The main benefit of branding is that customers are much more likely to remember your business. A strong brand name, logo and image help to keep your company image in the mind of your potential customers.

Strap lines

A strap line or slogan can also help promote your brand or product by putting across what you do, what benefits you give to your customers or what you stand for.  The aim of the strap line is to be remembered.

There are many ways of coming up with a strap line;

Question and Answer – posing and answering a question

Mirroring – reflecting or repeating a word or words to make a memorable phrase

Rhyming – creating a rhyme to make your strap line more memorable

Alliteration – two or more words that begin with the same letter or sound the same

Strap lines should be witty, simple, direct and hard to forget. Here are some examples do you know the company?

Because I’m worth it

The best a man can get

It does exactly what it says on the tin

Every little helps

Simples

The world’s local bank

Snap Crackle Pop

It’s good to talk

Just Do it

Gives you wiiings

Can you think of any more?

We were joined by Toby Perkins MP, the Shadow Minister for Small Businesses who came along to listen to issues that local businesses have. It was good to see him take all the questions and opinions on board.

It is important that, whenever possible, businesses develop contracts and contacts with other businesses in the area as keeping trade local cuts costs and reduces their carbon footprint.

If you are a new or existing business and want to attend a FREE networking group, please do come along and say hello.

Our next meeting is the 17^th May and held at The Learning Shop (The Old Post Office) in Grays and doors open at 8.00am.

If you want any more information about the group please contact me.

Find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @ThurrockNetwork

Colour creates an emotional message and is therefore a powerful tool!

“Colours, like features, follow the changes of the emotions” Pablo Picasso

Each colour can have a positive and negative effect depending on how they are used. For example – black and yellow together signify an ‘alert’ emotion, whereas ‘blue’ and ‘green’ help to convey a relaxed message.

Something else you also need to consider is your target market – for example if you are aiming at women, most companies use ‘pink’ as this is a feminine colour.

See some colours listed below and their meanings…

Black – power and authority

White – neutral and goes with everything

Red – intense and strong

Pink – tranquil and soft

Blue – peaceful and calm

Green – refreshing and calm

Yellow – attention grabber

Purple – romantic, sophisticated

Choosing colours that are directly opposite each other on the colour wheel, putting a warm colour with a cool colour, can be pleasing to the eye.

Be clear on your colour personality and help strengthen your brand.

We have been chosen as a finalist in the Small Business of the Year category of the Essex Countywide Business Awards.

The awards ceremony take place on 18th May so looking forward to getting dressed up and attending our 2nd awards ceremony of the year!

iPad2 users get up to 64GB of storage, and use iCloud to store documents etc.

Dropbox is another Cloud service which is free on the App Store. It is so easy to use and you will never have to email yourself a file again!

It also means iPad 2 owners are unlikely to ever run out of storage space. Definitely recommended! We use this all the time and now wonder where we would ever be without it!

Fantasic news!

Recently, dotty hippo design entered into the Thurrock Business Awards 2012, and having been shortlisted in the New Company category we are delighted to announce that we are winners!

It was an amazing night and I am so very proud to receive this award.

It was great to get all dressed up and there is definitely something about a man in a Tux! Everybody looked so glamorous. The evening started off with a champagne reception that was a great way to meet with the other finalists. There were about 400 people in total, with some familiar faces being clients or other businesses I have met on the networking circuit.

We were seated for dinner and we shared our table with 2 other companies up for different awards. There was a great atmosphere in the room and everyone was buzzing with excitement. Once dinner was over the ceremony began, with fireworks opening the introductions – very showbiz.

We were told that each of the judges had chosen a piece of music for each finalist and we had a giggle around the table wondering what “our songs” would be….

Our category (New Company) was up first. The judges walked on to the stage to Lenny Kravitz, Are You Gonna Go My Way – one of my favourite songs! They talked about the calibre of each finalist and then my name was announced as the 1^st winner! I couldn’t believe it. Whoops went around our table and along with the clappers that we had been given, the noise and cheering was very loud. To hear the cheers around the room was fantastic. Our table was the 2^nd row from the back so I must admit when we were first seated I had thought that I hadn’t won due to the long walk to the stage. I don’t remember hearing my song as I walking to the judges – I was so caught up in the moment. I found out later that it was Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison.

What a feeling being on stage to the applause, emotional but amazing. I was more concerned not to fall over in my heels! The award is very special and as I walked back to my table I really couldn’t believe it. I was shaking as I sat down. Wow, I won’t forget this in a hurry.

The rest of the awards took place and it was great to hear all the songs that were relevant to each winner. I thought that was a really nice touch.

And then that was it, all the awards were over, and time to celebrate and party!

What a fantastic night, and not just because I won, but to be part of the whole evening was an achievement in itself. It was so well organized and we had an amazing time.

The award is going to take pride of place in my studio without a doubt.

Congratulations to all the other winners and finalists.

I am so proud of this group and it’s great to see how it has developed and grown. Over 30 companies attend each month with new businesses coming along to find out about the group. The group as a whole has got a wealth of experience and it’s great to see new businesses coming along and benefiting from the knowledge and experience of others.

Business is also being carried out within the group, which is fantastic to hear. Partnerships are forming and as a collective our voices are stronger within the community. I am developing a great relationship with the local council who inform me of any latest news or developments, which I pass onto the group.

If you are a new or existing business and want to attend a FREE networking group, please do come along and say hello.

The Thurrock Network Group is held at The Learning Shop in Grays and doors open at 8.00am.

If you want any more information about the group please contact me.

Find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @ThurrockNetwork

The latest adverts have featured in glossy magazines and look great! Frances is getting a great response to the adverts already.

One of the keys to refreshing a brand is to not change it too dramatically. Subtle changes are best. On this occasion the brand has been enhanced by introducing a new colour (black) that gives it another dimension. It still looks stylish and clean and within brand. The images still play a major part on all their advertising.

They won a silver in the Aesthetic 2011-2012 Awards for Best UK Mobile Practitioner so we have created an award logo for them. This now features on all their marketing and advertising. We introduce silver into other elements of the adverts and it all ties in nicely.

We were asked to create flyers, posters, pop-up banners, outdoor and website banners. All needed to be designed, printed and delivered in 2 weeks!

The concept was to use relevant sporting images and base it on the national branding. Not only did we do the designs, I also went along and ran the Aerobic workshop. It was great to see so many teenagers interested in sport and taking on board advice for possible career paths.

WorldSkills “Have a Go” is part of the WorldSkills London competition and enables a fun, interactive, engaging way of getting young people involved across the UK whilst learning a new skill.

A great project to be involved with!

Meeting is Thursday 16th February 8am start, held at The Learning Shop in Grays.