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Branding
Concepts
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by:
Michael Bloch
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"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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acknowledge "Taming the Beast" by including a hyperlink or reference to
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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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