Knowing How to Identify Your Brand

Knowing How to Identify Your Brand

Marketing is to business the way gasoline is to an automobile. Do without it, and it won't go anywhere. Skimp on it, and you will be lucky to get half way. When it comes to business, time is not always on your side so this is why it's important to have a strong marketing plan in place. At the same time, realize that marketing should not have a cookie-cutter approach — using the same design for every business.

Back to the gasoline/automobile analogy, while using the regular unleaded grade may be fine for domestic or economy models, the premium or diesel grade is always required for luxury or most fine imports. If you cut corners when it comes to gas grade, you may place yourself deeper in the whole. The last thing a new or struggling business needs is to buy a new engine or have to replace a vehicle when the objective is to spend the least amount of money possible in order to make a profit.

Marketing is not about just sending press releases, cute flyers, or creating interesting ads, but researching the product itself; knowing the audience and timing as well as accuracy of the message.

Every one of us has either seen or heard a radio/TV ad and the only thing we could think was, huh? Huh does not inspire people to check out a brand further (unless that person is really bored and takes the time to do an online search, which is rare). At best, a person will just remember an ad that was so abstract and strange that it may have stuck in their head.

Once in a while, a quirky character or mascot will have a long run of print, radio and TV ads. Sometimes they are so cute that you forget the restaurant being advertised is just average or that another brand is similar — or better, for that matter. This type of marketing can be risky as the factors to consider are timing and our social climate. After nearly a decade on the air, the adorable Chihuahua was forced into retirement by a growing Latino community that found the ads offensive and stereotypical.

In a nutshell, there is noting wrong with having unique advertising as long as the message does not get lost in the visuals. Also, keep social correctness in mind and don't forget to check and re-check before airing to the public.