Breaking Barriers and Boosting Business: The Benefits of Working With Women-Owned Businesses
Women have been making waves in the business world for decades now, breaking down barriers and creating positive change in industries across the board. From small startups to large corporations, the change makers in history have paved the path for women-owned businesses to make an impact and change the face of the (business) world. In this blog, we’ll explore the benefits of working with women-owned businesses and highlight some examples of women making positive changes in their industries.
Benefits of Working with a Woman-Owned Business
- Diversity and Inclusion
Women-owned businesses often prioritize diversity and inclusion in their hiring and business practices. This creates a more diverse and inclusive workplace, which helps improve employee morale and productivity.
- Innovation
Studies have shown that diverse teams are more innovative and come up with better solutions to complex problems. By working with a woman-owned business, you can tap into the unique perspectives and ideas of women entrepreneurs, which can lead to new and innovative products and services.
- Social Responsibility
Many women-owned businesses prioritize social responsibility and giving back to their communities. By working with a woman-owned business, you can feel good about supporting a company that is committed to positively impacting the world. (HAVEN Heroes, anyone?)
Examples of Women Making Positive Change in Business
- Sallie Krawcheck
Sallie Krawcheck is the CEO and co-founder of Ellevest, an investment platform designed specifically for women. Krawcheck is a champion for gender diversity in the financial industry and has been vocal about the need for more women in leadership positions.
- Sara Blakely
Sara Blakely is the founder of Spanx, a company that revolutionized the shapewear industry. Blakely is committed to empowering women and has donated millions to organizations supporting women's causes.
- Ursula Burns
Ursula Burns, the former CEO of Xerox Corporation, was the first African American woman to lead a Fortune 500 company. She implemented diversity and inclusion initiatives within the company, making positive shifts in how the business ran. Subsequently, she went on to receive numerous awards such as the Women’s Leadership Exchange Trailblazer Award. Her accomplishments serve as inspiration for many women in business everywhere.
Working with a woman-owned business can bring a wide range of positive benefits to your organization. From diversity and inclusion to innovation and social responsibility, women entrepreneurs are making positive changes in industries across the board. By supporting and collaborating with women-owned businesses such as HAVEN Creative®, we can create a more equitable and prosperous (business) world for everyone.
Let’s Talk About the Differences Between Owned, Earned, and Paid Media
Marketing is full of buzzwords and jargon: SEO, remarketing, paid media, cost-per-click. The list goes on and on. These terms are often casually slipped into marketing meetings, and half the time it feels natural to just nod your head as if you know what the flock is going on — but in reality, you’re still trying to figure out what’s being talked about with the help of vague context clues!
However, confusing jargon can distract decision makers and mask the true meaning of words– which can be really dangerous when deciding on marketing investments. That’s why it’s HAVEN Creative’s mission in life to bust up marketing jargon, buzzwords, and B.S.!
One of the best ways we can do this is to help our clients to become experts in their own communications — also known as a maven. By making them a maven, we can give them the skills necessary to make the most of limited resources and cleverly navigate the world of ever-changing industry trends.
Today, we’re going to dive into the world of media…particularly paid, owned, and earned media. We’ll talk about what each of these terms mean and how they differentiate from one another. By the end of this article, you should be able to identify which one (or ones) will best apply to your future marketing strategies. So, let’s dive in.
What’s Paid Media?
When someone talks about paid media, it’s easy to think of traditional print, radio, and television advertising. But, thanks to the digital era, paid media has taken on a variety of forms.
Paid media is content that you pay to put in front of your audience. You’re paying to promote your message on an external platform, and this can often come with a hefty price tag. Think ads or sponsored content, including Google Ads (pay-per-click), social media advertising, banner ads, influencer marketing, retargeting ads, etc.
We like to think of paid media as the icing on the cake for your owned and earned media strategies. It allows you to take your message and distribute it to new audiences by paying for additional exposure.
Depending on where you’re choosing to buy your advertising, you’ll be given access to dashboards and reporting to track the ads performance clearly and adjust your marketing strategy based on that data.
What’s Owned Media?
Every marketing channel that your organization officially owns and controls is considered “owned media''. This could be your company website, blog, social media, and other marketing strategies that are deployed under your businesses’ complete control.
While this type of media typically costs less than paid media, it often relies heavily on internal maintenance and oversight. It’s important to note that this audience reach is limited because it is an audience that already knows you.
What’s Earned Media?
Earned media is when others spread your brand’s message for you — without being paid to do so. This type of media will always be published by a third-party, on either their own website or blog, social media channel, publication, etc.
Earned media is highly effective because we live in a world where consumers are greatly influenced by those they trust, whether that be friends, family members, or peers. What others have to say about their experience with your product or brand will speak very highly of whether or not others will follow suit.
Examples of earned media include testimonials and reviews, press releases, news articles, tagged social media posts, etc.
Determining What’s Best for Your Brand
When it comes to determining the best media marketing strategy for your brand, there are a few questions you need to consider.
- What do your media assets look like currently? (Take an inventory of your owned, earned, and paid media strategies.)
- What’s working and what isn’t working — and why?
- What do your customers want and where will you find them most often?
- Do you value new customers over retaining existing customers? (While there’s value in free content on owned and earned media channels, there’s also real value in using paid media in order to grow your flock!)
- Do you have a strong budget for paid advertising?
Once you’ve clarified these things, it will be a lot easier to see exactly what is working, not working, and what you can move towards with your marketing efforts in the future. In the end, it’s important to deploy a well-rounded media strategy that includes a dose of owned, paid, and earned opportunities.
Let’s Make You a Maven
Still not exactly sure where to start? HAVEN Creative® is always here to help! We can help you to better understand your exact owned, earned, and paid media channels and determine ways to optimize your marketing strategy as we look towards Q4.
Need something else? You can also contact one of our HAVEN Mavens™ today to learn more about our workshops and pivot sessions.
Does Your Brand Have a Clear Personality? Find Out What Brand Archetype You Are!
Have you ever heard the phrase, “People do business with people, not companies.”? And in today’s world, this still continues to ring true! Think about big brands like Nike, Apple, and Amazon. Each of these corporations exude a brand narrative that connects with each of our desires to belong, to feel safe, and to feel empowered. And that’s why so many organizations employ a brand archetype, because it offers a framework for a business to take on humanlike qualities to create an emotional connection with its target audience.
What’s a Brand Archetype?
A brand archetype is a human representation of your brand as a persona. This helps your brand to connect with your audience in a deep and meaningful way that builds trust, brand loyalty, and all around authenticity.
But a brand archetype is so much more than just a persona or character - and it can be easy to confuse with your brand identity.
Differences Between a Brand Identity and a Brand Archetype
For one, your brand identity is more of a holistic view of how your business presents itself to the world. This includes your logos, colors, messaging, etc. It’s how you and your team differentiates from others in the industry.
But your brand archetype is a personification of your company’s values, mission and story. It’s how you tell your company’s story in a very real, connective and emotive way.
Exploring the Twelve Brand Archetypes
Across the board, there are twelve types of brand archetypes that your brand can personify.
The Outlaw: This revolutionary archetype likes to break the rules and disrupt the status quo.
The Magician: This magical archetype believes that anything can happen — even beyond what you can see with your own two eyes.
The Hero: This honest and brave archetype personifies the phrase, “Where there’s a will there’s a way.”
The Everyman: Everyone can relate to this connected archetype, who is faithful and down-to-earth with a sense of belonging.
The Lover: Intimacy and passion are two words that immediately come to mind when brands adopt this romantic archetype.
The Jester: This fun and humorous archetype brings joy, fun, and a dash of mischief to the world.
The Creator: If innovation and creative thinking are the driving force behind your business, the Creator Archetype might be the right fit.
The Caregiver: Brands who exemplify the Caregiver Archetype are known to care for and serve others, leaving the world to be a better place than when they first found it.
The Ruler: Those who seek to create order from chaos will most identify with the Ruler Archetype, who is sometimes commanding and controlling, but always responsible.
The Innocent: Happiness, optimism, and youthfulness radiates from this archetype.
The Explorer: If there were three words to best describe this archetype, it would be “freedom”, “excitement”, and “adventure”.
The Sage: Spreading education, wisdom, and knowledge to the rest of the world are of the highest priority to the Sage Archetype.
How Your Chosen Brand Archetype Shapes Your Business
Now that you’ve reviewed the twelve brand archetypes, did you find one that seemed to best align with your business?
For example, HAVEN Creative® identifies as the “The Creator” brand archetype. Here’s how we define what it means to us:
The Creator archetype is one that is driven by the free flow of creativity. The Creator gives new ideas to the world and creates structure by bringing something that didn’t previously exist into being. They are innovators and non-conformists and are often the first to realize a concept and push the boundaries of creativity and design.
That means that in everything we do, we do it with the Creator mindset. We value innovation and creative thinking, and support our clients in making their dreams become realities. We see potential in every conversation, idea, and spreadsheet.
By using our chosen brand archetype to exemplify the Creator Archetype, we’re connecting with clients who also get excited about the possibilities, and are looking to work with a team that’s dedicated to pulling out new, original ideas.
Are you ready to start personifying your brand archetype but not quite sure how to do so? Work with the experts! First, download HAVEN Creative’s free guide and workbook to start. If you’re still looking for more insight, you can also contact one of our HAVEN Mavens™ today to learn more about our workshops and pivot sessions!
Can You Hear Me Now? Your Organization’s Voice Speaks Louder Than Words
The way your brand sounds is just as important as the way it looks. It’s easy to understand why the visual aspects of a brand are important for initially drawing customers and clients to your business, but how do you keep them after that? Short answer: authentic communication. By communicating through a distinct language and tone, better known as your brand voice, you have a better chance at forming a connection and keeping the right customers and clients around.
What exactly is a Brand Voice?
Brand voice is how your brand shares its personality with its audience. A clearly defined brand voice includes the tone, word choice and attitude behind your messaging. These are important pieces of your brand that are meant to help connect people with both the personality of your brand and your brand narrative.
When you establish a clear, consistent brand voice, it is easier to build trust authentically with your audience. 88% of consumers say that authenticity is a major factor in what brands they choose to support (Stackla, 2021). Customers that have developed a bond and feel that a brand cares about them are also over 50% more valuable to the organization as a “fully connected customer” (Harvard Business Review, 2015). Forming an emotional connection and trust with a brand is done through consistency and care, similar to personal relationships. Using your voice to showcase the personality behind your organization gives you the opportunity to form a bond where your customers and clients are more likely to become loyal to your brand.
Discovering your brand voice helps to connect with your audience but also guides your entire team to consistently communicate on all platforms (email, social media, advertising, etc.) This way your brand stands out and your customers know what to expect.
Brand Voice vs. Tone of Voice
Your brand voice may stick to a specific tone in most of its content, but it can change slightly based on the material being shared. The difference between voice and tone is your brand personality (voice) will always stay the same.
Think of how you interact with others on a daily basis. You are yourself in every interaction (your personality), but your tone may change depending on who you're speaking to and why or what you’re speaking about. Would you talk with your boss the same way you would talk to your best friend? Well… maybe you would, but that’s not always recommended.
At HAVEN Creative®, we take the quality of our work very seriously, but we definitely don’t take ourselves too seriously. Our brand voice combines our no-nonsense approach to work ethic with our love of laughing so hard that our face hurts! This helps showcase our true personality. We make it clear that we are here to work hard but that we’re also fun creatives. You can be sure that we’re going to imbed the process with positivity for everyone! Take our brand ethos as an example:
Good Example
Because marketing is full of B.S. and buzzwords and it’s hard to know what kind of agency you need or don’t need, we believe the best thing we can do to help our clients is to help them become experts in their own communications. By making them a maven, we can ensure they have the skills needed to make the most of limited resources, changing industry trends, and navigate the never-ending sea of agencies. We do better when our partners and clients succeed, so it feels only natural to make sure they are best equipped to tell their stories and achieve their goals.
Bad Example
There are a lot of marketing agencies out there, but we’re the best because we make sure you understand your marketing needs.
In the bad example, the word choice and tone exemplify a haughty attitude that we really cannot stand for ourselves. Our voice is meant to be positive, confident and empowering. These are the emotions we want you to feel when you work with us!
How to Build Your Brand Voice
When developing your brand voice, consider asking yourself these two main questions:
- Who is your target audience?
- What are your core values?
By looking at these answers, you’ll be able to determine how you would speak to your target audience. This allows you to then reflect your core values in your communications in a better way. To consistently stay on brand, you need to find your organization's sweet spot between tones such as:
Formal and Casual (too formal and you risk sounding indifferent, too casual and you risk sounding inexperienced)
Respectful and Irreverent (too respectful may seem like inauthentic flattery, too irreverent can come off as offensive)
Funny and Serious (too funny = unprofessional, too serious = stale)
Enthusiastic and Matter-of-Fact (too enthusiastic = irritating, too matter-of-fact = lacking personality)
As branding experts, we love sharing knowledge. We want to help you market your business in a way that works for you with the resources you have. Since we love making mavens of others, we’ve created a free downloadable guidebook (cheat sheet!) for you to work through each aspect of branding for your organization called the “ABC’s of Branding”. If you still feel like you need a helping hand, you can also Contact a HAVEN Maven™ today so we can work with you to get your business on track to where it needs to be.
What Your Brand Colors Say About Your Business — and What They Don’t
We’ve talked about your brand story, your elevator pitch and how your core values are core to your value proposition. But now it’s time to talk about something a little more visually creative and concrete: your brand colors!
Defining your brand colors is an important element in creating a cohesive visual presence for your business. But why exactly is it important? For one, colors and emotions are closely linked from a scientific standpoint. Colors have the power to make us feel happy or sad, hungry or relaxed.
Color is perception, after all. It’s our eyes seeing something and our brains telling us what exactly it is that we’re seeing. And people quickly make decisions about things when they see color: they can decide whether they like or feel drawn to a product in 90 seconds or less. And 90% of that decision is based solely on color alone!
With all of this in mind, here’s how you can begin to determine a color palette that is going to encapsulate your brand’s overall messaging and feeling in just a few colors.
How Many Colors Do You Need?
Depending on how far along you are with your design planning, you may already have a logo in place. And while your brand logo likely has one or two colors in it, the rest of your brand coloring can have a color palette of up to five or six additional complementary colors.
By having a variety of colors to choose from, you’ll find some flexibility in your marketing down the road with design opportunities. This ensures that your designs stay within a specific color palette, further reinforcing the brand visually for your audience.
Where Will Your Brand Colors Be Used?
Now it’s time to think about where your colors are going to be used. Your logo is an obvious one, but what about your website and internal or external marketing materials? This can include everything from event space designs to special holiday promotions to brand materials to merchandise and swag and beyond! Your colors will be just about everywhere.
What Message Do You Want to Convey?
As we mentioned earlier, all colors convey a specific message whether you realize it or not. So what message do you want to convey with your brand’s colors?
Here’s an easy way to start to get clarity on your brand colors. Try this exercise to focus on the colors your brand embodies:
What colors make you feel good?
What colors are often used in your industry?
What colors do your competitors use?
What colors do your customers like?
Understand the Emotions
We also mentioned that certain colors evoke certain emotions. So let’s figure out what message you want your colors to send to your audience right off the bat.
For example, at HAVEN, we love all things “teal-quoise”, toggling back and forth between teal and turquoise. Teal-quoise reminds us of the ocean, a calming haven and the blue sky, much like creative thinking.
Now, it’s your turn. Here are some emotions that researchers have found to be linked to certain colors:
Red: passion, bold, energy, physical, leader, confidence, ambition, power
Pink: love, calm, respect, warmth, femininity, care, sensitivity, nurturing
Purple: creativity, unconventional, individual, respectable, fantasy
Navy: trust, order, loyalty, authority, confidence, integrity, masculinity
Green: balance, growth, life, restoration, positivity, prosperity, stability
Blue: perspective, content, control, self-sufficiency, awareness
Orange: reaction, optimistic, spontaneity, extrovert, idea, freedom
Your brand colors are going to matter in the end, because they are going to visually connect you to your target customer or client and help them to recall your brand whenever they see these correlating colors. That’s why it’s important to take some time when considering what colors and color palettes to use in your branding materials!
Not sure how to bring your brand's vision to life? Work with the experts! Download HAVEN Creative’s free guide and workbook and start determining your brand colors, today. You can also contact one of our HAVEN Mavens™ today to learn more about our workshops and pivot sessions.