Branding Archives | Page 3 of 6 | waveSpawn Marketing

February 16, 2011

waveSpawn selected as a Finalist for the Rookie of the Year BETA Award

waveSpawn was recently announced as a Finalist for the Rookie of the Year Award for the 2011 BETA Awards! BETA is an acronym for Buffalo/Niagara Emerging Technology Awards. The annual awards are hosted by infoTech Niagara – who recognize the “best and brightest in Western New York’s technology sector”. Since 1998 infoTech Niagara has worked hard in supporting the WNY IT Community through networking, professional development, training and more.

The 2011 BETA awards will be held on March 23rd at the Buffalo Convention Center. waveSpawn is honored to be among the selected finalists. We are looking forward to a fun-filled evening. Many thanks to our customers and the infoTech Niagara association. term paper buy online

January 17, 2011

Data giant Experian buys into social media

Experian, who is best known for being a credit referencing agency, has just acquired a social media agency in England. It would appear there are at least two strategic initiatives in which Experian would benefit.

The first is to strengthen its own presence in the digital marketing space. With competition heating up between Equifax, TransUnion, Fair Isaac, and a number of online data services, Experian is looking to create a stronger brand identity and more closely connect with its customers. By leveraging a number of online tools and mobile channels, Experian will be able to make their services available in a number of new formats – while reaching a demographic of new prospective customers.

The second advantage is in the data harvesting business. Experian has a marketing services division, which provides businesses with data about shoppers’ buying habits and internet consumption trends. It is this competitive intelligence that arguably has more appeal than strengthening the brand. The more unique content and personal information they can access, the stronger the competitive advantage they create for themselves.

This concept starts to blur the boundaries between social media content and privacy concerns. While the short-term goal is most likely to expand their online marketing network, it’s only logical that aggregating new types of social media content would be a natural extension. Let’s be honest, this is valuable information that many companies are willing to pay a premium for. Knowing your customer and more importantly, where to reach them online is pure gold.

September 27, 2010

Reinforcing your value proposition with social media marketing

Well thought out sales and marketing plans are critical for most small businesses. There are many strategies to leverage in order to meet specific revenue goals. However, decision-makers should not lose sight of establishing a unique value proposition which clearly differentiates the product or service from competitors.

What differentiates you from your competitors? Why should prospects buy from you or utilize your services? These are the types of questions that you need to answer before generating your sales and marketing plan. Your value proposition should support your brand. As discussed in an earlier topic, your brand is the personality that identifies your product, service or company. Specifically, this image should represent the heart and soul of your organization as it relates to your customers, employees, partners, and investors.

If you don’t focus on your unique value proposition, you’re likely to get lost in the shuffle with your competitors. Understand what makes you better and use it to your advantage. This could be customer service, quality, cost, innovation, a niche market, core competency, or something else. Incorporate that same strategy into everything you do – including both internal and external communication. Consistency in your message will help establish a clear vision. More importantly it’ll define who you are.

Ultimately, you want customers and prospects to recognize you for something – best quality, lowest price, fastest delivery, most helpful, dependable, etc. That same competitive advantage should be leveraged in your marketing and communications strategy – including social media. Social media offers endless innovative and creative possibilities for businesses to exploit. Learn how to leverage these tools to your advantage. Know your target audience, share your value proposition, and consistent follow-through are all keys to your success.

September 18, 2010

Succeeding in Buffalo with social media marketing

Small business owners in the greater Buffalo area have a lot of marketing options to leverage. Many of these are changing by the minute. Services such as Groupon, foursquare, Yelp, Facebook Marketplace, Yahoo Places, Twitter, and too many others to mention are waiting for local retailers to exploit. With GPS technology and mobile apps at consumers’ fingertips, local businesses can create more visibility than ever before. By harnessing the power (of a combination) of these social media platforms, Buffalo businesses can successfully generate brand awareness, in-store traffic, product buzz, and ultimately revenue.

Many of the strategies and underlying concepts of social media marketing are derived from traditional marketing; however, there are many new tactics and technologies to incorporate. Businesses need to open their minds and be creative. Innovation is paving new opportunities for businesses to market themselves and secure customers. Integrated marketing campaigns with direct mail and PPC advertising can yield even more significant results. Whatever your objectives are, social media can be a powerful communication tool to help spread your message.

waveSpawn is a pioneer in social media and located right here in beautiful Buffalo, NY. We are proud to work with a number of local businesses and assist with their marketing efforts. Please feel free to download our white paper on Understanding Social Media ROI. For specific questions or information, please feel free to contact us.

September 10, 2010

Flash coming soon to iPhones and iPads

Flash coming soon to iPhone After an antitrust investigation by the FTC and increasing competition from other mobile devices (such as Google’s Android), Apple has “decided” to relax their programming restrictions for third parties. Even though this sounds voluntary, Apple was certainly under pressure to comply.

So what does this mean? Essentially Adobe is now resuming its work on developing a version of Flash technology suitable for the iPhone and iPad devices. It had put those efforts on hold back in April when Apple placed severe restrictions on third party applications. This should come as good news for Apple users. Having additional functionality, such as Flash, will help to stay competitive in the rapidly changing space. As an iPhone user, why should I be limited because of a personal grudge between two CEOs? Get over it Jobs… let’s move on!

Downstream, this decision will also create new marketing opportunities. Since Flash applications are currently being utilized by ad agencies and media sites, they’ll eventually have the infrastructure to expand these campaigns to mobile devices. While some devices already support this technology, advertisers generally want to expand their reach without limitations. While it’s difficult to predict where this will lead, with Apple and Jobs in the mix, it should be an entertaining journey.

August 19, 2010

Facebook Places positioned to replace foursquare and Yelp

Facebook has officially joined the GPS, location-based, “check-in” game. With the announcement of Facebook Places yesterday, users can now share information of their whereabouts as well as connect with nearby friends. It’ll be interesting to see how this impacts both foursquare and Yelp who are also competing for customers in this location game.

Since Facebook recently surpassed 500,000 users, they clearly have the advantage over competing services. It would seem natural that social media enthusiasts are looking for a convergence of all these features – and not have to jump from one platform to another. Perhaps Facebook should look to acquire foursquare and simply aggregate the existing data and comments into their system?

Location features can create tremendous value for small businesses. With just a few favorable reviews and recommendations, viral marketing can generate a wave of new customers. It helps new prospects discover places that they would otherwise never know.

On the other hand, are GPS signals revealing too much information about people? Is this big brother zooming in on us? Are we compromising our privacy?

I’ve downloaded the latest Facebook app for the iPhone. While the Places icon is visible, it doesn’t appear the service is available yet in Buffalo, NY. We’ll be watching closely!

What are your thoughts? Will these location features help advance Facebook and small businesses or will this create new privacy and security concerns? Is Facebook Places sensible?

August 3, 2010

Market your regional product or service with foursquare

foursquare marketing If you haven’t familiarized yourself with foursquare yet, it may be worth your while. Foursquare is gaining popularity quickly. Many businesses are leveraging it to create customer loyalty programs. It’s GPS integrated features allow people to “check-in” when they are at or near your business. This allows you to track frequent visitors. You can structure incentives for your targeted community. For example, if you run a pizza shop, you can offer a free pizza to the member who “checks-in” the most within a given timeframe (month or week). If you have a hair salon, you can give a product away for every 10 check-ins. You can be creative in your offers, but it’s an ideal way to entice potential prospects and reward existing customers.

A powerful feature of foursquare, like most social media platforms, is that it shares information with all of a user’s friends. This creates instant viral marketing. If someone checks-into your establishment, everyone in that person’s network will get updates. It’s like a free plug for your business. As frequent users strive to collect prizes or discounts, this creates competition between various patrons. The better the prize, the bigger the interest. It’s almost like a virtual scavenger hunt.

When you have time, “check-in” to foursquare and see for yourself. If you have questions or not sure where to start, waveSpawn can help…

July 14, 2010

Successful branding from George Steinbrenner

The passing of George Steinbrenner (The Boss) yesterday has been a sad occasion for many Yankee fans. Over his 37 years as owner of the New York Yankees, Steinbrenner was able to transform the team from an $8 million MLB franchise in 1973 into a $1.6 billion empire.

The secret to his success is simple: he was passionate and relentless in his quest to be the best. He stayed true to that mission in everything he did. “Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing,” Steinbrenner was fond of saying. “Breathing first, winning next.” It was this motivation which helped the Yankees to win 7 World Series Championships during his tenure.

In 2001, fresh off four world championships in five years, Steinbrenner launched the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network (YES Network). This TV channel provides fans with exclusive telecasts of Yankee games and helps to reinforce the Yankee brand. In 2009, George was instrumental in opening the new Yankee stadium complete with its own ballpark food business. As a businessman, Steinbrenner was always seeking ways to expand the Yankees reach and appeal. He was a perfectionist and everything he did supported his desire to win.

The New York Yankees franchise is one of the most recognizable teams in all of professional sports. They are a marketing powerhouse. Much of their modern-day success is due to the Boss. While many people did not agree with Steinbrenner’s harsh approach to business, the legacy he leaves behind is undeniable. His simple strategy for success translates into any business – be passionate and relentless in your effort to be the best.

June 11, 2010

How are you establishing brand preference?

Brand preference Branding, for many companies, is low on their priority list – or perhaps even off the radar screen. Many businesses simply do not give sufficient focus to their brand initiatives. How many times have you heard – branding is too intangible or “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”? Since branding isn’t directly reflected on a company’s balance sheet or financial statements, it’ often overlooked.

The reality is, branding, while difficult to accurately quantify, is a powerful marketing tool that can enable tremendous returns on investment. Branding is the primary reason consumers are willing to pay triple the price for one product over another.

Executed properly, corporate or product branding creates a perception that targeted prospects and customers gravitate towards. Perhaps the brand symbolizes an active lifestyle, innovation, caring, luxury, reliability, a company’s policy on environmental issues, etc. An effective brand evokes a feeling which creates long-term customer loyalty. It is the result of a clear vision that fits with the overall corporate strategy.

Branding is directly related to the perceived value of a product or company. While brand awareness is essential for name recognition, strategic awareness occurs when you have differentiated your brand in the mind of your market. This is often referred to as your unique selling proposition. This tells the market what you do, and more importantly, how you do it differently or better than your competitors.

To go one step further, establishing brand preference should be the desired outcome of a company’s branding initiatives. This allows the market to understand what is unique about a particular brand, allows them to emotionally connect to the brand, and creates a bias for selecting that brand over competing brands.

Fortunately, there are many effective marketing and branding strategies to help companies improve their brand visibility. Social media has opened a vast number of opportunities for businesses of all sizes to rapidly disseminate information, generate buzz, and establish brand recognition. Social media enables companies to get immediate customer feedback. Truly listening to your customers and responding to each of them can have a significant impact on the credibility of your brand.

Social media also facilitates an effective means for companies to monitor their brand image. There are a number of analytical tools which generate valuable reports and statistics. This is beneficial for a number of reasons – it can create an objective profile of the current landscape. It also allows you to set benchmarks and measure specific metrics. These could include the number of times your brand is mentioned, the number of links to your product or site, the number of retweets, etc.

Social media is gaining momentum every day; it is a powerful form of communication that is not going away. Companies can either watch on the sidelines or actively participate to help establish the communication channels that will drive brand preference.

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May 26, 2010

Facebook aims to simplify privacy settings

Facebook announced it will simplify their privacy settings for users. After feeling the pressure from large groups of protestors, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said “We needed to simplify controls… We want people to be able to share information in the way that they want.”

The newly configured privacy page is intended to be a central dashboard for adjusting all content and privacy settings. There are streamlined capabilities to monitor and adjust global settings. In the past, settings for new applications would not adhere to the preset options. In other words, a user would need to realize that they need to go back to the settings page each time an application was added or information was modified, etc.

Having default settings should be sufficient for the majority of users. Advanced settings will still be available for those looking for total control over their shared data. “We’ve focused on three things: a single control for your content, more powerful controls for your basic information and an easy control to turn off all applications,” said Zuckerberg.

While heightened privacy control is good news for many avid users, Facebook is battling an interesting dilemma. Their prime revenue source is from content driven, targeted advertising. By restricting access to 3^rd parties, they may be directly limiting their ad revenue growth potential. This will be curious to see how Facebook is able to work around this hurdle. Are they able to compromise personal information in any way? Can they arrange a deal where personal information is exposed to high paying media research agencies?

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