Rules of the Road: Love Your Clients

In these hard times, you want to do everything possible to hold onto your best clients.

GIFTS Everybody loves to open presents whatever the occasion. You don’t have to break the bank either. Treat your top 3 clients to a Valentine’s Day gift of those candy hearts with the sayings on them. Send a packet of seeds to celebrate the first day of spring. Mail a birthday card.

DISCOUNTS Money talks. Offer a discount on your products or services. Remember to add an expiration date. We’re currently offering to print 250 business cards or 250 post cards for free when you hire us to design them.

SHARE NETWORK CONTACTS Chances are that business is slow for your clients, too. Offer to assist by sharing contacts in your network, or forwarding information about your clients’ businesses to the people in your network.

GUEST BLOG Blogging benefits everyone in subtle ways. Search engines rank your web site higher the more you broadcast yourself on the internet. Invite your best clients to write guest blog posts for your blog as a way of building higher SEO ranking.

GO FOR IT. Get Free printed postcards from Namaro

Get set to send your message out there in more ways than one. You cannot limit your marketing to the internet. Your customers will respond positively to an eye-catching postcard. It will lead them to your online presence and it will also give you something to hand out, other than a business card, when you are networking.

Hire us to design a postcard and we’ll print 250 standard (4-1/4” x 6”) postcards for you for FREE! Call 845-876-3009 or email us (Subject line: Free postcards) at nrobbins@namaro.com

Figuring out Twitter

So I have a new twitter account: My name is "namaro". I have been reading a lot about how twitter can help businesses and non-profits connect and succeed at what they are trying to accomplish.

Here is what I have found out (for now):
1. Instant gratification
2. Instant solutions and answers to questions
3. Non-stop contact with clients (if they are unhappy they can tell you right away and you can fix it for them before they go somewhere else or word gets out. If they are happy word gets out.)
4. If you are a non-profit you can keep in contact with your supporters and direct them to your website constantly. (for ex: Conference / press releases / News Briefings)
5. Direct people to good causes
6. Check out what people are talking about
7. Tell your story
8. Send out promotions
9. Mobilize people
10. Instant survey
11. Build relationships

Brand repositioning 101: Free outline

Recently I developed this outline to help someone better communicate how to go about repositioning a brand. I hope it's helpful to you and please pass it on. And hey, if you need a new brand, think of Namaro ;)

Simply, brand positioning creates a specific place in the market for your brand and product offerings. It reaches a certain type of consumer or customer and delivers benefits that meet the needs of key target groups. The brand positioning of a company seeks to further distance itself from competitors based on a host of items.

1—Determining the Current Status of the Brand:
• Understand the company and brand
• Explore key issues, opportunities, and challenges
• What differentiates your company and brand from the competition?
• What are the equity drivers of the company and brand?
• What are the historical ways to communicate the company and brand equity to consumers and customers alike?
• Who is the current target customer base?
• What is his/her profile?
• What are the reasons for being a customer?

2—What Does the Brand Stand for Today?
• Understand current consumer perceptions and needs of your brand.
• Determine how far to move your brand without alienating customers and loyalty base.
• Identify how to position your brand to attract new users and ultimately convert them into loyal customers.
• Direct-to-consumer interviews "Why do they select your brand?" and "What was the key decision-making element?"
• Identify needs, both unmet and met in industry, determine the delights and dissatisfiers of your brand.

3—Developing the Brand Position Platform: Where Can We Take It Tomorrow to Grow the Brand?
• How far to grow, expand, and stretch the brand?
• Who do we want our brand to be?
• What is its personality?
• How do we want consumers to think and feel about your brand?
• What benefits will it deliver to the consumer?
• How will we promote the brand?
• Carefully review brand to ensure that it maintains the core values and essence of your brand.
• The new brand positioning will be:

1. Ownable: Unique to the brand
2. Leverageable: Important and relevant to the target
3. Sustainable: To other categories in the future
4. Extendable: Partnership marketing and other marketing programs

• 2 components:

1. Strategic: Developing the brand vision: Today, tomorrow and for the future
2. Creative: Review consumer insights with the goal taking your brand where it should go

• Determine four to five key benefits and potential platforms that are agreed upon by the entire group.
• Go back to key consumers and customers with the purpose of checking back with them to validate the new brand positioning.

4—Refining The Brand Positioning and Management Presentation
• Review and refine the new brand positioning and communicate to all function departments in order to align efforts.
• Incorporate all feedback from consumers, customers, vendors and agencies, to ensure achievable positioning vs. aspirational positioning.
• Present new brand positioning to senior management.
• Endorse the new brand positioning.
• Create brand identity manual which provides a clear direction on the new brand positioning to anyone in the company.
• Bring the new brand positioning to life and apply to marketing, and communications.
• Ensure consistent communication of the brand equity across any medium and by any partner.

5 —Design and Deployment:
• Use four to five key benefits and brand position manual to develop concepts for logo creation.
• Engage senior management in concept development.
• Refine logo concepts to 3 choices and apply to sample marketing vehicles.
• Attain feedback from consumers.
• Present 3 logos and feedback to senior management.
• Refine logo concepts to 2 choices.
• Attain feedback from consumers.
• Present 2 logos and feedback to senior management.
• Refine one logo.
• Apply logo to sample marketing vehicles to present to senior management.
• Endorsement from senior management.
• Incorporate logo into brand identity manual.
• Create database of copywriting, photography, etc.
• Create templates for marketing vehicles.
• Layout, production and deployment of brand.

Graphic Traffic: Why a new blog name?

Graphic Traffic better represents what our blog is and what it will be. The new name conveys the concept of information coming together at an intersection and the reader can read (go) wherever they want to.

At this moment in time, business is at a crossroads and stuck in traffic. Graphic Traffic intends on “green lighting” or “red lighting” roads (new information), get you around the jam (solutions) and on to your destination (results).

The next issue of our blog will further develop the concept. If you have an opinion about this, feel free to comment below. We would love to hear from you.

FREE marketing and business ideas

These days marketing should be more transparent and cross-promotional. In order for everyone to prosper, helping each other do business in new ways is essential. It’s where it’s at baby!

• Cross-promote with businesses that share the same client base.

• Write engaging press releases about your employees (e.g., the personal achievement of an employee like being the first in their family to graduate from college or climb Mt. Everest)

• Start a blog and engage only your clients. What do they want from you? What can you do better? Maybe they could post a picture of your product in use at their house? Answer their questions? Reward your clients when they offer a great idea? Satisfy them when they aren’t happy and let everyone see how you made them happy again?

• Help your clients get business. Be transparent, help them, they will help you.

• Read our blog ;)

• Don’t pay rent. Rent a van. Create a business model that’s on the road. Sell or distribute anything from the trunk. Make-up, clothing, vacations, anything that someone wouldn’t expect.

• The right place at the right time business. Your business moves from one location to another as the market demands and uses vacant storefronts for a month or 2 at a time.

• Put 2 businesses together that you wouldn’t expect. Maybe a bar and a wide screen TV in a department store so your husband can sit-down and have a drink while you're shopping. Think of it, he would be happy to come and you could shop through the Superbowl.

• Create a new business model that caters to the “convenient” factor. Like a ½ hour babysitter service when you have to make that quick run to the store or the bank.

Creating a brand helps create a plan: Suzanne Stevens, Keller Williams Realty

Suzanne Stevens, a real estate broker with Keller Williams Realty in Rhinebeck, NY was inspired by our June blog: Don’t slash the budget. Market smarter!

Smart she is! Suzanne decided to use her time constructively during the economic downturn. She hired Namaro to upgrade her corporate brand and create a master plan. Not only is she going to be more visible than the competition that is down scaling, but she’ll be ready when the market picks up with a plan that will save her money and time.

First, we developed a tagline that was simple, direct and friendly by using a phrase that is common and expanding on it. “Just Listed, Just Sold, Just Suzanne”.

Second, we reviewed all her advertising and developed a plan.

Third, we designed a corporate brand that was first “Suzanne Stevens” and second Keller Williams. The fonts, shapes and colors complimented both “brands” yet differentiated them.

Fourth, we designed and produced templates in Microsoft Publisher, PowerPoint and Word, so Suzanne could work with the templates on her own whenever she needed them. Her corporate communications brand won’t be compromised, and she’ll be able to easily handle the job in-house.

Fifth, we created an Excel file with calendar columns next to each of the templates. Suzanne can create a plan for each piece of her brand and when she needs it.

Things change constantly in the real estate market. New ads are required. A presentation is created for every new listing, open house, and sale. This brand is easy to use, update and will most definitely make “Suzanne Stevens” stand out now and in 2009-2010.

Answer these questions before you start your 2009-2010 marketing plan

• What are your company’s goals for 2009-2010?
• Did you do a SWOT analysis?
• What are your customer needs?
• What is the competition doing?
• What marketing tools proved effective/ineffective in the past?
• What are developing trends that may impact your company?
• What is your 2009-2010 budget?
• What economic/social/technical factors will affect your company in 2009-2010?
• Have you reviewed your vendor qualifications and can you do better?

FREE

Keep an eye out for the next newsletter. It will have lots of Free information.