Big Judgments on Little Information - Understanding How Your Customers Think
Your consumers are bombarded everyday with thousands of brand images and sales pitches. "In order to survive the onslaught of choices, consumers make snap judgments."
I read this in a book that was recommended to me entitled All Marketers Are Liars. What's fascinating about most of us is that we consistently make judgments on very little information. In effect, consumers absorb little bits of information (like seeing your logo or business card) and then make judgments and predictions about your business based on the little input they've been exposed to.
Don't believe me?
Well, have you ever made up your mind about a political candidate without ever meeting her/him? How about picking a movie based on the ads in the paper? If you shop online, do you make a decision on how reputable the company is based on their Web site? Yep, we all make snap decisions. This is the reason that speed dating has been so popular and effective for people—we all make snap judgments based on a first impression.
The truth is, that often, based on a first impression, we consumers make up our minds instantly—and according to All Marketers Are Liars, consumers stick to those decisions like a barnacle on a sailboat. Once the snap decision has been made, consumers seek out information that supports their snap judgments and ignore information that doesn't. For consumers, this approach saves an immense amount of time and keeps them from going nuts; for savvy business owners, this screams, "My first impression better be a good one."
So what does all this mean to you?
This is why having a professional, marketing-focused and consistent business identity is so important. The truth is, your customers make snap judgments, and once those decisions are made, they are tough to change. So you want to make certain that the first impression your customers might receive from you (business card, logo, phone call from you, Web site, brochure, signage, etc) is the impression that you want to send to them.
Would you like to check out more of All Marketers Are Liars? It is written by Seth Godin and is available to purchase on Amazon.com. If you are a business owner looking for an edge, pick up Seth's book. If you know another business owner who might benefit from reading this article, forward their name and email address to me at comments@candographics.com Jeremy Tuber runs the only business savvy graphic design firm who helps companies build more confidence and credibility into their business identities. He is an atypical designer with a passion for marketing as well as design. Jeremy infuses solid marketing expertise into design projects that he guarantees to bring satisfaction and results. Clients often remark that he brings a terrific enthusiasm and a “can do” attitude to each project. In 1st quarter 2006, he will introduce his first book aimed at helping aspiring artists run a more profitable, enjoyable design business called, “Being a Starving Artist Sucks”. Learn more about Jeremy and how you can gain a competitive advantage with a better brand by visiting http://www.candographics.com |
Other Articles
Good Logo Design A good logo design represents a good company that clients and customers alike can put their trust in. Although it might seem like a minimalist issue when it comes to talking about a big company a logo actually has a lot of influence on how the company it stands for fares in its respective market. And it does not matter how big or small the compa ...What Every Customer Truly Wants - And How You Can Provide It! It finally hit me this week what every single client, customer, person and patron truly wants -- and it's not what we're giving them. What we're giving people is details, lots of details. They come in the form of product specifications, a list of attributes, qualities, claims, guarantees, and service promises. These are all great but they do ...Brand Strategy - Brand Value - Brand Identity Guru Developing brand strategy is extremely critical. The most important asset your company has is its brand. Quite simply, for better or worse, it drives the direction of your business. You should definitely have a well thought out brand strategy in place. Unfortunately, too many companies don’t have a brand strategy, or have an inconsistent brand s ...Spelling Counts I have dealt with many companies, read many books, and looked at images. Many times there are spelling or grammatical errors. I realize that it is very difficult to catch every error and my materials are no exception. No matter how many times you pass the words by a team, something will always be overlooked. If you take time to look at your mate ...Survey: The Secret to Effective Marketing How can you go wrong when you have a great idea? How can clever, witty or beautiful ads go unnoticed? Is there a way to predict the behavior of potential customers? How can you create marketing and branding materials that will bring in customers?Ask. The first step in marketing a product or service or selling a brand identity is making su ...The Swank Meter - What Does Hilary Swank Have to Do With Page Rank? Recently the wife and I were watching Million Dollar Baby. After we were done watching the Movie my wife went on the Internet to see which Karate Kid Movie Hilary was in. It turns out that doing an MSN search on "hilary swank" came up with 190,231 Web Pages, Doing an MSN Search on "mike makler" brought up 2,737 results. So 190,231/2,737 is 69 ...Marketing To Teens & Tweens - The Big Payoff Remember the old slogan that “children should be seen and not heard?”Clearly, that no longer applies to teens and tweens, prepubescents 8 to 14 years old. These days, teens and tweens are seen and heard, loudly and clearly.What should business people do about these two groups? Just wait until they grow up? No, not at all. You ...Marketing is Dead- Long Live the Brand There is a new economic order. Marketing was a business function relevant to the old economic order. Even though that economic order is gone forever, most companies are still think and work according to it. And this is costing them waste in their effort to grow their business. It is high time they adapted their business to the new economic o ...Advertising Balloons - A Pioneering Marketing Gadget Poets would often look up to the skies for inspiration but with advertising balloons gaining ground and becoming oh so popular, it seems that looking at the skies will be daily occurrence for poets and everyone else.Indeed, one cannot blame people from craning their necks. Advertising balloons are attention-grabbing and eye-catching. This ...Tips for Business Websites Web Design, as design in general, is subject to changes and trend influences. Words like “fresh, modern, innovative” seem to conquer the world of design while artists strive to discover new directions. Websites are different: objectives, resources and users are the factors shaping the profitability of a site.The truth is that web design i ...Corporate Branding and Trade Shows - 8 Tips for Marketing Managers Trade shows are part of the marketing mix and the appearance by your firm should be a continuum of your entire marketing including advertising, public relations and events.While you may introduce a new product or showcase a service, many firms make mistakes by not connecting the overall corporate branding with the show. How can an e ...Top 10 Business E-Mail Basics When it comes to your business e-mail communications, you need to make an impression that can lend to the determination that you are someone that will be a pleasure to do business with.For your consideration below are the "Top 10 e-mail issues targeted at business men and women. These are the issues business owners and their employees mi ...Promote Your Business With The Right Logo How important is a logo for the success of your business? Opinions might vary but the importance of a logo can hardly be overlooked. It's a logo that first catches the eyes of the onlookers and lends a concrete identity to a business enterprise. Can anything be more satisfying than popular logo? I guess not!A business or company logo cre ...Logos for Business Cards - Something to Think About One of the biggest mistakes online marketers tend to make is they forget that offline advertising principles still apply to them and can greatly compound their results when put into action.A perfect example of this is logos for business cards.Many online business owners seem to forget that handing out business cards can be a ...Improve Your Staffing Agencies Brand Identity Lets take a look at what exactly is branding within the medical staffing Industry. Branding is a vital source of establishing a connection between your company and the target market. The image you portray is what will be implanted in the minds of the clients. Within an industry that falls short of loyalties, branding is what will allow you to ...Extreme Body Modification I have been keeping as busy as I can to do not have to write this article…..I’m not a huge fan of scarification; even so I will try to keep it as neutral as I can….You can basically divide the scarification process in 2:1) Branding (scarification through burns, from heat and others; the definition of the world branding is li ...Will Your Brand Take Root This Spring? - Part 1 Just as it takes a combination of all the right elements to make a beautiful garden grow, it takes more than a great logo, or a great ad to grow a successful business. How do the best businesses do it? They use an integrated approach to their marketing, combining a great visual identity with a compelling message that gets delivered through a var ...7 Sales Techniques To Differentiate You From The Competition You have a choice. You can stand out or blend in with your competitive landscape. Differentiation doesn't come naturally, blending in does. We all want to fit in with the crowd, we want to be like everybody else, and we've been that way since we were kids. As a professional sales representative you should focus on what makes you different be ...Brand Promotion Strategies Branding your business You need to stand out from the herd when it comes to business. You need to be better, stronger and more adaptable than your competitors. You need to be eye-catching, fresh and hard to pass by. And if you have a brand you have an immediate advantage because you have a backbone, or a frame work, on which to hang y ...Why Corporate Identity is a Very Powerful Communication Branding Tools The world of business is a very competitive one with each executive competing with the other to get the best of sales, profits and customers for their business. This means that all businesses interested in becoming successful have to concentrate in developing their corporate image and identity to improve in their business. Corporate identity is ...How A Crazy Branding Stunt Can Bring Results For Years As a beginner, you would be forgiven for thinking that marketing is simply advertising your product or service, how wrong you are.Marketing is the art of allowing people to know that your business exists. You could be selling brand new BMW's at $1 each, but if nobody ever got to hear of your amazing deals then nobody could ever buy into t ...Branding, Concept, Communication and Focus Testing I’ve seen it all. The good, the bad and the ugly of Web site design. And the more I analyze what’s on the Web, the sadder I get, because the Web has become open game for Web site designers with bad taste and no plan.On the other hand, there are many talented Web designers to choose from. But talent will only take one so far. A designer ha ...One-A-Day Branding I know it’s asking a lot but you need to set aside a minimum of 15 minutes a day to build your brand. You can do many things in 15 minutes a day that will help build visibility credibility and a strong personal portfolio.Here's a short list to get you thinking about your "packaging" your brand.• Refine your "elevator" pitch. ...The Biggest Critics of Your Franchise Brand Name The biggest critics of a franchise brand name come from two groups of people and neither of them are you customers. If our brand is lousy your customers will most likely simply not say anything, after all every day average brand names are a dime a dozen in the market place. No you biggest critics are of course your competition, who will never mi ...Build Brand Identity - Brand Identity Guru Successful Guru marketers have a secret weapon that they use every single time they communicate about their businesses. It's one of those intangibles that are easily misunderstood. It's the ability to generate excitement about what you have to offer. And when your prospects are excited about your services, marketing becomes a whole lot easier. Y ...
|