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Branding Trends Marketing

The Miracle of Branding: Why Brand Your Business

why brand

According to entrepreneur.com, branding is the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol, or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products. A brand is what sets your business, company, product, or service apart from others. It is what you an individual. Branding is a promise to your customers. It is what tells them what to expect from your product or services. So, where do you even start with branding? Well, you could go onto our website and Buy-A-Brand or Build-A-Brand. You could also take inspiration from other brands. But what makes branding great? And why should you even brand something? In this post, we’ll provide an all-encompassing rundown of what makes branding great, including why branding is essential and three examples of great branding. 

Branding Leads to Customer Loyalty 

Good branding can lead to customer loyalty and retention by elevating a business and building recognition. Think to yourself about your favorite brands. Did you have a clear image as to who they are? Did you feel certain emotions when thinking about them? Do you remember specific experiences with them? If yes, then that is excellent branding. It builds an emotional connection with your customers. Customers are attracted to brands with similar values to them, and once you attract your customers with the benefits that you have established with your branding and create an emotional connection with them through those values that loyalty can last a lifetime. 

Branding Helps you Stand Out.

Branding is what sets you apart from everyone else. There are a lot of small businesses out there that may sell the same products as you. What will set you apart is how you present yourself. A good brand has a clear purpose. It has meaning. Don’t just buy a brand logo because it looks cool. Buy a logo or create a logo that has meaning.

Establishing Your Brand Will Make it Easier to Introduce New Products and Services

It will be easier for you to introduce new products or services by establishing your brand and creating that secure emotional connection with your loyal customers. Your customers are already interested in your brand, and they will be listening to what you release, thus making it easier for you to have already a loyal customer base for your next product or service. 

3 Great Examples of Branding

  1. Apple – Minimalist, Innovating, Simplistic
    1. Apple is the first example in Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle framework. Apple’s brand shows you that they build beautiful computers that are cutting edge technology. They set themselves apart from other competitors by highlighting their innovative products. Their messaging then emphasizes that if you are an Apple customer, then you are also innovative and creative. 
  2. Nike – A Timeless Brand, A Consistent Brand.
    1. Nike’s branding and messaging strategy focus on empowerment. There is a unified message of empowerment and performance from their tagline “Just Do It” to their name, the Greek Goddess of Victory. Their models don’t smile. Instead, their photos are taken while doing physical activities. 
  3. Trader Joe’s – Groceries Meets New-Age Marketing
    1. Trader Joe’s is a national chain of grocery stores; however, based on their branding, you wouldn’t know it. It has branded itself as your neighborhood grocery store. They have a wide variety of high-quality food at a low price. They attempt to make customers feel at home in their causal, nautical-themed atmosphere. 

Why Brand? The Way We See It Your Business Isn’t A Business Without It.

Branding your company is extremely important. Branding is what makes your company unique. It sets you apart from other competitors and helps build customer loyalty. For more information on branding, reach out to those at Unmatte. Also, look at our Buy-A-Brand and Build-A Brand pages to see if we can offer any branding services your business may need. 

Categories
Trends Marketing

Marketing Ted Talks You MUST Watch & Why

marketing ted talks

Ted Talks are the best way to learn about the important things. They are educational, well thought out, and always interesting. Here are a few of the best Marketing Ted Talks to watch to improve your marketing skills.

Marketing Ted Talks with Seth Godin with The Tribes we Lead

The Blah Blah: Seth Godin talks about how mass media was a fail, but tribes are the growing thing. Mass marketing means average ideas. It’s when companies are trying to ‘hypnotise’ people into buying, voting, ect. He brings in tribes as a form that is taking down mass marketing. He says these tribes are about leading and connecting people and ideas. The internet, now a days, allows different interests/ hobbies to have their own tribe, or group. These are groups of people who have the same interests or hobbies and can form their own community from anywhere in the world.

The Moral: Godin believes that the new form of marketing is for companies to build their own tribe and be the ‘king’ of it, and to “find the true believers.” He says, “You don’t need everyone, you just need a thousand.”

Marketing Ted Talks: Seth Godin with How to Get Your Ideas to Spread

The Blah Blah: Seth Godin is clearly the one to listen to about marketing, he makes it simple to understand. Starting off by talking about sliced bread, for fifteen years after being ‘invented’ people still were not buying it. He goes into talking about how to get ideas to spread, not just getting the idea. Seth then uses an example of an image of a cow, a normal, black and white cow is not exciting. It’s the day to day thing, and won’t grab attention. But, he then edits the photo to make the cow black and purple. This is not exciting. He mentions that the things that are not normal are going to grab attention. However, if they stay like that, they will slowly become another normal that doesn’t grab attention.

The Moral: You need to advertise in an unconventional way. This is what will get your company sales. To keep this going, you need to change up your advertisements every so often.

Rory Sutherland with Life Lessons From an Ad Man

The Blah Blah: In this Ted Talk, Rory Sutherland talks about how advertising is more about the approach you take than the product itself. My favorite example from this was the potato. He brings up how potatoes look gross and that made people not want to eat them. He then went into the potato being rebranding. It was told to be a food of royalty, and how it was guarded while in a regular potato patch. This made it more desirable, and the potato became more wanted.

The Moral: Desirability is the reason people do anything.  Why can’t people live without your product or service?  Sell that!

Andrew Stanton with The Clues to A Great Story

The Blah Blah: Andrew Stanton talks about storytelling and how it impacts your advertising. He says “storytelling is joke telling” and that you need to know your punchline. Stories allow us to connect to people or things. It’s stories that can get us to relate to a company or product, which results in follows and customers. Then he goes on to talk about Mr. Rodgers and how he carried the quote, “There is no one you cannot learn to love once you’ve heard their story.”

The Moral: A company or product should make people care, in some way. Stories pull us in, make us care, and cause us to buy.

Dan Pink with The Puzzle of Motivation

The Blah Blah: Dan Pink opens his Ted Talk with the candle problem. He asks how you can attach a candle to a wall, without the wax cannot drip onto the table. He goes through a few possible ‘solutions’ and then says they are wrong. The actual solution is to use the container the tacks were in, connect that to the wall and put the candle in the container. When it comes to motivation, your viewers (the candle) want a solution (the wall). You are the container.

The Moral: Problems don’t always have an easy fix, even if they might, you want to show them YOU are the way to the solution. If you show your viewers that you can lead them to a solution, they will be more likely to buy your product. You have given them motivation.

Find more in the Trends Category of our notes.

Categories
Trends Marketing Social Media

Meme Marketing & How It Works

meme marketing

Meme marketing is composed of images or GIFs. Most of them have some form of humor to them but they can be serious, light-hearted, dark, or just merely comedy. With all of that versatility, no wonder they can affect how a product is marketed. Though indirectly, meme marketing can assist with a company making sales. This article talks about a few of the biggest, most popular memes and how they can actually be a tool for a product–through meme marketing. 

But That’s None of my Business. – Meme Marketing is Sassy.

For several years now, Kermit the Frog has been starring in memes with a cup of Liptonmeme marketing - kermit the frog tea. These memes generally have a phrase at the top, and at the bottom of the image, it usually reads, “But that’s none of my business.” Something as simple as this is putting Lipton tea in the center of the image. This is the first thing that the viewer sees, even if they do not realize it. This is a perfect opportunity for product placement. It is allowing a simple cup of tea to become associated with humor slowly. Someone sees a pack of Lipton tea, and they think of Kermit drinking a glass while pretending to mind his own business about something. 

Baby Yoda – Meme Marketing is Clean.

Ever since The Mandalorian came out, Baby Yoda has flooded social media. meme marketing baby yodaStar Wars has always been a massive franchise, and now, being owned by Disney has not changed that. Baby Yoda had people talking about The Mandalorian, and this caused people to want to watch the series. Not only has this meme advertised for the series, but it has also advertised for Disney’s new streaming service Disney+. Which just so happens to be the only place you can watch The Mandalorian.  Baby Yoda, in the referenced photo, sheds light on the current pandemic ‘COVID-19’.

Meme Marketing Within App Marketing.

Another popular meme shows people taking photos of their food with the caption, ‘Meanwhile on Instagram.’ This directly impacts business for Instagram, but there are memes for Facebook, Tik Tok, and Snap Chat. These could be mocking the app itself, or even its users, but it still advertises. Memes allow people to explore and exploit their opinions in multiple ways. Instagram does have a lot of food pictures, and if someone finds this funny, it just might make them open the app due to the reference. Memes can help advertise for almost anything, and they spread quickly. 

Meme marketing might be something people put together to gain likes and follows, but it can also end up being an advertisement for a brand as well. It’s free advertising by fans, even if they don’t realize they are helping promote a brand. It’s simple advertising and puts the product/brand in your face. Let meme marketing stick with your readers. Find out more trends in marketing by clicking here or see The 100 Greatest Memes Ever!

Categories
Social Media Branding Trends Marketing

Learn From These Mistakes Before You Try Social Media Marketing

social media

As of January 30 of this year, more than 4.5 billion people now use the internet, according to We Are Social. Of the 4.5 billion people who use the internet, 3.8 billion are on social media. That is nearly 60% of the population. If you are trying to market yourself or your brand, the most obvious way to show people who you are is to use social media. However, before you do that you need to know how to connect with your audience without losing their trust, in this post, we’ll provide an all-encompassing rundown of the five social media marketing tactics that are dead. 

Misleading Social Media Game Ads—You’re not fooling anybody 

I can’t tell you how many games ads I’ve seen where the game is nothing like the advertisement. If your consumer downloads the games—and that’s a big if—they will soon see that the game is nothing like you advertised. What happens next? They delete it and don’t trust your brand again. 

Advertising in the Middle of Videos—They’ll keep scrolling 

If you’re going to place an ad, do it on the front end. I can’t tell you how many times I have stopped watching a video on Facebook because it was in the middle of the video. By placing your ad upfront, the audience knows what to expect, and they know they won’t be bothered once the video starts. By placing an ad in the middle of the video, you’re not only annoying your audience, but you are making them question if this is the only ad that will interrupt their video. What happens next? They keep scrolling. 

Social Media & Fake Accounts—Your audience knows it when they see it.

It’s pretty obvious to spot a fake account when you see one. They only have posted about certain products and have close to zero followers. According to Crunch Growth, 26.5% of Facebook Accounts, 17% of Twitter accounts, and 40% of Instagram accounts are fake. Once a consumer sees that you are using a cheap marketing tactic to increase your posts interactions, they’re going to lose their trust in your company and brand. 

Non-Native Paid Advertising—Most stick out like a sore thumb

A paid advertisement is easy to spot when you see one, especially if the content doesn’t look native. The easiest fix for this is to make your advertisement look like native content. This isn’t to say you should make a cheap post like “OMG I love my [insert product here]. You can buy it at [insert link here]. Instead, make your company seem human. Genuine content makes readers want to click on your profile and take a closer look.

Mass Following to Gain Followers—Are you trying to look desperate? 

Yes, the point of social media is to be—you guessed it—social, but mass following users so that you can get more followers is not the way to do it. Accounts that do this are easy to spot because they tend to have a crazy unequal follower ratio.  The ratio we view is when you are following more users than users following you. This makes your brand seem fake or of low value. Users will see this as your brand not being genuine and won’t want to interact with you. 

Although social media is a place of free expression, there is a wrong way to market on these platforms.

Remember to avoid the following:

  • Mass following
  • Non-native looking paid advertisements
  • Using fake accounts to boost your posts interaction
  • Placing ads in the middle of your videos
  • Using misleading game advertisements

If you have any questions about social media marketing tactics that are dead or would like a consultation, reach out to us.

Categories
Target Marketing Trends Marketing

Go Viral: The Phenomenon – Tips, Tricks, & Understanding

go viral

Go Viral with these simple tips.  

Social media is a growing platform, as are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and the latest one, Tik Tok. Users, typically between the ages of fifteen to mid-to-late thirties, share posts and content to gain status.  To achieve status, there seems to be no idea too big or too dangerous, and that can be concerning.

In this post, I will explain what a viral phenomenon is, and some ways that one begins.  

The Go Viral Phenomenon

The common cold is viral. It spreads rapidly, and everyone is aware of about it. When a post becomes viral on social media, it spreads all over. Filling one platform and spreading to another, and another. The ‘creator’ of that post, whether it be a photo or video, has become viral. They have ‘blown up,’ and their post is now being seen from people all over the country- and maybe even the world.

There is no end to being viral; it seems. Once someone achieves this, regardless of if it was intentional or not, they will more than likely want to do it again. And this often means trying harder and doing more outrageous things. Being viral is not always a good thing, and it is not always a person. It can be a photo of people not recognized or even a challenge.  

How to Become Go Viral

Let’s look at a few ways to become viral on social media. 

Entrepreneur lays out a map to becoming viral. While becoming viral can sometimes be accidental, it really does come down to a science. You know who your target audience is. You may have one specific audience that you’re reaching out to, but you may also have several audiences.

Learn about who you are reaching out to. What do they like, what do they feel strongly about, and what trends are they into? You need to take all of these into consideration when creating your content. Once you know these, you need to select which social media platform you’re going to use. 

Tip: The platform you decide to use plays a more significant role in becoming viral than the content itself. If your target audience uses Tik Tok more, Facebook isn’t going to be the way to go. 

Entrepreneur also says that a way to become viral is to partner with someone who already is. Create a post maybe two or three with this person, and that’s getting you out there.

Lastly, Entrepreneur talks about having ‘novel’ content. This means that your content should be unique and creative in at least some way. Someone who may get viral from doing a trend may not stay viral if their typical content does not grab the viewer’s attention.

In other words, they gain followers but quickly lose them or don’t gain anymore. Some people can instantly receive a ton of traction without trying. Maybe they had a really good video, or maybe they did something generous that you don’t see or hear about a lot. Whatever it may have been, or will be, the posts that catch the most attention will always have a higher chance of becoming viral. 

Tip: If you want more people to see your post, a hack to this would be to follow more people. Chances are you following someone else will cause them to follow you in return. 

What Else Can Help Make Something Epic?

It’s not just people who can be viral. We all remember the black & blue vs. white and gold dress from 2015. It was all over social media, especially Facebook, and people would debate over if the dress was black and blue, or white and gold. This was viral. It blew up, and it was all over because it didn’t just get people talking; it got people arguing. This surpasses social media and landed itself on the news. 

Another moment that didn’t involve a person was the ice bucket challenge. Participating in this challenge got people involved in a good cause, as well as helped people gain likes and followers off of their participation. To spread awareness for ALS, this was on several social media platforms. It was already growing quickly, but people would also nominate someone else to do it. Sometimes they would nominate several people. 

Need Help?

Being viral on social media can be for people, as well as other items or challenges. These grow and, after they start to slow down, they still have the possibility of becoming a popular thing again in the future. Let us help you go viral – contact us now.

Categories
Branding Marketing Target Marketing

Marketing Books That Have the Answers to Everything (6)

Marketing is an ever-changing topic making it is essential to keep up to date on the latest trends and developments. Any person related to this field needs to stay informed of how to market to your audience in the modern age properly. In this post, we’ll be converting the top 6 marketing books that have been published within the last year. 

Social Media Marketing 2020 by Stephan Anderson 

Social Media Marketing 2020 by Stephen Anderson will tell you how to build your brand, understanding the basics of influencer marketing, why you have to use Instagram and Youtube, how to monetize your influencer Instagram profile, tips for nailing your brand and more. This book provides an all-encompassing overview of how to market on social media in 2020. Buy it on Amazon starting at $12.99

 

Dynamic Digital Marketing by Dawn McGruer

Dynamic Digital Marketing teaches you how to increase online visibility and presence, attract your target audience, generate leads, and convert those leads to profitable customers. It offers step by step guidance on topics like: 

  • Gain invaluable insights on what works based on the McGruer’s 20 years’ experience in digital marketing
  • Avoid pitfalls and missteps by implementing the same proven success strategies used by key influencers
  • Harness the power of search engine optimization (SEO), social media, content marketing, online video, and more
  • Amplify your brand, cultivate customers, and increase profits
  • Incorporate e-mail marketing, customer analytics, strategic web design, and influencer partnerships in your overall digital marketing strategy

You can buy it on Amazon for print or on Kindle. 

Digital Marketing for Beginners by Oliver J. Rich

Digital Marketing for Beginners is an excellent handbook for starting in the digital media  world. It has digital tools and methods that will take your brand to the next level. You will specifically find: 

  1. Career profiles in digital marketing that you can take up and make a living
  2. Understand the role of a digital marketer and how that will boost your online business
  3. How to craft a marketing strategy that attracts sales and builds your brand faster
  4. Ways to analyze your competitors and apply their valuable business tricks
  5. Methods of targeting clients, acquiring them, and keeping them coming back
  6. The various social media tools for advertising. Above all you’ll take a look at the three most popular social media platforms for businesses
  7. How to re-brand and sell products and services. Branding is more than getting the right logo, however the right logo does enforce a better brand.
  8. Analyze eight types of digital marketing, but truly understand them.
  9. How to track your efforts using Google Analytics

You can get your copy on Amazon.

Remarkable Retail: How to Win & Keep Customers in the Age of Digital Disruption by Steve Dennis

This is a brand new book that equips the physical retailer with eight essential strategies to deliver a great customer experience. Furthermore, these strategies include making your business: 

  1. Digitally Enabled
  2. Human-Centered
  3. Harmonized
  4. Mobile
  5. Personal
  6. Connected
  7. Memorable
  8. Radical. 

You can buy it on Amazon. 

Note from Staff: Heads up, even if you’re not selling a product or service – maybe you’re trying to spread awareness.  You are a retailer!  To clarify, the retention of customers account for more than 60% of your yearly sales, repetition.

How to Build a Personal Brand on LinkedIn by Dr. Keir Finlow-Bates

This is the perfect read for people short on time. Dr. Keir Finlow-Bates teaches you how to build a personal brand to help you receive more recognition at work, connect with your decision-makers, and generate high-quality inbound sales leads. However, the best part is that by using this book, you can fraud your LinkedIn image in as little as 10 minutes per day. Get it on Amazon.

Note from Staff: Building your personal brand can be easy if you’re confident in the audience you want to attract.  Furthermore, once that battle is over you’ll be able to communicate effectively via LinkedIn.

Marketing for Entrepreneurs and Small to Medium Businesses by Kelly A. Mahoney 

This book is targeted directly to smaller businesses. Being a business owner, you know you’ll wear a lot of different hats.  Certainly you can live without the stress.  In short, this book discusses how to: 

  1. Create winning approaches to the market
  2. Avoid common pitfalls, which will save you time and money
  3. Accelerate revenue and growth 

You can get it on Amazon for $11.50

Note from Staff: This was a great read when we started unmatte.com – it helped us keep our approach simple.  In other words, we can vouch firsthand that when you’re branding yourself, especially as a smaller business, this is one of your go-to manuals.

These books are all great resources to learn about new digital strategies.  Most importantly, Contact us if you have any questions about digital marketing strategies or would like a consultation. 

Categories
Trends Marketing Target Marketing

Generational Marketing: Generation Z.

Generational Marketing is very effective when it comes to target marketing.  Every generation is different, which means you need to adjust your marketing strategies to reach out to each one individually. With birth dates from 1995 to 2012, Gen Z grew up with the growing age of technology. Gen Z is all about social media. Marketing on social media can give you one of the most massive audiences, and age ranges at one time for your company. Now, this doesn’t mean any social media. Some platforms are more preferred for your target audience. A few of the best platforms to use are Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube. These are the most used social media platforms for Gen Z teens and adults.

Allowing you to send short photos and videos to friends before they disappear, Snapchat is famous for keeping in touch with friends with short snippets of what you’re up to. Snapchat has filters that can be used on their photos and videos. From the infamous dog ears to holiday photo frames, you can interact with your post.

Snapchat even adds filters to advertise different things. From movies to elections and also the Grammy’s and Oscars. Your company can make a Snapchat filter, and bring attention to your company in a fun and subtle way.

Generational Marketing Happens On Instagram As Well.

In the photo-based app, Instagram, users share photos of anything and everything. From food to pets to family, everyone gets to have their portfolio-like page of memories. Like Snapchat, Instagram also allows its users to post a story that goes away after 24 hours. They can add polls, stickers, emojis, and gifs to their photos and videos. Having an Instagram and posting on your feed and story are both great ways to reach out to the audience you are aiming for. You are putting yourself on their level and causing yourself to be more relatable. You are on their platform, and they will see your company.

YouTube is also a great place to advertise. Millions of people are watching videos every day. From playing music in the background to watching their favorite creators, countless ads are being shown before and during the videos. Even if they don’t see your ad, they may hear it. Putting an advertisement directly in front of someone so there is no doubt that they will see it, can be the most effective way of getting your company and product out there.

Overall, Generational Marketing Is Very Effective.

The best way to reach a generation is by putting yourself in their place. Learn their social media preferences, figure out what stores and products are more popular amongst them. These will lead you in the right direction when it comes to marketing to them. If your target audience is on Instagram everyday and watching YouTube, then an email advertisement is not going to do the job. However, if you are advertising on Instagram and you have an ad in front of the videos by their favorite creator or music genre, you already have a much higher chance of getting their attention and getting more customers. You need to go directly to your audience rather than stand, awaiting them to make the first move.

Tip: If you need some more tips on trends in 2020, visit our 2020 Marketing Trends & What You Should Know article.

Categories
Branding Marketing

50 Marketing Jargon Terms You Should Know – PDF

Marketing Jargon can change the way you communicate drastically.  We’ve all been there; we get stuck reading files or documents with jargon we don’t know. Then we take longer to read through because we may not want to admit we don’t know what some things mean. So, instead of stopping every few words to look up definitions, this article is here to help.

Starting out in the business world can be tough. With all there is to learn, definitions just may be the most tedious. We all want to succeed in our fields of business and it can be made more complicated when some employers may not be the most willing to help aid their new hires. Without the proper help, learning new things may be even harder or they can get more confusing.

We all learn at different paces, so what may work for one person won’t necessarily work for another. Some can read the textbook definitions and be on their way, while others need a more broken down version. This article contains some of the most common marketing jargon used within the business and marketing world. They are simplified and to the point, in hopes of being the most helpful to those who need it.

 

 

Download our 50 Marketing Jargon Terms You Should Know for FREE Now.

marketing jargon

Maja Jaredic  explains more jargon terms you may need to know.

Please remember that we here at unmatte like to provide resources that we have found helpful in our careers.

Categories
Trends

2020 Marketing Trends: What You Should Know

Here at Unmatte, we try and focus on providing brands with the opportunity to rise to the occasion. Marketing trends help you eliminate the BS from your brand and allow you to create actionable tasks that help interact and engage with your audience. Here are a few we think are best for 2020.

Society & Marketing

The world of marketing is continuously changing to keep up with our growing society. The most popular marketing trends nowadays have to do with the internet. Marketing is all about advertising and selling your product, and companies will try to put their ad’s anywhere and everywhere. This also means that there are countless possibilities for companies and marketing their products. You are not just limited to billboards anymore, though if that is what you prefer, you can have billboards that have a changing sign.

Get To Know Your Client

Some companies like to follow and get to know a little about their clients. This is a great way to personalize an ad to one specific person. With the ability to ‘meet’ a potential client, you can talk to them about the product as it is in regards to what they need or the timing they have left in their day for something new, and you can get personal. This seems to be one of the most effective ways of marketing, as well. Taking the personal approach, you show the customer that your product is for anyone.

An example of this is with at-home workout programs. If you are looking for new people to join, you can find an aspect of their life that may be similar, if not the same, as what you are going through. Clients want relatable. They are more likely to go for a product or program if it works for their specific needs and requirements.

Content Is Everything

When it comes to content, there is no loss of possibilities. Make your advertisements fun and short, Don’t drag on, because this risks losing someone’s attention. You need to talk to them like you would someone you already know. If you drag on, they will lose interest sooner and delete your message, or stop reading. Most importantly, if the audience is not drawn to the post when it is in front of them, they will scroll right past. It should be pleasing to the eye and make the reader want to open that ad.

Do Your Best! Do It All!

Marketing is tough and ever-changing. There will always be countless options on which route to go, but, in the end, you need to be what the readers want or need to be seeing at the moment your ad is within their sight. Try a call to action, where you ask them directly if they need your product or services. Be what the reader needs, and they will open your ad. Once they open your ad, you have their attention. Keep their attention, and you have a new client.  Single Grain has created MORE marketing trends to focus on throughout your journey, take a look at their lengthy-list.