Category Archives: branding

How to Get Your Team Onboard With Aerospace and Aviation Branding

Aerospace and aviation branding isn’t just an external effort. In fact, good branding actually starts on the inside – with your employees.

You see, if your team isn’t fully onboard with your branding, understanding and believing in it fully, then it’s never going to be effective, no matter how many marketing and advertising dollars you pour into it.

Your employees come up with your marketing strategies, they interface with your customers, they sell your products and they update your website and social media. If they don’t understand your branding or subscribe to it, how can they translate it properly to others? More importantly, how can they get others to buy into something that they themselves don’t believe in?

Customers are very intuitive, and they know when they’re being lied to or bluffed. And in this high-tech day and age, people are looking for full transparency. If they get the sense an employee at any point in the sales cycle isn’t fully onboard with the brand, they have no problem jumping ship and finding another company to buy from – even if it means more time and energy is required.

Do you want to make sure your aerospace and aviation branding is being translated properly? Want to ensure your employees are onboard and promoting that branding as effectively as possible? Here are a few tips to help:

  • Make branding a part of your interviews. If you really want to make sure your team is behind your branding, start from the very beginning – before they’re even hired. Talk to potential employees about what your brand stands for and who it is, and get their feedback on your brand’s persona and values. See if their opinions match up before offering them any sort of permanent employment.
  • Incorporate brand training into your new employee orientations. Don’t just train your employees on the basic processes they need to get through the day, spend time talking to new hires about your organization, what it stands for and what you seek to provide the customer. Show them just what your company is all about, and get them excited about sharing that with the world. That’s where great branding starts.
  • Include your employees in branding and rebranding efforts. When establishing your branding or delving into any rebranding efforts, always include your employees – and not just the C-suite ones, either. Get people from sales, marketing, customer service and every department in your company involved, and make sure you’re looking at the organization as a whole – not just one small part or portion.

Is your team fully onboard with your branding? Do they understand your company values and voice? Do they know how to translate that to the customer? If not, it’s time to make a change. Contact Haley Aerospace Marketing today, and we’ll help make your branding efforts more effective across the board.

 

Why Aviation Brands Should Focus on Storytelling

Why Aviation Brands Should Focus on Storytelling | Haley Aerospace Marketing

Technology, B2B, and aerospace brands all have something working against them: They feel unapproachable. Maybe it’s the confusing jargon or the big money involved, or maybe it’s just that customers don’t feel very connected to these brands. Either way, it’s a problem.

Fortunately, it’s one that great storytelling can solve.

How Can Storytelling Help?

Storytelling has a way of humanizing brands – even those you don’t have much in common with. It can make companies feel more approachable, relevant, and current, and it can spark that much-needed sense of connectedness that buyers need to pull the trigger and make that purchase.

In industries that often feel untouchable – aviation and aerospace included – a great story can speak to:

  • Who’s using your products and services
  • What kind of benefits they offer
  • What your values and mission are
  • The impact you’re making in your industry and beyond
  • Your authenticity and honesty
  • Best of all, it does this without any costly advertising or self-serving horn-tooting. Instead, it lets others do the talking for you. It lends clout to your offerings as a business, and it boosts trust in your overall brand.

The Keys to Great Storytelling

You can tell a story through social media posts, blogs, and even your website content. Really, any customer touchpoint is an appropriate place to use storytelling – customer service calls and email messages included.

Just remember: The human element is the most important part, so don’t try to relate to your customers as a business. Instead, use the people who are part of your business as the jumping-off point for your stories.

You can:

  • Recognize team members and employees
  • Highlight customer reviews and testimonials
  • Interview past customers and clients
  • Provide case studies and success stories
  • Show before-and-after transformations
  • Follow your products from purchase to implementation with real-life clients

The goal is to follow the people. What impact are you having on those you serve? What are the experiences of your employees, clients, and customers? How can you relay those experiences and have them resonate with your audience?

Make the Connection

At the end of the day, remember that while you’re a business, you’re a business that’s run by people – and that thread is what connects you to your customers, whether they’re buyers for the U.S. government or the average Joe down the street.

Do you need help making that human connection through your brand’s storytelling? Reach out to Haley Aerospace today. We’re here to help.

 

The Power of Keywords…Or Maybe Not

The Power of Keywords — Or Maybe Not | Aerobrand Company | Haley Aerospace Marketing |

So-called “keywords” play a big role in SEO strategy — and sure, they can bring in leads and customers by helping people find your website.

But traditionally used, they’re just not enough to get you the business you want.

The Problem with Certain Keywords

In an overcrowded place like the web, packing your aerobrand website with keyword phrases like “best autopilot device” or “top aviation company” might seem like a good idea. But this strategy often serves up disappointing results.

Think about how many other brands are trying to rank for those common keyword phrases. Then ask yourself, how many of the users searching for those terms are actually looking for your specific products and services?

Probably only a small fraction, right?

Here’s a crazy thought: instead of labeling your aerobrand with broad terms and phrases that might bring in qualified leads, why not include ones that will only bring them in?

I’m talking about brand-specific, nitty-gritty, deep-dive terms — things like “HeliSAS” (perfect for our friends over at Genesys Aerosystems) or “aerial luxury” (a great phrase for AERIA Luxury Interiors).

These are simple, succinct words and phrases that push users directly to what they’re looking for. Ultimately, that means a higher chance of a real conversion or sale and a much more effective use of time, energy and resources, marketing-wise.

What’s Your Word?

Do you have one of these words or phrases you could include, rather than just relying on big-bucket keywords?

Here at Haley Aerospace, our word is aerobrand. It’s a term that works two-fold for us: one, it speaks to our clientele, aerospace and aviation brands. Two, it explains our services, aerospace branding and marketing.

Once you’ve determined your word, you need to own it. Use it in marketing materials, in blogs and on social media. Work it into your tagline, motto and even email signature. Be known for something uniquely you — something other companies can’t touch and something your future customers will seek out specifically from your brand.

Need help determining a unique search term for your aerobrand? Let us help. Contact Haley Aerospace Marketing today.

 

5 Steps to Revitalizing (and Re-launching) an Old Brand

5 Steps to Revitalizing (and Re-launching) an Old Brand | Haley Aerospace Marketing

There comes a time in any brand’s story when it’s time for a change – time to kick things up a notch and remind everyone that you’re there and you’re special.

But breathing new life into an old brand is easier than said than done, especially if you’ve got a long-established company on your hands.

So, what’s the key to revitalizing your brand and re-launching it with success? Just follow these five steps:

1. Aim for real change.

Brand revitalization isn’t about doing the same old thing in a new way. It’s about re-inventing that old thing and bringing new value and meaning. It’s about evolution and realigning your values and mission with the changing trends of your industry – and audience. It requires rejecting the status quo, challenging your existing beliefs and stepping outside your comfort zone.

2. Get everyone on board.

Make people believe in your branding – both internally and externally. To do this, get others involved in your revitalization process. Bring in employees outside of your marketing department, and get people from all corners of the organization on board. Survey customers and members of your target audience about your efforts and get their input. Don’t do your rebranding in a vacuum!

3. Give your audience a reason to care.

You’re rebranding. So what? What’s in it for your audience? Why should they pay attention? More importantly, why shouldn’t the rebranding worry them? Many customers think there are problems afoot when you start touching an old brand. Put their minds at ease by building anticipation. Intrigue them and get them excited about the changes to come.

4. Be sweeping.

Revitalizing your brand takes more than just a logo update or a new slogan. It should affect everything you do across the organization – from the design and verbiage on your website to your sales and customer services processes. Align your internal resources to make sure your rebranding is comprehensive – and consistent.

5. Measure, test and measure some more.

Know your metrics and KPIs, and track how your rebranding impacts those. You might not hit the mark right off the bat – and that’s OK. Use data to make slight changes, re-calibrate and measure again, and eventually, you’ll land on something that hits home with your audience.

Want more help giving your old aerobrand new life? Haley Brand Aerospace can help. Get in touch with our branding experts today to get started.

 

How Aerospace Brands Can Stay Relevant in Changing Times

How Aerospace Brands Can Stay Relevant in Changing Times | Haley Aerospace | Aerospace and Aviation Branding

Thanks to technology, consumers are in more control than ever. They can research and compare brands in an instant, price-shop with just a few clicks and make a purchase even faster.

And as this control grows, brands get lost in the shuffle.

They’re easily cast aside. Overpowered by the next big thing. Deemed behind-the-times or boring.

How do you keep your brand from falling victim, too? It all comes down to relevance.

Building Relevant Aerospace Brands

You don’t need the best technology or the latest, greatest innovation to stay relevant. In fact, if that’s all you have to offer your customers, that pretty much guarantees only flash-in-the-pan success at best.

The true staying power lies with relevant aerospace brands. Brands that know how connect with their customers on a deeper level – how to engage them, excite them and keep them interested over and over.

To do this, brands need to:

  1. Know their purpose. What’s your reason for being? Your purpose for existing? Brands that know their purpose are able to singularly drive their efforts toward that goal. Every product is made with it in mind, and every marketing message is written for that reason as well. Think of Disney. As a brand, its purpose is simple – and one likely shared by millions of parents who buy its products annually: to make kids happy. Hone in on your simple, singular purpose and let it drive you.
  2. Offer an experience. It’s not just about selling products or services. It’s about delivering an all-encompassing experience that gives customers more than just one-off satisfaction. They will buy your part or system now, and later down the line, they’ll come back for repairs, maintenance, replacements or other needs. Brand loyalty develops when a customer’s need is always met – and met to its fullest – time after time. So use data and tech to anticipate those future needs and deliver on them seamlessly and with the same passion as the first go-round.
  3. Inspire internally. Great brands aren’t made by great marketing (of course it doesn’t hurt!) The most impactful aerospace brands are ones where internal culture has created employee-advocates – people who invest their time, energy and passions wholeheartedly into the company. They believe in the brand’s purpose and they want to share its message with the world. Invest in your people, and they invest in you. It’s a simple mantra all the best organizations operate by.

The Bottom Line

Aerospace brands that can accomplish these three tasks will consistently remain relevant – no matter what tech or developments go on around them. Want to ensure your aerobrand stays relevant in the changing times? Haley’s aerospace branding experts are here to help.

 

Top-down or bottom-up: Which branding strategy is right for you?

Top-down or bottom-up: Which branding strategy is right for you? | Haley Aerospace Marketing

For large aerospace and aviation organizations, there are two options when it comes to branding: You can brand from the top down or from the bottom up.

Each option comes with its unique pros and cons, and the best choice really depends on what the company’s overall goals are, how well known and established the organization is, and the differences between its unique branches and product lines.

Not sure which branding strategy is best for your specific aviation company? Let’s examine both to find out.

Top-Down Branding

With a top-down branding strategy, everything starts with the branding of the larger, all-encompassing organization.

Google, for example, is a top-down branded company. All its unique product lines and services – no matter how different they may be – have some sort of Google connection to them. There’s Gmail, Google Drive, Google+, Google Documents, etc.

The reason for following this strategy? It’s likely to leverage Google’s known clout in the tech world. Why create a new brand name and style, when the current one is already so well known and successful? Google can give its new products a leg up on the competition simply by lending its namesake.

Bottom-Up Branding

On the opposite end of the spectrum is bottom-up branding, which has an overarching brand, as well as several sub-brands that stand alone.

A good example of bottom-up branding can be seen with the candy company Mars. Unlike Hershey, which has products like Hershey Kisses and Hershey Chocolate Bars, the Mars company’s products have names and brands all their own. M&M’s, 3 Musketeers, Snickers and Twix are just a few of the sub-brands under the Mars name.

Though Mars itself is certainly well known in the candy world, many of its sub-brands are, arguably, even more established. This is common with consumer brands – particularly ones where products vary greatly. It’s also often a result of mergers and acquisitions.

Need Branding Guidance? Let Us Help

In the aviation world, it’s not uncommon for companies to have numerous product lines or services branching off. But should those carry the same name or stand alone as brands in their own right? The question is a hard one – and it varies from organization to organization.

Want help honing in on what strategy is most appropriate (and profitable) for your aerobrand? Get in touch. Our branding experts are here to help.

 

Are You Making These Dangerous Aviation Branding Mistakes?

Are You Making These Dangerous Aviation Branding Mistakes? | Haley Aerospace and Aviation Marketing

It doesn’t matter how big your company is or how many products you’ve sold. In aviation branding, even the smallest mistakes can cost you.

We’ve seen it ourselves.

Want to make sure an aviation branding mishap doesn’t throw your company off course? Here are the biggest mistakes we’ve seen to date:

1. Thinking branding is a one-time to-do.

Too many companies approach branding as a one-time project – particularly in the old-school industry of aviation.

Though your organization certainly does need a physical, tangible branding suite with defined logos, colors and slogans, the work doesn’t stop once these are checked off your to-do list.

In fact, branding never stops.

That’s because branding isn’t just a noun. It’s a verb. It’s an ongoing effort to carve your company’s place in the world – to make it stand out in customers’ minds, to oust the competition, and to strengthen the unique message and value you have to offer. It requires constant work and attention, and it should be a factor in every effort you undertake.

2. Forgetting why you started.

Your company first started for a reason. Maybe there was a void in the market you wanted to fill, or maybe you found a way to do it better, bigger or faster. Maybe you just had a great passion for the industry. Whatever that reason was, it should remain at your company’s core today.

Your branding efforts should revolve around that original vision, and instilling that initial idea or passion within your customers should be the end goal. If it’s not, refocus on what makes your company who it is – and find ways to drive that home with your target audience.

3. Being too internally focused.

Your team might have great ideas, but if they don’t know who they’re talking to or what challenges that audience is facing, they’re never going to create branding strategies that truly resonate.

Great branding requires working from the outside in – understanding your customers’ needs, wants, desires and even demographics first, and then positioning your brand to meet those unique requirements in every way possible.

It might sound difficult, but the digital landscape we live in has made tuning in to customer feedback incredibly easy. Use social media, online reviews, surveys and other tools to really get to know your audience and what makes them tick.

4. Putting the branding burden on one department.

Branding isn’t an effort reserved just for your marketing department. It should drive every strategy across every division and team in your organization.

From sales and customer service to marketing and IT, every department needs to be on board with your branding, using it to create targeted, purposeful solutions that really resonate with your audience. In fact, representatives from each team should be involved in creating your branding, so that it truly speaks to your organization as a whole from the outset.

How Does Your Aviation Branding Stack Up?

Have you made any of these aviation branding mistakes? Want help honing in on the right strategy for your unique business and customers? We can help. Get in touch with Haley Aerospace & Aviation Marketing today.

 

Are You Committing Any of the Online Reputation Deadly Sins?

Are You Committing Any of the Online Reputation Deadly Sins? | Haley Aerospace Marketing

How well do you know your online reputation? How closely do you monitor it? If you’re iffy on either question, you’re likely killing your online reputation without even recognizing it.

We’ve seen it time and time again with our aviation and aerospace clients. Maybe they ignore a certain aspect of their online presence or they fail to put the right resources behind their social media accounts. Maybe they avoid Facebook or Twitter altogether just to steer clear of potential conflict.

There’s no doubt their intentions were good: They simply wanted an easier operation to manage or they wanted to avoid conflict in the public eye.

Sadly, in the end, these actions hurt more than help. In fact, they could even ruin your online reputation altogether.

Want to safeguard your online reputation? Here are just a few of the deadly sins you’ll want to avoid:

  • Failing to respond on social media – Social media platforms are as much for entertainment as they are for plain old customer service. If someone calls you out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or another social platform, don’t just ignore it, even if it’s bad or nonsensical. Remember, these are public forums. Everyone can see how you respond (or if you fail to respond altogether). No response gives potential customers insight into how you operate. If they do business with you, will you ignore their calls for help too?
  • Not being transparent online – Don’t have your team members listed on your website? Do you avoid posting photos from the office or behind the scenes? Is your voice bland and impersonal on social media? Today’s consumers are tired of those old walls between brand and customer. They want to get to know you. To understand your voice and your vision. Your values and your goals. If you don’t use your digital arsenal to give them a glimpse behind the curtain, you’ll come off as cold, sterile and unapproachable, the exact opposite of what today’s buyers want.
  • Ignoring bad reviews and ratings – You should be checking your reviews across Google, Yelp, Facebook, the Better Business Bureau and other major sites regularly. If you see a common thread of dissonance, address it head-on and quickly. You’d be surprised at how much weight those reviews and ratings hold; take action now, and start turning things around as soon as possible before they snowball.
  • Not staying on trend with design and layout – If your website looks like it’s straight out of 2002, with vertical menus and flash intros, then your online reputation’s shot already. If it doesn’t work on mobile devices, you might as well stop doing business. Clean, functional, mobile-friendly web design isn’t just nice to have nowadays; it’s a downright precursor to doing business. Work with an experienced agency ASAP to fix your site if you think it may be lacking. In today’s digital world, that’s your No. 1 marketing tool, so make sure it’s sensational.

If you’re guilty of any of these deadly sins, you could be hurting your online reputation right this very second. Want to fix it and get back on track? Get in touch with us today.

 

Meet Ken Koester: Haley Aerospace’s Branding Design Extraordinaire

Meet Ken Koester: Haley Aerospace’s Branding Design Extraordinaire | Haley Aerospace Marketing

It’s time for another behind-the-scenes peek at Haley Aerospace. Today, we’re sitting down with Ken Koester, senior design director and creative extraordinaire. He’s the talent behind much of the branding, advertising and marketing collateral we produce for our clients here at Haley, and he’s got more awards than we’ve got room to list!

Read on to learn a little more about Ken and what makes him tick.

Q. Where do you get your inspiration?

A. Generally, I get inspiration from anything that has a great idea behind it and is exceptionally well done. From fine art and graphic design to movies and music. Creatively, I like to immerse myself in the world of the client and the people who will encounter what we are creating.

Q. What design trends do you see coming down the pipeline in 2018?

A. I was glad to see, in the last year or so, the return to simplicity in identity design. Simple shapes, lines, type and forms either converged or played solo to create solid, lasting logos that are easily interpreted – and reproduced. I think we’re going to see a continued upswing and more attention given to those really simple elements in the coming year.

A fairly new result from the trend of responsive web design is companies refreshing their brand identities into modern, simplified versions. Creating a logo hierarchy that can meet the user demands of an endless assortment of devices and screen sizes. For instance, there’s Disney’s hierarchy of the “Walt Disney” full lockup logo with castle, just the “Walt Disney” logotype, just the “Disney” logotype and, most simply, just the “D” from the logotype.    

Q. What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever designed?

A. An invitation to the grand opening of a unique shopping mall built on the location where John Philip Sousa and his band originally played. The invitation was a small box that you were instructed to place on a flat surface. Then you opened it by pulling a side of the box down, and a marching band wind-up toy walked out. It took a lot of engineering and test mailings, but it resulted in a very successful mall opening.

Q. What are your biggest design pet peeves? The deadliest sins of design, in your opinion?

A. Using bad photography. Nothing can mess up good design quicker than having to use poorly photographed, low-resolution images. It is always better for a client’s brand image to shoot new professional photography that is unique to them, rather than relying on stock images.

Making a brand look like everybody else in an industry is a pet peeve too. The point should be for the company to be more memorable than the competition and stand out, not be camouflaged within the market.

Q. What’s the best part of being a designer?

A. Being a designer in the creative brand marketing business allows me to work in hundreds of different industries. I get to learn all about the operation, management, sales process and customers of completely different, but equally interesting, companies.

Q. What can clients expect when they use Haley Aerospace’s design services?

A. Integrity. Creativity. Friendliness.

Q. When did you know you wanted to be a designer?

A. My parents said it was when I tried to paint pictures with my baby food. However, my first recollection of being aware of good design was watching television and the opening titles to the great Stanley Kubrick movie Spartacus. I remember just being awed by the iconic and dramatically lit photography, along with beautiful typography (and, of course, the music). It wasn’t until I was in college that I learned it was designed by one of the greatest graphic designers of all time, Saul Bass.

 

We’ll be introducing you to more of the team here at Haley Aerospace in the coming months, so stay tuned to the blog and watch for our emails. You won’t want to miss it!

 

Does Your Logo Have $$ Value? A Lesson in Great Aerospace Branding

Does Your Logo Have $$ Value? A Lesson in Great Aerospace Branding | Haley Aerospace Branding

We tend to create logos and then forget them.

That’s likely why some long-standing aerospace brands still have the same logos and branding they did decades ago.

They might not think we notice … but we do.

Like anything, design trends come and go. And when a logo is outdated, old and passé – it’s noticeable, big-time. And it can have huge impacts on a brand’s perceived value and worth, especially with new and potential customers.

Think of it this way: A logo is usually someone’s first impression of your brand. If you sell high-tech aerospace systems but your branding screams of the 1960s, do you think customers will see you as a leading, tech-savvy company? Likely not.

Do you think they’ll deem you worthy of their hard-earned dollars and business? Another big no.

And that’s because it’s pretty simple. Your logo conveys your value. Your worth. Your virtue.

How Much Should Your Logo Cost?

Knowing that your logo plays a huge role in how your brand’s value is perceived, it’s pretty obvious that you should devote some serious effort and resources when creating yours.

But how much should you spend? And how often should you spend on it?

There’s really no way to quantify how much you should spend on a logo, but there is one thing that’s certain: It should never be a one-off commitment. Having a current, high-quality and relevant logo requires regular upkeep, and you’ll want to have an aerospace branding designer on hand (or at least on retainer) to make that happen.

Try to give your logo a refresh every few years to keep it in line with current trends – even if it’s just a minor change of fonts or hues. You should also consider updating your logo if you’re pivoting your services or products, or if you’re making any major changes in the organization. Your logo should always reflect your brand in its current state, giving potential customers an honest, transparent peek at what you have to offer.

Giving Your Logo Value

So how do you ensure your logo conveys the right value proposition for your brand? And that it’s worth the consistent investment of time and personnel resources over time?

Here are a few tips:

  • Know what different colors convey – Different colors convey different meanings, so be sure to choose your logo colors carefully. Here’s a quick and dirty guide.
  • Make sure your logo effectively and accurately represents your products/services – Don’t mislead or steer customers in the wrong direction. They should be able to glean who you are and what you do just by looking at your logo.
  • Make it stand out – You want to be accepted by your target audience and the marketplace, but you don’t want your logo to look exactly the same as everyone else’s. Your logo should be your differentiator, telling customers why they should choose you over a competitor.
  • Be consistent – Use your logo consistently across all your marketing, advertising and branding efforts. Consistency is key in improving brand recognition and value.

In the end, your logo is one of the most important elements of your branding, so don’t brush it off. Whether you’re a brand just starting off or you’ve been around for decades, devote some time and energy to really perfecting your logo and aligning it with your products, services and value proposition.

Need aerospace branding or logo guidance? Haley Aerospace is here to help.

 

Building a Luxury Brand? Create Your ‘Tribe’

luxury brands

For luxury brands, the target customer is a minutely-drilled down avatar. It’s not just a “Millennial female in the Midwest,” but instead a “26 year-old female from St. Louis with an income of $100K or higher who’s interested in fashion, travel and shoes.”

It’s specific. It’s detailed. It’s exclusive.

At first glance, many marketers think appealing to more people is the best way – it means more potential, business (and more potential sales), right?

Logically, that seems correct, but in the luxury world, it couldn’t be further from the truth.

To build a luxury brand, you don’t want to reach the masses. You want to reach a small, highly qualified subset of people.

In fact, you may even want to take it one step further and, instead of just simply pulling in those who are qualified to be your brand’s customer, work on repelling those who aren’t.

Where Your ‘Tribe’ Comes In

There are a few ways you can think of “tribes.” There’s the age-old type – communities of indigenous people that span generations – or the new-age type – like crunchy yoga PTA moms or just the “tribe” of friends you regularly hit up $5 sushi night with.

Either way, these “tribes” are exclusive. They have a “you’re in or you’re out” mentality, and their doors aren’t open to just anyone. You have to meet certain qualifications, be they gender, income level, geographic location, or even something as superficial as hair color or weight.

In our increasingly politically correct world, making yourself this hard-lined exclusive can be scary. After all, won’t alienating people hurt your brand?

For your average brand – one that wants to appeal to everyone and get business equally across demos, yes, it very well may. But for a luxury brand? It can only help.

You see, building an exclusive tribe, a group that only a certain, limited amount of people can join, is a way to build standing for your brand. It makes you special. It makes you in-demand. It makes you a marker of status.

And, best of all, it makes customers come to you – not the other way around.

Do You Have a Tribe Yet?

You can be as subtle or as in-your-face as you like about your luxury brand’s exclusivity, but the goal is to build an “us” mentality with your tribe – a feeling of solidarity and similarity amongst those who belong to it.

Do it right, and you’ll have lifelong customers who are loyal to your brand and vocal about it in their circles. And that’s something any brand would want, luxury or not.

Do you need help building your brand’s tribe? Contact Haley Aerospace today. Our luxury branding experts can help.

 

For Customers, It’s All About the Journey

Customers

Having a great product or service is definitely crucial to a company’s success, but though customers come to you for those offerings, it’s not all about the end result for most.

Sure, that product or service will solve their problem or meet some need they have, but what really matters most to the customer? It’s the journey … the experience along the way.

Give them an experience that delights them, and they’ll be longtime buyers and brand advocates. Deliver an experience that lets them down, frustrates them or feels invaluable, and you can kiss their repeat business goodbye.

So, how exactly do you design a stellar customer journey? Here are the steps:

  1. Be proactive, not reactive. Know what it is your customers want, and deliver. Don’t make them ask for it. Anticipate what problems and frustrations they may have along the way, and take steps to prevent them before they happen. Think your airline’s customers will get frustrated with the time it takes to print out boarding passes? Enable QR code tickets so passengers can use their phones instead. Worried pilots will find your display too complicated to install? Include professional installation with every purchase.
  2. Be consistent. Deliver the same, reliable experience every time. Let customers know they can count on you for whatever you’re offering – anytime they need it. Align your processes and train your employees so that the customer experience is consistent across the board from A to Z.
  3. Know what you want out of the transaction. Do you want to make money off your ticket prices, or would you rather be a budget airline and make cash from food, beverage and upgrade sales in the air? Are you looking to get pilots to subscribe to your monthly fuel packages, or do you want to be an on-the-fly refueling solution when anyone needs it? Start with your goal, and then use that to point your customer experience in the right direction.
  4. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes, and imagine how they feel at every step in their experience with you. Adjust the experience to avoid frustration and annoyance and increase delight and satisfaction. What could you do to make things easier? What could be changed to make the experience even better and richer?
  5. Know what’s expected. Make sure you’re delivering on your customer’s expectations. If they expect an easy, quick check-in process, no baggage fees and no delays, deliver on that. Customers don’t like to be surprised. They like to know what they’re getting, and then get just that – and more.
  6. Keep evolving. As customers and trends change, your experience will need to change too. Never stop measuring, analyzing and reviewing your customer experiences and making sure you’re still delighting them at every turn. That’s how long-term relationships are made!

What is your customer’s journey like? Are you giving them the five-star experience they deserve or are you sending them straight into the arms of your competitors? If you’re not sure or you think improvements could be made, contact Haley Aerospace today. We’re here to help.

 

Loyal Fans Carry the Brand

loyalty

For a brand, the key to long-term, extended success is brand loyalty.

By building up a following of passionate, devoted fans, a company can virtually guarantee a long, profitable life for as long as those fans still exist … and as long as they’re kept happy.

But that’s easier said than done, isn’t it?

After all, customers are fickle beings. One minute, they like you, and the next, you’re yesterday’s news.

So, how can you ensure your brand continues to satisfy those who’ve helped it thrive – especially as the market, trends and society constantly shift and change?

There are a few things you can do:

  • Stay true to your original values and differentiators. If there is something that makes you stand out from your competitors – something that your customers love about your brand and have come to expect – make sure that it always motivates your strategic efforts. Sure, you can expand and evolve over the years, but don’t stray too far from what got you where you are today. Customers want consistency and reliability from their brands!
  • Don’t let budget break you down. We all have to cut costs sometimes. It’s just the nature of an economy that ebbs and flows. To ensure those harder times don’t break you, make sure to do some heavy research before cutting costs in any of your departments. You want to ensure your cuts aren’t going to negatively impact the value of your products or the services that your customers have come to expect. Long-term buyers will spot the difference right off the bat!
  • Avoid expanding too fast. There’s nothing wrong with adding more products to your line or expanding into other related services and offers. But try to temper expansion a bit, and give your customer base some time to adjust. Like I said, customers expect consistency. They don’t want a brand they’ve known and loved for three decades to suddenly up and do a 180. Expand and change in phases, and let your customers get used to each change before you move on to the next.
  • Always be in tune. Initial audience research is, of course, crucial to setting up your business. But it shouldn’t be a one-time thing. In fact, your influx of consumer data should be constant and year-round. You should be collecting, analyzing and acting on customer research every day you’re in business. That’s the only way to keep your ever-changing audience happy and coming back for more.
  • Stay in alignment. As your customer’s needs and attitudes shift, so should your operations – and across the board. Of course you’ll need to change up your marketing efforts to better reach your target buyers, but don’t forget to also shift how customer service works, sales, HR and more. They will all need to align with your new approach if you want to see success.
  • Build customer intimacy. Let your customers know you appreciate their business. Build relationships with them through social media, keep in touch via email, and approach them like an old friend by remembering their name, purchase history, preferences and more. You want them to love your brand so much they take ownership in it!

How loyal are your fans? Does your brand have long-term customers and repeat business? If not, it’s time to make some changes. Contact Haley Aerospace today, and we can help.

 

 

Stop the Scapegoating: Strategize Better Instead

brand positioning

When a business isn’t doing as well as higher-ups think (or simply wish) it should, there’s always somewhere to point the finger.

It’s the sales reps’ fault for not selling well enough. It’s the marketing team’s fault for not using the latest technology or tracking the right analytics. It’s the supply chain’s fault for not securing the right logistics.

Sure, some of these things may be true, but is any one of them THE reason for a less than stellar performance? Definitely not.

In fact, it’s probably a bigger, more overarching problem at hand: Your customer strategy’s not right.

But what does a good customer strategy look like, exactly? There are 7 facets:

  1. Picking the right customers. Targeting just any customer isn’t the way to success. In fact, going too broad with your target audience can actually hurt you in the end. Make sure you’re picking customers you can win over – ones who need your products, who have the money to pay your price and who fall in line with your brand lifestyle.
  2. Knowing your customer intimately. And that doesn’t just mean doing surveys and following your analytics. It means segmenting your audience and learning about each one’s individual needs, wants and preferences.
  3. Innovation. Your customers expect you to provide them with direction – to tell them when they should use new technologies and strategies and then how exactly to do that. They’re not going to come to you with every idea and just ask you to execute it. They want you to be innovative and keep them at the cusp of their industry.
  4. Consistency in value. It’s okay to offer tons of services and products, but make sure you’re consistently providing the same value with each of them. If you’re giving them budget-friendly products, stick with that on each new offering you launch. If you’re about style (think Apple’s clean, white design), make sure that style carries over across product lines.
  5. Consistency in experience. By that same token, be consistent on each channel you operate on. That includes your website, your brick-and-mortar stores, your sales reps and more.
  6. Your relationships. You’re more than just your organization. You also have vendors, business partners, suppliers, shipping providers and more. The strength of all these relationships carries down to your customers, so make sure you cultivate a great network of connections.
  7. Your organizational layout. Once you identify the right customers and know what each segment needs, it’s time to organize your business around them. Align your departments with your goals in mind, and appoint the proper employees and leaders to deliver on those goals.

Align these 7 things, and you’ve got a foolproof customer strategy on your hands. Need helping getting there or executing your strategy? Let Haley Aerospace help.

 

Find Your Customer Sweet Spot – and Make More Money

Customer sweet spot

Thanks to the web and the ease with which virtually anyone can sell a product or service online, the market is now more competitive than ever. Regardless of what you sell or what services you offer, there are likely hundreds, if not thousands, of others out there doing the exact same thing.

So how do you make a profit in an overly crowded market such as this? It’s simple: Just find your customer sweet spot.

Your customer sweet spot is where need, value and behavior come together. It’s those customers who need what you sell, buy in the methods you sell through and offer an opportunity for profit.

As with anything, good data and analytics is the key to nailing down these potential customers. You’ll want to consider:

  • Need – What businesses or clients need your products or services? Whose lives could be improved or made easier through your offerings?
  • Behavior – Which customers buy through your sales methods? Do they prefer phone calls with sales reps, in-person meetings or a more DIY online buying solution?
  • Value – How often do they need your products? Is there potential for a long-term relationship? Do they have the finances necessary to purchase your offerings?

Once you identify the targets whose needs, behavior and value match up with what you’re selling, it’s time to start tapping that market. Here’s how:

  1. Sell the solution, not the product. Any company can sell products, but solving someone’s problems? That’s of much higher value. Sure, the product is what is purchased – what earns you money – but for the customer, it’s way more than just a product they’re buying. It’s something to make their life easier, to please their clients or to help them overcome some sort of hurdle. Sell your offerings as problem solvers instead of products, and you’ll have much more success with those hard-to-reach customers.
  2. Educate and consult. Many of these potential customers have the need for your offerings, but they might not know it or be educated enough in your space to realize it. Instead of just outright selling and advertising, try taking a consultative approach. Train your reps to connect with potential buyers and help them identify their needs, problems and potential solutions. Shift their mindset, make them realize your products can help, and then close the sale.
  3. Establish plenty of touchpoints. If you want to reach these potential customers, building a relationship with them is crucial. The best way to do that? Touch base when them on multiple levels. Have sales reps reach out by phone to close the sales, assign customer service team members to check in and offer assistance once the purchase has been made, and send email updates to remind customers you’re there for them even months or years after the fact.
  4. Streamline your data. You can’t discover what these potential customers want, need or respond to without solid data. But more important than just having data collection processes in place is ensuring every team member has access to that data in one comprehensive platform. Try not to house your data in separate silos; it’s hard to discern trends and determine next best steps that way.
  5. Reward your team. Your success as a business ultimately comes down to your team – how hard they work and how much they feel driven to move your company forward. If you want them to be invested in your organization’s success as much as you are, give them a reason. Compensate them well, reward them with bonuses for jobs well done, and have incentives in place for big sales. If they have a personal stake in turning those leads into customers, they’ll be much better at doing it from day one.

Want help determining your customer sweet spot and tapping into your company’s true potential? Contact Haley Aerospace today. Our expert branding team is here to help.

Letting Your Brand Lead the Way

brand identity

Branding is more than just positioning your company in the marketplace. If you really drill down, branding can actually determine your company’s overall path – as well as its final destination.

Will it succeed and make endless profits for you and your shareholders? Or will it flounder and let your competitors take the reins?

Your branding decisions play a big role.

Branding’s Part in Your Business

At the heart of a business’s success is its ability to connect with the customer. But how, exactly, do you do that?

Through branding.

With thorough research, good data and solid, fact-based decision making, you can create branding that touches your customers…that gives them what they need, when they need it.

Your branding can get them excited, make them happy or make their lives easier. It can also make them feel a part of your brand and encourage repeat business and longtime customer loyalty.

And the best part?

Once you’ve developed a solid brand, that branding can drive any and all decisions you make. It can help you make decisions regarding products and marketing, finances and budgeting, and anything and everything in between.

And as long as your branding is still accurate and hitting the right marks for your customers, those decisions will always be good ones – ones that make you money and further your business.

If done right, your branding should spell out your:

  • Core beliefs and values
  • Key differentiators and benefits
  • Purchase drivers
  • Customer needs and wants

With all this information at your disposal, it’s easy to make decisions that are smart for your business. There’s no more shooting in the dark or playing the guessing game. You simply let your brand lead the way, and success is right down the road.

Become Brand-led

Is your branding leading the way? Is it well researched and well positioned enough to do so? If not, Haley Aerospace can help. Our expertise in the aviation and aerospace industries, coupled with our hands-on branding experience, can give you the tools you need to make the right decisions in all you do.

 

 

 

The Importance of Employee Branding to B2B Success

employee branding

Few business owners recognize this, but there are actually two facets of branding: There’s the brand you present to your customers, and there’s the brand you present to your employees (or potential employees).

Though many think that the consumer-facing branding is most important (after all, it’s what brings in the money, right?), in reality, that’s far from true. In the long run, it’s actually your employee-facing branding that’s most important by a landslide.

You see, it’s your employees who ultimately create, control and manage your consumer-facing brand. If your employee-facing branding doesn’t draw in workers that are well equipped to handle those tasks, then your consumer brand is set up to fail from the very get-go.

It’s a little confusing, but let me boil it down for you:

  • Your employees create your brand – The branding you present to customers and potential buyers is ultimately devised and created by the employees you hire – the marketers, the designers, the executives, etc., that work for you. In order to be able to create a strong, effective brand, your employee-facing brand has to draw in new hires that have the knowledge and creative capacity to do that!
  • Your employees manage your brand – Even once your consumer-facing branding has been established, your employees still play a huge role in how the branding plays out. They’re the ones who convey it through advertising and marketing efforts, they translate it into social media posts, and they promote it on customer service calls and in sales meetings. Your employee-facing branding needs to attract workers who share the values of your brand and are equipped to properly manage and promote your consumer-facing branding to others.
  • Your employees control your brand – If there’s ever a need for a rebranding or new positioning, it’s your employees who will recognize that need and make that decision. If you want in-tune workers who can spot a lagging brand and devise creative, innovative ways to fix it, your employee-facing branding needs to draw in that type of talent.

It’s pretty simple when you think about it: You can’t create or promote a great brand without great employees, and you can’t get great employees without spot-on employee branding.

So what do you need to do to ensure your employee-facing branding is bringing in the right types of talent? I’ll do a full post on that in the coming months, but in a nutshell, you want to brand yourself as a great place to work – somewhere that fosters creativity, values hard work and innovation, and offers a rewarding, enriching atmosphere in which to spend the day. You want to steer clear of being just a “9-to-5” for employees and brand your organization as a place where workers can learn, grow and thrive for the long term.

How’s Your Employee Branding Doing?

What does your employee-facing branding look like? Is it drawing in the right talent to ensure your consumer-facing efforts are at their most effective? If not, it may be time to take a step back and reevaluate. Contact Haley Aerospace today for help.

 

Creating a Brand Strategy That Works for You

Brand Strategy

Every business owner wants to get their branding right. After all, it’s your branding that will resonate with consumers – what will make you stand out in their minds and make them choose your products and services over those of your competitors.

But nailing down branding isn’t always easy. In fact, it’s almost never easy – especially in our busy, marketing-filled world.

The truth is, before you can create a winning brand strategy, you really need to understand what makes a brand – the elements that come together to create a recognizable voice, face and personality for a company or business.

These brand strategy elements include:

  • Awareness – The buzz surrounding your brand and how well it is known and recognized by consumers – specifically those in your target audience.
  • Knowledge – What consumers know about your brand and the products and services it offers.
  • Image – What your brand looks and feels like – its colors, logos, slogans and other details that consumers can connect with.

Now, in order to create a great brand, you have to focus on improving all three of these elements – the awareness of your brand, the knowledge consumers have of it, and your image. And this can be done in a number of ways.

One of the best ways? That’s with qualitative research – focus groups, interviews and surveys conducted with your current and past customers. This research should help you get to know your target audience, as well as their needs and wants, and really nail down what place it is that you hold in the marketplace.

Once you’ve done research and are ready to start on strategizing, it’s time to go into testing mode. With every new tactic you try, test and monitor your results. Offer two or three versions of each ad, and see which ones resonate better with your audience and deliver better results. Keep tweaking and testing until you get the results you want. It may take a while, but testing is the only way to truly determine a strategy that works.

You can also use analytics, which allow you to monitor the success and performance of your efforts. How many opens is your email getting? Which links get more clicks? What ads and videos get more views? Use this information to learn more about your audience’s likes, needs and wants to keep improving your brand in your target buyers’ eyes. It may seem tedious, but I promise: It works!

I know it sounds like a tall order, but work hard to properly brand your company, and you’re set up for long-term, massive success. After all, only great brands can:

  • Stand the test of time
  • Command high prices for products and services
  • Increase annual profits and sales
  • Gain recognition and clout in the marketplace

Branding your company may be hard, but it’s not impossible. Want some expert help? Contact Haley Aerospace today. Our aviation marketing and branding pros are here to guide the way.

Mergers & Acquisitions: Branding’s Role in the Process

branding with mergers and acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions are a pretty common occurrence in the business world. Companies get bought out, they band together, and they form newer, larger and more comprehensive organizations that better serve their customers.

But while most executives have plans of action for M&As – how employees will be affected, what jobs will remain, and what will change from a production or service standpoint – branding efforts are rarely a part of that totem pole.

It’s a pity, too, because there’s no better time for branding than during a merger, acquisition or other big change at a company.

Why, you ask? Because it’s a clean slate.

It’s an opportunity to start anew – to create a new voice, a new personality and a new movement your customers and target buyers can get behind. And if branding is considered and prioritized during these hectic times, it can mean the difference between a wildly successful merger and one that falls flat for all organizations involved.

Is your company going through a merger or acquisition? Want to make sure you’re making branding a part of the overall plan? Here’s what you should do:

  • Plan ahead – Start early and plan for branding efforts long before your merger or acquisition is executed. Make it a priority and get your entire marketing and PR team involved from the very beginning.
  • Recognize changes – Consider how your organization will change once the merger or acquisition has occurred. These changes are what you can capitalize on – what you can sell in your new messaging to buyers and customers in need. While some changes call for simple changes in messaging or product offerings, others require more major branding work – maybe even a new name and logo.
  • Know your audience – Be aware of what your audience will be once the transition is complete. Sometimes, you may have the same target buyer as before. If so, great! Many times, however, you’ll have a different set of buyers you’re after – or at least an expanded one. These new buyers need to be considered in all branding efforts moving forward.
  • Identify opportunities – Finally, try to recognize the opportunities that will come from your transition. Could you market in a new venue? Could you sell add-on products or services? Could you expand your profits and sales in other ways? Know these opportunities, and use your branding to help seize them.

If you’re planning a merger or acquisition in the near future, don’t let branding be an afterthought. If done properly, updating your branding during a big transition can actually help your company in the long run. Not sure where to start? Contact the branding experts at Haley Aerospace today.

Is Your Brand Positioned for Success? (Part 2)

brand positioning

Last time we connected, I talked about the importance of branding and presented a few different strategies for positioning your brand within the marketplace – and in your consumers’ minds.

I also gave you six routes to take for handling your company’s brand positioning. Choose the right one, and your brand is on the fast track to success. Choose the wrong one, and you could very well be doomed – doomed to blend into the busy marketplace and let your competitors take the spotlight.

So how do you choose the right one and make sure you don’t fall into the former camp? That’s simple: Just know your audience.

This is the key to any sort of branding success, because before you can connect with your audience in a way that resonates with them and stands out to them, you first have to get into their heads. You have to learn their fears, their wants, their needs and connect with them in a deep and meaningful way.

Not sure how to get to know your audience and determine the best positioning method for your brand? Here are a few strategies you can try:

  • Surveys and interviews with past and current clients – Find out what they know about your brand, why they’ve come to you, what their needs are and what challenges they’re facing.
  • A/B testing – Try your next marketing campaign by coming at it from two different positions. Monitor the reactions on both sides of the coin, and see which positioning fares better. If neither does great, keep tweaking your positioning until you get it right.
  • Focus groups – Get to know the general marketplace you’re entering into. What do consumers associate with products and services in your space? What do they like and dislike about them? What are the problems they see? How do they choose which products to use and what makes them prefer one brand above another?
  • Innovation and concept testing – If you’ve got some extra resources, find some highly creative members of your target audience and get them involved in the positioning of your brand. Tap them for ideas, use them to generate ideas and strategies, and then use other members of the audience to test those ideas and flesh them out. Who better to tell you how to reach an audience than a member of it?

Once you’ve taken these steps and really gotten to know your audience, you can then choose the proper type of positioning and begin connecting with that audience in a real and memorable way.

Let’s look at an example in the aerospace and aviation world. Say you run a flight support services company. Rather than throwing your marketing messages out into the abyss and hoping you hit the right mark, you could target a higher-end audience and position your brand as a luxury – an add-on that can make high-end clients’ travels easier, more convenient and more attractive.

By positioning your brand in such a way, you can start to connect with your target audience and pivot all your marketing messages so they meet their discerning needs – the need for a five-star flight experience and the need for top-shelf convenience and comfort that only money can buy.

Do you know your target audience? Want help getting to know them or choosing the right position for your brand? Our aviation branding experts are here to help. Just shoot me an email, and we can get started on your strategy right away.