Before you think about manufacturing a product and creating a retail package, qualifying that there is consumer interest in your product should be tackled first.

Your published content whether it is your blog, website or your email correspondence creates an impression on your readers. Have you seen comments on posts criticizing spelling or grammatical errors? So many feel that we can write as we would talk or take notes. That may be acceptable with a close friend or someone you work with in a casual setting, but for people who are not in your profession it leaves them out of the conversation or worse. They are unimpressed with your knowledge and professionalism so they move on to a competitor who they feel has better writing skills.

As business owners and brand managers, we all have a vision of what we want our audience to experience and feel about our company and product. Positive impression is always celebrated. Criticism is hard to hear and we want to get past it as quickly as possible. How did you handle the most recent criticism? Did you approach it as a single unique issue or is there a strategy in place to remedy the impact?

Being in the ad business I can’t help but watch TV ads with a critical eye. Who is the target? What is the brand? Does it have the emotional tug to convert a sale? In short, is it effective? I try to figure out the brand or company the ad is for before they reveal it. Some companies do a great job branding their ads and others leave you wondering – do they really know their audience, what company/brand was that for? I have found myself wondering when the product advertised is for women if the ad was created by a man, because they totally missed the USP and audience pain motivator.

You can’t create a great package if you don’t know how design works. And you can’t create a great package if you don’t know how packaging affects your consumer. There are 3 key responses that a package design need to get to achieve retail success: visual, rational and emotional.

This is a question not often asked. Usually I am explaining why SEO is necessary. Ranking in search engines takes time and effort. Giving a specific time to optimize is different for every website. Results build over time and take 6-9 months to see significant change in rankings.

How to get your keywords ranked.

Keyword Selection

The first step is to is to select moderately competitive keywords. Performing Google research of keywords that you are considering will provide insight to the search levels, value and opportunity of improving your ranking with them. Not all keywords are created equal. Keyword marketing is highly competitive even for highly specialized markets. Those words and phrases that are relevant for your product or service do not all produce the same amount of traffic. Including geo reference, city name, can make help your ranking in local searches quicker.

Product appearance can be the the biggest sales converter of all marketing influencers. Apple has built it's brand appeal and demand on it's product appearance. So much so that people pre-order products months ahead of release. Another brand that hangs it's success on visual appearance is Method. Investing in unique custom bottle, the product package, broke with traditional new product launch accounting. The package was the branding hook. For Apple and Method, product design was the brand elevator and continues to be at the forefront of their business strategy.