Prescient Designs: Cute Business Cards!
Wikipedia’s definition of Business Cards: Cards bearing business information about a company or individual. They are shared during formal introductions as a convenience and a memory aid. A business card typically includes the giver’s name, company affiliation (usually with a logo) and contact…
I’m all for uniqueness and creativity! It’s one way to stand out against the competitors. Business cards are a form to get your name out there and market yourself or the company. Who say business cards needed to be plain white card and black font? Well there are times when it need to be professional since the business card is representing the brand or the company itself. There are other times when you can use fun colors and techniques to symbolize the company. Yet you can remain professional while expressing fun and creativity. This works as long as the creative theme goes with the brand. For example: Creative Sweet, specialize in cake decorations
They’re die cut into a 2x2” circle, and the background pattern is actually a spot varnish which changes depending on the light. - source
For the company Creative Sweet, they decided to go with circle cutouts with fun bright colors of light blue, pink and orange. The three main colors are:
Blue: secure and trustworthy
Pink Recommended for: product for young women
Orange: cheerful
I think these are a good variety of colors to choose from, I hope they choose these colors because they considered the meaning behind each color. (See more in depth about colors on my previous post on in a world of colors)
All the example of business cards in the post are quite inspiring, so make sure to check them out. I found another site with other creative original business cards so check them out here.
Kelloggs Share Your Breakfast campaign
Kellogg started a campaign “Share Your Breakfast”, for every breakfast photo uploaded to their website: shareyourbreakfast.com, Kellogg will donate a breakfast to children in need.
Kellogg launched their “Share Your Breakfast” campaign, every breakfast photo that is uploaded onto shareyourbreakfast.com in return Kellogg will donate a breakfast to children in need. There are many ways to upload photos besides the website, through photo text with the word “share” to 21534 or by twitter to share their breakfast with a post using the tag #ShareUrBreakfast. To spread the word, Kellogg is working to have digital banner ads on Google ad network and Web sites like AOL.com and Weather.com. Besides the internet Kellogg is also planning to create a 30 second television ad called “Big Breakfast” to debut national network shows, and print ad in magazines. Doug VanDeVelde, the senior vice president for marketing and innovation at the Kellogg Company believes this message will appeal mostly to mother and baby boomers since it was a generation that grew up eating a lot of cereal.
This campaign is example of cause marketing and in return it could cause Kellogg to have a bit more brand awareness, positive public relations, and improved customer relations. Kellogg knows which part of the market they can appeal the most through this campaign and are working to spread the word of the campaign through different kinds of media. In the end, Kellogg get to have their name out there and consumers feel like they are helping those in need. It’s a win-win kind of situation.
Brand’s Logo Envolution
Now from my previous post, Brand Logo:
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition. Logos are either purely graphic (symbols/icons) or are composed of the name of the organization (a logotype or wordmark). Also what makes a good logo is simple, memorable, timeless, versatile, and appropriate.
Over the years, brand logos has been altered and changed whether its to be slightly simplified or drastically different compare to the original one.
Let’s take a look at Apple, its one of the most recognizable logos out there.
Apple’s logo started as a complicated mess with Isaac Newton sitting under a tree, apple dangling above his head. Steve Jobs hired Rob Janoff to simplify the logo, he said in an interview that though he was mindful of the “byte/bite” pun (Apple’s slogan back then: “Byte into an Apple”), he designed the rainbow apple logo as such to “prevent the apple from looking like a cherry tomato.” When Apple launched the new iMac in 1998, they changed their logo to a monochromatic apple logo. Now, the Apple logo comes with nice gradient chrome silver design. It is one of the most recognized brand symbols in the world today, and the shape is what identifies the company more than the color - source
Guess that Brand
Since my past posts, has been about brand’s logo let see how efficient the companies are when it came to recognition to its brand logo. What logos do you recognize?
If you think that was too easy, here’s a challenge for you in the blink of the eye. Each logo has been cropped for recognition. How many logos can you identify?
Surprisingly there’s even an Iphone game application where there’s multiple brand logo and you have to guess the correct one. Click here to check out the video on youtube.
Brand Logo
As consumers we associate brands with certain logos and the logo represents the brand. According to Wikipedia, the definition of a logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition. Logos are either purely graphic (symbols/icons) or are composed of the name of the organization (a logotype or wordmark).
So what makes a a good logo?
According to this article, a good logo is simple, memorable, timeless, versatile, and appropriate.
Simple
It allows for easy recognition and allows the logo to be versatile & memorable. Good logos feature something unique without being overdrawn.
Memorable
Following closely behind the principle of simplicity, is that of memorability. An effective logo design should be memorable and this is achieved by having a simple, yet, appropriate logo.
Timeless
An effective logo should be timeless – that is, it will stand the test of time. Will the logo still be effective in 10, 20, 50 years?
A perfect example would be Coca Cola logo: 
Versatile
An effective logo should be able to work across a variety of mediums and applications. One way around creating a versatile logo is to begin designing in black and white only. This allows one to focus on the concept and shape, rather than the subjective nature of color. Also the company should consider the printing costs, the more colors used, the more expensive it will be for the business over the long term.
Appropriate
The logo should be appropriate for its intended purpose. For example, if you are designing a logo for children’s toys store, it would be appropriate to use a childish font & colour scheme. It is also important to state that that a logo doesn’t need to show what a business sells or offers as a service.
Logos are the building blocks of a company or product identity. Sometimes taglines are incorporated into the logo to help reinforce the fundamental message in a logo. Once you establish and build a strong corporate image, you will want to retain it.
The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him or her and sells itself.
— Peter Drucker
Loyalty to the Brand
Referring to my previous blog The ultimate goal: Brand loyalty
Brand Loyalty is the ultimate goal in every company. Once you continue to repurchase their brand that means a company has you hook on it’s service/product. It’s basically living the brand lifestyle.
Personally these are some of brands that I am loyal to.
There might be some biased here, just because I work with the company. However since I do work with the company, it would be odd if I wasn’t loyal to the brand because ultimately I am representing the brand in a way. As an employer of the brand, they provide great benefits. Generous employee discount to all of its brands including Banna Republic, Old Navy and sometimes its other online brands Piperlime and Athleta. The company also offers insurance and a great employee recognition reward points system, which employee trade points for prizes.
As a consumer, I love how they offer variety of simplistic yet versatile clothing line with classic looks that are never out of style. They offer quality on their product for a resonable price. Gap is known for their 1969 Premium Jeans, it provides a wide variety of jeans, in several different shapes and colors. I love the feel and look of their product especially the jeans. Gap also provide a lot loyalty program options to their loyal customers. You can leave your email on their email clientele list so they will email customers upcoming promotions or when new product comes in. There’s also the Visa Gap Card, a credit card that free to sign up with no annual fee. As a Gap card holder, you get the benefit of 10% off Tuesday, additional special discounts and rewards points every time you use your Gap card.
Brand loyalty doesn’t have to a certain brand of clothing, it can be services or in other category. Safeway is the place where I can go do grocery shopping. It has became sort of a habit if you want to call it that. I’ve never really notice it but its true, Safeway has gotten me to loyal to their brand. Why do I shop there? Living in San Fransisco, there is a lot of Safeway location around with parking lots so it make shopping easier. For their customers, Safeway also provides their “Safeway Club card” that include exclusive savings all across the store and anytime you shop online at Safeway.com. Having the membership card entitles customers to enjoy all our special money-saving promotions.
My choices of brands offers what is important to me, the value of quality, price, customer service, and customer loyalty programs. With all these reasons, it keep me going back to shop for more. So my questions is what brands are you loyal to and why that brand?
The ultimate goal: Brand loyalty
Brand Loyalty is the ultimate goal in every company. Once you continue to repurchase their brand that means a company has you hook on it’s service/product. It’s basically living the brand lifestyle.
It is often said that it is easier and less costly to keep a customer than to acquire a new customer. Customer loyalty is not loyalty to a discount or a deal. It is the loyalty to the brand and to the company. Brand loyalty is the customer’s trust that the brand will continue to deliver on its promise to the customer. - source
According to an article Six Tips For Building Brand Loyalty,these are a few steps that I thought were important to help companies to reach brand loyalty.
Communication: Social media lets customers connect with brands
These days, Social media is reaching a high popularity. Using this allows customers to interact with the company as well as other people using the brand. Social media is a better way to connect with customers because it keeps the brand at the top of their minds without bombarding them with so much information. There will be some people who like your updates, or share lots of useful and relevant information. They may not purchase today, tomorrow, or even three months from now; but when they need the product or service the company is offering, and when consumers do need the product/service they will remember that the company.
Rewarding your customers
One easy way to create brand loyalty is a customer reward program. The program doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Here are some ideas:
- sharing coupons with fans and followers on certain social media accounts
- emailing special promotion codes to customers who purchase a certain amount
- hosting giveaways specifically for repeat customers
Training your fan base to visit regularly
Brand loyalty is not just about coupons, promotions, and discounts. It’s not just about giving everything away for free. Those are merely vehicles to get your fan base talking or give your fan base a reason to stop back. Planning to use discounts to create brand loyalty, make sure your promotions are irregular and unpredictable. Then this will eventually gives customers more incentive to follow you on social media outlets.
Follow these simple steps as a company and this might help you real brand loyalty! As consumers, are those above mention the reasons why you are loyal to a brand?
When east meets west in a sprite commercial?
So I was looking through my fellow classmate’s blogs and found an interesting post called Sprite Commercial, this is my response to her post. So what happens when East meets West and add a lemony refreshing twist of Sprite? We have Kobe Bryant at one corner and Jay Chou in the other corner. This is the result:
Basically it was two cultures meet together half way through a commercial.
The goal of advertising to sell: Sprite
We have one main concept: Basketball, a well known popular sport with two people represent each culture: Kobe Bryant and Jay Chou
Jay Chou is is well know in Asia as a taiwanese musician, singer-songwriter, music and film productor, actor and director who has won the World Music Award four times. Also well-known for composing all his own songs and songs for other singers. - source Then we have Kobe Bryant, American professional basketball player who plays shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) - source
The commercial is hip, fun, and the collaboration of two celebrities that the audience is idolized, is a great idea.
This commercial is being broadcast all over Asia. And the company knows that Asia loves their local artist Jay Chou and the fans in Asia love to watch Kobe. Therefore, piecing them together would be a great way to advertise and market. See what winning more championships can do, it brings up the popularity of an athlete even more, and a good way for companies to use them as a marketing tool. - source
NIGHTNIGHT by DEDDY
