Have you felt like quitting the process of branding your business online as you try to grow your presence? Do you feel like your efforts aren’t making a different and you want to quit? I want to encourage you to “Don’t quit, keep branding your business”.

Image: SXC.hu

What this means is that as you are sharing information online about your business, don’t quit because it seems like things aren’t working. You never know where your next new client may come from or how you will be able to develop a new strategic partnership.

There are different ways that you can brand your business online. Below is a starter list to help you determine what will work for you:

• Review your brand packaging to determine if you need to update it. If you need to make changes, get 360° feedback from your clients, business associates and others who may be connected with your business.
• Determine if your brand strategy needs to be revamped. You should check out where your competition is actively building their brand. Then see where you can incorporate similar things into your brand strategy.
• Assess the buzz marketing that may be affecting your business. See if there are ways to develop a buzz about your business so that others will spread the word about your business.

These are simple things that can help you get started with revamping your business. Keep in mind….don’t quit, keep branding your business. Success is just around the corner. Please feel free to share additional ways that you have been able to keep your branding alive.

With all of the popularity of the iPhone, have you wondered if it was possible to brand your business on it? Maybe you’ve had thoughts about how you could receive your part of the market share for your industry regarding the mobile business branding? Then let’s take a look at what it takes to be successful in the mobile branding market.

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.

Yesterday I talked about getting your branding message onto a billboard with effective results. Today we’re taking it a step further.

Advertisers continually attempt to infiltrate our daily routines so that their messages enter our subconscious until the moment we need to make a buying decision. And generally, we soak it up.

What if you could position – literally – your brand somewhere that no one else has gone? Somewhere where the real estate is wide open?

Image: flickr Si1very

This Where’s Waldo stunt by Vancouver artist Melanie Coles goes beyond simply being seen since the very nature of Where’s Waldo is that he appears somewhere after much searching.  Imagine that rather than Waldo, that were your brand. There are other examples of branding popping up in the middle of your Google Maps experience.

Take KFC who gave this a whirl a few years ago. Back then, the effort itself was publicity enough. But I wonder if Google Maps were more of a household thing, would it have driven the campaign that much more?

Rooftop messaging has been around long enough to make its mark, yet I’ve yet to hear of a campaign that really took off.  I think the success in this strategy lies in creating an experience rather than just tricking a customer into looking at your ad by popping up where you wouldn’t expect it. It’s about viral marketing in this case. Like the Waldo stunt, knowing something is out there and having to seek it out brings the customer that much closer to your brand. And can anyone say “partnership with Google”?!

Would you rather customers see your brand or interact with it? How far would you go to reach your target audience?

Slumdog, Doubt and Milk aren’t the only movies getting attention lately. New title treatments for New Moon and Star Trek are popping up online, getting fans hyped about the upcoming releases.

New Moon, the sequel to Twilight and part of author Stephanie Meyer’s series, is getting some buzz about the logo adaptation for screen. The original title treatment for all four books was quite plain, with emphasis on the accompanying image. This gave designers ample wiggle room when adapting the brand for screen; though it remains an exercise in drawing viewers in while not disappointing the already-crazy fan-base.

Twilight, the first in the series to be adapted to the big screen, stuck close to the original font while bringing just a touch of the sparkle, “light-streaks-poking-through” treatment around the font.  New Moon kicks that up a notch with revised font and plays up that glitter effect. Is this enough to whet the appetites of a screaming teenage fan-base? So far, the contentious issue with online fans is the decision to include “The Twilight saga” in the logo along with New Moon.

What are the pros and cons of re-releasing a movie logo for an established book?

Let’s switch gears and take a look at Star Trek. Now this is a long-standing brand – we’re talking head-to-toe Hollywood makeup convention-type established fan-base. You’d think that this brand could not be fiddled with often, and it can’t. And yet it’s seen over a dozen redesigns since its first release in 1966. Take a look at some of the logos over the years. What is the benefit of redesigning, especially when the resulting logo is so minor in changes?

Keeping things fresh to give consumers (aka viewers or fans) that added value is important but what are the risks of playing around with a good thing? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? Maybe not. If a brand is a set of values that drive a business, then the logo or title treatment needs to reflect the values of the movie and its viewers – even as they change over time, which they certainly would.

Consider these logo treatments from the perspective of a fan and from the perspective of a marketer. Are any branding rules broken with these two film titles?

The rumors can be laid to rest - almost.  This week, a PowerPoint presentation was “leaked” online showing RIM’s first foray into the touchscreen handheld market with the BlackBerry Storm.  RIM still denies the existence of the BlackBerry Storm.  It’s a branding tease to say the least.

According to the PowerPoint presentation, the BlackBerry Storm is loaded with features that directly compete with the iPhone (Facebook compatibilitiy and iTunes features to attract a younger market) but with continued focus on the business user market.

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I read a great article this week on Buzz Networker by Kevin Palmer called The Cult of Personality: A Case Study on Popularity on the Social Web.  This post gives an in-depth analysis of how four celebrity brands, Dane Cook, OK Go, Brad Listi and Tila Tequila, used social networking to create and promote their brands.

Here’s a quick overview of Kevin’s observations: Read more

Similar to the record-breaking pre-orders and midnight release parties related to the release of a new Harry Potter book,  1 million copies of Halo 3 (available tomorrow) have been pre-ordered and over 10,000 stores plan to stay open past midnight tonight to capture early sales and excitement.  Halo 3 even got five hours of countdown coverage on G4TV (the video gamers network) today.  According to Morgan Webb, co-host of X-Play on the G4TV Network, ”It’s a test for the industry on how much hype can you successfully get around a game.”

The online buzz is certainly loud and strong surrounding what’s being called the biggest video game launch in history.  Here’s a sampling of the marketing efforts for Halo 3 according to USA Today: Read more

Gfk Roper conducted a study of consumers late last year to learn what influenced people the most when it comes to making purchase decisions.  The study showed that advertising, marketing and pricing are not the biggest factors that influence consumers’ buying choices.  Instead, prior experience with a brand is at the top of the list.   Here is how the top four factors shook out:

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