Marketing Design & Psychology

I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. The things that come to the Marketing professional as naturally as breathing; alignment of graphics, copy formatting, the shade you place on the header of a keyword rich paragraph – the mechanics of the Marketing process may not come as easily to others as it does us lucky ones.

Yes, it may sound conceited, but it hardly takes a second thought for those of us who have finely tuned their skills to put together a vehicle of communication with words, or pictures, or a combination of both that is pleasing to the eye, and easy with which to connect.

Take the selection of colors… yeah the selection of colors! As a Designer, no matter what the Marketing vehicle, a billboard, a direct mailer, an online ad, or a whole web site, there is a whole ‘nother level to getting the message to your intended audience. If you were targeting motorcycle enthusiasts, you wouldn’t be using pastels, or fluorescent colors. Use colors that those you target would connect with… even better, use the colors that would evoke the desired feelings, the deeper emotional connection, the psychological tie they have of the color. In the instance of a motorcycle enthusiast, if you use the combination of black and orange in your design, you will be able to connect psychologically with the hard work that Harley Davidson has done over the years with their branding of the colors.

Each one of us has psychological connections to colors. For us who grew up in the ‘70’s the combinations of green, orange and brown plaid have special memories, as well as the rainbow colors on suspenders. Depending on each target audience (age group, hobbies and interests, etc.) each has their set they are tied to, each with their own set of “color codes”.

To have success in Marketing, it is essential to address of psychology of design, the perspectives of purpose, and branding. Colors and color schemes are a big part of this equation. When you as a designer can closely tie the target audience’s experience with your company together with the deep near subconscious positive emotions of that targeted individual, then is when you have created a loyal client.

Sounds like brainwashing doesn’t it? Over the years since the ability to broadcast over large areas was in effect, those who are in business large and small have attempted to brainwash…er, I mean, create a loyal customer to their services, products and brand.

In reality, it really is not brainwashing. Every one of us wants to feel pleasure, comfort, and safety in life. If a product or service that your company provides brings true pleasure, comfort or safety, this in real time, in perpetuity is fact, not fallacy that would constitute the need for brainwashing.

It is the exact opposite rather; when your design brings into view the essence that is most appealing about your brand which would satisfy the needs of your clientele; by getting them to feel certain emotions, which creates avenues for thoughts of how your company can satisfy those particular needs and drives them to act upon those thoughts with your company, products and services.

That’s what is called “Marketing’s Utopia” – when you have a product that matches up to all the hype and circumstance that it was created to satisfy – and the underlying effect that you can portray can be encased in the right colors used in the messaging, packaging, and presence online.

This psychological factor plays large in the proper Marketing to the multi-leveled Millennials. As mentioned, these individuals have been surround and bombarded by advertising all their waking hours since becoming aware of their environments. Their brains have not only been wired to filter out extemporaneous “white noise” but also have been trained to recognize the nuances of a smartly put-together Marketing campaign.

Colors are a large factor in this. In the American environs red signifies an alert, a high response, action… perhaps even agitation. You’ll find that blue and all the shades of it are most common in logos, packaging, backgrounds, and of graphics in general because it elicits confidence, calm, and trust. It is a preferred color of corporate America.

Even the lesser-used colors, the greens, and purples, the yellows and even the shades of black all carry with them connotations to those you target. When you understand whom your target market comprises of, and the segments within those targets, you will be able to match up the correct color schemes to them.

Don’t quite believe how important colors are? All of this just the rantings of an overly worked design simpleton? Try this test for me… Google – Corporate America, or even something more generic… business, for example… and take a look at the colors that are used. Look at the first 10, then google Women’s Issues or even something more generic than that… womanhood is good… and take a look at the colors being used on those types of sites. Even as elementary a demographic as Male and Female, colors play an integral part in getting the message, as I call it, as psychologically easy to be received as possible.

Of course, there are many other factors to consider, and to include when you are putting a Marketing piece together. To know which ones, in which order, and which not to include is what we Marketing Professionals like me get paid the big bucks to do. Suffice it to say here that we who truly care about what we represent, and the messages we place into the public general, are finely honed message machines looking to speak to the essence of the real you.

So the next time you’re asked which color are you, perhaps your answer will have a deeper, more meaningful significance for you than it had before.

Verizon’s Example

Verizon is doing the right and smartest thing they can do in times as these. The talk of this economic downturn has gotten all in a tizzy. Businesses large and small are near paralysis in which move to take next. The usual indicators that companies, their CEO’s, and boards have used to guide their moves of business have been found to be faulty. Billions, and yes that’s with a big capital ‘B’, Billions of dollars and market value have been “lost” through unsound business leveraging, over-extension of solid financial positions, and Ponzi schemes.

Through the name of fairness a.k.a. a Socialist agenda, the Feds have created and sustained as long as possible a currency bubble upon a credit bubble upon a housing bubble which was set up to mitigate the natural peaks and valleys of the American economy cycles through.

On the home front, being an employee is more tenuous than ever: businesses and banks are failing, thousands being laid off, budgets being cut or put on hold. All prognostications, depending with whom you talk, point toward in the least a long recession and at worst a deep depression of the world markets. Individuals from coast to coast are being directly affected by this bleak news and the onslaught of market corrections that are in process of a reset.

Although this house of cards looks like it may crumble at anytime, the free market system must move forward. Capitalism, that has built a nation as great as America moves on. Businesses risk being left in the wake of such economic waves to sell off and close their doors, or to trudge onward by keeping on with the Marketing and Advertising that made them successful in the recent past.

Keep spending on Marketing and Advertising? As you did before the bottom of the economy fell? Isn’t that irresponsible of a company to do that?? For some odd reason most in charge of a company’s bottom line feel that the lifeblood of a business, the actions that bring in new business, and maintain profits as proper Marketing Strategies do, are expendable and the first to be curtailed, cut off, deferred, in light of the money crunch being felt by the company.

I’ve never understood this, why stop bringing in new business, why hamper or stop the processes that would keep the doors open? Why would you tie up or cut off the hands that are feeding you? To stop your Advertising and Marketing efforts is to do just that!

One fine example of what to do in these turbulent times is Verizon. In a highly competitive industry with Sprint, Alltel, the iPhone and Tmobile they have maintained their spending on advertising on television and radio as before. However they have been uber-smart with the way they have been creating and sustaining their presence online as well. I am one who is primarily online, ya know because of what I do, and as I search my Ad Recall, Verizon is the one that stands out to me as the one who is doing it right. Their ads using the voice talent of Jim from the Office and of Chuck from Chuck with their spotlight of satisfaction that can be achieved using their network are hitting on all cylinders. They have balanced video 30 second commercials in the right places with the banners they scatter across portals and web sites that their target market frequent.

It doesn’t mean they with continue to, only means they are doing it now. Compare this to Tmobile. They nearly have no presence online for two months now, they do the static banners here and there… but for those active in video streaming… Tmobile is dropping the ball.

Another example of this principle in a dire time was Ford vs. Chevrolet back in the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Ford had dominated the market since the Model T. They being so big, so widespread, and so highly sought that their executives at the time as 1933 rolled in they stopped doing any advertising as a cost saving measure. Surely, they could float for a while on what they had done in the past. It was like every 1 in 5 cars on the road was a Ford, how could they not remain dominate? Along comes Chevy, who took the aggressive approach to make a name for themselves, while Ford rested on their haunches. They went to town on their advertising… on radio, in newspapers, in catalogs and in the movies. By the time WWII rolled around, Chevy was poised to overtake Ford as the leading auto manufacturer in America, having won over the American people because they had been in front of the public more than their competitors.

Whatever the company, Chevy… Verizon… or Mom and Pop’s Shop on the corner of Center Street and Main… Learn the timeless lesson, just because there is a downturn in the economy, doesn’t necessarily mean there will be a downturn on the demand of your product or service. Online sales don’t dip significantly because it is any less convenient now than it was before the downturn to buy from you.

That much the harder and more frequent you need to be in your Marketing efforts in times that we now find ourselves in. Just be smarter about when and where you place your messaging and have in place before the start of the Campaign the measuring sticks that you can see right away if one medium or message is working or not. If so successful, you can ramp it up and do more of, and if not, you can turn it off and move to another medium or message.

So what company are you, the one that wants to try to eat their crumbs with the stubby ends of their arms, or one that will delicately pluck out each morsel it can with their proverbial fingers? It’s your choice if you want to remain in business through all this or to close its doors, and become a greeter at the local Mega Market!

Hark The Heralding

Thank you again for the welcome we have gotten, we are working on getting back all the dishes to you as soon as we can… some of you didn’t put your names on the plates, so it may take a lil bit longer to get them back to you.

While you’re waiting, here are a few more articles that you can use for your businesses.

Millennial Steps – Continuing with the Business Paradise entry, here you will find what the Components of a Super Brand are.

Starting Point – This is Hour Two at the Conference Table getting to the bottom of what you are going to need to get the largest target market in history to do business with you.

Now we have had a great Christmas Season we will get back to getting more out of the brain of AverageJoe and the successful strategies that make up modern Marketing.

In Business Paradise

Somewhere up in the wild blue yonder there is a place once known as Business Paradise. Could there be such a place? I’ve no doubt it could, you have heard about it’s sister country Disneyland haven’t you? Well, in this blissful land, where inventory counts itself and the accounting books always balance there is what is called the Super Brand.

This Super Brand is well known in the land of Business Paradise, although almost no one has seen it up close and personal. Those who are in the land (or the occasional visitor to it) aspire to be a part, in the least, of its inner circle. All bestow their fullest of admiration, each in their hearts are envious of its station. Those in the land of Business Paradise, or those traveling through all seek after whatever they can find about the Super Brand, in the magazines that say they have the exclusive photos of it; the rumor rags who say they have the scoop from those close to it; even a few set themselves up as the pretended manager of the Super Brand when they really haven’t been in its vicinity at all. Whenever the Super Brand name is mentioned, everyone’s ear perks up to hear.

The realm of Super Brand hardly anyone is familiar with. Rare is he who are and the ‘old timers’ spin the tales of their experiences with their claim to glory and the little morsel that the Super Brand allowed them to have. Its timeless, ageless and by all respects faceless to most in business.

All in business have heard about this ‘Super Brand’. We wonder how we can get our widget or whatzit to be the next “latest and greatest.” But how is a Super Brand created? What components need to be present to allow it to happen? Is it just kismet or happenstance or can a Super Brand be orchestrated to being? How did prior companies who enjoyed such a high status do it? (Coca-Cola – IKEA) Once there how can you sustain it? (Cabbage Patch Dolls – Wicker Furniture)

All good questions, and not because I put them to the proverbial paper. No matter who your target market is, or how large the segment may be I am here to let you know that a Super Brand is both orchestrated (certain things need to be present for it to have success) as well as happenstance or fate.

How can it be both? In the next entry I will tackle what components need to be present for success. Here and now we have to be mindful of what is happening in the world to have teeth to spread and build into being Super. To catch the imagination, the express train of wholesale adoption of purchasing and use of the product or service it needs to be of the ‘here and now’ and have universal application.

It’s usually a product that catches on to the public consciousness, grasps a hold of their imaginations and catches fire in volume and sales. It has worked for the most inane type of things, (remember pet rocks back in the late ‘70’s?) and is often centered on entertainment of some sort (the karaoke machines of the early ‘90’s… who in their right or sober mind does karaoke?). Can be also centered on the technological, or the cutting edge of society.

If it only happens for a season (6 months or so) it’s a fad, if it happens any longer than that it is named a trend. If it happens to be a hot seller for any longer than 2 years it’s a perennial best seller and tend to create an industry for the Super Brand trailblazer. We have numerous examples of the industry creators, the automobile, personal computer, cell phones, chewing gum, teddy bears all had their newness moments and all caught on to the public’s Want List.

Take for instance the playing a movie in your home concept of the late 1970’s. Before then, movies, unless you were rich enough to have a theater put into your house was something you went to the Cineplex to experience. The whole industry was set up to bring them in the doors in droves and to get the crowds coming in by the thousands to get at the millions of dollars they we spending to be there.

Then along comes this machine (in the beginning it was like $400 to have, now you can get one for $50) that you could hook into the video input of your TV, (two screws on the back that usually held the antenna connection) and plug that puppy in and get a movie and popcorn from the insta-popper from the stove.

At first the movie industry (because of their way of thinking) balked at this and wanted to shut these beta and VHS manufacturers down. I do believe there were a lawsuit or two to try and do just that. But they saw that not only did this elongate the life of the movie in the public’s eye (the ability of seeing the movie over and over again) but they could make additional money on the tapes sold. All they had to do is promise that movies would not be available instantly when they came out on tape (wanted to get them at the theaters and then at home). Creating a whole new industry, and tangent industries off of that.

So what makes a product ready to be caught by ‘Happenstance’? There are several factors. One is that the emotional state of the population is ready for it. Such was the case of the teddy bear… 1915 it was a toy bear, which wasn’t selling too well. One hunting trip and a former President named Roosevelt later the Teddy was added and has been a best seller ever since.

Another factor is that it perks the people’s curiosity, such as the cell phone. Once a brick (almost literally) that had a special holster and reinforcement to have around now is just as big as a credit card and nearly as thin! A convenience that has nearly put the public phone out of business has now nearly become the personal computer in a pocket. In fact a personal computer company Apple is on the forefront of this with the iPhone.

Another is universal application. The cars, the toaster, the microwave oven, all are perfect examples of this. Yet another is the Wii made by Nintendo. The gaming console is small, underpowered and inadaptable to other technical uses. But same as it’s offering of the hand-held DS, it is beating the pants off the shelves from its Sony Playstation counterparts. The design, the interactivity, and the games being offered have all played a part in keeping it a Super Brand.

What all these have in common is a very smart person or persons were able to read what the public was in need of or desired to have at the beginning of the gestation for it and were able to put the financial and logistical wherewithal to get it to the market. Yes, all these long lasting products have had a bit of ‘happenstance’ but most of them have had to had a great deal of work put into them before they were ready for the market.

For an analysis of your invention, or product is ready to be a Super Brand, give me a ring at joe@averagejoecitizen.com

Messaging a Must More Than Ever

Target Marketing Effectiveness

The economic outlook that is coming out on a daily basis is bleak. You keep hearing that Black Friday for retailers, while initial numbers looked up, actually were down from last year’s numbers. You are hearing major retail chains, Mervyn’s, KB Toys, Linens and Things going out of business completely, with others scaling back. Big ticket, small ticket items alike, are not selling as well or in such abundance as years previous.

Get Your Messaging Right

There is a lot of fear with the consumer, and a lot of trepidation with business owners across all industries that the fear could paralyze commerce in such a way as to completely cripple your company. However the news is currently, there is a way to be able to ensure your business’ viability in the marketplace.

Keep Marketing Your Business!

Simple I know, but it has been proven time and time again that those who are constant with their marketing, their advertising and messaging are able to capture greater market shares than to contract into a cocoon and wait out the financial storm. (Proctor and Gamble, Chevy, Zenith in the 1930′s)

Of the utmost importance now is the effectiveness of those dollars you are spending, and how well your messaging hits your target market segments. Although the solution is simple, it will take more brain power, with the proper metrics and measures in place so that you can substantiate what you are putting out in the public forum.

Proper Marketing Analysis of your current or potential customers: their traits; the trends they follow; the value systems they generally have; their motivations to buy AND be loyal to your product or service. It is crucial you hit all these tangents on the proverbial ‘head’ to get that harder earned dimes and nickels of those who are keeping your doors open.

Branding properly to the clientele, you can draw from that Branding Equity and solidify them better in the usage of what you are offering.  Find out more in the sections Metrics & Media , and Next Level for more details on how do to be most effective in the turmoil of today’s economic times.