The biggest challenges of creating or building trust starts with you. What I see everywhere is that the business owners and entrepreneurs want the lifestyle, the money and everything that goes with it, yet does not want to put the work in.
They don’t put the work in because they don’t trust that they will make the right decision, therefore no decision is made and they sit on the fence and dip the toe into the sea of marketing activity and expect people to want to work with them.
Trust building starts with you, if you do not trust, how can you be trusted?
Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters – Albert Einstein
4 Steps…
There are 4 steps to building brand trust through marketing authentically;
Be Reliable
Keep the promises YOU make
If you say you are going to do something do it! This is not just for your clients, this is also about the promises you make to yourself. Finish what you start by creating daily routines and processes within your business.
Be Consistent
Show what YOU truly stand for
Show up even when people are not watching, liking, commenting, sharing or engaging. Become so focused on watering your own grass, others come and ask you how you can help them do it!
Be Honest
Speak YOUR truth
The context of your life informs your beliefs in what you do and the actions you take. If you cannot be yourself and always compromise, others cannot see if you are truly for them and how you fit into their world.
Be Open
Share YOUR thoughts and opinions
Be willing to go to the place’s others won’t by asking real questions and being controversial even when most don’t think the way you do. This sparks debate and debate leads to people thinking differently.
When rebranding, its always good to go back to the reason why you set up in business in the first place. Remind yourself of the situation and re-live it.
#koogarrebrand
Why did you set up in the first place?
Write the story of how your business came to be.
Why did you set up in the first place?
List the reasons, the situation, thoughts and feelings you had back then.
Write it down and get it all out onto paper or a word document if you prefer.
This will also drive you to keep going when you lose focus.
Koogar was formed on 6th November 2006. I was being approached by many Business Owners asking if I could “build a websites for them” and I’ve been asked to build all sorts of websites!
At this time, websites for business were a new marketing element businesses wanted to add so they could now be found online. The problem was, they were VERY expensive, and the quality of website being built was poor.
WordPress or “build your own websites” didn’t exist then. Websites were made using Notepad (or Text Editor) where you needed to know how to code.
Because I noticed the quality of website that was being made, I looked into them further to find most were not portraying the businesses well at all. These Business Owners were not getting the presence they really deserved and knew I could do a better job.
Checks and Research
Graphics
Logos seems to be made in Word and visuals were either taken from the internet or taken by the owners but the sizes were wrong. Out of proportion, slow loads times and not good enough quality.
Content
No effort went into the content.
These sites were full or jargon and no personality!
No calls to action, customer journey or experience created for the user. At one point, usability is the main part of my job, so needed to ensure the user of the website can easily understand the wording, buttons and navigation amongst other things.
Code
Some of the sites I looked at were shocking (some are still this way today) but I knew I could make the code leaner and more up to date.
Love and Passion
I was in my 8th year of working in the Internet/Web industry in 2006 and I was getting a little bored. The software house I worked for wanted me to become a programmer, but I knew that wasn’t my path.
I loved art and design; qualified from college as a Graphic Designer, enjoyed client meetings and putting what they wanted into the websites after asking the right questions.
So, I thought to myself… “can I make websites for businesses?”, bearing in mind, that year I was building multiple websites for companies like HSBC, head of usability and in client meetings every week.
So, the answer was, “yes, of course I can!”
Koogar was born.
1st Koogar Client
My first client (as Koogar) that year was a Hotel based in North Wales. Ged had worked with me for a very long time (13 years), like most of our clients have. He retired in 2019, selling the hotel on to a chain who took over the marketing and digital elements.
I had taken what I had learnt during my career as an Internet Developer and mixed it with what I had learnt from my parents; customer service, experience and people.
My Dad was Head Maître D in the best hotel on the island of Bermuda and my Mum was an entrepreneur and ran many businesses.
Over the years, I’d learnt the digital way of creating customer journey’s, understanding the user as well as the traditional version of customer service by understanding people and being in front of them.
Marketing is about psychology NOT technology.
Technology will change but people are people.
Marketing is about communicating well so no matter where your message is, the RIGHT people will notice you and take action. Leading them to the sale…
Without marketing (awareness or attention) you don’t get the sale!
In Summary
Koogar was born because of lack of standards and quality; not only for the websites but how they looked and sounded to the people using them.
The whole experience!
I wanted to deliver the best service as a web designer but also get the attention the Business Owners wanted and giving them the presence they all deserved.
Your 2nd Step
If you are looking to rebrand, take a step back in time.
Go back to the day you had the idea of running your own business. Remember WHY you set up in the first place. What was wrong with the industry that made to start your business?
This exercise will put fire back in you belly. Making the evolution of your brand even better than it has been!
As the leaves fall to the ground in preparation of the winter, the earth tilts. It’s time for change… A rebrand for Koogar.
I have decided to share the journey so you can follow the process. #koogarrebrand
“Change is inevitable, but transformation is by conscious choice”
What does Rebranding mean?
Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors, competitors, and other stakeholders. Taken from Wikipedia
It is not just about evolving a logo, colours and visuals.
It’s about ethos, purpose, mission, principles and message.
All of which have changed for Koogar for many reasons.
Some business, most personal.
The process of Rebranding
Over the coming weeks I’m going to share with you why Koogar is rebranding and what it means to us.
We’ll go through the process including our thoughts, feelings, questions we are asking and answering.
I’m not going to lie, this process is so much easier when we do it for our clients than it is for ourselves.
We want to get it right so it allows us to speak our truth and be seen by our perfect clients.
So it’s back to the drawing board.
Why is Koogar rebranding?
The first step to rebranding is asking yourself why?
Why now? What’s changed?
Here is my answer…
Koogar will be entering our 13th Year on 6th November and things have changed.
Over the last 4 years, I have personally gone through the 3 D’s; Divorce, Dementia and Deaths.
As you maybe aware, my Dad passed away in 2018 which has been a tough road and one that pushed me over the edge and showed me that life is too short. I understand what this means now.
In my situation, I had lost my identity over many years. I stopped doing things that brought me joy, made me happy and gave me purpose. When my Dad passed, it was the final straw.
Fast forward to coming home from Thailand, my whole outlook had changed. Not only about myself but to life and the world in general.
I started understanding what was important to me. This time, I wasn’t going to compromise.
It was like I was reborn, looking through my eyes as a different person but in the same body.
Integration
Integration is a huge part of finding yourself. It’s about fitting it in what you’ve just learnt about yourself, with the world you currently live in and removing what no longer serves you.
It doesn’t come easy, in fact, its ongoing.
Learning lessons every day from small things like how people talk to you, ah ha moments, dark days to when you’re feeling bright and ready to take on the world and your morning yoga session.
Realisation
I know I am here for greater things.
I also know I help my clients with more than JUST marketing them and their business.
My clients trust me, tell me about personal challenges and issues they have, tell me things they haven’t told anyone else, things that are hard to admit. I’m very privileged to be in this position.
My clients also want and need their ass kicking from time to time but most importantly want someone to give them a true and honest appraisal of what they are trying to do from neutral ground.
My reason why
I’m rebranding is because I haven’t been true to myself.
There are things I want to do, ways I want to work and specific types of people I want to work with and to do all of this, I need to strip back my message.
It’s scary, I worry what people are going to think. Will they carry on working with me or walk the other way but this way I know I’m being me and true to myself.
I am here to challenge you to communicate your own truth so that your marketing speaks to the audience you want and that you step into your own power to be seen.
Your 1st step
If you are looking to rebrand, ask yourself why? Why now?
A rebrand won’t necessarily bring you more money, but it does allow you to be yourself and step into your own power, which in turn will draw your perfect client towards you because your message is not only true to you but to them also!
This exercise is not only cathartic but also provides a new perspective on your journey and where you are headed.
Today is “Marketing Monday,” so, I wanted to discuss brand consistency and how important it is. Everybody has a brand, everybody who runs a business has a brand, but a brand isn’t just about the logo that you have, the colours that you use. The brand is actually about a lot of different things, so the brand should consist of the message. I spoke about message last week and how you can make it as impactful as possible.
Your brand consists of your values, the values that the company has, the ethos the company has, the reasons why your company does the things in the way that your company does it. You’ve got the brand USP, what is your unique selling point or unique selling proposition, what makes you, you.
You’ve got the marketing elements of the brand. That includes all the marketing activities, all the different bits and pieces that you do, whether it’s social, direct mail, telephone, website, all of those different kinds of things, and actually, the final thing is the brand identity.
What does your brand stand for? Who do you stand for in terms of who are the perfect customers, who are the perfect clients that you want? So, brand isn’t just about logo. It’s not just about those tile-y things that you sit with a graphic designer and spend that time with. However, it has got to do with a lot of other bits and pieces.
What I wanted to talk about today was first impressions.
A brand is something that you want people to see and you want people to recognise.
Every single Business Owner that I speak to wants that. They want people to remember the company name, they want them to remember your name. Even if they don’t remember your name they’ll remember your face or your business card or your website, or they’ve heard of you, yeah? A lot of people want that. So, a first impression is really important, and there is that saying that you never get a second chance to give a first impression.
So, what I thought I’d talk to you about today is brand consistency and how it’s important, and sometimes it’s not just about putting everything that you possibly can on to a flyer, leaflet, website, a presentation. It’s not just about overloading the person who’s looking at that thing, whatever that may be, with information about you, ’cause sometimes less is more.
What you actually want to do is give them a clear consistent, concise message of who you are, what you do, how you do it and how your brand is different from everybody else’s. Because, there are a lot of other people out there that do what you do, but they don’t do it in the way that you do it. They don’t do business in the way that you do it. They haven’t got your experience, they haven’t got your life experience as well as work experience. So, there’s a lot of things that you do differently and just because they do marketing or coaching or videography or film or whatever, it doesn’t mean that they work in the same way. So, brand consistency is huge.
One of the things that I’d like you to think about, is, now that it’s the new year, I know that we’re a few weeks in, we’re in what, third week in, now it’s a new year, what I’d like you to consider is go through all of your social media profiles, Facebook, your Facebook page, your group, Linkedin, your personal page and your company page if you have one, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, all of those different things.
I want you to go through all of those things and have a look at your brand consistency. Is the right logo on your social media platforms? Is it the right logo on your website? Are you upgrading or are you changing or are you tweaking? What do you need to do so that every single thing that people see, the touch-points that people see of yours are consistent? Because what you don’t want them to do is that you don’t want them to click on either Instagram or whatever, and they don’t see your icon, they don’t see your logo, they don’t see anything of your brand, and actually it’s more about you than about the business. Does that make sense?
So, what I’d like you to do is consider going through all of your social media and your website and your marketing materials. It’s a new year, you’ve got time to do this, it’s a bit of housekeeping. Maybe you should have done it in the tail end of last year, but what I’m saying is if you can do it now you’ve got the rest of the year that you don’t have to worry about that kind of thing.
This is something that I’m doing. This is something that I do every year at the beginning of the year. I have a look at what I’ve got, what I want to achieve, who I want to achieve it with. Is my message right, is my brand right, is it across all the different platforms that I’m on? And, does it actually tell people who I am and what I do? Will they remember me?
So, have a look at your social media platforms and double check everything! Double check that it’s all the way that it should be. Check that your Facebook page has got the right telephone number, the right email addresses, the amount of times that I’ve spoken and sat down with the business owner who hasn’t got the right telephone number on their Facebook or even an email address. How are people supposed to contact you? You’ve got to give them as many different ways in which they want to contact you. It’s not the way that you want them to contact you, unfortunately.
Have a look and make sure that all of your details are correct. Have a look that your brand images are correct, that they are actually branded, or are they just pictures that you’ve taken off free websites or paid websites and that you just put on there. Can you brand them? And if you can, do it. If you can’t, then just mention where you’ve got those images from.
Make sure that your brand message is correct. We talked about this last week, but your brand message is really important, because that’s the thing that makes people go, that’s what I want, or that’s what I need. Your brand message is what you say when you go networking. Your brand message is on your business cards, it’s on your website. It’s that thing that makes people go, “They are the person that I want.”
Make sure that that brand message is across all the different platforms that you use and in all the marketing materials as well.
Make sure that everything’s up to date, because if it’s not, there’s nothing worse than potentially missing a bit of business because they’ve rang the wrong phone number, or they’ve tried to send you an email, and they haven’t been able to get through to you, okay? So, make sure that everything is as branded as it possibly could be.
And then finally, with those brands, with the consistency that you’re putting out, tell people that you’re doing it. Tell people that things have changed slightly or that you’re looking to tweak, or these are new services that you’re doing in the future, but one thing I want to make sure that you do is make sure that you have a call to action. It’s great to put social media out there. It’s great to tell people that you’re doing different things, but actually have a call to action. Tell people what you would like them to do once they’ve read your message, seen your brand, read a leaflet, flier, been on your website, what is the next step? What do you actually want them to do?
That’s it for brand consistency today. I just wanted to talk about that because I think it’s really important. As a graphic designer I see a lot of bad graphics, just going to say. I see a lot of bad graphics, and I see a lot of things that I think, whether people have done it themselves, it just doesn’t look right, and that consistency is so important. You just don’t want people to go, “Are you that company that does this or is that somebody else?” You want them to be 100% that is definitely Amanda, that is definitely [Scott [00:07:36], that is definitely [Joanne [00:07:36], okay?
So, that’s what you want, brand consistency across all of your different platforms. All of the different marketing materials that you use because those touch-points.
What are Touch-Points?
Touch-points are things that your current customer sees. So, a touch-point could be that you’ve called them, it could be that you sent them an email, they’re part of your email marketing, they’ve downloaded a free eBook, they’ve been on your website.
All of these different touch-points lead them to the end result, and the end results is them turning into a customer if they’re not a customer already. So, that’s what we want. So, that’s why it’s important to have that call to action to get them to take the next step. So, I’ve got a couple of things that people have said here. So, I’m just going to reply to those a little bit later on further down in the comments. Thank you very much for joining. I appreciate it because generally I’m here by myself. So, I’m going to carry on doing it anyway, but I appreciate you spending the time to listen.
Another thing that I just wanted to let you know is that we still have the Koogar Academy going on, and it’s going on really well. We’ve got a separate secret group going, and a lot of people are taking action, which is brilliant, because I’m telling them what to do, they have a masterclass once a month, they’ve also got four or five downloads that they could do, with exercises that they need to do, and they’re going through it. They’re asking questions. It’s helping people think differently.
So, if you wanted something like that to keep you on board, to keep you on track, to make sure that you get to where you want to be, the Koogar Academy could be for you.
So, again, I’ll leave the link below to let you know if you’d like to join up. That will be great. At the moment we have 22 people joined in our group. I’m going to say it’s quite good because being part of it enables them to ask a question specifically about their business, about their industry, how would you do it if you were in this, or wanted to get this result. So, it’s about writing your questions, asking people what they think about the message that you’re putting out there or what you think about this text that I’ve sent to people. And people are actually starting to get business straight away, which is great.
So, if you want to join that, that would be brilliant. If not, no worries, just carry on watching “#MarketingMonday.”
I hope you found today useful, and I will see you soon. Take care.
Pokémon Go is the latest version of the Pokémon franchise, one of the most successful gaming franchises ever produced. While Pokémon has always been hugely successful the introduction of Pokémon Go appears to have taken it to a new level of popularity, as almost everywhere you go all you see is people of all ages playing.
Pokémon Go encapsulates the classic Pokémon activities of hunting and training Pokémon, but it integrates this with the real world. This combination makes it an augmented reality game, meaning that the players must travel to real word locations to battle at gyms and must search the real world to find and catch Pokémon.
The uniqueness of the augmented reality game, and that it can be freely downloaded from the iOS and play stores has led to an unprecedented number of downloaded since it was launched just a few weeks ago.
Reports have suggests that it has been downloaded by over 75 million users worldwide, which is the equivalent of the entire population of Turkey.
It has also won a number of awards including the most downloads on the app store in a launch week ever. This huge popularity caused Nintendo’s share price to increase by 86% in a week, leading to an increase in their overall value of £15 billion, while since then it has dropped over revelations the Nintendo do not fully own Pokémon go, it is still up over 60% on the pre-launch price.
Why is the entire world fascinated with Pokémon Go
While the rise of Pokémon Go is an intriguing topic which has the entire world fascinated, you might be wondering what it has to do with marketing.
Well…I first recognised the opportunity it may present to certain businesses when I realised that across Liverpool a number of the poke stops (locations where users collect items) were actually pubs, such as the Philharmonic Dining Rooms on Hope Street, the Fly in the Loaf on Hardman Street and the Pilgrim on Pilgrim Street. While poke stops may attract some users to these locations, it is actually another feature of Pokémon Go that will truly attract avid uses to these pubs for an extended amount of time. That is lures, these are an option which can be added to poke stops that attract Pokémon to that location for 30 minutes, many keen Pokémon Go fans will locate the lures across the city and will congregate there to catch Pokémon. As many lures are often placed in the same locations throughout the day, large amounts of people often congregate on these hot-spots.
Therefore, for these pubs it should be seen as a great opportunity for them to lure potential customers into their pubs where they can enjoy the atmosphere, purchase food and drink and catch Pokémon to their heart’s content. While this might seem slightly farfetched, both McDonalds and Starbucks are being linked with purchasing poke stops for their range of cafes and restaurants. Although this option is not available at the moment, and Pokémon go are currently replying on in-app purchases, it is rumoured to be very close to being introduce.
It has even been rumoured that McDonalds have already agreed a deal with Nintendo for all of the McDonalds in Japan to be Poke stops in the near future
While this cannot be confirmed yet, it just shows how much of an opportunity they believe Pokémon Go could be for their restaurants. Research has also been carried out on current Pokémon Go users to discover their views in relation to the possibility of sponsored content on Pokémon Go.
The results were overwhelmingly positive with users stating they would happy engage in a range of different sponsorship options.
These include poke coins being available when users make shopping purchases, unique game items that can only be accessed at specific shops or restaurants or even special rare Pokémon unlocked if you spend a certain amount in certain shops.
Thus, while it is key to consider a company’s brand image when associating pubs and restaurants with games of this type, it could be a great opportunity for some smaller scale businesses who are located on or close to poke stops.
Furthermore, encouraging Pokémon go users to make the most of plug sockets in cafes for example, is another great way for smaller businesses to make the most of this current craze. One company in Liverpool who are located in a Pokémon Go hub, and are trying to make the most of it is Ziferblat who have sent out a number of Pokémon Go tweets encouraging users to visit them on the docks to charge their phones and enjoy their Wi-Fi.
This further highlights the wide range of possible ways in which both small scale and larger companies can effectively benefit from the Pokémon Go phenomena.
Overall it is one of those crazes that seems to have captured everyone’s attention, no-one knows how long it will last but it could be a great opportunity for businesses who are willing to engage with customers at a different level.
Updated on 16/10/2018: The Koogar Academy was launched in January 2018 and had an exceptional take up…
Are you looking for #marketing help where you can attend a masterclass every month to learn a new skill or aspect about your business, find your purrfect clients or the right activity that gets you the results you’ve been looking for?
We have big plans for this resource area and we need your help!
Koogar is finally getting round to creating a special resource area (The Koogar Academy) for Business Owners and Marketing Managers who want to keep one step ahead by constantly and consistently tweaking their businesses marketing!
This site will have a number of member levels where you can either get content you want and have a 1:1 session with Amanda (where you will get a tailored path) or take it to the next level where you get the 1:1 and content as well as can becoming involved in Webinar’s, Interview’s and Q&A Sessions that will take place monthly.
We want to hear from you and what you would like to see in this group. What would you benefit from having access to?
We want you to become part of our Pride, our community even more so and we feel this resource area will help you do so!
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. AcceptRejectRead More
Cookie Information
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
![[Video] #MarketingMonday – Brand Consistency and WHY it’s important…](https://www.koogar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/MarketingMonday.png)
Furthermore, encouraging Pokémon go users to make the most of plug sockets in cafes for example, is another great way for smaller businesses to make the most of this current craze. One company in Liverpool who are located in a Pokémon Go hub, and are trying to make the most of it is Ziferblat who have sent out a number of Pokémon Go tweets encouraging users to visit them on the docks to charge their phones and enjoy their Wi-Fi.
