Marketing 101: Are You Deceptive?

I received a letter in the mail today that I found to be a little too deceptive for my tastes. Some people may say that it is clever, because it will inevitably fool some of the people who receive it, but it ultimately reflects poorly on the company involved.

The letter came in an official-looking brown envelope, not unlike the ones that you would receive from a government agency. The postage was pre-paid and pre-printed on the brown envelope. Inside this envelope was a long, personalized letter and a return envelope. Reading through the letter, it was an offer to “retain exclusive rights” to one of my expiring domains. I suppose they were able to get my mailing address through WHOIS or some other means.

In any case, the initial reaction to this letter was that it was an official document from an official Canadian government agency, but it was really just from a private company looking to make a few dollars. I’m not going to name them by name — they don’t deserve the free publicity — but the company name also has a certain air of being an official government agency as well. This is deceptive.

The kicker is that their rates for domain registration are considerably higher than the industry standard. For the registration of a single .com domain for one year, the price is $40.00. Even when you look at their two-year and five-year options, the rates were $70 and $160, respectively. Not only is this mail unsolicited — we all get junk mail all the time — but they’re terribly overpriced too.

Would you allow your marketing campaign to enter into the realm of deception in order to get a few extra sales? How far would you take your tactics?

Marketing 101: Public Signage

I remember watching an episode of Kitchen Nightmares some time back and it really made me think about what it takes to have effective business signage. For those of you who aren’t familiar, Kitchen Nightmares is a reality show hosted by chef Gordon Ramsay and he goes around helping to “fix” failing restaurants and dig them out of the rut. He looks for ways to revitalize the menu and to refresh the image of the restaurant.

In this particular episode, the business owner spent a lot of money on professional banners and signs that he would place in front of his restaurant. These signs would proudly proclaim that they had certain specials and how people could save money on this meal or that. The problem was that these signs were much more an eyesore than they were any sort of effective promotional material. It just made the place look kitschy and cheap, despite the fact that they were trying to establish themselves as a upper class family restaurant.

The other problem was that the signage was just too plentiful. There was far too much to look at and it had nothing to do with their brand identity. When you consider setting up business signage in front of your brick and mortar store — the same can be said about online stores as well — make sure that you keep to your company image and you keep things uncluttered. Make it easy for the potential customer to see what you offer without going over the top. Some of the most effective billboards are the ones with the least amount of writing.

Branding 101 - The Law of Colour

The law of colour when it comes to branding says that you should use unique colours to define your brand and if you have a competitor you should use the opposite colours. A good example of this is Coke uses predominately Red where Pepsi uses Blue. If you are in a saturated market where the primary colours are used considering using newer vibrant colours that are not being used.

When choosing colours remember that colours have meaning and should fit your target market or niche. Wikipedia has a great colour keyword chart that will provide you with a way to determine which colours will best fit your company. As a rule of thumb try not to choose more then 3 colours and try to ensure they complement each other. If you have one colour in mind but can not find a complementary colour you can use a free tool like the Behr Colour Smart tool.

Once you have chosen your company colours be sure that you are consistent with them. Find the exact colours and be sure that all mediums you display your company colours on are the exact colours you picked. The colours you choose will be etched as part of your branding into your customers and future customers brains if done right.

What colour does Starbucks use? What colours do Tim Horton use? What do these colours say about their company?

Marketing 101: Logos From Every Angle

Whether you are trying to promote your blog or your business, the concept of branding is of paramount importance. You need to separate yourself from your competition and be recognized as a distinct brand. When you see the stylized blue globe, you automatically think of AT&T. When you see the swoosh, you automatically think of Nike. This is the result of effective branding and a great logo. This is why people are willing to pay so much money to get a great logo.

The trouble is that many people don’t consider the ramifications of their logos. They may like the appearance of a logo and think that it suits their business, company, or organization perfectly, but you have to assess your logo from every which angle and look for input from several different sources to ensure that you are not missing out on something. Just as some slogans translate poorly into other languages, different logos can represent a variety of things in different cultures.

When the Office of Government Commerce (British Government) commissioned the creation of a logo, they came up with this seemingly benign logo that is just a stylized version of OGC melded together. However, when you rotate the logo 90 degrees, it takes on the appearance of a stick figure masturbating. Naturally, this is not the association that the OGC was trying to get.

And it cost them £14,000 too! Be careful with your company logos, because you could end up with a horrible PR blunder like the OGC.

Branding 101 - Choosing a Mascot

When you are building a brand for your company you should decided if you want to represent your company with a logo or a mascot or both. Sports teams do a great job of having a logo and mascot combination that they use to brand in the public. The Canucks for example have the Orca logo and the mascot Fin who does public appearances.

If you currently have a generic logo and looking to re-brand an easy way to do that is to introduce a mascot for your company. The major benefit of a mascot over a logo is that people can identify with a mascot. A mascot can shake your hand, give you a wink or bring a smile to your face. Your logo will generate a response from a potential customer which will be different for everyone. A mascot can be adaptive to various people and generate a response you want based on their actions.

Choosing a mascot can be a hard thing. Choose the wrong mascot and you could end up loosing money. Taco Bell for example lost business when they introduced the Taco Bell dog. They sold a lot of bobble-heads but the sale of their products took a dive. On the flip side M&M’s sale increased when the 2 mascots were introduced.

To begin sit down and write down what description or action words you want your business to be known for. If you currently have customers then ask them what description and action words that come to mind when they think of your company. Take those words and brainstorm what type of mascot would best fit those keywords. I suggest choosing at least 3 possible mascots and poll people in your target market or current customers as to what they think. Try and get as much qualitative feedback as possible. Doing this should help you narrow down your choice to one.

Once you have an idea of what mascot you want seek out a designer to help you bring that mascot to life. I suggest having it sketched out so you have a drawing of it and then you can use various mediums to bring your mascot to life. I would suggest as your business grows your mascot should grow with it. Here is how you should build your mascot with a budget…

• Mascot drawing - $200+
• Full size cutout of your mascot - $400+
• Muppet style mascot - $1000+
• 3D Flash and talking mascot - $3000+
• Full Mascot outfit - $5000+

So if you are just starting out and have a limited budget I would suggest moving up as your budget increases.

What is your favorite mascot?

Marketing 101: Is Your CPA Campaign Fraudulent?

They say that there is no such thing as a free lunch. They also say that if something is too good to be true, it probably isn’t true. Such appears to be the nature of many CPA (cost per action) affiliate offers. When you look through some of the offers put forth through CPA companies like Neverblue Ads and PepperJam Network, you’ll discover that there are several that seem to offer a free trial of something or perhaps a great item at a highly discounted price.

The trouble with many of these CPA campaigns is that they can be on the deceptive side of things, and according to Mark Wielgus of 45n5.com, this is also why most CPA companies suck. He says that outlining some of the restrictions and conditions of the offers in the fine print, these CPA offers are effectively committing fraud. You can check out Mark’s video to hear more about these views.

When looking through different ways to market your company, its products, and its services, you should be careful not to come off as deceptive and fraudulent. You’ve probably heard about the recent backlash coming Joel Comm’s e-book offer and how you may have purchased his AdSense e-book for less than $10, but in doing so, you automatically subscribed to his pricey newsletter service. Joel has gone on to apologize for his mistake, but it would have been better if he didn’t do it in the first place.

The newsletter subscription was based on an opt-out basis, rather than an opt-in basis. If you are going to take the CPA route to advertising your company, be sure to be open and honest with your potential customers. If the free offer is accompanied by a subscription to a paid service, state so openly and honestly (and not through the fine print).