Your Aura is Your Brand

Written by Johann Sebastian S.


Continued from page 1

A case in point is ESP Guitars, whose guitars are recognized amongrepparttar guitar-playing community asrepparttar 121071 weapon of choice for heavy, rock-oriented music. Coming in intimidating shape, hot-rodded parts, as well as eerie finishes, ESP guitars are associated with personas and bands with unforgiving image --repparttar 121072 likes of Metallica's Kirk Hammet, Jeff Hanneman of Slayer, Sepultura, and solo artist George Lynch. Interestingly, despite its lengthy list of endorsing artists of various musical orientations, ESP only manufacture signature guitars for a selected few of rock players.

Upon arriving atrepparttar 121073 gateway page that is adored with three bizarre-looking musicians in your average rocker fashion, you will instantly getrepparttar 121074 idea of what constitutesrepparttar 121075 ESP name - hard and fast music, independence, freedom, anti-establishment attitude.

Going further intorepparttar 121076 homepage, you will come across interviews and news on rock guitarists ESP touts as its unofficial spokespersons. There is an interview with Kirk Hammet, Metallica giveaway info, review of radical-shaped LTD Devil Girl guitar (seerepparttar 121077 name?), as well as tour updates on Danzig and Soulfly - two ofrepparttar 121078 last defenders of heavymetal.

A bit torepparttar 121079 bottom you will find a thumbnail image that leads you to a page showcasing ESP's custom guitars in, you guess it - flashy graphics and uncanny designs.

ESP doesn't shy away from more conventional designs and 'softer' players such as Rolling Stones' Ronnie Wood, but they are relatively insignificant - at least judging from a visit torepparttar 121080 site. And unless you care enough to dig deeper intorepparttar 121081 artist-list page, all you will encounter is how ESP guitars can deliverrepparttar 121082 sound you need for playing heavy riffs and fast licks.

The incorporation ofrepparttar 121083 news, product info, images, and endorsing artists educates new prospects of ESP brand and what it promises to deliver, while reinforcing its image and character to those already familiar withrepparttar 121084 brand. Would it berepparttar 121085 same if ESP mimicked Gibson Guitars website? Consideringrepparttar 121086 site's something-for-everyone impression that bolsters consumers' already-ingrained perspective ofrepparttar 121087 Gibson name, ESP would likely confuse its loyal customers and drive prospective players to competing brands that are just a click away.

Your website is too important an element to be left alone as an electronic brochure. Asrepparttar 121088 Internet has been shown to be an effective brand-building medium by various research, your website must be an integral element of your overall branding strategy. Like you, it generates an aura, andrepparttar 121089 aura isrepparttar 121090 brand.

Johann is an Internet Marketing Consultant at Microsoft The Business Internet Competency Center in Jakarta, Indonesia. You can reach him via email at independent@excite.com or visit his company's website http://www.mbicc.com and his online branding e-zine http://www.pranala.com


Building Credibility of Your Brand Online...and Stay There

Written by Johann Sebastian S.


Continued from page 1

For product illustration, stick with clear image taken point blank. For artistic purpose, aim for professionally developed ones that represent both aesthetics andrepparttar character of your brand.

Content

Writing style

There is nothing new here. Your copy, especially of product info, should be tight, torepparttar 121070 point, and grammatically correct, for you to deliver your message effectively. A bit of puffery and flowery lines might do well as a welcome mat, but that's about it. For a content site, break your paragraphs in two to 3 lines of text - rather than according to sub-themes -- as reading on a monitor causes eyestrain. And no typos; even an occasional spelling mistake is intolerable and can taint your professionalism.

Fonts

The size, type, and color of your fonts must be readable and fitrepparttar 121071 overall design elements. Fonts that are too big overwhelm users, while too small ones are hard to read especially by people over 40.

Fonts in too many color variations look crude and rudimentary; stay with your site's base color(s) for headlines and black for text. Verdana, Times, and Arial arerepparttar 121072 types most commonly used today, in size 2 for text and 4 for headlines.

Company information

Providing detailed information about your company -repparttar 121073 people, location, and contact - is compulsory to reinforce your credibility and assure users there are real business and real people behind your site. In your 'About Us' page, post concise information about your management board and financial backers, who in charge of what, etc.

Give usersrepparttar 121074 physical location of your business -- real address, not P.O. Box -- along with your telephone and fax number, email address, and representative who takes inquiries (this person rather not berepparttar 121075 webmaster, but staffers of marketing department).

Usability

Page length

Friends don't let friends hit 'Page Down' more than 3 times, and Web designers should remember this. For content sites lengthy pages mean long reading, which is particularly tiresome online. Whilerepparttar 121076 actual length doesn't change, breaking your content down to several pages unloads that burden. Better yet, provide a printer-friendly version for offline reading.

Horizontal scrolling

As noted by usability guru Jakob Nielsen, horizontal scrolling is one ofrepparttar 121077 top ten Web usability failures in 2002. It drags down reading and makes scanning cumbersome, while implying rudimentary design and scant commitment to users' online experience.

Pop-up ads

Denounced asrepparttar 121078 bastard son of Internet marketing of 2002, pop-ups are going deeper downrepparttar 121079 toilet as major sites like iVillage, AOL, AskJeeves, and likely more to come, subsequently scraped pop-ups altogether last year. A real put off to online experience, pop-ups taint your brand credibility (remember X10?). A recent survey by GartnerG2 found that pop-up ads arerepparttar 121080 "most irritating," with 78.3 percent of respondents callingrepparttar 121081 ads "very annoying." Unless yours are a recognized and reputable brand name like The New York Times, stay away from pop-ups.

Of course, achieving a brand credibility that sustains overtime requires more than a good first impression. However, capturing a prospect's interest with an image you are trying to portray is a crucial step in communicating your brand andrepparttar 121082 personality it represents. And isn't that what we are aiming at?

Johann is an Internet Marketing Consultant at Microsoft The Business Internet Competency Center in Jakarta, Indonesia. You can reach him via email at independent@excite.com or visit his company's website http://www.mbicc.com and his online branding e-zine http://www.pranala.com


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