September 2010 Archives

As consumers, we all know that brands are extremely important.

Some of us, for instance, are quite happy to pay double for a pair of running shoes, simply because they have a nice little tick on them. It's the same wherever you go and it's not just important to consumer markets, it's relevant to b2b and the voluntary sector too.

In these economically challenged times, why is this still the case?  Well there are lots of answers to that question, but I would suggest that one answer is simply because brand helps us quickly make a decision and reduces the risk of getting it wrong. Branding is really all about reputation.

As consumers are willing to pay more for a good brand, it's no surprise that big businesses spend a lot of time and effort trying to get the brand right and ensuring that all communications reflect a consistent image.

A key part of getting the brand right is the thought process. In time-challenged businesses, we often have to make do with something which isn't quite right and that will impact the overall results of campaigns and success of products.

Brand consultants do a great job helping businesses clarify their thought processes. However, many marketers cannot afford to pay for the services of a brand consultant. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a tool to help you walk through the steps to creating a new brand identity for your business. If only there was...

Well, I came across this tool the other day which is still in Beta, but is definitely worth a play. It's called buildabrand.com.

Whilst I am not suggesting that buildabrand.com will replace brand agencies, at the minimum it will certainly help you clarify your thoughts before briefing a designer.

by Lawrence Mitchell (RBI-UK)

What are Personas?

Personas are individual profiles created to represent  real 'users', complete with a name, photo, likes and dislikes, habits, background and patterns of behaviour. They are not necessarily real people, but they represent real people and so can be used throughout the design process to help ensure a User Centred Design approach.

However they are not 'made-up', but instead are accurate representations based on research with real users.  A typical website will have between 6 to 8 primary personas to help guide the design of a web site and to help ensure that user needs are satisfied.

Why are Personas valuable?

• They provide everyone involved in design decisions with a shared and common understanding of the customer
  
• Enable teams to correct misconceptions about users and make quicker, reliable and better informed decisions.
  
• Help the product team identify with the user and drive decision making for interface design that serve the customer primary goals rather than themselves - you are not the user!
  
• Provide evidence of user behaviour if disputes arise in stakeholder meetings
  
• Encourage focus and prevent 'jumbles of features' that can have a detrimental effect on the user experience
  
• Personas should lead to better decisions in terms of Design (IA & user interface), for Marketing (messaging & branding) and business strategy

Personas bring focus..

In b2b markets we have found that Job Role has been a key discriminator of information requirements i.e. how people will actually use the site. Thus we start our persona development by creating a set of job roles that reflect the different information needs of the user base (several job roles are likely to be met by one persona).

Once the job roles are agreed then we review existing research and/or conduct new research to help create and populate DRAFT personas e.g. use data collected from focus groups, depth interviews and self completion surveys.  We then seek editorial and team market knowledge in order to make them feel real and so that you can take ownership of them, thus maximising the impact/use of the personas.

The end result is a segmentation of your audience in terms of goals, attitudes and behaviour.  However, remember...personas are dynamic and they need to be continuously updated to ensure they remain relevant.

Through developing lots of personas, we have produced the following tip sheet to show you the kinds of information that should be included in a persona ...

Persona Tips.ppt

Article by Nick Watt (RBI-UK) and Christine Velen (RBI-UK)

Here is a great guide from Lyris on how to write compelling subject lines. The subject line is a huge factor behind a recipients decision to first open, then read and act on an email. As the whitepaper points out there is no sure-fire formula, you need to stand out yet remain familiar, it pays to spend time getting the 50 characters right.

View guide here >> Email Subject Lines: 15 Rules to Right Them Write