Branding is for livestock and blogs
Tuesday, March 3, 2009 23:02
MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
BRANDING 1.0
If you’ve seen a cow, you’ve seen them all. Branding was invented to fight this cow blindness. With branding it was so much easier to determine the ownership of any given cow. Today many blogs look and feel the same I often have the feeling that I’ve seen them all.
BRANDING 2.0
Some bloggers have understood the importance of old-fashioned cowboy tricks and started to brand their blogs. Today this is much easier as there is no need for burning hot iron stick and biceps of steel. Only two simple things are needed in modern blog branding: blog integrity and blog association.
BLOG INTEGRITY
MMMMMMMMMMMOOOOOO, MMMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOO. MMMO? MMMOOOOOOOOO. MOOOOOOO! MMORPG.
Blog integrity is all about your content, how you plan it, compose it, write it, present it etc. Dosh Dosh is a terrific example of this. That blog oozes wit and knowledge that is also presented in understandable and light manner. It is not enough to do this for a while, one has to perform well constantly, or better yet, keep on improving over time. This is the way to build an internal brand.
BLOG ASSOCIATION
Another way to contribute to the brand of your blog is through association. Brand has everything to do with the topics you present to your readers. If you write about cars and pick Russian Lada’s… well, you will have a small but dedicated group of followers. However, if you pick BMW you shall attract whole different crowd. This crowd is more interested in finer things in life. Just pick any relevant image you want to convey and some you will get rubbed on you.
BLOG POST FROM CLEAR SKY
I was minding my own business or maybe not as I was making comment at John Chow. One reply caught my attention and I followed the link (I feebly recommend you to follow random links) and I liked what I saw. Actually I didn’t really think anything about the layout or content, because my attention was focused on Gordon Gekko video. Brilliant move if one wants to set an appearance of money talks. This image was further strengthened because of a comment that I received here.
BRAND YOUR BLOG
If you don’t brand your blog, I am not going to write about it. If a D-list blogger like myself won’t write about you then who will? Get that brand up and quick!
George Chernikov says:
March 3rd, 2009 at 11:46 pm
Hi there,
Thank you VERY much for the link and for mentioning my blog - I really appreciate it!
As you can tell, Wall Street is really one of my favorite movies, and one that every entrepreneur should watch - if not necessarily live by.
As to the subject of branding, I think you and me are in the same boat on this one - in the final analysis, it is branding that often (although not always) distinguishes your product from the competition. Brand is what customers remember first and foremost - and whether their experience has been positive or negative determines your brand equity.
To me, branding is what you do to stand OUT from the crowd - the next question is what you stand FOR.
George Chernikov’s last blog post..Constructing a Customer Value Hierarchy
Jake Stone says:
March 6th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
For me “Boiler room” was also fun to watch. I get this kind of call every bloody week, usually from general direction of India. Mostly these poor sods read directly from the script, but it still takes a minute to get rid of them. I blame that on my job - as a salesman I have to listen to get some information about customer and usually people ramble on, especially in the beginning. So I end up listening until I know who is calling and from where and what for. At what for part the purpose starts to unravel and finally (usually this drama plays out in under one minute) it is time for me to thank for the call and hang up. Some call back immediately, but I thank again and hang up.
But what do I stand for? Personally many things, but what comes to this blog, it’s for fun and for venting. What about you?