March 15, 2024
Don: Hello and welcome Today we are talking about how to convince your clients to invest in branding and why it’s more important than ever before for businesses to invest in professional, strategic, considered branding, even in an economic You’re listening to Design and Prosper episode 128.
[Intro Music]
Kris: Hey everybody.
Don: Hello there.
Kris: Oh goodness. We have got some silly branding stories for you today.
Don: Oh, hasn’t there been a lot of fun going on in the media at the moment?
Kris: There has. There has. We’ve been stumbling across a lot of branding snafu’s in the media recently and maybe you’ve seen them.
Don: we bet you have.
Kris: Maybe you have. We will link them back to the topic of this. Episode trust us, but we just need to unpack a couple of things because there are branding mistakes happening all over the place.
Don: With very big brands. And we know that branding is not just about a logo, typeface and a colour palette, right? Branding is the whole story. So there are a couple of brands, Holistic. Brands that are really stumbling at the moment.
Kris: yeah, one of the examples we’ve got isn’t actually a big brand. They weren’t a big brand, but they got big and well known for all the wrong reasons.
Don: Yes, yes.
Don: You are planned or otherwise, right? That’s what we say in the branding world.
Kris: yes. They became the meme for a week, you know, it was all about them. So, okay, we’ll get into it. So the first one we wanted to talk about was. Kate Middleton, our Kate, you know, Princess Catherine, or I don’t know, I think it’s Catherine Princess of Wales. I think that’s her official title.
Don: I wouldn’t know.
Kris: Yeah, I think it’s something like that. What a fiasco. So in case you missed it, Kate, So she had some abdominal surgery
Don: Yes,
Kris: right at the beginning of the year, and she hasn’t been seen since Christmas.
Don: There was a formal statement about that.
Kris: There was.
Don: We all know what’s happening, so everybody can be safe in the knowing of what’s going on.
Kris: They said she’s going to be away. The formal statement said she’s taking a break from public duty, she won’t be back until after Easter. Right? So everybody, you’d think, would just leave it and say, Sure, we’ll see you at, in Easter. But of course the conspiracy theories have come out and there’s been, you know, so many different crazy theories.
Don: They’ve gone wild.
Kris: That’s too long because Goodness me, a woman can’t just have a break, you know, for a couple of months,
Don: No recovery time.
Kris: Can’t take a step back, you know, no recovery time. Or she can’t have a little bit of privacy.
Don: Yeah,
Kris: You know, because she’s in the public eye. We need to understand exactly what the surgery was, what her recovery is, all the rest of it. So the conspiracy theorists have gone absolutely wild. So they’re saying things like, you know, she’s in a coma or she’s being held against her will, or she wants to leave, they’ve separated – her and William have separated
Don: It’s so awful,
Kris: it’s awful
Don: yeah, and the most wild of all is that she had a BBL, and for those of you who don’t know what that is, that is a Brazilian butt lift, good grief,
Kris: So silly. Surely it was just said as a joke, but it’s just so wild. All the theories because she’s been away. Right. So fair enough. So that’s been happening on the side, but then what happened over the UK Mother’s Day weekend, which was just the past weekend at the time of recording this podcast, The Prince and Princess of Wales, they released a photo to their socials, which was a lovely photo of Kate and the kids to celebrate the UK Mother’s day.
Don: Noice,
Kris: Noice, yes, yes, so it was just like a lovely photo.
Don: Lovely little thing, yeah.
Kris: And then what happened? Not long after that the major photographic libraries that distribute all media photos. So these are the ones that the major papers use like Getty and AP, they sent out a kill notice.
Don: Isn’t that dramatic? I know.
Kris: I saw the photos and it was actually has like a big, like stamp
Don: Kill! Kill! It is absurd. The absurdity in all of this just, the mind boggles, honestly.
Kris: A kill notice means that they’re saying that these images have been manipulated and can’t be trusted and you cannot use them or they’re suggesting do not use these photos for any kind of publication that has any kind of reputable kind of conscious or whatever. Like if you, if you want to be legitimate, do not use these photos.
Don: use. the actual statement said, retracted the image because at closer inspection, it appears that the source had manipulated the image in a way that did not meet AP’s photo standards and the photo shows an inconsistency in the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand. Right? Okay. Stop using it. Kill that photo.
Kris: Kill the photo. So that was AP so the photo library AP released that statement. And so then everyone went crazy because it was backing up all their claims of conspiracy.
Don: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where is she? What’s happening?
Kris: Yes, which surely. The royal family is very aware of that there’s been this crazy conspiracy. So they’ve released this photo to temper all those concerns and to say everything’s fine. Look, Kate looks lovely. Except now it’s just given fuel to the fire and it’s such a big branding mistake. It’s such a rookie branding mistake.
Don: Such a rookie branding mistake. Have they cut the royal budgets? What’s going on?
Kris: Surely they have advisors for all of this sort of thing. And surely they would have been very conscious about every branding step they make. And imagery is branding, right? So they put this out there. And then Kate posted in response.
Don: Poor baby. She’s trying to recover from abdominal surgery. She’s got to deal with this, you know, complete storm in a teacup.
Kris: It is a storm in a teacup. She posted ’like many amateur photographers. I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion, the family photograph we shared yesterday caused’, and I just cannot believe that she edited this herself and put it out there.
Don: I love that she did, but hello, there’s a big, big brand at stake here.
Kris: A really big brand
Don: and under scrutiny and literally under the microscope. It’s now more than ever. It’s so important to really make sure that your branding message is on point and accurate at all times. So yeah, that’s it. Big mistake.
Kris: Such a mis-step. Then, another example that you may have seen during the rounds, this was a few weeks ago now, but it’s just possibly the silliest branding story ever. And it involves AI as well, which just adds to it.
Don: Yeah, adds to the drama.
Kris: Adds to the ridiculousness of this.
Don: It’s just so silly.
Kris: So did you hear about the Willy Wonka inspired event in Glasgow? And it was called Willy’s chocolate experience.
Don: I hadn’t heard of it. No, no. But thank you for bringing it to my attention because it was a good giggle.
Kris: It was a good giggle. we’ll share some links so you can have a giggle
Don: You need to see it.
Kris: Yep. Yep. It’s being referred to as Glasgow’s Fire Festival. Remember Fire Festival? That was just this terrible festival and they did a documentary about it and all the rest of it where people advertised one thing and then they show up and it’s another thing.
Don: It’s a completely different thing.
Kris: And that’s a branding inconsistency, right? We’ll get into why this is a problem in a little bit, but just the hilarity of this situation. So basically the organizers have used AI for all their marketing for this. And they created these really very Wonka, Willy Wonka inspired graphics and they look fun and they look bright and obviously did the job because they got people there.
Don: Yeah.
Kris: And they were charged like a good price for this. It was like 45 pounds to enter.
Don: Which is huge.
Kris: And it was just this horrible warehouse that had the most pathetic excuse for decorating and the kids would get you know, a cup of lemonade and a couple of jelly beans. And the actors that they hired were terrible and the scripts, everything was created by AI and it was scary and it was weird. And it just looked like some horror scene, right?
Don: Just huge branding fail. Yes. Big fail. A complete mismatch.
Kris: A mismatch!
Don: of expectations versus what was actually met on the day. Just crazy mismatch.
Kris: Yes! So what does all this have to do with you as a designer who is trying to convince businesses…so you want clients to invest in your design services.
Don: And personal brands.
Kris: Yes personal brands, too, because you know, the Kate incident, that’s a personal brand. Although it is a business, isn’t it?
Don:Yes. It goes into both buckets.
Kris: That’s what’s happening these days. Personal brands become businesses. Yeah. So both of these are prime example of when branding is not carefully considered. It can be so, so damaging.
Don: yeah, it really can. And in the case of Kate’s photograph, that was crazy. That went wild, really crazy. I mean, and it is a storm in a teacup. And it does settle down and she did have to come and explain herself there after.
But sometimes you don’t have that level of platform to correct things in an instant like that. So you might do damage that is going to take you a lot longer to repair. So yeah, it’s really, really important to be really carefully considered with your branding.
Kris: Yeah. And so your customers need to know that if they’re going to DIY like Kate, don’t DIY like Kate or shortcut the design process, like the Wonka or the Willy’s chocolate experience. Which obviously was an AI title, so give me a title that I can use that is like Willy Wonka, but not Willy Wonka.
Don: Yeah. Yeah, Willie, but not Willy.
Kris: If you use it to shortcut the design process, instead of hiring an expert like you, and you’re the person who uses considered intelligent strategic branding solutions, the results can be quite dire,
Don: Yeah. Very damaging. That’s exactly right. You know, there are consequences. Really huge consequences to poorly considered branding choices. That’s why people need to hire us experts who live and breathe this stuff. We can tell you before you even start the consequence that will happen if you take a particular direction. Your clients need you. They need that savvy. They need somebody taking care of this for them.
Kris: So with the Willie example, it’s, not a designer’s job to overstate and overpromise through the visuals.
Don: Yes, I love that Kris, that’s such an important comment right there. Underline that, that bold letters, designers really pay attention to that. Kris just said, it’s not a designer’s job to overstate and overpromise through design.
Kris: Yeah, we’re not always trying to elevate to the nth degree. We need to elevate with a realistic viewpoint.
Don: With a match.
Kris: It needs to be a match to the product and service. That’s why we do the detailed briefing. That’s why we really understand the audience and the market and You know, it’s not our job to go in there and fix customer service and all that, all the rest of it.
It’s the designer’s job to understand what you’re dealing with. So it’s a real fine balance. It’s a fine line between elevating and being transparent and realistic.
Don: Yeah. Realistic and that perfect match. So, a lot of designers are really creative, really intelligent, like big thinking humans. So a client comes along and has a vision and we can easily and quite quickly get on board with that beautiful vision and we can realize that vision for them. And it’s like, yes, I can see this and I can see that and I can see this. What needs to happen as a bit of due diligence on your part is you need to check in. Can you deliver on this vision. I’ll create it for you, I’m creating the final graphics for your offering. Can you deliver? So then there could be a gap. You know, the client might be just a little bit wild thinking about what they’d like, but they can’t deliver.
Kris: It’s about understanding also the pricepoint and the target audience and all the customer touchpoints. We unpack all that so we can understand how to create a design that is a match to it. And there were a few telltale signs with this very colorful artwork that the Wonka experience had. There was some crazy typos, for example, that sort of discerning buyer would have picked up on, but you know, it, it looked fun. It was like, okay, my kids are bored, I’m going to take them to this thing. But the kids were terrified and apparently the police were called.
Don: That’s crazy. It’s, it’s an absolute fiasco.
Kris: It is.
Don: Oh my gosh. See the power of branding. Even poor branding. Inaccurate branding. It’s powerful, and like we were saying before, you can have a brand whether it’s planned or otherwise, and in this case it was otherwise, not planned, not, well it was actually, in this case it was, cheekily but it was so inaccurate.
Kris: Yeah, I even heard that the event creator, the organiser of it, just wanted to make some quick money to fund his wedding, or something.
Don: Oh my god, That’s naughty. That’s so cheeky because that’s actually a lot asking 45 pounds to come along and the kids get some jelly beans and lemonade or whatever. And that’s just fraud. It’s fraudulent.
Kris: It was. It was fraudulent.
Don: We’re having a giggle and we’re so incredibly sorry if that’s offensive to the people who did pay the 45 pounds and who went along to this. We literally cannot believe that this happened. This has happened that people can get away with this. It is crazy.
Kris: If there was a designer behind this and it wasn’t just the client DIYing – there probably would have been some red flags with this client. For sure.
Don: There would have been some for sure. Definitely. Okay. So when you are talking to your clients via socials or emails or in a discovery call, which is preferred this is what you need to be focusing on.
Kris: Yes. So what we need you to focus on is you need to discuss the consequences of having ill considered design. So design that’s just hasn’t been well thought out. And that’s where you come in. You are a professional designer. You think things through, you have a process. It’s very strategic. It’s very measured. So when you don’t have professional design, you damage brand image and reputation. without a doubt. And this has gone worldwide.
Don: And reputation is really once damaged, reputation is really, really hard to get back. So it really needs to be considered from the get go.
Kris: Yeah. It erodes the brand trust. And this was a one and done event by, by the sounds of things.
Don: Wedding budget was met and it’s done and dusted.
Kris: Any brand could become a viral meme for the wrong reasons. it could be a real, honest to goodness, mum and dad kind of business that’s trying to do the right thing, but just the branding hasn’t been considered. And now is the laughing stock.
Don: Yeah, which how absolutely devastating, right? Yeah, it breeds customer dissatisfaction that’s why this went viral, right? You know 45 pounds for some really scary props and some scary sheets hung up in around a factory Somewhere with lemonade and jelly beans and we are sure that this is this is We’re sure we’re getting this wrong because by the time it’s reached us here in Australia I’m sure there are other bits and pieces. There’d be other layers.
Kris: Honestly, I’ve got the giggles because I’ve got the visual imagery in my mind and you’ve got to have a look at it. We’ll put the link in the show notes. If you haven’t seen what this, what this actually looked like when they got there.
Willy’s Chocolate Experience Fiasco
And it ultimately costs more in the long run due you know, this PR nightmare that’s occurred. And, the amount of work that say it’s going to take the Royal, whatever they’re called, the institution to fix this problem.
Don: There’s a lot of rehabilitation that has to happen for a brand.
Kris: They’re going to have to do recovery
Don: brand recovery, right? And get your skates on because it has to happen quick.
Kris: Yeah, so this is the sort of thing that you can be talking about with your audience, right? You want them to focus on actually saving money. Through long term brand strategy, because when you’ve got a really beautifully well established brand, you have increased brand trust. You have customer loyalty, which leads to repeat business.
And you know how they say there’s so much research about this. They don’t just say it, but it’s like, it is so much more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain existing ones or get repeat
Don: Absolutely, there’s so much evidence like Kris said. And also you could explain to your clients how a strong brand identity fosters love and support for the business, reducing marketing expenses in the long run because of all that repeat business that Kris just mentioned. That’s what you’re doing effectively. You’re really creating a business strategy. A strategy around saving money for that beautiful brand.
Kris: Yeah, when you have a strong brand that’s done right from the beginning, where all the proper research and all the proper foundations are in place, it’s so much easier to roll out in the future.
Don: It saves a lot of time. Yeah. And a lot of money.
Kris: you don’t need a lot of tweaks. It’s like, okay, we’re in a rhythm now and we can can refresh, you know, freshen up. But it’s like customers and clients are used to seeing a certain type of brand presence from this business. And yeah, you don’t have to keep reinventing the wheel.
Don: Exactly. The other thing that you could do is you could showcase value when you’re having a chat to your clients on these discovery calls or wherever you’re talking to your clients. Emphasize how professional branding strengthens brand identity and messaging.
It builds trust like we’ve been talking about. That’s what we want. And provides foundation for long term growth, even during these economic challenges that are happening right now.
Kris: I think that there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that now is the time to invest in good branding when there is economic downturns
Don: I believe especially now.
Kris: Yeah.
Don: We need to trust.
Kris: Yeah, because businesses that invest now, they’re going to thrive when it all comes good again. Right? Because it always comes good again. That’s the way that it goes.
Don: Yeah so cyclical.
Kris: Some of the biggest companies in the world have started during economic downturns and recessions.
Don: Yep.
Kris: Like the biggest companies in the world, like Amazon, like Airbnb, those sorts of companies. And I think at this point in time, prioritizing client relationship branding, you know, that real client nurture branding
Don: Yeah, that’s so important right now. Yeah.
Kris: Building the community, building brand advocacy so that people are like, I love this and I want to support them all the way through.
Don: Yeah, absolutely. That’s the key. If you can unlock that with your clients, that is the key to longevity for sure.
Kris: Yeah, and it’s also a time to differentiate. That’s what good branding is going to do.
This is all about education,
Don: Yeah, I love that, I love that. it is It’s all about you positioning yourself as the authority. And educating your client on all of these things that we’re talking about
Kris: Yeah. So that they understand, your audience understands that professional design, highlight and underline professional design, helps clients stand out from the marketplace, from the competition, which is so, so important during times of economic uncertainty Like that’s going to be the difference between brands that thrive and brands that don’t.
And, Yeah. You could even showcase examples of successful brands that have thrived during economic challenges. start doing some research, find out what brands were doing during, during tough times. And this is historical, right? It goes back through every single economic downturn. And like, you’ll find, I think it was Kellogg’s completely grew and, you know, changed the whole landscape of cereal during the depression, the great depression.
Don: I think it was actually. Yeah.
Kris: yeah. And you can use examples like that. And even things like. Your customers, your clients might have smaller offerings at the moment that might be really good for pushing right now.
So we need to put our strategic marketing slash branding hats on to help clients through these times as well. There’s this lipstick economy, which has been prevalent all throughout the last century as well, where lipstick and smaller little you know, little treat items really skyrocket in sales during times of economic downturns.
Don: It’s their little luxuries.
Kris: Yeah! So your clients might have smaller offerings that you’re like, Ooh, let’s really focus on that. Let’s like rebrand that but you need to step into the shoes of a professional designer and advise and suggest, make suggestions.
Don: Absolutely. Become the advocate. Become the advocate for their brand, and encourage their clients and customers to become the advocate for theirs. That’s how it works.
Kris: Yeah. they need to understand that there’s going to be a return on investment for branding now.
Don: That’s key. That to me, is everything. That they understand what’s in it for them. The return on investment is a conversation you should be having with your clients.
Kris: Yeah, and we have our premium pricing training which talks about different kinds of return on investment that your client is getting. But cutting corners. And I think a lot of businesses might be tempted to cut corners in all sorts of areas right now.
Don: Yeah. And DIY. That’s where the DIY becomes really problematic because they think, this is a way that I can cut a corner, this is a way I can save some money, and I can do it myself, there’s lots of tutorials out there, there’s lots of information online, I can do this thing myself, but the cost of that is astronomical when you think about the consequences that we’ve just been outlining.
Kris: Well, it creates a false economy because they’re going to have to rebrand later.
Don: Hah.
Kris: They’re going to have to fix any brand damage later, build brand reputation later and deal with potential revenue loss because as we know, good design, good branding helps businesses make money. That’s what it’s there for at the end of the day. That’s what we’re here for.
Don: That’s why we do what we do. Yeah.
Kris: Yeah, exactly. But ROI doesn’t always have to be money based. There’s so many other ways that businesses get a return on investment through design and branding. And as I mentioned earlier, go to our premium pricing training, just go to it’s free, totally free. You can watch it on demand, go to designandprosper.co/premiumpricing because there’s things like, increase brand awareness, increase brand trust, increase. UX, you know, user experience so that customers, uh, you know, navigating their way through really easily and, are more likely to purchase because they’re not confused increased staff morale.
That’s a really interesting kind of side effect that happens because when you’ve got a really good team, your business is going to make more money. It’s going to be more efficient.
Don: Yeah, the team is everything. Getting your teams on board as a brand advocate for a business, we’ve seen it. We’ve seen it with our clients time and time again. When everybody is on board and has ownership of a brand, the whole business elevates in all sorts of ways. The morale elevates, the increase in profits elevate, everybody helps to elevate that business in that way. So we’ve seen it, we’ve seen the power of branding when it comes to that.
Kris: Businesses with good brands, they attract better staff as well.
Don: Yeah. I want a piece of that. I wanna work there with those people. That’s right. Yeah
Kris: Which of course is going to lead to better bottom line results for a business if they’ve got a better team. And ultimately it should lead to sales, but there’s other factors as well.
Don: There’s so many factors and I think we’re making it really obvious the layers and the nuance that is involved. So the other thing you can do is offer some practical solutions. Now is the time to step in with affordable options for businesses. Now become that beautiful authority and step into that space and be the guide that they need you to be.
Kris: Yeah, recognize that some businesses may actually be having trouble with revenue. They might have their marketing spend cut a bit. So what can you do?
Don: Now is the time to step in with affordable options for businesses. It’s up to you now to step in as the authority, as the guide and say, I’ve got you. Look at your offerings and have a look at what you can do in order to help them get the best possible results to match their budget.
So you might look at offering some design packages. So you might say, okay, option a is Purely a logo, purely a logo. And it might just be typographic logo and maybe a font
Kris: Colour story.
Don: A colour story. That’s it. Nice and simple package one. The next one might be a little bit more elevated. It might include a social media suite or a patent design. Then the final one might include a website as well. So, and then you can offer collateral as individual pieces thereafter for whatever they can afford. Really matching them where they are at with their budget.
Kris: Yeah it might just need to be staged in phases.
Don: now. Exactly. And the thing is, if you are doing your job really well, then the work that you do will work for them, their business will survive, not only survive actually, but thrive, their budgets will increase, and they will have more money for phases two and three and four down the track.
So, that’s another thing we want to educate our clients on. The value of really professionally done branding. The brand will work for them. Their businesses will be buoyant if they’ve got the right branding in place. Allowing them to afford the tools that they need in order to speak to their clients, speak to their customers.
So, There are ways that you can step in even when the budget is really tight right now by having a look at your offerings and working out a strategy of where you can match them. with where their budget’s at. Now there’s a caveat, little caveat here, don’t be thinking you have to over deliver for a smaller price, or you have to discount, or, you know, if they’ve got, they don’t have the budget, I’ll be very frank, that’s not your problem.
Their business is not your problem, but you can match them with where they are at with their budget and say, okay, that’s your budget for that. I have this solution. So be solutions based, really offer those practical solutions so they can get excited and know that you are actually going to help them out here.
Kris: Yeah, we went into detail with this on another podcast episode which is Number 61, what to do when your clients can’t afford you. It’s all about graphic design pricing and what, what to do without throwing yourself under the bus without over committing and saying, Oh, I’ll just cut, I’ll just discount and I’ll do it anyway.
So it’s about meeting clients where they’re at. Another episode that might be helpful for you. Is our formula based design episode. That’s episode 88. how to use formula based design to maximize profits. And that can be something as well that can help create a very budget friendly solution for certain clients.
Don: Absolutely. I love the formula based design approach, so definitely listen to that episode if you haven’t already. The bottom line is that it’s not up to you as the designer to absorb the shortfall in this economic downturn. It’s up to you to match their budget with a service that meets their needs and meets your needs, meets your ROI. It still has a profit margin in it for you. So it’s, it’s important for you to have these conversations and to be able to offer this, but just Don’t throw yourself under the bus, that’s so, so important.
Kris: Yeah, it might even be that now’s the time to create your template based design library. High end templates can be really powerful and effective, especially if they’re a really good match to the client and you tweak it to them and the brief. So that could be if you’ve got a little bit of quiet time or you want to do a little bit of business development work, yeah, get your template design up and running because that could be a really good affordable option.
Don: Semi custom templates. They can be a great thing because you can have a limited edition of, you know, 8 or 10 and then do some semi custom design for them and that’s a perfect match for their budget. It’ll be elevated, it’ll be discerning, it’ll be considered and it’ll be professional and they can be really confident knowing that they have invested in a brand. Or be it a template, but it’s semi custom designed for them, for their business. That’s a massive win when you don’t have the budget for the full blown experience. they’re good to have up your sleeve.
Kris: we’re not really suggesting to offer them upfront to the client, you know, don’t make assumptions about their budget, even though the world might be talking about the economy and all that sort of thing. Don’t make assumptions about budget.
Don: Yeah, I love that. I love that reminder. That, we are saying that to our clients and in the academy and our one to one clients all the time.
We tend to make assumptions on what people can and can’t afford or whether they will think it’s too expensive or not. Oh no, they’ll think that’s expensive. They’ll think, based on what we say. Don’t make assumptions. It’s really important.
Kris: And if you’ve done your job at communicating the value you provide, and this is all messaging and branding work that needs to be done by you. And it’s about what you’re posting out there in the world and what you’re sharing and how you’re positioning yourself as an expert. If you’ve done that job correctly people are going to see the value. Yeah. They’re going to see it. So, we just really need to shift the conversation from cost cutting, cost cutting measures, it never sounds good, does it?
To long term brand investment and the financial benefits of that. Investing properly, in a strategic, beautifully crafted, beautifully considered brand. It’s going to have long term positive financial benefits.
Don: Yeah, absolutely. Without a doubt. It goes without saying. There’s so much evidence. So, I think it’s, it’s our job as designers now to be always keeping our eyes peeled for opportunities to express these thoughts. To really, to really educate. to make sure that our clients understand that value and that they too can tap into that even in, in times when it’s slow, even if they don’t feel that they have the budget, even if they do have the budget, they can tap into that expertise and that professional credible approach to branding.
Kris: Yeah. And we’ve noticed that good designers have wide and broad interests and then they bring it back. into their design process. So you, you would be making sure that you’re well aware of what’s going on in the world and following lots of interesting accounts and not just maybe mix things up a little bit.
Like maybe don’t just follow the Instagram suggested algorithm, You know how you can change it to time based posts.
Like you can see the, what people have posted in, in time, like it used to be.
Don: No I didn’t know you could do that!
Kris: Yeah! You just click on the Instagram logo at the top left of the feed and you can see time based posts
Don: Oh fantastic, So. you can go and play in there.
Kris: Exactly, have a little play because sometimes it’s just like algorithm, algorithm, algorithm. It’s always suggesting things, suggesting things. And so sometimes we need to branch out a little.
Don: I love that strategy
Kris: Yeah, because good designers are across so much interesting stuff and I’m just curious and let us know, did you see these examples out there in the wild? Did you see them across your feed And did you consider using these examples to educate your audience? You can talk about branding missteps.
Don: Yes, keep your eyes peeled. It’s an opportunity, always an opportunity at any time really to position yourself as the authority. As soon as you see all of these funny things going on, jump on it. What can you do to educate? Well, not use it, but leverage it. Let’s use the really positive terminology. How can you leverage that and educate your clients to know that branding is really important. It is absolutely critical to get this right. And here’s some evidence. I love it. The world has handed it to you.
Kris: You can use these as conversation starters as well, like we’re not saying to drag people and brands through the mud and, you know, saying, really horrible things about them and, oh, this is an ugly brand and they did this badly and whatever, but when things like this happen of interest to the world at large, and they’re to do with branding, it’s a really interesting conversation to be a part of, and it will position you as a thought leader and an expert. So just keep your eyes open.
Don: Yeah. Yeah. And, you could repost saying, you know, don’t let your brand become the next social media meme. You don’t want to go viral for the wrong reasons and have a damaged reputation costing you your future business. And then it’s like, look, I’m current, because What Kris was saying about designers having a really broad general knowledge, that is one of the key requirements of a designer, I believe, because that’s how we tap into really divergent thinking.
And if you are across all the things, and use that little hack that Kris just shared there, and make sure you keep it interesting and, and you will actually uncover some of these funny, you know, faux pas that happened out there and, and think how can I speak to that about my offering about what I do, how I help my clients. It’s such an opportunity. You don’t want to miss it.
Kris: Yeah, it can be really fun. And I guess it would need to fit in with your brand and your messaging. But, you know, if you’ve got a particularly cheeky, fun brand, for example, and, we just had the Oscars a couple of days ago, and maybe there was something that happened there that you could just pull out as a little, a little message about branding, or design or anything. Keep your eyes peeled.
Don: Yeah. Yeah. There’s so many opportunities for you now to position yourself as an authority. That’s that’s a key takeaway from today’sv podcast. We’re always thinking, how can I educate my audience to understand the power and importance of branding or whatever it is that you are doing with your design business? How can I educate them and how can I use this mainstream mayhem to bring it back to let’s do this the right way.
Kris: Yeah. And really communicating, not just your expertise, but. How there’s a beautiful return on investment with working with a professional. Doing it right.
Don:Do it right. Do it right the first time everyone. Yeah. Yeah.
Kris: Another thing with both of those examples is that they were like really showcasing inauthenticity as well. Fakery.
Don: yeah, right. Fakery. And that’s the thing. That’s a message for your clients right there. That’s what we mean by do not be in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. You do not want that type of terminology attached to your brand. Ever. You know, because crawling back from a bad reputation is so hard, so tricky.
But anyway, so keep your eyes peeled and be brave to take it, take advantage or leverage the opportunities that are out there to showcase who you are and what you do and position yourself as that beautiful authority.
Kris: It’s definitely something you can have a bit of fun with.
So before we go, we once again have a favor to ask. If you’re loving the podcast, we would love it if you could follow us, follow the podcast, leave a positive review. We read them all.
It’s so important for us to get in the ears of more and more people like you, and it will help us to maintain and grow the podcast. So we appreciate you very much.
Don: Yes. Thank you so much in advance
Kris: All right, everybody be brave.
Don: Yes. Be brave. See ya.
Kris: Bye!
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