Google Breaks Web 2.0 Logo Design Trend with New Chrome Logo
March 19, 2011
Over the past decade, more and more companies have been investing in logo redesigns in order to create logos that seems more modern and digital. The glossy, 3-dimensional redesigns have been called the Web 2.0 logo redesign trend. However, that trend might be coming to an end if a new design for Google’s Chrome brand is a sign of things to come.
The Brand New reports that the new logo was first sighted on Google’s Chromium site earlier this year. It’s expected that the logo will eventually make it’s way to other Chrome-branded sites, services, and products.
The highly-stylized Web 2.0 Chrome logo debuted when Google’s web browser was launched in 2008. Two sides of the new Chrome logo debate are forming. One side likes the change to the simply style and matte colors, while the other thinks the new logo is a step backwards.
I have to admit that I’m on the side of this debate that prefers the new, simpler design, and it performs slightly better in a one-color test. I’ve never been a fan of the Web 2.0 logo redesign trend, so my curiosity was piqued when I heard about this new Chrome logo. However, it still includes shading and color use that implies the 3-D, Web 2.0 trend. In other words, Google couldn’t completely get away from the Web 2.0 logo design trend in this new attempt.
It will be interesting to see if Google goes through with rolling out this new logo. And if Google does replace its Web 2.0 Chrome logo design with a simpler version, will it be the first in a new logo design trend? Will other brands ditch the Web 2.0 glitz, too?
Only time will tell. What do you think of the Web 2.0, 3-dimensional logo design trend? Love it? Hate it? Has it run its course? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Launching a Career in Corporate Communications
March 18, 2011
Today we have a guest post from Lauren Bailey offering advice for college students wanting to get started in corporate comms. Lauren Bailey is a freelance writer and blog junkie, who blogs about online colleges. She especially loves hearing back from her readers. Questions or comments can be sent to: blauren99 @gmail.com – though we’d love it if you commented below as well!
Over to you, Lauren.
What College Students Need to Know About Launching a Career in Corporate Communications
Corporate communications is a specialty field highly sought after by numerous businesses today. It deals with all of the communication an organization makes internally and externally, blending coherency with the company’s goals and ethics. This ensures that every message being sent from the company to an audience is as accurate and positively reflective of the business as possible.
College students who desire to launch a career in corporate communications will find the field challenging and rewarding, but they should keep a few things in mind in order to secure a successful future in the field.
Most college students pursue corporate communications as a specialty during a public relations education. Public relations is a quickly growing field where students and graduates can flex their communications skills and knowledge. Public relations specialists in corporate communications may work with businesses as corporate communication officers, directors, managers, consultants, human resources, and marketing. In fact, employment opportunities for public relations specialists are expected to increase 24% during the 2008-18 decade, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
Those who work in public relations have the primary objective of making sure that the image of their business or brand remains positive. They handle press releases, media contacts, public meetings, and other situations involving interacting with the public. This is why a specialization in corporate communications can be immensely beneficial. Thanks to recent business scandals, corporate communications has leapt back onto the radar for businesses across the country.
Competition for corporate communications positions is high, so college students may do well to go beyond the minimal requirement of a bachelor’s degree in the field and earn a master’s degree instead. A master’s degree in public relations and corporate communications may give recent graduates the nudge they need to stand out from other job seekers. Students should plan to take courses in communication law and ethics, media relationship maintenance, effective public writing, research and analysis skills, and strategy development. Most programs in both undergraduate and graduate studies also require students to complete a final real-world project in order to demonstrate their understanding of corporate communications and management.
Gaining plenty of in-field work experience is important as well for those looking to launch a career in corporate communications. A degree, even a graduate degree, is often not enough by itself to gain employment. Students can gain work experience by participating in part-time internships while in school, whereas graduate students may benefit from a full-time internship.
Networking is crucial as well. Most large companies do not advertise job openings for public relations positions, so it pays to make as many meaningful connections as possible to others in the industry. This way, if you make a good impression on someone, they may remember to contact you or recommend you for an unadvertised open public relations position. Go to your college’s career fairs to network, and stay in touch with your professors and fellow corporate communications classmates. You never know who may help you gain entry into the field.
Corporate communications is an exciting and prospering field. However, it can also be tough to break into due to the high level of competition for entry-level jobs. In order to stay ahead of the competition and catch the attention of employers, college students should study hard, consider earning a graduate degree in the field, participate in internships, and network with other professionals. With these tips in mind, students can almost guarantee that they will secure a successful career in corporate communications.
Thanks Lauren!
Agree? What advice would you offer to someone considering this as a career?
Half of U.K. Population is on Facebook
March 17, 2011
Facebook reports that the social networking site is now used by 1 out of every 2 people in the U.K. As eMarketer reports, 30 million of the 62.6 million people in the U.K. are now on the most popular social networking site in the world, Facebook. That’s up from 25.6 million in September 2010.
If you look at it another way, Facebook was responsible for 7.5% of all Internet visits by U.K. Internet users in January 2011, which isn’t far behind the leader, Google, which was responsible for 9% of all U.K. Internet user visits during the same time period. The website that landed in the third position during that same period was YouTube, which was responsible for just over 2% of all U.K. Internet user visits. That’s a big gap between the two leaders and everyone else.
Where are you going to invest your online marketing time, effort, and money?
Facebook growth shows no signs of slowing down in the U.K., and as eMarketer reports, advertising investments will continue to grow as well. By 2012, social networking advertising investments are expected to grow to 6% of total U.K. ad spending. That’s twice as much as the actual social network ad spending in 2010, which was just 3% of total online ad spending.
With the new Facebook social plugin updates that were launched this month, including analytics enhancements for the Facebook Like button, marketers will undoubtedly focus even more attention on building brand awareness, recall, and loyalty through branded Facebook pages and across social media tools. U.K. consumers are spending a lot of time on Facebook, and brands that want to connect with those consumers need to be on Facebook, too. However, those brands need to add value, meaning, and usefulness to the Facebook experience, or users will disregard them.
Bottom-line, brands who want to connect with U.K. customers shouldn’t ignore Facebook. It’s there waiting for you with your customers actively engaged already. You just need to jump in and join the conversation without delivering the hard sell.
Research Shows How Retail Brand Loyalty Programs Are Failing with Consumers
March 16, 2011
Retail brand loyalty programs are created to accomplish a primary goal — to encourage repeat purchases that evolve into brand loyalty. Unfortunately, research from ACI Worldwide reports that retail brand loyalty programs have a long way to go before they reach that goal.
According to the research survey, 62% of U.S. consumers join retail brand loyalty programs to get discounts but only 36% have received a reward or promotion from the program that actually made them come back to the retailer’s store again. One reason might be the fact that, according to the survey results, 81% of retail brand loyalty program members don’t understand the benefits they’re supposed to get from the program or how the program works at all.
Following are some highlights from the survey results reported by ACI Worldwide this week:
- 3 out of 4 American consumers are members of at least one retail brand loyalty program.
- 1 out of 4 U.S. retail brand loyalty program members have received a reward or promotion for something they didn’t want and wouldn’t buy.
- 1 out of 5 U.S. retail brand loyalty program members have received a reward that was too small to take seriously.
- 3 out of 4 U.S. retail brand loyalty program members have never received a reward or promotion that made them feel like a valued customer.
- Nearly 9 out of 10 U.S. retail brand loyalty program members signed up and never heard from the program again.
- Nearly 1 out of 2 U.S. retail brand loyalty program members have had a negative experience from a loyalty program.
For your brand’s loyalty program to be successful and actually turn customers into brand loyalists, you need to offer a program that’s simple and easy to understand with clear benefits that are specifically targeted to members. The statistics above demonstrate many of the biggest mistakes that companies make when developing loyalty programs. A loyalty program should make consumers proud to be a customer, not annoyed. If members don’t understand how to access rewards and if rewards are useless to them, then your loyalty program is likely to do more harm than good.
In other words, your brand loyalty program needs to sound good so consumers will join, but it also needs to deliver on consumer expectations based on the messaging that convinced them to join. Don’t make them regret joining. Instead, make sure they’re thrilled with your brand loyalty program so they come back again and again — and tell all their friends!
Image: stock.xchng
Three tips to develop CSR Redwood
March 15, 2011
Once in a while you come across a company name which is just sooooo apposite for their business you find it hard to believe some kind of legal name change hasn’t been involved.
The best example of this I’ve ever come across dates back to my early childhood and travelling into Oxford on the Park & Ride. As the double decker rattled its way along the Abingdon Road we passed by a funeral directors, called Reeves and Pain. I kid you not, and so far as I know the company is still going to this day.
You may have already come across an interesting little video from The Big Think project entitled “Companies Can’t Be Parasites Anymore”; it was released last month but I’ve only just watched it.
The video is of a brief interview with Stephen Miles, VC of Heidrick and Struggles, one of the oldest executive consulting firms in the US. A video with that title from a company called “Struggles” .. I’m sorry, it somehow seems apposite once again.
All that aside though, the video is well worth watching. It’s only three minutes long and in a quiet yet forceful way Stephen Miles outlines exactly the changes needed in corporate culture post-financial crisis. Read more
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