Friday 9 October 2015

Essential Questions to Ask When Hiring a Design Company

A web design company is just like a business partner that helps you to market your ideas on a broad horizon. A user-friendly web design plays an integral role n achieving your desired marketing goals. Whether you are looking for a brand new website, or want to redesign the look, your decision for choosing the right web designing Dubai will dedicate the success of your business.

With a lot of option of web design and development companies around you, it can become a daunting task to determine the best fit for your business. Actually, the best approach is to select a web design and development company based on its previous projects, skills, and expertise in the desired field.



To help you choose the right company, here are some important questions to ask before hiring the services of a company-providing web designing Dubai services. The initial consultation with the web designing company will help you set the target in order to achieve your business goals. The answer will be clearer, once you are done with your due diligence.

What service do they offer?
In addition to different facets of a web design company, there are many companies offering web hosting, copywriting, digital marketing, and e-commerce solutions. So do no not think if the company is good at one thing as they offer others. Hence, it is great to handle the company, which handles your project, and guarantee a successful result.

Are they using a customer or premade design?
Web designing Dubai based companies offer both options to serve their clients. A unique look of the website will help you to establish the strong image of your business. Obviously, a website designed from scratch will provide the best result. Discuss your business needs and the design of the website in detail.

Previous samples
Ask for their previous work and asses their design style. You can also check the navigation of the website and check how much it matches with the business style.

How they will manage your project
Web designing and development process involves four stages:
·         Strategy/Research
·         Design
·         Site Development
·         Launch and evaluation

How do you price your services?
Do not hesitate asking how they will supervise your project. Whether there will be a specific contact person or a manager to monitor the developing process.

How long will it take to complete my project?

Know about the turnaround time of a web project. You should ask how much time it is required to complete your project. In addition, it is better to discuss what happens if they are unable to meet the deadline. Moreover, you can also discuss what happens if they are unable to meet the deadline. 

Tuesday 30 December 2014

How to Develop a Brand Strategy

To develop an effective brand strategy, it is important to understand what we mean by the term. By definition, brand strategy is a long-term plan for the development of a brand in order to achieve its long-term goals.


What the brand offers, what it looks like, what it stands for and so on.
An effective and comprehensive strategy is often defined by the needs and emotions of the consumer, and of course, the competition.

A competitive brand positioning gives the brand that edge in the market, the brand is looking for.

To develop a brand strategy that works for your brand, it is important to identify the key elements of a killer brand strategy. As mentioned earlier, competitive positioning i.e. knowing who your competition is – identifying their strengths and weaknesses is the first key component that leverages our own brand, and helps overcome the gap in the market. Find out what your competition is doing – or plans to do, and then do it better and faster.

Secondly, know the driving force behind your brand and the people who work for it. Know the end purpose of your brand and find out why your internal and external stakeholders are willing to engage with it, because they are the ones who are truly at the heart of the brand. Your people are what makes your brand. And your consumer is why you made the brand.

Thirdly, development of the brand’s creative elements. While many think that logo, slogan, typography etc. are the only components of a brand strategy – it is not true. All creative elements are components of the larger strategy.

What’s also important to build a strong strategy is a unique brand promise. What a brand promise simply does is that it puts the customers needs in context to your brand. Where, the strategy should always be in line with the brand promise and vice, versa. And in the same spirit, we must substantiate our brand promise with reasons why the customer would believe and accept what we offer. Through our brand promise we market our strengths and hold our place in the market.

Another key component is market research, which helps us learn market positioning, new opportunities and very important consumer insights. Consumer insights define the brand’s opportunities and the demand of that product/service in the market. They also paint a clear picture of the profile of your consumer. Market research puts a face to the consumer and numbers to a brand’s success and failure.

Consumer insights help you build a key message for your brand and the right personality that matches the message. What do you stand for? What do you believe in? Who do you relate to? The right brand strategy goes as far as defining your approach and personality across different media – online, offline, print, etc. The best brand personalities are real and human. And so is their messaging and tone.

And last but not the least, to develop a brand strategy we need to keep in mind that the plan for our brand has a safety buffer for challenges and obstacles. It needs to be flexible – change with time and according to media. Be progressive and grounded. And most importantly, be relevant.

Therefore, the best brand strategy lies in the depth of your brand.


So you know your brand, and now you know how to develop the best strategy for it. 

How branding effects overall business?

Why would branding affect the business in anyway? Would it help you sell? Would it help people remember you? Would it contribute to brand loyalty?

Yes to all of the above. And more.

Branding is what your brand is. So it is safe to say it affects your business in so many different ways.

Your branding is the projection of your brand offering, values and vision. Your branding is the voice of your brand. The face of the brand. And the personality of your brand.

it is the tangible execution of your brand strategy. So how does it really affect your over all business?

For starters, it creates a perception in the minds of your users. How you package your brand ultimately shows the value, the positioning and the target audience as specified according to the brand strategy.


Your audience will look at the brand and know if they can afford it, if it matches their needs and so on.


Moving on, the branding strategy is the foundations of your brand. So a strong one records the history of the brand and predicts the future. It creates a framework for day-to-day operations and communications.


Branding also helps map out growth and expansion. It helps mark the parameters in which to introduce and develop new products and services.


Branding also helps develop a formal brand manual that maintains long-term consistency with clearly stated brand rules. So once you invest in a detailed brand manual, your brand is ready to be developed across platforms and media with the same mood and tone.


Another great thing branding does for your brand is that it gives you that unique touch or that edge in the market that differentiates you from other brands in the same industry. It embodies your unique selling proposition and serves it to the customer in a compelling way.


No brand can survive without branding. It’s the same as saying people don’t need a face or clothes. It’s the language of your brand. It’s the name and the face. It’s the reason why people know who you are, what you offer and to whom!


Great branding has the power to make or break brands. The first step to a great brand is a comprehensive brand strategy that is inspired from the vision and mission and then it goes on to detail the desired growth and expansion of a brand.


Successful brands survive for decades for a reason. Make sure your brand goes down in history as an example of brilliant branding and perfect brand strategy.