The Squared Root - FG Squared's Blog

While FG SQUARED is certainly capable of creating a visually exciting and appropriate logo, we believe that a good brand does not start or end there. There are many elements of the brand, of which the logo is just one visual representation of. Think of the brand as the personality of your company, and how you want the marketplace to perceive you when they make buying decisions.

If I am shopping for a new car, and safety is my biggest concern, VOLVO is the first company that comes to mind. Luxury: Lexus. Urban/Cool: Scion. Cute/Youthful: Volkswagen. Tough: (used to be) Ford. Classy: Cadillac. Etc.

My impression about these companies came from somewhere. Where? Advertising (and lots of it). Past experience. Word of mouth. Each of those companies has carved themselves a niche in the automobile ecosystem and protects it aggressively.

Those personalities, those niches, ARE the brand of those companies. The logo is nothing more than an extension of that brand.

BUILDING THE BRAND

To set itself apart from the competition, a company may choose to create a new niche in the ecosystem and “move in” so to speak. That company collectively now has to live, breathe, speak and wear that niche. That’s what the brand is: the set of guidelines the company follows to protect that niche.

Once a company has identified a new niche, it is a good idea to validate the viability of that niche in the marketplace. Is this something that customers want? What is the likelihood they would change from a loyal brand to get the benefits this new company offers? If this is re-branding, are customers willing to move with you? Is this truly a differentiator in the minds of customers? Is it enough of a differentiator? Is what the company is promising in its mission important to customers? Do they even care?

If a company is going to re-brand itself as the “higher-priced, higher-quality” company, and 80% of their potential customer base is more interested in “low-cost regardless of quality”, is the remaining 20% of the customer base enough to make this niche viable? How much market share of that 20% would you need to have to be profitable?

This is why we feel it’s important to ask the market for their opinions on the new position of the company. If you hired us to paint your portrait for you to hang on your wall, we will find out what you like, what your preferences are, give you our recommendations, and start painting a portrait that we know you’ll be happy with. But if you want to sell millions of those portraits to your customers, we would find out what you want in your portrait and go see if it matches up with what the customers want before we start painting, so we’ll know that they will be happy with it as well. It basically comes down to ‘who does this need to appeal to?’ or ‘who is this for?’

That market research is very valuable, and can save a company a lot of money in the long run. It raises the likelihood of launching a successful brand that will be strong and appeal to customers.

That said, you can absolutely achieve a successful brand launch without doing research. It’s not essential but it is very useful and can illuminate problems in the strategy that the company may have missed. In 2000, before the Dot Bomb, a group of investors came to us with a bunch of money and an idea for a website and a name for the company. We were concerned because they did not know their target market and their name was (to be frank) terrible. We convinced them to spend a not insubstantial amount of money on market research before we started building this company’s brand. The research showed that the market despised the name, and didn’t have much use for the website regardless of what it was called. This saved the investors from wasting a lot of money on an idea that wasn’t viable.

WHAT DO CUSTOMERS WANT ... TODAY?

Without insightful research into the mind of the end customer, there is always a small element of risk involved. It’s not throwing darts with a blindfold on; you can make a lot of assumptions—some obvious, some not—that makes branding success more likely. And even with research, there’s never a sure thing. Market tastes evolve and change constantly.

Fortunately, a company can stay ahead of, and even influence, these changes by implementing Web 2.0 practices. It’s doing the market research I’m talking about on your own simply by putting some straightforward technologies in place that allow an open and constant line of communication between the company and customers. If companies start doing this, they’ll have better knowledge of their customers and can react to what their customers need more quickly.

If this were the case, I can imagine that market research wouldn’t reveal much that was a surprise, and would probably not be necessary. Of course, re-branding would probably also not be necessary. Knowing what customers want, when what they want can be ever changing, by necessity means evolving the brand incrementally over time. This is a natural progression; it might not be intentional, and it might even be out of a company’s control! Customers change how they consider a company depending on how the company—or a company’s competition—treats them. In large numbers this can have a transformative influence on the brand—positive or negative.

One of the best attributes a company can have in today’s climate is “they are open and responsive to my needs.” Branding can promise that but the company has to deliver and stay on that message. The logo can’t do it for you.

If you ever wondered what social commerce's impact is on business, then you will be very interested in Steve Guengerich's keynote presentation tomorrow at the Interactive Austin 2008 conference. Steve, who is the Chief Learning Office at nGenera, will be discussing the intricacies of social commerce and what it means for the companies of today.

Steve is going to take the audience through the “perfect storm” that is Web 2.0 as it brings together globalization, talent and technology. He also will bring into light the necessary redefinition of corporate marketing, as well as the trust that consumers and clients have in companies, brands and individuals.

According to Steve, Wikinomics is the model for leveraging social commerce. He will use case studies to show how early adopters of wikinomics have utilized this social commerce tool in their business and the major impact that it has had on corporate trust and marketing.

Finally, Steve will introduce Interactive Austin 2008 attendees to the next generation enterprise. With the next generation enterprise, companies will be able to source talent both inside and outside the enterprise, as well as allowing the customer to come inside the enterprise to co-innovate.

Mr. Guengerich’s keynote is sure to bring excitement into the audience as he delivers them to the cutting edge of social commerce.

Before joining the C-level ranks at nGenera, Steve was the Director of Information Technology for Bridgepoint Consulting, as well as the President of Perceptive Sciences Corporation. He began his career with Accenture and PriceWaterhouse-Cooper's consulting group where he specialized in advanced technologies.

Steve also is an award-winning writer and has authored eight computer books and articles for publications like Computerworld, eWeek and NetworkWorld.

I've come up with a bullet-proof social media metric: the rate at whcih Red Bull is replenished in marketing and integration firms. At FG SQUARED, the rate at which Red Bull disappears is rising. Fast.

As the number of social application requests grows -- ranging from a widget to a seminar (Interactive Austin is tomorrow...) to an extension of a platform like Clearspace -- the number of cans of Red Bull moving in the general direction of the Recycle Bin (it is Austin, after all) is rising. What's even better is that the Red Bull Index can be calculated globally -- up 73% across the company since April -- or locally: FG SQUARED's West unit consumes Red Bull at about an 8:1 ratio compared with the East unit where caffeine and diet soda rule.

So, the next time someone tells you social media isn't measurable, just smile and ask if they're looked at their Red Bull Index lately. Then grab your wings and get back to it. We've come to win.

Clickstream is defined as the recording of what a computer user clicks on while surfing the Internet. The data collected from clickstream shows what sites a user visited, what pages within the site they visited, what they clicked on and how long they were there.

The user’s clickstream data can be invaluable to marketers on determining what is of interest to their target demographic, what parts of a site seem to grab their attention, and their Internet habits in general.

During his keynote presentation at the Interactive Austin 2008 symposium, Pete Hayes will be teaching the audience about Clickstream as an alternative to driving traffic to their site and incorporating the data into overall marketing efforts.

As part of his keynote presentation, Hayes will present a Best Buy case study to show how corporations can insert content into consumer buying sites; he will also demonstrate how content can be syndicated into blogshere with a case study from GearLive; and finally, through a AMD game case study, he will show companies how they can intercept their own clickstreams and discover new uses for current visitors. With the AMD game, Hayes and his team were able to generate 3 million unique visitors per month in 90 days.

Not knowing a lot about the topic, I am looking forward to hearing Mr. Hayes' keynote presentation.

Hayes is the Vice President of Corporate Marketing & Communications for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Prior to his arrival at AMD in the summer of 2006, Hayes was with SicolaMartin for 11 years. During his time at SicolaMartin, Hayes worked in Business Development and general management roles of their interactive division His client experience includes 3M, AMD, Citrix, Compag, Dell, Freescale, Motorola and Novell.

Since FG SQUARED is sponsoring the Interactive Austin 2008 forum to bring together Central Texas area professionals well-versed in the application of social media and interactive services to business purposes, I was fascinated by an article that I read recently in Web 2.0 boot camp. The title was "Why traditionally minded execs need a little basic training to conquer their mistrust of social networking and document sharing." It sited the logistical advantages of social networks to get colleagues, employees and customers in touch. The article also acknowledged that Wikis as the answer to eliminating the long hours in email distributions.

With such obvious advantages, why is it that companies seem to freeze before they adopt these low-cost social media tools. The learning curve on such tools is simply not that great ... so why the hold up?

The article speculates on the mistrust of senior executives and that it may arise from the roots of social media - many of the tools were developed originally as "fun stuff" and now are being touted as business tools. The roots of social media may create a some disbelief with business professionals as to whether these clever tools are actually suitable for serious business purposes.

The article also pegs an even bigger concern. - the fear factor that Kathleen Gilroy, a Web 2.0 consultant with the Otter Group in Cambridge, MA, describes. Social media threatens the standard hierarchy structures in business. It has a flattening effect on organizations that engage. No longer is the information reserved just for those in the "pup tent"- but for a much larger group in the organization.

Understandably, many executives are afraid to give up control and to give everyone a voice. The new organizational structure (that results from the application of social media within an organization) and its effectiveness in communications are often unknown to many of executives at this point in time. There are concerns that inaccurate information will slip out online.

However, executive fear and procrastination will not necessarily stop the social media wave. Dion Hinchcliffe, president and CTO of Hinchcliffe & Co. with a track record training over 4,000 executives globally, has worked with many executives who decide to embrace social media corporate-wide - only to find that many of their departments were already using many of the Web 2.0 tools.

With more content now being produced through social media than traditional media, it seems clear that the social media wave is cresting and that companies need to prepare for the wake. Corporations need to find management approaches that create checks and balances to control the distribution of corporate information. Brand consistency is also crucial. Companies have to address these issues and challenges and then balance the additional work involved in the transition with the additional exposure available by going global and social online.

I am not someone who serves as a walking advertisement for just anyone or any cause. But given next weekend is father's day, I thought now is perhaps the best time to share Bamboo Originals (http://bamboooriginals.com/), a t-shirt business owned by my father Len Golab. The mission of his business is to provide his customer with the finest Bamboo T-shirts and clothing to wear and enjoy. He believes after you learn about the natural properties of bamboo fiber, and especially once you feel its softness, you will never want to wear anything else.

Many of us are very particular when it comes to the clothing we wear and the car we drive. In many ways, our individual purchasing decisions send a message to those you share a relationship with. Indeed our purchasing decisions communicate and make an impact with the world.

Our Future is Up to Us - these are the six simple words printed on a t-shirt gifted by my father to celebrate my 35^th birthday last weekend. Given the acceleration of personal change in my life right now, these words resonate and are reinforcing my sense of purpose right now. Dad, thank you very much. I really appreciate this gift and wanted to share with you publicly.

Let me assure you, a shirt like this makes a great father's day gift. If you are thinking about buying one for that special dad in your life, here's where I recommend you go.

http://bamboooriginals.com/products/?view=product&pid=61

Bamboo is a sustainable resource, which thrives naturally without pesticides and is 100% bio-degradable. Naturally anti-bacterial because of its bio-agent "bamboo kun", that prevents bacteria from cultivating on it. It has unusual breathing ability, because of its hollow fiber which keeps you cool, comfortable and will never cling to your skin. It doesn't retain odors either due to its moisture ventilation properties. Its uncommon softness gives it a silky feel that you will love.

Who owns the information you create on the social sites you are a part of? That is the question being asked by many right now in the social media space, and the answer for the most part is a resounding "It belongs to us!". This is apparent by looking at the growth of such groups as Open Social and DataPortability. And now, there are some practical solutions starting to appear that address at least a part of the problem. Namely, how do we gather our content and take it somewhere else? This is what is currently being called lifestreaming, and it is something you should be aware of.

Lifestreaming is about content aggregation. YOUR content. No matter where you create it. And then sharing that content where you want to share it. Sounds pretty nice doesn't it? Well, there are quite a few services out there now providing the tools to accomplish this. Plaxo Pulse, FriendFeed, socialthing!, and now Facebook are a few of the top names in the space. As John McCrea of Plaxo says, this is a natural evolution of the Social Web with the user at the center.<