douglas

Post your questions here for Maggie to answer or start a new thread for your question.

Thanks for checking in! I look forward to your questions on all aspects of branding, from public relations to graphic design, social media to advertising.

To get things started, I'll ask you: What is the first brand you think of when considering the Vancouver Island marketplace?

Ok Maggie, I'll bite. Tourism Vancouver Island pops to mind pretty quick. Gold star???

Now that's interesting. Tourism Vancouver Island not only has a nice clean brand, but this is a great example of taking a brand across all media. I not only love the simple, clean lines of TVI's website, but have been following their Twitter feed for some time. Their tweets are regular, promote their members and island locations, and are consistent with print and web materials.

Silver star...but to get gold more Island people need to know who they are. Everyone I asked today only knew about community tourism groups, no-one knew about TVI.

Best,

Maggie

Hey Maggie,

Saw your feed on Twitter about this. Great to see a business discussion board popping up in Victoria.

So my question is..

To enable branding of a new product or company does a foundation of PR have to be made before successful implementation?

What a great question, especially in these days of fuzzy lines between brand, design, PR, social media.... At the end of the day, these are all brand components. I believe in an integrated approach.

When launching a new company or product, it's great to start building the buzz using PR. Events, social and traditional media, speaking engagements, and promotions are some examples of how to do that.

Accompany your PR with hard evidence of why the product or service is great. Dedicate some money to marketing materials that target your intended audience and spread the word. For some that's a brochure, for others a website. Advertising may be an option, while online marketing reaches other audiences.

Underlying both aspects is that you live your brand. How you and your staff conduct yourselves on the phone and in public says more about your brand than an ad.