BrandKnew January 2017

Branding matters. Because branding matters.

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Dear Friends: Wish you and yours a very happy and BrandKnew year!

As we look ahead, what we will be writing and featuring this time next year looks to be quite different and the thing to understand is that none of us are very sure what that would be considering the furious and tectonic changes that we are witnessing. Coming back to the present, this issue (as has been the convention) covers the Best and Worst Branding of 2016 and also Why Brands will be ‘ less Branded ‘ in 2017. Another subject that has been the epicentre of many a conversation is about What makes a Logo great and we take a look at it in this issue. We believe that two brands in the coming year will be waking up and smelling the coffee ie McCafe Vs Starbucks. Read what’s brewing on that front in this issue. IOT (Internet of Things) is changing the rules of marketing for ever. The feature on that topic shares more. What will be of high interest to branding and marketing professionals will be the article on the 5 Rules of Branding that will make you a sought after Superstar. There is loads more on offer and we promise to be at the forefront of everything relevant, cutting edge and actionable in the issues to come. Happy New Year!

Best

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Suresh Dinakaran @sureshdinakaran

@Brandknewmag

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Managing Editor: Suresh Dinakaran Creative Head/Director Operations: Pravin Ahir Magazine Concept & Design/ New Media Specialist: Mufaddal Joher Country Head, Australia: Norbert D’Souza Country Head, UK: Sagar Patil Regional Director: Krishna Chugh Country Manager, India: Vinit Chugh Digital Outreach & Engagement Specialist: Khaleef Mayowa Junaid Web Specialist: Prasanta Kumar Sahu Online Support: Mahendra Kumar Behera

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CONTENTS

What Made a Logo Great 5 Rules of Branding That Will Make You A Sought-After Superstar Brands Will Be Less ‘Branded’ In 2017 How the Internet of Things Is Changing Marketing Forever The rules of VR: How advertisers can avoid making very real mistakes Brand portfolio expansion: The Hilton Way! How Platforms Will Disrupt the Future of Media and Entertainment Creative Director: Navigating The New World Of Founder-Brands Coffee Wars: Can Revamped McCafé Beat Starbucks?

The Best And Worst Branding Of 2016 4 Foolproof Ways to Improve Your Digital Marketing How to Build Community on Facebook How startups can leverage location-based marketing to woo millennials Book, Line & Sinker

What Made a Logo Great

By Wally Krantz

Discussion about the purpose of a logo, and what makes one great, has shifted from conversations within the design community to an open forum on your social media platform of choice. As more people in general are interested in logo design—and voice their opinions—there have been more and more comments by professionals that minimize the importance of a logo’s role. Creative directors and brand managers, whether agency side or in-house, talk about how the logo is just one facet of a company’s communications, and how it plays a very small part of the overall brand experience.

Which is all true.

As long as you consider that downplaying the role of a logo and the impact it makes—certainly at the launch, and definitely over the long-term—can lead to bad design, an unsuccessful program, frustration from the employees at the company, and formidable online backlash.

News and blog articles about a brand refresh will cover why the change was made, what the thinking was behind the new design, and highlight the qualities that make it special: It’s simple and memorable and timeless and versatile and appropriate and iconic and unique and scalable and legible

and meaningful and modern, and as long as it’s used consistently and communicates the brand message then it’s a success. Unless it doesn’t do any of those things.

Many of these qualities seem to riff off a short list that Paul Rand described in his 1991 essay, “Logos, flags, and Escutcheons.” He writes: “The effectiveness of a good logo depends on: A. distinctiveness; B. visibility; C. usability; D. memorability; E. universality; F. durability; G. timelessness.”

I like that Rand didn’t need to include simplicity on that list.

Simplicity isn’t a mandate, but it can be a by-product of doing everything else well. If you succeed with A through G, a logo design can handle a degree of complexity and richness, with simplicity and versatility being qualities that are made clear in application (the ability to live at small sizes, how well it works in complex and changing environments, how effective it is in one color, etc.).

It’s the last one—timelessness—that’s the acid test of greatness.

The question then becomes not, “What makes a logo great?” but rather, “What made a logo great?”

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What Made a Logo Great The answer lies in whether it can stand the test of time.

Looking for that answer requires thinking about how it will live beyond the launch. Why does that delivery truck still look great? Why does that bottle, only slightly evolved over the years, feel like it’s been around, unchanged, forever? Why does that app feel like it was always a part of the brand, even though the sensibility was established in 1994? In other words, what can we learn from a mark that was created five, ten or even twenty years ago?

BRANDS ARE NOT STATIC THINGS. THEY’RE NEVER FINISHED.

creating. Designers need to be confident in their work and in their ideas, and in the way that they work with their clients to create something distinctive, memorable and timeless.

Designers are also required to think beyond themselves and ask: How will this system work after it has left my hands? How will the internal designers at the company work with it? How will the range of advertising, digital, environmental and event agencies work with it? Will it be something that will inspire new ideas in different mediums, or will it be something that is obligingly placed in a corner?

Creating something that will be timeless requires designers and clients to adopt a perspective that imagines a world beyond launch day and into a future that is five or ten or twenty years away. Brands are not static things. They’re never finished. They are dynamic and in a perpetual state of change and growth. Will this new or evolved logo be able to live in that world?

What we want to do with these marks and the systems that support them is define a sensibility that isn’t necessarily perfect, but over time will be right for an organization.

The notion of perfection in a work was brought up by artist Donald Judd in an interview with Claudia Jolles in 1990: “I don’t consider the pieces perfect. I just don’t think of them in that way. They should be well made, because if they are badly made, it is obtrusive, that’s all. Being well made is just eliminating troubles and things to be distracted by.”

A logo doesn’t need to constantly change, but it does need to represent an organization that lives with constant change.

I discuss this quite a bit with clients, recognizing that brands must be agile, and that managing a brand—and a logo—is less about rigid consistency and more about the ability to adapt, flex and connect.

What made a logo great? It was made well for the moment of introduction—and it was able to grow when it needed to do something more.

This way of thinking requires designers to be both completely confident in their decisions and selfless in what they are

Wally Krantz Brooklyn via the suburbs of Detroit.

Executive Creative Director for Landor, NYC.

5 Rules of Branding That Will Make You A Sought-After Superstar CUSTOMERS STICK WITH COMPANIES THEY LIKE AND REMEMBER FOR THE LONG HAUL. ASK YOURSELF, “WHAT DOES MY BRAND REPRESENT?”

By Han-Gwon Lung

When I wrote “The Right Way to Start Branding Yourself Right Out of College,” I was thinking about my personal journey as a formerly clueless college student and what I did to eventually become a business owner.

With that in mind, here are five rules of branding that have held true for nearly 100 years:

Which got me thinking -- what, exactly, is “branding” as opposed to marketing? And does it also have tried-and-true rules, like marketing does? I think Neil Patel summed it up best in one of his Kissmetrics blog posts: “Where Marketing Ends, Branding Begins.” Marketing is the technique you use to acquire customers, Patel wrote, but branding is what draws them to you in the first place and keeps them coming back for more.

You probably remember most of the big technology companies that sprang up before the dot-com bubble burst in 2001: names like Yahoo!, AOL and eBay were easy to remember because they were quirky proper nouns. Today, the biggest tech companies have similarly memorable names (e.g., Amazon, Facebook, Google).

1. Don’t have a generic name.

What you probably don’t remember are the countless

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generically named startups that went bust. Companies like Pets.com, Mortgage.com, iMotors.com and eToys.com raised between $50 million and $166 million each. All of them have since gone bust, despite some great ideas.

Granted, these companies may not have failed purely because of their generic names. But those names certainly didn’t help them. Choosing a common word for your company name is a losing strategy. It’s like naming your book “Book.”

2. The less you offer, the more you’re remembered.

I explained the dangers of offering too much in “5 Rules of Marketing That Will Help You Find The Right Niche And Thrive,” but it bears repeating: Don’t confuse the customer.

Offering too many products or services weakens your brand name, which customers will always associate with the product or service that first put you on their radar.

A great example of a company that avoided this trap for decades but then fell into it is McDonald’s. When the fast food upstart first became popular, there were diners everywhere.

And what do diners offer their customers? Everything. But when McDonald’s first became popular, it had only nine items on its menu.

Today, McDonald’s offers everything. It’s become the fast food equivalent of the diners it beat out over 50 years ago.

As a result, it’s had to reinvent itself multiple times to compete with new burger competitors like Five Guys and Shake Shack.

3. If you want to expand, launch a separate brand.

Granted, offering too much isn’t necessarily a problem if you can keep up with the demand. That’s why McDonald’s is still making billions every year. But offering too much under the same brand name is a mistake every single time.

One of the biggest cases of brand-extension failure is Microsoft. Sure, Microsoft is still an industry leader in some key markets -- but at one point the company completely dominated the tech market. Then it decided to release tons of new products and services under the Microsoft name.

That’s when Apple literally came back from death’s door and stole away Microsoft’s customers with strong brands like the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Today, Apple is the biggest tech company in the world, while Microsoft is number six.

Fortunately, if you’re thinking of starting a new brand, being a person is a lot better than being a faceless corporation.

You can just piggyback off your good reputation on your new brand’s website (e.g., “Hey, remember how much you love me? I started this brand, too.”).

4. Promote what you do, not what you’re selling.

I see so many companies saying things like, “At our company,

we offer unique offerings.”

The problem with this strategy? No matter how hard you try to convince them, most customers won’t care about your “unique value proposition.” This is why Pepsi beats Coke in taste tests but is still second in market share.

People don’t think in terms of products and services -- they think in terms of jobs they need to get done. Or, as Theodore Levitt put it, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill.

They want a quarter-inch hole!”

So, instead of promoting what you sell, you should focus instead on what you help people accomplish. Specifically, that means the job that you help them do -- one they wouldn’t be able to do by themselves.

5. Ratings and reviews are your salespeople.

Most people believe that they cannot close a sale without a set of interpersonal communication skills. Ultimately, they end up internalizing the belief that they (or a sales team they train) are the most qualified people to sell their own services.

But this is only partially true -- after all, their customers are much better equipped to do the selling.

Today, while the marketing funnel is longer and more complex than ever before, ratings and reviews are still just as important. In fact, 88 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as they do personal recommendations.

So start telling your leads that you grade yourself based on how willing they are to refer you once you’re done. That way, you prepare them to leave you a glowing recommendation on LinkedIn and refer a friend or business acquaintance.

What does your brand represent?

When you’re new and growing, you need marketing to get the word out. But once people know about your brand, only the perceived value of your brand name will keep them coming back as customers.

You can still be successful if you don’t have a strong brand.

Plenty of generic companies are really good at marketing and know how to set up the perfect marketing funnel for each of their lead sources so they can scale to their hearts’ content.

But if your brand doesn’t represent anything, customers won’t keep coming back. They might try you out once or twice, but that’s it. Customers stick with companies they like and remember for the long haul, not just the most affordable product or service they can find.

So, ask yourself, “What does my brand represent?”

Han-Gwon Lung is the award-winning CEO and proud co-founder of Tailored Ink, a boutique writing agency for businesses that want language that sells. He was the first hire at Prose Media, and got his agency chops at places such as The Writer and The Economist.

Brands Will Be Less ‘Branded’ In 2017

By Tanya Gazdik

It’s the marketing equivalent of spending an hour getting yourself to look like you just rolled out of bed. You know — that casual, tousled look.

Brands will strive to be “meticulously un-designed” in 2017, according to WPP brand agency Brand Union.

“Or to put it another way: This means haphazard layouts with clumsily overlapping elements,” Brand Union ECD Sam Becker tells Marketing Daily. “Coarse, honest typography mechanically set without any sensitivity to widows, alignment or proper quote characters.

“Candid photography catches models looking either unprepared, emotionless or ironically posed. Brands like American Apparel and Urban Outfitters pioneered this approach but it’s been embraced recently by everyone from Kanye to Glossier.”

It’s no longer enough to be human. It’s increasingly necessary for brands to appear flawed, unpredictable, naïve, even strange, he says. Think Lincoln and the Matthew McConaughey ads.

“We’re seeing companies like Casper embrace flat illustration to depict sketchbook doodle fantasies such as subway rats eating pizza and amorous koala bears in bed. Anything to avoid the impression that Casper is selling anything.

Brands like Thinx, while more sophisticated, still speak with a blunt honesty — underwear for women with periods — and an otherworldliness to their imagery — hyper-realistic photographs of suggestive citrus fruits and women in their underwear wearing cat and zebra masks. Basically, brands are annihilating any last vestige of marketing and slick-ness

from the way they behave.”

For idiosyncrasy to be believable it must be complete. It’s essential that the same sensibility driving the visual design inform all aspects of the business, he says.

“This includes everything from the way a brand speaks to how its products are organized and delivered,” Becker says.

“By that logic, language should be as spontaneous and unstudied as possible. Product names should be humane and uncomplicated. Business strategy must be invisible. There’s nothing more detrimental to an ‘un-brand’ than perceptible corporate intent.”

Brand Union — which has worked with Absolut, Dell, Shazam, Durex, and several Yum! brands (KFC, Pizza Hut) — sees several other trends on the horizon.

“Brands speaking more through idiosyncratic platforms like Snapchat is a given but I think we’ll also see more open, vulnerable initiatives like Moonshots from Google where they put the future of space travel into the hands of amateurs with no guarantee for success,” he says. “It’s fascinating that they’re documenting the project in real-time with a JJ Abrams-sponsored film series. The very idea of “moonshots” is a beautiful example of a brand putting themselves out there and taking a real risk in front on their customers.”

Senior reporter Tanya Gazdik covers automotive, sports, entertainment and pets for MediaPost’s “Marketing Daily.” She previously was the deputy editor of MediaPost, animal welfare reporter at “The (Toledo) Blade,” Detroit bureau chief of “Adweek” and associate editor at “Ward’s Automotive Reports” and “Ward’s AutoWorld.”

How the Internet of Things Is Changing Marketing Forever

By Nicki Howell

Have you ever woken up, walked into the kitchen and made the startling discovery all the coffee is gone? But imagine it’s all right, because a week ago, your coffee machine alerted Amazon, “Hey, this lady is almost out of coffee, so let’s get more ordered now before there’s a crisis over here.” Crisis avoided.

This is just one example of how the Internet of Things (IoT) will impact people’s lives in the future, but IoT will also change marketing as we know it. In fact, senior marketers across the globe expect IoT to make the largest impact on marketing over the next five years.

By the year 2020, there will be more than 26 billion connected devices, which is double the number of tablets, smartphones, and PCs combined. For marketers, this is huge, because it provides unprecedented access to customers. But what exactly is IoT, and how will it change marketing forever?

What is IoT? The Internet is widely available everywhere, from the airport to the local coffee shop and even the gym. People have become more connected, and as they do, so have their devices.

The concept behind the Internet of Things is any device with an “on” or “off” switch can be connected to the Internet. This includes your coffee machine, headphones – and even your washing machine (more on that in a minute).

So why do customers want so many devices speaking to each other and, as a result, collecting massive amounts of data about their lives? The answer is simple. It’s all about convenience. But for marketers, this demand for convenience will transform their roles. Here are five ways IoT will make an impact for marketers in the future.

1. Hyper-speed Transactions Customers today are busier than ever, and as a result, they want faster experiences. In fact, the customer experience is expected to overtake price and product as the key differentiator by 2020. So what does this mean for brands? It means they must use innovative technology to deliver precisely what customers want at the exact moment of relevance, and IoT is making this possible.

For example, Walgreens recently partnered with Aisle411

and Google Tango to create an app that would serve up faster, more relevant in-store experiences leveraging IoT. They created a mobile shopping platform that allows consumers to search and map products in the store.

Are you searching the aisles for a clerk to ask where a product is located? This app solves that problem, and it also serves up personalized offers at the moment of relevance, which is a tremendous opportunity for marketers.

Hilton Hotels uses IoT to create these elevated customer experiences. They rolled out a faster check-in process that allows customers to use their smartphones to check into the hotel and get keys. In the future, marketers at these hotels could be using “little data,” which captures the tiniest details about a customer’s stay. For example, they can learn how many pillows a customer prefers through IoT-enabled mobile apps and then provide those little details in the future.

2. Creating Dynamic User Experiences The Internet of Things allows customers to get a better understanding of how products and services work. Today you may provide a demo, but in the future, you may leverage IoT to drive greater engagement with customers.

For example, Home Depot uses IoT to connect customers’ online shopping carts and wish lists with in-store mobile applications. Customers who are part of the company’s rewards program can view the most efficient route in a store based on their online shopping history. It ties together the various channels a single customer uses for a more seamless experience.

In the future, IoT could become even more advanced than the example listed above. Not only could it route the best path through a store based on historical buying patterns, but the store could also track data related to those paths. For example, a company could discover 40 percent of customers take a specific route through the store, and as a result, they could design product displays more effectively.

Amazon is also meeting customers where they’re at through their IoT development called “Dash Buttons.”

This is a screenshot Amazon’s Dash Button, which allows you to re-order favorite goods. The Internet of Things will change

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how marketing is practiced.

sleeps. A subscription-based model could allow companies that have strictly sold a product in the past to drive ongoing revenue and greater customer loyalty through subscriptionbased features and offerings.

5. Smarter Product Integration

These buttons are available to customers with a Prime membership and allow for quick reorder when their favorite household products get low. The button is connected through home Wi-Fi and the Amazon app.

When a customer receives the button, they set the quantity they want to order when the button is pushed. Then when a product such as laundry detergent or their favorite snack mix gets low, a simple press of the button reorders it. This process saves time and is great for companies, because they earn repeat business and generate higher customer loyalty.

3. Capturing Relevant Data, Creating Relevant Experiences As described above, IoT allows marketers to capture massive amounts of data about their customers. For example, for more than 22 years McDonald’s has offered a Monopoly contest in which customers peel stickers from products to win prizes. IoT is transforming this old-school game into something more advanced.

The company partnered with Piper, a Bluetooth low-energy beacon solution. It greets customers on their phones as they enter the restaurant. Once inside, customers are offered relevant coupons, surveys and other information. It’s great for the customer because they receive relevant information in real time, but it’s also great for McDonald’s because the company collects lots of data.

IoT may also provide greater customer value and more business opportunities in the future through seamless platform integration. For example, let’s say you have a premium Spotify account. As you step into an Uber, your playlist may upload, allowing you to listen to your favorite songs on the way to the airport.

This integration across devices and platforms will allow marketers to not only create more personalized experiences with customers, but also learn more about their behaviors and preferences. As a result, brands will build deeper and more authentic engagement.

4 Tips for Success Are you thinking about adopting IoT into your marketing strategy in the future? If so, you might be wondering where to start. Here are a few quick tips.

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Start by looking at interactions. At what points are customers interacting with your brand? Perhaps they interact mostly through online channels or social media.

If so, these areas should be a primary focus for your IoT marketing efforts.

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Focus on problems. In the example above, Walgreens enabled a marketing IoT strategy by looking at where customers had problems. They found customers don’t like wasting time, and when they can’t find a product (or a store clerk), they begin to have a negative experience.

Focus on the largest problems your customers experience.

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Connecting the data points. Look at those interactions and problems, then figure out where IoT fits. For example, perhaps you select the top few interactions customers have with your brand as well as a common problem.

From there, you may figure out how to incorporate geolocation through IoT or other features that make their experience better.

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Measure the data. Once you implement IoT, it’s important to iterate and change course as needed.

Collect the data, but be sure to translate that data into valuable insights.

For example, let’s say a customer fills out a survey on their mobile device. The feedback is quickly routed to the appropriate manager, who can respond to the customer inside the restaurant before the customer finishes their meal.

4. Shaking Up Pricing: Product-as-a-Service IoT is transforming the customer experience, but it may also transform the way marketers price and offer their products.

For example, Rolls-Royce embedded engines with sensors not only transmit real-time data about the vehicle’s condition, but also meter it on a thrust-per-second basis. As a result, the car manufacturer could sell different levels of power using a subscription-based model.

This model could transform pricing for all different types of products. In the past, the user may have purchased a product outright, but in the future, marketers may be selling products that use sensors and allow companies to sell based on variable usage or features.

For example, a Tesla could be upgraded for higher performance or it could fix product defects while the owner

Moving Forward Tapping into the Internet of Things is changing the future for marketers. In the past, marketers had data. However, much of this data was historical, and companies weren’t able to react in real time through IoT. But in the future, that will change.

The best time to start creating an IoT-marketing strategy is today. When you accomplish this, you can monitor customer behavior closely, react faster when things go wrong and mitigate poor experiences. It’s about proactively creating positive customer interactions in real time.

The rules of VR: How advertisers can avoid making very real mistakes

By Mario Yiannacou

As we go hurtling to the new and shiny things on the block (namely virtual reality and augmented reality), perhaps now would be a good time to take a step back and look at potential consequences of these technologies going mainstream and where advertising could come into play.

As with digital advertising, which, at the outset, claimed it would be the Holy Grail to marketers where everything worked seamlessly, sales would rise exponentially and everything would be measurable – well, as we all know, it hasn’t quite turned out like that – yet.

No one thought of the impacts it would have on the end user and everyone got a little bit greedy. So inevitably, people fought back with tools available to them, ad blocking as an example. We now have a situation where there are two types of web: blocked and unblocked – but that’s another blog altogether.

Andrew Wilson, chief executive of the EMEA arm of games studio Electronic Arts, believes are three things necessary for it (like any new technology) to succeed: innovative mechanics, a low barrier to entry, and a profound user experience.

The question here is how do advertisers fit in and how do they avoid making the same mistakes as in the digital environment.

It all comes down to ethics or as I like to call them rules – remember rules control the fun.

So what’s to stop the same thing happening with AR or VR? Those of you who have read the recent piece by my colleague, David Ellison, will understand the difference between the two. I’m specifically talking about VR whereby you put the goggles on and immediately you are transported to another environment – it all sounds great.

Looking at this very generally, the effects on human behaviour are fascinating and a little scary to some extent. Because of the immersive environment the user is in, will the lines become blurred between real-life and virtual? In a thoughtful piece by Andrew Da Silva - head of travel team (T3) at Mediacom in Australia, he discusses five points that I found particularly poignant.

As someone who has experience in the gaming environment

The first point reflects on the premise that VR will become

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part of our memory, without discriminating between good or bad things, depending on the environment the user has put themselves in. It seems a fair concluson I suppose the idea here would be for the advertiser to only be associated with good experiences.

The next is what if people become sick or injured, after being immersed both physically and even mentally. Will the creators have to put warnings on these experiences much like those on cigarette packets? At present the adult certifcations on games or films aren’t really much of a deterrent to younger gamers.

This brings me onto the third point, violent virtual reality games – these are already available as 2D in titles such as Call of Duty, where there is training, battle and even death – how do we, as suggested in the article, maintain a grip on reality? This could spawn a whole new market in reality drugs designed to bring us out of the virtual state.

The fourth is virtual crime which is also mentioned and is certainly possible, but I’ll take it a stage further. If a user is killed in a war game or car crash, (think Grand Theft Auto) and suffers post-traumatic stress due to the immersive experience, what would the consequences be?

As we seem to live in a blame culture society, the question from the user could be who can I sue? The game’s developer, the person(s) who killed me or the console manufacturer?

By VR going mainstream like smartphones (we already have smartphone addiction), the user may have to be medically treated, and this could put an incredible strain on our health service as doctors and nurses would have to be trained specifically to treat patients who suffer from VR inflicted illnesses.

And finally should there be a code of ethics at all? My thinking would be probably yes, there should be, otherwise havoc could be caused in all sorts of ways (some of which I haven’t covered or even thought about) and the virtual world becomes the real Wild West. We are only just recovering from the Wild West in digital.

Where will advertising fit in? For now it may be just product/ prop placement and sponsorship along with some content woven in, which at present seems a little weak and very niche. Perhaps more and more partnerships will be formed with games/experience makers and brands – you never know, media may also be sold inside a game or experience as a way to advertise.

And just to leave you with a final thought from the rather cynical part of my mind, who would want to spend so much time in a virtual world anyway? Either you’re running away from god knows what, or you have nothing to live for in the real world.

Mario Yiannacou , Media And Advertising Manager, ISBA

Brand portfolio expansion: The Hilton Way! HILTON IS PRETTY SURE IT NEEDS FIVE MORE HOTEL BRANDS TO BETTER COMPETE

By Deanna Ting, Journalist. Associate Editor @skift

At Hilton Worldwide’s Investor Day on Dec. 8, Jim Holthouser, Hilton’s executive vice president of global brands, revealed that while the company is very happy with its repertoire of 13 hotel brands, it isn’t ruling out the possibility of adding more.

In fact, Holthouser identified five “white spaces for potential future brands” for shareholders: a luxury soft brand collection, a luxury lifestyle brand, a “Hilton plus” brand, an upscale soft brand collection, and an urban microtel brand.

The announcement was somewhat surprising, given that Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta has thrown a bit of shade on its biggest competitor, Marriott, for having too many brands that are similar to each other.

During Hilton’s third quarter earnings call, he said. “We are very focused on having pure-bred brands that are leaders in their individual segments, that have clearly defined swim lanes, that have premium market share and, as a consequence, help us drive industry leading organic net unit growth. That’s our strategy. Others have taken different paths… As for what Marriott or anyone else is doing, I think you need to ask them about it.”

If Hilton does go ahead with adding these new brands, the company will have to emphasize not only each brand’s distinctiveness, not just within the Hilton family of brands, but industry wide.

Holthouser acknowledged this during his presentation, saying, of Hilton’s existing brands: “Every brand has its own unique swim lane. And these swim lanes are global. Our intention is to develop brands that have global application. They’re all not global today, [but] at some point we intend for them to be.”

He also made a pointed remark, in obvious reference to Marriott, saying: “Unlike a lot of our competitors, we don’t have brands that sit right on top of each other or that share the same position, that are fighting each other for the same customers. Quite frankly, that confuses everybody.”

Whether Holthouser’s statement is entirely true is somewhat up for debate (ask yourself if you can easily distinguish the differences among brands like DoubleTree, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton by Hilton, or Home2 Suites), but his main message is clear: the brands can’t be too similar to each other, or similar to other brands from other competitors.

IS ADDING MORE BRANDS A GOOD IDEA? Makarand Mody, assistant professor of hospitality marketing at the Boston University School of Hospitality Administration, said he wasn’t at all surprised by Hilton’s announcement.

“When you think of all the consolidation taking place across the different segments of the business, and Marriott, obviously, now with up to 30 brands,

Hilton’s portfolio does feel a little light in that sense. It’s not surprising.”

During his presentation, Holthouser said the primary reason for adding new brands was revenue- and scaledriven.

He said, “Shareholders should be very excited about new brands as well because they’re new fee streams and they’re ways of growing out network effect.”

That network effect, achievable through scale, is a big reason why Hilton is going this route and, in some ways, following in the footsteps of its biggest competitor, Marriott. Hilton is now the second-largest hotel company in the world behind Marriott. With these five possible future brands in the works, Hilton’s total brand portfolio would rise to 18.

Each of the various big chains has a lot of brands: InterContinental Hotels Group has 12, Wyndham Hotel Group has 16, Choice has 11, and Hyatt has a dozen.

Mody, for one, thinks that because so much of hotel marketing is being driven increasingly by data, “it’s possible to identify more niche markets than, perhaps was possible in the past. Each brand is becoming so hyper focused, which can be both a positive or a negative at time, but I think new brand being launched are doing a better job of being more focused.”

He added, “I see this as Hilton’s attempt to at least create that perception of

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more brand options and through that, I think they’re also going to promote greater awareness of the Hilton brand family.”

it’s another tool in the arsenal that helps us with really complicated, very high profile convention city, convention center projects.”

A CLOSER LOOK AT THOSE FIVE WHITE SPACES

Skift Take: Perhaps they should wait to see how Sheraton Grand plays out.

Here’s what Holthouser had to say about each of those five potential brand concepts, along with our Skift Take interpretations: Luxury and Upscale Soft Brand Collections: “We think that potentially, what makes sense right now, is for us to concentrate on some additional soft brands. Potentially something below Curio, kind of at that DoubleTree level.

Maybe something above Curio at the luxury level. Because as you guys know, we’re entering that cycle right now where I think soft branding — the ability to access engines from Hilton — it’s a very attractive proposition if you’re the owner on an independent hotel without the scale and scope and the muscle of a Hilton behind you.”

Skift Take: So, this means a Hiltonized version of Starwood’s The Luxury Collection and a Hiltonized version of Starwood’s Tribute Portfolio, yes? Both of which are also soft brand collections.

Luxury Lifestyle: “[The] second thing we’re contemplating right now is potentially something in the luxury lifestyle space. Again, these are — you’ll never get hundreds of hotels in all likelihood with a brand like this, but Chris [Nassetta, Hilton Worldwide CEO] was talking about kind of the cache and the halo effect that brands like that cast. It also helps us to attract new HHonors members and get them to commit to our program and our family.

So that’s something we’re looking at.”

Skift Take: This sounds a great deal like Denizen. Denizen is the name of the ill-fated luxury lifestyle hotel that Hilton attempted to launch in 2009, for which it was sued by Starwood Hotels and Resorts, which accused Hilton of using stolen trade secrets regarding Starwood’s own W Hotels to create the brand. Hilton settled the suit with Starwood in 2010, agreeing not to launch any brand in the lifestyle or branded boutique space for at least two years.

“Hilton Plus:” “We think there might be an opportunity with a Hilton Plus product, probably a line expansion or maybe it’s a separate brand. We haven’t really decided yet. But something that

Urban Microtel: “And then finally, we’re looking down in the economy space with maybe an urban microtel kind of concept, urban lifestyle economy. This is great play for next generation travelers, but at the same time this gives us something to do really, really, to be very innovative in this space. And the economics are pretty compelling.”

Skift Take: Taking a page out of the Generator Hostels, Jo&Joe playbook, perhaps? Given that Generator Hostels is reportedly up for sale for up to $500 million right now, perhaps Hilton may want to throw its hat in the ring.

WHAT HILTON NEEDS TO DO TO SUCCEED Mody agreed with Holthouser’s objective to make sure the new brands are distinctive, but suggested Hilton take a closer look at what Marriott has been doing as of late with its newest brands like Moxy for some inspiration.

“With this newer brand, Marriott is being much bolder with the personality it’s trying to create. Moxy, for example, is very different from what Marriott has done in the past and it’s really taken Marriott out of its comfort zone, but that’s what required to stand out in a cluttered market: being strong, bold, and distinctive, and having a personality. That’s something Hilton will have to work on.”

He added, “Personally, I see Hilton as being reliable — it’s got a lot of things going for it — but its [overall brand portfolio] doesn’t seem as bold, cutting-edge, and modern. It has to be bolder with its brands. Tru by Hilton is an example of them starting along in that direction, and it’ll be interesting to see how that brand plays out.”

TRU BY HILTON: A GLIMPSE INTO HILTON’S BRANDBUILDING FUTURE The first Tru by Hilton is expected to open in March 2017 and already, it’s become the fastest growing brand in the entire Hilton portfolio, with more than 140 executed agreements, totaling nearly 14,000 rooms, and more than

200 additional hotels in process.

Alexandra Jaritz, global head of Tru by Hilton, told Skift that when the brand first debuted, many had the impression it was a “purely Millennial brand” but she said that it’s being designed to appeal more to a “millennial mindset” that’s “cross-generational.”

Early criticism of the brand’s design and marketing as having too many colors or being too loud have also been “toned down.”

Jaritz also said that Hilton is continuing to modify the models according to feedback from owners so that “every single dollar is scrutinized” in a way that is “value engineered to drive the returns necessary [for owners.]”

She also described the brand as having three pillars: “simplified, meaning intuitive, and effortless; spirited meaning to know when to engage and when to leave alone; and grounded in value.”

“We want to set expectations [for the brand] right from the beginning,” Jaritz said. “With Tru by Hilton, we want to shift the game, shift the paradigm for guests in the midscale category now.”

As Hilton prepares to position these potential new brands according to price categories and service levels, Mody said the company should also take the overall value proposition, or experience into account, perhaps even more so than the rack rate.

“Brands need to take a step back a bit more and try to understand what their value proposition is, particularly when it comes to white spaces through price segments,” he said. “Dynamic pricing has made pricing so fluid, so building a brand on price alone can become a little limiting. Newer brands really have to focus on the key value propositions they are trying to provide, as opposed to just price.”

With Tru by Hilton, it seems like Hilton is headed on that path.

And in crafting these five new brands, Hilton should also be paying attention to what Airbnb has done and continues to do: focus on the overall experience.

“It all centers around the experience and that’s where Airbnb is doing a good job. Hotels are doing that piecemeal, with different dimensions of experiences of what they offer, and I see Hilton and other brands heading in this direction going forward,” Mody said.

How Platforms Will Disrupt the Future of Media and Entertainment By

Barry Libert, Megan Beck and Jerry (Yoram) Wind

Authors Barry Libert, Megan Beck and Jerry (Yoram) Wind look at how people and platforms are disrupting the media and entertainment industries. Libert is CEO of OpenMatters and Beck is the chief insights officer. Wind is a Wharton marketing professor and director of Wharton’s SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management. They also wrote a book called The Network Imperative: How to Survive and Grow in the Age of Digital Business Models. The authors would like to thank LiquidHub for sponsoring the research for this series.

Remember that decades-old public service announcement asking parents, “Do you know where your children are?”

That ad could not have anticipated that the answer one day would be this: They are somewhere uploading their favorite videos of themselves — or their cats — to YouTube, posting photos to Instagram and sending disappearing messages on Snapchat.

For today’s social and video networks, the human network — you and me — is changing the entire business models of publishers, TV and radio broadcasters and even cable TV companies as well as content providers in entertainment, news and sports. The real question, then, is not whether broadcasters, advertisers and content providers will be disrupted by the power of us and what we produce and distribute — but how quickly?

To put this in context, more than 20 years ago, the only outlet for individuals to broadcast their own personal and local interests was to use public access television channels or write letters to newspaper editors. But today, we hold a lot more power as broadcasters using digital outlets like Facebook Live, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. And for good reason.

The old definition of broadcast and entertainment was simplistic: Content mainly came from the establishment and sent in one direction, to us. But that reality is changing as the media and entertainment and industries are being turned upside down and outside in.

The YouTube Phenomenon YouTube posted its first video on April 23, 2005. That video, Me at the Zoo, has subsequently been viewed 34.5 million times in 11 years. In less than a decade, YouTube has changed everything about television — from what we watch, to when we watch it and who makes and produces that content. Indeed, in less than a decade, it has become a threat to the conventional business model of television — but not in the way the world expected.

YouTube was originally created “AT&T is trying to to make it easy for everyone to create and upload their own transform from personal, homemade videos and post them to the internet asset-heavy to so anyone could see them. It content-rich and quickly became a destination of its own, one that challenged network-centric.” and continues to challenge traditional TV broadcaster business models. In time, YouTube became the platform upon which ‘we the people’ posted what we liked and what ‘we watched.’ Unlike traditional print and broadcast outlets, there is no central team or gatekeeper trying to read our minds and create content based on the establishment’s understanding of what we desire. And — at least initially — YouTube was free of commercials.

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The incumbents did not react well to the YouTube phenomenon.

One digital video short from Saturday Night Live called Lazy Sunday, starring Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell, racked up 5 million views but was pulled by its producer — NBCUniversal — two months later. In YouTube’s infancy, many television, movie and music companies were quite worried that users would either steal their copyrighted material and post it online for free or just shift their viewing behavior from TV to the internet. Those and other fears proved to be correct. We, the people, were about to be direct competitors to the likes of ABC, NBC and CBS. Today, YouTube is a massive digital platform and virtual network fueled by the people that is on par, if not bigger, than almost any TV or cable network. And by most accounts, Facebook Live and YouTube will continue to grow in importance as user-generated content on digital platforms become direct competitors to intuitionally generated content on traditional mediums — whether distributed through traditional means or online.

Incumbents Play Catch-up Traditional media companies are doing all they can to challenge our growing numbers and content. Witness the recently announced, and pending, purchase of Time Warner

by AT&T for $85 billion. This acquisition, if approved by regulators, will single-handedly transform AT&T into a content goliath. The new combination will pair AT&T’s more than 130 million mobile customers with Time Warner’s rich film and TV offerings (Warner Brothers), news (CNN), premium cable (HBO), entertainment (TNT), sports (TBS) and other offerings. In essence, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson is trying

to transform his asset-heavy company (with low valuations) into a content-rich and network-centric organization. But will it really allow them to transform this old-style network into a virtual network that carries what we produce and create?

According to AT&T’s leadership, “Premium content always wins. It has been true on the big screen, the TV screen and now it’s proving true on the mobile screen … [and] it will disrupt the traditional entertainment model and push the boundaries on mobile content availability for the benefit of customers.” For AT&T, the deal would eclipse its nearly $50 billion DirecTV acquisition and may be its biggest acquisition since paying $67 billion for BellSouth in 2006.

Verizon, the nation’s largest mobile carrier, is also trying to keep up but via a different route. The telecom company is focused on building its digital platform with the acquisition of AOL and Yahoo, with their ad networks as big a lure as their new media content offerings, as it gears up to compete with Google and Facebook for digital advertising dominance.

From our perspective, both companies are trying their best to modify their business model. But according to our research on business models, the real question is this: Are they doing the right thing or do they need to become real technology companies or network orchestrators to win in this age of platforms and networks?

Sports and Entertainment — a Similar Challenge Much to everyone’s amazement, the once solidly reliable generator of TV ratings in live sporting games — the NFL — has seen its audience slip in 2016. The Wall Street Journal

reports that ratings fell 10% in the first month of the profootball season. That’s an amazing statistic given that football is one of the most important content franchises in traditional broadcast and print media.

Why did ratings fall so precipitously? CBS CEO Leslie Moonves told the paper that the presidential election might have diverted some viewers. Others point to the availability of football on other venues, such as Verizon mobile phones and Twitter that could have siphoned viewers from traditional TV. Notably, Nielsen doesn’t fully track viewership on the different platforms, so this gap could have undercounted ratings as well. Cord-cutting also could be a factor as people ditch high-priced cable TV. “Sports, entertainment, broadcasting, publishing companies that cling to the old way will continue to lose ground.”

After the election, NFL ratings have rebounded but remain down so far for the season, according to Sports Illustrated.

However, we believe that there are fundamental shifts taking place that could spell trouble for the NFL in the long run.

First, today’s broadcasts of professional football have structural issues that are out of sync with our on-demand, real-time culture. There are many people who can still watch a four-hour game, but it is getting harder to find them.

Second, the commercial-kickoff-commercial sequence in the games just doesn’t align with our approach to life. Can you imagine putting up with multiple interruptions as you try to be productive at work?

Finally, just witness the power and growth of Fantasy Sports to understand the ‘power of us’ alongside traditional sports to understand that we want and will pay for a role in this new game of entertainment, sports and broadcast.

The Bottom Line It’s time to change the core beliefs — or mental models — of

media and entertainment companies if they want to survive, and thrive in the age of platforms and networks that are built around us and our ability to create, produce and generate content. From our perspective, the deeply held beliefs that historically drove success for media and entertainment are being upended in a world that has both models — institutionally generated content on their platforms and user generated content that thrive on online platforms.

Based on our work around the globe, it is clear that companies have entrenched immune systems — organizational systems that were built to resist change, especially shifts forced upon them by digital platforms and networks that are eating their world, such as Uber, Airbnb, YouTube or Snapchat. Media and entertainment companies are no different.

To be sure, they have done a lot in recent years — consider the ‘TV Everywhere’ initiative in 2009 by Time Warner and Comcast to put cable video content across platforms, as well as creation of so-called over-the-top providers like Hulu (owned by broadcasters), HBO GO and CBS All Access.

But their position remains precarious. Just look at Netflix’s rise. As of the third quarter, it had more than 47 million U.S. subscribers — almost 87 million worldwide — more than double that of Comcast in the U.S., the nation’s largest cable operator.

Sports, entertainment, broadcasting and publishing companies that cling to the old way of doing things will continue to lose ground. Premium content, such as the great sports franchises of the NFL, NBA and MLB, will remain valuable. As would telecom companies like AT&T and Verizon that provide a vast, national network. Those at risk are companies that rely mostly on their own content, and not the content of their network using extensible and scalable digital platforms to give users a place to share their own creations.

The same is true for entertainment. While there will always be an appetite for professionally produced content, increasingly, these networks act as a megaphone that lets users’ voices be heard — both as co-creators and network contributors.

The real question is this: What will the future look like when it comes to ownership? No one knows as cord-cutting takes place and everyone becomes his or her own broadcaster and fantasy sports team owner, a result of building platforms and networks where we are at the center.

The Future Is in Our Hands The future of entertainment, publishing, sports and broadcasting industries is now firmly in our hands. We now have the tools, platforms and capabilities to do what we want, whenever we want — and that means, we can read what we want on the run, watch what we want at any time whether it’s entertainment or video-chatting with friends or family.

Today’s technologies offer freedom from the routines of yesterday — including sitting and watching NFL games, TV or cable channels, as we have the choice to work more at our own schedule, versus a media company’s schedule, thanks to on-demand and user-generated programing. If media and entertainment companies want to stay relevant and valuable in the future, they will need to build a strong relationship with us, and give us a place in their programming and on their networks — or else, we might just spend all of our time on YouTube or Facebook Live.

Creative Director: Navigating The New World Of Founder-Brands Richard Smith, Creative Director at Sullivan, explains how visionaries like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg approach their branding and why it’s important to apply brand thinking to founders’ products

By Richard Smith

Lately, we’ve found that the definition of a “big brand” is changing. Decades ago, the big brands were the heavyweights like 3M or Honeywell or GE — the companies that made products and whose success was defined by how many units were sold.

Then along came the 1990s where the Internet brought forth a new generation of big brands. Microsoft, Apple and Google were successful because of how they powered intangibles, like large-scale computing, information (“organizing the world’s information”), or innovation (“think different”). However, these complex offerings were made more understandable and accessible through cohesive branding – the voice and visual system that conveys an interrelation between every product.

Today, the emerging big brands among us are those that are bringing the future to fruition — changing how we exist, interact, and sustain our lives. They’re making social networks, self-driving cars, hoverboards, and holograms.

And most interesting of all, this new class of brand is led by a visionary founder with a particular philosophy, not by

a corporate entity acting out a product roadmap against established brand guidelines and architecture. People like Elon Musk, Evan Spiegel, and Mark Zuckerberg are pursuing innovation across product and business lines that sometimes don’t organize quite as neatly under a parent company as the businesses of yesteryear had, and instead are branded in siloes.

So, in a time when founders are starting multiple companies with product offerings that – at face value – don’t align as easily, how can consumer loyalty to one product be translated to another? Is there a way to apply brand thinking to this new generation of visionaries in order to build cross-product loyalty?

Yes.

Creating a brand as a founder’s proxy Richard Branson was ahead of his time, in that music, airlines, and cell phones didn’t seem to have much in common other than the disruptive viewpoint Virgin brought to each industry.

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However, Branson understood the need to unite these products – which lacked any similarity in offering – through visual and verbal cues. Putting the Virgin name on each product made Virgin eponymous with Branson’s own brand.

In a similar way, Evan Spiegel followed the Branson model, creating Snap, Inc. as the parent company to Snapchat and Spectacles. While this move was likely aimed at smoothing the process to IPO, the reality is that when Snap, Inc. launched Spectacles, its familiar branding and purpose (“creating Memories”) was critical in translating Snapchat users to Spectacle early adopters. Time will tell if Spiegel launches another product line outside of the Snap brand, but for now, consistent branding across his two products is wise crossmarketing.

Enter Elon Musk Though the Virgin name became indicative of a product that was Branson-created (or at least Branson-related), visionary founders today are stepping back from aligning themselves with a single parent brand and are instead creating many different lines of business that each boast a unique identity and value proposition.

For instance, a self-driving car, a trip to Mars, beautiful solar panels, and twelve-minute trip from Dubai to Abu Dhabi share some qualities, but don’t immediately stand for the same value and trustworthiness that consumers have grown accustomed to using when making buying decisions. While Musk’s futuristic, innovative offerings appeal to the small set of consumers who follow his Apple-esque events and announcements, for Musk’s brand to enter the mainstream – which appears to be on the horizon – it’s important to find ways to ensure that someone looking to go off the grid with solar is also inclined to wait three years for the Model 3.

However, the Musk focus on sustainability, technology, and innovation is muddied among the varied names, causes, visual identities, and price points of his products. With no core visual elements shared across his brands, Musk’s higherorder ambitions and values of sustainability and innovation get lost.

Zuckerberg setting the tone Musk would do well by looking to the Mark Zuckerberg model of founder branding. As varied as Zuckerberg’s subsidiary products are, his passion for connecting people with one another is conveyed through tangible expressions of that value: open and friendly communication and design.

This is something he and his team have successfully done across his products, including Internet.org, Oculus, and the Zuckerberg’s Biohub. He uses Facebook as a platform for announcements and use cases for all of his products, even if they aren’t part of the Facebook brand. For instance, announcements about WhatsApp happen alongside personal posts and still alongside Facebook product updates.

Zuckerberg allows these products to interact and intersect with one another without needing a single brand architecture, and in doing this, the consumer can easily identify a Zuckerberg project, and therefore what he and his brand stands for.

Founder brands are not necessarily new, but the weight they hold in the average consumer’s life is growing. For founder brands, many of the same qualities of modern-day corporate branding hold: in order to connect with customers – and increase chances of cross-product sales – it’s important to identify a guiding philosophy, values and tone, and extend that “strategy” through design and communication across channels. Doing so makes it exponentially more efficient to create company and product brands as founders innovate in new areas, and easier to keep loyalists engaged.

Richard Smith is Creative Director at Sullivan, overseeing every aspect of creative development for many of Sullivan’s key clients. He enjoyed a long, adventurous trip to Sullivan—a journey that included joining Peter Saville’s studio straight out of school, co-founding the influential London-based design studio Area, and even designing the cover of the hit Depeche Mode album Violator. These colorful experiences, as well as 30 years of brand communications expertise (including a decade at Sullivan), have given him a unique ability to translate ideas into substance and give a brand’s voice true meaning.

Images: Angus Babidge, Sullivan Alessio Jacona | CC | Image resized

Coffee Wars: Can Revamped McCafé Beat Starbucks?

By Abe Sauer

Just days after Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced a leadership shakeup at the world’s biggest coffee chain, McDonald’s says it’s going to overhaul its McCafé concept to better challenge Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts.

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A revamped McCafé is no surprise. While sales at coffee chains grew 10% last year, coffee sales at fast food outlets like McCafé grew only 3%.

month that it’s adding McCafé to its in-flight menu.

In an attempt to share in some of that growth, McDonald’s is promoting new McCafé deals and pushing harder on its rewards program in addition to offering more seasonal drinks.

The fast food coffee brand is also highlighting sustainability and its menu-wide coffee bean sustainability program.

Oddly enough, McCafé lagging behind the coffee culture curve is a US-specific phenomenon for McDonald’s. In the AsiaPacific region, McCafé has worked hard to be innovative on the coffee front.

Alongside more seasonal flavored lattes and coffee drinks, another area where customers might expect to see changes is in McCafé’s cold beverage options. Brands, from Dunkin’ Donuts to Dr Pepper to Starbucks, have all stepped up their cold brew coffee offerings, made with cold water as opposed to iced coffee, which is hot-brewed coffee then cooled down.

While McDonald’s was compelled to de-brand its coffee chain in java-fussy Australia to play down down its parental roots, McCafé outposts in Hong Kong celebrated latte art and whole bean packaging that would fit in almost any hipster cafe.

In keeping with how McDonald’s tests its innovations outside the US, such as its DIY digital kiosks, the first-ever McCafé was tested in 1993 in Canada.

As McDonald’s steps up its coffee game, analysts say Starbucks should be worried—and they’re right. With better marketing for its coffee sourcing and cut-rate pricing on specialty espresso drinks, Starbucks could lose market share to McDonald’s. But Starbucks is countering by going the other direction.

Starbucks’ commitment to cold brew came this last summer after the brand saw an unexpected 20% increase in US cold coffee drink sales.

In May 2016, Starbucks introduced a North America line-up of cold coffee drinks with bullish projections that it expected “the category of cold coffee to double in the next three years.”

In September, Coca-Cola also announced that its Gold Peak iced tea brand would be launching cold brew coffee offerings.

Currently, McCafé offers iced coffee to McDonald’s customers along with a variety of blended frappé drinks. But so far, McDonald’s has avoided the cold brew bandwagon— perhaps to its detriment.

The possibility of an expanded cold drinks menu is not all McCafé is doing to reintroduce its $4 billion brand. They will also expand espresso options, requiring new equipment be acquired by franchisees. One airline will also exclusively serve McCafé drinks, with Canada’s WestJet announcing last

So while Howard Schultz is stepping down as CEO, the Starbucks guru is stepping up his commitment to Starbucks’ roots as a coffee connoisseur. He plans to throw himself into scaling the Starbucks Reserve Roastery brand, a premium concept that adds artisanal methods and high-touch elements —see the Tasting Room part of its moniker—to appeal to the hardcore or aspiring coffee aficionado.

Done strategically and thoughtfully, it should help take Starbucks more upscale, leaving McCafé to battle it out with Dunkin’ Donuts and other lower-priced players.

The Best And Worst Branding Of 2016 WE REVISIT THE HIGHS, THE LOWS, THE MOST-TWEETED ABOUT. HERE ARE OUR PICKS FOR THE BEST AND WORST IDENTITY DESIGN OF THE YEAR.

By Meg Miller

It has never been harder to design a good visual identity. Brands live on dozens of platforms, so they have to look as good on a billboard as they do on a phone screen. Armchair critics emboldened by the ease of the web attack change no matter how necessary, skewing clients toward less ambitious work. And yet the companies below managed to eke out thoughtful, even occasionally daring, new visual identities this year. Of course not everyone hit the mark. Here, we take you through a year of branding—the good, the bad, and the most controversial.

THE BEST

Grubhub

MasterCard

Grubhub may have started out as a small startup, but in 2016, the 12-year-old company services 7 million people and 44,000 restaurants. It needed a grown-up redesign: a look that was authentic yet polished and one that would work on both a national and hyper-local level. Wolff Olins took on the task and rebranded the company, populating ads with lifestyle photos (think Airbnb ads and Apple commercials) and hand-drawn lettering, and adding chef highlights, animated food items, and a custom keyboard of GrubHub “mmmojis” to the site. Overall, the new look is fresh and professional, but retained some of the scrappy personality of its earlier paper cut-out illustrations. The hope is that it will persuade the shrinking, but still sizable population of people who still prefer placing delivery orders over the phone to switch to the web.

Before this year the MasterCard logo hadn’t changed significantly in 20 years, but the way that we buy and pay for things certainly had. Tasked with the company’s first major redesign in two decades, Pentagram partner Michael Bierut and designer Hamish Smyth refrained from making drastic changes to the familiar overlapping yellow and red circles in the logo—instead opting to modernize it by removing the comb effect in the center and placing the wordmark outside of the symbol. With the option to just use the familiar symbol without the wordmark, the system is flexible enough to work across multiple products and platforms, like the MasterPass digital payments and Priceless rewards program. The logo is also optimized to work well on mobile, the direction most of our bank transactions have been going.

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Helia

Instagram

Sometimes it’s the lesser-known companies that pack the biggest punch with a stellar redesign. Such was the case with Helia, a data science and analytics company whose client roster includes companies like Unilever, easyJet, IBM, Diageo, and Sony PlayStation. Designed by the New York-based design firm Form&, the identity system centers around a simple circular logo imbued with a gradient that changes colors based on weather and geographic data. In that way, in both the print and digital form, the color of the logo serves as a unique data stamp. The eye-catching redesign brings a company that typically works behind-the-scenes front and center.

In May, Instagram shocked the internet when it unveiled a pared-down, rainbow-gradient upgrade to its Polaroid icon.

But the new icon contained some clever details: an image that referenced photography’s evolution away from film-based cameras to phones, and a rainbow gradient that made the icon pop in a sea of other icons (and subtly referenced the rainbow stripes of the old icon). Not surprisingly, the fervor quickly subsided. Now your thumb gravitates instinctively toward the icon on your phone dashboard without a passing thought given to the skeuomorphic old one (there’s no need to reference analog cameras in an app for your iPhone cam).

Zendesk

Zocdoc

The customer service software provider Zendesk offers one of the most drastic before-and-after logo stories: from a cartoonish smiling Buddha on a chat headset to a sleek system of geometric shapes. The identity retained its playfulness, though, with each Zendesk service receiving an iteration of the logo that has its own animated personality.

The Help Center, for example, is two arrows, one leading the other. The logo for Support is a tall rectangle leaning on a shorter one. The best part might be when you realize why this charming shape system is so familiar: It was inspired by wooden toy blocks from the founder’s Danish childhood.

Health care platform Zocdoc launched in 2007 with a staid, traditional logo that the company’s founders bought for a mere $80. Now that the business is valued at $1.8 billion and is rapidly expanding its model to connect patients with hospital systems as well as individual practitioners, it figured it could afford something new. Wolff Olins did the redesign: a friendly, human-centered identity with a cute little anthropomorphic logo that turns the letter Z into a emoticonlike face, who goes by “Zee.” The responsive Zee gets it: He can look puzzled, sad, relieved, happy. He too experiences the roller-coaster ride of emotions you go through when you’re sick and struggling to recall the details of your health care co-pay, all while trying to book an appointment today, not three weeks from now.

THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL The Met This year, the award for the rebrand that drew the most outrage goes to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met overhauled its logo and identity system—much to the chagrin of many design critics—and revealed a new logo that rebrands the museum as “The Met.” The two words, stacked on top of each other in large scarlet lettering, replaced the stylized M logo originally taken from a woodcut by Luca Pacioli. Wolff Olins did the identity, but the rollout was botched when the museum sent out press materials with the new logo before it was announced. Identities tend to get judged harshly when they are launched sans explanation—especially changes as major as this one—but it’s been 10 months and the logo has already worn in nicely. We like the bold new design, and we’re glad it stuck around long enough for the dust to settle.

THE WORST

Uber

Trump-Pence Logo

When Uber’s new icon came out in February, it was widely ridiculed. It looked like PacMan. An asshole. A “little kind of bluish sideways ass.” Wired dedicated considerably more words to the icon with a behind-the-scenes look, during which Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said he kept the design inhouse because he didn’t trust anyone else to do it for him.

Bad call, Kalanick. The icon managed to look both soullessly corporate and overworked. It was also poorly executed. Yet, just like the (better, more thoughtful) Instagram redesign, the Uber icon shows how quickly these controversial rebrandings are normalized—particularly with apps we interact with so much that their use becomes almost subconscious.

Well, here we are: the absolute worst brand design of the year. We wish we didn’t have to bring this pair up, but there’s no getting around the fact that the Trump-Pence logo takes the prize. The animation says it all, but Twitter said it pretty well, too. The campaign buckled under the online mockery, pulled the logo, and replaced it with something less suggestive, but it was too late. The image is seared into our minds forever. With Trumpistan looming, you’ll want to keep this GIF close—a memento from simpler times.

Meg Miller is an associate editor at Co.Design covering art, technology, and design.

4 Foolproof Ways to Improve Your Digital Marketing INTERVIEW WITH AMY PORTERFIELD

By Donald Miller

If you’re trying to run and grow a business, you know you’re going to need smart marketing tactics to get you to the next level of success.

The trouble is, there is SO MUCH information out there. And not all of it can be trusted to actually work for you.

So I’m thrilled to have Amy Porterfield joining me on the Building a Story Brand podcast this week. She’s an actual expert on all things digital marketing, and she has four ways you can effectively dial up your digital marketing, no matter what level you’re at today.

Without a doubt, Amy’s strategies are fantastic. But one word of caution: they’re going to take your existing messaging and amplify it. So if you don’t have solid messaging, these strategies will only help you tank faster.

So before you put too much time and effort into your digital marketing, use our StoryBrand framework to clarify your messaging so it’s clear, concise, and persuasive. Our StoryBrand Live Workshops are a high-energy, hands-on way to do that, or you can request an invitation to the online version of the Workshop and learn the framework on your own schedule.

So, with that in mind, let’s dig into these four levels.

Level 1: Grow and Nurture an Email List If you haven’t gotten serious yet about email marketing, then perhaps Amy can convince you it’s time. She tells it how it is: “The strength of your business is directly tied to the quality of your email list.”

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She’s right. Nothing moves the needle for our businesses quite like email. And because it’s so affordable, the return on our investment is staggering, especially compared to other marketing channels. (It’s $38 for every dollar spent, according to the DMA.) But if you think that means you need to fire up “a newsletter,” think again.

Nobody wants to sign up for a newsletter.

You’ve got to offer something better than that. Here’s how.

First, Offer Something of Value for Free For New Subscribers Give away some valuable content as a “thank-you” for people who signup for your email list. As you’re figuring out what to give away, Amy recommends you ask this question:

“What does my audience need to know, understand, or believe before they ever want to do business with me?”

Package up that information into a downloadable guide, checklist, or PDF. If you want to get fancy, you could turn it into a video series or quiz. But the most important thing is to get the content right.

Here are a few examples to inspire you: Mom Blogger: 15 Fun Crafts You Can Do With Your Kids (With Materials You Already Have) Mortgage Company: The Top 10 Mistakes First-Time Homebuyers Make — Plus What to Do Instead Bridal Store: A 5-Point Checklist to Help You Find the Wedding Dress of Your Dreams Accounting Software Company: 7 Often-Overlooked Tax Tips for Savvy Freelancers Tire Shop: The Expert’s Guide to Winter Driving: How to Drive Safely Even in Crazy Conditions Next, Be Consistent in Your Communication

If you sell a big-ticket item, aim for a balance of sending valuable content 80% of the time, selling 20% of the time. If you sell something at a lower price point, feel free to keep a short call to action in every email you send.

The bottom line: Create short, original content and send it out on a weekly basis. You’ll be miles ahead of the competition.

Level 2: Host a Facebook Live After you’ve gotten into a rhythm with your email marketing and content strategy, you can start looking at other ways to connect with your audience.

One simple, free way to do this is to host a Facebook Live event every week. This is an easy baby step to get comfortable creating content with your audience. You’ll learn a lot about what’s relevant and what’s not.

Frankly, a big part of your digital marketing strategy is just reminding people that you exist.

I learned this back in my mid-20s, when I was the president of a publishing company. I don’t know how that happened, but I was, and the company was growing. The absentee owner came in and said, “How are you doing this?”

This was in the dinosaur days before email, so I was sending actual mail to all these clients. A letter every week. I replied, “I think it’s just this letter,” and the owner said, “You’re kidding me. This letter doesn’t say anything. It talks about you going camping.”

I said, “Greg, they’re not opening the letter. They’re literally taking it out of the mailbox and putting it in their trash can.

But they’re seeing our logo on the envelope every single week.” So when they were ready to actually buy something, we were top of mind.

So let that take the pressure off your Facebook Live events.

Share value content, but remember that it’s really about showing up and staying in front of your audience, week in, week out.

Another bonus of Facebook Live events? It helps you get ready for the next step, which is…

When was the last time you emailed your subscribers?

Level 3: Host a Webinar

If you can’t remember, it’s been too long.

At this point, if you’ve been sending out emails and hosting Facebook Live events, you’re ready to host a webinar.

Now that you have a new subscriber (thanks to your irresistible giveaway), it’s time to turn that person into a customer by developing the relationship with consistent, frequent emails.

I already know what you’re thinking. “But I don’t want to bombard my customers! They’re going to hate me and unsubscribe.”

As Amy says: “There is direct correlation between the amount of times you email and the money you see generated from those emails.”

You don’t have to email people multiple times a week. It’s simply about staying in front of your audience, reminding them that you’re there, continuing to deliver value, and occasionally selling what you have to offer.

This is going to do a couple of key things for your business.

First, it’s going to help you generate more leads because you’ll require an email address to register for your webinar.

Next, it’s going to directly boost your sales.

So let’s tackle the two big questions most people have about webinars: What kind of technical setup do I need?

Not much! You can use your webcam to put yourself on video, although Amy just uses slides and her voice. You can stick to free options like YouTube or Google Hangouts or pay a bit more for dedicated webinar services like GoToWebinar or Zoom.

What should I talk about?

At this point in your digital marketing efforts, you should have a pretty good idea of what your topic should be. What’s resonated the most with your audience in your Facebook Live events and email campaigns?

They know who you are and were interested enough to look around. A follow-up ad may be just the nudge they need to take action.

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Target by location or geography For local businesses, this can be a game-changer. It helps to use the name of your town in your creative so people instantly recognize that the ad is relevant to them.

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Target using basic demographics (moms ages 2540 with kids in elementary school, for example)

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Target using social connections (Seth Godin fans, or the friends of people who are fans of your page)

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Target by interests or behaviors (fans of specific bands, shows, yarn stores, you name it)

When you’ve got your topic, design your webinar content to cover the “What” and the “Why.” As Amy says:

“What’s the big idea, and why does it matter to your attendee?”

Take our fictional mom blogger from earlier. Her ultimate goal is to sell an online parenting class, so her webinar might be something along the lines of The Top 5 Discipline Mistakes Even Well-Meaning Parents Make.

Her slides then need to frame up what the big idea is and why it matters. For 20 or 30 minutes, she can just give valuable tips about the common mistakes parents are making with discipline and why it matters for their kids’ long-term wellbeing.

Then, she goes to the next logical step — her parenting class that gives loving but frustrated parents a complete system for disciplining their kids in a positive way.

When you structure your webinars this way, it won’t even feel like you’re selling. You’re just helping your customers take the next right step to solve the problem they have.

Level 4: Facebook Ads At StoryBrand, we’ve had tremendous success recently with highly targeted Facebook ads. A huge reason for this is because you can really dial in the audiences. You never have to worry that you’re hitting people with a message they don’t want to hear.

And because we know our audience very well, we’ve been able to see good results.

That just scratches the surface of the possibilities. Plus, you can do it all on a fixed budget so you’ll know your audiences and creative are working before you make a bigger investment.

— So, to recap: to boost your digital marketing savvy, you’re going to: 1. Build and consistently share content with your email list; then 2. Host regular Facebook Live events to get comfortable chatting with your audience; then, 3. Host a webinar to grow your email list and boost your sales; then 4. Start running Facebook ads to find just the right people for your content and services.

Amy is the real deal, so give her strategies a try. Start at whatever level you’re at now, and I know you’ll see results soon.

Executive producer: Tim Schurrer

Here are just a few ideas Amy gives us for reaching the right people at the right time with Facebook ads:

Additional production and editing by: Chad Snavely and Nick Jaworski

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Alumni Highlight: Unruh Furniture

Target all visitors to your website or Facebook page

MENTIONED OR RELEVANT TO THIS EPISODE Amy’s Website Featured Resource: 5 Minute Marketing Makeover

How to Build Community on Facebook IS YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE REACH DECLINING? LOOKING FOR OTHER WAYS TO CONNECT WITH FACEBOOK FANS AND CUSTOMERS?

By Lizzie Davey

Creating a community for your business can help you reach your target audience more consistently than relying on a Facebook page alone.

purpose isn’t promoting a business. Your group shouldn’t even be about your business. Instead, you want to provide a place where your target audience can feel safe and comfortable.

In this article, you’ll discover how to build and promote a community on Facebook to let you engage with your target audience.

Think about the interests your audience shares. For instance, if you provide web design services for app developers, you want to create a group that sits on the crux of your product and your audience. So you might create a group called Design for Apps.

#1: Bring Fans Into a Focused Facebook Group If you haven’t heard the news, Facebook pages don’t have the same reach they used to.

Instead, there’s a hidden world on Facebook that’s taking over: the Facebook group. Groups are collections of likeminded people who share a common interest or goal and cover all sorts of niches.

The control you have over a group’s visibility is part of the appeal. Many Facebook groups are private communities where people connect outside the prying eyes of their friends and families. However, within a group, Facebook doesn’t limit who can see what. Members of a group see all of the posts in it.

You could join a group owned by someone else, but the best way to tap into this tool for business is to create your own group.

First of all, you need to know that Facebook groups don’t operate like Facebook pages. The Groups feature’s sole

Create a Group To begin creating your Facebook group, look for the Groups section in the left-hand sidebar and click Create Group.

When Facebook asks you to choose the purpose of your

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group, click Connect and Share.

Next, you need to name your group. For best results, choose a name that people will understand right away so your group is easy to find in a Facebook search and your audience will instantly know that your group is for them.

At this stage, you also have to invite some people to join.

You can’t create a group without at least one member, so try inviting an employee or friend while you get your group ready to go live.

To give your group a cohesive feel and welcome new members, add a cover image and a description. The cover image appears across the top of your Facebook group. The image should reflect the name of your group and include a tagline that tells people whom the group is for and what they’ll get out of it.

For example, Teachable, a course-creation platform, has a private Facebook community where customers can ask questions, get inspiration, and share stories. The group name clarifies that the group is for Teachable’s users. The cover photo depicts what the users do (create courses with the Teachable service) and includes the company’s tagline.

Spark Discussion Now that you’ve got some people rolling in (people who are your target audience!), it’s time to boost those engagement levels. Here are some easy ways to do that: Share prompt posts. These posts get the conversation started so members will talk among themselves. Try asking people to share their favorite book or travel destination. Krista Miller, a web developer for small businesses and entrepreneurs, posts a graphic that goes with a daily prompt for her Facebook group.

Next, click Add a Description in the right-hand sidebar. In the description, you can tell members about your business, link to a business landing page or your homepage, and tell members what they can expect from joining your community.

The description for The Teachable Tribe Facebook group explicitly states that Teachable wants to create a community.

Share relevant articles and news. You don’t want to promote your blog posts and products constantly, but you do want to share relevant articles that will help members solve their problems. You might share two or three relevant articles from top sites each week to encourage discussion.

Finally, you need to promote your Facebook group so members will join. When people sign up for your email newsletter, give them a link to join your group. On social media, you can pin a tweet, boost Facebook posts, and share an Instagram image about your group.

Share your expertise. People will join your group because they’re interested in the topic you’re promoting or because they need help with something.

In your group, you can share your expertise via thoughtful posts and by answering people’s questions. Sharing your expertise will help you become an authority in your niche

and help your members see you as the go-to person for your topic.

#2: Create Rapport via Regular Facebook Live Broadcasts The newest kid on the Facebook block is Facebook Live, a tool that lets you stream video to your audience in the moment.

With Facebook Live, your audience can ask you questions in real time and you can share a moment together. For example, the makeup brand Benefit uses Facebook Live to showcase new products and answer viewer questions.

Before the Broadcast Before your Facebook Live session, you need to create a plan for what you’ll talk about. Consider answering common questions you get asked. Or run a mini-class on a specific topic related to your brand. A web designer for app developers might run a Facebook Live mini-class on creating a high-converting landing page for app users.

Also, let your audience know when you’ll be live. A lot of businesses hit the Go Live button without giving their audience any warning. The problem? People are notified that you’re live only if they happen to be on Facebook at that very moment.

Instead, set a date and time in advance and let your audience know via email and social media when you’ll be live on Facebook and what you’ll be covering. Entrepreneur Melyssa Griffin posts reminders of her Live video and includes the time, time zone, and topic.

You can stream Facebook Live from three different places: your business’s Facebook page, your Facebook group, or your personal Facebook profile. When your goal is building a community around your business, you’ll have the most success streaming from your Facebook group and Facebook page.

To start a Facebook Live broadcast from your mobile device, go to the status update box (where you write a status) on your page or in your group. Among the options at the bottom, tap Go Live (the one with the little red camera next to it).

During the Broadcast When you’re live, you can set up notes in the background to help you stick to your planned topics or run through a few slides if you’re feeling nervous about spending the entire time on the screen.

The best part of Facebook Live is the interactivity. During your Facebook Live video, people can ask questions, which appear on your screen as you talk. Answer questions while you’re live to create a sense of conversation and build a rapport with viewers. This rapport is the key to building a community.

For best results, leave a few minutes at the end for questions and invite viewers to ask away. In a question-and-answer session, you can show your expertise on the topic and build trust with your audience, which is the first step in any community-building process.

After the Broadcast

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After your Facebook Live session, the video is available indefinitely on the page or group where you held it, so other people who missed it live can watch the replay.

After the live video, you might continue to receive questions from people who watch it after the fact. It’s important to answer any further questions that come in to keep the dialogue open.

The end of your Facebook Live session is also a good time to start planning your next one. Although you might just be coming down from the high of your first live video, consistency is important if you want to build a community. Set a slot each week where you’ll answer questions or teach a specific topic so your audience can come to rely on you.

#3: Attract New Community Members With Facebook Ads

When setting up your ad to attract new members to your Facebook community, focus on whom you’ll be targeting. You want to tap into an audience that already needs what you’re offering. Use the Detailed Targeting section to choose any brand or business that has the same audience as you and target their followers.

What’s the key to building a community with Facebook Ads? Making sure your ads are everywhere your target audience goes.

In a nutshell, consistency is the trick. When something shows up in your news feed enough times, you’re bound to sit up and take notice. It’s human nature. The more people see you, the more likely they’ll be to remember and recommend you.

With detailed targeting for a Facebook ad, you can spread the word about your community to people who share your community’s demographics, interests, or behaviors.

With detailed targeting for a Facebook ad, you can spread the word about your community to people who share your community’s demographics, interests, or behaviors.

You’ll also want to make sure your Facebook ad promotes a page post that will catch your audience’s interest; maybe an invitation to join your Facebook group or an announcement for your next Live broadcast. Take a look at your competitors’ sites if you need help coming up with an idea. For instance, look for popular blog post topics.

You’ve probably experienced it for yourself: you’re scrolling through your Facebook feed and an ad pops up from someone you’ve never heard of. If you want to see whom the business is targeting with that ad, just click the arrow in the top-right corner of the ad and select Why Am I Seeing This?

For the best results, run your Facebook ad campaign for at least one week, so the ad has the chance to show up multiple times in the feeds of the audience you’re targeting. After your target audience sees your ad and learns who you are, you can start providing them with value through a Facebook group, Facebook Live video, and content on your site.

Conclusion Community is important for two reasons: It boosts your position in your industry and elevates you to an authority in your niche.

A community also creates a group of loyal fans who will buy from you time and time again, and shout about your business from the rooftops without you having to prompt them.

Facebook will then show you the advertiser’s targeting options. Most of the time, the business will be targeting people who are fans of similar businesses.

Lizzie helps start-up tech brands and digital marketing agencies create content that connects and converts. She also runs Wanderful World, a site that helps freelancers grow lucrative, long-term businesses.

How startups can leverage location-based marketing to woo millennials

By Vivek Patel

Here’s the thing about millennials.

• By 2030, there will be 78 million millennials in the U.S. alone.

• Millennials are five times more likely to be early adopters of technology and can be either drivers or consumers.

• In 2014, 90 percent of millennials used smartphones, while 93 percent accessed the internet and 53 percent owned tablets.

• Millennials spend more time than older generations of customers on nearly all mobile communication activities, apart from email.

• Millennials spend 96 digital hours per month on the digital network.

• Sixty-six percent of millennials end up buying new products while grocery shopping.

• Twenty-one percent of millennials want more premium items. This number exceeds the global average of 18 percent.

Ergo, millennials = goldmine of a potential user base But then, they are no easy catch. They are smart shoppers and do their research (webrooming) before spending on a product or a service. So even before they visit a brick-andmortar store to make a purchase, chances are they already have made up their minds. In this case, it becomes difficult to persuade them to make a decision in your favor.

Enter location-based marketing.

A survey commissioned by Retale stated that 84 percent of millennial respondents were interested in acting on push notifications received. And 89 percent of them hinted at the fact that they’d take a step based on a notification from a favorite brand.

This suggests two things.

Millennials are loyal to brands Push notifications work As a startup, you must take actionable steps based on these

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two points to woo the millennial demographic. Here’s how you can go about it:

Be original and innovative

Use beacon power!

Beacons are becoming more common with each passing day. Make the most of this opportunity by investing in beacon technology and giving new incentives to customers. Here are some fantastic ideas: Beacons are all about providing consumers the right information at the right time. So, if there is something that they have meant to buy for a long time, and it’s still in their shopping cart, notify them if the product is near them and in stock.

Wearable technology and Beacons used together can be a magical combination when it comes to location-based marketing. Even more than with smartphones, users will always have their smartwatches close to them. Use this opportunity to deliver personalized experiences. In a movie theater, for example, you can guide them to their seats or help them order popcorn.

Birthdays and anniversaries are special occasions for everyone. Give your loyal customers rewards on their special day(s) via alerts on their smartphones.

Don’t let micro-moments go waste

Let’s face it. You are clearly not the only one in the market to come up with attractive deals and discounts. Your competitors also have strategies ready to woo Gen-Y. So how will you ensure that those coveted shoppers continue to focus on your products and services? The solution: Be original. Period.

Remember the Pokémon Go craze? Niantic’s revamped game recently captured the imagination of the entire generation of millennials, who were playing the game everywhere.

The quest for Pikachu, Charmander, Bulbasaur and the like brought hordes of millennials to the vicinity of malls, shopping centers, and cafes, among other places. While they aimed to catch the Pokémons, stores aimed to “catch players” with offers, deals, and discounts on a platter!

A case in point is that of Russia-based Sberbank. The bank used lures during regular banking hours, but began noticing that people were getting injured because they were completely engrossed in the game. As a result, the bank came up with the brilliant idea of offering free accident insurance to all the players, who just needed to register their numbers on the bank’s website to take advantage of this offer.

Do something along similar lines, and there will be no looking back for your location-based marketing plans.

Introduced by Google, micro-moments are a set of marketing behaviors of mobile device users. A game-changer, these moments redefine real-time marketing and are specifically directed toward millennials, who are tech-savvy and consume a lot of content on a daily basis.

At a grocery store, for instance, the micro-moments can include (but are not limited to) the following points: Where can I find my favorite cereal?

Is there a new product in the deli section?

Is there a better product in a lower price range?

Which is the closest available parking space?

Can I get more information about this product?

What are the best deals?

Moments like these are defining for consumers. Therefore, act upon them to provide your customers with a seamless shopping experience.

Conclusion Wooing millennials in an age when content is produced and consumed in bulk can be difficult for startups, but only if they ignore the general mindsets and purchasing habits of this demographic.

Fortunately, it’s possible to capture and sustain their interest with innovative ideas and the latest technologies.

Don’t think SMS is dead The entire millennial generation is glued to their mobile.

Because they are constantly using their devices, timely and relevant SMS directed at this demographic can go a long way.

Vivek Patel is a Local Search Specialist at E2M, one of the fastest growing digital marketing agencies based in India committed to meeting the highest ethical standards of digital marketing services to encourage and drive strategic and sustainable business growth.

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Nonsense: The Power of Not Knowing

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Social Media Marketing Workbook: 2016 Edition - How to Use Social Media for Business Kindle Edition

By Jason McDonald This isn’t a fancy book. This isn’t a pie-in-the-sky book. This is a practical hands-on book, with links not only to free tools but to step-by-step worksheets. By the end of the book, you’ll have a social media marketing plan ready for your business AND specific plans for each medium that makes sense for you (e.g., Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, etc.).

Sinker Welcome to the Funnel: Proven Tactics to Turn Your Social and Content Marketing up to 11

By Jason Miller Raising brand awareness, building trust, establishing credibility, and ultimately driving revenue, that’s what the top of the funnel is all about. It can be a marketer’s “Paradise City”, but without focus, it can quickly become overwhelming...

The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist, Period!

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These web marketing strategies will not only increase your website traffic but improve your entire web presence as well...

Driving Demand: Transforming B2B Marketing to Meet the Needs of the Modern Buyer

The Business Idea Factory: A World-Class System for Creating Successful Business Ideas Kindle Edition

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Carlos Hidalgo provides a clear roadmap and framework on how B2B organizations can implement change management and transform their Demand Generation. Case studies and excerpts from B2B marketing practitioners and ANNUITAS clients who have transformed their organizations and how they accomplished this change are incorporated throughout the book.

The Business Idea Factory is an effective and easyto-use system for creating successful business ideas. It is based on 10 years of research into idea-generation techniques used by the world’s best scientists, artists, CEOs, entrepreneurs and innovators. The book is entertaining to read, has plenty of stories and offers bits of wisdom necessary to increase the quantity and quality of ideas that you create multiple times.

Linked to Influence: 7 Powerful Rules for Becoming a Top Influencer in Your Market and Attracting Your Ideal Clients on LinkedIn

By Stephanie Sammons In Linked to Influence, Stephanie combines her high-trust marketing and sales experience with her in-depth LinkedIn knowledge to give you an actionable strategy for success. She shares a comprehensive, step-by-step process that can help you develop a more influential LinkedIn presence and client attraction process.

Meaningful: The Story of Ideas That Fly

By Bernadette Jiwa One of Inc Magazine’s Top Business Books of 2015. Our new digital landscape has spawned an entrepreneurial culture and the belief that anyone with a laptop and an Internet connection has the power to change the world—to create an idea that flies. But for every groundbreaking business that started this way, a thousand others have stalled or failed. Why? What’s the secret to success? What do Khan Academy, the GoPro camera, the Dyson vacuum cleaner and Kickstarter have in common?

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Shareology: How Sharing is Powering the Human Economy

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Stand Out: How to Find Your Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around It

Sharelogy explores the history, art and science of sharing, and illustrates why sharing is what gives us a unique competitive advantage as individuals and brands. It is meant for entrepreneurs and marketers who want to make their content more valuable, shareable, and for individuals who want to understand the power of sharing to grow their personal brand.

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The Content Formula: Calculate the ROI of Content Marketing & Never Waste Money Again

Content Inc.: How Entrepreneurs Use Content to Build Massive Audiences and Create Radically Successful Businesses

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The Big Data-Driven Business: How to Use Big Data to Win Customers, Beat Competitors, and Boost Profits

SEO 2017: Learn search engine optimization with smart internet marketing strategies Kindle Edition

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