Has your business planned for everything? Have you thought about the absolute worst case scenario for your brand and come up with a resolution? Have you planned for the worst rather than dreaming about all of the awards and accolades you’ll receive?

If not, you should. One of the keys to a smart brand is being able to handle unpredictability.

Look at it this way: all of the equipment you use is man-made. And all of your clients are human beings (we hope). And even if you have a set of absolutely perfect alpha-clients, there’s one thing about humans that we know for sure.

They have a tendency to often be unreliable and can be unpredictable.

And while it might be impossible to plan for every single possible unpredictable scenario, a good brand can take a lesson from unpredictability. A good brand can integrate unpredictability into their brand and become unpredictable themselves.

As a business s owner in the midst of this current technological business arena, you need to accept the unknown with open arms. Part of that is adapting to it and seeing how you can make your brand thrive in an unpredictable world.

So how can you tell if your brand is capable of doing this? There are a few key points you can look for in the way your brand and your business is set up.

• Are you using interdisciplinary approaches to marketing, work, and design?
• Are you engaging with your audience in a way that is social?
• Are you doing a good job on staying up to date and current with developing trends and technologies?
• Do you truly understand your audience? This means understanding their moods, their whims, and their hot-button topics.

Humans are a fickle bunch. If we really want to remain successful in terms of building a brand, we have to be able to predict their unpredictability. And since that is next to impossible, the next best thing is slipping into that very same mindset and making unpredictability a part of our brand.

Children are exposed to branding at early ages. Even though the bands in question aren’t targeting 4 and 5 year-olds, studies have shown time and time again that even young children re able to identify brands. More than that, they even begin to develop brand preferences around this age as well.

This goes beyond recognizing cereals based on a funny cartoon character—in fact, it goes right to the heart of how adults develop brand awareness as well.

Sure, a kid’s preference might come down to logic as simple as “Well, I’ve tried this before and liked it, but that looks unfamiliar to me so I’m going to stick with what I know.” But really, isn’t that where a lot of an adult’s decision-making stems from as well?

Think about it for a second. What child above the age of 4 can’t recognize the Disney logo? A 2010 study showed that Disney is well-recognized logo for children. Other easily recognized brands among children were other entertainment-related items and fast food icons. Not surprisingly, McDonald’s was extremely high on this list.

Experts believe that children are most likely to recognize logos due to pleasurable emotions that they provoke. They are going to recognize logos that are associated with their desires. If their parents get them an ice cream from Baskin Robbins, they kid will always associate the Baskin Robbins logo with ice cream. The same is true with Disney movies (or perhaps now, more accurately, Pixar) and so forth.

Here again is another way in which the logo recognition and influence of those brands affects adults in much the same way as a child. Of course we’re going to be more favorable to a logo and/or brand that we have experienced joy with before.

With that being said, maybe the next time you are evaluating your brand and how to improve it, you should take a look at your logo. Is it something that a kid might easily recognize and find interesting?

For many people, the SyFy Channel might just be one of those channels you surf by, always skipping it…but on occasion, something interesting might be on. And for that person, the one that is unfamiliar with the channel, they might think to themselves: What an odd way to spell sci-fi.

For those handful of people that may not know what “sci-fi” (and poor, poor things they are) is, it’s the well-known and almost-always used abbreviation for science fiction. And the SyFy Channel is the only network on cable television that airs only science-fiction programs.

We can learn a pretty harsh rebranding lesson from the SyFy Channel. When they were first put on the air, they were the Sci-Fi Channel. They had a neat little logo with a planet with rings (assumed to be Saturn) and everything. The network was never insanely popular, but it did okay. Eventually, some of their original programming really started to take off.

So it seemed odd to many of the network’s fans when they changed the name of the network from The Sci-Fi Channel to SyFy.

This was a bad branding idea on several accounts. First, “syfy” is a sort of slang term for syphilis in many parts of the world. A little basic research might have uncovered this and caused them to rethink things.

Still, there were valid reasons for the change, according to network executives. Mainly, they could not trademark the term “sci-fi” but with SyFy, they had an acronym that was all theirs. Secondly, they wanted to seem modern in a time where everyone texted. And according to feedback from polls, the new name was how most people would text “sci-fi.”

Want to see how it turned out? Just Google “new Sci-Fi logo” or “SyFy logo.” You’ll quickly see that to say the reaction was negative is something of an understatement. To this day, the logo is ridiculed and made fun of.

And the network has stuck with it.

Any thoughts and opinions on this sort of action? Is it necessary or was this SyFy’s attempt at trying to do too much without properly preparing?

If you’re a successful business that keeps bringing in new clients on a consistent basis, chances are pretty good that you’ve got a pretty strong social media presence. It’s no secret that social media is a vastly important tool for small businesses today; without an online presence—particularly on Facebook or Twitter—your company is going to struggle with brining in new clients.

But for those of you that haven’t yet dipped your toes in the social media pool, there are some fairly basic ways to get your very first social media campaign off the ground and running.

1. Don’t Make Assumptions: That old saying about what happens when you assume is really true. Don’t assume you know your audience. If you use social media to convey a message or establish a voice that you re certain connects with your audience but ultimately fails, you’ve lost a lot of time and, even worse, will be unattractive to the very people you are trying to appeal to.
2. Take the Time to Listed: Before you launch a social media campaign, take the time to understand what the public opinion of your band is at the time. Listen to customer feedback and be open about accepting your weaknesses. You want to be at your strongest and feel confident when you kick off your campaign. You can actually use social media to find this kind of information; just run a few searches on your brand to see if there are any conversations taking pace that are centered on your business.
3. Engage. This can be done in a number of ways. You can take the time to be conversational through social media rather than approaching your audience as a business. Take the “friend” approach to let them know that you are interested in more than just their money—you want to get a better understanding of their needs and expectations.

Keep in mind that there is no “magic formula” for achieving social media success. But if you have these three areas down, you stand just as strong of a chance as anyone out there to have a strong social media campaign.

Finally, football season is upon us again. Through the course of the season, we’ll see plenty of ads featuring famous players, alerting us to charities and other noble causes. Aside from some of the theatrics and drug scandals, football can be quite educational in terms of where current needs reside.

But we can also look to the NFL for lessons in branding. The National Football League has one of the most well defined brands in existence. Even if you’re not a football fan, it’s quite easy to see the clinic in branding the league displays every season.

Here are three of the most apparent branding lessons to take away from the NFL.

Anticipation and Demand:  Because football is such a brutal sport, there are only 16 games on each team’s schedule. Compare this baseball, where there are 162 games per each team and more than 80 in both hockey and basketball and you can see why there is such a fuss over the start of a new season. In the NFL, every game means something and therefore, fans get behind each and every game. This type of dedication to the league plays a huge part in how successful the NFL’s brand is.

Professionally Handling Bad Press:  From the previously mentioned drug scandals to the serious worry of concussions, the NFL always has to deal with negative press and harmful new stories. But rather than running from these stories or back-pedaling, the NFL usually stays right on top of these issues. They are very public with their efforts to regulate drug testing and focusing more and more of player safety.

They meet these types of problems head on and take their solutions public. Everything is transparent and there is nothing to hide.

Access and Demand: You can watch games live at the stadium, on TV, at bars, or even on your mobile device. The NFL has made sure that their product is easily accessible and that no one is left out. They have even gone so far as to offer online services that allows the viewer to switch camera angles to feel more involved in the game.

While you obviously don’t have the bank account that the NFL has, we can all take lessons from thee three points. What are some other branding strategies you have seen through the NFL that could help small business owners?

Small business owners and employees of all types spend their weekends in a variety of different ways. We all know the stereotypes of CEOs playing a few rounds of golf or taking weekend getaways into the mountains. But what about the employees?

For example, how might a copywriter spend their weekend? Unless they’re pulling serious bank (which is unlike—just ask any copywriter), they’re not likely going to be at the gold courses or the isolated mountain cabins.

So here’s a glimpse at how we think copywriters might spend their weekend. (Note: this list has been compiled without actually interviewing any copywriters).

• Scrutinizing the copy on the back of the shampoo bottle while they relax in the tub and fuming over run on sentences and unnecessary commas.
• Spending a good portion of Saturday working on the novel they have been writing in their spare time over the last few years.
• Working on the screenplay they’ve also been working on in the same amount of time.
• Using the power of lists to get out of appointments and chores around the house. For example, 5 Reasons It’s Beneficial to My Health to Sleep In on Saturday or The 3 Worst Ways To Spend a Saturday Night.
• Revisiting the novel and screenplay on Sunday night, perhaps as motivation for next week.
• Trying very hard to not stop by local businesses that have grammatically incorrect signs hanging in their windows…usually advertising sales and promotions.
• Starting out with plans to use a great bourbon BBQ chicken recipe in a cookbook and then getting sidetracked by how much more concise they could have written the recipe and all of the book’s other copy.

What do you say copywriters? Is this pretty close or just some gross exaggerations? Let us know in the comments!

Everybody likes a good laugh, right? Sometimes, we even like a good laugh when it comes from something sort of awkward and uncomfortable…even in advertising.

This was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt when the internet went ablaze with Kmart’s popular “Ship My Pants” commercial.

How great was Kmart’s new delivery program? It was great. People in the commercial went on and on about how they were going to “ship their pants.” In truth, the commercial was very well done. It was funny and they got their point across in spades. The gimmick, of course, was that after enough people had said “ship” over and over again at a high rate of speed, it started to sound like a curse word.

Hence the humor.

But did it go overboard? Some feedback from the public found the commercial tasteless and vulgar. And, to be expected, others said the exact opposite, claiming the commercial to be brilliant and edgy.

In the end, the negative comments were well worth it. People now absolutely know what their free shipping services are all about. If wanted something shipped to your home—say, some pants—your brain likely goes directly towards Kmart is you saw this ad.

One ad expert at Mediapost.com summed it up perfectly. “It’s fourth grade humor but it makes you laugh. Never underestimate the power “of a doody joke.”

It’s also a form of “safe” humor. They are getting the implied word across without actually saying it. Further, it’s “potty” humor that is not offensive to anyone (other than extremely prudish parents).

More importantly in today’s advertising circles, the ad was shared by more than 18,000 Facebook users. Going viral is always a great accomplishment for advertising and in the case of Kmart’s Ship My Pants ad, it achieved that and everything else it set out to do.

What do you think? Was the ad a bit extreme or a rare bit of advertising genius?

The term “rebranding” is one that strikes fear into the hearts of business owners. It usually means that your brand is suffering and in need of redevelopment and a new approach.

It’s not a pretty picture but the harsh truth of the matter is that it does happen from time to time. And it doesn’t have to mean a death sentence for your company. Here are a few ways you can look at rebranding as a step towards improvement rather than the end of the world.

Know Your Customer. Take the time to do market research to truly understand your audience. It’s more than just knowing their personalities, likes, and interests. You need to get down into lesser traveled areas such as their buying behaviors and purchasing habits. You should be able to tell when your audience is more apt to participate in a sale or a special offer based on their previous behaviors. Luckily, there are a variety of bile applications that can help small business owners with this exact sort of thing.

Be Different. Make sure your message and intentions are different than those of your competitors. You want to stand out from them so you can be easily noticed in a group of names of your industry. If you remain too similar to your competition and your competition is a bigger name, your audience is going to most likely give them their business. Find a niche or a specialty that you can excel at, something that makes you different from your competition.

Don’t Be a Copy-Cat. Although it sounds the same as the above topic, there is a huge difference. Borrowing inspirations and even a bit of motivation from a similar company is fine—but when you start mimicking them, you are setting yourself up for defeat. Take a look around at others within your industry. Check out their logos, their websites, their employees. Find something you can offer than they don’t. be sure you are authentic in your industry, becoming  a brand that captures the attention of your target audience in ways that your competitors have never even thought of.

Don’t wait for the need to re-brand to analyze yourself with these three items. Apply these to your business right now to see how you can prevent the need from future issue such as the need to rebrand.

Yesterday, we talked about how you can continue to help your business grow even when you are working with reduced costs. While yesterday’s post was all about advertising, we thought it might be important to point out that there are many other ways to continue growing your business when times are tight.

If you see budget cuts and cost cutting techniques in your future, consider some of these approaches to cost-friendly business growth.

1. Negotiation can be a huge help in times of financial crisis. You can speak with suppliers or partners about getting potential discounts. Many suppliers will be more than happy to work with you on payments and terms if they fear they might otherwise lose your business completely. Just let them know that you’re really feeling the crunch and need to save money everywhere you can.
2. Look into co-branding and new partnerships. If there is someone you know within the industry that you trust, try working together on a few projects. By splitting the costs of things like production, marketing, and so forth, you both save a little coin and are fostering a new business relationship that could help out further down the road when things have improved.
3. Forget about slashing prices or offering steep discounts. While this may be rewarding for an initial period of time for anyone looking for a great deal, it is only a temporary fix—temporary enough where you likely won’t see enough fruit to make any impact during your hard time. Anyone that comes to you for your amazing discounts only will more than likely never walk through your doors again. Some people are simply out there looking for the best deal and have no intention of remaining loyal to any one single brand.

It’s important to stress that there is no real reason to t stressed out over the need to cut costs. If anything, it enhances your resourcefulness and keeps you on your toes. And if you can find ways to grow your business even in a recession, you’re a much better business owner that you give yourself credit for.

While many people say that we are slowly coming out of our recession, many small business owners will disagree. Times are tight and making money in the small business arena is just as difficult as ever.

When finances are low, some businesses may take steps to save. One of the areas that suffer from this is usually marketing and advertising. It is, after all, one of the most obvious places to cut spending when times are rough.

But this can actually be dangerous. In fact, history has shown that investing more money into advertising during financial hardships can be beyond rewarding.

We can look to Nike for a great example. In 1987, the stock market had crashed. A huge number of businesses—both small and large—felt the pinch of the resulting recession. But Nike took this crisis to invest more in their marketing; they actually tripled the cost of their marketing while others were being more cautious.

The result? When the recession came to an end, Nike’s profits were nine times higher than they were when the stock market crash occurred.

Many people also see this crash as the time in history where McDonald’s lost much of its market lead and never quite regained it. See, while McDonald’s was playing it safe and actually cutting back on their advertising, chains like Pizza Hut and Taco Bell followed Nike’s example—although not by as much—and came out of the recession as a much stronger competitor to McDonald’s.

So when you see a tight space coming in terms of finances and need to find solutions, it’s plain to s hat marketing and advertising are not where you should be making cuts. If you cut your advertising and marketing, you lessen your impact on audiences and weaken your connection.

However, by investing more in marketing and advertising during times when you competition is drawing back a bit, you stand to reach new customers like never before.

Have you made plans to budget for your advertising and marketing efforts in the event of a financial crisis?