Author: Sarah Welstead

Not every channel is good for every brand, product or service.

Usually I have something to say about the infographics I post, but I think this one speaks for itself.  I love the way the colour-coding makes it easy to compare demographics.  And I like the media type matrix, though it does reveal a flaw in the way the information is presented:  Google+ is indicated as the only channel suitable for photos, video, articles and text, which makes it sound great…except we all know that hardly anyone uses Google+.  So you can post all the mixed media you want on G+ – it still won’t deliver dramatic results.

The second installment of work-related comments I just can’t forget

Last month, as you may recall, I posted a list of some of the more egregious comments made to me over the course of my career, in an effort to get them out of my head.  It worked, insofar as it seemed to get rid of those particular earworms.  Unfortunately, it got me thinking – and I ended up with a raft of new earworms.  

So here is Volume II.  Let’s hope there isn’t a Volume III.

1993
My boss, upon being asked by me to stop staring at my chest: 
“It’s not my fault.  If you put them out there, it’s your fault if everyone looks.”
(I was wearing a black turtleneck at the time) 

1996
Gary Prouk:
“You’re a sarcastic little vixen, aren’t you?”

1997
A client in the automotive industry:
“Am I going to have to come up there and bitchslap you?” 

1998
Account Director at the ad agency where I worked; officially my boss:
“They say that when 3 people at an agency don’t like you, it’s time to leave.  David, Suzanne and I are your 3.” 

1998
Art director, when we were alone in a recording studio, while caressing my hand:
“You have beautiful hands.  You should be a hand model.”
(I found out later he said this to almost every other woman in the agency)

1999
Incoming new president at same agency as above:
“I wanted to fire you, but the VP Finance says you make a lot of money for us and your clients tell me they like you a lot, so I won’t.”

2001
A recruiter who called me out of the blue, upon being told that I wasn’t interested in the job she was offering because it was too junior and the salary less than I was making:
“Well, I’ve looked at your resume, and I don’t think you’re worth nearly that much.  You’re pretty lucky you got that job – you haven’t earned it.”

2003
Senior salesperson:
“You know why you’d be good in sales?  Because you’re a 7 [out of 10].  Good-looking enough to sell to men, but not so pretty that they’d think you’re a bimbo.”

2008
Senior leadership team member, in front of both our bosses:
“Ugh – why do you keep calling it ‘social networking’?  It’s not networking.  I hate it when you make up these terms that no one else has heard of.” 

2010
Co-worker, upon reading an article I wrote for an industry journal:
“I mean, it’s written like a real article, by a real writer. I didn’t know you could do that. How did you do that?” 

Because no one can keep all this stuff top-of-mind

It’s true:  I’ve become fascinated by infographics lately.  Why?  Because I feel like I’ve spent most of my career – including those 4 years in real estate – trying to find the best ways to communicate to various audiences so that the information resonates, sticks, and precipitates action. And what I’ve learned is that hardly anyone responds to large blocks of text.  Even if they do like text, they rarely have the time to actually read it all, let alone absorb it.  (Even I, one of nature’s born readers, have managed to get through only 2 books since the baby was born.)

Infographics seem like a fantastic solution to this problem.  Why spend 2 hours reading a 50-page whitepaper when you can scroll through an aesthetically pleasing graphic that requires little commitment and leaves you with about the same amount of information you’d absorb from that whitepaper anyway?

Today’s selection represents another great function of infographics: The cheatsheet.  It’s called ‘Smart Ways to Combine Content Marketing With SEO’, but really, it’s just a giant cheatsheet of all the ways you can leverage content to build your brand and drive traffic. I confess that there are lots of channels represented here that I’ve never heard of, and many of them aren’t suitable for all brands or organizations, but this is a fantastic overview- especially if you’re just starting to get serious about your content marketing strategy and need to think beyond your blog and basic social media.

 

Infographic found here.

Don’t let an infographic become your logo-creation bible.

Regular readers will know that I do tend to love a good infographic.  Done right, they’re a Reese’s peanut butter cup of information + design that has the power to get people’s attention in a way that prose alone just can’t. Done wrong, they’re a dangerous fish-fingers-and-custard combination that delivers bad information in such a compelling way that people tend to believe it, regardless of the dubiousness of the source data.

With that in mind, I bring you today’s infographic.  

After Saturday’s post on the use of colour in brand identities, I came across the little gem below.  Oh sure, it’ll suck you in with its easy-to-read fonts and colourful graphics.  And there are graphs! Charts! Numbers!

Then you notice lines like “Black is associated with the formality and mystery of night”, with Tiffany & Co. used as an example of a ‘black’-based brand identity. In fact, Tiffany’s core brand colour is ‘Tiffany Blue‘, which is trademarked by Tiffany and produced as private custom colour by Pantone.  And that LG is listed as a pink-based logo (it’s red).

But I encourage you to scroll down anyway.  This extra-long infographic does have some interesting factoids (it’s interesting, for example, that 5 of the 10 most valuable brands in the world use a similar shade of blue as their core brand colour) and raises some perennial issues (like how much a logo should cost, given that cheap ones sometimes excel and expensive ones sometimes fall flat).

Anyway, take a look.  And don’t be surprised if you hear more from me on colour and brand identity this week – I’m working on a brand migration project this week and it’s got me fixated on colours and fonts.

[Infographic by FinancesOnline.]

 

I’ve been involved in the creation process for quite a number of brands over the years, and here’s what I’ve noticed: People will hem and haw for weeks – months! – over the name of their brand/product, but then, once they’ve decided on a name, they just sort of hand it over to a designer and say “Turn it into something pretty. Can you get it done by Monday?  I think the web designer said he needed it for something.”

But here’s the thing:  When it comes to branding, people don’t just respond to a name – they respond to the overall look and feel.  Like Gelada monkeys, who go nuts if they catch sight of a 3-inch scrap of leopard-patterned fabric, humans have strong, visceral reactions to colour and colour combinations. There’s a reason why cupcake boutiques use pastel colours instead of yellow and black in their logos:  Yellow and black makes people think of auto parts, not delightful sugary concoctions.

That’s why I like this infographic.  And remember:  Colour is the first thing a consumer will notice about your logo.  Are you sure you’ve picked a good one?

 

Infographic found here.