I was listening to part of an interview this morning where Jay Abraham was paraphrased (not so well). Having heard it before, I was reminded how much I like it. In my opinion it is the key to selling anything. I Googled it but failed in finding Jay, however I did find Gary Halbert’s sales letter which has a very similar version, possibly even the original (please excuse my edits).

Gary - I like to ask my students: “If you and I both owned a hamburger stand and we were in a contest to see who could sell the most hamburgers, what advantages would you most like to have on your side to help you win?”

After hearing their answers they ask “What advantage do you want?”

“The only advantage I want,” I reply…

“…Is A Starving Crowd!”

What do you think of it?

You can read Gary’s classic sales letter here.

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This is a bit of a different post, hopefully it will prove valuable to you.

Our current situation may present an awesome opportunity for you OR someone you know, so please take a moment to read this post fully and then get back to me ASAP, or share it to those you care about.

We have a lovely intern named Zee (Zenith) who has proven herself quite good at learning our process, you can read her guest post in this blog. Zee has done well with our rigorous Internship curriculum and we are thinking of employing her, but there is a final test, that is to prove herself on a handful of real project (supervised by our senior team of course and using our proven process).

As a quick refresher (and separate to your brand, if we have designed it) to illustrate exactly what our process produces, I thought it would be best to include one of our latest re-branding projects. The awesome offer is at the end of the post, so make sure you check it out after you take in this project.

Project Description

Brand name: Ingen

Service type: Executive search within the finance and insurance industry

Project: Total rebrand including name, positioning and identity.

Solution process & description:

• Ingen’s key point of difference is that they are ex-high-level executives from within the insurance and finance industry that they now target for executive search.
• After exploring possible directions, domain names, registered business and IP we presented options and Ingen was selected.
• Ingen is a shortened version of Ingenious meaning: clever; brilliant; able to perform well; and having a proven capacity to execute a client’s challenge.
• To create the identity we traversed many directions. One in particular was flight and view point. Starting with a kite graphic, we progressed to a simple paper aeroplane, then to a similarly styled swan followed by various other birds, finally ending at a stylish origami bird of prey.
• The logo is an origami bird of prey. It symbolises the distinct view point their insider position offers them and paper folding their precise office style work. It is a superior hunter able to swoop up its prey with great speed and fierce accuracy.
• From the process of engineering the actual origami bird the oh-so-fitting tagline was born (and is subject to change pending a current client survey): “Engineering career flights”
• The typeface creates an instant feeling of trust and prestige.
• The deep red, accompanied with a cool grey/silver, present an image of sophistication and style for Ingen’s high end clientele.
• To fit with Ingen’s positioning statement we created a challenge to “try some light engineering” and include the steps for the Ingen origami bird of prey on the reverse of the letterhead.
• Both the Ingen brand identity and the stationery were designed with the intention of creating an identity that is truly distinct and memorable, one that makes the Friday night cocktail discussion.
• We wanted to make something tangible and tactile and thought that the letterhead and follower, which are usually disposable, could become something more.
• The result is a mentally and physically demanding challenge that reinforces the brand identity and positioning statement for the client and (we believe) can’t help but be remarked on.
• On the follower is the deconstructed bird of prey (indicating all the folds) to give the challenger a head start. It is by no means an easy feat to create the bird of prey, which after attempting increases Ingen’s image of precision and finesse..
• The business cards carry this theme with part of the instruction. Combined these offer a real talking point and make the brand unique and unforgettable.

[Click on the images above to see larger versions]

So here is the offer. If you (or a friend, relative or colleague you have just thought of now) have a branding, or rebranding project that you have been thinking of doing, how about you give me and my senior creative team a shot at directing (and closely supervising) Zee through it, using our proven process and only when she produces an awesome result that you absolutely love, only then you pay a cent, no catches at all. Naturally there will be a significant discount on the price you pay too.

What do you think?

This opportunity cannot last long so call now on +612 8586 0000 or email now and we will get Zee to work for you ASAP!

P.S. Of course, if you have a project that you believe requires only our most senior, experienced staff attention, we can definitely help you there too.

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Brand Positioning is a term coined by Al Reis and Jack Trout some 30 years ago in their book titled  Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, 20th Anniversary Edition Some things have certainly changed, but the principles still remain true. And while they may be speaking directly to businesses competing in an oligopoly with the directive to own a single word in the mind of your market, where it is simpler to do so, owning a distinct value position is just as important in a market of any other size.

What is Brand Positioning?

It is the distinct meaning, feeling or promise that is immediately associated in the mind of your market when they hear or see your brand.

Brand Positioning starts with understanding who the key potential clients are that you can provide greatest value for. Then knowing where to find them, what the optimal price point is, and the single most distinct and untapped story, or key attributes, that when used correctly will get them to buy from you over your competition, whether or not they are in the market to buy right now.

Armed with these insights, you then build a remarkable brand identity (logo, packaging, marketing material, etc), culture and value proposition that distinctly addresses each of the key discoveries to position your business as the only reasonable choice for these prospects.

So, how do you do position your brand?

Research

Study your clients, prospective clients and your competitors.

Define your main key buyer profiles or personas. It is common to have a hand full of different key buyers. Create a written profile – a buyer persona – for each of these buyers by asking questions like: Who they are? What are their responsibilities and challenges? How do your solutions fit for their particular challenges? What are their buying influences? And anything else that helps you understand how to sell to this buyer. It is helpful to give each buyer persona a name and describe their physical characteristics. Use these buyer personas as the target for your business communications. For more great information and insights into creating buyer personas I recommend you visit: webinknow.com and buyerpersona.com

Understand the true value of what you provide. Poll your current clients to learn where they believe you have provided them the most value and how they would explain it to a friend or colleague in their own words. At the same time you may also want to check the relevancy of your offerings for them at this time.

Talk with your prospective clients to see what value they are looking for from your business. Your prospective clients can tell you what they need or want which you are not currently offering. The answers may uncover a real void in the market just waiting for you to fill it. In some cases this could open up a completely new niche category for you to create and own.

Study your competition to know what the stories and value propositions they are using so you can understand the landscape and be able to be unique or distinct when creating yours.

Learn what other leading brands servicing comparative price points in different industries look like to your client. Consider their style, aesthetics and level of quality of design.

Create

Find the single most distinct and untapped value statement and build your brand around it.

These next processes can be very challenging. It is helpful to remember that while you are very important to your business, you are in most cases not the buyer of your offerings, so you need to step outside of your perspective during this stage and take the perspective of your primary buyer persona. It is also quite valuable to put together an advisory board of some of your clients and prospects to use for regular feedback during the development of these elements.

All the research you have done has given you a wealth of information to use to create your value proposition. More on value propositions here. A value proposition is your core brand story. It is the collection of reasons your clients buy from you. In it you differentiate your business from your competition and articulate the distinct value you provide, substantiated with examples of how you have helped similar businesses to those you are targeting. With a strong value proposition you are most of the way there and you lay the foundation for all your marketing efforts.

Next create a distinct, compelling and a sticky tagline (See Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die) or core message (sticky: short, succinct, easily visualised, interesting and immediately memorable). This should be an ultra-condensed version of your value proposition, ideally around three words long. This becomes the essence of your brand position.

Then build your brand identity and collateral material to look like you belong in the price bracket you are aiming at. The quality level communicated by your brand, in each and every client contact point, will impact on the price point you can demand.

Deliver

Make every aspect of your business clearly and authentically communicate your core message.

This means every single point of contact that your clients can encounter with your business needs to be consistent. From your signs, brochures, website, through to your on hold audio, it all needs to be about delivering your core message. This especially includes the way your staff interacts with your clients. Engraining your core message (by way of core values) into your company culture and then hiring specifically to fit it, can in some cases be more important than any other single touch point.

Evolve

Frequently check the pulse of your brand and evolve to fit the changes that naturally occur.

This is about staying current and relevant with your brand position and your offerings. A simple way to do this is continue to talk with your current and prospective clients regularly to see what they believe the value you provide is and that it is still relevant to them with the changing time. They can tell you what you are not currently offering that could help them which may turn into a completely new niche category for you to own. It is about listening for the new possibilities and evolving your brand position to suit.

I look forward to the questions that arise. Feel free to ask them below, or email me directly.

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A guest post by Sponge intern Zenith Phillips

Can you remember that initial thing that drove you to make the decision to work towards a career in the creative industry? Was it flipping through magazine advertisements thinking to yourself how cool it would be to make them? Or seeing a massively Photoshopped advertisement and wanting to learn how to do it? You have an interest so now you just go to school then get a job, right? Unfortunately, everything in the creative industry is competitive and that includes the glorious step between student and professional ‘the internship’.

My professors told me as a graphic designer I will learn 60% on the job, through my experience I would say 65%-70%. The purpose of an internship is to get your knowledge at 100% to assist you in becoming a professional. Landing a good internship is difficult and competitive. Difficult because you want to find placement where you will get attention, first hand assistance from successful people in the industry. Competitive because everyone wants attention from the best.

My main focus when searching for an internship was ‘who is willing to get me to 100%?’ that’s when I discovered the work experience program at The Sponge. During my time at The Sponge I have learned… I have learned a lot and it would take me hours and hours to write everything out so you should really just come in and learn for yourself. This internship is not easy, your work needs to meet The Sponge standards. Your entire process gets creative direction from both the director of creativity and senior director so you defiantly get good portfolio pieces! You will learn to love the words ‘looks good, give me 5 more!’and understand how much of a process design is. Aside from mentoring you to create amazing design that works, The Sponge will teach you anything you want to know whether it be technical or how a graphic design business works.

If you want a rewarding internship with amazing creative direction from people who are design and marketing masters, awesome BBQ’s every Friday and work you will be proud to put in your portfolio, I suggest you apply for The Sponge work experience program.

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To me brainstorming new online business models is a great deal of fun. My team and I really enjoy the challenge of developing innovative ideas and understand the technical freedoms and limitations of the internet. Recently we have had the opportunity to work on some exciting and boundary pushing online strategies. In this post I will share with you some of the key questions we work through to develop an effective online strategy.

In most cases an online strategy is not an off the shelf solution. The internet gives us the freedom to market any combination of products and services and with the technological advancements that are constantly being developed it creates the opportunity to be innovative in the way that they are delivered. These innovations can create a superior user experience and generate a real consumer buzz.

To develop an effective online strategy my team and I like to spend a couple of hours with a client working through (and often brainstorming) what we believe to be some of the key questions. I have grouped them into bite size pieces below. Keep in mind that a lot of these questions are broad stroke and are intended to spark meaningful (and often lengthy) conversations and have natural follow up clarification questions. To keep it relatively simple they are not included here.

Knowing that there is an worthwhile opportunity

1. Who is your potential market or markets?
2. Are they on the internet?
3. Is there a proven demand for your offering?
4. Is demand rising or in decline?
5. Is there an undersupply, or an oversupply of what you are offering?

Branding your offering

1. Is this a new brand, a sub brand or a standalone offering?
2. Have you named it to position it correctly for your market?
3. Does your brand identity and design style appeal to your market? Does it convey the value of what you have priced it at?
4. Does your value proposition communicate the value of your offering clearly and concretely to your market?
5. Is your domain name easy to say, memorable and matches your brand name?

Selling your offering

1. Do you know what motivates your market to buy?
2. What is truly unique about your offering?
3. Why will your market buy from you?
4. Does your offering require short or long term education to be accepted by your market?
5. Does your offering require an introductory offer, or free trial period to make a sale?

Delivering on the sale

1. How do you intend to handle online payments?
2. Are you delivering locally, interstate, or globally?
3. Does your offering require warehousing and shipping? How do you intend to manage this?
4. Is your offering a onetime sale, or is there an opportunity for repeat sales, or a subscription sale?
5. Does your offering have natural complimentary offerings that you can also provide?
6. How do you intend to deliver your customer service?
7. How can you add value for your customers over and above your offering? (This question fits in next category too!)

Marketing & Usability – Getting more sales

1. Does your offering have an inherent referability? Is there one you can create?
2. Is it more important to constantly add new customers, or increase the number of transactions with your existing ones?
3. How scalable is your offering?
4. Do you know what else can be done on the internet with current technologies that may complement of advance your offering?
5. Do you intend to create a community for your clients?
6. Have you considered the useability and functionality of your website for your customers, both immediate and for the future evolutions?

Financing, Longevity & Exit

1. Is your offering immediately monetizable?
2. How many sales do you need to break even and then become profitable?
3. What does success look like for you?
4. Is your offering a short term or a long term business model?
5. What is short term and long term to you?
6. Do you have an exit strategy?
7. How do you intend to fund your venture (short and long term)?

I hope these questions help you with your online strategy. If you would like to dive deeper into any of these categories or questions, or get some professional help developing your online strategy, simply drop us an email now.

One last question.What other good strategy defining questions do you know of?

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Your answers to our survey have given us the top 10 services we offer that you want to know more about. They are:

1. Online Marketing Strategy
2. Brand Positioning
3. Website design and maintenance
4. Search Engine Optimisation
5. Social Media for Business (facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc)
6. Web Video
7. Business & Brand Naming
8. Google Adwords
9. Email Newsletter Marketing
10. Logo Design and Stationery (inc digital templates)

Over the next 10 weeks I intend to post an article each week working through this list, starting with Online Marketing Strategy. If you can’t wait for information about any of these subjects you are welcome to contact our team to arrange your own personal consultation.

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I have finally been able to review the answers of our recent Value Proposition survey. While there is still a sizable amount of work remaining to produce the intended value proposition statement, there were some wonderful comments that have made me and my team extremely happy. So, on behalf of my team I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all your help!

I would like to share some of the comments right away, however I will be respecting the privacy of their authors.

“A refreshingly practical and commercial approach to the smoke and mirrors world of digital marketing and web development”

“Easy to work with. Great ideas flowed from the very first meeting. “

“Lots of positive feedback, comments that our website looks amazing, professional and makes our clients feel confident in our company & brand.”

“I have only ever heard positive comments relating to our brand name and design. They were fresh 7 years ago, and I believe will continue to be so for many years to come. “

“They make a brand exciting and give it new life.”

“Received many compliments from strangers and clients.”

“A real market presence and recognition of our brand.”

“They are not cheap, BUT if you want quality creative that works you need to meet with them before you go anywhere else.”

“A company with youthful energy, and ideas that are contemporary and innovative!”

“Different is such an understated word but it sort of is appropriate.”

“A simple engagement process and a team that is very easy to work with. No attitudes; No egos. Just a group of hard working, keen and very creative guys and girls that produce outstanding designs.”

“They are creative and cutting edge with their thought processes; their professionalism and willingness to work with the client (us) was very refreshing. They were always positive about achieving the results that we were going to be happy with.”

We love the work we get the privilege to do for you here at The Sponge and this kind of positive response is really special to us. So again from me and my team, a HUGE thanks for your help, your answers are invaluable to us.

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As one of our core services is creating (and managing) brands for new businesses, my team and I have the frequent pleasure of meeting with entrepreneurs. I think many of these entrepreneurs wouldn’t call themselves this, however Webster’s dictionary defines “entrepreneur” as: ‘one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.’, so in my opinion they definitely are.

I personally admire the bravery that it takes to invest in an idea. I feel a kinship with this type of person as it is something I do time and again (with varied success!). Even with the uncertainty that accompanies creating a new business, there is freedom in knowing you are in control and not at threat of being fired.

The economist and entrepreneur Paul Zane Pilzer informs us in his Entrepreneurial Challenge that with the current economic climate, you really have no choice but to become an entrepreneur and the time to do it is when the going is good, not to wait until times are tough. I am not saying that you need to quit your job today and invest in that idea you have stewing over. I am saying that it is definitely worth a discussion to see if it is feasible.

Our policy of only accepting new “non-competitive clients” means our clients are spread across many different industries. With this variety of industries comes the privilege of experiencing and learning many different business models, processes and practises. One benefit is that we can share these practises with our clients in different industries, in some cases giving them first mover advantage. Similarly and sometimes more importantly, we can use them to shape a newly born idea, brought to us by an entrepreneur, into a fully developed brand and strategic business model.

We have two such projects in the development which I will touch on briefly now and share with you in detail in future posts once they have launched. One is an international business model that worked successfully ten years ago, but has been flailing in recent times due its laborious and out dated processes. We have streamlined this model into a completely scalable, cashflow generating online model with a powerful referral funnel and client retention system.

In the second of these we recognised that what the client thought was the product would work better as a free lead generator and the actual ‘profitable’ product is something else entirely. The new product has the potential to generate more than eight times the revenue from each client than the original idea. Furthermore if we are successful in adding the value we plan with this project, the repeat revenue is ongoing.

You may be thinking how does this fit in the realm of branding?

My team and I believe that client experience is a huge part of branding. If you get the client experience right, you will get the brand right. An awesome example of this is Zappos! Zappos generates over a billion USD in online sales annually, with 80% coming from existing clients. Their focus is their company culture and their client experience. I recently read to Zappos CEO Tony Hseih’s recently released book Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose in which he goes into detail about how Zappos got to where it is today. I highly recommend it!

When evaluating a new idea for a business or a brand, we like to think of it from your new client’s perspective. In the formative steps of creating a business there is every opportunity to shape the client experience completely so that it is ideal. Naturally this is heavily intertwined with the business’ process, so to us it is a critical part of branding and something we care very deeply about.

This kind of work is exciting to us and we relish every opportunity to create something special. Have you got an idea you want to discuss?

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We have been working closely with some interesting entrepreneurs and organisations in the last two months who have really pushed us to work out our creative muscles. One project which is poised to go live in July has given us the opportunity to influence a positive change in Australia’s culture. I say this with some hesitancy, as I know full well that this kind of change is no easy thing.

The project, which I cannot disclose too much about right now apart from it being based around drinking, is about to go into a beta testing phase prior to the launch and we would like some help from 18-30 year old socially active Aussies to help us iron out any kinks. If you can help and would like to get an exclusive preview, email us for more information.

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The weekend before last my fellow sponge director and I participated in a great motorsport event called the Italian Connection Trophy. We have been involved with it for three years as a sponsor and its charity (as of this year) is The Duchenne Foundation. If you are like me, you will not have heard of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) – it is the number one genetic killer of boys worldwide. Throughout the event we were all very moved by the video and the cause and donated everything we could to the Foundation.

The organisation is great, the cause is great, but there is one flaw which was a talking point through the event (due to the Duchenne car livery). Whoever was responsible for the domain name doesn’t appear to have thought it through carefully enough. It is www.blueball.org.au and it makes sense when you understand the logo and concept behind the brand for the foundation, but not so much if you haven’t seen it before. In my opinion the decision was made by someone too close to the brand and the curse of knowledge has clouded their thoughts. A quick look at blueball.org confirms the natural association that can be made.

The point is to think carefully about the domain name you are choosing for your brand. Have friends or family read through your short list to pick out flaws, or misreads that you cannot see. To see what some really bad examples a quick Google search for “bad domain names” returns a page with nine Bad domain names, as it says:

…these are companies that didn’t spend quite enough time considering how their online names might appear – and be misread…

1. Who Represents is where you can find the name of the agent that represents any celebrity. Their Web site is www.whorepresents.com
2. Experts Exchange is a knowledge base where programmers can exchange Advice and views at www.expertsexchange.com
3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at www.penisland.net

You can read the rest here, but you get the point.

Having said that, up until a recent check if you accidently omitted the .au in our domain name and typed www.thesponge.com you would have landed on the today sponge contraceptive device website!

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