Blog — Page 12 of 13 — Redfire: Branding, Strategy, and Design Agency

March 12, 2015 — Comments are off for this post.

How Brand Design Works

Presenting a consistent and coherent image to the world demands that many aspects of an organisation are considered and designed so that they fit together as part of a whole. Conceiving and representing a brand is therefore a careful interplay between a number of design disciplines, ranging from strategic consultancy at the top level, right down to the choice of paper used for stationery and packaging.

The following elements and components provide an overall brand experience:

Business strategy
Brand strategy and identity
Physical and virtual environments
Sales process
People and culture
Products and services

This illustrates areas of expertise that brand designers might be involved in and shows that a multidisciplinary approach is needed to build and manage brands.

Techniques and tools

Brand design may involve research, strategy, design, implementation and ongoing brand management, each drawing on different design skills, as well as roles within the client company itself, such as brand management and marketing. Broadly speaking, a brand design process starts with research, moves to concept generation (or a reassessment of the current brand), followed by creative design work based on a chosen concept and ending with design implementation. For larger organisations this process may be ongoing.

The concept stage will typically involve discussions about the business, its products and services, their position in the market, its competitors, its history and aspirations for the future. This may well start with interviews with senior management. Market research and customer surveys may also be used to help build up a picture of the organisation and how it is perceived, as well as how it relates to competitors. From here, we can can start to define the brand ‘essence’ and personality – the tone, character and purpose that can run through all the elements developed in the design phase, whether graphical, digital or physical.

HOW CAN REDFIRE HELP WITH YOUR BRANDING:

Redfire has significant experience in brand development and brand design. We look at brand building in a very strategic manner ensuring our brand development work elevates your unique point of difference and brand personality to the forefront. If you're looking for brand developers who are passionate with all things branding, then we would be the ideal brand agency you should consider. We cover everything from brand strategy, brand design, brand identity, rebranding, brand management, brand marketing through to product branding.

March 11, 2015 — Comments are off for this post.

Creating a Successful App

In this age of social media madness, the smartphone is fast becoming a perpetual companion to consumers and provides constant access to the digital world. It also poses an opportunity for brands to engage with their consumers on a deeper level by creating branded apps. However, brands should not invest in apps without first developing a solid strategy behind it.

A successful app is one that is personalized and easy to use, and should be seamless across all platforms and devices. Here are a few basic tips to ensure you create a successful app that consumers will want to download, allowing you to build a stronger relationship with them.
Identify the Strategy
Ask yourself what you hope to achieve with this app. How can an app contribute toward your brand’s overall strategy? Identifying this will help you build an app with a solid purpose that is specific to the market you are targeting.
Have a Purpose
When consumers download an app onto their device, they are inviting that brand into their personal space. Remember, your brand is now a guest in the consumer’s home, so act accordingly – do not bombard them with sales pitches. Make your app relevant to the consumer.

An example is Countdown’s new app which is designed to make grocery shopping easier by organizing lists based on the location of the products in-store, while helping consumers save money on their favorite items. It is currently in the Top 25 Free Apps.

Another example is the app we designed and developed for Paint Aids Ltd (PAL) offering painting tips and guidelines. It also helps determine what paintbrush and roller you need for any specific job.
Be Believable
Whatever category you decide to build an app in, make sure it’s a believable extension of your brand. It should serve a relevant purpose to the targeted consumer while being appropriate to the brand.
Market the App
Your app is a tool to market your brand, but it is also a product in itself that needs to be promoted. A great way is to promote the app on all brand touch points, including packaging, brochures, online and advertising. Sponsorship is a proven marketing strategy for branded apps. It not only promotes your app, but also allows for wider relevance as well as seamless integration.

Redfire can help develop a digital media strategy and integrate this into your marketing plan. Redfire is an Apple IOS accredited agency, which means we have the ability to upload apps onto the iTunes store and are recognized as a professional provider.

March 11, 2015 — No Comments

3 Steps for a Good Website

Good design. Good content. Good structure. These are the three main basics that make a good website.

Many people think that having an online website presence is enough. What they fail to realise is that having a website that doesn’t do the job is just as bad as not having a website at all.

Before you create a website, you need to examine your goals and determine the purpose of the website. For example, if you want to sell your products online, you need a secure checkout system and payment gateway. Once you have determined the purpose of your website and what you aim to achieve with it, you can move ahead.

1.Good Design
Hire professional web designers and web developers as they will have a wealth of knowledge on how to design an effective website that will reach its full potential. Good web design should be intuitive and easy for the user to navigate. It should also lead the user around the website visually, not the other way round. Remember that your website is an online representation of your company, so make sure it looks sharp.

2.Good Content
Be very selective with what information you put on your website. The amount of information that goes onto your website will vary, depending on its purpose. Make sure it adds value to the user. Ideally, no one wants to read a ton of information on screen, so be concise.

3.Good Structure
How you structure the content on your site is just as important as the first two basic factors, as it will enable users to find the information they’re looking for quickly. Nothing frustrates people more than having to click through a bunch of links and not being able to find the information they are looking for. Having a beautifully designed website is virtually pointless if your website is poorly organised.

Stick to these three basic principles and you’ll be well on your way to creating a good website.

March 11, 2015 — Comments are off for this post.

Evaluating a digital strategy

A digital strategy will consist of a number of aims and objectives both tangible and non-tangible that were aligned with one or more ideas.

Value deals purely in terms of bottom line returns either through purchases, savings or lead generation. The aims of a digital strategy are often unequal when aligned to brand strategy, and worth repositions the idea against how well it matches the digital strategy aims.

KPIs
Key performance indicators are the metrics by which ROI and performance can start to be estimated and eventually measured.
• Page views • Actions completed • Visitors • Total purchases
Tangible idea returns
The easiest returns to measure and evaluate are tangible website statistics and actions.
Examples of these would be:
• Sales through the site • Audience downloading application • Leads generated through contact forms • Audience forwarding viral videos

Each of these actions can be given a simple estimate value for each idea, to be mapped directly into the aims of the digital strategy.

Non-tangible idea returns
Non-tangible returns are somewhat harder to derive.
Examples of these would be:
• Brand awareness • Presence • Reputation / impression • Education

Each of these may map directly against an expressed aim, but they are not directly measurable.

March 11, 2015 — No Comments

The power of Packaging Design

Packaging on a shelf has less than three seconds to grab the attention of a consumer.

Given the clutter of comparative products and endless options, those three seconds are exceedingly important when you consider that more than 80% of purchasing decisions are made at the shelf. Add to this the fact that supermarkets can contain on average 40,000 packs to choose from, then your packaging design has got to work hard.

Packaging’s role is fourfold:

To sell the product
To protect and preserve the product
To facilitate the use of the product
To ship the product

Redfire’s packaging design experience will help streamline your packaging process to not only promote appeal and reason to buy, but also work functionally in the supply chain.

With years of packaging experience we have built relationships with great packaging manufacturers and suppliers so can offer a full print and packaging procurement service.

March 11, 2015 — No Comments

10 Tips for a successful E-Commerce Website

E-commerce business has grown rapidly over the last few years. With the growth of online shoppers, more brands have expanded their retail business by allowing their customers to shop their products online.

If you are thinking about starting an e-commerce website, here are some tips to keep in mind:
1. Invest In Your Brand
If you’re serious about being a successful e-commerce business, you need to look the part. A self-made site with a cheap logo is probably not going to convince the customer that you’re a legitimate and trustworthy business. A professional web designer will understand how visitors interact with your website and how a design can affect your online business.
2. Make Your Website User-Friendly
Understand that people are logging onto your website to find products and buy them. Make it easy for them. The less the customer has to think, the more they can focus on their shopping. Having simple and consistent navigation and easy-to-manage account facilities are very important features.
3. Update Your Website Daily
Keep things interesting and your customers coming back by updating your website on a daily basis. This could include daily tips, editor’s picks, special offers, coming soon products, etc. The more you update, the more regularly your customers will return.
4. Send Newsletters Regularly
Send out an e-newsletter at least once a week. Even if you have nothing new to advertise, you can highlight products that are coming soon, editor’s picks or create special offers for subscribers. This ensures customers don’t forget about your website, drives traffic to it and allows you to promote special offers and sales. Make sure you invest in a good email marketing service and a well-designed template.
5. Stay Ahead Of The Competition
In this fast-paced age of technology, your website should stay up-to-date and adopt new technologies. This may involve refreshing your website slightly every so often, or a complete makeover over a longer span of time. Make sure this is factored into your budget as part of your overall business strategy.
6. Manage Your Site Full Time
Running a successful e-commerce website is not a part-time job. Treat it as you would a proper business, and hire an e-commerce content manager to manage your web strategy. If they get it right, it won’t be long before you see a return of investment.
7. PR Is Vital
This should be part of your e-commerce content manager’s job. Part of their web strategy should involve spreading the word about your website by getting it featured on blogs, buying ad space and being featured on news sites, and offline advertising. Building strong relationships with blogs and news sites aimed at your target audience can be very useful. Your e-commerce content manager should also be up to speed with pay-per-click advertising as it can be very effective.
8. Have Great Customer Service
Nothing puts a customer off like a bad shopping experience. Make sure your orders are delivered promptly, and that any enquiries or complaints are dealt with quickly and positively. Chances are, if a customer has a good experience with you, they will happily spread the word.
9. Install Google Analytics
Google Analytics allows you to monitor your stats, see where your visitors are coming from, which pages they spend most time on, track conversions on sales and more. By analysing these stats, you will be able to determine what you’re doing right and wrong. Don’t forget to take note of how website updates and sending out newsletters affect your analytic trends.
10. Don’t Rely Solely On SEO
Good SEO is effective but manipulating search engines into awarding you a high ranking is not a method you should rely on to generate business. Relying solely on SEO to generate a bulk of your business is risky, as Google can decide to significantly drop your ranking any time.

Redfire specialises in custom design E-Commerce websites including Magento E – Commerce, WordPress E-Commerce, Joomla E-Commerce and VirtueMart. Our process is about integrating great design, functionality and simple to use content management systems that make it easy for you to manage and also easy for customers to shop.

March 11, 2015 — Comments are off for this post.

Building a Digital Strategy

The key elements for developing an effective digital strategy includes; Planning, Creation, Deployment and Evaluation.

Each of these stages overlap into the next to deliver a coherent digital campaign. Combined, they deliver an ongoing digital strategy as the audience and brand perception evolves.

1. Planning
The planning of a digital strategy involves analysing the following:
• The initial aims and expected returns, both tangible and non-tangible.
• The background of the brand, present positioning and perception
• The audience – broken down into key segments
• Audience locations and value of each audience segment against initial aims

The planning stage deals purely in the analysis and identification of focus areas.

2. Creation
The creation stage is purely focused around campaign formalisation. This involves:
• Planning campaign elements based upon previous analysis
• Creating key performance indicators per channel and estimating expected return per channel
• Design and build of campaign elements / channels
• Planning and establishing deployment routes, communication flows and expectations

The creation stage for each channel finishes on the launch of each channel.

3. Deployment
The deployment stage focuses on the delivery of the campaign, including:
• Building the engagement timeline
• Engaging with the audience through the engagement loop
• Sampling progress through a campaign and optimising the campaign message
• Recording salient information through each campaign step for evaluation

The deployment stage runs as a microcosm of the strategy as a whole and relies on rapid responses to tune the strategy.

4. Evaluation
The evaluation of a digital strategy is imperative to learn the lessons of the campaign, including:
• Evaluating KPIs and fiscal achievement
• Reviewing engagement and unexpected longer term benefits
• Taking lessons on board to build stronger future campaigns
• Scoring the strategy and the benefits that it has given

Evaluation improves the effectiveness of future campaigns and strategies by becoming the key building block in planning them.

March 11, 2015 — Comments are off for this post.

Sustainable Packaging through Design

It’s not about waving magic wands but being knowledgeable about choices and substrates available to be more sustainable when designing sustainable packaging. The packaging industry has been vilified over the years, not least on the subject of plastic bags. Yet brands have always been looking for ways to reduce materials and maximise packaging for both environmental and financial reasons.

We’ve helped companies and retailers improve the environmental impact of the packaging they use by:

Designing packaging that is made from sustainable materials. For instance using cardboard and papers from FSC forests instead of unknown sources.
Redesigning without material combinations so that packaging can be easily recycled. For instance making bottle lids from the same plastic as the body.
Changing the way packaging functions so that it improves the sustainability of the whole system it is part of. For instance, designing shelf ready packaging that means less materials are used in transit and at point of sale.
Using printers with vegetable inks and recycling processes in place to create more sustainable packaging brand stories.

March 11, 2015 — Comments are off for this post.

Creating an effective microsite

With consumers spending more time online, marketers are constantly looking for ways to engage with existing and potential customers. Building microsites have become a popular marketing device to do just that.
Make It Relevant
Run a promotion that is unique to your brand. Let potential customers know why they should visit and what’s in it for them. This will give people a reason to visit and once they’re there, you can sell your brand.
Use Both Online And Offline Advertising
Drive traffic to your microsite by using multiple channels of advertising. Don’t limit it to just a direct mail designed specifically for the microsite promotion. Not everyone responds well to direct mail. Advertise your microsite in newspapers, relevant magazines, email blasts and online banner ads in sync with direct mail campaigns to drive traffic to your microsite.
Have A Registration Page
Get potential customers to register on the microsite. Building a database is a very useful resource for marketers, as it can tell you a lot about site visitors, as well as allow you access to them via sending out email blasts or updates. Registering can also give the user a customized experience on your microsite.
Encourage Repeat Visits
User-generated content is an effective way to encourage repeat visits and keep users interacting with your brand. Allowing visitors to upload content for others to view and share, keeps them coming back to see how others have responded to their content as well as browsing through other people’s content. Each time a user comes back to your site, they will see your promotion over and over again.

As well as designing and developing a microsite, Redfire can help develop a complete digital strategy and integrate this into your marketing plan.

March 11, 2015 — Comments are off for this post.

A Digital Strategy Engagement Path

AWARENESS > EVALUATION > USE > CONVERSION > ENGAGEMENT

1. Awareness
The initial steps involve the audience being aware of the brand or promotion and one or more elements of the campaign. A specific idea could be solely focused on stimulating awareness of other elements of the digital strategy, e.g. a PPC advert linking to a microsite.

2. Evaluation
Evaluation is the equivalent of dipping a toe in the water. This may involve limited exposure to a further reaching idea, a light weight approach to a deeper idea using progressive disclosure or potentially a walk-through of a more advanced idea. The evaluation step encourages the audience to move through to the next stage in the engagement path without setting up the barrier to commit.

3. Use
To achieve the aims of the digital strategy, at some point the audience will be expected to use one of the tools within the campaign, hopefully repetitively. Use should not raise the barrier of conversion, e.g. the user being forced to expend excessive time and/or money.

4. Conversion
An idea that reaches the conversion stage of the engagement path will be meeting the short term aims of the digital strategy,e.g. making a single purchase through a site.

5. Engagement
Engagement involves entering into long term dialogue with the audience over an idea. Ideas that reach the engagement stage can result in repeat conversion and the transition of the audience from being inactive participants to active advocates.

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