Apple Store

Yes, they’re genius. If you really want to follow someone’s lead (although at 3rd Idea, we prefer to set the trend), Apple is a great example! They “get” “it,” especially when it comes to complete brand follow through.  Why am I saying this?

Right now, I’m using a new “MacBook Pro” at the Apple Store in Lancaster. 3rd Idea is in the process of converting to a complete Apple setup and we’re excited be apart of the “Apple Revolution.”

It’s all about the DEMO

What does your audience look like?

Demographics and Target audience… Both terms that are used by advertisers on a daily basis, but how much time is really spent delving deeply to find out exactly what makes that target consumer tick? What are their likes? dislikes? Where do they work? What kind of car do they drive? Where do they spend their time? The questions could go on and on!

Not understanding your target is like buying a birthday present for someone you have never met. You take a CHANCE and hope that they will like what you are offering. Before a brand or campaign is built, the audience must be dissected and understood. If you’re target is a 20 year old male, good luck finding him on the radio. He’s watching a YouTube video instead! Advertisers sometimes try to “guess” what it is that will appeal to their potential customers, but might end up missing the mark. Finding answers to these questions is not always a simple solution, but it is the solution that will yield the most.

Barack O’Branded

Barack's "O"

The “O” that won the election… at the end of the day, no matter what your affiliation, Obama owes his win to young people and never-before-voters. We can get into all of the political reasons why people showed up to vote in this historic election, but I say “he who brands…wins.” That is exactly what Barack’s camp did. The Obama brand was strong and well executed. Voting Obama was the “trendy” thing to do, this is what the brand was constructed to create. People who have never voted before “Barock’d the vote” because if they didn’t… they were no longer cool.

McCain did very little to no branding whatsoever. This caused him to suffer one of the greatest defeats any public entity can encounter: public branding. When the PUBLIC decides your brand based on their own assumptions, you quickly lose control. John McCain’s brand? Old man who will die in office. Quite a difference from the “trendy thing to do.”

What does this mean to you? Don’t fall short of your brand. If you’re a new company, a new website isn’t necessarily where you need to spend your initial marketing dollars. “If you build it they will come” is a lie. Brand yourself, promote the brand and they will come in droves. Don’t get trapped into a public perception that becomes your brand, you will spend a lot of years and too much money to over come it!