In 2019 we've been exposed to, what seems like, every sales and marketing tactic under the sun. The upside is that we're slowly learning some valuable lessons. The most notable is a move away from solely investing in traditional advertising methods and towards a stronger brand that connects with the values and desires of the customer.
Read moreOver many years, the university experience has evolved into more than a place to obtain an accreditation, it has become a very personal decision by a student around what kind of person they'd like to become in their formative years. The result for marketers is that students take a significant amount of consideration when selecting the right university.
Read moreUsing events and experiences as a part of an integrated university marketing strategy allows the audience to be taken on a journey. Combine this recipe with authentic story-telling, beautiful creative and a strong, consistent brand message and the potential to touch people, emotionally, mentally and physically is immense.
Read moreCustomer loyalty is crucial to building a strong brand. The Real Estate sector deals with products and services that are highly personal. It is no surprise then, that word of mouth from well nurtured customers carries significant weight with an audience of new potential customers.
Read moreFranchise co-branding with other businesses in psychically similar industries may take many forms. Whether the co-branding activity is the sharing of physical space or simply a shared campaign, the intention is primarily to capitalise on the strength of two brands to expand the pool of customers and attract more business.
Read moreManagement of digital assets is an issue that organisations of every size must face at some stage of operation. Everything from logos, fonts, photography, stock imagery document files and more must be thoughtfully stored with permissions managed appropriately so that the right parts of the business are matched to the best resources for their application.
Read moreSo often the brand is an afterthought to the recognition of revenue, handling of FTE and organisational strategy. It is vital you have a strong merger or integration plan (or even new brand plan) ready to go before the contract is executed.
Read moreBrand managers and marketing managers tasked with business expansion often look to enter new markets and expand their business through market development.
Read moreWhether your CRM is complex or a straight out-of-the-box solution, once you've found one that fits, you'll wonder how you functioned at all before. The other likelihood is that you'll want the data contained within it to fuel almost any customer-facing activity you conduct.
Read moreAnyone who has worked in a marketing team has experienced a wealth of platforms that are no longer used. Some careful planning can make a difference and ensure your budget won't go to waste.
Read moreBrand consistency is hard to measure, but that doesn't mean it isn't important. At its core, branding and consistency is an investment in a business' brand promise and a commitment to making sure all areas of the business deliver that promise.
Read moreIt’s easy to see how investing in brand can slide down a list of business priorities when more immediate and tangible needs clamour for attention.
Read moreRunning a marketing team and strategy for a franchise requires extensive marketing knowledge, an ability to negotiate complex deliverables with diverse stakeholders and strong budget mastery.
Read moreOnce you have the customer at the centre and understand how your campaigns will drive the results your team need to deliver, there are two more pillars of a great marketing strategy.
Read moreNo matter your industry, there are some key pillars around which to build a great marketing strategy. These pillars evolve as marketing and strategy trends evolve.
Read moreThe martech landscape is crowded, and it can be difficult for marketers to identify whether their stack is right, or optimised for maximum impact. Do you have the right platforms?
Read moreBusinesses that work within the additional boundaries of regulatory and legislative compliance, however, have added considerations of compliance that need to work alongside the more predictable brand compliance.
Read moreFollowing on from our last blog post, where we looked at franchise trends for brands, we are taking a deeper dive into the use of data to personalise franchise marketing. Personalisation has become a core component of the marketers' arsenal, to the point that it is the standard operating procedure.
Read moreFranchise brands, in some categories, can be tremendously innovative, and in other verticals can wait to see which way the wind blows before deciding whether to implement a trend to their brand or operations.
Read moreWith the most recent version of the Franchising Code in effect from 1 January 2015 and the Fairness in Franchising report from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services issued in March 2019, the world of franchising in Australia continues to be a moving feast, particularly for marketers.
Read moreLocal area marketing (LAM), especially for new franchisees, can seem quite daunting. LAM can certainly become a complicated beast but by following these 5 tips, you can make it work for you and your store instead of you working for LAM without results!
Read moreBrand reputation for any business, small medium or otherwise, is a fragile and valuable commodity that takes years to establish (or a moment to tear down). So what is brand reputation and how do we build it within a franchise organisation?
Read moreFor a franchise business, successful branding is a lot like sailing with the wind behind your sails. The excellent news for franchise businesses is – you have a considerable advantage over your non-franchise competitors because you have a powerful, and recognisable brand standing behind you.
Read moreSuccessful franchise networks with sustainable and successful business models naturally encourage franchisees to become multi-site franchisees. These franchisees benefit because they understand the business and can scale in and around their original territory, or even in entirely different regions.
Read moreMarketing teams within an enterprise are a powerful mix of skills, experience and perspective. Your job as a leader is to empower them as a team and individually and to build the understanding of, and respect for, the marketing team within the broader organisation.
Read moreReal estate marketing strategy is a series of tactics and internal planning that essentially aims to generate sales within the business. These strategies drive the movement of people from prospects to leads, and when nurtured correctly, can convert into customers.
Read moreLocal Area Marketing (LAM) or Local Store Marketing (LSM) is a core tenet in any franchise system and is an invaluable asset to both franchisees and franchisors.
Read moreBrand management for a franchise is best suited to someone who has outstanding marketing knowledge, an ability to influence stakeholders and draw upon empathy to achieve the best result for the network. The network and revenue will grow when you approach brand management in this manner.
Read moreThe Real Estate industry has historically copped a pretty bad wrap for their saturation of the market with traditional media in a mass approach. Well all of that is about to change. We're about to see more tailored content than ever before thanks to years of data collection.
Read moreSocial media has become ubiquitous with communications and marketing, and the new and the shiny. Indeed, in recent years some of the gloss has come off the major platforms as concerns about privacy continue to mount. This isn't a PSA about privacy, but it is about smart marketing strategy.
Read moreMarketers, contrary to popular belief, don't play with glitter and crayons and we have a strong sense of an impending budget cut. We can read the signs (aka sales results), and know that soon the finance manager and CFO will be sitting down with us to discuss doing the same amount of work with less money.
Read moreSay 'procurement' to most brand and marketing managers and we tend to run for the hills - not because we don't like shiny and useful things, but because the process can be tricky and time-consuming to navigate.
Read moreSoftware increasingly plays a vital role in successful brand development. Gone are the days of an immovable strategy, hard copy brand guidelines and only a few channels in with to advertise. To manage the expansion of brand and brand management, a proliferation of software now supports the modern marketer and brand manager.
Read moreAgility is key to an organisation’s success – it must be able to react, adapt and pivot quickly to stay on top of its game. The business landscape is constantly shifting, and consumers are confronted with more choice and more competition than ever before.
Read moreBrand management for universities is a beautifully intricate proposition, weaving internal and external stakeholders together in a complex ballet, not for the faint-hearted. Brand management for an institution like a university involves the understanding and development of complex brand strategies with the aim of influencing internal and external factors and building long-term brand health.
Read moreOrganisations across all industries can benefit from taking the time to measure a campaign’s return on investment (ROI).
Read moreAn on brand strategy defines how a business approaches every aspect of their marketing strategy. Marketing strategies don’t just incorporate advertising - when marketing is focused, it also incorporates reputation management, social media, search engine optimisation, visual branding, and customer service.
Read moreWe understand that many of our customers' organisations have unique requirements and workflows we can't expect one size to fits all - especially when it comes to automating a brand. Outfit looks different for each organisation - take a look at just three ways to adopt Outfit.
Read morePersonalised marketing has a wealth of data to support why marketers and brand managers are using it to drive results for their organisations. Personalisation isn't just about adding merge tags - personalisation is using data at scale to increase the relevancy of the message and the brand to the person and situation.
Read moreGood brand management is the art of moving people to full engagement with your brand. Good brand management translates to results by allowing the business and the marketing and brand teams to focus on metrics that deliver an ROI.
Read moreManaging a brand is a complex undertaking, especially if multiple stakeholders are using the brand. The more stakeholders, the more difficult it is to ensure brand compliance. As a brand manager, 'managing the brand' can be reduced to logo control, but ensuring brand compliance involves working across the entire organisation.
Read moreAs the franchisor, your priority is to build and maintain a strong brand to increase your brand equity and the goodwill for your P&L. As a franchisee, I want a brand that is easy to use when I need to produce sales and marketing collateral.
Read moreIt is the truest of truisms that mistakes happen, no matter how vigilantly you guard against them. Being less than perfect beings, we make mistakes, and as marketers, many of our mistakes end up in the public sphere *gulp*.
Read moreThe high-churn, monotonous work that bogs down Designers every day is not what they signed up for. Much of this volume is comprised of localised print documents and signage that can be easily automated through Outfit.
Read moreYou don’t have to burrow too deep into the annals of history to unearth a slew of rebranding success stories with plenty of smart and savvy moves playing out in 2018.
Read moreScalability and efficiency are Outfit's middle names, but there is more than one way to achieve these. Let's talk about one specifically designed to make your life easier in the short-term by using common elements in documents and allowing stakeholders to multi-edit them.
Read moreTo understand the history of brand management, we first need to understand where the term 'brand'originated. 'Brand' in the modern sense, is commonly associated with the name of a product or service, similar to a trademark.
Read moreThe power of brand integrity (saying what you do and doing what you say) is at the centre of many friction points between brands and their customers. Saying what you do and doing what you say is incredibly powerful, and cannot be replaced by advertising spend, spin campaigns or investor calls.
Read moreA major component in any campaign is the landing page. It's where the bulk of digital and print collateral point customers to in order to collect responses. The great news is that you don't have to be a developer to create professional, localised campaign landing pages in Outfit!
Read moreBrand automation removes the weight of expectation for a lot of central marketing teams while supporting the whole organisation.
Read moreWhat does it mean to debrand? Somewhat confusingly, the term debrand has two definitions. Debranding: the removal of brand elements to appear less corporate and more personal, or, the shift away from any recognisable brand to appear generic.
Read moreRebranding an organisation, particularly one at enterprise level, is a complicated prospect and needs to be approached with the right framework to support a successful transition.
Read moreIf you have ever worked in a marketing or design role in any capacity, you will be familiar with some type of design request process. Whatever your experience, we can all agree that it's a necessary process that can be frustrating and time-consuming for all involved - until now.
Read moreWhat is brand? There are as many definitions of 'brand' as there are brand managers and marketing 'consultants'. Your logo is not your brand. It is not your product. It is your promise to the customer.
Read moreEfficiency in marketing production seems like nirvana for most marketers and heads of marketing. Seemingly out of reach for time pressured and resource-poor marketers, we know we should be more efficient, but how exactly are we meant to achieve it?
Read moreBrands are comprised of many moving parts. From the logo, fonts, colours and even language we use, to the look and feel we communicate to our customers, we are responsible for establishing systems and processes to protect these elements.
Read moreMetadata is a vital component of good data use and is an incredibly efficient way to get the most out of the technology. One of the most challenging parts in managing a widely distributed network of stakeholders, be it an international organisation, a franchise network or even a multi-site education corporation, is establishing a central source of truth for generic, localised information.
Read moreA brand is only as strong as its weakest usage - our cumulative experiences of a brand form our impressions, and if these experiences are in disarray, if these experiences are discordant and divisive our impression of the brand is the same. These are our tips for brand management in a decentralised environment.
Read moreWhen a brand manager begins to map and develop a brand hierarchy, it is important to consider your audiences and your product or service offering.
Read moreDesign, by its very nature, is iterative. When we start to involve multiple designer and stakeholder 'cooks' in the kitchen, the versions really do start to stack up.
Read moreThe real estate sector is one trapped in the ultimate irony; data is essential, and yet the industry is saturated in generalised marketing material. At Outfit, we are working with some of Australia’s leading real estate agencies to combine digital and print in more meaningful ways while also creating efficiencies for agents.
Read moreBrand management, digital asset management, content management and branding automation management are key platforms used in traditional marketing technology stacks for enterprise-level organisations, and there is much cross-over between their features and functionality.
Read moreCentral marketing teams of enterprise companies experience six common challenges in their efforts to shape a brand and marketing presence within their market.
Read moreThe landscape of marketing technology is crowded and complicated. Outfit's open API allows the platform to integrate with your existing stack to increase efficiency, to increase your data use and to make it easy for teams to create campaigns and collateral easily.
Read moreThe question of a house of brands or a branded house leads into brand architecture and is another way to approach the development of your architecture and structure.
Read moreBrand management is the development and execution of strategy to strengthen brand perception in the market. Your brand is only as strong as perception, and resultant sales, so it is imperative to have a brand management strategy.
Read moreBrand automation may be a relatively new concept for many marketers and brand managers, but it solves very key issues for enterprise marketing teams, including branding inconsistencies and design workflow and volume bottlenecks.
Read moreMost marketing teams have pools and pots of data and often don't maximise, or even use, the data they have to deliver personalised content and a better user experience. Outfit integrates with your key data sources to use your data to drive creative, branded output.
Read moreWith help from the rad dudes at Streamtime, Andy Wright and Paddy Morgan - Outfit recently hosted the first community-driven Never Not Creative event in Brisbane, furthering the discussion around internships.
Read moreOutfit templates are powerful tools because they employ the rules set out by your brand style guide and apply them dynamically, like a friend guiding you away from bad decisions and making smart, on-brand design tweaks easier.
Read moreTemplates for brand control have evolved a lot over the years. Gone are the days of Microsoft Office and editable PDFs. Welcome to the world of powerful, responsive and controlled templates.
Read moreDemonstrate the ROI of implementing Outfit using our ROI Calculator, and understand the assumptions and calculations that drive it.
Read moreInputs are a powerful feature of Outfit, allowing users to customise their documents within the boundaries of your guidelines. The different types of input range from colour to text to choice to image.
Read moreDesign without the designer can seem counter-intuitive to organisations who depend on strong brand controls and guidelines to strengthen brand equity. The right sort of design without the designer however, is a powerful paradigm shift for companies.
Read moreBrand automation allows graphic designers to focus more on bespoke work by empowering internal stakeholders to produce their own collateral. Outfit supports this independence with inputs - allowing some customisation without decreasing brand governance.
Read moreWith real estate becoming ever more competitive, finding ways to be efficient in marketing can make an enormous difference to your time and bottom line. Outfit integrates with your existing technology stack to make it easy to produce marketing at scale.
Read morePaid and unpaid internships are prevalent within the creative sphere. The team at Outfit feel so passionately about paid internships, and the future of happy and healthy creatives we are hosting the first Never Not Creative Brisbane event.
Read moreIf you're interested in Brand Automation to gain more control over marketing material and reduce human error, we need to talk about Approval Workflows.
Read moreIf you're interested in Brand Automation to gain more control over marketing material and reduce human error, we need to talk about Approval Workflows.
Read moreNot sure if you are ready to implement Outfit? We've created a quick list below that will get you well on your way to brand automation!
Read moreResponsive landing pages, HTML email templates and blog posts are all cool tech smarts that we're grateful for, right up until we have to make changes to them. Imagine if content experts, designers or marketing coordinators didn't have to have coding cred to update a HTML landing page or email template...
Read moreDaunted by the thought of collaborating with your whole team within a marketing automation platform like Outfit? Keep only the bits you like and ditch the bits you don't with our new Revision History Feature.
Read moreWant to know how much Outfit has changed in the past year? Take a trip down memory lane with us where we share features, insights and developments from 2017.
Read moreThe 2nd in our '5 Minutes With' series, Ash from Outfit spends 5 minutes with Matt Haynes of The Design Conference on baseball, success and Brisbane creatives.
Read moreOutfit Head of Customer Success, Ash Thompson spends 5 minutes with Dominique Falla; author, speaker and typographer on life as a successful creative.
Read moreA popular concept for marketers is Psychology of Colour - but how has the age of information influenced what we know about the influence of colour in design?
Read moreIf you've ever spent a significant amount of time editing in Outfit only to realise you're in the wrong template, our Copy Content feature will be a life saver!
Read moreIf you're a veteran Outfit user, you may have noticed a couple of changes when logging in. Most notably, a completely different way of keeping track of activity
Read moreLearn all about our newest update to Outfit: Featured Slides! Read more about this powerful new feature that's changing the way we guide users around Outfit!
Read moreSome great insights into Outfit's highlights from our two days sponsoring and attending the 2017 UAMCD Conference in Brisbane.
Read moreOutfit is working with several Group of Eight universities to save an estimated $2.8 million in wasted revenue, which could be spent on research and teaching.
Read moreIt's no secret. Marketers across the globe are struggling with localising global campaigns. But it doesn't have to be when Outfit is adopted in an organisation.
Read moreIn this blog entry, Bek Agius - Outfit Account Manager - shares the top 5 criteria the most savvy franchisees check for when assessing franchise brand strength.
Read moreLearn more about the new support features available within Outfit's Training Area.
Read moreOutfit's new Project Cloning feature is a great way to create efficiencies within your business and streamline recurring processes.
Read moreHow important is Brand Consistency in capturing (and retaining) the attention of your audience? Ash Thompson, Customer Success Manager from Outfit explains.
Read moreAn opinion piece on the effectiveness of Foxtel's recent rebrand from Outfit's Head of Customer Success, Ash Thompson.
Read moreAsh Thompson - Outfit's Head of Customer Success - gives a review of the 2017 Design Conference which was held in Brisbane, Australia
Read moreThis post demonstrates how brand automation software - such as Outfit - will improve job responsibilities for people in a marketing or brand management role.
Read moreThis post highlights six university marketing campaigns that have stayed in the memory bank of Outfit.
Read moreAirbnb's React based sketch plugin means a massive boost in design engagement for Outfit's template based brand and marketing platform.
Read moreBlog page of Outfit, where you can read news about brand automation, marketing production, design and new features. This post relates to local area marketing.
Read moreSix Do's and Don'ts to Take your Franchise Brand to the Next Level
Read moreWork smarter, not harder.
Read moreLearn about our new workflow for creating documents.
Read moreGetting up to speed with Outfits new navigation.
Read moreAfter extensive conceptualising, wire-framing, user-testing and debating we finally reached a design that focus-groups were delighted to use and we were proud to deploy.
Read moreEliminate the need for design approvals and copy changes with Outfit.
Read moreEmpower your team to Collaborate & Converse in Outfit
Read moreFlexible Document Sizes & the Power of Resizable Templates
Read moreResize and reposition background images with ease.
Read moreRestricting Text Content Within Outfit Templates with some CSS & JS
Read moreA Responsive Event Website, Created and Hosted in Minutes
Read moreIn Review - Design Disruptors Brisbane Screening
Read moreHow to create themeable websites with css currentColor
Read moreLearn all about how Outfit handles web to print conversion.
Read moreCMOs are Spending More Time in the Driver’s Seat
Read moreA Tale of Branded Artistic Production
Read moreCollaboration: four lessons learned in the digital era
Read moreOutfit ensures brand consistency and accelerates marketing production. Streamline your marketing operations and save costs with brand and marketing.
Read moreHow brand and marketing can work better together
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