"Branding" is
the process by which a company employs marketing strategies to get
people to easily remember their business and products over
anothers...essentially, it's applied psychology.
As a child, I
was introduced to a relatively new hamburger chain that had begun in
Australia. I still visit that burger chain regularly 25 years later. Not
a lot has changed over those years in regards to this particular
company and I guess that's one of the reasons that I am still a
customer. I know each time I walk into that establishment what I am
going to have, where everything is and God help them if they ever remove
the item from the menu! Even if they radically changed the decor, it
would make me nervous. Many millions of people around the world would
feel the same......One of our countries major supermarkets has a
habit of occasionally moving products around in their stores. It works
well for them as it increases sales. Customers who usually seek out
particular products are exposed to other items as they hunt for their
favourites. It is a highly annoying tactic and only works in this
situation because the supermarket is very competitive in pricing and
range of products. People are not so patient on web sites and
continiously moving items around on your site will see you losing
traffic....nothing surer.
After having worked in management of
another major fast food chain outlet, I learned that once a company has
established a presence and become successful, any changes to operation
must be carried out extremely carefully. Our patrons became very attuned
to the company, they were essentially a part of it. Their perceptions
and opinions needed to be taken into account every step of the way, and
not just in regards to the products.
Why?
We have succumbed to the branding experience..... it makes us feel "safe"
Branding
isn't just about logos, it's the entire "feel" associated with a
company. In these days of bleeding edge technology and rapid change,
people still enjoy going to places that follow a pattern of operation.
This very much applies to our websites. Your logo should appear on every
page, your domain name and one line blurb contained in every email,
your theme consistent throughout your site. Granted, quality content is
king, but it's important that visitors remember where the content came
from. Branding establishes recall abilities of your site.
Recently,
I decided that I was going to change the colour schemes on my site due
to the research that I had carried out on the psychology of colour. Many
articles I had studied suggested that black was not really appropriate
for a site about web design. After discussing the plans with a few
regular visitors, I was surprised by the response. The feedback was for
me not to change the colour in any way. Even those people who did not
feel that black was appropriate considering the nature of site did not
want me to change it. They were "used" to it. It was a constant on the
site, the same as the logo placement and general navigation structure.
So it is all staying. My plans were to make the site look more in tune
with other very successful web presences that focus on web design. What
was I thinking!?!?!?
Branding is not only about constants, but individuality..........
If
some one told you that they were going to establish a hamburger
franchise and the logo colour scheme would be red and yellow, you would
probably think they were insane. Red tends to signify danger and yellow
is purported to be the most annoying colour of all. But try telling
McDonalds that.....
But having stated that, if you are just in
the planning stages your site, I suggest that you do be careful in your
choice of navigation, logos and colour schemes. If your site is
established with a good traffic flow and you are considering revamping
it, it is of the utmost importance that you consult your visitors first
via some sort of survey before any radical changes are made. Otherwise
the many hours of hard work that you put into the upgrade, as well as
the hours invested in developing the original theme, may be lost.
.... along with your traffic.
Michael Bloch
michael@tamingthebeast.net
http://www.tamingthebeast.net
Tutorials, web content and tools, software and community.
Web Marketing, eCommerce & Development solutions.
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About the Author
Michael is an Australian Information Technologies trainer and web
developer. Many other free web design, ecommerce development and
Internet articles, tutorials, tools and resources are available from his
award winning site; Taming the Beast.net
(http://www.tamingthebeast.net) |
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