Marketing and Sales Archives

Brands Represent Risk Mitigation for Consumers

October 11, 2019/0 Comments/in Marketing & Sales /by Sam Hua and Nan Hua

Things exist because we need them. We have brands not because companies made them, but because society needs them. If society and consumers didn’t need brands, no amount of effort from companies could bring them into existence.

How do brands work on a societal level? Let’s start by listening to economists instead of brand experts.

Some economists explain brands from a game-theory perspective. They say that brands are a mechanism for companies to engage customers in repeated games. And by giving customers an opportunity to punish companies, brands create a worry-free choice for consumers.

No trust can be created in a one-time game. Why do tourist traps offer such poor quality for high prices? Because it’s a one-time game. Shops and restaurants at tourist destinations know that you’re unlikely to come back, and they don’t expect you to. On the other hand, the restaurant right around the corner – which also caters to year-round residents – provides great service and quality, because they’re counting on repeat business from satisfied customers. If you don’t like the restaurant, you can punish it by never visiting again. A neighborhood restaurant relies on customers from nearby. It can’t survive if it’s alienated them.

In the US, McDonald’s doesn’t allow franchise locations near highway rest stops. All McDonald’s locations in rest stops are directly owned and operated by the corporation. That’s because stopping at a McDonald’s right off a highway is a one-time game for that specific location. It’s only a repeated game from the perspective of the company’s national headquarters. And so, McDonald’s maintains ownership of these one-time game locations to ensure the quality and service that its brand is known for.

That’s why we say brands are a social mechanism to mitigate risk for customers when they purchase goods and services.

This guest post is adapted from SUPER SIGNS: Taking Your Brand To The Ultimate Level by Sam Hua and Nan Hua, founding partners of Shanghai H&H Marketing Consulting Company.

About The Authors

Sam Hua is a board chairman and founding partner of Shanghai H&H Marketing Consulting Co., Ltd, a well-known expert in creative strategic marketing, and chief brand adviser of National Real Estate Manager Alliance. He has been dedicated to marketing strategies and creative marketing services for nearly 20 years. He established the first systematic marketing methodology – “H&H Methodology” – in the domestic marketing circle.

Nan Hua is a founding partner of Shanghai H&H Marketing Consulting Co., Ltd and Board Chairman of Dook Media Group Ltd. He is a co-producer of several movies such as So Young and Old Boys: the Way of the Dragon.

Branded building: does your workplace match your message?

September 21, 2019/0 Comments/in Marketing & Sales /by StrategyDriven

It’s tempting to treat your company’s branding as an afterthought or, at least, largely limit your branding efforts to social media and digital media content. That would be especially understandable if your operations are largely online-focused, with few customers visiting your physical workplace.

However, preserving consistent branding throughout, not just your online presence but also your office can pay off handsomely – here’s why, plus what you can do to align your branding in this way.

It’s easy to lose track of your supposed mission

Even if you have typed out your company’s mission statement, printed it out in large text and then framed it all for prominent display, your staff’s promotional efforts could still veer off-course surprisingly easily. After all, there’s so much of which you need to keep track…

That “much” includes not only the digital content we have just mentioned but also ad campaigns and marketing materials such as posters, flyers and brochures. If you have different people working on different aspects of the branding, it can soon drift into incoherence, perhaps before you notice.

Consequently, your brand – or whatever it still comprises – could confuse customers, clients and even people inside the company, right up to the executive level. Hence, as advised in an Entrepreneur article, you should put together – and, across all of the company’s departments, distribute – a brand guide touching on subjects like the brand’s voice, tone, colors, iconography and fonts.

Apply subtle but clever visual flourishes in your workplace

In your office, the little things can make a surprisingly large impact. Consider the words of New York-based digital communications professional Betsy Rohtbart in a Forbes piece; she posits: “If your logo is a circle, why put it on a square door? If your logo is a square, why put it on a rectangle tag?”

Along the same lines, she asks: “If your name is long, why shrink your font to make it fit the sign on the building?” The implication is that you shouldn’t feel under pressure to decorate your workspace in the “traditional” way, as succumbing to this pressure could see you missing out.

Your company’s culture should be reflected in the workplace design – and that culture concerns the firm’s values and beliefs, not simply its logo or branding colors. Perhaps you could put up a photograph from when your team participated in a charitable endeavor?

Why is workplace branding so important, anyway?

That question could still have played on your mind if few consumers or clients visit your company’s offices or make it past the reception area. However, as indicated on the Metropolis magazine’s website, office branding can imbue your workers with a sense of identity and connection.

Therefore, it can help to ensure that those workers are all moving in the same direction – and, in this way, genuinely helping consumers or clients. You can further encourage this by investing in luxury office design to create a space that reflects a specific lifestyle and where people truly aspire to work.

Do You Need Help With Your Marketing?

September 20, 2019/0 Comments/in Marketing & Sales /by StrategyDriven

It is no surprise to anyone in the world of business that marketing is such a hugely important thing to consider. If the marketing is right, then the business itself is going to be a success, whereas if it is not right, you can’t really tell what is going to happen at all. But knowing that and actually perfecting the art of marketing are two very different things. There might be many occasions in your business’ life when you need a little help with your marketing, and that is something that most people will find, so you are absolutely not alone. But it is good to know for sure when you need that help, so that you can seek it out in time and make the most of it. In this post, we’ll look at a few of the clearest signs that you might need some help with your marketing.

Your Products Aren’t Selling

One of the surest signs that you might need to consult a marketing agency is that you just aren’t shifting any products. There can often be dips in sales, and that can be the result of a number of different things, but you need to make sure that you are aware of when it is due to poor marketing. Even if that is not the reason, you will find that improving your marketing is going to make a huge difference to how many products you sell, and for that reason it is absolutely worth looking into anyway. If you feel that you could be selling more, take a look at your marketing and see whether you might need any help with it.

Your Brand Is Unclear

As a business, you need to have a strong brand which people can immediately recognize and relate to. This is central to keeping your business in line with what you want to achieve, and it is one of the things that you are going to want to keep an eye on throughout your business. However, if you have come to realize that your brand is actually relatively unclear, then you might find that it is necessary to step back and allow some marketing experts to take a look at it. If they can improve your brand in any way, you are bound to find that this will improve your marketing generally, and the performance of your business.

You Don’t Have The Time

Marketing wlel takes time, and if you just know that you don’t have the time, then that is one of the things that you are going to need to think about too. That is a time when you are going to benefit hugely from giving your marketing over to the professionals, so make sure that you bear that in mind when that crops up. By giving the work to them, you can keep your eyes on the prize in other places, and hopefully it will all come together in a business that is functioning much more accurately and expertly.

5 Digital Marketing Strategies to Put Your Power Tool Company on the Map

September 7, 2019/0 Comments/in Marketing & Sales, Online Marketing and Website Development /by StrategyDriven

You want to take over the power tool market but if you don’t have the best digital marketing strategies in place, your competition is going to leave you in the dust. Your company needs to put together a digital marketing plan vs. just putting up a couple of posts on social media every now and again.

Continue reading this article to learn five digital marketing strategies that are going to help your business go to the next level.

Must-Know Digital Marketing Strategies

When you’re trying to promote your power tool company, the following strategies will help you get started. As people learn more about how power tools work and how they help people, they’ll be more interested in investing in them and doing business with you.

Here are some ways to get the word out online.

1. SEO

SEO stands for search engine optimization and means that you do everything you can to make Google and other search engine choose your website to show in the search results. There is a lot that goes into SEO but once you get in the good graces of the search engines, you can pull in a lot of highly targeted search traffic.

2. Content Marketing

Content marketing is a great way to let your potential customers get to know you. When you deliver high-quality content that helps them with a problem they have, you become someone they see as a problem solver and may choose to do business with you when they need your product or service.

Content marketing might include blog posts, podcasts, whitepapers, ebooks and more.

3. Social Media Marketing

Getting the word out about your business online through social media can be an inexpensive way to get some serious exposure. With social media marketing, people are able to share your content with their friends and you can get a lot of reach that way.

4. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is becoming more popular because of its effectiveness. Even influencers with small audiences can help you get a lot of attention and sales for your business. If an influencer recommends your products and services, their audience is likely to at least take a good look at what you have to offer.

5. Remarketing

Remarketing is a powerful way to get back in front of people that recently showed interest in your products. They may have triggered the remarketing campaign on Facebook but when they go over to Instagram, they might see your ad on that platform. Most people don’t buy anything the first time they see it so remarketing is very important.

Get More Help for Your Business

Now that you know more about these digital marketing strategies, you can get to work on your business promotion online. Why stop learning about business there? We have many articles that will help you level up your business.

Browse our site, find your favorite section, drop a bookmark and come back soon for more great reads.

Should You Hire a Digital Marketing Agency?

September 3, 2019/0 Comments/in Online Marketing and Website Development /by StrategyDriven

Digital marketing is a vital component of any modern business’ strategy for growth and development. But while many businesses recognize the importance of digital marketing, many of them are still trying to keep their costs down by doing it all themselves. Unfortunately for them, this is a recipe for disaster.

Hiring an outside digital marketing agency might seem like a more expensive option, but it offers a number of advantages.

Access the Skills You Need

Putting together a digital marketing team in-house might seem like a more cost-effective option, but this isn’t true for most businesses. In fact, for the majority of businesses, opening your own digital marketing department is going to be significantly more expensive than hiring a Digital Marketing Agency.

Not only is it difficult and expensive to bring onboard people with the specific skills that you need, these people probably won’t be needed on a continual basis. It is worth having some permanent members of your team who can monitor the progress of any current campaigns and can help you to work on your general marketing strategies. But you should bring in the heavy hitters when you really need them.

Maximize Your ROI

ROI is one of the most important things to consider whenever your business is spending money. It doesn’t matter if you are spending a couple of dollars or hundreds of thousands of dollars, you should always be making sure that money is being spent as wisely as possible and is bringing tangible benefits to your business.

Digital marketing agencies are run and staged by talented and experienced marketers; the people who are best positioned to ensure your campaign is as effective and efficient as it can possibly be. Not only this, but digital marketing agencies will know how to best allocate your available budget for maximum returns.

Gain Insight and Perspective

Any team that you assemble in-house is going to be necessarily limited by the skills and experience they possess. A digital marketing agency will be able to pull in individuals from a variety of backgrounds to ensure that they are bringing everything to the table that your business needs to make a success of your next digital marketing campaign.

Meet Your Deadlines

When you are responsible for your own marketing, there is always a temptation to give yourself a bit more time or a bit more money to achieve your goals. This means that campaigns end up being less disciplined and valuable lessons are never learned.

By contrast, a digital marketing agency will always work to the parameters that you set for them. If you tell them that you need a campaign produced within a certain budget or timeframe, they will work to your specifications.

Hiring a dedicated outside marketing agency will ensure that your business has access to all the skills, knowledge, and resources that it needs to pull off a successful campaign. Don’t be put off by the costs involved; if you want to maximize your ROI from your digital marketing campaigns, an outside agency is a much safer bet than trying to do it all in-house.