Hue Knew? Choose the Right Color for Brand Success

What’s your favorite color? I have two-Red and Orange. I’ve always gravitated toward red and orange because it’s vibrant, energetic and just fun. Our personal perceptions and experiences play a big part in the feelings that we have about specific colors. Yet, there is science behind color theory: Studies show that color can persuade and affect consumer behavior—something that marketers need to understand as we approach branding.

How do you choose the right colors that resonate with your audience? Which color is likely to convince a customer to buy your product? This is where we turn to the patterns that emerge in color perceptions:

In the study, Impact of Color in Marketing, researchers found that up to 90% of snap judgments made about products were based on color alone. In another study, The Interactive Effects of Colors, researchers found the relationship between brands and color hinges on “the perceived appropriateness of the color being used for the particular brand.” In other words, the color must "fit" the brand personality and product profile.

As you choose colors for your brand, it’s important to consider that brand personality association. Start by first identifying your brand personality. Below is the basic guideline for developing that profile:

 

The next step is to choose color(s) accordingly. While feelings associated with colors are open to personal interpretation, there is generally accepted color theory based on how the majority of people respond to specific colors. For example, red and yellow induce appetite; blue suppresses appetite; green signals serenity and natural, earth-friendly vibes, etc. The chart below captures that general color theory:

Source: Contentmart

Does your brand fall in line with contemporary color theory? Which color best suits your product line?

Good luck!

Ellen Moriarty

Four Tips for Strengthening Your Supply Chain

To remain relevant in the face of competition, it’s essential to build and strengthen the supply chain. At Shamrock, we’ve been building strategic partnerships with suppliers for more than 35 years. That’s our business model. Because we’ve managed our business this way from day one, building a reliable supply chain has truly become a byproduct of our charge to provide our customers with the marketing solutions that meet their evolving needs.

This model has fueled our charge to diversify our product and service offerings. It’s all about supply and demand: Shamrock’s success lies, in part, in our commitment to respond to the growing needs of our customers by expanding our scope to deliver integrated marketing solutions. Three decades ago, Shamrock was a print broker. Today, we’re a full-service marketing and communications agency with a national footprint and a dedicated supply chain.

That said, we’ve learned a few things over the years about supply chain management. Here’s four tips:

1. Vet & align your suppliers.
Clearly product/service quality and reliability are essential. But go the extra step to make sure that your suppliers are in alignment with your brand’s core values. Environmental sustainability, animal-friendly testing, industry best-practices, etc. Identify the risks and rewards associated with your suppliers and adjust accordingly.

2. Set expectations & establish open communication.
Start by outlining what’s expected—from every angle (vendor to agency and agency to client). At the end of the day, you’re responsible for delivering the product to the client, so make sure that your supplier can deliver on his/her end. Based on that scope-of-work agreement, outline your needs and expectations and provide a clear path for ongoing communication.

3. Maintain accountability.
Hold your supplier partners to stringent quality audits and benchmarks. At Shamrock, we lean on our suppliers to drive innovation and cost efficiencies, which then allows us to compete by delivering the best in quality, turnaround and price.

4. Collaborate with industry leaders & peers.
Best practices are best when they’re shared: We can all learn from one another. Collaboration can lead to innovation, new processes, improved quality standards, new delivery options—the list goes on.

If you’re looking to sharpen your competitive edge, evaluating your supply chain processes is a good first step. As the saying goes, you’re only as good as your last performance. Or product launch. Or campaign. It’s up to you to make it a great one.

All the best,
Tim Connor   

Cheer on Your Team—and Everybody Wins. What kind of teammate are you?

Most of us have been on both the winning and losing side of team play. While it’s usually much more enjoyable to be with the first group, there is value in, and benefits to be gained from, being part of a team regardless of outcome.

Group competitions provide an opportunity to observe and watch others succeed and fail. That success/failure observation is how we learn. It gives us insight into solving the problem or task at hand; and it also models behavior for managing victory or defeat.

These lessons are just as important on a basketball court as they are in a corporate meeting room. The intrinsic rewards of being part of a successful team is powerful: Why do great individual athletes, like Michael Phelps, seem to get more fired up and excited to win relay races than individual events? It’s the exhilarating feeling of being part of something bigger than oneself.

When I think of teamwork, I think of creating synergy, or an environment where The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. First coined by the philosopher Aristotle, this phrase aptly defines the modern concept of synergy. For anyone who has played team sports, it echoes the T.E.A.M. acronym—together, everyone achieves more.

In Gung Ho!, we learn that the gift of the goose is to cheer each other on. Everyone needs a pat on the back, to feel appreciated and valued. Take time to reflect on your actions and contributions as part of your corporate team: What kind of teammate are you? Are you looking to get “the credit”, or do you seek to make others better? Do you thrive on teamwork, or do you prefer to work independently?

What is your contribution to your company’s culture, or your team’s objective? Do you inspire with a positive approach and attitude, or do you hold the team back with negativity?

My personal mission is to help companies, clients and colleagues perform at their highest levels. It is a thrill to watch the process of a team removing barriers and finding ways to raise the standard. When we are successful, we celebrate as a team – which is more fun than a party of one…

What does your company do to promote teamwork? Please chime in our Facebook page.

Bob De Garmo

Use Customer Personas for Better Marketing Outcomes

Microsoft reports the average person’s attention span is just eight seconds. That’s not surprising given the amount of content we consume every day: According to the American Marketing Association, we are exposed to up to 10,000 brand messages a day. So, as a marketer, how do you make sure your customers don’t simply scroll right by your content?

Make it personal.

By connecting with your audience in more personal and relatable ways, you make stronger and more memorable brand connections. So, it follows that the best way to make such connections is to first get to know your audience or your customers—and then create campaigns that speak directly to them. This is where personas come into play.

Hubspot describes them well: "Buyer personas are fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers. Personas help us all -- in marketing, sales, product, and services -- internalize the ideal customer we're trying to attract and relate to our customers as real humans. Having a deep understanding of your buyer persona(s) is critical to driving content creation, product development, sales follow up, and really anything that relates to customer acquisition and retention.”


Source: Hubspot

To develop accurate customer personas, research is essential—you have to dig down beneath the surface to gather the personal data about your customer that paints a crystal-clear picture about who they really are:

• What is their age and gender?
• Which social media platforms do they use: Are they Facebook devotees or all Snapchat?
• What TV shows do they watch: 60 Minutes? Game of Thrones?
• What are their values: Are they intent on making a difference through social change? Strong supporters of U.S. veterans?
• What is their digital capacity: Are they avid smartphone users or adverse to constant connectivity?

Click here to download Hubspot’s worksheet for creating customer personas.

The goal is to put yourself in your customer’s shoes to create a detailed and accurate profile. And then, to use that information to your brand advantage by aligning your marketing plan: Send brand messaging using social media channels where your customer persona spends his/her time; use messaging that speaks your customer persona’s language—and resonates with his/her value system; provide special offers that solve your customer persona’s problems, etc. 

The more questions we ask and the clearer “customer” picture we paint, allows us to be more effective in our marketing efforts. Are you currently using customer personas? I’m interested in your feedback.

Ellen Moriarty