The ‘Total Brand Experience’

Consumers are making us work harder and harder these days and they expect only the best from their brands. They are very savvy with regards to new media and will happily drop a brand for the ‘next best thing’. This has us all constantly on our toes, which is great for keeping things fresh but can be a strain on a company, especially with the onslaught of new ways to communicate with our customers (a new trend almost daily).

We believe that it’s even more important to create the ‘total brand experience’ for customers and this doesn’t matter if you are a plumbing firm or beauty company, consistency is key. It may sound obvious but the best starting point once your brand message and direction has been decided is your logo and ensuring it’s position, colour etc are consistent across corporate literature. From printed stationery to email signatures, it’s amazing how this little point gets overlooked. The brand’s look, feel and message then needs to be transferred to your website, exhibition stands, corporate videos, advertising, building signage, social media sites, PR… I could go on…

Consumers like reassurance from a brand and creating a consistent message helps build the trust consumers want from a brand.

How Can a Brand Be Affected By a Brain?

People’s brains work differently depending on a number of factors.

Generally, males tend to be more left-brain. Left brainers are often good at maths and are very analytical, logical, and thrive on information. This is usually the reason we rope them in to building our flat pack furniture; they can logically see how everything fits together.

Right brainers however, are more creative characters who embrace new ideas. Females tend to be more right brain; it is a well-known fact that women on average speak more words per day than men. According to research women speak 20 thousand words per day and men 7 thousand. No wonder we are exhausted by the end of the day!

Women like to share their thoughts, feelings and ideas about most things. For example, if they find a new brand or product they like, they will tell everyone they know. Men on the other hand or left brainers tend to keep their thoughts about these thing to themselves. They may not find it important enough to share or maybe they are just too busy thinking about other things.

How does this affect our brands?
Brands become important to us in many ways, we can be emotionally drawn to a brand or perhaps egotistically. Right brainers will often become attached to a brand emotionally and get more involved than a left brained person may.

When it comes to branding, right brainers want visuals and things they can relate to; colourful pictures work really well in keeping their attention. Also having a back story to the brand is important, you want them to feel they connect with the brand, this way as consumers they will keep coming back to find out the latest information or about new upcoming products.

Left brainers want the facts and figures behind the brand, often in graphs, case studies, or surveys. They want evidence that what your saying is correct or your product is ‘what it says on the tin’. Proof is the key to capturing these consumers, supply them with the evidence they desire and they will remain loyal.

I believe the key to a successful brand incorporates both of these elements. A powerful logo and attractive website design, along with key web content with regularly updated information ticks all the boxes.

Just for fun!
The BBC has put together an online test that will show what sex your brain is. The test will let you know if you think more like a male or a female. Please take the test at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sex/add_user.shtml and post your results. Enjoy!

How’s your brand doing? A few things to ask yourself…

In an ideal world, you would regularly look at your brand’s message…But lets be realistic, we live in a fast paced world and it’s hard to keep on top of everything. Our ‘to do’ lists are forever getting longer rather than shorter so it’s easy to understand why a companies brand message is quite often overlooked.

Your brand’s message can make or break you and in the current climate it’s more important than ever to regularly asses your brand, even if it’s just a few minutes while travelling to and from work.

Simply ask yourself; does our brand give the right message? Is it suitable for the target audience? Has our demographic changed since the brand was created? Has our message as a company changed since the brand was created? Is our brand working hard enough for us? Do we have a consistent brand or has it become fragmented with the growth of the business?

Checking through the above questions regularly will help you understand where your brand is today and where you want it to be. This can help you start to understand what is working and what may need to change.

Innovative copy writing

Our new PR and Marketing intern Hannah Holt shows great copywriting potential after winning a caption competition held by Michael Cotton (father of Fearne Cotton, BBC Radio 1 presenter) from Eastcote Sign and Display. The competition was advertised through Twitter and participants had to think of a caption for a picture of him in Rome.

Hannah’s winning caption was: “Pappatron could just not hold it in “oops, do you think the pope could hear that?”

Well done Hannah from the BCT team!

Ofcom has announced proposals for product placement in the UK.

Ofcom has announced proposals for product placement in the UK. They have stated that plans are “designed to enable commercial broadcasters to access revenue streams where possible whilst protecting audiences”.

Product placement will still not be allowed to be shown on children’s TV, news programmes, consumer and current affairs or religious programmes and will be a ban on the product placement of alcohol, gambling and tobacco. There will also be a ban on foods and drinks high in fats salts and sugar, medicines and baby milk.

Ofcom has said that following consultation the new rules will be incorporated in the UK towards the end of the year. The decision comes after the Government’s decision earlier this year to now allow product placement.

On the one hand it allows us as an agency to offer clients another advertising opportunity but do we want this kind of advertising in the UK, should we as a creative country be looking at more interesting ways to promote our clients brands…

How a web design goes to hell

BCT like this feature:

Creativity is a personal thing. You like your design, others aren’t so keen. You instruct a 3rd party. That’s good. But then… click here to view the full article

Tuttoluxo new brand launch

We’ve been busy little bees over the last few months and can now proudly say the re-branding for Tuttoluxo beauty has finally launched. The new website has now gone live along with a joint promotion with Swiss Tourism which was featured in gyms across London and various adverts on facebook and google have all proved worthwhile in driving traffic towards the site.

If you want to pamper yourself to go: www.tuttoluxobeauty.co.uk

Microbusiness of the Year

Beyond Creative Thinking is very proud to announce that it has won the prestigious “Micro Business of the Year” Award in the Slough Chamber business awards. The aim of the awards is to recognise success at all levels in industry and commerce, and encourage new businesses in and around the Slough area, which contributes £7.5 billion to the national economy each year.

The awards are organised by the Slough Chamber of the Thames Valley Chambers of Commerce and the 2010 awards were celebrated with a gala dinner on the 25th of February at the Copthorne hotel in Slough. Awards were made for success in commerce at all levels, from SMEs to multinational corporations. The Micro Business of the Year Award was won by Beyond Creative Thinking, with runners up Targ8 Ltd and Ascent Air U.K. Companies are judged on a range of criteria including their background, length of operation, turnover and vision for the future.

Beyond Creative Thinking recognise the pressures that running a micro business can bring during a recession, but have continued to grow and win new assignments thanks to their outstanding creativity and dedication to going the extra mile for clients. Owner Emma Sealey commented, “Sometimes the pressure of running a business on your own can feel overwhelming, but this award is motivating and proves that all those late nights have been worth it.”

So if you want to work with a creative agency that’s been recognised for its success, contact us today on hello@beyondct.co.uk

Micro Business of the Year Nomination

Beyond Creative Thinking are proud to announce that we have been shortlisted for Micro business of the year by the Slough Chamber of Commerce awards. May the best micro business win..

Bett show exhibition designed by Beyond CT 15/01/2010

Beyond Creative Thinking is proud to announce that their client Parago is currently exhibiting at the London BETT show 2010 with our graphics and exhibition. Parago have created an asset management system for schools which is cost effective and inexpensive.
BETT is the world’s largest educational technology event and this year has proved to be the most successful to date. The BETT Awards is an annual scheme that highlights exemplar digital products intended for the education marketplace. BBC radio one were in attendance yesterday interviewing children visiting the show on which gadgets they liked the most which has seemed to have raised the profile of the show and in turn brought more business to our client.