Dated logo, bland colors, non-responsive website. Sound like your business? If so, it might mean a new look is in order. Don’t stress – a corporate rebrand can be fun. Sure, it’s hard work and it’s a bit intimidating at first, but it’s well worth the challenge.

But before you go diving head first into daunting design waters, take some time to come up with a plan (and read this blog!)

Define your mission. If there’s one thing businesses often forget, it’s how to sum up their offerings in 20 words or less. Take the time to define, or redefine, your mission and use that as your develop your new brand. And a little old fashioned brainstorm never hurt anybody, so take an hour to sit with your team (no laptops invited) and really dig deep into your brand.

Remember your identity. As the times change, so does corporate design. But instead of jumping on every change or trend, let your creative team explore design options that work for your brand now and 10 years from now. Stay practical and true to your company’s personality, and don’t be persuaded by what’s hot this week.

Start from the inside out. A new look can be confusing for employees, so it’s important to make sure your team understands why the rebrand happened, and what the new look and feel means. Take the time to educate every department on how the rebrand affects their day-to-day work, and what they can do to help customers understand the changes.

10 seconds until launch. The launch of your rebrand can be daunting, but taking the time to develop a project plan, budget and timeline will pay dividends at the time of the launch. If possible, a general rule of thumb is to launch the entire rebrand simultaneously so there is little to no confusion about what is old and what is new. There will always be backlash from confused customers, but a fresh look is best achieved when everything is released at once.

Tell everybody! Your rebrand shouldn’t be something you try to hide. Be proud of your company’s new look and share your enthusiasm with the world. Use your social channels, website and even newsletters to encourage consumers to explore your new logo, colors, website, collateral, etc.

Your brand is your first impression. Take the time to consider how you want your customers to see you in the marketplace, and make sure your new look is sustainable.

If your company is in need of a facelift, we’re happy to help. We’re just about to start a rebrand of our own so we’ll be right there with you.

According to a 2012 Nielsen social media report, nearly half of all U.S. consumers are using social media to ask questions, report satisfaction or complain. This can be daunting as many organizations have multiple social media pages with thousands of followers on each one. However, providing attentive customer service on social media sites does not need to be stressful if you are prepared and organized.

Many social media managers are relieved to see positive and neutral comments and feel no real urgency to respond to them. However, responding to positive comments is an easy win and shows users that your brand is polite, ready and willing to engage with the public on social media. Mentioning a person by name and tagging them is a great way to create a courteous atmosphere and show positive feedback is well received.

Questions are another form of consumer feedback that should be answered as quickly and politely as possible. This will build trust with your audience.

Now it’s time to address the elephant in the room: What to do when presented with negative feedback. It’s inevitable that some unhappy customer will take to social media to express grievances with your product or service. We know it can be hard to keep a level head especially when someone is attacking the reputation of the company you work so hard for. However it’s important to respond calmly, timely and respectfully. Add a personal touch to the response to avoid sounding robotic. Perhaps give them your direct line so they don’t explain their issues to someone who has no context of the situation. This will also make the customer feel like their needs are heard and they are a valuable enough customer to warrant a personal response.

How about dealing with truly offensive of vulgar comments? That’s a tough one, but one of the worst things you can do is ignore them; this will not make them go away. The best way to minimize this is to call it out, monitor it closely and intervene when necessary. Maybe it would behoove you to write up a social media code of conduct and refer to it in times of need. Perhaps include a clause on reserving the right to delete offensive comments when they get out of hand.

Any brand that has a social media presence should be prepared to offer social customer service on its social media channels. Whether you want them to or not, customers will talk about your brand and seek help on social media so it is best to be prepared and have a system in place. It’s important to learn as you go. Don’t be afraid to say thank you to positive feedback and learn from negative feedback. Maintaining successful customer service on social media can be as simple as checking in on your pages two to three times per day and responding to comments.

Every year Super Bowl commercials create a lot of buzz, and this year is no different. With one 30 second spot costing $4.5 million, one would hope they generate a lot of buzz. It was a big year for Super Bowl advertisers, especially first timers, as there were 15 newcomers to the Super Bowl advertising world, the most since 2000.

But what do all the successful ads have in common? What is the recipe for a well-received Super Bowl ad?

They all contain at least one of three important elements that make them a success: sentimentality, nostalgia and humor. People want to feel good. Sarcasm and negatively toned ads don’t play well on the Super Bowl stage. Nationwide for example, was the most mentioned Super Bowl advertiser on social media, but not for the right reasons. The insurer’s campaign featuring the ghost of a dead boy has been slammed on social media with viewers calling it “depressing.”

On the other end of the spectrum, Budweiser reprised the adorable puppy for the second year in a row to kill the audience with cuteness. It must have worked because this ad was the most shared on social media. (Sentimentality, check!)

Snickers scored big by featuring Marcia Brady of the Brady Bunch transformed into Danny Trejo, an angry action movie star, keeping with the company’s “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” campaign. (Humor, check!)

Unilever’s Dove Men+Care was one of at least three companies to celebrate the joys of fatherhood. The company showed loving dads rushing to help an upset child or dancing at a daughter’s wedding (Nostalgia, check!)

Some ads aimed to reach viewers on an emotional level, others used humor to convey their message and some missed the boat altogether and were “sacked” by poor reception. Nevertheless several new players took a massive risk by spending that $4.5 million with hopes that they would be on the nation’s radar after being on such a large stage.

What was your favorite Super Bowl ad campaign?

Given YouTube’s popularity, it’s no secret that most people love to watch internet videos. As this trend continued to grow, marketing pros tapped in and found ways to sell their brands through creative, organic videos.

Building brand awareness and loyalty is a crucial part of a brand’s overall success, so what better way to do it than through creative visuals? According to a recent article on ClickZ, almost 60% of consumers say they would watch a video on a brand’s website. That’s nearly two-thirds of a brand’s customer base actively participating in their marketing efforts. You can’t pay for that kind of engagement.

But brand videos aren’t just online commercials or advertising; they’re about creating meaningful content that resonates with consumers. There are some brand videos that we’ve all watched, shared and watched again like Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches or Virgin America’s Safety Video. They’re charming, funny and informational – but most of all they inspire us. They offer something more than a traditional ad or marketing campaign. They tell us a story, teach us something valuable or inspire us to take action.

Whatever the angle — funny, sad, inspirational – one thing is key: organic, natural content. An ad is an ad is an ad. We’ve all made them and we know how to pick one from a lineup. But a branded video is different. It’s intriguing. It acts as a catalyst to share real, useful information, not advertising jargon that pushes another product onto consumers. Some of the most amazing branded videos out there have little to do with a product, but they connect the brand with an idea that resonates with consumers. It gives customers something to relate to, and makes them feel excited to support the brand.

What’s the best brand video you’ve seen? Share it with us on Facebook or Twitter!

Adweek recently featured several high-profile brands that are constantly trying to find new ways to reach their customers. According to the article, Westfield launched “Westfield Labs” in an effort to continue improving its customers’ experience at its malls and with its retailers. The idea behind its lab is simple: Create and test new experiences for customers in real-time. The ideas that stick will be translated to a larger scale, and made available to Westfield shoppers globally.

Innovation labs are sprouting up all over the country. From high-tech to retail, industries across the map are consistently finding new ways to engage consumers and connect with audiences of all types. It’s truly marketing at its finest – and it’s working. Westfield is a great example of a company that is on the forefront of innovation. It brings its ideas to life by testing them first in a safe environment before translating it to a real location.

As the article notes, these labs also connect the digital world with the physical. They allow consumers to connect with and access the retailer from anywhere, at anytime. This is increasingly important as more and more technologies are integrated with consumer brands.

Last holiday season, Westfield partnered with ecommerce giant eBay to connect online retail with mall shoppers. Three large screens were placed in the mall with options for shoppers to swipe through more than 100 products and then buy them from a mobile phone. This combination of the digital and physical world is just one example of the many types of retail conveniences developed in the innovation lab.

Is your business doing anything new to connect with your consumers? We can help. Connect with us to get started.

If you’re ever invited to a VIP Tasting event, just say yes. Especially if it’s part of a major rebranding effort, and double-especially (I used it, so now it’s a real word.) if it involves pizza. Actually, the only pizza included in this one was the new Sunny Side Up Bacon + Potato pizza. You’re correct:  two eggs on top. Now that’s what I call planning ahead if you want cold pizza for breakfast!

It’s mid-afternoon at the California Pizza Kitchen in Tampa, and the staff feels energized. This tasting is a show within a show, surrounded by actual paying customers. One reason they’re pumped up: they’re pioneers. For now, this “Taste the Next Chapter” rebranding movement only includes about a dozen of the more than 250 CPK locations. So, the general manager and the servers—all top notch and double-extremely well prepared for this matinée show—are already insiders, the advance team, the elite culinary forces sent to the front of the front to ensure all-out success for all the rest of the locations that will follow.

Ideally, the staff at all the other locations will catch this excitement, when it’s their time, because that’s actually one of the most powerful benefits of a major rebrand of this nature:  the enthusiasm and pride of the new translates into a more engaging, positive, and memorable experience for the customers. And so the business grows. Keep in mind that this large-scale rebranding effort is going on without a single tweak to the company’s logo. This is a personality change, not a logo facelift. It’s all about expectations. The experience.

The CPK rebranding project goes way beyond the menu, too. The restaurants are all going sustainable, with as many elements as possible being repurposed from elsewhere. In Tampa, they’ve created one wall entirely from a patchwork of wine crate sides. It has “Let me take a selfie”  written all over it. Not literally. I’m just saying. I’m pretty sure the old CPKs don’t have real bars where you can hang out; this one definitely does. You can twist around at the bar to watch the action in the kitchen—pizza tossing included—if the game on the flatscreen is not going your way.

Back to the new menu: The non-pizza entrées are getting the spotlight, along with the drinks. You know you’re going upscale when the menu includes suggestions for wine pairings. The Fire-Grilled Ribeye topped with creamy bleu cheese butter likes to hang out with Rodney Strong, a Cabernet Sauvignon. If you like drinking Clos Du Bois Unoaked Chardonnay, then you might want to pair that with the Hearth-Roasted Halibut. Or vice versa. (Full disclosure:  I didn’t actually see a hearth.) Being more of a beer guy myself, I love that the suggested pairing for the Mahi Mahi Tacos is Corona Extra. I didn’t make that up. Go see for yourself.

The staff continues the barrage of new dishes and sides, actions that are not lost on a table of “regular” patrons nearby. Perhaps the staff has shifted a bit too much service to our side of the house and neglected others by mistake. If anyone from CPK is reading this, you might want to bring around some samples to everyone and tip them off as to what’s going on.

Anyway, as we’re doing our best to put a dent in the desserts—this is, after all, about the tenth course of all the new items—the regional marketing guy asks us if anyone feels adventurous enough to go back to the kitchen and throw some pizza dough. And that’s when I remembered:  This is a pizza place.

Building a brand that resonates with consumers on a high level is no small task and is only becoming increasingly difficult. Despite having the benefit of learning from past successes and failures, the world we live in now has never been more fast paced, connected and over-saturated with companies claiming to be the next Apple, Nike or Google.

Many of these brands, however, fail to create value and establish the necessary presence they need to attract and retain loyal customers.  So how do you navigate this ever -volving landscape? Branding Magazine claims there are three essential P’s you must focus on to create and maintain a successful brand.

People 

In order to understand what exactly will resonate with your consumers, you not only need to have a fundamental understanding of people as a whole, but you need to understand your target audience on a comprehensive level. What drives them? What makes them tick? Conducting research and gathering data is quintessential to the branding process as this data will allow you to not only better reach your target audience, but also allows you to personalize consumer experiences. Take Facebook, Amazon, Netflix or Google, for example; these leading brands have taken personalization to a whole new level using people’s personal preferences to make the consumer experience much more intimate.

Purpose

Returning to the question of what drives people, we know many are looking for a sense of purpose in life, something that gives their lives meaning and direction. Consumers look for the same thing in a brand. They want a brand with a clear purpose and one that is invested in an important cause. Your brand needs to go beyond the simple purpose of making a profit and creating wealth. In order to retain consumers, your brand should be socially, environmentally, and economically conscious. It needs to clearly define the higher social purpose it serves and make sure it’s an authentic, credible and proven part of its brand story. It is the emotional tie people can identify with.

Participation

Once you understand your consumers and define a clear purpose, you must get people to experience and participate with your brand. People are no longer satisfied with only being on the receiving end of a brand’s cause — they want to influence it, be influenced BY it and make it their own. Participation is ultimate and most effective way to interact with people. The relationship a brand builds with people needs to be less transaction-focused and more interaction-based.

And there you have it, the three P’s of branding. Brands must focus on these concepts in order to stay relevant in this crazy world we live in.

Here a Next-Mark we believe a brand is everything, and know having a clear defined brand message is vital for your organization’s survival. If you we can assist you in any way please feel free to give us a call at 941.893.3140.

It’s no secret that advertisers are constantly looking for new ways to share content and engage consumers. In addition to creating valuable content for their readers, advertisers are trying to find ways to incorporate content into platforms and sites their consumers are already visiting regularly, but not in the form of a banner ad.

Imagine yourself scrolling through your Facebook feed. Have you ever noticed posts by brands that look exactly like your friend’s posts?

If you answered yes, then you’ve been exposed to native advertising. These types of ads are shared as posts rather than banner ads or commercials, which allows advertisers to seamlessly integrate their content into the feeds their consumers already subscribed to.

Although native advertising strays away from traditional mass media messaging, it leverages your brand as a thought leader and provides your consumers with relevant content they actually care to read.

Social platforms are a great place to integrate native advertising, but partnerships with leading news sites are another interesting option. One example of this was the Game of Thrones quiz created by Buzzfeed and HBO. Although it doesn’t scream “advertising,” the strategic campaign engaged consumers while promoting the show.

Whether your brand shares interesting content on social media or creates quirky quizzes on popular websites, one thing is key: relevancy. Your consumers are actively searching for content that not only appeals to their interests, but also matters to them at that particular moment in time. Now we’re not saying you need to be a mind reader here, but stay ahead of your audience by crafting content that appeals to current news, culture and entertainment.

What’s your go-to marketing strategy? Have you dabbled in native advertising?

As early proponents of content marketing, we have been pleased to see it take its place not only among other required tactics but actually replacing some, as more and more organizations are sharing their knowledge to build reputation, business and loyalty.

Think about it on a personal level: Do you blitz past TV ads? Do you remember what that last pop-up was selling? Are you internally wired to be turned off by the hard sell? Do you just love to talk to telemarketers?

If you answered yes, no, yes and no, join the crowd.

This phenomenon has led both B-to-B and B-to-C marketers to look for new ways to cut through the noise. Enter content marketing.

As defined by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), this marketing technique involves the creation and distribution of “valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

This content can be white papers, how-to videos, case studies, technical reports, etc., in which companies show and share their expertise.

Content marketing’s strength is that it is non-interruptive. Rather than being assaulted with sales pitches, prospects and customers are given access to useful information. The more times they find or receive that information under your name, the more likely they are to remember you.

As noted by CMI, quality content is part of all forms of marketing, shaping social media, Pay Per Click and SEO strategies; driving inbound traffic and leads; and serving as the foundation of successful public relations efforts based on issues of interest to potential buyers.

If you’re not a believer as yet, consider these survey results from Roper Public Affairs, which reports that:

– 80 percent of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement.

– 70 percent say content marketing makes them feel closer to the sponsoring company.

– 60 percent say that company content helps them make better product decisions.

We firmly believe that content marketing is the wave of the future (and present, for that matter).

Will you ride it to success or be left behind?

At Next-Mark, our work is all about our clients. We focus on four key characteristics (the four C’s) to give our clients the best possible experience:

1. Collaboration. We don’t just see you as a client, we see you as a partner. We want work with you to do what’s best for your brand and we value your participation every step of the way. According to an article I read on PR Daily recently, active participation from both ends creates a collaborative and positive working relationship.

2. Communication. On that note, we believe in keeping an open line of communication with our clients. We strive to create great work for you and your brand, but we also know this takes time, feedback and a strong work relationship.

3. Creativity. It can be hard to stand out in today’s content and graphic-driven world. At Next-Mark, we work with you to create unique and interesting content so your brand really shines. Whether your brand is in need of a new look and feel or a quick update, we’re happy to help you along the way.

4. Commitment. We value our clients and our work more than anything. As Next-Mark’s Director of Client Experience, I am committed to providing you with a great experience from day one.

Are you looking for a brand strategy partner? Give us a call anytime or read more about our approach here.