Word of Mouth Branding

You here the question all the time. “Where do you get business?” the reply often is ” Word of Mouth” . Word of mouth is certainly a great way of getting business. However this response is usually code for ” I don’t have a plan. Work kinda just comes in slowly”. Again not a problem. Although if you really believe in word of mouth and believe that it is responsible for the majority of your business shouldn’t you nurture it.

Generally when people think of word of mouth they think of one person having a good experience and letting another person know one at a time. The great thing about social media is that the word of mouth can now be more than one at a time. It can be hundreds. Do you have a facebook fan page? Do you have a twitter account? Do you drive happy customers to a preferred website to leave positive feedback? These are ways to give that new found fanatic a way to spread the good news quicker. Its like giving them a megaphone compared to the one to one way they had before.

Hemphill and Moore Realty look a like ?

So if you know me you know that more times than not when I get to pick where we eat I like to pick Mexican food. I am not talking about Chi-Chi’s or Taco Bell. I eat at Mexican restaurants where the folks speak Spanish. I believe these are the best kinds. I’m sure they are all over the country. Here in Nashville we have plenty to choose from. Every town usually has 4-5 run by Hispanic families. Anyway on to the point. I find my self eating lunch at odd times like 3pm. Usually things are slow and half the staff is sitting down folding napkins and watching Univision. Which from what I can tell is the Hispanic channel of choice.

A month or more ago I was driving around and saw a Hemphill and Moore Realty Sign. At this time the sign was in black only. After seeing it for a week or more and noticing that it resembled the Univision logo. I called the company. I told them that there logo looked very close to that of the Univision logo. They said ok with no real interest and that was it. I few months later I noticed that there signs had changed to color and now look even more like the logo.

So what do you think. Is this a logo rip off or a honest mistake? To see other logo’s that look alike visit this site.

And just in case you are wondering it is not ok to take a symbol of of another logo and put it on yours. Even if you change the color up a little.

Logo Design – Is Fresher Better?

The job of a logo is to give the public an image which to associate everything they know about a company. The logo does not have to exactly explain what the business does but it does need to have a look or feel that is consistent with the companies intended brand position.

Often busiesses work hard to imprint the image of there brand on the consumers mind. Once they have achieved that they just have to continue to offer the same great product or service that they are known for. However the urge to change is sometimes overwhelming. The need to look fresh and new is irresistible. Sometimes people start to think that since the company is so well known that maybe they are getting over looked.

In the case of Sprite, Blimpie, and Tropicana I believe they have got caught up in the need to make a change. The product has not changed or even the market but change for sake of change. And in these cases I would agrue that this change was not a change for the better.

So when is it the right time to make a change?

If a logo represents everything that your company is in the mind of the consumer than the only reason to change a logo is if you want to change what clients think about the company. For example if your company has delivered an affordable generic product for 20 years and you have decided to change to a high end specialty offering than you would not want to keep the same logo. Or if you started off selling horse shoes and now offer the whole horse with the trailer and horse food. Then a name like Troy’s Fine Horse Shoes may not be appropriate and a logo change as well as name change is in order.

Now there is something to be said in the area of tweaking a logo. For example the John Deere logo has been tweaked slowly over time. Likely the logo changed as the technology changed. They wanted to preserve what the public thought about the company but show them that they are making slight changes.

So in closing if you are a design firm and sprite comes to you wanting a new logo it may be hard to turn away the business but maybe it would be better to help them tweak the design instead of wipe an iconic image from the mind of all humanity. If you are a business owner consider what image your clients are associating you with and if it is consistent with your current position.

P.S. a note to Coka-Cola don’t even think about it !

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Don’t talk about your Brand and nobody will know

I have recently been spending more time networking on the internet. I read other peoples blogs and follow interesting people on twitter. I don’t know any of these people but I feel they have interesting or helpful information that I would like to know. The only thing I know is what they tell me. I don’t know them personally. We don’t hang out. I don’t know where they live. If they have a picture of them in a suite on their profile or site. I assume they where suites. If they twitter about going to the gym I think they must be healthy.

This reminds me of branding. With a brand businesses can be whoever they want to be. If they want to be the best at what they do they just have to say I am the best at what I do. If you want people think that you are hip and modern all you have to do is have marketing and design materials that are hip and modern. If you want to be the expert on something just have lots of information about one topic on your website and in your print materials. Perception is reality in many cases. Now you may have to prove that all this is true on day ,but you may not get that opportunity to prove yourself to be the expert if you don’t act like the expert.

The same is true in the opposite scenario. Unfortunately this is all to common in today’s small businesses. If you don’t have any information about what you do on your website or print material people assume you are not the expert. If your logo is poorly designed and inconsistent people assume that you are not hip and modern or even professional. If you never tell people that you are the best at what you do. Why would they ever thank that you are the best at what you do?

Sometimes business just assume that people will figure it out on their own. That is however unlikely. Perhaps only if they happen to stumble in your door. But if a person is looking for someone that is the expert in your field you are not going to make the list. You will not likely get found. Instead you have to go out and find the work as oppose to the work finding you. And once you do find the work you have to convince them that you are a professional and that you know what you are doing with out anything to back it up other than I nice smile.

So act like the business you want to be. You set the bar. You tell the world who you are. They have no reason to doubt you. Be proactive. Take charge. If you don’t have your stuff together than we should meet. I am the best logo designer in Nashville. I am tall and very handsome. I smell good and have a delightful personality

Reasons SEO guy and LOGO guy should work together

Why should SEO guy be in on the creative brief?

I am a logo designer. Who recently has decided to educate myself as much as possible about SEO. After diving into the world of SEO I have found that it is much more complicated than I would have imagined. Granted there are some basic things that everyone can do to help their situation. The vision in my head of an SEO guy was much like the PC guy in the mac commercials. I, of course, use a mac, so by default I get to be the mac guy. This is probably not an accurate stereo type but lets just go with it. You can tell me how off base I am in the comments. But I digress. That has nothing to do with the point.

Common Ground between SEO guy and Logo guy.

The point is that I see some common ground between the logo designer and the seo guy. ( not quite sure what to call them yet). Anyway as a logo designer I focus on the client. Who they are, who they want to be, what there goals are, how they plan to get there. Many times not even worrying about the website yet because who knows if I will get that job anyway. We are just trying to get a logo done. We are just trying to get the positioning and the branding in place. But why wouldn’t I be thinking about how this logo, or brand, or position is going to play out on the web? Does it not make sense that I would bring an SEO expert in to the creative brief? Could an SEO expert not research the competition and tell me exactly what their goals are based on their links and keywords? With an SEO expert on the job we could forecast a plan to position the client for keywords or products that show the most opportunity for the client. If there is a gap in the competition why wouldn’t we position the client from the start to fill that gap. Why not start with the logo and make sure it is appropriate for the keywords we want to rank for. Further more clients in the logo process are open, more than any other time, to the idea of changing there name. Surely an SEO expert could make suggestions as to what domains would best fit the clients needs.

As for an SEO expert. I would imaging their main target is web design firms or web designers. I have never met an SEO expert that worked for a design studio other than a web design studio. Surely everyone can benefit from this knowledge. While there are plenty of Web design studios out there, there are many logo designers that transition the client from logo to print to web and need the help of an SEO expert. The help of an SEO expert would certainly bring value to the logo process.

In conclusion I think the future relationship between the logo designer and the SEO expert is promising. What do you think?

Seo Experiment Day 18 of 30 Graphic Design

It is day 18 of the 30 day seo experiment.

The goal of the experiment is to:

1. Blog every work day
2. Sign up for as many social networks as possible
3. Read everyday about SEO ( Search Engine Optimization) Basically how to show up on Google.
4. Network with other bloggers and leave real comments

So far so good. I have noticed an increase in traffic as well as a better rank in search results. Throughout this experiment I have received some questions from clients and friends. Here are a few with some answers.

1. What is a blog? Surprisingly not everyone is familiar with blogs or how they work. Most blogs are focused on a specific topic and consist of one persons opinions on that topic. The blogger or blog owner writes on a regular basis about the topic that they want to be the expert on. The writing is generally casual and asks the readers to comment and share their opinions. The blogger can choose to approve those comments or delete them.
2. What is SEO? SEO stands for ( Search Engine Optimization). SEO is a lot of things and every post that is part of this experiment touches on different parts. But basically SEO is Optimizing your website to rank well on search engines for specific keywords.
3. What are Keywords? Keywords are the words that get typed into the search field on Google. You as the website owner decide what words you want to show up for. For example, Rush Design Group wants to show up for 3 basic Keywords or Key Phrases: logo design Nashville, graphic design Nashville, branding Nashville. So I make sure those words are on my site as much as possible.
4. Why do you keep spamming me? Sorry, I have been trying to promote my blog to everyone I know. Unfortunately not all of my clients, friends, and family like to hear from me everyday. What I have learned is that Facebook, Twitter ,and other social networks offer a passive form of contact I can say what I am doing with out demanding anyone read it. Emailing often may not be a good way to go if you want to promote your site. Although a Newsletter once a month has shown to be very productive.

I can’t believe how productive this experiment has been only 18 days in. I look forward to updating everyone on the final results. Leave a comment if you enjoy the post and if you are tired of hearing about it.

Twitter beginner ? and the Twitter Wheel

As part of the SEO experiment I have been spending way more time on the internet. I am getting started about 2hrs earlier in the morning now to do a little research, and then put up a post hopefully before you guys get to work and start looking on the internet for some non constructive activities. (This blog is educational and will grow your business. Just in case someone asks.)

While wandering the internet I have seen a lot about Twitter. Twitter is a site that lets you keep up with people by sending out short answers or questions. You can see an example of my “tweets” as they are called in the right column. As you can see they are short. The basic idea is that you get to see tweets from people that you want to follow, and the same is for people that follow you. On Twitter, a tweet is like your myspace or facebook status. It basically answers the question, “what are you doing?”

The useful thing about Twitter is that you can receive and make tweets with your cell phone or computer. While you are not required to use a cell it can be very convenient. As long as you have unlimited texting. Or if you have unlimited web you can log in to Twitters mobile site.

So why should you use it? Because SHAQ does. Do you need another reason? I know, I don’t care what SHAQ is up to but that is what is great. You can see what people are doing with out being all personal with them. If I send a request to be your friend on facebook ,and you only know me through a blog comment, that would be weird and stalker like. With Twitter I want you to follow me. I don’t care who you are. Really, follow me. Because if I break down on I65 I can send out a tweet and everyone I know will get it ,and merge left so they don’t hit me as they pass. Twitter is a combination of texting and instant messaging that lets you communicate through the phone and computer to everyone all at once.

Companies could use twitter to send out notices to out of office staff. Instead of texting everyone or using the old, slow, email. Or let customers know that you have a limited supply of that thing they want and you just put it on sale. Seriously though the CEO has hinted that tweet will become a money maker for corporations.  Whoever you are you could find a reason to set it up and try it out.If for no other reason sign up and save your companies name so that when you do get on the ban wagon it will still be available. So sign up and follow me on twitter.

Once you have signed up try this cool twitter wheel. It shows you how everyone is connected. Mine is pretty sad looking. But once you sign up to follow me, I will show you the updated wheel and hopefully it will be bigger. When you create your wheel it gives you a url. that is like this http://www.tweetwheel.com/rushdesign . Make yours and leave the address in the comments below so we can all see.

Other interesting notes about Twitter is that they were offered $500 million from facebook and said no. All this while Twitter has brought in little to no revenue. Although the CEO has said that that will change first quarter 2009.

Link Building / Give and Hopefully Receive

Link building is an important part of getting traffic to your site. Many sites recommend different ways of getting links. Some you can pay for some you can ask for and if you just have an all around awesome site people will just link to you because.
One tip is to contact a site directly. Kind of like the people that come to your house and ask to clean one room of your carpet. “Hey thanks for coming by and all but I don’t know you and I’m not sure I want to let you in my house. And who told you I had dirty carpet?” The same is true on the web. Contacting a person directly is a little weird if they have never heard of you. So I will take a different approach. If I send a random person a gift with my return address they may send a thank you back. Let the Giving begin! Oh and let me say that this is not only an effort to build links but these are posts that I believe would be good for my clients to read. So check them out. Really. Just click on the link.

The first blog I have read today was about the value of the newsletter. We offer newsletters at Rush Design Group and this guy says they work. Post Title: How 24 Hours of Work Will Send Millions of Readers to My Blog

Secondly, and I found this blog useful. The post is Monitoring your online brand. This is worth the time to read. The part that I tried immediately was to search for links to my site from other sites using Google. Type in google link:www.yoururl.com. Just put your actual website name in though.

Youtube Monetization: More to come This post talks about the success businesses have using youtube. Every business should have at least one video on youtube regardless of how boring. Because if you ever upset the wrong person you may find an angry customer video slandering your good name with nothing up to say otherwise. It has happened to clients of mine.

Ok this is a good one. Why Hank Hill and I agree on Social Media Basically why businesses should have a myspace page. You don’t have to put pictures of the boss from the Christmas party but you should have something up.

I have used Google’s Pay Per Click program in the past and Managing ads on the Google Content Network gives some tips on how to maximize the results.

Ok so twitter is something not so new but becoming very popular. I will try it today and let you know how it goes. I found this post, Brand Yourself With a Twitter Background , He also has a post of why you should follow him I think these are also great reasons why you should have a twitter. I think this could also serve a practical use for businesses.

Last but not least if you need a head shot or are getting married this is The Best Photographer in Nashville. And all around good people.

I am updating this post as I read blogs this morning so check back often. I will let you know what results I get from this process. This is part of the SEO experiment. To read all the associated posts click on seo experiment in the categories section.