Satow Strategies » Branding

New Satow Strategies Website Launched

Paula Satow — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 05:20:13 +0000

After 10 years, the shoemaker’s children finally got a new pair of shoes. “We took a break from helping everybody else get their website up and running to give our own site at SatowStrategies.com a completely new look. We are very proud of the work we did and the new look of our brand,” said Paula Satow, Managing Director of Satow Strategies LLC. In addition to featuring client testimonials and case studies, the site touts the company’s new tagline: “The Art of Smart Marketing.”

Satow Strategies delivers world-class branding, naming as well as traditional and e-marketing solutions for any-sized businesses.

Big Business Branding Makes Small Dreams Come True

Paula Satow — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:21:02 +0000

Don’t kid yourself. Successful brands don’t happen by accident. Fortune 500 companies don’t create and build their brands — i.e. their messaging, identity, personality and the like — accidentally. Instead, they first understand the best practices that strong brands require and they manage them with precision through an army of experienced “brand police” every day, at every turn. From their smallest tweet to their largest global event, their information is Compelling, Clear, Concise, Clever and Consistent at every turn. What would happen if we applied these same 5 C’s to our own personal brands?

I believe that everyone can benefit from applying the great branding techniques of big business – including you and me! The next time you update your resume or prepare for an interview for a dream job, remember what the big guys know:

Be Compelling: Plan and practice your 30-second elevator pitch ahead of time and strive to capture their imagination with your message and your delivery.
Be Clear: Be sure your message is easy to understand. You want them to see how you can solve an important problem or fill an important gap for them. The last thing you want to do is confuse them.
Be Concise: Get all your points across quickly and efficently. If you go around in circles or wander off track in your interview, they may think you’ll do the same on the job.
Be Clever: Try to leave them with a thought or idea that is truly memorable and interesting so that you really stand out about the other candidates.
Be Consistent: There’s an old saying in marketing. Tell them. Then tell them again. And tell them again. Without sounding repetitive, be sure you are consistent in your messaging so they know they can depend on you.

Group Therapy for Your Brand

Paula Satow — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:55:12 +0000

If the recession has your Sales & Marketing team struggling for a way to stand out in the crowd, then it’s time to tap into the power of group intelligence. Satow Strategies is offering a series of outstanding Speedbranding Workshops, custom tailored to focus on what you need and when you need it. We help you create better:

Strategic messaging and taglines
Brand strategies
Unique selling propositions
Product names
Marketing plans
Marcom plans
Social networking strategies
Web content

Satow Speedbranding sessions are like Group Therapy for your Brand. Suddenly, your messages are clear…your communications is more effective…heck…you’re feeling better than ever!

Speedbranding in a Flash

Paula Satow — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 02:39:15 +0000

Good things come to those who wait, right? But, let’s face it, sometimes you need a new brand yesterday, right? When you need your positioning, new name ideas and brand strategy at your fingertips now, and not months from now, Satow Strategies has a solution for you. It’s the Satow™ Speedbranding™ Workshop Series and our clients and participants love it. Speedbranding programs come in several flavors customized to meet your organization’s needs:

Creative Naming Workshops: To help you name products and services in a timely way, we begin by working with intact executive, sales and marketing teams to define a sensible strategic naming strategy to meet your market needs. Next, we focus on generating creative name ideas in an exciting, hands-on brainstorming session. Just grab a thesaurus and we’re off and running.

Positioning/Repositioning Workshops: In these sessions, Satow Strategies leads you and your intact team through the positioning process, leveraging strategic mapping tools to “reveal” the best competitive messaging for your products and services. The results can be quite eye-opening.

Brand Assessment Workshops: See your brand from the outside in, applying proven brand management tools to assess and adjust your current brand strategy and plan ways to boost its power and performance more effectively, across audiences and channels, over time.

Personal Positioning and Branding Workshops: Organizations, groups and/or individuals can sign up for these dynamic, hands-on sessions that apply time-tested business branding methods to help individuals discover their unique value proposition and find ways to promote that value to enhance their role at work and their future career endeavors.

When you’re ready to focus on brand strategies in a flash, email us at info@satowstrategies.com or call us at 602-481-1942.

Speedbranding Workshop for WITI – July 29

Paula Satow — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:33:51 +0000

Women in Technology International is offering a career workshop in conjunction with Satow Strategies and Charles Schwab on Wednesday, July 29th, 2009.
Registration and Networking Opportunity 4:00 – Seminar/Workshop 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm at Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., 2423 E. Lincoln Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85016 . Pre-Registration must be received by Monday, July 27th; Fee waived for WITI members / $10.00 for non-members. Please register and pay at: http://www.witi.com/regforms/chapter_meeting_registration_form.php?id=2300

Brand Farewell

Paula Satow — Sun, 03 May 2009 06:32:00 +0000

In the current global economic recession, the list of U.S. retailers who are closing many stores and even, in some cases, closing their doors forever is astonishing and continues to grow. Of course, it goes without saying that by far the most tragic result of this situation is that hundreds of thousands of hard-working people have lost their livelihood. But there’s another lamentable dimension to these events that may be easily forgotten. That is, the death of many of these brands. Now, you might think, “So what. After all, they’re only brands, not people or the communities where they live and work.” And you might say, perhaps rightfully so, that “If they were truly strong, solid brands, then wouldn’t the companies that create and leverage them survive and thrive in spite of a downturn in the market, no matter how monumental it may be.” Not a bad argument when you think about a company like GE who was nimble enough and forward-thinking enough to re-invent itself a few dozen times over the course of its unbeatable 113-year history.

But the truth is that even good companies with solid brands falter and die away and I think there is an element of sadness and loss in that fact. Because brands do not just create themselves. They are conceived, built and fostered by a whole lot of very smart and successful people. These savvy staffers defined them, protected them vigilently and invented great sales and marketing programs to grow their value. Circuit City and Linens & Things, to name a few, were once among the leaders in their markets and are now no more. Others, like Sharper Image, are repositioning their brand away from brick and mortar to direct-to-retail.

Thinking about what separates the GEs of the world from rest is important. Understanding how to reinvent an organization and its offerings to shift with the changing times is one of the most significant things a company can focus on. Options include growing from a large U.S. company to an even larger multinational conglomerate like GE did, selling to the highest bidder, shifting the business model or remaining small and nimble.

No matter what strategy is pursued, for better or worse, a brand goes along wherever the business strategy takes it. And if a firm ends up in a corporate graveyard and the only way to buy their logo is to bid on a gently used golf shirt on eBay then, so be it. You’ll find some great brands there, created by some very interesting people trying to make a buck marketing a company and a product line they truly believed in. I know because it happened to me. I worked for RCA when they were gobbled up (yes, by GE) and, to this day, I relish anything with a Nipper logo on it. Fond farewell to all of these great American brands. You’re in very good company.

Social networking for small business

Paula Satow — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:53:48 +0000

Are you ready to Twitter? Is it time for fans to follow you on Facebook?
With a new social networking presence on the web, a small business like yours can have a big presence. Get a boost in building brand loyalty and reaching new prospects and customers through these new vehicles including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and MySpace. Contact Satow Strategies to learn more about how our network of experts can help you join the “hyper-communications” revolution and make your business go viral!

Logorithms

Paula Satow — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:33:00 +0000

A Simple Formula for Great Logo Design and Management

by Paula Satow, Satow Strategies LLC

According to Wikipedia, an algorithm is a “definite list of well-defined instructions for completing a task.” Here’s a set of well-defined steps on how to develop a great logo for your company organization – my personal “logo-rithm.”

Put Your Brand First: Logos should not be designed in a vacuum. To be strategic and effective over time, a good logo must reflect your brand and all that it stands for. Therefore, before you begin the logo design process, be sure that your basic brand tenets inform your design process. Ask questions like:

· What does our brand stand for?
· What is the brand personality?
· Who are our target customers/constituents?
· What is our overarching key message?

Work with a Brand-Savvy Designer: One of the biggest mistakes companies make when they set out to design a company logo is to save money by working with a designer that creates “graphics” instead of “logos”. What is the difference? A graphic may look good but it doesn’t necessarily reflect your brand and it doesn’t necessarily work as your company evolves over time. Ask prospective designers to explain how the corporate logos they’ve created convey the company brand message.

Some of my favorite examples of this capability in action are:

Look closely at the FedEx logo sometime. Do you see the hidden arrow? What better symbol than an arrow to convey the company’s overarching key message of getting your shipments to their destination quickly and directly?
Next, look at Cisco’s logo. Notice how it integrates a symbolic depiction of a bridge – a double-entrendre both for its proximity, in name and location, to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge as well as its business model of building “digital bridges” that serve as world-class networking solutions.

Be expansive: Think of all the possible ways your logo may be used both today and in the future – as your business grows – before completing your design work. The logo design should work well both in the digital domain, including your website, banner ads and e-newsletters, and in the analog domain including letterhead, brochures, signs and vehicles. Be sure your logo is optimized to look great in a variety of media and with versions from full color/high resolution to B&W;/low resolution.

Be consistent: One of the most important strategies you can use to build a strong brand over time is to define and consistently apply a set of rules – “Do’s and Don’ts” of how to use your logo” by publishing a document referred to as “Logo Usage Guidelines.” This important deliverable is designed to clearly communicate elements like the logo size, color and application. Here’s a great website with a ton of Logo Usage Guidelines examples to see how it’s done: http://brandsoftheworld.com/guidelines. Or you can just do a web search for “Logo Usage Guidelines” and many other examples will surface. A side-note: a good test of your graphic designer is to ask to see his/her Logo Usage Guidelines they’ve developed for other customers. If they have, then they are likely keenly aware that a logo is not just a graphic element but a brand embodiment that must be managed from inception to dissemination.

When it comes time to developing a new company/product logo or to give a face-lift to an existing logo, Satow Strategies is ready to assist you – from strategic planning to graphic agency identification/management, we will help you create the world-class logo you need to build your world-class brand. Contact us at 602-481-1942 or at info@satowstrategies.com to learn more about how effective logo strategies can boost your corporate value.

Naming with Brand Architecture in Mind

Paula Satow — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:29:00 +0000

How to apply naming strategies to effectively define and extend your brand
by Paula Satow, Satow Strategies, LLC

Clients often come to me asking for help in naming a new company or re-naming an existing company. In the course of exploring their strategic requirements, we often discover that there are actually a lot more “name-worthy” elements to their offerings than meet the eye. I find that the more effective we can be in discovering and leveraging these hidden areas, the better it is for their brand in the long run. This holistic approach to naming may cost a little more upfront but translates into higher brand valuation in the long run.

Here’s a list of focus areas you should consider when it comes to building effective name strategies for your business:

Company: Naming the company is obviously the single-most important aspect in any business naming process. Referred to as the “Corporate Umbrella Name,” the company name needs to work well in any context or brand hierarchy — whether it is integrated in product and service names, i.e. – “Microsoft® Office®” or whether it serves more in the role of a corporate name only, in the background like “Post-It Notes®” (“from 3M”).

Category: If your company is drowning in a crowded sea of competitors and you’re having difficulty keeping your product or service afloat, consider re-positioning your offering by creating a new category, poising your unique value as central to the market. For instance, if you’re in the office furniture business but you’re products are all uniquely made of sustainable woods and materials designed in pre-made sections for cost effectiveness, be bold and stake a claim in a new market category you’ve dubbed, “natural modules.” This sounds a lot more unique and interesting than “office furniture.”

Offering: Product and/or service offerings can be ripe with brand name opportunities. While you should never err on the side of “branding everything” – such a shotgun approach can be a brand-diluting, market-confusing and budget-depleting proposition. It’s a good idea to start with a brand hierarchy that clearly conveys how your products and services fit in relation to your corporate umbrella brand. They may be worthy of their own product brands or sub-brands to convey their significance in the market as well as in your company’s portfolio.

Technology/Unique Capability: If you have unique intellectual property (IP) that you have either patented or have a patent pending, it is worth considering a trademark name that effectively positions its unique value in the market. You may even consider an ingredient brand strategy. While this type of program can be expensive and complex to manage, the payoff can be tremendous if your customers want to tap into the power and panache of your “secret sauce” for their own products.

No matter which naming projects you need to tackle, Satow Strategies is here to help – from company re-naming to ingredient brand strategies, we can help you build effective strategies, programs and implementation tactics.

Contact us at 602-481-1942 or at info@satowstrategies.com to learn more about how effective naming strategies can boost your corporate value.

Get Organized! (Your Messages, That Is!)

Paula Satow — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 20:24:00 +0000

How Clarity Rules When It Comes to Business

by Paula Satow, Managing Member, Satow Strategies

Spring has sprung and it’s time for a little spring cleaning. Sure, you can vacuum out your car and straighten up your office but that’s not really what I meant. I am referring to your company’s messaging. Just like your home and work life can always be improved when you get rid of the clutter and focus on organizing things, so, too, your bottom line can be enhanced when you simplify your key messages and get to the point when it comes to making new customers and influencing them to buy your products and try your services. The world’s best companies know that clear, crisp messages can be the keys to the kingdom of success.
Here are a few quick tips on how to spiff up your key points and capture your market’s imagination:

TIP One: Keep It Simple.
Be sure you start with a simple, solid messaging foundation that is easy to understand, no matter who the audience. For instance, when preparing your “About Us” section on your webpage, begin with a positioning statement that says exactly who you are and why that’s important to your target audience. For instance: “XYZ, Inc. is the Arizona-based plastics manufacturer that delivers high-quality widgets and services to the auto industry at a discounted price.” One sentence says it all.

TIP Two: Take It From The Top.
Organize your messages from the top down, focusing on your corporate brand first. Then, work your way down to your products, services and the unique differentiators they deliver. For instance, when writing a boilerplate – the summary paragraph about your organization that consistently appears at the end of your company’s press releases – always start with your corporate messaging followed by a description of the products and services you offer along with their key feature and benefit.

TIP Three: Remove Clutter.
Your key messages cannot by effectively conveyed when they’re surrounded by the clutter of contradictory, outdated and/or unfocused information. Peel back the onion on your marketing collateral and determine when the information was created and whether or not it is still relevant to your business and important to making sales. If not, it’s time to update your communications suite. Instead of helping you grow your business, it might be actually be working against you, confusing your customers and fueling your competitors’ “FUD Power” – the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt that they tell prospects about your offering.

TIP Four: Try It On For Size.
Before you charge ahead to change the world, or at least your little corner of it, try to test your new messages out with prospects, customers, employees and partners to see how they fly. You can do formerly with some market research and/or informally through a small trial balloon, perhaps through a flyer at a trade show or a simple direct mail piece. But, more often than not, this vantage will prove invaluable in honing and prioritizing your final messages.

Visit http://www.satowstrategies.com/ to learn more about getting your messages more on track and your business on target for success through organized messaging techniques. Email info@satowstrategies.com to get started on your Message Spring Cleaning.