Below is the interview that I conducted with her via TwitInterviews.com recently. Once you have read over the interview, please feel free to leave your feedback and also contact Ayesha for more details on how she can help you develop a business branding plan.

Question 1: Welcome to your #TwitInterview. Please introduce yourself and the key areas of your expertise? How long have you been involved in this area?

Hi Kim! Thanks so much for having me here - this is such a great format  I’m Ayesha Mathews~Wadhwa, Principal & Creative Director at PixInk - A boutique design practice with expertise is Branding and Design - something I’ve loved doing for the last 10 years

Question 2: What are the top 3 tips on branding that a business owner should know and how should they implement them?

That’s a great question Kim. First, very simply I want to explain - What is Brand/Branding?

A brand is an idea about your product or service that lives in the heart & mind of your customer. All of you entrepreneurs I know have the start of a strong brand..but what do you do to differentiate/ make it truly yours? What you want to be is a charismatic brand… that’s one that people believe have NO substitute.

What’s Branding? Branding is the art and science of bringing a brand into the world and helping it thrive..its the sum total of your offering, your visual identity, your communication & packaging and your customer relationships. eg: Brands that gets branding right? Virgin. Apple. Oprah. Madonna and I’m going to add Savor the Success to this list 
So Top 3 things to remember while branding your company?

1. Have an AWESOME product that delivers high value.
2. Build on your CORE VALUES
3. Create and engaging branded EXPERIENCE for your customer

Question 3: When should a business start to think about “branding” their business services or products? Why is it important to “brand” your business?

It important to cultivate and nurture your brand as it grows and that’s why I say branding your business is like raising your kids.. you cannot start paying attention to them suddenly when they turn 20! Why is this important..because in today’s hyper saturated marketplace only those business who clearly identity their product offering and value and communicate this to the consumer in a consistent engaging way (brand language) will thrive - again the point is to be a charismatic brand - one that people believe has NO substitute.

Question 4: You are sharing great branding information. Please share specific examples of effective brands/brand strategies?

I love and follow brands that speak to the customer at every touch point - Engage them - right from the time you hand over your biz card or welcome someone at your website or on a shelf at retail: Virgin & Apple are great examples of this. In fact, I’ve never paid attn to the InFlight Safety Procedure Video till Virgin America came out with its version! And I want to make it clear that great branding campaigns don’t necessarliy have to come from Fortune 500 companies with Fortune 500 budgets. In today’s economy Small Biz and Start-Ups are poised to capitalize on the opportunity to grab market share - CD Baby and Savor the Success are both young companies in the midst of developing compelling brand language and value!

Question 5: How does Branding play a part in the social media landscape?

That’s a great topic .. one of the reasons the social media landscape is so powerful is because it the first time in history when brands are now shaped by the customer versus the “marketing department”..I love this because it forces brands to stay authentic and provide value. And ultimately a Brand is not what you (the marketing department) says it is…its what they (the customers) believe it is and what better way than social media to gauge the pulse of a brand? directly interacting with customers..getting reviews, feedback and testimonials from people you know and trust is an incredibly powerful ingredient in the brand spectrum..this landscape forces brands to be true to what they should really focus on - giving the customer/client great value.

Question 6: One final question. Please share how you work through your company, PixInk, to help company’s brand their services and products?

PixInk is passionate about nurturing brands and creating rich, insightful and emotionally resonant visual communication.

Our strategy and creative work has led to successful interactive and marketing implementations for clients ranging from Fortune 500s to start ups, including Apple, Oracle, Cat Footwear, Harley Davidson, Skin by Alison Raffaele, MTV Style (India) and Picaboo to name a few.

I’m especially committed to the next evolution in the branding spectrum - Rich Branding i.e the ability to get under the skin of a brand and extract all of the most evocative, engaging elements — and present those in a visually compelling manner, while speaking in an authentic brand voice consistently. I truly believe a great brand is like a great person - evolving elegantly through time and culture.

Question 7: Thank you for allowing me to interview you. Please share how you can be contacted.

Kim - thank you for having me and allowing PixInk to share some insights with your community here on Twitinterviews  I can be reached at: ayesha@pixink.info. Look forward to hearing from you!
To your continued success.
Ayesha

Post from: Brand Curve

Trackur is an online reputation monitoring tool designed to assist you in tracking what is said about you on the internet. Trackur scans hundreds of millions of web pages–including news, blogs, video, images, and forums–and lets you know if it discovers anything that matches the keywords that interest you.

Remember that online reputation management is the process of managing your business and personal identity online. This includes monitor where you business name and personal name appears via the internet.

Question 3: Are there specific tools that business owners should use to monitor the success of their internet strategy plan?

I don’t think any internet marketing campaign should be launched until you have some kind of web site analytics in place. You need to know what’s bringing customers to your site and you need to know which marketing efforts are working and which are not. Google Analytics is completely free, so there is no excuse. You should also monitor external metrics such as blog posts, twitter replies, or mainstream media mentions. You can use free tools such as Google Alerts or Technorati, or you could grab a free trial of our Trackur service and use something a little more sophisticated.

Question 4: Are there things that business owners should avoid when developing their internet strategy plan? If so, please share specific details.

I’d avoid trying to focus on anything further out than 6 months. The web has proven that it can evolve quickly and what’s popular today may be different in six months from now. I’d also avoid jumping on a bandwagon, unless it makes sense for your business. If you target audience consists of 16-20 year olds, then building a marketing plan around Twitter wouldn’t make sense as it is under-represented by that age group. Instead focus on Facebook, which is where most 16-20 year olds hang out.

Question 5: Why is it important for business owners to monitor and manage their online reputation?

Well, the first reason is that we’re in a major recession so every dollar we spend on branding is a dollar we have to pull from some other budget. Building a positive brand helps to alleviate some of that spending–when you have a great reputation you’ll benefit more from free word-of-mouth marketing. Second, there’s a lot that can be learned by simply listening to your target audience. Even if you are not ready to participate, listening allows you to learn what customers like about your product, what they hate about your service, and how they feel about your competitors! If you listen to what’s said about your biggest rivals, you may learn that their customers long for a product feature that you can easily add to your offering.

The third reason why you should manage your online reputation is that, in the absence of your official involvement, the void can be filled by those looking to attack your company. Take your Google repuation for example. Have you entered your business name in Google recently? If you’re not managing the content that shows up in the first ten results on Google, a detractor could very easily write a negative blog post that shows up on the first page of results. One single negative result in Google and you could end up losing a lot of potential business–that’s why I call Google a “reputation engine.”

Hopefully you’ll never face a reputation attack, but you should absolutely take time to do an audit of what shows up in Google for your brand name. If you don’t like what you see, neither will your potential customers. You can learn more about this in my book, or I posted a free article on the subject and also a free whitepaper.

Question 6: Please share how you can be contacted.

The best way to reach me is to head to AndyBeal.com, where you’ll find all of my contact details.

Post from: Brand Curve

Before I get to the interview questions and answers, I thought it would be good to explain the definition of online reputation management. It is the process of monitoring the internet for usage of your business name or personal name through different media such as social media, website or even forums. Now on to the interview.

Question 1: Please introduce yourself and tell us about your business. How long have you been in this industry and what is your area of expertise?

Hi, I’m Andy Beal and I’m an internet marketing consultant with a focus on helping companies and individuals with their online reputation management. I moved from England to the US about 9 years ago and during that time I’ve been involved with many facets of marketing, including SEO, blogging, and general online brand building. My current projects include my blog (Marketing Pilgrim), my book (Radically Transparent) and my social media monitoring service (Trackur).

Question 2: What are some specific things that a business owner would need to include in their internet marketing strategy plan?

The most important thing is to fully understand your goals. Don’t get caught up in the excitement of specific tactics and marketing channels, until you understand what it is you are trying to achieve with your business. OK, so it’s trendy to be on Twitter, but is being active on Twitter going to help you grow your business or just be another drain on your precious time? My advice would be to:

1. Understand your goals for your business.
2. Understand your target audience and where they are most likely to be found online.
3. Identify one or two channels that you know will reach your target audience and focus your initial efforts there. Spreading yourself too thin will result in limited success across all channels.
4. Spend time monitoring and analyzing your identified channels. If you plan to build a blog, watch other bloggers in the same space. Get a feel for what they are writing and how they are engaging their readers. If you’re focusing on search engine optimization, spend time researching what keywords people are searching for and how their intent matches up with your product or service.
5. Launch your campaign and give it the same focus and attention that you would the development of any product or service. Don’t just publish three blog posts then walk away–you have to be committed to the success of your efforts.
6. Only once you’ve exhausted your chosen channels should you move on to something new. Don’t be distracted by the shiney new toys until you’ve worn out the old toys you purchased!

Wow! Such great information has been shared by Andy. The rest of the interview will be posted tomorrow so look for part 2 on the Brand Curve column. I thought it would be good if I shared a video with you that demos Trackur online reputation management tool. Please feel free to share your comments.

Post from: Brand Curve

What is brand packaging and how does it affect your business? According to the article entitled, “What a Packaging Makeover Can Do For Your Company” which can be found on FastCompany.com and written by Saabira Chaudhuri….

Branding consists of a range of different but strongly interconnected activities that are all geared towards creating a lasting, positive impression in the minds of consumers that will ultimately be good for business. See examples of brand package makeovers by clicking here.

Image: SXC.hu (what does your brand say?)

As you redevelop the brand packaging for your company, keep in mind that you want to create a lasting impression on the consumers of your product. Yes sometimes gimmicks work but are they long-lasting. Making a lasting impression takes more than just a gimmick, it takes a well-thoughtout strategy of implementing a series of activities to brand your business image in your consumers’ minds.

As for feedback from your consumers or business associates regrading your brand packaging to see if they would suggest improvements. They check their suggestions against what your competitors are doing to see if the suggestion will make you standout amoung your competitors.

Check out the video below that explains how Domino Sugar went through a brand makeover and how it had a very positive and lasting impact on their business.

Post from: Brand Curve

An innovative business brand should include cutting edge components that help your increase your marketshare for your industry. Some of the components that you can include would be:

• Incorporation of Web 2.0 into your website
• Integrating social media marketing into your business strategy
• Invigorating sales planning that include creative marketing strategies
• Investing in unique marketing tools such as mobile marketing

To create an innovative business brand, let’s review the video below to get your brain going on ways that you can bring innovation to your business brand.

Post from: Brand Curve

Image: SXC.hu

According to the article entitled “Pandora: Unleashing Mobile Phone Ads” which can be found on BusinessWeek.com and was written by Tom Lowry,

Since Pandora launched a mobile edition two years ago, it has signed up 6 million people (total users for mobile and Web versions is 27 million). That has prompted the likes of Best Buy (BBY), Dockers, Target (TGT), and Nike (NKE) to buy ads on Pandora and experiment with what remains a cheap advertising medium—one most companies have yet to figure out.

Image: Newscom.com

Seeing that Fortune 500 companies are experimenting with this ways of branding their business using Pandora, then it seems that mobile branding is becoming a mainstream way to brand your business. To help you develop your mobile branding plan, I felt I should share a starter list with you of things that you should include in your mobile branding plan.

• Research. Research what your competitors are doing, what the Fortune 500 companies are doing and then develop your mobile branding plan.
• Ever-ready. Be ever-ready to explore new ways that you can advertise within the mobile network.
• Adventureous. Don’t be afraid to make it an adventure as you search for ways to develop your mobile brand for you and your business.
• Daily. Keep your eye on your statistic so that you can see what’s working and not working for your mobile branding plan.
• You. Don’t forget to involve “You” in the plan which means look for opportunities that appeal to you  and your consumer so that you can make sure you are reaching your target market.

Post from: Brand Curve

Wouldn’t it be great if there were a formula that one could follow to create “star power” for a brand? It would mean that a business owner would be able to build brand recognition that would help them attract new customers and retain current customers.

To help you identify ways that you can brand your business as you plan on creating “star power” appeal, I’ve included a starter list below of things you can do.

• Positioning yourself as a leader in your industry.
• Share business tips that would help others grow their business.
• Create an attractive packaging for your brand which includes appealing colors, graphics and USP.
• Be open to challenges to change as your grow your brand. Adapt to the need to change as your brand grows.
• Monitor your success factor as you grow your brand. Online reputation is an important factor in growing your brand.

Beginning with this list is a great way to get started as you build “star power” into your brand. I’ve included a video below that shares additional details to help you build your brand awareness and recognition.

Post from: Brand Curve

Building online marketing into your blog is another key factor to brand identity. You can integrate social media into blog so that your web visitor can interact with you as they become more familiar with your brand.

According to the article “Is Their Perception Your Reality?” which can be found on Entrepreneur.com and written by John Williams, states the following 6 important concerns that you should have regarding your brand identity.

• Contact customers you’ve gained within the past year and ask them why they chose your brand.
• Call current customers and ask them what differentiates you from your competition.
• Are you getting repeat business?
• Is your business growing by referrals or word-of-mouth?
• Follow up on lost sales.
• Can you recite your brand promise or mission statement off the top of your head?

Keep in mind that has your build your brand using online resources that you should also create a way to track your progress. The video below share specific tips about the success that Obama and his team experienced when they used online resources to build his brand.

Post from: Brand Curve

• Don’t Get in Picture Trouble: Many people choose not to use a picture on their LinkedIn profiles. While some of you have your reasons, it’s a mistake for the typical user.
• Write a Descriptive Professional Headline: When people search for you, they will see this professional tagline, and it might decide whether or not they feel compelled to click on your name and see your profile.
• Properly Label Websites Displaying Your Work or Blog: LinkedIn offers you the ability to list the websites where your work might be displayed. This is a great option if you keep a personal website with a resume or a blog.
• Consider a Vanity URL: If you have to give your LinkedIn profile address over the phone, or you wish to print it on your business card, it should be as concise and self-explanatory as possible.
• Finish with a Strong, SEO-Friendly Summary: In reality, the ability for people to find you will depend on LinkedIn’s search engine linking your name to certain search keywords. So (staying with our repeated example), a project manager might want the term “project management” to appear a few times throughout the summary.

What does it take to brand your business on LinkedIn and be successful at it. Let’s take at a few more things that you can do to develop your brand strategy for LinkedIn.

• Join Groups so that you can connect with others in your industry or with potential customers.
• Add details to your summary section about you and your business. Help others learn how you can help fulfill their business needs.
• Complete your bio section with specifics such as employment and education history.
• Recommendation are always good to have as part of your profile. Be willing to share a recommendation for others. Also ask others to give you one for your profile, it is always good to have at least 5 of them on your profile.

Post from: Brand Curve

Having a stick-to-it attitude can be the difference in you re-developing your brand strategy and failing in business. Be prepared for such situation as a strategy failure by having “what-if” scenarios in place along with solutions to bounce back quickly. By having these plans in place, you can be better prepared to deal with difficult situation as mentioned above.

According to an article entitled, “The Many Ways to Fail” that can be found on CIO.com and written by Maryfran Johnson, it states….

So how do we count the many ways to fail? There are failures of leadership and strategic thinking gone awry. There are failures of communication, leading people to bad decisions or mistaken assumptions. There are failures of business models that no one could foresee or forestall.

I have included the video below to help you learn about different business owners who bounced back and re-developed their brand strategy to become successful again after a major blow to their business.

Post from: Brand Curve