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Want to Think More Creatively? Try Reading Something Different

creativitybohmanIf you’re like me, you have a stack of books about business and marketing lined up to read.  But when it comes to before-bed reading, I usually reach for something a bit different.  I’ve found that if I read a book for pleasure before bed instead of for work or school, I have better dreams and feel more energized and creative the next day.  My genres of choice are sci-fi, fantasy and historical fiction. My sister, who is a PhD candidate at Johns Hopkins has the same experience.

I imagine that doing anything creative – that allows the brain to focus on something other than work – can be energizing. I think that too often we get caught up in all the work we do, in the rat-race, and forget to slow down and give ourselves some freedom.  I still get great ideas from reading books for work or school, but I think that I get the energy and motivation to do that by allowing myself to indulge in more personal pursuits from time to time.

How do you stimulate your creative juices?

(photo by Bohman @ Flickr CC)

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Choosing a Branding Strategy is Fundamental

strategyhikingartist1Choosing a branding strategy is fundamental to properly marketing a product.  How you decide to brand your product or service will affect everything from advertising to pricing.  You may already have a branding strategy and not realize it, but here are some of the options:

  • Corporate Brand – Many companies, such as Target, offer only one type benefit to the customer (“design for all”).  Even though they sell a wide variety of products, there is only one value they add.  In this case, the brand is the same as the company.
  • Distinct Brand – Some companies produce a wide variety of products that each have distinct benefits to the customer.  There is no value in using the same brand for each product since the brand would then stand for a mishmash of benefits.  Companies such as Proctor & Gamble (P&G) us this type of strategy as they brand each of their products distinctly (Ivory, Pampers, etc.).
  • Hybrid Brand – Sometimes it makes sense to leverage the company name or an overall brand in addition to a separate name for the product.  This usually works best when the product brand extends the benefits offered by the overall brand, and is very common in the automobile industry (ex. Ford Taurus).
  • Umbrella Brand – When your company offers multiple products that each have a distinct benefit, but together offer a shared value to the customer, you may want to consider an umbrella brand (ex. Nike – athletic gear).

Whatever branding strategy you pick, be aware that it may affect the branding and marketing of your company and other products.  If you only have one product right now,  your choice will mostly be whether you are going to brand the product with your company or not.  Once you have a branding strategy in mind, it makes marketing and advertising decisions much easier.

(photo by HikingArtist.com @ Flickr CC)

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Good Website Usability Means Not Making Your Visitors Think

usabilitytashmahal1Good websites are designed to be both easy to use and attractive.  When visitors come to a website they don’t want to have to think about how to accomplish whatever it is they came for.  They shouldn’t have to search for links or content or the right button to click.

Well designed products have buttons in the right places and use pictures, symbols and actions that people intuitively feel comfortable with.  The same is true of websites.  People expect search boxes to be in a certain place (usually upper left) and Submit or Next buttons to be on the right (it helps to think of advancing web pages like turning pages in a book).

Good website usability doesn’t necessarily have to be difficult.  Take a look at your website.  Does everything feel like it’s in the “right” place?  If you’re not sure, ask some customers and colleagues to try to accomplish some specific goals.  For example, if you have an eCommerce site, ask someone to purchase a product for a specific purpose – like a gift for their kid’s birthday.  How easy is it for them to find an item that fits that purpose?  How appealing was the product on the page?  Were they able to find the information they needed to make an informed purchase?  Were they able to actually make the purchase? Get their feedback on whether anything seemed difficult or out of place (usability is the practice of methodically testing how users interact with something and then using that information to arrange items to make it easier to use).

Having a well designed website is important because it will affect how many sales and leads you are able to generate from it.  If customers can’t find what they need from your site, they are likely just to go somewhere else instead.

(photo by tashmahal @ Flickr CC)

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