Proxor

Congratulation to our client, Proxor, for raising fund from World Bank and expanding worldwide.

Branding and marketing collaterals designed for Proxor

Proxor enables the world's leading software development companies to confidently hire and retain software developers. Their service - Authentic examination is the only method that accurately measures the test-takers' ability to program realistic problems in a professional programming environment. Examinees are put in the role of professional software developers and have an opportunity to demonstrate skills by building solutions to tasks defined in the context of real software projects.

proxor.com

Warriors: Strength In Numbers Campaign

Some cool branding work for the Golden State Warriors 2016 playoffs—centered around a hand-painted "Strength in Numbers" logo and a flexible visual system that uses tally marks to play around with all sorts of data involving the team and its fans. By using the team's existing slogan, "Strength in Numbers," a new logo was built as an extension. The "M" in "Numbers" is signified by a tally mark for the number 5—a reference to the Warriors seeking their fifth NBA title this spring. The logo is appearing on everything from T-shirts to billboards, and the tally marks are being used in ads to celebrate lots of different Warriors numbers—like their record 73 regular-season wins this year, Stephen Curry's 402 three-pointers, the 120-decibel noise level in Oracle Arena (the loudest in the NBA) and more.

New Client

BRIGHTMOOR CHURCH

Brightmoor Christian Church is committed to global reach with the love of Christ. They support missionaries, conduct annual missions trips and have teams from their congregation in the local jails, foodbanks and in ministry to the homeless. We're thrilled to help the church with new branding for their Foster Care Ministry, and Homeless Ministry.

New Client

Modern Academics is committed to instructing and supporting students with educational challenges throughout their academic careers by building skills that promote subject mastery and independent learning. Integrated into all educational services, Modern Academics employs a variety of academic coaching methods focused on brain-based learning strategies that help students compensate for cognitive difficulties.

New Client

Eir Partners, a strategic partnership and investment company focused exclusively in the dynamic global healthcare marketplace. Eir’s flexible model allows for customized collaboration to accelerate disruption, innovation and growth through a strategic partnership or direct investment approach.

New Client

Pro Mujer is a leading women’s development organization that provides more than 286,000 women in Latin America with the means to build livelihoods for themselves and futures for their families through financial services, business and empowerment training, and health care support.

This powerful formula helps the courageous and hardworking women Pro Mujer serves generate much-needed income for themselves and their families, unlock their personal potential, send their children to school, care for their health, and make life-altering changes to improve their living conditions.

New Client

Excited to be working with The AIA Great European Carnival. The carnival is one of the greatest, most anticipated, family attractions in Asia. Expected to attract hundreds of thousands of people, and spanning all the major holidays of Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, and Chinese New Year, the carnival is the first in the city since 2006/2007.

Talent is most likely to be found among rebels

Branding builds repeat business

Build Repeat Business

If your brand doesn’t prompt people to come back to you for more, how in the world will it have any longevity? That means you must make sure your brand truly connects with your target audience and that you continue to expand its appeal beyond its original buyers. Also, as Disney makes clear, you need to be your toughest critic. If you’re not honest enough to confront your brand’s weaknesses and find ways to continually improve your delivery, you’re not giving folks the motivation to keep buying from you.

Twinkies may not, in reality, last forever…but their brand just might, and so can yours. We should all aim to build a brand with the lasting value of America’s favorite snack--but maybe with a little more nutritional value.

Building a timeless brand through your employees

2. Employees as an Emotional Engine

Disney calls its theme park employees their “cast members,” and they all receive careful instructions on how they should present themselves to Disney guests. To quote the Disney institute, “Brand loyalty…is seen as a reciprocal relationship, beginning with us. Each cast member, regardless of rank, understands that we must be loyal to our customers to receive loyalty in return.”

Similarly, the people who work for you, or even vendors who interact with the general public on your behalf, should act as ambassadors of your “brand story” with points of difference in their presentations that set you apart from the competition. Beyond that, your products should be packaged and labeled in a manner that also extends your brand story.

More to come

Building a timeless brand

If a brand is carefully built, however, it can be strong enough to sustain almost any bad press. So--how can you make sure your personal brand is up to the Twinkie standard? Here are a few tips, courtesy of The Disney Institute, that lead to long-lasting success.

1. The Emotional Connection

The strongest way you can bond your audience to your brand is through emotion, and the best way to create that emotional component is through storytelling. When you frame your brand’s story in the right way, you reach people on a very deep level.

Twinkies, by the way, are fortunate in the fact that most of us have already crafted our own Twinkie brand story in our heads. Because they’ve been around so long, we all grew up with them; they were an integral part of many a childhood lunch. That’s why the thought of them not being around anymore elicited so much panic.

More to come...

Identify yourself authoritatively

Don’t call yourself a guru, or an expert, or a rockstar, or ninja” they say. It makes you sound pretentious. Maybe they’re right, maybe it does make you sound full of yourself.

But I'm only interested in seeing what works.

Analyzing more than five million Twitter accounts using data from Twitter Grader, it reveals that accounts that had the word “guru” in their bios had 100 more followers than the average user. Of course, the takeaway here is not that if you go and put the word “guru” in your bio you’ll instantly gain 100 more followers. But if you look at the rest of the words on the graph you’ll notice that the takeaway is: don’t be afraid to identify yourself authoritatively.

Why branding - Pt 3

Invest to build your brand

If you are a small business owner looking to start a new brand or rebrand an already established venture, think about what branding elements already exist within your company that you can both sustain and build upon. Know that every advertising and marketing campaign or new product line may increase your brand's visibility, but it’s the cohesion of these efforts over time that keeps your brand in people’s consciousness. The beauty of branding is that with the right foundation, a company can build their brand upward and outward with confidence.

Every small business must carefully consider the financial expenditure in re-branding, especially if partnering with an agency. However, branding is an investment in making your business a success. The nature of branding means the initial investment is a foundation that will allow your small business to get the most value out of future marketing dollars.

Why branding - pt 2

Review other brands

Take a look at some brands you believe in — big ones and small ones. Start to notice the ways they create continuity between packaging, marketing, website, and promotional materials.

    • Listen closely to how these brands convey their message to consumers.

    • Learn the subtleties and the details in their products, packaging, and their promotions.

    • Look at all the ways you interact with the brand in the store, online, and in your home. Consider the energy and dollars that go into creating those touch points.

Think of the brand touch points

Now erase those elements and think of those brands without those touch points. Would your experience and/or your perception of the product or company be the same without them? What would be left of the product stripped of its package, website, logo? If the answer is not much, then you've made a case for what branding is and why investing in it is important.

How to build a good ecommerce blog

A rare ecommerce website with creative use of illustration.

I have built various ecommerce websites this past year. So much to share. Let me start with the blog first. I will cover ecommerce hosting in future postings.

1. Good and relevant content

Content. Content. Content. Content is king. Good and relevant content keeps people coming back. Provide highly engaging and relevant content.

2. Make it pretty

Don’t kid yourself - your blog needs to be visually appealing. On top of that, it needs to be legible. I’ve seen many blogs with good contents but illegible with 8 pt type and dark gray on black background or white type on black background. Please stay away from this type of color combination.

3. Show your product in action

Show your product off. You can do this using images or video, and feel free to encourage your customers to send you pictures of them using/wearing your product.

4. Killer headlines

Keeping your content short and snappy is a good way to ensure people read your posts. In this day and age where millions of bloggers are competing for everyone’s attention, you can rarely get away with huge paragraphs that just ramble on.

5. Go behind the scenes

Here’s a great opportunity to give people a glimpse behind the scenes of your shop, and if you’re comfortable with it, your life.

6. Social media

It’s incredible to consider that just five years ago virtually no one had even heard of Twitter or Facebook. The influence of social media extends to almost every aspect of our lives now, so it’s vital that you let people share your articles. Include share buttons  to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn at the minimum.

by M Hayes

Why branding

It's not surprising that marketing and branding can fall to the wayside while building a business. Historically, brand building and marketing have been expensive ventures that only large corporations or fully-funded start-ups could afford. So why should you choose to invest your limited resources in branding?

Believe in Branding

If you want your business to be noticed – whether your goal is to become a fully-funded start up or to remain independent but profitable, building your brand is key. Believing in the premise of branding is vital. If you don't believe in the basis of the process, then it will most likely be a waste of time, money, and effort. So how can you justify the investment of branding for your company’s future?

To be continued

Starting the Branding Process.

Once you’ve identified your consumer touchpoints, you’re ready to get on with the business of branding. But don’t leap straight into the design phase – first, you need to do your research. Seeing what the best of your industry is doing, and understanding who and where your audience is, will help you develop a blueprint that will not only make the rest of the branding process more streamlined, but also help as you continue to grow your business in all aspects.