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April 3, 2007 By

What Blog Readers Want: Findings From a New Study

Bloggers who offer quality or clarity are most appealing to blog readers, according to the findings from a new blog readership study.

Of the readers polled, 51.5% said the quality of blog writing helps them determine which blogs are credible and high quality. But these same respondents were equally divided on the key determinants for choosing which blogs they read regularly - 43.9% opting for quality of writing, and 43.6% for topical focus.

Nearly forty per cent believe that an author’s reputation drives perceived credibility. Frequency of posting and site design also drive what is perceived as a high quality blog.

The study, conducted by online market research service Vizu Answers and Advertising Age, also found that 32.5% of blog readers read for education and information, and 12.3% for work. A huge 65.7% read for entertainment, and 42.5% for personal interest and hobbies. The majority of people who read blogs for professional purposes use them as tools to track information, while 27.3% use blogs to track trends.
[Read more...]

File under: Blogs & Blogging, News
April 1, 2007 By

Simplicity = Better Branding

Effective branding is just like producing a good vodka, says Steve Woodruff of StickyFigure.com, one of our new author’s at SBB.com.

Quoted in Friday’s article on TheStreet.com titled Better Branding, Steve advocates that simplicity sells.

Just like producing a good vodka, the message has to be distilled to its essence. “You’ve got to explain in a few words what you are doing and why,” Woodruff adds. “You build all your branding and marketing off that core message. If you don’t have that, you don’t have anything.”

Steve believes that branding has changed since the dot-com era, “when the credo was to make as much noise as possible, gain as many eyeballs as you can and worry about the long-term later.”

Click here for the full article by Annika Mengisen and find out what Steve says you must do in today’s market! This is a great read on better branding for small business.

Have a super-simplistic week!
Danielle

File under: Branding, Business
March 26, 2007 By

Case Study – Part 2: Break the Rules and Clean up Financially

Are you so focused on following the rules you’ve forgotten that to make your brand shine out what you really need to do is break them?

Too often we are so fixated on finding and then adhering religiously to the “right” formula (so that customers will buy, buy, buy…) what we actually become is just another face in the crowd; a second-hander, inheriting a world we never made. This is why the Linden Lab story appeals to me so much. Founder and CEO, Philip Rosedale, did it his way. Not content with inheriting a second-hand world, he created his as he wanted it (albeit a Second Life and all!). And boy do they shine out.

In Part 1 I explored the necessity for new ideas, and what that can mean for your business in terms of your bottom line. Here I have one main point – which relates to breaking the rules – and I’m going to travel via Linden Lab’s creative internal business model to make it.
[Read more...]

File under: Branding, Business
March 16, 2007 By

Case Study – Part 1: Blaze a New Trail and Clean Up Financially

What do you get when you cross a trail-blazing business idea with a trail-blazing cultural ideology? Linden Lab of course. But in keeping with their ‘break all the rules’ philosophy, this is not your average lab. And intriguingly, their concoction has a life of its own. A Second Life actually.

The more I read about this innovative company and their outta-the-park venture, the more I realise they have zero respect for the status quo. Which earns them bucketloads of respect from me. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I feel at home with a concept like Second Life. On the contrary. In fact, I was chuckling with understanding when I read Michael Fitzgerald’s amusing article, My Second Life Life, over at Inc.com about his initial adventures in Second Life. It’s the ahead-of-his-time thinking of its founder and CEO, Philip Rosedale, that flicks my switch.

I first wrote about Second Life in December last year, and found myself yet again captivated with this concept and phenomenon after reading Fitzgerald’s recent article. Now I would like to pose two questions to you:

Could your business use a Second Life?
(…or, if you work in the field of marketing, could your clients’ businesses use a Second Life?)
…and,
Will you adopt 2007 as the ‘Year of the Idea’?
(More on Q2 in a minute.)

[Read more...]

File under: Business, Marketing, News
March 10, 2007 By

Frontline Knowledge is Branding Power

Starving hungry and rushing between meetings, I spotted a McDonald’s and pulled in. Now, I’m not a regular at this fast food icon (true story!), mainly because I find their burgers lacking in the flavour department and a tad rubbery. But hey, what they lack in flavour they make up for in convenience…

So anyway, as I drove in I noticed a huge banner advertising the “NEW McChicken Burger”. How could I resist? Being curious as to what was “new” about it, I asked the young girl serving at the drive-thru. Clearly wanting to give me the answer, she frowned hard as she struggled to recall. Finally, she smiled apologetically and said, “I think it means there’s less sugar in the buns now, and I think less sodium as well… I think.”

[Read more...]

File under: Branding, Business, Marketing
February 27, 2007 By

The World Needs Dreamers: Have you got what it takes?

It’s said that vision is the ability to see with your mind what others miss with their eyes. And that the future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious.

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
~ Sir Winston Churchill

Every day countless numbers of intrepid souls step into the unknown and ultimately shape our world. Many are rewarded handsomely for it, and sometimes even hailed as heroes – but rarely before they have walked through fire.

If you’ve ever wanted to be attacked from all sides at once, having every conceivable social weapon known to humankind used on you (including, but not limited to, scare tactics, manipulation, intimidation, humiliation, and the good old-fashioned guilt trip), just come up with a new business concept and set about making it a reality. Voila!…a full-on assault ensues. An alternative to this is to stand in front of a firing squad, minus the blindfold. Sometimes I’m not sure what’s worse.

Am I kidding? I kid you not. [Read more...]

File under: Business
January 28, 2007 By

Want To Make Your Brand Shout Out From The Crowd?

I jumped into my car, reached for my seatbelt and looked up at the campervan parked in front of me. The message on the back appeared to be hand-written, like someone had just dipped their finger in a can of paint. It read: I love every body. Yours is next. Taken with their humour, I scanned the remaining area for more information about who this person was. The print scrawled across the back window read:
www.wickedcampers.com. Sometime later I spotted another wicked looking camper. Instantly recognising their trademark style, and eager for more wicked wit, I searched for the slogan and wasn’t disappointed: The liver is evil. It must be punished.

Targeting those on a backpacker’s budget, the Wicked Campers image is reminiscent of the old VW Combi Vans. Each one is themed to give the van its own personality complete with a name derived from the hand-painted, colourful, quirky images adorning the vehicle. The wicked finishing touch: an original, irreverent and witty hand-written “message” on each van. This company has very cleverly tapped into the backpacker culture, and in doing so has skillfully created their own.

By opting for outrageous antics Wicked Campers have built their marketing into their brand identity. This is a great illustration that marketing is no longer what you do to a brand after it’s built. To get mind space in today’s noisy marketplace, brands need to build marketing into their brand.
[Read more...]

File under: Branding, Marketing
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