How to Manage Brand Design During A Merger or Acquisition

fingerprintMergers and acquisitions create a lot of questions on how to handle different brands and brand standards. In order to create continuity throughout your marketing strategy and corporate communications, it’s important to rebrand. Although the process will yield a plethora of considerations, the decisions you make will bring clarity and purpose to your combined organization.

To avoid getting waylaid by the personal dynamics involved when two organizations join forces, it’s best to start thinking about the brand design implications, from a high level, sooner than later. Here is a checklist of considerations to help you prioritize. Read more

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Do I Need a Brand or a Visual Identity?

Sometimes when people come to us for “branding,” I quickly ascertain that what they really mean is an updated “visual identity.”

“So, you’re looking for help integrating your vision, competitive positioning, audience messaging, market perception and corporate culture,” I might ask. Just as often they respond, “I just need an update to our logo, collateral templates, PowerPoint, web design, etc.” For many, the visual manifestations of a brand are “The Brand.”

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Brand personality: who really cares?

In our data and analytics driven marketing world, why would something so touchy feely, so ethereal and hard to quantify as brand personality be something you care about?

Everyone wants to be Apple. Everyone wants to, “Think Different.”

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Six Branding & Marketing Tips for Consultants

consultant_w_halo

If we concur that in today’s business climate, change is the only constant, then we can understand why, to some degree, branding & marketing need to become fluid practices. For product companies, this is not as amorphous as it sounds, because a product is something tangible and even as the world changes, these companies always have the product to anchor and focus their branding and marketing efforts.

But for consultants and, in general, Professional Services organizations, which don’t have products, how do you incorporate change and a flexible approach in your own branding and marketing efforts, in order to stand apart?

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Product Naming and Branding: What You Should Know

Product naming architecture and branding are strategic processes that can highly benefit your company if done right. With 28 years in the marketing and web design industry, we take pride in the branding and product advice we provide to clients. However, we also like to offer them knowledge of the strategies we use and how we develop them. 

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How to Use Video as a Marketing Tool

The Benefits of Video Marketing for B2B Companies

video_iconAre you struggling with your company’s content strategy and social media strategy? Video is an effective way to elevate your social media plan and hook your viewers. Several of our clients are asking us to integrate video into their websites and social media and here’s why we recommend doing it.

A short video (up to two minutes) is an opportunity to tell your company’s story. We recently updated our website and by embedding a video on the “About RainCastle” page, we were able to tell our story in a new way. Within seconds, prospective clients and employees gain insight into our culture and team, even some of our technologists who often work behind the scene.

Video shows how your product or service works. In less than a minute, by showing a demo, a video can explain how a new technology or product works. Our client, AirStrip Technologies, creates medical software that allows healthcare providers to monitor patient data on their mobile devices. They use video to demo and promote the exciting new technology they’ve developed – technology that enables clinicians to interact with and respond rapidly to clinically relevant patient health information.

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The Secret World of Social Media Strategy

social_iconsEntering the social media world without a clearly defined strategy is full of perils. Clients who come to us for branding or a website or marketing programs sometimes want to throw in a little social media, lest they be left behind or miss out on an important channel.

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Why EXPERIENCE MATTERS””

Why_Experience_MattersI write regularly about how branding impacts your website, your marketing and your business. Last week, in celebration of RainCastle’s twentieth anniversary, we launched our new website, in which we introduced our new brand theme, “EXPERIENCE MATTERS,” here’s why.

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Why Messaging is so Important for Successful B2B Marketing

Branding is Lead Generation’s best-kept secret. And what is “Messaging” if not the public face of your brand?

When clients and prospects approach us about a lead generation campaign or website, they’re seeking a way to cut through the clutter of similar sounding competitors or the perception of market monotony. Sometimes, they have a target number of leads in mind, or some idea of a marketing campaign to achieve goals, and usually a tight time frame for achieving results.

In these situations, the success or failure of marketing campaigns and websites often comes down to one thing — Messaging —finding the right concept and meaning that will authentically express the value of their brand and engage with customers to make a lead convert.

Here are some compelling reasons for you to focus on your brand messaging before launching a marketing campaign or website:

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How To Make a Responsive Website & Why Your Site Needs This Facelift

In my last post, I discussed the pros and cons of Responsive website design and concluded that, while not perfect, the pros outweigh the cons. Now that you may be ready to take the plunge, let’s talk about what makes a Responsive design successful and why your site may need a face lift.  Read more

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