We would like to thank you all for joining us on the journey this year while we have grown in multiple ways. Our team has seen some new faces and we have seen increases in content, engagement and traffic. In 2012, we will continue to interview heavy chefs in the digital industry while learning from them and sharing that insight with all of you.

We would also like to say a huge thank you to all our sponsors who have made our Heavy Chef sessions possible – Nokia RSA for the fantastic prizes they have given to our Twitter community; Backsberg for the generous supply of flowing wine throughout the events (not to mention their awesome eco-friendly manner); Deloitte for the beautiful venues that we host at, and Channel Mobile for reminding guests not to miss our fully booked events.

We will not be posting content during the break, however we look forward to engaging with you all next year and expanding our community further, as well as revealing some great surprises we have in the pipelines!

Happy holidays all!

]]> http://www.heavychef.com/happy-holidays-from-heavy-chef/feed/ 0 http://www.heavychef.com/how-to-choose-your-brand-message/ http://www.heavychef.com/how-to-choose-your-brand-message/#comments Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:11:40 +0000 Fred Roed http://www.heavychef.com/?p=6514 So, your brand is a message. You need to select a message that resonates with your intended audience.

This is not always easy, but there are steps you can follow in choosing a message that will represent you successfully.  First, look at the benefits of what you’re offering. Second, look at your target persona.

A good brand message will contain a promise that you will solve a challenge which your audience is facing. This requires a healthy dose of empathy. You will need to step out of your shoes and into the shoes of your customer, and figure out what that special quality of your offering is.

Your overall brand message will encapsulate this benefit provided to your customer. That message is then transmitted via all the various facets of your business; product design, customer service, delivery, human resources, training, corporate identity, marketing, advertising and so on.

What then, is the secret to a successful brand?

Companies that project strong brands are those that consistently deliver on their brand promise. Zappos’ message is the promise of unbridled passion for and Coke’s message is a promise of a fun, accessible drink.  Apple’s message is a promise of sexy, functional technology. Toyota’s promise is of an accessible, reliable car.

Ultimately, the success of your brand lies in whether you can keep your promise.

‘A brand is merely the message that you want to convey.’

Successful businesses know what their message is. They have selected that message based on a clear understanding of their target customer and a deep conviction of their value proposition.

A lot of emphasis has been placed on the visual side of branding. Companies like Apple and Levis are rightfully known for beautiful aesthetics; but their true strength lies in their ability to thread a consistent message throughout all aspects of their businesses.

A brand is not a tag line. “Just Do It” is a tag line. Nike’s brand can be defined in the sentence “Apparel that makes you believe.”

Neither is a brand a logo, which is a common misconception. A logo is a visual anchor point representing a brand, allowing customers to recognize it easily.

Your brand is conveyed in how a delivery guy dresses when he hands over a product; what a floor manager says to browsing customers; the speed at in which a customer’s problem is resolved, and even in how a secretary answers the phone.

When defining your brand, take time to choose your message carefully. Your brand is a big deal. It is reflected in everything a business does.

The answer my learned lecturer gave me was not very satisfying. She mumbled for 15 minutes about communicating to markets and contained stuff about the ‘P’s’ of marketing. The response was long and rambling, and left me a little bewildered.

If you Google the phrase “What is marketing” now you will find the answer just as bewildering. There are many differing definitions.

As the CEO and Creative Director of a company concerned primarily with offering marketing services, I’ve grappled with the challenge of defining the term correctly for some time. It is a sprawling, convoluted subject and tough to get to the heart of what we marketers do.

At the same time, marketing has experienced seismic change in our generation.

Social media, in particular, is the most exciting innovation in communication since Alexander Graham Bell unveiled the telephone in 1876.

After a lot of thought and discussion, head butts and tequilas, Mike and I finally settled on this:

“Initiating and maintaining profitable relationships.”

This definition cuts to the core of the marketing process. Our jobs as marketers, digital or otherwise, is to first find customers or clients (initiate); then maintain interaction with those customers (maintain); while ensuring that the interaction has value for both parties (profitable) in order to build a sustainable community (relationships).

As the internet exposes us to larger audiences, the functions of forging relationships, building communities, mass dialogue and customer interaction are now particularly important – concepts vital for marketers to grasp if they are to remain relevant in an increasingly noisy environment.

Firstly, to clarify: in this post I’m talking about a broad scope including the BRICSA nations as well as the highly populated nations with exciting fiscal growth such as Mexico, Nigeria, Kenya or Indonesia.

I plan to document my research as I go, but here are some of the tips that have been shared with me by some of my more learned colleagues:

1. Target by motivation, not by area

Targeting motivation is a key staple of digital marketing, and this still counts despite the location you’re looking at. You have a product. You have a target persona. Figure out the motivation why someone would want your offering (what is the question in their minds?) then tailor your messaging accordingly.

2. Start your strategy with entry level phones

A mistake is to overestimate the penetration of smart-phones in emerging markets. Sure, it differs from country to country, but there are no emerging markets with a first world level of penetration of smart phones, yet. Doubtless, this will change over time as smart phones become cheaper, but for now, dumb down your digital marketing efforts to a not-so-smart phone level.

3. Learn local ideosynchrasies

Possibly the most exciting aspect of marketing in emerging economies is that there are amazing gaps to be had that you’d never had thought of without doing the necessary research into localities… Dating sites based on cricket in India. Nollywood movie appreciation groups in Nigeria. There are latent opportunities waiting at every corner.

4. Go for the sweet spot

You may be surprised at the speed at which target personas adopt your message in emerging economies. This is another reason that marketers are so compelled. Keep tinkering ‘til you strike your sweet spot… you’ll be amazed at how quickly your message can spread.

I will update more as we go along. Please feel free to join this discussion – I’m happy to debate these points and get input from you.

Yet, at last month’s Heavy Chef, Nic Harry and Vince Maher spoke about the incredible amount of user-registration they’re achieving on their start-up Motribe, a site that allows you to create mobile communities on the fly. How are they achieving this growth? Mostly through mobile advertising. I guess the answer to the question ‘Do people click on mobile ads?’ is… it depends.

According to Motribe’s Nic and Vince, they saw the greatest amount of click-throughs in niche audiences across the globe. The example Nic gave was the online group “Emo Fwendz”, which had seen remarkable growth over the 5 months that Motribe has existed.  The group consists of black-eyeliner wearing, My Chemical Romance-listening, semi-depressed (mostly smart) kids.

There are a few lessons we can learn here, so I’ll list the three main things that come to mind:

1. Niche works

If you’re trying to sell something in a hyper-competitive, broad market like, say, mortgages, it’s going to be hard. If, like Emo Fwendz, you’re selling conversations and kin-ship with like-minded people, it’s a whole lot easier.

2. Targeting works

If you’re selling My Chemical Romance tracks to News24 readers, it’s gonna be hard. If you’re selling Blink-182 to the crowd at Emo Fwendz you may get lucky.

3. Context works

If you speak in ad-lingo “Buy now!” or “Free Prize!” to a group of cynical and savvy kids, you’re going to falter. First seek to understand your audience, tailor the messaging accordingly, and you’ll get conversions a whole lot easier.

In other words, as in the Emo Fwendz example, Motribe attracted people to start groups using their product through a tailored, targeted and relevant mobile messaging approach.

There are many other points to factor into mobile advertising, such as using phone numbers in the messaging (since people can click on ‘em and phone you immediately), regional targeting, increased data and metrics, and so on and so on… but we’ll talk about those later (all fodder for more Heavy Chef awesomeness).

Here endeth the lesson. Mobile advertising works, since like most online media, it’s accountable. But apply the points above or you’ll hear crickets.

The short answer: Now.

The question has now become as rhetorical as “Should I have a website?” Every business, organization and brand needs to be moving into mobile. The sheer growth of mobile Internet browsing has made it a necessity. And so, in order to clarify my thinking, I’ve made a list of factors to consider when thinking about your mobile strategy.

Factor1: Targeting

Figure out who you’re talking to. This is the first and most important factor in considering how you structure your mobile marketing campaign.

Factor 2: Motivational Seeker

Not your motivation; the visitor’s motivation. You want to know what it is that your target audience is looking for. More often than not, it’s quite specific. So, for example, when working with the Democratic Alliance, we analysed the DA’s target personas a few years back and realized that DA councilors and members themselves spent a lot of time on the road. Subsequently, their motivation was to access policy documents and constituency information. It was decided that, based on this very important motivation, that the DA needed a mobisite – focused on very specific needs.

Factor 3: Location! Location! Location!

Factor in the region you’re targeting. South Africa, for example, does not have as slick a mobile service provision as the UK. Regions have their unique idiosyncrasies regarding their mobile networks.

Factor 4: To App or not To App?

This simple reasoning eludes us marketers time and time again. The refrain of ‘Let’s create an iPhone app!” rings around brainstormin’ boardroom tables across the marketing universe. If your product is, say, life insurance, and you’re targeting lower LSM’s in rural areas, chances are they don’t have a significant penetration of smart phones. Use a more relevant USSD –friendly approach. If, however, you’re targeting high-net worth individuals for a niche insurance product, a tablet-based app is more applicable.

Factor 5: May I interrupt your day with this really irritating SMS…sir?

I’ve wanted to stomp on my phone upon the receipt of certain spam SMS campaigns. The bulk SMS approach is most often NOT required… unless you’re actually adding value to your target persona. Take this route with caution. If you’re absolutely convinced this is the right angle, create your message with tender lovin’ care. Ensure it’s relevant, resonant and valuable.

In conclusion, I asked Nic Haralambous, co-founder of Motribe (the South African mobile networking start-up showing stellar growth in its first 6 months) what his advice would be. Nic said this about the South African context: “Many (if not most) of the mobile web users in SA have never used a PC and therefore they have an entirely different experience and understanding of the medium.”

The key, as with any strategic challenge, is to understand the behaviour, the habits, the location and the motivations of your target audience. Doing this gives you a solid footing in embarking on the exciting challenge of creating your mobile strategy.

Clients have realized that building a community is critical to their marketing campaigns. Brands like Red Bull and Ray Bans are hitting the social channel hard. Gucci are moving millions from their traditional budgets to engagement via social media.  As social networking becomes increasingly more important in community building strategies, we need to be cognisant of some seismic changes in the mobile environment – the key one being that audiences are looking at Facebook and Twitter more via their mobile phones than on their desktop devices.

There is no escaping that Social = Mobile. However, there are VAST differences in the browsing behaviours of people on mobile as to those on desktop. At World Wide Creative we’re busy with several mobile developments, and here are some quick do’s and don’ts we employ.

Don’t:

• Replicate your website layout in your mobile site
• Think that people will behave the same on a mobile site
• Use the same layout and design for your mobile site as your website
• Use images links for navigation

Do:

• Simplify your mobile site to the MOST important action points
• Figure out what the motivation for a customer to visit your mobile site
• Use a minimal amount of graphic elements, and where necessary, keep them simple and clean
• Use crisp, clear fonts
• Use text-based links

Some good examples of easy-to-use mobile sites:

• http://www.computicket.mobi
• http://mobi.da.org.za
• http://mobi.supersport.co.za

Disclaimer: this article assumes you follow people you respect, aspire to, trust or find entertaining in some way. Thus, some of the people that follow YOU, are people that you respect, aspire to, trust or find entertaining in some way.

1.Twitter makes you smarter

I follow a lot of folk who I think are smart, and they provide me with a constant stream of references that challenge  the way I do business and inform the way I live my life. An example: Evan Morris (@EvanDigital) tweeted some time back about an author and thought leader called Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who I had never heard of. I followed a link through to his bio, downloaded a talk and then promptly bought his book “The Black Swan”. This book has changed the way I think about strategy, business and investment – amongst other things.

2.Twitter saves you time

I know people may raise their eyebrows here, since it’s often seen as a timewaster. I feel it saves me time in many areas. In the past, I used to read the Cape Times or The Times (when I lived in London) with my morning coffee. It used to take up an hour of my time, every day. Now, I have a routine – I start my day with a cuppa a 5 to 10 mins of Twitter. I usually then have another squiz at around midday, or when I’m on the move (on my iphone); followed by a quick peak before I leave for home at around 4 each day. Another example was when I was trying to source a contact number for Herman Heunis (@HermanHeunis), founder of Mxit. I tried their website. I phoned their call centre. I ended up calling all my ‘connected’ mates – all with no success. Then, in desperation, I tweeted it. Hey presto, I had his direct phone number in a few seconds.

3.Twitter is great for small problems

Problem with your phone? Where to eat in a new town? Need a quick case study for your proposal? Twitter is your go-to guy for an impossibly diverse list of speed-bumps that you face each day.

4.Twitter helps you make tough decisions

What laptop / phone / camera / car to buy? I have ‘crowd-sourced’ my decision making several times via Twitter.

5.Twitter grows your business

Okay, I’m guessing this point is true, since it hasn’t yet been the case for my business (at least, not that I’m aware of). I’ve been told by some of my more ‘influential’ connections on Twitter that it is a great channel for pushing products. I heard a stat (unverified) that a single tweet from Nokia returned the equivalent of R70m in new business. Whether this is true or not, it stands to reason that if you have a lot of followers and you’re prepared to interact with them, Twitter provides you with a direct conduit to persuade consumers to buy from you. Another example is Justin Bieber, who uses Twitter to notify and discuss new songs, tour dates, ideas for videos and even career decision with his audience. His activity on Twitter directly correlates with sharp increases in song downloads*.

*Another example is Lady Gaga of course.

6.Twitter saves you money

We’ve got our last 5 employees through Twitter. Consider that we pay around $1200 average per employee to a recruitment service, this amounts to a significant saving.

7.Twitter makes you a better human being

Don’t laugh. This depends entirely on your point of view. Here’s my reasoning: I believe that self-censorship is our biggest challenge to becoming a truly evolved human being. Twitter is the best training ground for it. I’ll let you fill in the gaps here, but I’m guessing that you follow or know of at least one complete palooka who spews out sheer nonsense on the interwebs – some of which makes you cringe with embarrassment. This ability to analyse and censor what you project on social networks is a talent that we, and future generations of Tweeters, will do well to master.

Many of Heavy Chef’s readers will find this stuff obvious, but I’d dig it if you can add any additional points that I’ve missed.