Category: Uncategorized

5 Tips for Rebranding Strategically in the New Year

January 30, 2025

Luxury car brand Jaguar took some fans by surprise late last year when it announced its rebrand. The company’s ad campaign gained a lot of attention immediately, in part due to its controversial nature. Love it or hate it, the move includes many elements that successful marketers will recognize from their own rebranding efforts. To name a few:

  • New Logo – Representing the company’s newer focus on EVs while maintaining hints of the original logo
  • New Social Media Channels – Including striking patches that emphasize moods over cars
  • New Audience Appeal – Speculation that they are aiming to gain a younger, possibly Gen Z audience
  • Notable Removals – Perhaps most surprisingly, the absence of the cat emblem that used to adorn the hoods of the vehicles

Not everyone has their name recognition, however. For your own rebranding efforts, garner what you can from such campaigns, while relying on tactics that will raise the chances of your messages being heard.

1. Be Bold

It remains to be seen whether Jaguar’s latest rebrand will be a success or merely a temporary attention-getter. But there is one clear takeaway from it for those considering their own redirection in the new year. It was bold. Within weeks the video ad had gotten over one and a half million views online. Leadership took a big risk by tossing an image the company had honed over an entire century, and seemingly overnight deciding to project a more forward-looking image instead.

2. Base Changes in Your Branding on Market Research

You don’t want to rebrand based on a hunch alone – nor on a need to drum up business during a slump. There needs to be more impetus behind the decision, such as a new product line that is redefining your overall image. To that end, consider three time-tested tactics on which to base your changes:

Customer Feedback

Engage with current customers to understand their perceptions of your brand. Use surveys, interviews, and social media to gather insights about what works and what doesn’t.

Competitive Analysis

Take another look at your competitors’ brands. What are they doing well, and where are they failing? Understanding where your brand fits within the market landscape helps you carve out a unique position.

Industry Trends

How does your campaign fit in with the latest trends in your industry? Your refurbished image should feel fresh and forward-thinking, not outdated before it even launches.

3. Infuse Brand Campaign with a Memorable Story

This is one area where the story your marketing campaign tells can be a guide that will connect all of the pieces of your rebrand. Determine a compelling narrative your company wants to tell, supported by values that may diverge from the ones you have represented. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes simple is better. Consider this an opportunity to articulate what your company stands for, including its mission and vision for the future

Additionally, be consistent across touchpoints. Your rebrand will be more powerful when the same story is evident across all communication channels – your website, social media, customer service, and advertising materials.

4. Consider Strategic Partnerships to Amplify Your Launch

Be strategic in your rollout and plan every step of your rebrand launch to a T. This can extend to email campaigns, social media teasers, video announcements, and special promotions. A well-orchestrated rollout can build anticipation and excitement – even more so if you leverage influencers and partners who can help you reach a larger audience. Consider reaching out to key industry figures whose endorsements can amplify your rebrand message.

5. After the Launch: Monitor, Measure, and Adapt

Are you prepared to track key metrics? If not, consider hiring a specialist to help. After the rebrand is live, you will need to closely monitor data such as visitors to your website to track brand awareness, customer sentiment, and sales performance. Having benchmarks in place will enable the organization to continue assessing the success of the rebrand over time.

Consult with Branding Experts at HYPTE About Full-Service Solutions

Are you ready to inject fresh life into your brand? HYPTE’s team of branding experts can help you get started! We will help you build a campaign with a strong narrative so consumers can connect emotionally with your new image.

Contact HYPTE Branded Solutions online or call us at 708-343-9730 to begin planning your new year’s rebrand.

3 Steps to Prepare Your Marketing for a New Year

December 16, 2024

Smaller brands often discover around this time what they already suspected. Despite their top-notch offerings, they lack the resources to invest more than 30 minutes a day in their digital marketing, and often skip it altogether.

As you cast your sights on new beginnings, we recommend honing in on three focus areas to end the year with a bang and get you back on track.

1. Bump up Your Shipping & Delivery Communication

The first key to ending the year on a solid note is to intensify your focus on your most urgent shipping and delivery needs. If production is shifting into overdrive, you almost certainly will need to bump up communication with folks awaiting your products or services. This is not the time to miss a complaint about a missed package because you weren’t checking your socials. If there is a minor glitch in your fulfillment and delivery system, communicating how you plan to correct course will keep it from turning into something bigger.

Shoppers will be more concerned about delivery details than usual. Will your service provider inform them when their product leaves the warehouse? Can customers choose when an item is delivered or are they given an open-ended time slot that makes it difficult to plan their day? Clients are always grateful when extra transparency is built into their orders. Alert them immediately regarding any product developments. When people know what to expect, they are much more likely to be pleased with the results.

2. Conduct an End-of-Year Digital Marketing Audit

Before leaping into the new year, it pays to take stock of the recent past. If you were to summarize your marketing experiences in 2024, what would that look like? A recent report in Forbes revealed that over seventy percent of small biz owners had negative feelings about their own marketing strategies. But you’re not an average, and paving a better way forward requires taking stock of your gains as well as your losses. Looking back at your plans from January 1:

  • Which targets were accomplished?
  • What strategies show evidence of working?
  • How many hours did your team invest — and how does that align with outcomes?
  • What was the total expense and return on that investment?
  • What measurable results have you produced, and what do they tell you about your individual strategies?
  • Where are your gaps, and who can fill them in next year?

If you’ve been conducting monthly or quarterly audits, there is already a record of data to help answer those questions. Hopefully, it reveals a happy holiday surprise. You can see a direct line from your PPC ads to your web traffic and figure out what portion of those views resulted in calls. Doing a final annual audit is important. You will know something changed if there was a sudden drop in sales after Thanksgiving and can act accordingly. Mostly, it offers you a clear, detailed picture of whether your long-term marketing is working the way you had planned.

3. Dig Into the Details in Problem Areas

SMBs usually have an idea of what’s missing. Examining the details will give you a more accurate picture of the state of your digital marketing. This makes sense, since digital branding has only gotten more rigorous as spaces are flooded with competition attempting similar techniques. Take blogging, perhaps the main type of content you will create after your website. Ten years ago, it didn’t take much to produce a successful blog. There was a lot less online competition, and SEO was more basic.

Fast forward to the present and it can take twice as long to produce similar tasks. This is partly because content quality is one of the top criteria search engines use to gauge a page’s relevance. Most internet users read blogs. Companies that produce them get more leads than those that don’t. Yet those same keyword strategies of yore will have the opposite effect in today’s online environment. A year-end audit of your efforts will let you know which areas need the most help so you can invest in better strategies in the year to come.

HYPTE Branded Solutions Can Create Your New Year’s Marketing Program

If you’ve been remiss when it comes to producing content, optimizing your web pages, or any other area of your digital marketing, it’s only because you need a partner with the skills to do those areas justice.

Ready to start a whole new digital marketing cycle on the right foot? Contact HYPTE Branded Solutions online, or call us at 708-343-9730 for a free consultation!

5 Tips for Better Warehouse Fulfillment & Logistics Before the Holidays

November 18, 2024

When holiday orders are in full speed, getting the performance you need from your distribution and fulfillment operations can be a real nailbiter. Getting this part right is vital to any growing business that relies heavily on holiday sales. To mitigate the risks, you need to start thinking about how you will address challenges before they arise. In the fulfillment world, they can include:

  1. Unexpected spikes in orders
  2. Unfamiliar service providers
  3. Unreliable sources of labor
  4. Supply chain disruptions
  5. eCommerce glitches and other tech issues

Once your products are ready to ship out, a whole new set of challenges is just beginning. Take it from HYPTE Branded Solutions, which has developed holiday marketing campaigns for a diversity of high-profile businesses, including prominent sports teams. Our dependable Warehouse Fulfillment & Logistics team is just one of many services our clients have come to rely on this time of year.

Tip 1: Vet Your Vendors to Guarantee a Dependable, Organized Fulfillment Process

Our years producing and delivering high-quality branded products and experiences have taught us that the best of intentions are nothing without an organized fulfillment system at the end of the tunnel. Even under tight deadlines, we start by ensuring that products are high quality and align with the client’s most important goals.

Since we handle solutions from concept to delivery, that gives us more control over the product fulfillment stage of a project. Knowing who you’re working with prevents the kind of unhappy surprises that stem from a disorganized warehouse, something that matters even more this time of year regardless of your type of business. Due to our years of experience developing relationships with trusted partners, we are able to produce a lineup of experts to complete and deliver creative campaigns from scratch in time for the holidays.

Tip 2: Have a Branded Merchandise Service Do the Heavy Lifting for You

The next thing you will want to clarify is what your role will be at the fulfillment stage of the game. Can your needs be met in a single format, or will you need to be in contact with your service provider every day to provide direction to them so things stay on track? Using a full-service branded merchandise solution is a perfect example of how to make this process as easy as possible. It’s one thing if you’re hand crafting goods and sending them out the door one by one. But in most cases, a contractor like HYPTE Branded Solutions will be essential in taking things out of your hands early on.

Tip 3: Factor in How Your Marketing and Promos Will Impact Sales

It’s not enough simply to base forecasts on last year’s sales figures. How do you expect upcoming ads, seasonal events and other marketing tactics to impact business? Crunching these figures to the best of your abilities will make it that much easier to line up sufficient shipping and fulfillment services in the coming weeks.

If you haven’t implemented a holiday season marketing campaign yet, it’s not too late to start. Reach out to HYPTE Branding Services for a partner that includes warehouse logistics and fulfillment as one of its primary holiday services, along with social media ad campaigns, holiday events, and other creative solutions.

Tip 4: Use Fulfillment Provider with Channels That Deliver Where and When You Need It

Assumptions are just that, and they cause us to miss opportunities to empower ourselves. Businesses that rely on third-party fulfillment providers to manage inventory and ship products need to be sure there are flexible options to get their products to the parts of the country and world they need, on their timeline. Check to see if your provider is set up to handle orders from multiple channels – such as FedEx, USPS (first class or priority mail), and so on – and be sure those channels can meet desirable shipping standards you choose.

Tip 5: Use HYPTE Branded Solutions for End-to-End Holiday Season Fulfillment

Do you want the seamless fulfillment of orders throughout the holiday season without any last-minute chaos? Reach out to the team at HYPTE for end-to-end branded solutions that include digital marketing, reliable warehouse management, creative consulting and more.

Contact HYPTE Branded Solutions online, or call us at 708-343-9730 to discuss your branding needs for the holiday season.

Seasonal Branding Mistakes to Avoid This Year (and Why You Need to Spot Them in October)

October 15, 2024

The holiday season can make or break even the most promising of brands. They become cautionary tales for the rest of us, from cumbersome check-outs to off-brand ads to marketing campaigns that lack that holiday spirit people crave. And if you’re largely relying on holiday-season revenue while still building your brand, the stakes are even higher.

However, most branding pitfalls this time of year can be avoided primarily through process testing, well-planned customer service, and a familiarity with your target audience. Once you’ve figured out consumers’ likes, dislikes, and where you want to reach them, the rest should fall into place.

Branding Mistake #1: Insufficient Warehouse Fulfillment & Logistics to Handle Your Orders

It can be a happy accident that turns into a holiday nightmare – the inability to handle all of your orders. This is a very understandable mistake for smaller businesses, and it occurs for a variety of reasons. One, you’ve introduced a new product line but were unable to test market demands. Two, in-house departments were not communicating with one another sufficiently in the lead up to the seasonal rush. Events outside of your control, such as shipping delays overseas, can also be the culprit.

One way to prevent the stress of late-year distribution troubles is to pad in enough turnaround time so that even a two-week delay isn’t likely to hurt business. At least when it comes to your marketing, you have the option to outsource merchandising services to outside experts who can handle all your warehouse fulfillment and logistics needs, removing that burden from your plate.

Branding Mistake #2: Attempting All Your Marketing In-House Without the Proper Digital Marketing Skills

According to NerdWallet, roughly four out of five people will research their purchases online before buying anything. Yet nearly half (47 perfect) of small businesses still manage all of their marketing – despite a lack of in-house digital marketing skills – and that decision is holding them back. A branding consultant like HYPTE that has digital marketing expertise can save you time and money by creating original solutions and executing on them in a fraction of the time, allowing you to focus on everything else you will need to accomplish from Halloween to New Year’s Day.

Branding Mistake #3: Not Enough Well-Trained Customer Service Agents Around the Holidays

This complaint may be the most prevalent among marketing teams and consumers alike. If you’ve got all your holiday products lined up and ready to ship, congrats! Sufficient, high-quality customer service reps to handle all the questions from customers that are sure to follow is crucial this time of year, and a lack of it could jeopardize an otherwise stellar season.

Get some peace of mind by following these customer service tips:

  1. Emphasize your training. Consider more intensive training for newcomers with less holiday marketing experience.
  2. Evaluate your online portal. Test it thoroughly to become aware of any glitches and improve your processes in time for the holiday rush.
  3. Survey your customers. You can learn a lot from past campaigns!
  4. Over-communicate. Be sure everyone throughout your organization is on board with your plans.
  5. Anticipate problems. Make sure your reps are skilled at handling disgruntled customers.
  6. Line up temps. Be sure you have access to last-minute talent should workers drop out of the pool.
  7. Hire selectively. How will you weed out the duds? Don’t let holiday angst overshadow smart hiring decisions.
  8. Prioritize. Decide how you will handle the more urgent requests.

Branding Mistake #4: Failing to Test All the Components of Your Marketing Plans in Advance

Now is a good time to begin testing the different components of your campaign, including your sales process, to make sure they are compatible. That will help you determine whether your website or mobile advertising require any technical changes. One approach is to create a prototype of end users. Solicit feedback based on specific, predetermined objectives such as how they respond to your Thanksgiving design or measurable engagement with your Black Friday video promo. Doing so gives you time to make adjustments before launching what your larger audience will see.

HYPTE Branded Solutions Will Inject Holiday Cheer Into Your Seasonal Campaigns

Kick off the season by giving yourself the gift of outside help. The team at HYPTE Branded Solutions has the expertise to create a turnkey solution from scratch, or to manage the missing elements of your digital marketing, branding, and merchandising plans from now until January 1.

Contact HYPTE online, or call us at 708-343-9730 to discuss what’s missing from your holiday marketing campaign!

Plan Your Holiday Marketing Now – And What Steps to Include This Year

September 16, 2024

Retailers and other SMBs map out their holiday season far in advance these days, which means their marketing campaigns need to be in place even sooner. All of that takes time and, more and more often, assistance from a partner that can handle the more challenging elements of your campaign:

  • Determine where to market and what trend to follow
  • Identify buyer personas – and who influences them
  • Help you find fresh new customers who are buying local
  • Skew your activity to the right medium
  • Create thematic content and experiences

To create the kinds of ideas that bring in new business, build new relationships and connect with your existing customer base, you’ll need at least three months to lay the groundwork.

Create Multiple Ways to Capture Attention – And Link Back to Your Original Strategy

Did you know that most local searches consumers make on their smartphones result in store visits within one or two days? And as much as companies are told to wrap existing digital media trends into their campaigns, many don’t take enough advantage of this technology, despite the opportunities to target people contextually based on their interests. A branding expert will have the tools to plan out the smaller steps that help you connect with those shoppers without wasting time – like a recurring promotion with retargeting pixel and increased ad spend during peak shopping hours.

A multi-pronged approach could include a variety of ways to capture your audience’s attention:

  • Bold and disruptive holiday themed images
  • Fun and engaging marketing through photo contests, polls and strategic discounts
  • Brand communication via email promotions and social media posts
  • Develop landing pages, pop-ups, and integrated content for your website
  • All while leveraging Facebook and Google’s large data pool

6 Tips for Scheduling Out Your Marketing to Stand Out from Your Competition

By scheduling out your steps with time to spare, it will be easier to make adjustments as you go. Keep in mind, there could be a change in suppliers or material shortages causing an unexpected delay. Some food for thought that will take a little advance planning:

1. Post More Often

Social media schedules tend to become tighter this time of year. This is because a lack of posts won’t be seen amidst the competition. A digital marketer will know how often and on which platforms to post – for instance, by shortening the time frame by half to twice daily.

2. Order Holiday-Themed Branded Merchandise Early

No matter the industry, companies will need at least a couple months to tailor high-quality T-shirts, knit caps and other products with holiday themes. A full-service agency can handle merchandise as well as the digital marketing elements.

3. Engage Visitors with Dynamic Ads

Businesses are using mobile apps to create engaging ads and promos that are more tailored to the individual shopper, from the images to the written copy to your landing pages.

4. Offer Discounts and Giveaways

Everyone is a sucker for a sale, and when people are ready to spend they are also more likely to take advantage of discounts, sales, coupons and giveaways.

5. Include Video Content

Possibly the best way to get attention, creating video content can also be the most time consuming. If this is part of your plan, find someone experienced in video marketing to help you wrap up your Tik Tok, Roku or video short.

6. Communicate the Details

Don’t underestimate the power of information to expand your reach. You may even feel you are over-communicating, but consumers will want to know the latest deets regarding products, sales, and your brand.

HYPTE Branded Solutions Will Help You Design Your Fall Season Campaign

As the broader holiday season gets started in October, HYPTE Branded Solutions will help you get all of the necessary parts in place so you’re ready to launch as soon as the crisp fall weather arrives.

Contact HYPTE for help getting started. Call us at 708-343-9730 to set up a free consultation!

“September Surge” and Other Back-to-School Marketing Lessons

August 16, 2024

That feeling we had as kids of a new year beginning – only it was September and not January – doesn’t always go away. The end of summer vacation season is more than a time for parents to stock up on school supplies and send kids back to class. It can also signal a boost of new marketing opportunities that extend well beyond parents and teachers.

In fact, the ecosystem this time of year applies to many other groups that tend to get overlooked by child-focused marketers. A few you may want to add to your list:

  • Career developers
  • The food and beverage industry
  • Influencers and content creators
  • Supporters of parents and teachers throughout the year
  • College-age consumers
  • Soccer enthusiasts and the branded solutions with major league experience

Brands Should Market Fresh Starts in September

First and foremost, you want to convey a feeling of fresh starts throughout late summer and early fall. Keep in mind that consumers don’t have to parent a child to crave some sort of a fresh start in their lives. It’s an appealing concept, after all. Who doesn’t want to take steps to change a bag habit or achieve a goal? You don’t have to push the theme overtly. (That’s New Year’s job!) Just keep in mind that many folks feel a bit more ready to dive into routines related to health, education and wellbeing.

Don’t Forget Other Groups Impacted by the School Year

The impending approach of cooler weather signifies change for other groups, too. Branded merchandise in the form of T-shirts, pencils, markers, backpacks and electronic devices are all great items to push right about now. But other related themes can tie into your upcoming campaigns:

  • Adult education and job seekers
  • Restaurant industry: dietary changes
  • Fall styles and trends
  • Health and wellbeing programs

Known as the “September surge,” this time period is also associated with an uptick in career development moves such as increased job searches. This essentially means that, not unlike the beginning of the actual new year, many adults become inspired to make impactful changes in their lives. Therefore, it may be wise to consider those kinds of themes for your next event, and then couple branded workout apparel or notebooks for adults to highlight popular and timely trends.

(Find out more about trends in branded merchandise here.)

Fall is America’s Favorite Season

The other point about summer ending: not everyone has a summer-season personality. Many are relieved to put away the SPF 70 and put on longer sleeves. There are more than a few reasons that fall is considered people’s favorite season in the U.S., with 45% of Americans saying they prefer autumn to the other three seasons. It’s even more popular among women.

Marketers should be looking for creative ways to take advantage of the moment. Not by prematurely pushing pumpkin spice, but by tapping into what is so appealing about fall in the first place.

Marketers Should Find Out Who Influences Sub-Groups of Students

According to GlobalData, there were more than 33 million households in the U.S. with young kids in 2022. But there are many subgroups within that demographic, so you will want to take a closer look at who exactly you’re speaking to – and what the more effective ways to do that are. For example, a few important things to know about students, according to Social Native:

  1. A third of people on Tik Tok are adults with young kids.
  2. Most parents ask their kids’ opinions when shopping for them.
  3. However, older teens and college students (gen Z) are more influenced by their peers and YouTube than by their parents or traditional ads.

As these kinds of figures show, it’s necessary to take a closer look not just at age groups, but what kinds of students they are and who is influencing them when they shop.

HYPTE Branded Solutions Will Help You Design Your Fall Season Campaign

HYPTE Branded Solutions is here to help you at any stage of your back-to-school marketing campaign – or any other type of campaign you plan to launch.

Contact HYPTE for more on our services, or call us at 708-343-9730 to set up a free consultation today.

Attract Your Target Fanbase: Use These 7 Summer Marketing Lessons

July 19, 2024

Is your summer marketing campaign fully primed to take advantage of the season? If you’re located in the Midwest or a similar climate, then you know about the power of seasons. But it may mean taking additional measures to entice your target audience before fall arrives.

1. Warm Weather Events Make Excellent Branding Opportunities

The first step in a marketer’s summer campaign should be to prepare themed merchandise to coincide with seasonal events. In many parts of the country, the number of in-person gatherings spikes exponentially in June, and so do opportunities for capitalizing on concerts, parades, street parties, water activities, and outdoor sporting events.

2. Branded, Outdoor-Themed Giveaways Are Simple and Effective

Your business doesn’t have to align specifically with a branded product to use it to your advantage. You might be surprised at the number of low-cost goods that can carry your company name, convey a good time, and help create lasting memories. Just a few examples of summer-themed marketing merchandise HYPTE could hook you up with include:

  • SPF lip balm
  • Wide-brimmed hats
  • Summer apparel
  • Refreshing beverages
  • Hand-held fans
  • Water bottles
  • Bottle openers

Want to boost your ROI? Use co-branded items with the world’s most popular logos on them.

3. Where Will Your Target Audience Be This Summer?

Not everyone experiences summer the same way. Smart brands give people more ways to celebrate and enjoy life wherever they are. Spotify knew this last year when they launched their “bummer summer” campaign, aiming playlists of moody tunes at Gen Zers.

As always, keep your target market in mind. Spotify’s campaign captured the essence of a specific generation tied to a desirable audience. It wasn’t just the catchy name that helped boost their strategy, but the fact that music accompanies young people everywhere they go – especially in warm weather months.

4. Summertime Consumers Want to Be Entertained & Engaged

Look for opportunities to incorporate interactive tactics. One significant branding trend has been through experiential marketing, creating an experience that makes people want to know more about your brand. In a LEGO store, this might translate to a workshop setting that allows customers to build their own LEGO creations. Retail brands in particular are rethinking floor designs that involve customers instead of simply advertising to them. If there’s a way you can incorporate an engaging outdoor display – even better.

5. Create Virtual Summer Experiences Through Social Media

Not every company has a storefront. If not, those experiences you’re creating may need to take place virtually, and social media will play a vital role in making that happen. Encouraging people to share live experiences as “stories” on Instagram or Facebook is more fun for consumers than telling them what to buy.

Additionally, no matter where a campaign takes place, there are ways to weave it into your social media calendar. As always, show, don’t tell. Displaying your Insta or Twitter handle alongside a branded hashtag to coincide with an event will get people to spread the word.

6. Get Out and Leverage Local Business Partnerships

What makes your business unique? Find local businesses that want to promote one another mutually by sharing leads. There are hundreds of professional networking groups in any large city with meet-and-greets in full force this time of year. If you’re not taking advantage of all that networking energy, you’re missing out on potential business leads.

7. Include Lasting Barcodes or Tags for Affiliate Partners

Once you’ve established some helpful business relationships to leverage during your campaign, be sure to implement tools that will boost those ties. For example, long-lasting barcodes or pixel tags for your affiliate partners is a simple but effective way to build on your successes. These types of tools are becoming fairly ubiquitous in society, even among older consumers. Set them up so that referrals will be active for long periods of time to make these two-way relationships worthwhile.

HYPTE Branded Solutions Creates Cool Summer Merchandise + Fun Business Experiences

If anything has a vibe, it’s summer. The digital marketing experts at HYPTE Branded Solutions will help you inject the right vibe into your summer marketing campaign, whether through targeted events, e-commerce channels, social media, or something else entirely.

Contact HYPTE for help at any stage of your marketing campaign. Call us at 708-343-9730 today to get started!

5 Ways to Make a Lasting Impression with Your Customers

June 18, 2024

If making a positive lasting impression with customers feels elusive, it’s probably time to focus your efforts somewhere else. There are efficient ways to make good impressions at every stage of the business cycle, but it can be challenging to recognize these opportunities and then act to take advantage of them.

Sometimes it’s easy to spot a specific moment that can be tied to an engaging event and put your name in front of a whole new audience of prospective customers. For all the moments in between, keep in mind five rules of thumb that can help shine a better light on a struggling brand.

1. Show Customers You Learn From Your Mistakes

It has been said that people remember how others make them feel much longer than they remember what was said to them. Apply that philosophy to your brand’s behavior and you will master at least part of your game – and retain loyal customers. Everyone makes mistakes. So do companies. What customers don’t forgive is a brand that refuses to learn or improve.

There are plenty of real-world cautionary tales of avoidable branding missteps that can serve as teachable moments for the rest of us. Unnecessary brand reinventions. Tone deaf attempts at advertising. Remember Juicero’s failed foray into juice-squeezing technology? It could have been walked back had the company recognized its error. Instead of digging your heels in when times get tough, show potential and current customers that you get it and are willing to evolve when the chance presents itself.

2. Get Professional Help from a Marketing Expert

One common mistake that businesses with limited resources make is trying to do all of their marketing and advertising under one roof. They overlook the power of outsourcing in today’s world, not realizing that handing over these time-consuming tasks frees up hours they can use to expand on what they already do well.

A whole range of solutions can help create and maintain the impression you want, which is why more companies are employing the services of a qualified branding professional to fill in the gaps. When you partner with HYPTE, you get more than marketing assistance. You outsource a range of tasks to experts that would otherwise become major distractions:

  • Branding Services
  • Marketing
  • Consulting
  • Merchandise Development
  • Warehouse Fulfillment
  • Logo Design
  • Logistics

3. Use Branded Merchandise and Experiences More Creatively

Hoping to save money, companies will often select cheap product manufacturers to produce caps, totes, and other branded merchandise, unaware of what they want and need. The problem is that expectations have risen in this area. Savvy consumers can tell when businesses cut corners by ordering cheap T-shirts, useless trinkets and other substandard products.

An experienced branding expert knows which methods can help businesses outshine the competition. Combining humor, a multilayered approach, and unique, memorable ideas is one way to accomplish that. Take a look at how HYPTE used branded motorized scooters and leveraged its relationships with the media to promote Coors Light during one campaign. It’s that level of professional creativity that companies need to strive for if they want their campaigns to make a splash instead of a whimper.

4. Improve Your Customer Service: Be a Leader

As much as customers want to be heard, they appreciate and need leadership – more than you might think. According to one analysis reported in the Wall Street Journal, the vast majority of shoppers preferred customer service reps who were “outspoken and opinionated,” qualities that the same study showed are almost always overlooked during the hiring process. You are the expert in what you offer, and your target audience needs to see that as well.

5. Consult with HYPTE About Better Marketing Solutions for Your Brand

Cool new swag can often be a fun, cost-effective way to stay top of mind. But at HYPTE Branded Solutions, we recognize that a lot more goes into discerning what your needs are and what combination of methods are a match for your long-term goals. That’s why each project starts with a thorough consultation to find out as much as we can about each specific client.

Contact HYPTE online for more information about what we offer, or talk to a branding specialist at 708-343-9730 today to find out how your future campaigns can leave the impression you’ve always wanted for your brand.

The Unique Power of Experiential Brands

May 15, 2024

When it comes to experiential brand marketing, engagement is the name of the game. That’s why all kinds of brands today are discovering the power of events and other popular, interactive ways to get noticed.

Businesses Celebrating Their Brands

Certain brands have enough cache that it feels like an event when a new product or generation of one is announced. But the truth is, anytime people are using a space connected to a particular brand they’re having an experience, whether they’re interacting with the Geek Squad at a Best Buy, testing products at Apples stores, or working virtually from a Starbucks. Any fun event combined with the announcement of a new service or store location will get your fans involved in a more emotional way than, say, a typical TV ad or email.

The Power of Experience in Marketing

In reality, experiential marketing isn’t exactly new. It’s just that brands are becoming much savvier about how they can immerse potential consumers in a way that can have a huge impact on business. However, while the data on experiential marketing show a higher success rate than other approaches, not every experience is guaranteed to deliver a desirable outcome. Businesses can boost their odds by using the services of a qualified branding professional to create experiential campaigns that are most likely to succeed.

Creative Events That Leave a Positive Impression with Customers

At this point, marketers commonly incorporate some form of experiential advertising in their campaigns. What’s changing is the variety of paths that businesses take to ensure they leave an impression. Some effective ways you can create interactive branded experiences include:

  1. Celebrating milestones big and small
  2. Conducting online workshops and events
  3. Hosting contests and flash sales on social media
  4. Handing out swag at events and festivals
  5. Doing demos in public spaces
  6. Offering samples at local stores
  7. Taking advantage of special days from Earth Day to the Fourth

Keep in mind: the power of these types of experiences will lie in the small moments that leave lasting, positive associations with your name and your key messages.

A Presence in Public Spaces

Where is your target audience? Brands ranging from dating apps to branches of the military find ways to set up shop on university campuses to drive awareness. And there’s a reason for this. According to the website G2, 91% of consumers would be “more inclined to purchase a brand’s product or service after participating in a brand activation or experience.” Many respondents also reported feeling “more loyal” to brands once they’ve participated in something, which says a lot about the power of getting potential consumers more involved in any way you can.

How Experiential Branding Expert HYPTE Creates Success for Clients

There is a wide gap between events that create a splash and those that don’t. This is why HYPTE Branded Solutions has had the fortune of providing solutions for a roster of impressive brand names. Our team understands that words like “branding” and “experience” can be abstract when it comes to making real-world plans. For a bit more clarity, check out some examples of the highly creative and interactive approach to branding we have achieved for clients in the past:

  1. Creating ingenious bottle openers for Dos Equis that enticed customers at bars
  2. Helping BBC America rebrand a new show in a fun and engaging way
  3. Generating buzz through motorized “cooler scooters” for Coors Light
  4. Creating a variety of swag used at a Los Angeles Dodgers fan convention
  5. Producing tents, table covers, flags and custom changing tables for a Pampers event

Talk to the Specialists at HYPTE for the Best Experiential Marketing Solutions

As you can see, there’s no one way to be experiential. It requires a combination of processes to create the kinds of experiences that will match your messaging. At HYPTE Branded Solutions, we start by getting to know you, the client, and diving into your needs and business goals. Then we think outside of the box to produce highly innovative ideas that will tap into whatever it takes to create new fans. Contact HYPTE online, or talk to a branding specialist at 708-343-9730 about the best ways to start creating experiential branding today.

Hottest Trends in Branded Merchandise

April 17, 2024

Think your branded merchandise doesn’t matter? Think again. Positive associations with even small memorabilia can have a surprisingly lasting and positive impact on how people view your business. Consumers themselves overwhelmingly believe a “promotional product is a great way to stand out from other advertising efforts,” according to a recent Gitnux study. They hold onto these items and “feel more positively about a brand after receiving promotional products from that brand.”

Top choices these days include fun yet practical items such as:

  • Clothing
  • Kitchen products
  • Umbrellas
  • Promotional bags
  • Mugs and other drinkware
  • Magnets

For some insight into what makes for successful branded merchandise, take a peek at the most relevant qualities that can help you build a loyal and engaged following:

High Quality Apparel

Always popular, it’s no surprise that apparel continues to be the number one type of branded merchandise. However, as the stakes get higher the quality of your apparel needs to be top notch. The days are gone when you could slap a logo on a plain, white T and call it a day. You need assurance of an appealing style, on-brand messaging, and superior look and feel before allowing any wearable products out the door.

Flash Buys

Looking for a more interactive way to generate enthusiasm and create a sense of exclusivity around your product? According to Popupsmart, “56% of businesses receive higher click-to-open rates from flash sales emails compared to their yearly rate. 50% of purchases occur during the first hour of a flash sale.” Spontaneous, short-term sales are a great way to take advantage of digitized marketing, as well as to make acquiring something new more fun and engaging for the consumer.

Sustainable Items

Anything showing you have your finger on the pulse of larger societal trends will make your brand stand out as fresh and in touch with average customers. One area that has grown exponentially is in sustainable products.

But consumers are more savvy than ever and won’t get sucked into a company’s “green” initiatives if their promises seem empty. It’s increasingly important to showcase your values, whatever they are. And you can appeal especially to younger demographics with items such as reusable straws, compostable bags, and anything else that shows you are on the cutting edge of environmentalism.

Products That Support Newer Technology

Remember when branded mouse pads were all the rage? That same idea needs to be updated to show you are in the know when it comes to technology. And considering the wide range of tech accessories, more companies are replacing those thumb drives with webcam covers, earbuds, and other helpful items prospective buyers can take on the road.

More Customization

One sure way to distinguish yourself from the masses is with carefully customized branded products that specifically match your company’s messaging. What this means is injecting a level of detailed creativity that make your branded goods stand out, whether through:

  1. High-end materials
  2. Textures and engraved messages
  3. Select colors
  4. Original designs

The extensive range of ways to tailor products these days is unprecedented. And more companies are discovering that to grow they need branded merchandise that distinguishes themselves from their competitors, from custom products to better packaging. A branding expert will learn about your business to craft unique ideas that reflect your individual voice, values, style and messaging.

Co-Branding, or Brand Collaborations with Popular, Recognizable Names

Being associated with universally recognized, popular name brands is a surefire way to increase your visibility. For over twenty years, Hypte Branded Solutions has helped thousands of clients target their ideal audience through swag carrying the logos of Patagonia, the NFL, Lululemon and more. To get the most bang for your buck, partner with an experienced branded solutions firm such as Hypte that can provide a wide range of options.

Consult with Branding Experts at HYPTE for the Best Merchandising Solutions

Investing in name brand items is one of the smartest decisions a growing business can make today. You are sure to impress when your specialized form of branded merch comes with a Nike or Ralph Lauren logo – as part of a broader solution provided by HYPTE Branded Solutions.

Contact HYPTE online, or talk to a branding specialist at 708-343-9730 about the best ways to target your branded merchandise to your ideal audience.