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Branding
Concepts |
by:
Michael
Bloch |
"Branding" is the process by which a company
employs marketing strategies to get people
to easily remember their business and products
over anothers...essentially, it's applied
psychology.
As a child, I was introduced to a relatively
new hamburger chain that had begun in Australia.
I still visit that burger chain regularly
25 years later. Not a lot has changed over
those years in regards to this particular
company and I guess that's one of the reasons
that I am still a customer. I know each
time I walk into that establishment what
I am going to have, where everything is
and God help them if they ever remove the
item from the menu! Even if they radically
changed the decor, it would make me nervous.
Many millions of people around the world
would feel the same......
One of our countries major supermarkets
has a habit of occasionally moving products
around in their stores. It works well for
them as it increases sales. Customers who
usually seek out particular products are
exposed to other items as they hunt for
their favourites. It is a highly annoying
tactic and only works in this situation
because the supermarket is very competitive
in pricing and range of products. People
are not so patient on web sites and continiously
moving items around on your site will see
you losing traffic....nothing surer.
After having worked in management of another
major fast food chain outlet, I learned
that once a company has established a presence
and become successful, any changes to operation
must be carried out extremely carefully.
Our patrons became very attuned to the company,
they were essentially a part of it. Their
perceptions and opinions needed to be taken
into account every step of the way, and
not just in regards to the products.
Why?
We have succumbed to the branding experience.....
it makes us feel "safe"
Branding isn't just about logos, it's the
entire "feel" associated with a company.
In these days of bleeding edge technology
and rapid change, people still enjoy going
to places that follow a pattern of operation.
This very much applies to our websites.
Your logo should appear on every page, your
domain name and one line blurb contained
in every email, your theme consistent throughout
your site. Granted, quality content is king,
but it's important that visitors remember
where the content came from. Branding establishes
recall abilities of your site.
Recently, I decided that I was going to
change the colour schemes on my site due
to the research that I had carried out on
the psychology of colour. Many articles
I had studied suggested that black was not
really appropriate for a site about web
design. After discussing the plans with
a few regular visitors, I was surprised
by the response. The feedback was for me
not to change the colour in any way. Even
those people who did not feel that black
was appropriate considering the nature of
site did not want me to change it. They
were "used" to it. It was a constant on
the site, the same as the logo placement
and general navigation structure. So it
is all staying. My plans were to make the
site look more in tune with other very successful
web presences that focus on web design.
What was I thinking!?!?!?
Branding is not only about constants, but
individuality..........
If some one told you that they were going
to establish a hamburger franchise and the
logo colour scheme would be red and yellow,
you would probably think they were insane.
Red tends to signify danger and yellow is
purported to be the most annoying colour
of all. But try telling McDonalds that.....
But having stated that, if you are just
in the planning stages your site, I suggest
that you do be careful in your choice of
navigation, logos and colour schemes. If
your site is established with a good traffic
flow and you are considering revamping it,
it is of the utmost importance that you
consult your visitors first via some sort
of survey before any radical changes are
made. Otherwise the many hours of hard work
that you put into the upgrade, as well as
the hours invested in developing the original
theme, may be lost.
.... along with your traffic.
Michael Bloch
michael@tamingthebeast.net
http://www.tamingthebeast.net
Tutorials, web content and tools, software
and community.
Web Marketing, eCommerce & Development solutions.
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About the Author
Michael is an Australian Information
Technologies trainer and web developer.
Many other free web design, ecommerce
development and Internet articles, tutorials,
tools and resources are available from
his award winning site; Taming the Beast.net
(http://www.tamingthebeast.net) |
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