Against the Grain: Branding

In today’s world, where conversations are shared across multiple platforms at the click of a button, you can spread your brand’s marketing message to your target audiences easier than ever before. Whether you use traditional outlets or embrace social media, make sure that your brand’s message stays consistent across all communications platforms.

Here are a few things you should consider:

• Develop a few key marketing messages. Identify your top products and services and explain what distinguishes them from your competition. Create talking points to help your customers understand how they will benefit from your products or services. Review and update your key messages regularly to share recent data, support marketing campaigns and promote new products or services.
• Maintain your image. Visual branding is an important part of your integrated marketing communications plan because your logo, print collateral and website design tells your company’s story. Create a style guide specifying fonts, logo sizes and color schemes to keep a consistent look. You should also incorporate your visual branding on all official communications, e.g., newsletters, press releases and your company’s Twitter background and Facebook profile picture. When you create a consistent look, people will begin to automatically associate your visual branding with your company.
• Get the word out. Don’t shy away from social media! It is a powerful communication tool that allows you to support your traditional marketing efforts and listen and interact with your target audience online. You can tailor your communications to fit an online forum but the key messages should stay the same. Remember, when you communicate via social media, you are representing your brand online so always be transparent, respond promptly and be respectful of others’ opinions.

Integrated marketing campaigns allow you to use traditional and online media platforms to reach your target audiences. Keep your messaging consistent across all communication channels to raise awareness about your products and services to create a stronger brand.

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The end of summer is always bittersweet. Yes, we say goodbye to the scorching heat and oppressive humidity – which has been in abundance this season – but we also say goodbye to the long, sunny days, trips to the lake and running through the grass barefoot. But, there is one tradition that always helps ease Iowans into the fall: the Iowa State Fair.

This year marks the 100-year anniversary of the Iowa State Fair Butter Cow. Now, if you’re not from around here you might be thinking, “Say what?” Yes, it’s the 100-year anniversary of carving a heifer out of butter. The Fair is a proud and fun tradition, and they have asked groups around the Des Moines Metro to help commemorate this event by designing and painting concrete cows that will be placed throughout the fairgrounds.

We were honored when the Fair, a client since 2004, asked us to design and paint our very own concrete butter cow, and we took to the task with enthusiasm. We came up with a design and started painting. We wanted to incorporate design elements from the Fair’s marketing collateral to maintain brand consistency, but we wanted the butter cow to have its own identity. We used color and typeface to accomplish this goal.

Through this unique project, we discovered new ways to reach different audiences that can often be overlooked in the daily hustle and bustle. For example:

Care Packages

As a way to show our appreciation to clients, Trilix put together a “What’s Better than Butta” kit that included fair tickets, a butter recipe book, oven mitt, butter dish and wooden spoons. We can help you create a similar project to promote a new product, service or event. It is a fun and unique way to reach out to your audience, and it breaks through everyday clutter.

Unexpected Signage

The concrete butter cow is a prime example of how unique signage – that catches people off guard – is a great way to communicate a message. The concrete butter cows will be placed in a high-traffic/volume area where people of all different backgrounds will see it and be exposed to its message.

At Trilix, we are constantly exploring creative ways to communicate our messages and sometimes it’s our clients who provide the catalyst for these ideas. This is just another example of how working together, taking chances and creating a collaborative working environment can really get the ideas flowing.

View the commercials Trilix did for the Iowa State Fair.

For the past few years, advancements in social media have taken the marketing world by storm. Who’s reading my blog? Who’s reading my Facebook posts? Should I even be on Twitter? Why check into places? What’s Google+?

To answer your questions, we pulled together social media statistics with the help of Arik Hanson, APR’s blog.

Why are there so many blogs? Are people reading them?

• According to Tom Webster, The Social Habit, 57 million people read and follow blogs.
• More than 12 million adults maintain a blog.

You can reach out to influential bloggers who write about topics that would interest your audience. They can help promote your services and products in their posts. However, it is important to treat bloggers like journalists — respect their time and really understand their blog’s purpose and community.

Tell me a little bit about Facebook. How can my company benefit? (Source: Tom Webster, The Social Habit)

• Facebook is used by more than half of Americans (older than 52 years old).
• One in four social media users follow brands, products or services. Eighty percent of those people said Facebook is the platform they use to follow companies.
• Twenty-five percent of social media users said Facebook is the platform that influences their buying decisions the most.

Use Facebook to help tell your company’s story. Facebook is a great place to share photos, videos or links that are relevant to your audience. Build a fan base, interact with your audience and listen to what your customers are saying.

How can 140 characters even make an impact?

• We understand. Let’s talk Twitter. According to Twitter’s blog, 200 million tweets are sent per day.
• There were 460,000 new accounts created per day in the beginning of 2011.
• Currently, the TPS (tweet per second) rate is 7,196. This record occurred during the United States vs. Japan Women’s World Cup championship game on July 17, 2011.

Twitter is basically a micro-blogging platform. Use it to share links (use a link shortener, such as bit.ly, so you can conserve characters and track your analytics), updates or even photos. It’s a great tool to spark conversation and engagement between customers or other businesses.

What platform are people using to check into my business? (Source: Dan Zarella, Hubspot)

• Fifty-five percent of mass consumers said they would check-in using Facebook places.
• Six percent of mass consumers said they would check-in using Foursquare.
• Ninety percent of “early adopters” said they would check-in using Facebook places.
• Twenty-two percent of “early adopters” said they would check-in using Foursquare.

Set up a venue on Foursquare, Facebook pages or any location-based social media platform for your business. Offer “specials” for the Mayor and other loyal customers. Allowing people to check into your business can help you understand who your audience is and why they are visiting you.

What is Google+? (Source: Stan Schroeder – Mashable.com)

• Google+ is a new social media platform that was launched just on June 28, 2011.
• It is the fastest-growing social network of all time with more than 10 million members already.
• A few key features include: Circles (friends), Spark’s (recommendations based on your interests), Hangouts (video chat), Photos and a Profile (very similar to all other profile pages).

Google+ is rapidly growing users and they are adding new features, like verified profiles for brands every day.

My company has just one social media platform. Should we be using more? (Source: Tom Webster, The Social Habit)

• Yes. Social media reaches the majority of Americans (older than 12 years old).
• Fifty-two percent of those Americans have more than one social media platform.

Using multiple social media platforms allows you to reach different audiences. Formulate a social media plan for your brand to make sure that your messaging and visual branding are consistent across every platform.

We hope this helps you understand how you can use social media to promote your brand, business or company. If you have questions, feel free to contact us, and we’ll help guide your social media efforts.

In our day-to-day life at Trilix, we all do some form of writing or designing. Today, Trilix sat down with production manager (also known as proofreading extraordinaire), Leng Vong, to gather some of her editing knowledge.

Trilix: What is your process for proofing something?
Leng: First, I prioritize the projects. Then, I look at the piece as one big picture. I ask myself, “What is the purpose of this piece?” “Who is the audience?” “What is the message trying to convey?” Once I figure out the big picture, I read over the whole piece once to look for obvious errors. Then, I make sure to look at it once more to make sure I didn’t miss anything.

Trilix: Why is proofing something so important in our business?
Leng: In our business, we are helping our clients tell their message to their audience. We need to make sure that nothing goes out of our doors with errors, typos or inconsistency.

Trilix: What advice would you give a PR professional, designer or copywriter?
Leng: I would tell them to look over their own work and double check everything. Sometimes it helps to take a step back from the project and come back to it later. Also, people need to make sure to research the client, projects and previous examples. It’s also important to know the messaging, language and tones to provide consistency.

Trilix: What are your biggest pet-peeves in proofing?
Leng: Misused hyphens, the wrong use of dashes and extra spaces!

Trilix: What error do you see the most?
Leng: I see the wrong use of dashes, extra spaces, the wrong forms of words and run on sentences the most when I proof something.

Leng’s other tips –

• Try reading the sentence backwards. It helps misspelled words stand out.
• Read one word at a time, instead of the whole sentence. This trick also helps misspelled words stand out.

Thanks, Leng! I think we can all say we learned a lot today.

While most manufacturers focus exclusively on building share-of-market, smart manufacturers understand the value of building share-of-heart — connecting with customers in a more personal and meaningful manner. One of the best ways to do that is to develop a random acts of kindness strategy.

Your customers want to know you care about them and their world. A random acts of kindness strategy does just that.

Use social media or traditional research to gain a better understanding of what's happening in your customers' lives. Get involved in those organizations or initiate your own program to positively impact their lives. Then, use public relations and social media to let customers participate in your random acts of kindness. As a result, they'll have a greater affinity for you and your products.

Trilix is a full-service advertising agency headquartered in the Midwest with expertise in helping businesses market effectively and drive sales success. Learn more at www.trilixgroup.com or email Todd Senne at tsenne@trilixgroup.com.