And every business should have one.

IT’S TIME TO GET TO KNOW YOUR BRAND!

A common problem with businesses is they don’t know how to talk about their brand to others.

DOES YOUR BRAND HAVE IMPACT?

Graphic design is a tricky discipline to understand because of all the subtle nuances and psychology that goes into creating it. Fashion and style dictate that designers should be innovative to create the impact a brand and its messages need. Design makes a brand memorable!

ADVERTISING IS DEAD!

In some ways traditional advertising is dead.

Technology has given us Social Media and for the first time in history business can maintain closer and richer connections with larger numbers of people – its customers.

RED? a colour conversation

Red hot! Red is associated with warmth, excitement, stimulation, energy, strength, power and physical courage.

GREY? a colour conversation

In colour psychology, grey represents neutrality and balance giving it a sense of calm. Its meaning likely comes from being the shade between black and white. Grey is modern and sophisticated, a colour that has worked well for technology and luxury brands

YELLOW? a colour conversation

If fun, speed, and low cost are important factors to your customers, you may consider yellow as a principal colour in your branding. Yellow is also effective as a secondary or highlight colour and is associated with optimism, warmth and clarity.

PURPLE? a colour conversation

In branding purple is often associated with wisdom, dignity, independence and creativity. It invokes a feeling of mystery and magic as well as spirituality. Purple is also associated with royalty, and wealth.

GREEN? a colour conversation

Green in Branding is used to convey prestige and wealth – "let’s see the colour of your money!"

ORANGE? A colour conversation

The colour orange – zingy, fresh, the colour of zestful fruit, of vitamin C and health.

BLUE? a colour conversation

Blue is cool, corporate, of men in suits, of tranquility and masculine?

Or is it?

REPUTATION

Reputation is hard earned and those things we aspire to do in our business well, are hard things to do too. These things are to be celebrated – and should be included in the story we tell, as part of our branding.

SUSTAINABILITY IN BUSINESS

Why is Sustainability important for Brands?

A good product is no longer enough to be a hit with customers, customers are increasingly looking for brands that align with their values.

AUTHENTIC BRAND STORIES IMPROVE TRUST

When we read a story our minds become engrossed with its subject and we feel the experience that is being described.

WHAT’S YOUR STORY?

Everyone has a story to tell.

DO I NEED A BRAND REFRESH OR A FULL REBRAND?

There are two types of rebranding exercise a company might consider.

A brand refresh is an evolution of your brand that keeps it fresh and redirects it to communicate better with your target audience.

Be a better IFA by DESIGN

Being an IFA is a special profession. It allows you to give valuable and confidential advice to clients who you serve. You educate on financial products that, when put in place can safely protect those who you look after.

BECOME AN IFA EXPERT

As in any overcrowded industry, getting noticed is one way you can differentiate yourself from your competitors. By raising your profile you can become known as an industry expert or thought-leader.

TIPS for IFAs to encourage CONVERSATIONS

People love to make excuses for putting off making decisions about their finances, especially when it comes to things like planning for retirement which seems a very long way off.

How Can IFAs Generate More Enquiries and Sales through their website?

Financial advisers often tell me that the biggest challenge they have is marketing their services in order to find new clients.

INFOGRAPHICS!

“In our mobile world, infographics are more than simply an effective way of sharing data-heavy information. They are becoming the go-to tool for rapid insight communication” Jennifer Chico

BRANDING – LOOK AND ‘FEEL’?

Look and feel are often paired together when talking about refining a brand and creating branded materials. The ‘look’ bit, is pretty straight forward – logo, colours, graphics etc – the less tangible aspect, loosely defined as ‘feel’ is the essence that drives business communication – it is the brand’s tone of voice.

10 COMMON PROBLEMS THAT LEAD TO BRAND MELTDOWN

For business, its brand is the life force that must be fed in order to thrive. However, too often a brand is left to languish, is taken for granted and ignored. So, what can you do to ensure your brand remains agile and engaging and prevent it from becoming stale, sluggish and irrelevant.

Time for a Spring Clean?

For businesses wishing to remain ahead of the game, a regular and up close look at both how the business looks and how the business is performing in the eyes of its customers is essential to maintain a strong and well coordinated brand.

SHOULD BUSINESSES ENGAGE IN SOCIAL ISSUES?

Much of social media is driven by the social or political issues of the day. As people, employees, customers and investors, do we expect businesses to take a stand on these contentious issues?

WHAT FOUR WORDS DEFINE YOUR BUSINESS?

Being able to define what drives your passion and informs the way you do business can be both liberating and clarifying.

TOWARDS BRAND VISION BY ASKING QUESTIONS

Before embarking on creating a relevant brand for your business it’s important to understand where your business is now and your ambition for it in the future – say, in five years time.

8 THINGS TO IMPROVE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

We can’t avoid marketing our businesses on Social Media. With over 3.6 billion people using social media worldwide it is an important arena for brands to connect with their audience. But, how can we do it better!

WHO NEEDS BRANDING?

The first thing I’d like to address is the word ‘branding’ – If I were to replace it with the word ‘reputation’ I may get your attention, because we all care about our reputation – don’t you think?

IT’S TRUE – the more EXPENSIVE it is, the BETTER it is!

According to research carried out in a collaboration with The University of Bonn and Insead Business School they were able to prove that participants believed that the same wine tasted better when it was labelled with a higher price tag.

WHAT ARE BRANDING GUIDELINES?

overview of your brand's history, vision, personality and key values. Used both internally and externally to communicate who you are, what you stand for, they act as a road map for others to use the brand responsibly, not muddy it and confuse your customers.

BRANDING VISUAL IDENTITY AND ITS ELEMENTS

Branding and brand visual identity are sometimes used interchangeably. Though one is contained within another, the two concepts are not one and the same thing.

What is BRAND PERSONALiTY?

Brand personality is a set of human characteristics that are attributed to a brand name. A brand personality is something to which a customer can relate.

WHAT ARE BRANDING STRATEGIES?

A branding strategy is a plan for the development of a successful brand in order to achieve something particular. A well-defined brand strategy affects all aspects of a business and is directly connected to customer needs, emotions, and competitive environments.

WHAT IS BRANDING?

Design?, Identity?, Culture?,Perhaps, values and relationships – a promise? Is it about symbols, stories or people? Is branding about perception?

BUILDING BRAND EQUITY

Brand equity is the awareness customers have of your products and services and that your brand is identifiable as being well thought of. Apple, Google and Microsoft are all considered to have high bran

Bringing your BRAND STORY to LIFE!

Brand storytelling can strengthen and increase your audience by creating a purposeful and human connection with your customers. Today's audience is driven by personal connections that they make with brands. These connections include, where you've come from and where you are going. They really want to know because they want a real and emotional connection with you.

BRAND VALUES THAT KEEP YOUR CUSTOMERS COMING BACK

I am always interested how businesses use their brand tools to connect with their customers to make money.

Brand values are the beliefs that you, as a company, stand for. They serve as a compass that guides your brand story, actions, behaviours, and the decision-making process.

4 THINGS TO CONSIDER when creating a VALUE PROPOSITION

A Value Proposition is a statement that a company uses to summarise why a customer should buy a product or use a service.

IS YOUR WEBSITE A DESTINATION?

If we think of destination architecture like the Guggenheim Bilbao, it’s the Guggenheim that has made Bilbao a destination you want to travel to.

How CLEAR are you in COMMUNICATING your BRAND PROMISE?

One of our main business portals for communication to our customers is our website. On a simple level, a brand promise is an announcement of your pledge, telling your customers what they should expect when they buy your products or services.

WHAT FONTS DO YOU USE TO BRAND YOUR BUSINESS?

Each font has a distinct personality, and matching a font to be in harmony with the essence of your brand is an important decision to make as it sets the tone of way you communicate to your customers.

WHAT COLOUR IS YOUR BUSINESS?

A key feature of any brand is its colours and used in logo design sets the tone for the brand. Is your business a luxury brand, a corporate brand? Do you want to achieve a relaxed mood? Maybe go with soft neutral tones. How about a youthful, energetic, and bold look? There are so many things to consider.