May 18th, 2012 by Sarah McCartney
How important is it to get your brand’s tone of voice right? And how do you know if you’re getting it wrong? Is it important for an organisation to get its tone right, or is it an optional extra? Is it for customers, or should we be using it inside our own four walls?
We’re asking and answering all these questions in our article on brand tone of voice, one of the things we do here at Afia.
If you’re interested in knowing more, read on…
May 3rd, 2012 by Malcolm Mortimer
Courtesy of Josh Semens on flickr
The spectacular rise of social media marketing undoubtedly offers good chances for businesses to sell themselves. But it also brings hidden dangers. Take Twitter. If you’re not sure of what you’re doing, it can be akin to walking blithely across the quick sands of Morecambe Bay as if it’s ‘just another beach’.
On Twitter, it’s crucial not to alienate people by obviously selling. Or by being monumentally irrelevant and coming across as lightweight. Or by missing the boat and seeming out of touch by failing to tweet about something you’d be expected to have a view on. Or, crucially, by tweeting an opinion that contradicts your branding – either by what you say, or how you say it. I call all of this ‘twitting’. Read more…
April 18th, 2012 by Max Robinson
We run lots of projects at Afia. Some big, some small. Some take months and months to complete. Others are done and dusted in half a day, or even less.
One thing’s for sure though – no two projects are the same. Sometimes jobs start off fairly small. Then they turn in something huge that has a big impact on the company or organisation we’re helping. And sometimes what looks like a big meaty, complicated project turns out have a simple solution. (We love it when that happens.)
But there are some essentials that run through all the projects we manage. The thinking and planning bit right at the very start helps to keep things ticking along smoothly. It’s a simple enough idea, but easy to ignore or forget in the rush to get going. Here are some of our guiding principles for getting (and keeping) a project running well. Read more…
April 3rd, 2012 by Sarah McCartney
Sarah McCartney, an Afia team stalwart, has a new book out: 100 Great Branding Ideas, published by Marshall Cavendish.
Here’s one of her great ideas. You can get this and the other 99 from Amazon and all* good bookshops. Read more…
March 27th, 2012 by Sarah McCartney
If you’re aiming to impress someone with your writing, we’ve got one piece of advice. Stop it at once. It never looks as good as you want it to. Aim to be understood by the people you’re writing or speaking to, and if they’re impressed along the way, that’s all fine and dandy.
Why dress up your language?
We’ve often wondered why people feel the need to use fancy words. To be noticed and promoted? Appreciated or praised? To avoid looking silly?
March 20th, 2012 by Heather Atchison
With tomorrow being World Poetry Day, we thought a little muse on corporate poetry might be justified. Corporate WHAT? I hear you say? Bear with me, please. Hear me out…
I’m well aware that for many people the idea of poetry in a business context is an odd concept. Hard to imagine. Disconcerting. The equivalent of a French pastry chef using sweetener instead of sugar in a cake. It’s JUST NOT RIGHT. Read more…
March 8th, 2012 by Ben Afia
Dull, dense terms and conditions written in complicated legalese have to change. Here’s why.
Invest in rewriting and you could save on legal fees. For starters, the longer and more tedious your Ts&Cs are, the longer it takes a lawyer to plough through them to work out what they mean. And if your customers can’t understand them, the law is likely to side with them, not you.
Besides all of that, Ts&Cs that are clear and sound human are a breath of fresh air to customers and great for your brand. A company that’s not trying to pull the wool over our eyes? Yes, please! Read more…
February 21st, 2012 by Heather Atchison
Photo courtesy of Kristian D (via Creative Commons)
Let’s start with the good. When tone of voice works, it galvanizes teams, gives scaffolding to brand behaviours, and helps people grab hold of brand principles that are often far too abstract. And good communications make things run more smoothly, which ultimately saves money and makes people happier.
But in the ten years or so I’ve been working with tone of voice, I’ve seen some very good intentions fail. There are certain early warning signs that set off alarm bells for us.
February 15th, 2012 by Max Robinson
Photo by Alan Levine (flickr)
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with bullet points.
That might seem a little strange. I mean they’re only small dots (or dashes) before text. Perhaps not worth getting worked up about. Read more…
February 7th, 2012 by Max Robinson
We’ve all flown with budget airlines. We all gripe about them too. Cheap and sometimes not so cheerful. Cheap because they cut back on the creature comforts. You get a seat and that’s it – everything else you have to pay for. But this doesn’t mean your experience as a customer has to be cut price.
South African airline Kalula is trying to shake all that up. And they’re doing it using words. Read more…
