Emotional Design and Donald Norman

Some of you might already have come across this brilliant man. Donald Norman has provided a lot of insight in how and why design works that can be used for a lot of purposes, and of course in marketing. The idea of Norman is pretty simple, really. He argues that good design make us feel better, and that is why we like the products. Good design also makes us happier, and a lot of studies have shown that we can solve problems better when we are happy. How is this relevant to products you might ask; well think about it. If a product is somewhat complicated and ugly, the users are less likely to understand how to work it. However if the product is complicated but has a nice design, then the users are more likely to try understand how the product works. By having a beautiful design, a product is more likely to ‘get away’ with flaws. People simply accept the flaws just because they become emotionally attached to the product. By now it is pretty obvious how this can be applied in marketing, on a wide range of different levels; from web design and branding to product design and advertising.

It’s very easy to get stuck on YouTube and go through all the Norman videos. Below you’ll find one of the shorter videos that gives a quick overview of Donald Normans ideas regarding emotional design.

That all for now folk’s!

Soft launching MyRaceDriver

Tonight we finalized most work on one of our latest projects, www.MyRaceDriver.com. I’m personally really excited about this project as it is an investment program where anyone can buy shares in Julien Gerbi’s career. Julien is a Formula 2 driver with some serious racing skills, and is now looking to get enough budget in order to be able to get into the highest categories of racing, such as Formula 1, NasCar etc.

CPerspective will be in charge of all marketing activities of this investment program, and hopefully we can get Julien to fulfill his dream to be a race car driver.

I will post more info on this program later on, once we start with all the marketing. For now you will find all info you need on www.MyRaceDriver.com. Check it out!

Oh brother where are thou?

Yes, I know. I haven’t updated this blog in ages. I won’t blame it on lack of time, or anything else, lets face it, I’ve been too lazy to update it.

Previous posts on this blog were quite lengthy, and they took some time and research to write. That’s probably why I just stopped posting after some time.

I am going to change the structure a bit now however, and post more frequent about more everyday things that are related to my work at CPerspective, and the online industry in general.

Let’s see if I can keep the tempo up this time..

Social Media Marketing is not always about Client Acquisition

Because of the fact that online marketing is one of the most precise and measurable ways to market products and services, many companies have resorted to only going online to acquire new customers or clients. What these companies are forgetting is that being online gives a chance to dialogue and to do some Brand Monitoring.

A great example of how many companies today are misusing a great marketing tool, due to too much focus on generating customers, is the latest buzz word in online marketing, Social Media Marketing. What many companies see here is a chance to communicate directly with their prospects and clients, and what they do is to push out their offers and promotions. The problem with this is that many people view the Internet and being online as a part of their private life, as private as their own homes if not more. If a company then comes in there and pushes in promotions and offers, it is very likely that they will have next to no success in generating new clients. No one wants to get their private space flooded with promotions and advertisement, that’s something we always need to have in mind when planning campaigns. This is especially true for Social Media Marketing, as many of the websites and forums are very private in the sense that only friends can view profiles etc.; very much in the same way you only let your friends in your house.

Now you might be thinking “if I cannot promote my products to prospects and potential customers through social media, then what good is it for?”. No worries here, there are still many areas where this tool comes in handy. One of the best ways to use social media is to reach out in an honest fashion to prospective customers and see what they think of you and your services. One great example of how this has been done in the past is when chocolate manufacturer Cadbury brought back the Wispa bar after seeing demand from social networks. Their move proved to be a success and is a great lesson in how to use social media.

Another way to use social media sites and networks is to search your own brand name and do some brand monitoring. Many times when customers are disappointed with a product or service, they might not complain to the manufacturer or company, instead they send out their complaints on the web.  Someone might be unhappy with their hotel while some other person is angry that their new phone has broken down. This is a great chance to search such critics and try to convert them into happy customers.

Let’s use Twitter as an example. You can use the Twitter search to see what other people are saying about your brand. Let’s say you run a Hotel called ‘The Sleep & Eat’. Simply put in “The Sleep & Eat” and see what people are saying about you. If you find guests that are unhappy, then contact them directly and offer them some sort of compensation or at least let them know that you are aware of them being unhappy. This is an extremely powerful way of monitoring your brand and increasing customer happiness. You can also use the same concept when doing press releases or news releases of some sort. Just type in your company name and see what reactions you have gotten around the web.

As you might have figured out by now, this strategy is not about directly generating new customers and clients. The brand monitoring is to build a respectable brand and show that you care about your business and customers. By establishing that image in a genuine fashion, the customers and clients will come by themselves.

Soheil Amorpour, CEO @ CPerspective Online Marketing Agency

CPerspective Sponsors Racing Driver Julien Gerbi

Let me start off by saying I’m sorry for the inactivity throughout the last month. It’s been a hectic period with a lot different things going on in CPerspective. The most interesting happening is probably our new partnership with the very talented racing driver Julien Gerbi. I cannot reveal all details yet but it is a very exciting partnership that has great potential.

The main task for CPerspective will be to help Julien with his online exposure by using our expertise in the field. I personally think it’s really exciting to work with someone that is in a seemingly unrealted industry but sees the enormous potential that online marketing has.

Hopefully we can help Julien to get some more exposure as he kicks ass on the racing tracks around the globe.

Check us out on the front ving:

Soheil Amorpour, CEO @ CPerspective Online Marketing Agency

How is CPerspective Ltd Coping With the Economical Downturn?

During the last few months, one reoccurring question has been whether or not I – as the CEO of a smaller web company – have been affected by the economical downturn.  My spontaneous answer to this question is no, not a great deal (at least not yet). I have however seen trends in our clients spending routines and taken some security measures on behalf of CPerspective Ltd.

Since we work globally and represent three larger areas of online marketing (SEO, Web design and Online advertising) we have a pretty broad field of services as well as clients. This makes us very adaptive and dynamic to the clients need and the general ‘health’ of our industry.  If we see negative trends in one market, we can move our focus to another one temporarily. The same goes for our services. Because of the great deal of expertise we have in-house, we have never had any problems with working in a dynamic market; actually, I would say the online industry is always under such a rapid change that if you cannot adapt to it you would not be able to survive no matter what the economical situation is.

During the last 12 months CPerspective Ltd has undergone several changes and modifications. We have added and removed services and partners to our portfolio, changed our in-house routines and also our company profile to name a few. Our philosophy is, and has always been pretty simple; if we provide the clients with great solutions that help them grow their business, they will come back and keep making money from a partnership with us. This ideal has helped us to withstand even in economic hardship, because our clients know that their budgets are safe with us. It might sound big headed or boastful, but I would be lying if I said anything else.
Sure, the last few months we have seen that some client’s have been a bit more reluctant to spend as much as they did before on the same services. This has however been because other companies have lowered their prices, probably as a last desperate measure before collapsing. I would say most our client’s are pretty solid, and they know we are too. This has made our business go on pretty much as usual.

It’s nothing strange that most companies see a larger value in each dollar now, we do too. It’s better to be a bit cautious than to overspend and burn out the budget on bad and risky moves. For example a couple of measures we have taken in CPerspective are to not subscribe to any new services with monthly fees attached, to keep down spend on company electronics such as laptops, phones etc. and also skip a couple of conferences that we could live without attending this year.  We have also looked over our invoicing routines and decided to adjust them as well to put us as a company a bit more on the safe side.

Our measures have not been very extreme our unusual and our work goes on as it always has done (and I hope it will continue to do so). I am sure that most companies in our field will survive as long as they have a long term plan to start with, healthy company values and a dynamic team.

Soheil Amorpour, CEO @ CPerspective Online Marketing Agency