Raul Colon – Page 22

A "Monster" Brand

January 19, 2011 by Raul Colon

Guest post by Dwight Santana (@slayerkun)

If you havent heard of Lady Gaga by now, you are living under a rock. This pop-star in the last Year has escalated into being one of the music industry’s most important celebrities. From the eyes of manyLady Gaga has exceeded their expectations.

Her first album, The Fame, is the best-selling debut album of 2009. Her single Just Dance has been viewed 87 million times on YouTube. Gaga’s tracks have clocked 20 million downloads this year. Poker Face, is the most downloaded track in the history of U.K. digital music.

With that stated, I’m no interested in giving you Lady Gaga’s background, I want to define what a “Monster” in Marketing she is.

After seeing footage and analyzing many of the stunts she gets away with, its necesary to remark that Lady Gaga directs and envisions every step of her life and career, before it is executed. Her understanding of marketing integrates well with her form of doing things making her effective in social media channels . A good example is the dress she used for the 2010 VMA Awards the infamous meat dress, she might have made it look conservative , but in reality she was literally wearing a meat dress. The meat dress became a #trending Topic online and generated a lot of buzz.

We also see why in 2010, 11,500 mainstream media articles mentioned her. This is impresive considering that she is still consider a new artist to many.

Her marketing is fueled by her fans, which have decided to fall in line with what she represents. Her fans or “Little Monsters” are responsible for carrying her brand. Last year in november Gaga posted a link to one of her own videos on fashion icon Alexander McQueen’s Web site.After a single tweet by Gaga, her rabid fans streamed in and crashed the site’s servers. Not many brands can acquire this influence over it’s fans in such a short period of time. Lady Gaga has manage to prove other that it can be done.

Her maketing translates into pure harvested loyalty, a few examples of how she does this are:

a) Give fans a name. Gaga actually doesn’t like the word fan so she calls them “little monsters” after her debut album “The Fame Monster” this way fans have a way to relate to each other, and feel special, like joining an exclusive club.

b) Making it something bigger than herself. Last year during a Tour, in the middle of a concert she stopped everything and recited a “Manifesto of Little Monsters” many of the fans see this as a dedication getting the point across that she is there because of them.

c) Establishing a connection. She connects with her “Little Monsters” with a signature stretch out “monster hand claw” its also the Little Monsters greeting.

d) She puts the spotlight on her fans making them feel like rock stars, one of the things she does on tour is to call a fan in the audience during the show, the fan screams out then cameras focus on him, and after being on the big screen, she invites him to have a drink after the show.

e) Social Media Influence , right now Gaga has around 7.5 million followers on her Twitter account and countless more on her requisite Facebook Page. She shares her personal life and connects with her fans, she tweeted before opening the Grammy Awards. She has also tweeted to her fans , about buying them pizza, for staying all night at line waiting for an alum signing.

These things show a good understanding in marketing. One great example is how she does not allow professional photographers to her concerts, but her fans are allow to capture pictures, and video so they can later upload via youtube. In my opinion that is just brilliant.

For the moment Gaga’s staying power is yet to be seen. But she is making a Tsunami in the music business, and showing a few the power of fandom, and how to sculpt a successful brand.

What other brands can we compare to Lady Gaga?

What can you do to get closer to your clients or fan base that would be unique to them?

Monitoring Social Media To Sell More Food and/or Drinks (Part 1)

January 18, 2011 by Raul Colon

If we where restaurant owners at @cimapr we would easily find a way to monitor social media to sell more food and drinks.

I run social media efforts very lightly at @archipielagopr one of our clients in Ponce, PR and have collaborated with other restaurants in the metro San Juan area to assist them in using social media to increase restaurant revenues and brand recognition. With the little efforts we run we have been very successful in translating our efforts into revenues.

We became Re-sellers of the JitterJam application which is focused on the mid- to small-business market companies who are looking to generate true Return On Investment from social, mobile and email engagement and marketing.

Here is how we picture and have used Jitterjam for one of our clients:

LifecycleGraphic — image from jitterjam.com website

Discovering New Prospects. We are able to monitor conversations based on keywords, geolocation, and other factors that are relevant to our clients. By identifying people who have not decided what to eat or where, tourists that are looking for places to eat or have a drink. We monitor conversations based on keywords such as “Where can I eat in Ponce?” once we see this type of phrase we take at the user’s profile and identify the most inviting way to communicate with that person usually via twitter although it can be done via facebook also.

Creating Dialogue. by creating dialogue and offering sincere help we are able to grab attention from that prospect. We usually give them various quality options other than our clients restaurant, places of interest if they are tourist, and clear any other questions. If the prospect asks more questions like menu items or how to reserve we quickly send them links to the menu and online reservation system. In most occasions the prospect is so happy that we where so helpful that they end up making a reservation.

Develop Intelligence. No matter what tool you use either @jitterjam or doing it the hard way manually you should be monitoring the following:

What people are talking about near your geographical location?
What people are eating or drinking?
Mentions and sentiment around your competitors
Mentions and sentiment around your products and services.
What people want to eat and when?

Based on these factors you can improve your list of services and see how you can improve What’s On Your Menu?.

Buid Trust. By taking the @zappos attitude to helping out prospects and customers even when you are not able to make a direct sale you are able to establish great long term relationships. By using @jitterjam you can really focus on being helpful to your community which in the long term will result in an increase in business.

Market to Contacts. Once you are able to monitor people mentioning your brand, product and services it easier for you to directly contact them. If contacts are making positive mentions then you can also leverage those mentions and try to motivate that behavior throughout multiple platforms.

Measure learn and Grow. Measuring your efforts is key to see what is working and take a Stop, Start, and Continue attitude. Stop doing what is not working, Start doing new things that might be of interest to your audience, an continue doing what has worked so far. If you track twitter mentions, retweets, blog comments, facebook interactions, and other factors mentioning your brand you are able to see what works and what does not.

How else would you use a monitoring tool to Sell More Food or Drinks at a restaurant ?

We will be discussing in more detail the benefits of using a social media tool as strong as @jitterjam in our next post!

If you wish to get our (part 2) via email and join our newsletter feel free to Subscribe to CIMA IT Solutions Corp. Newsletter by Email.

If you have questions regarding JitterJam feel free to contact us to set up a Demo.

Importance of a Good Logo

January 17, 2011 by Raul Colon

Guest post by Dwight Santana (@slayerkun)

Many people think that a logo might not be that crucial for their, brand, individual, company, institution, or product. Are these people right?

Historically people have been using logos to brand their work. So is no coincidence they use logos to associate whatever they were “promoting”.

Right now we use logos with the same purpose we did before. The logo always has a direct relation with the concept of the brand and it’s promise. We use logos so we can communicate a message, so we can achieve an interpretation from the spectator.

Jörg Zintzmeyer affirms in his book “Logo Design” that:

“…the logo is a promise. The logo is not a brand in it self, it’s a form of expression of the brand or a condense image of the brand… The brand must offer what the logo promises…”

These are strong words but is exactly what you want to have in mind when you’re designing a logo. Because you should start working on a logo after you have outline all aspects of the business, product, or the individual you’re trying to represent. It’s not always a good choice to design a logo first if you don’t know what you are going to represent.

The most important feature of a logo, is recognition. This makes the logo a mnemonic device. A mnemonic device is a learning technique that helps memory. Usually it is use so people can remember easily a data that is to be remembered, or remembered the source from were the device came. i.e. The logo.

E.g. (insert de Mcdonal’s M) when you see it from a far you know, or at least your brains knows, that near that “M” there’s a place were you eat.

That example is the perfect representation of how a logo impacts those who perceive it, and why is important. The logo is the image representing an organization. This concept is represented with the example above, we imidiatly distinguish this example and recognize what it symbolizes. It is, ok, to take time a develop a good logo, because one thing we want to avoid is changing the logo frequently, if were to do that is gonna be counterproductive with what we want to achieve.

When designing a logo, you can take a lot into consideration, deciding what fits your logo needs, it’s hard work. Like I have said it is important that you reflect what your selling thru your logo. The logo is the vehicle of communication on the real world.

There are a lot of concepts and tips regarding construction and design, for the most part, for now, the most important thing when working with your logo is to remember some basic design principles:

The logo must be legible (at any size)
The logo must be scalable
The logo must be able to be reproduce in any material
The logo must be distinguishable (in any color)
THE LOGO MUST BE MEMORABLE

This process usually doesn’t happen imidiatly it takes time, and a lot of analyzing. Like building anything we could have 40 drafts, and after a process try and error we find one that fits, and decide on using that one.

Also one good last recommendation might be that we shouldn’t rush into deciding in a logo on the fly, take time analyze it, verify it and make sure it really represent the message your trying to deliver and if represents what you want to sell. But be sure it is what you want, you don’t want to be changing logos every time, as I said before changing it a lot is bad and it will ruin the purpose of a logo.

There’s a whole lot to cover in the logo subject but I’ll be addressing them as I develop each area.

Enhancing the Customer Experience Via ATM

January 16, 2011 by Raul Colon

I am always looking as a consumer great customer service just as most of your customers look for the same. If you are one of my clients I am always seeking for ways to improve the experiences their customers have. I use various channels to communicate where they can improve and how they can reach a better experience.

Our friend @tonytorero on twitter shared the following tweet demonstrating an enhancement of customer experience with an ATM by @BBVA:

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/tonytorero/status/26540769611354112″]

Like some of my clients (and like myself a few years ago) @tonytorero is part of the Banking Industry. Something that dissapoints me about banking industry is that their is really no outstanding emerging technologies and even when there is one the rest of the industry takes a lot of time to implement it. For the reason this video was very refreshing and invite you to watch it.

If you can’t see the video, click here.

This video captures some main goals and topics many industries including the banking industry should focus on such as:

Humanizing Technologies. Someone that is a big advocate at humanizing business is my friend @chrisbrogan one of the reasons he created Human Business Works I invite you to join his newsletter. @BBVA decided to enhance the banking experience for their customers and you should also enhance the human experience of your customers. I have a new client Myriad Benefits which sells insurance one of the advantages of working with them is that they have a call center that guarantees you in getting a real human being on the other side. Instead of going thru the dial this number to reach a certain extension or menu mayhem. Do you prefer to call and battle it out with the automated system of having a human solving your problem once the phone is answered?

Are your clients reaching you without any obstacles caused by technology?

Better Privacy. As part of our services for a few selected clients we do physical and logical security assessments (by coincidence for the banking industry) to evaluate how strong the security around protecting their customer’s information really is. Since I have been involved in multiple social engineering and physical inspection assessments I have become paranoid every time I can see a strangers information on screen. The design by @BBVA enhances the security of their customers.

How are you protecting your customers information and keeping it safe?

Simplicity. I am usually testing out many technologies and most of them I throw to the side because of the lack of simplicity. I think some of the features @BBVA has included such as a one slot, touch screen, and a customizable interface for the customer reaches out to all types of customers. For those advanced users you can even synchronize the online banking experience at your ATM terminals by letting your users create their on menu or easy access to repeat transactions via your online banking platform.

How do you simplify things for your customers so they can get the most of the technologies you use?

Fun Factor. By visualizing each transaction on the terminal as it happens you entertain your customers and keep them happy while they wait. How many times do I see people getting impatient waiting in line or while something happens.

How do you keep your customers busy or entertained while they wait for a transaction to happen?

Building from the User Up. Most effective technologies lighten the pain of the user. If you build a technology thinking of the user first then it makes it easier. Many times I see how most of us try to solve a problem from the top down instead of going towards the root of the problem.

How are you removing a problem and making it easier for your customers with new technology?

Improving Communications with Customers. By personalizing, improving interaction, and entertaining I can see a higher probability of customers wanting to listen to @BBVA when they have something to say. Many businesses are still marketing and promoting their services to their customers. The right approach is to enhance the experience and have your customers become your advocates in selling and promoting your products and services like it is explained in the book by @ducttape The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself (affiliate link).

How can you implement new technologies and make your customers become part of your sales force?

Making it Even More Human. The pilot program helps in actually improving the system by identifying the issues to have them corrected or improved. By listening to their customers and refining the tools they created they are well on their way to making a unique and practical user experience. Making it more human and like they said in the video more Delightful.

What technologies make your business be more delightful?

Conclusion

I would really like to see one of these machines working and functioning. I can see a world of opportunities from the main goal which is Customer Experience to many security enhancements protecting customer data.

How do you improve your customers experience with your new technologies?

What technologies are currently not improving your customer experience?

What is more important security or functionality? How do you balance both?

Exchanging your LinkedIn Info via QR Code

January 15, 2011 by Raul Colon

I have written about some of the 5 benefits we see in having a LinkedIn Company profile. Having your customers or potential customers find you on LinkedIn can bring great benefits.

Reading today’s @chrisbrogan post on using QR Codes to link to your Linked In profile, goes well in line with helping get my connections from Facebook and Twitter to connect with me on LinkedIn.

Although locally on the Island QR Codes are not very popular I have already experimented on a few occasions with them and I have found value in them.

Since it is something fairly new just by curiosity I will get people to land on the pages where I have set one up for. The key part I have to work on is getting people to take action on what we are offering either by registering to a site or taking a sales offer.

Based on @chrisbrogan suggestion of using Pingtags to create a QR Code taking individuals to your LinkedIn Profile is great. I will try to use the QR Code to attempt to merge my connections from other platforms to LinkedIn. If you want to see if my QR Code works feel free to scan it.

If you also want to join me on LinkedIn feel free to contact me or send me a request via my profile.

What other ways can your possible clients find you on LinkedIn or other platforms?