Branding and Advertising Archives

6 reasons why Test Cricket & Branding are similar!

The recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy was a dream come true kind of series for many cricket fans. The iconic test series had more ups and downs in 33 days than your average soap opera would have in years.

While the first test didn’t go well for us, the comeback from there was commendable. From a humiliating batting performance in the second innings of the first test at Adelaide Oval to fighting back and winning the series 2-1, this series has the perfect script for a blockbuster movie.

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

The 4-match test series saw many records being broken and while many more were created. The most notable of which were these two-

Australia’s fortress in test cricket was finally breached after 32 years, a feat that India achieved with its B team and an inexperienced bowling line-up.
India won back-to-back series for the first time in Australia.

While I can go on and on and on about this series and why it is so special, I have something more important that I would like to share with you guys. While watching the series, especially the 3^rd & the 4^th test, I realised something. After years of being in the branding field and fanatically following cricket for longer than that, I realised the process of branding is very similar to a test match.

This may sound a little wired & absurd at first but bear with me. Upon close inspection and two sleepless nights, both of which came a night before the final day of the 3^rd & the 4^th test, I was finally able to put my feelings into words and pen them down to explain it to you in a better way.

So, before waste any more sessions, let us look at how the process of branding and the longest format of the game are similar to each other.

Game of patience

Image by jplenio from Pixabay

Similar to how a Test Match cannot be won in a day, the process of building a successful brand cannot be completed in a short amount of time. Building a successful and powerful brand takes time and requires a lot of patience.

Something that people who follow test cricket would know about.

A test of character

Image by slightly_different from Pixabay

Just like a Test Match, Branding also brings out the true character of any Brand. The longer process brings out brand’s grit, attitude, and level of preparedness to compete at the highest level for a long, loooonnnnggg time.

A game of sessions

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

It is said that test matches are won in sessions and the same is true for Branding as well. The smaller efforts, from creating a consistent colour palette to designing interactive customer touch-points, contributes a lot towards building a successful, global brand and winning people’s hearts.

A truly unique sport

Image by Anja🤗#helpinghands #solidarity#stays healthy🙏 from Pixabay

Branding is truly a unique sport and there is nothing that can compare to it. While Advertising and Marketing are great, they do not have the sophistication or even the feel of royalty that branding has.

Branding, on the other hand, is a continuous and on-going process that has the ability to make people fall in love with your brand and get them hooked to your brand’s offerings and keep them craving for more.

Delivers in the long run

Image by ijmaki from Pixabay

Branding is like a Test Match, it will not provide you with immediate results. But once you start playing the game, you’ll realise how much your brand is benefitting from it, in the longer run.

Playing the long game means you develop a consistent marketing plan, provide your audience with a similar, consistent experience across different periods.

Provides a personality

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Despite the existence of One Day and T20 matches, Test matches are the true face of Cricket. And just like that, your branding effort is the face of your business.

Your customers won’t recognise you because of your ads or social media game but because of your flawless, fluent and on-point branding game that gets reflected in your every advertising and communication efforts. Branding has the power to make your audience recognise your business and its offerings even from the smallest hints like a colour palette or the tune to your advertising jingle.

If you are a business owner who is as fanatic about cricket as me and are looking for someone to carry out your business’s brand building, reach out to me. We can discuss how I can help to grow your brand and make it as epic as the last test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2020-21while also discussing our favourite cricketing moments and dream teams across all formats.

18Dec

Branding and Advertising Tips and Tricks

Brand Mascots

Bhushan Kummar

December 18, 2020

Brand Mascots – When man became the mascot to personify a brand.

A mascot is a symbolic character that gives personality and face to any brand. Often inspired by a mix of humans and animals figures as well as inanimate objects which have human-like features, they represent the true value of your brand. Mascots play a crucial role in communicating and influencing customers.

Their primary role is to sway people’s opinion in favour of the brand and build a strong and positive brand identity. Mascots can also help your brand to be on the top of your customer’s mind, thanks to their unique and entertaining features. The right brand mascot can help to spread the right word about your business. However, even the smallest of errors in selecting the mascot can confuse your customers or can even hamper your brand.

We, humans, are hard-wired to search for a human side in everything, even in inanimate objects like brands. We like to assign human characteristics to animals and objects as it helps us establish an emotional connection with them. Humans understand and trust things and people with whom they share some kind of similarities. This is why having a brand mascot that looks like a human is essential for every brand.

When it comes to having a brand mascot with human traits, most brands go for an imaginative cartoon character. Having a cartoonish character as the mascot for the brand has brought success for many brands. But, some brands have dared to ditch the conventional norms and instead of having an animated imaginative mascot, opted for real humans.

While there is nothing wrong with going with an animated mascot, having a real mascot helps your brand to stand apart in a vast sea of quirky mascots.

Here is a collection of 5 iconic brands that chose real humans over their animated counterparts as their mascots-

#1 MDH wale Chacha- MDH

Pic Credit: India Today

This one is a no brainer. The iconic brand and its iconic mascot have a special place in the hearts of each and every Indian. Mahashay Dharampal Gulati became the face of the brand and took MDH to unimaginable heights of success.

With his big smile and an even bigger heart, he proved that you do not need a celebrity or a cricketer to promote your products. From the ads to packaging, every MDH product features his evergreen face, making him the most recognised brand mascot and ambassador in the country. Gulati’s face is not just famous in India but he is an international brand mascot as well!

#2 Sir Richard Branson- Virgin Group

Pic Credit: CNBC

With more than 400 companies under his leadership, Sir Branson founded the Virgin Group. Using his charm and charisma, Sir Branson became the face of the brand. The sliver goateed and grinning British brand mascot has influenced a wide audience base across America and Europe.

Through his showmanship, Sir Branson gained the public trust and influenced them to buy his offerings. This allowed Virgin Group to grow and expand their business across 400 different fields in 30 different countries.

#3 Colonel Sanders- KFC

Pic Credit: History

Who does not recognise this man?

The man whose smile is immortalized on the pack of our favourite chicken wings- Colonel Sanders is the face of KFC. Who would have imagined that a human face can make such an iconic mascot?

The mascot is so loved and so famous that KFC even incorporated it in their logo. Created years after the death of its founder, this friendly smiling face with glasses has turned out to be a successful choice of an ideal brand mascot conveying professionalism and vast chef experience. Today, no one can imagine enjoying a chicken burger without the round glasses and white GOATee on the pack.

#4 Dave & Wendy Thomas- Wendy’s

Pic Credit: Business Insider

America’s favourite fast-food brand, Wendy’s is more famous for its shenanigans on Twitter than for its chicken sandwich and wings. Wendy’s is another fast-food chain that made its founder the mascot for their brand.

In fact, over the years of its business, the fast-food chain has had 2 different brand mascots and both of them were real humans. The first mascot- Dave Thomas became the face of the brand during the initial days and gained public confidence. He later passed on the role of mascot to his daughter, Wendy after whom the famous chain is named.

Many people think it was Dave Thomas’s marketing geniuses that made Wendy’s grew. But the truth is- it was his face on every pack that made people fall in love with America’s wittiest and most loved fast-food brand. After Wendy herself became the mascot of the brand, people could associate with their marketing campaigns more easily. This allowed the brand to have a more personal connection with their customers.

#5 Lee Lacocca- Chrysler

Pic Credit: Business Insider

Lee Lacocca is a big name in the automobile industry and even a bigger name for Chrysler.

Lacocca saved Chrysler from bankruptcy by not only coming up new car models to sell but also by becoming the face of the brand in Europe and America. His face won the trust of people across two continents, helping Chrysler to bounce back and come out with some iconic models.

A mascot will make your brand more engaging and eye-catching. However, an actual person as a brand mascot will give your brand an edge over your competitors. Having an actual person assume the role of mascot gives a personal touch to your brand which other, unanimated mascots fail to provide.

06Dec

Branding and Advertising Digital Marketing Tips and Tricks

Why Real Estate firms need to go Digital

Bhushan Kummar

December 6, 2020

Why Real Estate firms need to go Digital:

Going digital, especially digital marketing has been all the rage for the past few years now. But in 2020, when the entire world is experiencing a roller coaster of emotions and uncertainty, it has become the priority for every business. Irrespective of what your business is or on what scale you operate, going digital is an essential upgrade for your business.

Going digital and relying on the power of the internet to grow your business is something that every business is doing today. But, the internet serves each business field differently. Despite the basic premise staying the same, the actual workings might differ from business to business. The strategies that work for one particular business might not work for another business.

And while many businesses are busy trying to grab on to a piece of success cake that is digital marketing, there is one particular industry has still not taken the full advantage of digital marketing to grow their business. It is the real estate industry.

While many real estate players are trying out their hands in the world of Email and WhatsApp marketing, most of them aren’t seeing the bigger picture. They are just scratching the surface and are yet to take a deeper dive.

Digital marketing can help real estate firms in a way that they haven’t seen or experienced before. Going digital can open up a host of different possibilities and business opportunities for them.

Let’s look at how digital marketing services can help the real estate industry:

1. More exposure & reach

When you go digital and list your on-going & upcoming projects on Google and other search engines, you open yourself to a wider customer base. Search engine listings and social media posts can help you to reach a newer & wider audience. Sometimes, even from different cities or countries as well!

Apart from search engines listings and social media campaigns, listing your project details on sites like Magicbricks, Housing.com, and even Olx is must. Listing your projects across different platforms of the internet opens up the marketing and targeting world for you.

For example, let us consider a person who currently is residing in New Delhi and is planning to move to Mumbai. The very first step he will be taking is- searching on the internet for “upcoming properties in Mumbai.” This is where your listings will come in and help to reach people from different cities and even different countries. And this is how you can reach wider audience through minimum efforts.

2. More marketing at the same cost

The greatest and the biggest advantage of digital marketing is its cost effective nature. When you opt for digital marketing over traditional marketing, you can reach more people at the same cost that you would have paid to traditional, offline marketing.

Another advantage that digital has over traditional, offline form of marketing is the sheer number of options it presents to you. You can always opt for different strategies to market your projects and switch from one mode to another with ease if your goals aren’t met!

From organic digital marketing to paid ad campaigns, there is always something for everyone in the world of digital marketing.

3. More enquiries and potential leads

As stated earlier, digital marketing allows you to reach a wider and more global audience for your projects. And when you do so, you can always direct them to your website and landing pages where they can learn more about the project.

It is here on this landing page that you can collect vital contact information about them and use it to contact them for your current and upcoming projects.

4. Effective and pin-point customer targeting

Going digital also means you can target relevant audience through different ads. Even if someone hasn’t been to your website or the landing page, they can get to know about the project through target ads.

Digital ads also provide you with more control over who can see your ads and within how much radius can it be seen. Display ads and video ads on YouTube and other platforms that support it are the best way to spread word about your projects.

Another advantage of targeted ads is that it can create a sense of mystery and hype around your project. You can start with small teasers that showcase the amenities that you’ll be providing and build up the hype until your launch day.

5. Creates goodwill

Social media marketing is a great tool to build the reputation of your brand. Through effective social media marketing strategies, you can not only create hype for your upcoming project but also position yourself as an expert of the field.

This positioning will go a long way and help to increase the brand value of your brand. When you position yourself as an expert, you gain the trust of your audience, helping your brand’s image and impacting your goodwill in a positive manner.

Digital marketing services are related to one another. They depend on each other to make sure your campaign is a hit. Digital marketing services perform in chain and in order to make sure these chains are properly connected to each other, you need an expert who can help you to run your campaigns seamlessly.

So, if you are a builder or even a real estate agent who deals with all kinds of properties, from commercial to private housing, going digital is a no-brainer. Contact me today and learn how digital marketing can help you to grow your business at a faster pace.

31Jul

Branding and Advertising Tips and Tricks

The importance of branding

Bhushan Kummar

July 31, 2020

What is Branding?

Branding [branding] noun

The promotion of a particular product or a company by the means of advertising and distinctive design.

By the textbook definition and in its simplest form, branding is the art of promoting and marketing a company and its line of products and services through the process of creating a name, symbol (logo), and other design elements that can be easily recognized by the audience and end consumers. Branding helps people to identify your products and services and distinguish them from others.

Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

Branding is an important process for any company as it not only helps them to leave an impression on the minds of the end consumers but also helps in creating a level of expectation. It is because of the process of branding that your customers know what to expect from your brand. Branding helps your business to break through the millions of offerings out there and make yourself stand apart while grabbing your customer’s attention.

How to build a brand?

The word branding comes from the ancient Norse word, ‘Brandr’ which meant ‘to burn’ but in the modern world, branding means something else. Today, branding means the process you undertake to grow your company and create a long-lasting impression in front of your audience.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

However, there is more to this process than what its textbook definition implies. Branding is much more than designing a logo and tagline for the sake of designing it. Branding is the process that helps you, as a business to establish a meaningful and emotional relationship with your customers.

There are many ways in which a company can go around and build their brand but the process starts with having logo that people can recognise easily, from anywhere and at any time. Other ways to grow and build your brand include your advertising and communication materials, merchandising, promotional partnerships and more.

Why is Branding important?

Branding is important because it portrays who you are as a business, what do you stand for and how do you wish to be perceived by your customers. Branding is important as it defines who your audience sees you as a brand. It is the most important process that will determine the success of your business.

Helps you stand out

Although the overall process of branding is similar for every business, how you, as a business approach it helps you to set yourself apart from your competition. The philosophy of branding is different for every business, everyone has their own unique approach to this process.

Your approach, as a business towards branding will determine your impact and image in the minds of your audience. Branding can and will change how your audience sees you as a business. And that is how branding helps you stand out and breakthrough in the vast sea of competition.

Become recognizable

The branding process is all about creating a name for your business in the minds of your customers. This is branding is an important process as it helps you to project your business in the minds of your audience.

A highly successful brand is an easily recognisable one. All your branding elements, right from your logo to website help you to create a distinct image about your business that people can relate to and recognise easily. Because of this recognition and familiarity, people know what to expect when they see product and services from your business.

Turns your audience into loyal customers and fans

Do you know what is one thing that is common across all the big brands of the world?

They have a loyal fan following and a loyal customer base.

Image by Karolina Grabowska from Pixabay

Branding helps you achieve this loyalty. Your branding process helps you to create an emotional connection with your audience that goes a long way in establishing the feeling of mutual trust. This mutual trust then helps you to turn your audience into your fans and ultimately, loyal customers.

Create a consistent Brand Experience

Your fans turn into loyal customers when you provide them with a consistent experience every time when they interact with your offerings. A consistent brand experience is what paves the way for a successful brand. To provide an uniform and consistent brand experience to your customers, you as a brand, need to make sure that your audience and customers have a similar experience across all brand touch points- be it websites, walk-in stores or even on social media.

Creates a trusting environment

When you carry on with your branding activities, you create an environment of trust within your audience. Your branding activities help your brand to position itself as an industry expert. And generally, people like to buy products from businesses that portray themselves as professionals and experts. Branding helps you to achieve all this and create a feeling of trust amongst your audience.

Branding also goes a long way in dictating your advertising and marketing strategies. Advertising and marketing– both are components of branding and they both help your business to achieve your desired brand portrayal.

Branding is a very big and continuous process that requires constant care and attention. If you ever feel lost or overwhelmed during the process, get in touch with a branding expert who can help you grow your business into a recognizable brand.

29Jul

Branding and Advertising Digital Marketing

The colourful world of branding- what your brand colours tell about your brand!

Bhushan Kummar

July 29, 2020

Colours play a very vital role in the success of any brand. Branding and Colours go hand in hand, with each other. The colours you select, speak a lot about your brand. They tell more about your brand than you can imagine. Each colour represents a different element and aspect of the business. So, before selecting the right colours for your brand you must be careful and consider what you wish your business to represent.

Another thing to keep in mind while selecting the colours for a brand is that they set the tone for your brand in the minds of your audience. The colours of your brand set a public perception which can and will impact your brand in a big way. The psychology of colours goes a long way to help your brand create a trust-based relationship with your audience.

The entire colour palette for branding can be divided into two kinds of colours- Warm & Cool. The warm palette brings with it the passion, energy and dominating vibes, the cool colours of the palette offer a sense of trust and security. When you work in branding and marketing, carefully selecting the right colour becomes an important job for you.

And to make this job easy for you, let us have a look at what different colours mean in the world of branding. Let’s browse through what qualities do each colour bring with themselves and what kind of product suits that particular colour really well.

Red

The hottest and most dynamic colour on the colour palette, red brings with it a sense of passion and power. This colour is very dynamic in nature and signifies a top position in the power hierarchy.

Brands that use this colour in their branding and marketing material are often looking to position themselves as the best of their industries. Red is a very attention-grabbing colour, used to create excitement and buzz in the audience.

Companies with a RED logo

Yellow

Yellow is the brightest and most energy-rich colour on the palette. This colour signifies happiness and smiles. Overall, yellow is a very bright and expressive colour that portrays emotions very well This is why we see so many emoji and emoticons to be yellow. This colour evokes a sense of happiness, youthfulness and optimism. Brands use this colour, especially in combination with black, when they want to communicate and place themselves and their products as a youthful one, filled with positivity and creativity.

Orange

Not as dominating or aggressive as the colour red, this one subdues it. The colour orange strikes the perfect balance between the passion and energy of red and the bright optimism of yellow.

Orange is a very spiritual colour in the world of branding and is often associated with brands that are related to the energy sector or holistic healing sector. The orange colour is very playful in nature and invokes the feeling of friendliness. There is something about this colour that makes it trustworthy.

Companies that have an orange logo

Blue

This colour falls on the cooler and calmer side of the palette. Blue is a very calm and soothing colour that stands for a serene and spiritual colour. This colour has a sense of calm that helps people to be at ease.

People often associate this colour with oceans and skies, which is why we see most brands use this colour in their branding and communication. More than 60% of brands in the world- both big and small, use the blue colour in their branding material.

The fact that this colour represents trust, maturity and calmness is something most of the brand try to take advantage of. This is why blue is the most favourite colour of top brands across the world.

Companies with a Blue logo

Green

Green is a calm colour that often stands for stability and balance. Inspiring people with positivity, this colour is linked with growth, prosperity and is known to denote a strong bond between things.

Normally, in the business world, the green colour and all its shades are associated with either health companies or financial companies. The colour also signifies rejuvenation and healing, part of the reason why most of the medicals we see, have the colour green as their dominating brand colour.

Purple

The colour of creativity and imagination, the colour purple stands for original ideas and thoughts. It is a very mysterious yet royal colour that can lift up any artwork with its presence. The royalty and luxury of purple is something that is very rare to find amongst all the colours in the colour palette.

Due to its royal and luxurious nature, this colour is often associated with high-end and flagship products. Mostly found in hospitality or luxurious goods and service industry, the purple shade is also a creator’s colour.

People from the creative industry try to utilize this colour a lot in their work.

Companies with a Purple logo

Black & White

The classic colours of the palette. The two ends of the colour spectrum. You will run out of words to define this classic colour combination but you won’t ever find a replacement for any these two colours.

Both of these colours can standout own their own as well as blend in nicely with any colour on the palette. The seer amount of simplicity, purity and sophistication these colours bring with themselves is something that cannot be described in words.

It is important to understand the psychology and the attributes associated with each of these colours. When you are building a brand, the colours you opt for, play a significant role in the success or failure of your brand. Learn the are of branding and selecting the right colour for your brand, today! Connect with me and know how you can grow your branding by selecting the right colours in your branding and communication process.

27Apr

Branding and Advertising

Rebranding-101

Bhushan Kummar

April 27, 2020

When people hear the term ‘Rebranding’, they think it is just a process of renaming your brand, redesigning your logo or something similar to that. But the truth is, it is very different from that and far from this.

Rebranding is a fancy term for a complicated process. But, to understand this complicated process, we need to understand the first step of rebranding- BRANDING. Let us check on our supporting hero first.

The concept of branding has been around since late 1500s. In today’s time, it is so much more than just a logo, it has come to signify the emotional feeling a customer has with the particular brand.

If we pass a McDonald, even if we aren’t hungry we do ask ourselves, should we get something to eat? That question is the feeling McDonald invokes in us. And this is the power of branding.

Going back to Rebranding, it is to take your business in a new direction. It’s about going to the core of what you stand for, consolidating your aims and vision, and then modifying your image to reflect these changes.

If you think your business needs a new direction and has to do away with the old methods, you should consider rebranding. But how do you know when your brand needs to go under go a makeover?

Well, it is simple. Ask yourself few questions and if the answers points to big solid YES, then you should definitely opt for Rebranding. Here are all the questions you need to ask yourself:

Do you need to appeal to a new demographic?
Does your senior management team feels like it is time for a change in company’s overall strategy?
Has your company been part of a merger or a take-over?

If you answer the following questions with a positively nodding head, then you should consider Rebranding. And here are all the things you should consider before starting the rebranding process.

Introspect

The key to a successful rebranding is Self-Awareness. You need to answer these questions and your rebranding will take care of it.

Who are you?
What do you do?
What do you want to be known for?
Why do you want to rebrand at this particular moment in time?

Before a director starts shooting the movie he knows how it will end and that is the approach you need to have too. Only if you know the destination of your journey will you be able to reach there.

Market Research

Get back in touch with your customers; this is all the more important if it is a family business. Family businesses are passed down generations which means with every passing generation of your family, your customers are changing too, your clients might not be the same which your father or his father before him tended to so you have to be on the pulse of that, market research will help you catch the pulse of your customer.

Ask your existing customers and members of your target demographic for their input on your brand story, products, and existing reputation. You can use surveys or focus groups to solicit their opinions. This information will help you align your new brand with your intended audience.

What is your Unique Special Proposition?

Rohit Sharma is a cricketer who is a generational talent, he can basically bat anywhere but to get the best out of him he should open – that is his USP.

Similarly, decide what makes you unique, are you someone who sells high end suits or suits for everyone.

If you try to appeal to everyone you will inspire no one, hence creating your niche is important and telling its story even more so

Filter your story down to a few keywords! What do you do better than your competitors?

A further research would make these things clear.

Your touch points

Make a list of all your material that needs rebranding – flyers, hoardings, business cards, signs, blogs & posters. Every time when you create a new message to brand integrate it to all your mediums.

If you are a beauty salon, your touch point will be the reception so you should make sure the rebranding fits. If you are a Supermarket, your touch point will be the flyers and print media communication.

Rebranding is a TEAM game

Rebranding is a team activity which means everyone should be onboard.

A rebrand will flop if your employees aren’t convinced that it aligns with your business values and strategy. Get their feedback at all stages of the design process.

Before you take your new brand to the public, give them the opportunity to tell you what they think. If you can sell the Rebranding to your employees they and only then can you sell it to the public.

You can set up an anonymous comment box if you think it will encourage them to share their thoughts.

When the rebranding is complete, have an internal launch party. Get your employees excited about the change, and they are more likely to become brand ambassadors. If you have started to offer new products and services as part of your rebrand, or you want employees to take a new approach to customer service, ensure they have been appropriately trained.

Feedback

The work doesn’t stop when you unleash your new brand. It has only started.

Get some feedback from your target audience, and analyze your business performance to assess the impact of rebranding on your bottom line. You can do this informally, by asking customers in person, or you can use online surveys and focus groups.

Rebranding can be a huge undertaking, but also marks a fresh, exciting phase in the life of your business. When done right, it will excite and re-engage your customers or leave you in a strong position to attract a new audience.

The process of Rebranding, Branding and Digital Marketing are complicated and yield best results when done by an expert. If you are looking for someone who can help you with your Rebranding Process, contact me today!

09Apr

Branding and Advertising Tips and Tricks

A beginner’s guide to Personal Branding .

Bhushan Kummar

April 9, 2020

Whether you like it or not – You are a brand. Now, if you are a brand you need to have a plan too.

You are a brand – you may not realize this but you are! And you need to have a plan on how to project it but you just realized a few lines back that you were one, that is why I am here to help you.

Failing to plan is planning to fail

Your personal brand is something which will grow over time but for that to happen you need to start. The journey of a thousand miles always begins with one step.

Laying the foundation of your personal brand is your first step towards building a brand and this is not difficult. Your brand is an extension of you – your values which are already within you.

Start from the inside out when planning to build your personal brand.

Be Genuine

Let me tell you a story about a soap that is probably at your home too – Dove.

When Dove began its Campaign for Real Beauty (now the Dove Self Esteem project) in 2004, it transformed itself from merely a soap company to a company with a vision. Their new mission statement was that “beauty should be a source of confidence and not anxiety.”

By consistently aligning its marketing efforts with its mission statement, Dove has been able to change its public perception to a brand that authentically champions women’s empowerment and wants to change the conversation around beauty. The longevity and resources Dove has put into changing the advertising industry’s narrow view of beauty have also made Dove appear more credible with its marketing messages.

If Dove can do it, you can do it too. Be Genuine, Be Yourself.

When you are genuine with your work, it reflects in your work, product and the your BRAND as well.

Communicate your motives, make your mission clear, place your brand in such a way that it reflect your mission and purpose. Being genuine and true in your branding efforts goes a long way in creating a trust amongst your audience.

Promote your brand on social media

Promote your brand on social media, but beware with great reach comes greater responsibilities.

Social media has changed the nature of having a personal brand. The good side is the sheer volume of people you are able to reach. However, a certain level of caution must be exercised.

It’s important to know how to use social media properly to talk about your personal brand. Remember the first point we made was your brand is an extension of your values, so if you taint your name on social media, it will come back to bite your brand.

Tell an interesting story

If your personal brand isn’t telling a story, you’ve already lost half of your potential audience. Allen Garnett, Chief Strategy Officer at Skyword and author of The Creative Curve explains it best, “The most effective personal branding strategy these days is to build a true narrative – single character monologues are boring in Tinsel town, and even more boring for your personal brand.”

No one wants to hear you shout about your brand into the social media void, so create a story around your brand that your audience can engage with.

One of the best ways to tell that story is through written content or video. YouTube sees some of the highest levels of audience engagement across all the platform followed closely by Twitter.

The most personal way to communicate online now is with video. If you don’t have a budget for the professional cameras it’s alright simply use your phone to create a video message for your audience. Make a personal connection with prospective clients and connect with your audience.

Remember the little things

It is important to remember the small things you can do to improve your personal brand.

A simple act of following up immediately after meeting someone is important and keeps your personal brand a connected to your clients.

Little things go a long way. Rome was not built in a day and your brand won’t be either. But once Rome was built, it was the envy of the entire world and your brand can be the same.

Change is the name of the game

Your Personal Brand should see the same kind of progression your career has. Your first year of business will not the same as your tenth, this should reflect in your brand ideology too.

Business growth should go hand in hand with the ideologies of your brand. If your brand has been Philanthropist right from the start, that should not change just because you had a slow quarter or a year.

Find victory in your failures

Failure is tough, and all of us generally want to avoid it – that’s human nature. However, to have a personal brand that rises above the rest, you need to have failure.

Failure is not just any stepping stone to success it is the VERY FIRST one.

Walt Disney reminisced about his failed first attempts at creating an animation brand. “I think it’s important to have a good hard failure when you’re young. I learned a lot out of that. Because it makes you kind of aware of what can happen to you.” And what can happen is never as frightening as not trying at all.

If Walt hadn’t failed with his animation brand we would not have had all those fairy tale stories that we so fondly grew up with and cherished.

Play the positive game

After you’ve developed your personal brand over a period of time, there are generally two ways to continue to build your brand – Hop over others and burn bridges or Steadily grow a community around your brand.

The first option though easy, is also a sure way of destroying your brand while the second option is difficult, it is a promising way to grow your brand.

Identify the right platform

A sure sign of a strong brand is its ability to shine on any medium- Display, Print, Audio, and Video.

A solid brand should adapt to its new environment while still maintaining the core look, tone and personality that it has spent a lot time to build.

While, radio and television ads were the darlings of the previous generation, we have social media which promises to give you the same reach and at a lower cost.

These are just a few answers to important questions you should know before advertising, if you want to know more connect with me on Instagram to learn more about Personal Branding.

Your Brand is YOUR Legacy

Once you’ve built your personal brand with a reputation and community behind it, the next step is to think about the legacy that you’ll leave behind. What are the keywords and actions that you want to be known for?

Blake Jamieson, artist at Blake Jamieson LLC, who paints pop art portraits of famous tech and sports heroes reminds us that: “Building a personal brand is much bigger than building a business. The only exit strategy is legacy.”

A personal brand is a lifelong project that constantly evolves and changes. Even the experts who build or enhance the biggest brands in the business know that there are no hard-set rules for creating a personal brand. But these general guidelines help provide first steps, especially if you’re starting a new brand or rebranding.

Apart from following the guidelines, asking experts to mentor you on how to create a powerful personal brand from an expert always helps.

24Mar

Branding and Advertising

Branding & Crisis

Bhushan Kummar

March 24, 2020

The year 2020 has started in a very unusual way. What started as the most productive and happening year for many has turned into the worst year in the entire history of human kind till date.

The Australian bush fires, threat of World War III, the global economic recession and now the pandemic of Corona Virus– all of these have happened within the span of 3 months. Amidst all the chaos and fear, many businesses and brands have tried leveraging the situation to sell their products. While many brands, on the other hand, trying are to be positive and showcase the brighter and better side of humanity.

With the outbreak of corona virus all around the world, I see many brands taking advantage of it to sell their products and services. Brands are trying to take advantage of current situations by hedging on public emotions and trying to get a reaction from them and make a sell. While this practice may not be legally wrong but it is something that is morally and ethically incorrect and should be avoided completely.

Big brands and businesses have the power to influence people, change their thinking and decision making power. And, especially in times like these, that comes in particularly handy. It is during times like these, big brands play a vital role in defining the outcome of any situation. They have the position and power to spread the right information, influence people, sway their opinions and most importantly, control the panic.

Brands and businesses have a responsibility towards the society. They are responsible to make sure that they are spreading the right information, curb the spread of rumors, and control panic. It is during times like these, we get to see the real moral values of big brands and businesses. We get to see how well their ‘values’ transfer from a piece of paper to practice.

I write this blog as a way to help you, your business and your brand to carry on your branding and marketing activities in the usual way while also being socially responsible and ethical. Here are few tips you need to keep in mind when applying your branding and marketing practices during crisis.

Know Your Brand

This may sound bizarre but you should know your brand, your product and all your offerings before you start communicating with your audience and others during such crisis.

You need to make sure that your offerings are offer-able and advertise-able to the public during such times. You need to make sure that all your communications are sensitive and do not create a spark or a state of panic among your audience.

As a brand, you need to make sure all the information you provide with regards to your products is true. Do not try to advertise your product falsely in order to make the sale. For example, if you are a Soap company, advertising that your product can ‘kill’ the corona virus is wrong and should be avoided.

As a brand, you need to extra careful and cautious when communicating such claims. You will need to make sure that everything you communicate and claim is backed-up properly with correct facts.

Stay Up-to-date on information

We are living in an age where people are getting their news from their social networks more than the news channels. So, as a brand you need to make sure that you stay up-to-date on the right and correct information if you wish to educate your audience.

Always stay on the hunt to look out for an opportunity where you can showcase your brand by spreading the right information and by debugging the myths and fake information prevailing in the market.

Use your brand as a platform to spread the right information that can ease the panic instead of creating it. If you wish to promote your product and service in them, make sure you tie them in an indirect manner. Promoting your product directly during such times in form of spreading information can create a backlash for your brand. tie-in your product in an indirect manner, showcase the right information first followed by how your product helps.

Educate your audience

The most important thing you do as a brand during a crisis like this is, educate your audience in the right way and make sure they have all the right information.

Educate your audience on how they can tackle the crisis at hand, share the correct information with them. Many brands, including the likes of McDonald’s, Burger King among others are taking over their social medias and branding campaigns to educate people about the ongoing pandemic and how their small efforts can help curb the spread.

Many brands are using their social media to educate their audience the concept of Social Distancing and how it can help reduce the spread and flatten the curve.

Provide Value

You were doing this as a part of your marketing and branding campaign even before and you should continue the same even now but with more efforts.

The only reason why a customer would be interested in your branding campaign is because of the value your brand provides them. So now, in order to make your current audience stay and attract new people towards your brand, provide them with something valuable.

Currently, there is nothing more valuable than providing the right and adequate information with regards to the corona outbreak and the efforts to limit its spread. Even if you have nothing to provide in terms of information, give your audience valued added services in form of free deliveries or contact-less deliveries.

Brands like Netflix, Prime Videos and even regional OTT platforms are playing their part, providing people with value in form of reading recommendations, creating binge list and offering monthly subscriptions at a lower cost or for free.

Be Mindful and Alert

You know this- The tone you use in your marketing and branding campaigns greatly affects your brand. But, what you don’t know is this- You need to be extra careful and mindful of your tone and voice when communicating during times like these. You need to double check and ensure the tone of your communication is right and sensitive.

Currently, majority of your audience is in isolation and quarantine, make sure that your message is humble and does not come out as a mockery campaign. Respect the situation, have a look at what people are saying about your brand online. Measure the conversation and communicate accordingly.

Adjust your branding and marketing campaigns in a way that they make contact with current pain points of your audience.

Take a break

Sometimes, the best thing you can do during such situations is DO NOTHING.

Yes, you read it right. Sometimes doing nothing is better than doing anything at all. There are certain situations where you can contribute more by doing nothing. Instead of marketing your products and services, market the right information, debunk the myths.

Brands, especially big brands like Coco-Cola, Burger King have confirmed that they will stop their marketing and promotions for next few weeks and instead donate that amount for research work that will aid in the efforts to fight the Covid-19 virus.

Behave Ethically

Probably the most important point in the list, during such delicate times, act as humanly as possible and in an ethical way. It is during times like these, we get to see the real values of brands. We see how the values and principles of a brand transform from paper to real world.

Many brands are trying to take advantage of this situation and promote their products and some are are even throwing shades at their competition. Do not do that. That is not only ethically wrong but also leaves a bad taste in the mouth of your audience.

We all know that branding is a continuous and ongoing process which helps your brand and product to stand apart from the rest of segment. But during times like these, we need to be careful and extra sensitive with our efforts to create awareness. One wrong or misdirected step and it can affect your brand in a major way.

I hope this blog helps you understand how to brand and market your products and services during the times of crisis. Follow me to learn more such tips on Branding and Advertising.

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