Brand aura revolves around becoming intimately familiar with any and all company parts that impact and inspire your targeted consumer.  In order to stay relevant, you must know what makes someone want to buy your product. You should understand who your primary purchaser is even when they’re not browsing for your goods. Success in business has become more than placing an item on a shelf, it’s about giving a consumer the type of experience that they’re looking to find.

There are a number of ways to manage your brand aura. Starbucks gets customers actively involved in their own marketing processes. They offer fans the ability to share their thoughts on company issues, such as a new logo. They keep clients connected long after they’ve drained the last drops of their latte by sharing behind-the-scenes footage about the coffee-making process. The company also has the client experience section mastered. Despite your personal feelings on the java giant, you can admit that venturing into a Starbucks is quite different from grabbing a Cup of Joe at the gas station. Relaxing tunes, comfy chairs, and decadent pastries; it stretches far beyond just beans.

Greek yogurt company Chobani has grown their business to over $1B in annual revenue after only seven years in operation due to a strong brand aura and appreciation for social media.  Tweet the company and they’ll reply, follow them on Facebook and your feed will fill up with a series of cheerful, yogurt-inspired pictures. Chobani values building relationships with the people who buy their products.

While this new type of 360 degree consumer culture allows for bright, shining moments such as the one experienced by Oreo during the SuperBowl blackout of 2013 (they quickly churned out “You can still dunk in the dark” as anxious viewers sat and waited for the stadium’s lights to return), it also means that consumer culture has changed. Brands are no longer “untouchable” as they once were. Any and every aspect of your company relates to your brand aura, and needs to be properly managed.

Apple can attest to this, as they’ve experienced some growing pains in recent years. The brand that was once hallowed, a religion for some, has been met with frustration over complications with Apple Maps and new versions of iTunes. These issues, along with a changing vibe under a new CEO since the passing of Steve Jobs, have caused a shift in conversation about the brand.

While connecting with consumers plays an important part in brand aura, overall client experience and perception is also a major factor. Why do individuals drive further to one store, passing a similar option along the way? Why will they spend hundreds of dollars on a specific product or service? It’s about the overall experience.

Consider, for instance, women’s attraction to shoes.  Women all over the world covet the extraordinarily pricy shoes made by famed designer Christian Louboutin. The man himself states that he hates comfort, so why should a client who lives on her feet want to fork over one month’s rent for a pair? Because the shoes exude luxury and wealth and celebrity. They’re a status symbol, and women want to join the exclusive red-soled club.  Louboutin doesn’t just sell shoes, he sells a lifestyle.

On a more approachable level, Target has also mastered this idea of consumer experience. The brand that was once seen as just another lowbrow discount retailer has become a favorite of parents, college students, and working professionals. They did it by recognizing that people want products that are high quality yet affordable, and presented in a clean environment. Now the store offers merchandise from famous designers like Isaac Mizrahi at low prices, while also providing household necessities.  The shop is bright and fun to browse, their TV commercials are attention getting and attractively made. This ideal shopping experience has driven Target to become the second largest retailer in the U.S., after Wal-Mart.

Brand aura has become essential for success in our Twitter-heavy, Facebook-dependent, active consumer culture. Building a lasting company stems beyond getting your product on shelves. It’s about giving the consumer the type of experience they crave, addressing their lifestyle, their goals and who they are as a person, while allowing them to feel connected to the brand. It stems from a true, deep understanding of what you’re selling and why you’re selling it. 

2013 launched with a bang and we’re psyched to be working on projects ranging from brand platforms, interactive design, visual identity, naming, space design, SKO presentations, internal brand communications, packaging and more.

Big thanks to all of you – our current clients. Your raves and recos are still our best new business driver.

Best Q1 ever!

From sumptuous materials to customized service, these upscale lodges offer something special that you just won’t find at your average Holiday Inn.

Step into an InterContinental and Four Seasons and you can definitely see how it differs from a Motel 6. Heck, you can even tell the difference before you set foot inside the establishment.

How can these brands differentiate themselves online? A website is a website, whether it’s for a $79.95-a-night room or a $500-a-night room, right?

That’s the challenge for marketers in the hospitality industry. They’re looking to stand out and create a personalized experience for guests online.

“From a digital or online perspective, luxury is also about the experience, but that challenge is more about being relevant to the unique individual,” Robert Rippee Senior Vice President of Marketing for The Venetian and The Palazzo, said in this article.

He says many luxury brands fail to form personalized online experiences and instead think of the digital domain as one-size-fits-all billboard. They don’t leverage their websites to communicate relevant information and create dialogue with individuals, he says.

Social media, content marketing keys to customer connection

One way to expand out of the original advertising model is via social media and digital content strategy. Interacting with individuals on networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn is a practice more luxury brands are using.

As for content, the Four Seasons is a good example of a brand using the written word—not just advertising—to market itself.

The company created Four Seasons’ Weddings magazine and distributed it as a tablet app, glossy print publication and online magazine. The content helped position the brand as a leader in luxury wedding planning, and is just one example of why they were named by Luxury Daily as runner up for the 2012 Luxury Marketer of the Year.

I suppose all marketers can take a lesson from how the luxury hotel industry is evolving in the digital arena.

Branding beyond brick-and-mortar

A luxury hotel experience used to start when you walked into a marble-laden lobby, or indulged in an Egyptian cotton robe and mineral water. Today’s tech-savvy hoteliers are going beyond traditional one-size-fits all approaches. They are connecting with customers on a more intimate level, offering real value to these guests. And they are creating that brand allegiance and customer experience before their guests set foot in the luxe lodge. From there, the amazing guest experience continues just as the guest anticipates, reinforcing loyalty to the brand.

After all, the plush robes and soft pillows in a luxury hotel room are quite a treat, but the brand that stocked your favorite snacks in the minibar or came up with a customized itinerary based on your interests really makes your stay an unforgettable experience.

Moreover, if these hotels can connect with guests and foster an accommodating experience for them before they even arrive, these customers are in for something truly spectacular…as are the brands.

In celebration of Shasta Nelson’s new book “Friendships Don’t Just Happen!” that has now been published, we thought we’d share with you one of our favorite videos of hers as she passionately reminds us how important friendships are to not only us, but to our world.

We especially want to highlight section 2 of her book because of how easy it is to take for granted and forget — "Five Steps to Turn Friendly People We Meet into Friends Who Matter," teaches the 5 Steps to Friendships, taking one chapter to cover each step: Be Open, Initiate Consistently, Add Positivity, Increase Vulnerability and Practice Forgiveness.

Why is a Digital Branding firm sharing a post on Deconstructing Friendship?

The first one is obvious or should be — behind all the tags and labels — branding/digital/creative director/content strategist/client/agency..are PEOPLE–rich, vibrant, complex, living breathing souls who make the magic of the work we do visible and relevant in a multitude of ways.

The second reason is because at PixInk we want for these PEOPLE to be friends. We've discovered (sometimes the hard way) that we love working with friends. This can also be very challenging (that's why Shasta's deconstructed approach is so helpful to us).

Why bother reaching for that goal to have the key people we work with be(come) friends? Because just like true friendship we believe CREATIVE LEAPS also require Openess, Proactive Consistency, Positivity, Vulnerability, and Forgiveness.

Watch the video, share it, and by all means, go buy her new book, Friendships Don’t Just Happen! The Guide to Creating a Meaningful Circle of Girlfriends.

You're also invited to join a book circle in NYC on 3.13.13 where Ayesha Mathews-Wadhwa, Pixink's Founder + Creative Director will be exploring some of the concepts on meaningful friendships in an intimate group setting. Ping her to RSVP.

The field is taking off so quickly, in fact, that eMarketer forecasts spending on real-time exchanges to hit $5 billion by 2015, when it will account for 25 percent of the display advertising space. Last year, IDC reported that RTB-based spending was $1.4 billion. And Parks Associates says RTB spending will reach $7 billion in North America in 2017.

Quantcast is one of the key industry players that understands all about RTB. The company facilitates more than 10 billion auctions daily for ad inventory via real-time exchanges, up 30 times more than just two years ago.

The company recently released a white paper that explores the field of RTB as it evolves from RTB 1.0 to RTB 2.0. Namely, many advertisers have been wondering how RTB fits into the other parts of an advertising campaign aside from buying. Planning, creative and optimization aspects of campaigns aren’t in “real-time.” Advertisers aren’t sure how they can get the right message to a targeted audience, and they don’t know if one algorithm fits different sectors. According to this article, the online display model will become a fully dynamic customer experience and RTB is only one aspect of that.

Quantcast maintains that several of the original assumptions and hypotheses of RTB have not been correct, so they are sharing their insights into what they’ve learned as this field quickly grows.

RTB must shift away from conventional perceptions

They maintain that RTB could be more effective if we break out of the traditional model. Under that model, organizations structured themselves so that those responsible for optimizing campaigns were separate from groups producing the data. The white paper says that the industry as a whole thought that setup would let advertisers mix and match data from various sources, combine it with algorithms and execute through any preferred bidding technology, but they say that model limits the possibilities of RTB.

Quantcast says that steering away from conventional wisdom can boost RTB performance by about five times more. In fact, deploying an integrated approach to targeting—using data, algorithm and bidding—yields the best results.

How to help real-time advertising evolve

One of the biggest takeaways from Quantcast’s white paper was reasons why marketers need to rethink the way they approach real-time display advertising. Some of these reasons include the following:

1. Remember that cookies aren’t forever. The current setup of separating data from optimization and lower-purchase-funnel retargeting from upper-purchase-funnel prospecting assumes that cookies last longer than they actually do. But the average half-life of a third-party cookie is about three days, and cookies for one-third of users last for less than an hour. Stale cookie lists aren’t as effective; you need real-time data for successful RTB.

2. Know your clickers. Real-time display advertising is a new medium that needs its own metrics, so marketers have to be focused when borrowing them from search. Marketers must grasp the demographics of a target audience and income profiles of clickers.

3. Prospect and retarget together. If advertisers don’t do this, they tend to invest excessively in retargeting and not invest enough in finding new customers. In Quantcast’s experience, full-funnel campaigns yield at least a 40 percent greater amount of incremental customers over a split-funnel approach.

4. Data is necessary, but it’s not enough. Quantcast found that campaigns using integrated data, algorithms and bidding generated a cost per action two to seven times lower than using the independent approach.

5. Size matters. You need a large volume of data to drive RTB decisions—and it’s got to be fresh. Quantcast says if you are not taking advantage of petabytes of data to make targeting decisions, you’re missing out on the power of RTB.

6. Rely on technology. Because of the large volume of data that goes into every targeting decision, it’s best to let people focus on strategic planning—and give tactical buying decisions to technology.

Now that advertisers have realized the power of RTB and it’s expected to grow, do you think the way they use it will change? And will it be able to hit more targets on the mark, producing even better sales results?

Social media will be more important than ever as a marketing tool.

Social media is already on the radar, but more companies will use this tool to build brand equity, according to CMO.com. They will also deploy more measures to capture and leverage data for overall marketing and advertising direction. Additionally, CMO.com expects the number of social platforms consumers use to communicate with companies to grow. For example, Facebook is no longer an option—it’s a given that companies are expected to use. This year, they will better leverage its power. 

Media spending will transition from display to paid/sponsored content.

As things move from traditional to digital, media spending will focus on more targeted forms of advertising. It will shift away from display ads to sponsored content in an attempt to create more value for consumers.

Watching TV will go social.

Mashable insists that the second-screen revolution will arrive in 2013, but it certainly has already landed. In 2013, consumers will engage online even when they are watching a show. Call them social couch potatoes, if you will. Moreover, TV will become a hybrid of social and video components as well, analysts say.

Social influence will go beyond hitting ‘like’ to incentive-driven promotions.

Companies will draw upon consumers who enjoy interacting with brands online, giving these brand ambassadors incentives for engaging. For example, share something on Facebook and you may receive a coupon or loyalty points. In other words, marketers will reward consumers that promote their brands in the social space.  Mobile loyalty apps are also poised to thrive.

Mobile will be defined.

Smartphones and tablets are nothing new, but they are typically lumped together when it comes to gauging use. Savvy marketers will begin to separate users based on the devices they use. For instance, hotels now know that more people research travel on tablets, while those booking rooms often do so from smartphones. That trend of using tablets for research and entertainment, and smartphones for tasks has opened up a new space from which to glean more in-depth data. And speaking of mobile, expect click-to-call to grow.

Apps will be customized.

Apps are already an established advancement, but their use will move beyond games, media and GPS. They will advance to more task-oriented and personal apps.  These apps will track, remind and make suggestions to users because they will better know users’ preferences. The apps will be better targeted and customized for the user, offering a more personalized experience.

Presumers will emerge.

We’ve talked a lot about technology, but you can’t mention its relation to the marketing arena without knowing about consumers and how they use it. In the past, we thought of targets by age bracket, behavior, occupation, and the like. But there’s a new type of consumer that marketers are noticing.

It’s the age of the consumer, but today’s consumers are involved in products and services before they launch. These pre-launch consumers, or presumers, know what companies have on the horizon before it hits shelves and they want to be a part of the entrepreneurial process. Presumers are on the lookout for the next best thing, whether they are helping to test a product or fund something new—these perceptive consumers stay ahead of the game.

These trends are just a few of the expectations marketers can expect in 2013. What trends do you predict will shape this year?

That’s the premise behind Matthew E. May’s latest book, The Laws of Subtraction: 6 Simple Rules for Winning in the Age of Excess Everything. 

When you remove just the right things in just the right way, something good happens, May writes. This phrase sets the tone for the rest of the book, and he couldn’t be more spot-on. May shifts the way that brands can think about their campaigns, innovations and internal culture. And he highlights how taking away can add up to bigger accomplishments and better results. 

Brands can convey more when they draw upon simplicity

May illustrates numerous examples of how brands can do more with less, relating the concept behind the book to the gestalt theory of perception. This states that certain principles of perception can cause people to see related parts as a whole rather than a sum of parts. He also likens the concept of subtraction to the law of prägnanz, which means pregnant with meaning.

May cites Lindon Leader’s creation FedEx logo as the perfect example, because to the obvious eye it appears to simply state the name of the company. But because of the design between the “e” and “x,” it creates an arrow that sends an even more powerful message about the brand: It moves things forward…packages, especially!  (insert image of FedEx logo here)

Throughout the book, he draws analogies to how the law of subtraction has been applied around the globe. I like this because it refers to the power of effective design across cultural boundaries. For example, Toyota developers embraced the concept of genchi genbutsu, which in Japanese means “go look, go see.” They encouraged their engineers to emphasize the observation phase of the design process just as much as the physical construction and assembling aspect. May had first-hand experience in the Toyota organization—he worked there for several years. 

May’s book is broken down into chapters that cover his six rules, and they are:

1. What isn’t there can often trump what is.
2. The simplest rules create the most effective experience.
3. Limiting information engages the imagination.
4. Creativity thrives under intelligent constraints.
5. Break is the important part of breakthrough.
6. Doing something isn’t always better than doing nothing. 

Real-world experiences: Why subtraction works

Throughout the book, several entrepreneurs, marketing gurus, authors, and corporate executives share tales of how their companies  learned to detract excess at just the right amount so it wound up doing more for them. Some of the brands featured include Behance, Kaizen Institute, CD Baby, and Edmunds.com These stories are chock full of practical advice on how subtraction can boost performance and results, and are peppered throughout in short, easy-to-read snippets so you can glean real-world advice without reading through hard-to-understand models and concepts as you would in other books. May goes a long way to make the book practical so readers can learn lessons from the situations others have encountered. He spotlights stories that demonstrate how entrepreneurs, marketers and other professionals can do more by doing less.

Remove limits to boost creativity

I added a story in the book about how subtracting judgment enhances creativity. I illustrate a simple exercise through a series of connect-the-dots graphics that shows how taking a limit or limits off something can enrich creativity—you can see something a completely different way when you shift your perspective or change the rules.

The goal of the exercise is to show readers how limiting information can engage the imagination. In my experience, connecting the dots in an atypical way as I show in the book offers more opportunities to innovate.

Subtracting something may not be your first inkling when you are considering how to enhance your business or improve your brand—we typically think about what we can, instead, add. May proves that subtraction can certainly be the missing component of your equation for success…one that you certainly do not want to leave out!

Grab your gift copy of The Laws of Subtraction here today. Offer expires in 24 hours!

Marketers need to stay on the pulse of what is new. In doing so, you will be able to stay competitive and prove that your brand leverages the latest innovations to bring customers the finest products.

Technology goes domestic

A variety of apps that serve consumers are gaining popularity. Trendwatching.com cited two alarm clock apps, Winter Wake Up and Uniqlo Wake Up but we also like apps that let us control our heating, air conditioning and appliances, such as this Samsung app that lets you manage your laundry—remotely. Those are likely to be staples instead of temporary trends.

Want more technology to use around your home? Check out Tri Cascade, which developed “smart” power outlets that use embedded software to deliver real-time power consumption data and let users manage home energy from a single app.

Charged for anything

Inventions that can keep your cell phone or mobile device powered seem to be pretty popular. Sony Japan's wind-up mechanical USB charger lets a user wind it up for three minutes to yield a minute of talk time, while winding for five minutes allows a minute of website browsing.  Power Felt can convert body heat into power, so when you put this thermoelectric fabric on your smartphone and toss it in your pocket, it will stay powered up.

Stay on me—24/7

Consumers actually want to be nagged—well, sort of. Some services offer a constant reminder in order to reinforce good habits.

Exhibit A: GymPact. This app lets a user designate how many times a week they want to go to the gym, and offers cash incentives if they meet their goals. If they skip out on a sweat session, however, users must pay a penalty fine to the GymPact community.

The Nike + FuelBand is a similar app for those that want to keep their New Year’s resolution to become healthier. The wristband that tracks movement, calorie intake and completion times for specific tasks. Users can pre-program goals into the band, watch the LED display change colors to show progress and manage it all from their smartphones. (That seems to be another emerging trend in and of itself—managing the world from the convenience of your phone.)

Wearable computing products will make it so you see people checking a watch or necklace regularly to receive messages from their friends instead of pulling out smartphones.

Going well beyond green

It isn’t enough to do one eco-friendly thing. The latest concepts offer complete sustainability throughout production and transportation.

The Belgium-based clothing company Honest by offers sustainable, fully transparent garment collections including complete information on manufacturing conditions, material and supplier sources, and the like.

Forget New York City’s Highline Park as a hot green space—the Lowline Park will boast 13 acres of greenery in an old trolley terminal on the Lower East Side. Fiber optics and solar panels will light the space so vegetation can live underground. It’s not just one eco-friendly component, it’s several. Because everyone is focused on being as eco-friendly as possible, this trend will continue as people find multiple ways to go green, and companies green numerous operations and offerings.

What trends do you see emerging with regard to new products and services?

Her collaborations with many prominent names in the industry have led her to grace the pages of many top tier magazines including Marie Claire, NOI.SE, Rouge, Velvet, etc. She recently worked closely with P&G Beauty  and top creative visionaries Pat McGrath, Eugene Souleiman, Josh Woods, and Eamonn Hughes to style the SS’2013 trends show where the latest technological innovation and beauty trends were shared with the global beauty influencer audience at the Shangri-la in Abu Dhabi.

Her advertorial experience includes clients like KENZO, Van Cleef & Arpels, Chloe, Piaget, Weill, Marni, and Gucci among others. She has also worked with top celebrities from Kelly Carlson, Holly Weston, Angie Martinez, to top models such as Katerena Alkhimova and Helena. Other participation includes Britain & Ireland’s Next Top Model with Elle McPherson, Tyson Beckford, Whitney Port and Julien McDonald and very recently with Heidi Klum for Germany’s Next Top Model. Photographer list includes Rankin, Guy Aroch, Anna Palma, and Chayo Mata among others. Her aesthetic is spirited, global and imbubed with a unique vitality. Dina currently spends her time between New York City and Dubai.

While branding encompasses everything from customer touchpoints to visual appeal, there are typically four components that go into branding success.

1.      Anticipation

I was recently at an event where they showed the teaser video for the all-new Jaguar F-type. In the video, they “show” the luxury sports car covered in a silky red fabric. You hear the music and the engine revving to blow the fabric around artistically but never see the vehicle. It is the perfect idea behind anticipation because you could not even see the vehicle, yet you were excited about its launch.

This kind of ad really builds your expectations and gets you hyped up about the product. You could say the same for Apple. Every time they launch a new product, the masses do not have to test it out or read customer reviews—they simply wait in huge lines to get their hands on the latest version of the product because they already know it will be good simply because it’s an Apple.

2.      Savor

Good brands do not produce merchandise or deliver services that consumers tire of easily. Instead, after a consumer anticipates the deliverable and receives it he or she relishes it. That brand new iPad you finally purchase doesn’t just get tossed aside, does it? You explore it, you take in all of the features and the sleek design.

Even when a soda fan buys a bottle of Coca-Cola, he or she isn’t just happy to own it—they are excited to relish it. No, they savor it. They drink it all in, savoring each sip (and as Coke hopes, then buy another one).

Good brands not only drive consumers to purchase and subscribe to what they have to offer. Their consumers enjoy using their products and services time and time again. They relish not just acquiring it—but using it.

3.      Expression

Another trait of strong brands is the ability to express themselves, and the good ones know they can do it with more than their image or alluring visuals (though that helps!)

The way a brand expresses itself can include programs it offers for customers, or a distinctive form of advertising it uses. Or it can be via sensory branding.

Clinique recently introduced its High Impact Extreme Volume mascara. Most women don’t want their mascara to dry out, but Clinique went a step further to help them feel secure that their mascara would say perfectly moist. When you shut the top, it clicks shut with a soft, crisp click. Many women who enjoy Clinique products may gravitate towards them anyway, but this one stands out for more than its label—this one is all about the sound.

4.      Recall

Strong brands are easily recognizable and remembered. Do consumers easily recall your brand?

Think about Nike. To start, the brand’s logo is easily identifiable. What makes this brand’s approach so distinctive is that they can launch numerous campaigns that are all different yet unite them under the same look, feel and experience. From Michael Jordan ads to this summer’s Find Your Greatness campaign, the brand continuously delivers and does it in a way that is fresh each time yet falls underneath the brand’s umbrella.

When you think about brands that have a strong identity, do they encompass each of these aspects? Probably so. That’s because branding takes more than just a visual identity or tagline to thrive. The best brands know how to attract and engage consumers—and make sure they’re loyal in the future.