September 1st, 2009 by CBEYOND
They are hot! They are happening! And they are the talk of the town! There’s no doubt about it… corporate blogs are the new ‘must -see, must-do’ trend in the marketing world. According to ‘Technorati’, a resource website with a search engine that covers the universe of blogs, there are more than 39 million blogs in existence and 75,000 new blogs being created every day! Whopping numbers, indeed!
So, what is it about a blog that’s got the corporate world tizzy? For starters, a blog has the ability to position any business operation, even a teeny-weeny one. Therefore, the local boutique, the neighbourhood supermarket, the swanky brand store and the big conglomerate can all be part of the blogging bandwagon.
Second, your blog is an excellent place to create a link with your customers. By giving your blog a personal touch, you can reach out to your customers and show them you truly care.
Blogging creates visibility - using a variety of key words increases the chances of search engines ranking you higher. By giving you new opportunities to promote your company, it builds a strong brand without spending megabucks on an extensive marketing campaign.
And finally, the icing on the cake, blogging is inexpensive or even free!
August 19th, 2009 by CBEYOND
Come September and it’s time to put all communication materials on hold, in order to concentrate on that one document that decides your fate with your stakeholders – your annual report. As CBEYOND gets into annual report design for our clients, here are 10 key pointers on what you should keep in mind too:
1. Tone and voice. Remember, this is a straight indicator of your performance to your stakeholders. If you sound confident and sure, you’ve had a good year… if you murmur through the pages, you’re clearly fooling them on the realities.
2. Design and text. Design and type have a large bearing on what the management’s efficiency and performance are perceived to be. Say it in the correct style. Make it easy to read and understand.
3. Know the truth. Work closely with the key people to ensure you have all the facts at your disposal (at least as many as you are able to learn of). Only when you know the reality and expectations, can you make the two meet.
4. What and how. What you need to say and how is very important. Don’t let your report detail only facts and figures, but go the extra mile by telling your analysts, shareholders, and traditionalists a little about what you do exactly and how you’re going about your business. Chances are, if the numbers don’t swing it for you, your style of doing business might.
5. Tell a story. Everyone loves a good story. If you’re telling them how your year has been, say it in a narrative style and your readers will be hooked.
6. Kill the boring. Figures are the tangibles that must be depicted in your report. However, don’t forget the intangibles, customer testimonials, end-user good will, reputation. All these influence, not only the reader perception, but also your stock price! Documenting all this also ensures that your data is captured for posterity.
7. Clear and crisp. Don’t beat about the bush. Be concise, precise, and to the point. Amidst all the heavy stats to assimilate, readers don’t want more verbiage to deal with. More importantly, don’t ‘hide’ it all in fine print… say as much as you can, as best as you can. Also remember, there’s no easy way to give them the bad news, than giving it to them.
8. People matter. Everyone likes to know the people managing their money. Ensure that you introduce the key members of the team.
9. Make it personal. Strike a personal connection by speaking to your stakeholders. Ensure you carry a letter from the chairman and let this share the chairman’s vision for the company.
10. Photo essays. Include a page or two of photo essays that portray the year through bright and informative photos.
August 10th, 2009 by CBEYOND
Looking for the perfect gourmet meal? Google it! Which is a good laptop to buy? Check on the Internet. Is the hospital equipped to handle your medical needs? Hit the online search button. Today, the Internet is where we go to, to know more about anything or anyone. It’s no wonder that monitoring your online reputation is of prime importance.
Online reputation, did you say? Well, in today’s socially-connected online world, reputation has an added dimension. Individuals and businesses not only have to worry about their reputation in real life, but also in the virtual world, making it twice as hard to keep up with what’s being said.
Earlier, a disgruntled customer would have written a letter to the editor of a local newspaper or complained to his friends and family. But with the expansive reach of the internet, he has a more effective and invasive way to ruin your business reputation. Now, an unhappy client may blog about his dissatisfaction or comment negatively about your work on other sites. He can make a video, create a blog or even develop a hate-site.
And what’s more, word-of-mouth in the online world moves at dizzying speed – with information travelling instantly across time and geographical boundaries.
The solution: Quit hiding and start interacting, because if you don’t control your brand, someone else will. Browse to Google, search for your own name/ business name and see what it throws up. Sounds vain, but it’s the first step you need to take in checking and protecting your online reputation.
Then, initiate a social media marketing campaign to leverage the power of online communities and build your brand. The best way to be a part of online conversations with customers is to start a blog. It helps you connect with your customers – past, present, and prospective. Consumers turn to blogs for information; your blog acts like a balm to consumers who feel their discontent is being addressed, making you grow in a healthy manner.
Besides, search engines love blogs. They spider up easily and rank higher with key words and quality content. Therefore, the chance of being spotted when someone looks up your name is much higher.
So what are you waiting for? Go ahead, and take the plunge!
August 3rd, 2009 by CBEYOND
It’s been a while since you’ve repainted your house, and there are a million things you’d like to change. What’s more, the chinks, cracks, discoloured spots, and, most of all, the boredom of the same old colour are annoying you no end. Hang on, there’s still one thing you can try before you pop those anti-depressant pills: a fresh coat of paint.
This situation has an uncanny similarity with your blog design. As your blog gains in age and your archives in length, the more predictable and boring it becomes. Your visitors know exactly where to turn to for content and look at little else. You yourself are more likely to commit an error and overlook it. You eventually reach a point where only one remedy can bring respite: a revamp.
And if you’ve asked yourself the key re-design question more than once, here are more reasons to go in for it:
• Hits the refresh button: it’s the same you, offering the same much-sought-after content, but in a whole new avatar! It comes as a relief not only to your audience, but also to you. It enhances the interest factor and builds excitement, serving as a sure means to battle blogging fatigue and ideation burnout.
• Increases the urge to explore: which is good, as it increases the visibility of things that you want your visitors to take a look at. If even after years of having the same design, your audience still comes back to you for more, then it’s time you used it to your advantage. A new design not merely serves as a pleasant surprise for your audience, but also gives you the opportunity to showcase the less explored places of your blog and cash in on things like ads.
• Gets people talking: something new is always something worth talking about. It creates hype, and generates online and word-of-mouth publicity. Moreover, survey shows that people who read your blog regularly through RSS feeds actually make the effort to log in for the real impact. This translates into more clicks for you. And as far as clicks go, we all know that the more the merrier.
• Publicizes your link: your new design may be setting a good, bad, or ugly example in blog revamp, but whatever the case, people will want to prove their opinion with an example. That’s where your URL comes in. And the one advantage of the Internet is that the audience is larger. In today’s world, word-of-mouth publicity can easily die a premature death due to smaller audiences and shorter mindspace, but online – with amenities like keyword searches, email forwards, etc. – the publicity lingers on.
July 27th, 2009 by CBEYOND
A decade ago, your coolness quotient was decided by the email account you had… and well, if you didn’t have one… need I say more? Today, with email being considered a given, the parameters have changed. It’s all about who’s on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, MySpace, and the like!
Social media is in. Period. Get started or get left behind is more like the mantra today. But the important question is, what are you doing with your social media account. Of course the smart ones among us use it to increase their personal brand value with their friends, acquaintances, and office colleagues. You set the right status messages, participate on the right communities, communicate your individual style, blog, skill, talent, and so on. But more importantly, you grow your community. You increase your access base and use it to propagate what you need to – tell them about the new exhibition you’re holding, tell them about the launch of your new book, inform them of a seminar you’re organising, or tell them about the newest hang-out in town – as Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com said, “If you upset your customers in the real world, they are likely to tell 6 friends each. On the internet, your unhappy customers can tell 6000 friends each!” That’s social media for you!
As a company too, it’s important to have established your web presence, not just through a website, but through blogging, twitting, getting your vanity URL on Facebook, and so on. What’s the next product you’re launching – inform them on Facebook; what’s the next role you’re looking to fill in at your company – announce it on Linked In and Twitter; what’s your competitor upto – follow them on Twitter or subscribe to their blog. The list of new media initiatives is endless, as is the number of avenues to leverage this media. And the window between a new online initiative being launched, to it becoming commonplace is short. Those who get there first will get the maximum out of their online presence – because, the number of hits on your website, its usability, stickiness, and the traffic coming to your site, is a calculated science today, giving you the very results you anticipated.
So if you haven’t thought about it yet, the time in ‘now’. CBEYOND has been helping organisations design, develop, brand their web initiatives, from Twitter interfaces to corporate blogs and the like. Get us at getus@cbeyond.in if you’re looking to get social!
July 20th, 2009 by CBEYOND
What happens when you ask a team of foodies to let their creative juices flow? That too on a branding and design assignment for a bakery? It results in immense ‘pleasure’… and that too, ‘oven fresh’.
Yes, we are a bunch of food lovers here. When we are happy, we eat. When we are bored, we eat. And when we feel like a pick-me-up, we eat! So, you can imagine our delight when Pudding & Pie, bakers and confectioners in Delhi, asked us to create a brand identity for them and design their communication material.
It was two months of sheer joy. The names of the dishes had us drooling. Images of creamy cakes, delicious-smelling cookies and delectable bakes had us in raptures. And yes, it reinforced our enthusiasm to create an identity that was truly attractive and distinct.
Purple and pink were the chosen colours – to move away from the staid browns and beiges associated with bakers. They also seemed apt to create the impression of indulgence and warmth. The logo evolved first, in keeping with the basics of our identity brief. A dollop of cream over a rich purple background – yes, it said salvation through indulgence.
From then on, it was creativity combined with aesthetics. The visiting card, website, menu cards, and packaging material all spoke the gourmet’s language. Images and copy blended to present a visual world of culinary delights. Consistency in image size and treatment, colours and fonts created a similar identity across media. The connoisseur in us debated about every element, validated every change.
At the end of two months, we had achieved our goal: been tempted beyond belief by the sinful goodies, and yet delivered a successful brand identity to our clients.
P.S: we’ll share a little secret with you. If you are in the hospitality industry and want us to help with your branding and communication needs, don’t just give us a creative brief. Send us samples of your delicacies at every stage of the work! What better to speak about the quality standards you expect than a hands-on experience: a bite of your freshly-made cheese cake?!
July 13th, 2009 by CBEYOND
“Wall graphics can do wonders for your work environment.” That’s what we told one of our oldest clients, on a visit to their new facility in Bommasandra, Bangalore. The factory, which will have people engaged in work that is of a sober and repetitive nature, certainly needs mood enhancers and colours that brighten up the spaces, by way of environmental and wall graphics.
And so CBEYOND was commissioned to design graphics for the cafeteria and administrative block. We thought this was a perfect opportunity for the organisation to re-instill in its employees and visitors, the key messages that they have always stood for. The ethos of the company is a powerful one that describes the quest for excellence, the importance of pursuing your dreams, and matchless discipline that takes you to newer heights. What better medium than visual wall graphics, to splash these messages en masse?
The facility, which is otherwise sedate, is being enhanced by way of these graphics to impart a modern, futuristic feel, while the company conveys the same impression to overseas visitors looking to partner with them. Coherent messaging across the walls tells the tale of the organisation’s growth and elucidates the culture that the organisation stands for.
While designing the wall graphics, we have kept in mind the colours that follow a sober, pastel palette in the administrative block where the MD and Chairman will sit, while the cafeteria, is being designed as a place where employees can let their hair down. Here is where the walls take on vibrant shades and imagery starts to get funky and playful, positioning the cafeteria as the ‘play’ domain versus the other ‘work’ related areas.
An interesting combination of vector graphics in large and small sizes, and typography that is replete with character is being used to speak more than words can. This is a project that the team is having great fun doing and we’ll be ready to share the images soon! Watch this space for more…
July 6th, 2009 by CBEYOND
Guess who were the top-paid brand ambassadors last year in India? Shah Rukh Khan and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, says research. Endorsing multiple brands, these icons are the darlings of Indian advertisers, raking in moolah by the millions. An absolute contrast to the days when products and brands had a single, distinct face or persona associated with them. Any wonder then, even today, we continue to associate some brands with some faces.
Here’s our take on some of the most memorable brand-persona relationships in Indian advertising.
Surf – Lalita ji. This smart Indian middle-class home maker represented the empowered Indian woman, who wouldn’t be fooled by wily shop keepers. She remains popular though the commercial has long bid adieu to the silver screen.
Onida – the devil. Who can forget the wicked words: “Neighbour’s envy, owners’ pride,” and the distinct tinkle of breaking glass? The devil with his horns and tail captured the nation’s imagination, taking Indian advertising to a new territory: envy.
Amul – the girl. The cute girl became the talk of the town having first made her appearance on a hoarding in Mumbai. From there to case studies and collector’s books, she has been…truly utterly, butterly delicious!
Rasna – the little girl. Remember the little girl who chirped, “I love you Rasna”? She set the demand for the drink soaring and her hairstyle was the trendiest thing for girls across the country.
Himalaya herbals – the grandmother. Educated, urbane and smart, we love this English-speaking daadi for her impeccable appearance and conviction. She personified the age-old wisdom of India’s ayurveda.
July 1st, 2009 by CBEYOND
Public relations. Subtle marketing of your products. Attracting the right talent. Addressing your detractors. What ever the reason may be, Rajeev Karwal and Preeti Chaturvedi tell us that if your organisation is not blogging yet, you’re in serious trouble! In their attractively designed book, “Corporate Blogging in India”, Rajeev and Preeti uncover a lot of valuable facts about worldwide blogging and tell us about how the phenomenon is here to stay.
With statistics that are mind-boggling, no marketing and brand manager can afford to skip this medium of communication with their customers. Citing blogs as the perfect medium to address customer issues related to your brands, products and services, the book gives multiple examples of big corporate houses in India that have used blogging to their advantage, one way or the other. It also goes on to tell the success stories of organisations that were disbelievers but have transformed their businesses today by the power of their blogs and the communities therein. From large corporations like IBM, Google, and Microsoft – where every one in 10 employees is a blogger, to Indian startups like makemytrip.com, mouthshut.com and cleartrip.com, the book is replete with examples of how blogs have helped turn around the public image of an organisation, making it more approachable and customer-friendly.
The authors also spell out the down side of blogging and warn against detractors using the forum to run you down; but they assure us of the immense advantages of blogging due to which no organisation can afford to give this medium a miss. It is interesting to learn about travel blogs, consumer blogs, corporate blogs (even of biggies like Infosys), employee blogs, and even teenage blogs such as the Sunsilk Gang of Girls that have transformed the image and target reach of the brand.
The book details the pre-requisites of maintaining a blog, what makes a popular blog and how to really kill your blog by making typical mistakes. Going within organisations, it apprises HR and communication professionals about the perfect medium of blogging to keep in touch with your employees – culture blogs within organisations have improved the retention rates of firms, while keeping in touch with the CEO has never looked as glamorous as reading his personal blog! Then again, organisations like Monster.com have managed to convert a huge community of bloggers on their site to potential users. The list is endless!
Written in a fast and easy-to-grasp style, the book does a fantastic job of selling you on the concept of blogging without even making a pitch! As the facts unfold, you can’t help but realise the colossal mistake you’re making by ignoring an hugely popular world phenomenon that is akin to citizen journalism without actually being a journalist! If having your say today means anything to you, read the book and start blogging today!
June 26th, 2009 by CBEYOND
Saturday evening at home. We were all glued to the TV screen, watching a match. IPL was in progress. But all discussions about the match screeched to a halt as we saw an egg-headed, white coloured, human-like creature dominate the screen. “What’s that?” was our initial reaction, much like millions of other Indians, who were following the cricketing action on TV.
That, we soon realised, was the beginning of the Zoozoo phenomenon that would take Indian advertising by storm.
Since their advent during the IPL, Zoozoos have been the talk of the town, or rather the country. With their almost-human appearance and behaviour, they have captured the imagination of a nation.
Of course, not all reactions have been the same. Some loved them. Some found them irritating. Some found them cute. Others stupid. But one thing they all did – talk about them. Talk about them enough to generate a steady stream of articles in print and online. Enough to inspire YouTube posts and communities on Facebook. Enough to make the actors star performers.
Call it a combination of creativity and timing. The distinct ads were released at a time when TV watching would be at its peak – during the matches. The cricketing season gave ample time for more ads to follow, and soon the ads more than the matches gained mindspace.
Whether the attention resulted in any commercial success for Vodafone is debatable. But if greater brand recall and viability were the desired results, then the Zoozoos have done for Vodafone, what the pug did for Hutch!
