Top Digital Marketing Trends for 2010

courtesy of Branding Strategy Insider

The new year is virtually upon us, and we can expect 2010 to be another fast-paced year of major transformations in marketing.  As the economy continues to recover, the popular “do-it-yourself” culture that has given rise to all things social media and automated will begin to include new structural elements of collective wisdom and remote computing.

The innovative team at Last Exit has produced a list of digital marketing trends that we think are well worth your time to read and plan for in the year ahead.  Without revisions, we offer it to you here for your consideration:

1. Facebook Replaces Personal Email: As Facebook becomes increasingly used as a verb (e.g.”I Facebooked you today”) in ways that Hotmail and gmail never were, it will be interesting to see the extent to which it will displace personal email as a communication tool.  It’s already completely permission based, there is no spam (yet), and no address book required – your friends are already there.

2. The Cloud Helps Open-Source Software Make Proper Money: Open-source software projects that were typically the purview of programmers and technophiles are now available to the masses. In one example, Beanstalk, a fully hosted, version-controlled code repository that uses the Subversion open-source project has created a subscription based service that – for a small fee – removes the hassle of setting up Subversions and maintaining servers.  Services like this can really only be financially viable with cloud computing infrastructure – so companies such as Beanstalk don’t have the huge upfront capital outlay for servers. With the right skills any open-source project can be commercialized this way.

3. Mobile Commerce -  The Promise That Has Never Delivered, Yet: Though mobile phones have, for a while now, delivered real benefits to global societies by facilitating the transfer of money, only recently has mobile device use extended to payment for goods and services. The game changer has – and will continue to be – the iPhone/iTunes platform.  In-app purchases on the iPhone can tempt users to buy small items, upgrades, updates, etc, while iTunes holds their precious credit card information.  All, of course, is done in seamless fashion, enough to promote impulse purchases.  It would seem like an easy task for this to be extended to other platforms with PayPal or Google Checkout, but so far it has not been done.

4. Fewer Registrations – One Sign-in Fits All: As consumers grow increasingly frustrated  and resentful about registering yet again on another website, juggling different IDs and remembering a dizzying array of passwords, information-managing services such as Facebook Connect and OpenID will becoming even more useful and will continue to be adopted at great speed through 2010.

5. Disruption vs. Continuity – Alternatives to the “Big Idea”: As the significance of social networks continues to grow, businesses are investing more in community building as a marketing driver. According to the recent Tribalization of Business study released by Deloitte, 94% of businesses will continue or increase their investment in online communities and social media and, for the majority of these companies, their marketing function will drive this investment. At the same time, as evidenced by Google’s recent release of “free floating” social tools, such as Google Waves and Sidewiki, there is an increasing shift toward online identity and social activity being an integrated part of the network as a whole, rather than concentrated within discrete platforms such as Facebook.

With the increasing emphasis on marketing and advertising through social networks and the increasing pervasiveness of social tools, marketing objectives come into conflict with advertising techniques. While advertising has often sought to distinguish itself and stop the consumer in their tracks with a disruptive “big idea,” the emphasis is now shifting toward persuasion through fitting organically into the consumer’s social sphere. It will always be the objective of marketing to provide creativity and novelty, but the way in will increasingly be one of persistence and continuity.

6. Self-Sufficiency: The Continuing Evolution of Web-Driven, Open-Source DIY Culture: Much has been said about the power and potential of collective intelligence, and many of the breakthrough solutions of tomorrow appear to lie in more effectively pooling the resources and intelligence of our increasingly networked world. On the other side of the equation, the power of pooled intelligence and networked resources have empowered individuals to take on more and more complex undertakings themselves.

From drawing on the collective intelligence of blogs and university open courseware to educate themselves, to services like ponoko, spoonflower and cafe press that facilitate small-scale production, to offline resource pooling like pop- up retail and collective office spaces, individuals are discovering that it has never been easier to try doing it themselves.

7. Info-Art: Where we once had pop-psychologists and pop-philosophers, we now appear to have pop-statisticians and pop-economists. The growing wealth of data and the access to rich and diverse data sources that are significant by-products of information networks have made the art of data analysis a defining skill of our time.

At the same time, the skill of elegantly visualizing that data has become a defining art of our time. The art of the infographic is becoming increasingly pervasive as people look more and more to the growing amount of data at our disposal for insight, and more refined as the interactions of that data becomes more complex. Expect to see greater innovation spurred by more elegant ways of capturing and visualizing information by a growing number of info-artists.

8. Crowd Sourcing: Across many industries and organizations, crowd sourcing will become a growing tool as part of various outsourcing strategies. Organizations will mobilize the passionate special-interest groups to not only carry a message but also to lead and take part in activities on their behalf. From political canvassing to software development, from people journalism to environmental activism, expect to see huge growth in crowdsourcing models provoked and led, in large part, by digital social media strategies.

9. More Flash, Not Less: Outside of the obvious brand sites, micro-sites and media sites (video, games, etc.) where it appears absolutely necessary, Flash has often been looked down upon if not completely discounted by both techies and search engine optimizers. It seemed to face an uncertain future as a viable tool for serious websites and applications such as eCommerce tools and corporate websites. However, Adobe’s rich media tool has enjoyed the grit and determination of its advocates and external development community. Now, several tricks, authoring tools and server side scripting workarounds have meant that Flash-built websites no longer serve up a single, impenetrable page. They offer deep, searchable, indexable sites that will allow acute, detailed traffic and behavioral analytics and search engine optimization.

As websites continue to increase in their importance as a company’s storefront, the demand for rich, brand-extending experiences will also increase. Further proliferation of  fast broadband will reduce download issues while the adoption of Flash on mobile devices will dramatically increase and fuel reach and the desire/need for highly usable, brand transporting, conversion oriented experiences.

What do YOU think about these trends?    What will you do to capitalize these emerging trends?

Old Brand, New Tricks

I caught this posting on Marketing Profs, and thought really relevant and well written.  So much so, that I’m going to take the lazy route, and simply repost it here for your reading pleasure.

Good news: You don’t have to lose sight of your brand’s tried-and-true persona to participate in the quest for deeper engagement at the new social sites. Just think of the social-media generation as a silver-dish serving of people who already want to talk to you; you just need to make them feel comfortable doing it. Easier said than done? Not necessarily. Here are a couple of older brands that are getting it right:

Sharpie, well past pushin’ 40, managed to tap into an enthusiastic user culture in a way we’re pretty sure no other pen brand has. Its Sharpie Uncapped gallery enables fans far and wide to express, in vivid (and permanent!) color, how they incorporate the inky wonders into their creative undertakings.

Think about the number of years kids have been using Sharpies to scribble on jeans, decorate casts and prettify their Converse tennies. Now there’s a fun place to show all that off? Score!

Little Debbie, who first made the scene in the 1960s, is using flickr, Twitter, Facebook and blog outreach to promote a cupcake Share-a-Thon this fall. A series of Smart cars demonstrate Little Debbie’s commitment to the eco-cause, and are also outfitted like the cupcakes themselves. Thus far, the aging mark has done a tasty job of reminding fresh generations of its relevance.

Now, not all instances of successful social-media outreach are even intentional. Case in point: When gay couples were finally permitted to wed in Vermont, 31-year-old ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s celebrated by renaming its Chubby Hubby ice cream Hubby Hubby within the state. Thousands of blog posts and twitter updates later, they realized they had a winner.

How’d these old-timers manage to wow a fresh-faced crowd? At ad:tech Chicago this year, reps from Ben & Jerry’s and Sharpie said they felt social media was just in their DNA. That is to say, the key to winning hearts hasn’t changed with time or tech: It’s still about communicating a message in a relatable way.

What are your thoughts on this?  Is social media quickly becoming an integral strategy for these and other brands in the market?  What kind of social media integration have you experienced that you think is a good use of the media?

Simple Tips For Renewable Energy Companies To Build Their Brand.

As we’ve all experienced more in this economy than in any other recently – you can’t make a sale unless the value of your product or service is clearly understood.  This is especially true of the rising “green” sector of our market, as many new and emerging companies struggle to find new prospects and buyers that are willing to spend their precious budget on a new product or service.

We believe that nearly everyone prefers to be considered environmentally conscious.  In this current recession, the costs of “going green” and the confusion about how to actually do it is just enough for most consumers to throw their hands up, and surrender to their comfortable habits. This is just one reason it can be a real challenge for sustainably oriented renewable energy companies to clearly market their value today, and gain enough momentum to launch their product or service line.

Add the perception that their products usually come at a higher cost to what is often a very complex set of industry related language, and you’ve got a formula that turns new consumers away in frustration and fear.

From our experience, many emerging renewable energy companies speak in their “native tongue”, using a high degree of acronyms and technical language without simply communicating their basic values.  If they can’t provide a convincing brand message to their buyers about their economic and personal value, it’s doubtful they’ll make or continue sales.

So what can renewable energy companies do to overcome these initial challenges in perception?  Here are a few tips they might consider…

Get Local

While we’d encourage any renewable energy company to maintain their own corporate online presence through a company website, we’d encourage them to also offer individual landing pages that show their products locations and installation.  Not only will this help with their online search engine rankings, but it provide a local portal for people looking for their products in their own backyard, and helps provide new and existing customers with a sense that the company is a community entity, and not a cold, distant corporation.

Speak Your Customer’s Language

As many renewable energy companies are founded by technical and academic professionals, the language they’re familiar with often becomes the messaging to their public – and this intimidating form of communication can lead new customers to leave their sales process before buying.  To be truly successful, you need to present your information to the public in a user-friendly way that easy for your potential customer to engage and relate to on all levels.

Don’t Just Advertise, Build Conversations

Social media channels provide one of the best platforms for engaging new customers and prospects in an ongoing conversation that can help leverage leads into sales.  Current customers can serve as testimonials, and share their passion about the renewable energy’s product or services to new contacts.  We highly recommend that renewable energy companies use social media in their overall marketing strategy – while giving traditional media its due as an integral part of any campaign.

Measure Success

Whatever initiatives any renewable energy campaign undertakes, it’s critical that every effort, every channel, every initiative have some form of tracked measurement.  Without a method to know exactly who is responding to your campaign, and why – you’ll not be able to make the needed adjustments to fine tune the campaign for ongoing success.

Those are just some very basic considerations – there are many more.

What has your experience been in trying to work with renewable energy companies recently?  What’s been your impression of their products or services?  We’d like to know about your experience in this sector, so that we can help this emerging economy grow faster for all our benefit.  Please share your insights  with us!

Is Woolworths’ Logo Too Similar To Apple’s?

Most of us already know that Apple is famous for it’s aggressive defense of its brand image (or logo).  If they were willing to sue the Victoria School of Business and Technology for infringement, then certainly Austrailia’s Woolworths could have expected the same.  One key may be that Woolworth’s trademark is blanketed to extend to its entire range of products, including technology and electrical items.

Locally, Woolworths used to be a combination drug/convenience store, with a small counter style restaurant inside.  They served up some of the best milk shakes around, and a wicked ice cream sundae.  Today, the company sells a wide variety of products, including electronics.

A Woolworths spokesman put it this way: ”While we can’t rule anything out, we haven’t got any plans (when it comes to computers and gadgetry) at the moment.”

Looking at the example above, is their logo a stylized apple?  Woolworths say’s “no”.  It’s simply a stylized “W” with an “abstract leaf symbol”.  Some have gone as far to suggest that it’s a stylized consumer with outstretched arms, or even an apple being peeled.

I think you’ve got to admit to the similarities between the two logos, and in fact, Woolworths may be the seller of products that are similar to those of Apple’s.

But what do you think? Are the two logos too similar? Is Apple stepping over its bounds, and being too legally aggressive in protecting its brand image?

We’re interested to learn what you think – so please weigh in and comment.

Building Your Brand’s Image Library Is A Smart Investment

Especially in today’s challenging economy, brand image plays a key role in building both awareness and customer loyalty.  Marketing firms like ours are asked to do more with less budget, and find more creative ways to build brands through multiple channels – especially social media.  But the key to our team’s success often lies beyond budgetary constraints to focus on the core values and relevancy of the brand itself.

How do we help our clients position themselves as a “gotta-have-it” brand?  There’s no single key to success, but one important element is building a library of images that can be used across all channels – including television, print campaigns, direct mail, tradeshows and key social networks.

The right photographs, graphics and illustrations have always been a key feature of any brand’s success.  In today’s economy, however, building a library of images for any brand has often been put aside as an “extra” that isn’t required at this time – and that’s a mistake that doesn’t need to be made.  Here are a few considerations you might think about when building a library of images for your business or product:

1. Make sure the images you choose support your brand’s positioning. If you’re not precisely clear on what the position is in your customer’s thoughts, take the time to find out before you buy or design any images for your campaign.  Once you’ve discovered how your brand is percieved, selecting the right photographs, or better yet – having them shot specificially for your needs, is a wise investment to build a library you can work with throughout the year.

2. Work constantly to build your library of images. Keeping your messaging fresh and interesting is key to staying relevant in this current economy.  Consider incorporating images that convey a bit of humor, hope and humanity.  Connecting with your customer’s sense of struggle to buy your product may just be the thing that motivates them to make the purchase.

3. Target your images to specific markets. Not all images will work for all audiences – and you need to consider what will resonate with every specific target market.  Don’t assume that one campaign will catch the attention of different market segments.

4. Invest in custom imagery – it’s worth it. So many clients assume that custom photography is going to be too expensive. Far from it – great photography can be acquired today at very reasonable prices from a pool of incredibly talented photographers.  And once you’ve secured the rights to your photos with your provider, you can rest assured that your using them won’t require additional licensing fees as with many stock photography sources.  More importantly, you’ll be sure your images are yours alone – and won’t be used by your competitor.

As b-to-b marketers make the case for spending money on custom photography, they should consider the history of the brand. It is important for all companies, large and small alike, to carve out the best imagery for their brand. It’s even more important that well-known brands rich in history, such as AT&T, Nike, or American Express, rely on custom versus stock imagery to create the right connections. These companies simply have more to lose by making a poor decision around photography.

5. Once you’ve built your library – keep it organized and secure. Be sure to create back-up copies of all your images, and catalog them in a way that helps you find what your looking for with key search words.

Certainly, every brand is struggling to maintain existing customers while connecting to new prospects.  With a bit of planning, you can build the kind of brand resonance to do both today – and one cost effective way to do that is by building and organizing your digital assets.

What have you done that’s been successful in this area?  What challenges have you faced in building your digital assets that could be a help to others trying to do the same?

RSCVA To Author Revised Reno-Tahoe Campaign Tag Line

In a somewhat uncomfortable turn of events, the RSCVA Board did not approve the proposed “A Little West Of Center” tag line in this morning’s meeting.  Prematurely, yesterday’s post assumed that the stakeholders had been vetted, and the process of approval was nothing more than a formality.  Certainly, the Reno-Gazette Journal made note of the campaign’s pending approval as though the information may have been provided to them by the agency directly.  Not so.

While the strategy and basis of the new brand positioning was already approved, the Board did accept an important part of the proposed new campaign’s tag line: “A Little West of Center”.  However, the year’s worth of research was adopted and accepted – but there were many who simply could not understand or accept the campaign’s slogan.  This is an issue that can be fixed – and quickly.

Mayor Cashell, in a rather shocking turn of events, wagged his finger at the agency’s Marketing Director, admonishing his comment that the region must stop “apologizing” for itself.

What struck me as odd was – how did the campaign get this far without vetting the key stakeholder’s approvals?  Certainly, the Mayor should have been given the time to review the campaign in great detail, and hopefully convinced of the strategy and creative long before a formal, public presentation.

Gaffes aside – the RSCVA and its San Francisco agency, Mortar should be commended for taking such bold steps to reposition our region in the face of 11 years of declining revenues.

Now comes the task of damage control – and stopping what must be a flow of criticism from the public who cannot fully appreciate the year of research and testing that has gone into the proposed new brand positioning campaign.

When they get this settled – we’ll all need to help support the cause.  The RSCVA and Mortar should be applauded for their hard work and creative thinking.  Certainly a tag line for this campaign will be resolved quickly, and we’ll begin the much needed work of promoting Reno as it really is – a fun, engaging, unique destination in the minds of our tourism market.

The Biggest Little City In The World Is “A Little West Of Center”

Photo courtesy of visitrenotahoe.com

For loyal followers of this blog, you are undoubtedly aware of my ongoing rants about the fact that our region has suffered from a lack of a credible brand position for over a decade.  While our team has had the opportunity to execute several campaigns for our region in the past, none seemed as exciting or engaging as what had been abandoned.  (Who could forget the insipid “Reno Reno, Twice As Friendly”?)  Clearly, the city’s claim of “The Biggest Little City In The World” still rings out at the most recognizable brand statement we’ve had, as it was adopted in 1929.

Seven years ago, the Reno Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority placed its bet on a positioning that I personally could never embrace – “America’s Adventure Place”.  At the time, the agency was under entirely different management, and to those who actively adopted the positioning, it may have seemed natural to turn our attention away from the region’s underlying perception to promote the natural beauty and varying types of activities that can be found here.

While we might have wanted to be seen as “America’s Adventure Place” – the claim was not only aspirational, but without partnered funding and a coordinated infrastructure to support it – unattainable.  True, we have many forms of adventure here regionally.  From outdoor recreation to indoor entertainment (and I sense your referencing brothels here), the brand positioning was something we all hoped might change the perception of Reno as a “second rate gambling town” to something a little more honorable and positive.

But as any marketing or advertising professional worth their fees will tell you – you can’t change the perception of a brand with a creative position that isn’t factual.  The public at large, who may have been initially intrigued by the campaign, clearly did not adopt it.  Lake Tahoe (which the RSCVA partially serves) may be thought of in that adventurous light – but certainly not Reno-Sparks.  As much as Lake Tahoe carries a positive image associated with its incredible beauty, it will always be a 45 minute drive from Reno-Sparks.  Tourists from northern California, our main drive-in market, understood this fact.  They’d been to Tahoe without ever visiting Reno-Sparks, and vice versa.  They are, for all intensive purposes, completely different destinations.

Lake Tahoe maintains its own destination brand, which has been perceived as an entirely separate than our valley.  We were, for lack of a better term, “adopting” brand equity from our region without communicating the real values we all know exist here in other forms.  “Reno-Tahoe” works for our airport because it serves that region.  But as the core of a campaign to promote tourism, it was obvious we were borrowing on Tahoe’s positive brand association by associating it (and it’s unique benefits) to our city’s image.

And so…for the past 11 years, our tourism economy has been on a steadily downward spiral; with little hope that we could ever achieve the kind of brand recognition Las Vegas has iconically adopted (“What Happens Here, Stays Here”).  In the recent economic downturn, this was a problem none of us could afford as a residents or businesses to continue promoting.

When the RSCVA began to investigate this positioning – a collective sigh of relief (for many of us) was replaced with a gasp and (almost literally) holding of our breath.  We knew instinctively that getting it wrong again could well be the death knell to our rapidly failing casino/gaming based economy.  SmartBrand’s team discussed and debated this frequently, before and after the process began; and did our best to stay hopeful they would uncover a suitable solution.  With the proliferation of Indian gaming across the nation – we were no longer unique in our offering, and certainly not as convenient for those who enjoyed betting against the house.

We knew we were…to put it politely…uniquely odd.  We also knew that the general public had a perception of our region that wasn’t in-line with reality.  We were not, as many might think, the ugly sister to Las Vegas (a mere 480 miles away).  Nor were we so aligned with our own internal operations that we could claim to be “America’s Adventure Place”.  In a word – Reno is “quirky”.

With new RSCVA management came increasing expectations for greater results – yet they were saddled with a brand position that couldn’t be sold with confidence.  And so they embarked nearly a year ago to simply conduct an assessment of that positioning, which we all hoped might result in today’s announcement – the adoption of a campaign that was believable, and hopefully – unique enough to reflect our existing traits and assets.

Our sister city, Sparks Nevada, recently undertook a similar campaign repositioning… but with disasterous results.  Would The RSCVA fall victim to the same rehashed, unbelievable recommendations from the “big city agency”?  Would Reno find a path to the truths behind our region that could be marketable?  I personally didn’t have a great deal of hope – and I’m glad to report…I was wrong.

Although we were not invited to participate in the proposal process, the RSCVA wisely chose a very capable team in Mortar – a San Francisco based brand firm.  Finally – an agency that honestly understands the process of developing brands without preconditions and ego-centric recommendations.  With Mortar’s guidance, the RSCVA embarked on an aggressive effort to discover current perception in the target drive-in marketplace, then address those current perceptions with a strategy to leverage current thinking to a new reality – one based in fact and not catchy creativity.

While more than $111,000 was invested into the marketing study, the results of their research and creative has resulted in today’s annnounced and adopted positioning… “A Little West Of Center”.  The development of this position is just the tip of the budget iceberg, as the campaign is projected to cost  between $4 and $5 million when it is launched early next year.  This is a substantial investment by all the stakeholders in our region, and is certainly one we cannot afford to squander without both public and private support.

Results will not be immediately apparent.  Add that to what could be an expected public outcry that our city’s brand may not be entirely “pretty”, and the road ahead will be a tough one to navigate. Residents will not easily adopt this change, nor will they understand that the campaign need not be the usual lovely golf course and ski resort images of days past.  There may be a great debate ahead about the appropriateness of the imagery and creative direction.  Eventually, I hope they come to see this new effort as a reflection of our region’s true benefits, and not a personal statement about their singular lifestyle here.

And so, here is our chance to promote our region in a believable way.  And that, for me, is long overdue.

What do you think about this new campaign for our region?  Before you answer, try to think like the target drive-in market of northern California – not a resident.  Do you think this will work to benefit our region?

Bing’s Boom

According to Efficient Frontier,  a self-proclaimed worldwide market and technology leader providing search engine marketing (SEM) solutions, the total number of clicks performed by users on Microsoft Bing increased by 45% since the search engine’s June 2009 launch.

Granted, you’d expect a new product to be initially tried given the media blitz Microsoft has spent millions to launch.  But the increase in numbers is impressive.

Comparatively,  Efficient Frontier also notes  that the increase in clickshare for Bing was mostly gained at the fall of Google which reportedly lost 1.4% of its share, while Yahoo! took a smaller hit of 0.63%.

“The $100 million marketing budget for the launch of Bing alongside its new look and feel has obviously has some effect on the number of searches performed on the engine,” said Client Services Director at Efficient Frontier, Jonathan Beeston.

“Microsoft’s new category focused Bing features may have helped them capture more of the seasonal summer travel searching and the additional query volume related to the stock market recovery.”

He added, “Change doesn’t happen overnight but if trends continue, Microhoo might pose a very real threat to Google. The data provides a positive outlook for Bing and hope for real competition amongst the engines.”

So…the initial numbers are out, and Bing is gaining ground on the competition.

Have you had the opportunity to use Bing frequently?  If so…what do you think about this new type of search engine?

Avid’s Smart New Brand

Avid's New Brand Logo

I’ve been a fan of Avid systems since the early 90’s, and have helped them financially navigate the expensive technology curve with a passion like no other video editing company.  But as an image based brand, even their own visual positioning seemed, well… a bit geeky.  Over the years, Avid acquired a host of related companies Avid, Digidesign, M-Audio, Pinnacle Systems and Sibelius - each of which were completely independent of one another, yet each integrally tied to the product line and “master brand”.  In classic form, Avid had become a fractioned brand suite of companies entirely through its own development.

And so it seemed logical for Avid to redefine itself visually to encompass these integral product lines. “It’s not really a rebranding” says Thomas Ordahl, corporate brand strategy director, “because we previously went to market as five different companies, and Avid was just one of them, more a product brand than corporate. It is now all of them, and really a new brand.”

I purchased my first Avid sometime in early 1990 – the Avid Media Composer, whidh was at that time the first digital editing system to replace traditional tape-based systems. Today, “The Avid” is still used today by the a sizeable percentage of the world’s professional film and television editors.

Today’s visual repositioning has resulted in an interesting, clever mark for the suite of companies.  Some might say it’s not an easy mark to read, making the mark less than effective.  But to me, given the company’s history and current product line of video and audio bases system – I think it’s on target.

“Volume up, volume down, play, pause, record and forward, signaling unification of the company’s core audio and video offerings, signaling a unification of the company’s core audio and video offerings.” confirms CEO Gary Greenfield.

What do you think about this new visual identity?  Have you had experience with the Avid product line?  Will this help take this suite of companies into their next phase of operations successfully?

What color is your brand?

Probably no news to you…color matters.  Alot.

According to a University of Loyola, Maryland study, color increases brand recognition by up to 80 percent.

Color is also very influential to  brand identity in a variety of different ways. Consider the unexpected success Heinz EZ Squirt Blastin’ Green ketchup has had in the marketplace in the past few years. More than 10 million bottles were sold in the first seven months following its introduction, with Heinz factories working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to keep up with demand. The result? $23 million in sales attributable to Heinz green ketchup [the highest sales increase in the brand's history]. All because of a simple product color change.  Obviously, the success of this change was culturally based as the product did not sell as well in America as first anticipated.

Consider how Apple brought color into a marketplace where color had not readily deployed before. By introducing the colorful iMacs, Apple was the first to say, “It doesn’t have to be beige or white”. The iMacs reinvigorated a brand that had suffered $1.8 billion of losses in two years. (And now we enjoy a rainbow of colorful iPods.)

There is a great new tool which can help out with color selection called Cymbolism. It’s an interactive survey of color and word associations. Every page loads a new word, for which you have to select a color you feel best represents it. The results are then aggregated and you can see most popular associations either by color or by word.

To help you consider color choices  for your brand Usabilitypost aggregated the results from Cymbolism, and also provided examples of logos that use each color:

courtesy of usabilitypost

So what color do you choose? There are often many considerations, some of which are purely cultural. Here in the Western hemisphere, white is often considered the color of peace or purity, but in some parts of Asia white is the color of death.  The color you choose should be researched with the target market you have in mind to be sure there are not cultural translations you may be overlooking.

Most importantly, the color you choose should really be something you like, not just something you worked out through a “formula”. If you not happy with the color options in your brand image’s logo, then it’s unlikely you’ll be happy to see it every day on your website, business cards or any other application. Consider choosing something that represents your company’s personality, but be sure it’s something you’ll like personally as well.