Companies have started pursuing happiness. Branding is now having a strong connection to an emotion that people connect to most easily – Happiness. Countless brands in India (worldwide actually) have started using Happiness in their marketing strategies by including it in their tagline. The basic aim being that the brand should render its consumer a sense of well-being and joy.

Here are a few brands that I came up with, that are using the Happiness factor to boost sales:

BMW

This is one of the first brands that comes to my mind when Happiness is involved as a marketing gimmick. This luxury car manufacturer uses the “Joy” tagline in almost all their promotional bill boards – it is one of the best examples of companies cashing in on selling happiness via their brands.

Cadbury Chocolates

They are also a brand which makes use of Happiness as a medium to market their chocolate bars. The tagline “Share Cadbury, Share Happiness” basically aims at creating an image as a sweet for bonding. Its consumers are made to feel that sharing Cadbury chocolates is a great way to spread happiness to other people.

Moser Baer

Their corporate tagline is “Rewriting the Future”, however, when they came out with their low cost movie CDs in the Indian market, they brought out a new tagline for it as well. Moser Baer uses “Hello Happiness” for marketing their movie CDs that sell for anywhere between INR 25 to 35 (which was a novelty in the Indian market at a time when movie CD and DVDs cost anywhere around INR 80 to 150).

Coca-Cola

Then of course, who can forget the God of all brand Coke using “Happiness” for their 2010 Fifa World Cup campaign. The tagline which they used was “Open Happiness”. They came out with a pretty strong campaign that was meant to emotionally engage its consumers. It was a great branding strategy with it being the Football world cup and all, since people were potentially more vulnerable to such campaigns at the given time.

Domino’s Pizza

This is a company that markets itself on customer delight. They have a tagline “Khushiyon Ki Home Delivery” (Home Delivery of Happiness) – there is seriously nothing more direct than this when it comes to an example where a brand is leveraging Happiness as a way to sell to its customers. When the Domino chain’s global president and CEO, Patrick Doyle , was in India (in March ’10) he was asked about the tagline and he said, “We will never change our tagline ‘khushiyon ki home delivery’ which cuts through the advertising clutter.”

Share other brand names below that I have left out in this article. Thanks!

There are two kinds of people in this world, guys who drink beer and guys who worship beer. For me, beer is the ultimate drink. I would prefer it any day over Whiskey, Brandy etc. In this post I decided I would write about the top 10 beer brands every entrepreneur should drink.

From the beginning, beer has been about connections – people coming together, strangers becoming friends, and old friends becoming even closer. Because beer is more than just an alcoholic drink. It represents a philosophy of living in the moment that has been embraced around the world.

We rarely see in the movies, a very powerful personality drinking beer – but the young entrepreneurs today are surely changing that and beer is becoming a favorite among the entrepreneurs community.

Again, this post may not really have the brand that you personally like so you can help adding to this list in the comments section. For now, here is the Collegefallout List of top 10 beer brands for entrepreneurs, enjoy!

Budweiser

Budweiser! There is no human on Earth who has not heard about this beer. Truly, it is the King of Beers. Budweiser perfected its brewing recipe in 1876 and not once have the messed with it for the last 133 years. This long a time is testament to the unparalleled flavor and refreshment offered by this beer.  In the end, Budweiser is the best beer. Period.

Carlsberg

The tagline says “Probably The Best Beer” and its true, Carlsberg really is one of the best beers you can have to relax. It has a really complex taste which is a treat to your senses.  Their brewed beer is tested by a specially trained blindfolded staff for sampling. So, if you want a beer that you can trust tastes great, try Carlsberg, its brewed by masters and blessed by guys like you and me.

Corona Extra

There’s something about drinking a Corona Extra that’s different from drinking any other beer. Corona is a simple, genuine beer that stands as an embodiment of good taste. It has one of the most recognizable bottles in the world. It has been brewing beer since 1925 and the quality and brewing process stands.

Heineken

Drinking Heineken is truly a world-class experience. It is one of the most popular international premium beer brands. The historic Heineken brewery is Amsterdam’s one of the most impressive heritage sites.  Drinking a perfectly-poured Heineken is a great way for entrepreneurs to relax after a particularly tough day.

Foster’s

William and Ralph Foster created this world-famous Australian beer in 1887. The Foster beer cans are known as “Foster’s Oil cans” because they resembled motor-oil cans. And the name stuck. Frankly, no complains from my side about it, I like the can almost as much as what’s inside. Foster’s gives a bold flavor to beer – 100% Australian!

Guinness

Guinness is drank by beer connoisseurs, and all around beer lovers. It has a strong taste which separates the men from the boys. A distinctive feature is the burnt flavour which is derived from the use of roasted unmalted barley. This beer is Irish in origin and is the best-selling beer in Ireland. It is a brand that no beer-loving entrepreneur should miss.

Stella Artois

Stella Artois originated from Belgium. It is named Stella after the Latin word for “star”. Another one of those brands of beer that an entrepreneur has to drink in his life. Olivier Adams who is the heir to the Stella fortune is co-founder of the Belgium band Lords of Acid. Stella Artois is truly a historical beer, tax records exist from 1366 for Leuven’s Dennis Horeney’s Brewery. In 1708, Sebastianus Artois became the master brewer at Den Horen, and gave his name to the brewery in 1717.

Coors Light

You might get an impression that this is a dream beer for high-school kids, because its a light beer. But nevertheless, it is a really good beer for entrepreneurs as well. Because, its light and enjoyable as well. It was first produced in 1978. If you want something stronger, there is always Coors Original. This brand was founded by Adolph Coors.

Beck’s Beer

The history of this beer is enough to keep entrepreneurs thrilled enough to drink it. Three men from three professions, a builder, a businessman and a brew-master got together to create a beer brand today known world-wide for its ultimate taste – Beck’s. The brew-master was Heinrich Beck. This beer was founded in the bustling town of Bremen, Germany. Yes, its a German beer and it will blow you away – guaranteed!

Kingfisher Premium

Ever since its inception, the brand has not only succeeded in guarding its numero uno status, but has also been able to evolve into one of the most contemporary and aspirational youth icons of today. Young entrepreneurs will find Kingfisher their perfect partner for almost anything – food, sports or business. Kingfisher Premium definitely lives up to its slogan – ‘King of Good Times‘

Don’t agree with the list? Add a new item below and also share your view on the brands already listed.

I am a big believer in branding. It is my strong belief that a good brand image can reduce your hard work by ALMOST 50%. This is especially true when you are in the blogging arena where a million other bloggers are providing the same content as you – maybe even better content than yours.

This is why I titled this post that – your brand is more important than your content, needless to say content is important. But a good brand image will help you to boost you to higher levels of success and income even with the usual content. This is in fact one of the reasons why many bloggers will make four-figures online teaching things that you explain much better on your blog.

Invaluable Tips On Branding Your Blog

Let me take a real life example on branding. We all know the two major fantasy films in recent times i.e. Harry Potter Series and LOTR (Lord Of The Rings). In Harry Potter’s opening, HP earned way more than LOTR did. Even though LOTR was actually a much better movie, HP had an overwhelming brand value which undermined LOTR’s success.

Also, while creating a brand out of your blog you should also focus on branding yourself in the niche. As a person who is regarded among the niche circles, you will find success no matter what you do on the internet. It can be an e-book which you release or a new blog that you start. Whatever, your initiative may be, a good personal brand will give a kick start to any new venture you begin.

Investing In The “You” Brand

Hope you found this post useful. Do leave your comments below.

Brand management is an important concept that many companies have always focused on. If you thought that brand management is only restricted to companies like Pepsi and Mercedes, think again. More and more bloggers are understanding the urgent need to invest in the “you” brand.

The “you” brand is basically the brand image that you create for yourself and your name. Basically, if your name itself is a brand name – people can associate any work you do with it. There is a difference between creating a good brand image about your company and your name. There are more advantages of investing in branding yourself rather than your company. The number one advantage is that the “you” brand is recession proof. People like Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin and Darren Rowse are great examples of individuals who created a robust brand image around themselves.

Suppose you have a company like Mercedes – its market demand will be greatly varying according to various external factors. On the other hand, if you have built a brand around your name then you will survive no matter what the market conditions. This concept was also explained by Gary Vaynerchuk at a conference, who began blogging to millions with his wine blog.

As a blogger you must focus on ensuring that people associate your blog with your name. The main benefit that you will enjoy with this is that you will earn:

1) Credibility: The biggest advantage is that people will begin to take your blog more seriously. It will create a buzz that this person knows what he is writing about. People who are new to blogging can instantly take up you as their new idol.

2) Leverage: Credibilty builds trust and reliability. Any new blog you start or any new product that you launch can be given instant leverage by using your name in it. People will associate your past work with this new one and will automatically assume that it is very useful.

From the above it is easy to see why building the “you” brand is the need of the hour. Even if all blogs on the internet fail to take off, if Darren Rowse begins the same blog you will find that it has more readers subscribing to it within a week than you will ever be able to get in a year. Reason: The “You”brand, nothing else.

Hope you found this useful! Do comment below.

Branding your blog, basically means creating a permanent awareness and recognition of your blog among the readers and other bloggers who are associated to your niche. Branding is a subject which has been over-hyped and has been considered more difficult than it really is.

Decide between Using Your Name or Your Site’s Name: This is a dilemma which many bloggers face. Especially, when it comes to commenting and writing a guest post you must have a clear decision in your head whether to give with your own name or use the site name as a branding name. Both alternatives have their disctinct advantages and disadvantages – it is up to you to guage your priorities while choosing your representing name.

Invest in a Theme: Invest in a professional design. It does not cost a lot these days. Over that there are tons of options available. Apart from the obvious benefits you reap in branding your blog, you would also feel like writing on a blog that looks cool.

Professional Logo: Get a profession logo designed by some expert. Don’t sit with a Colored sketch of the blog name and call it your logo. If your blog were to become popular then is that the kind of logo which you want people to see. Create or get some one to create a professional logo which you can use on your site.

Be Consistent in Your Colors: When you have so many profiles in todays internet – the one way to reinforce your brand is through maintaining a color consistency. You would want your Blog’s color scheme to match your Twitter profile’s color theme – so on. This is a powerful way to get people to engage in your blog’s brand more deeply.

Your Photograph: Get an intelligent picture of your takes. Your photograph is basically the personality which you project. So if you look grouchy and sad in your pic then that is what people will think of you as. This is a negative branding that you are achieving. So get a professional photograph taken which you can use on your blog, profiles etc. People should recognize that face well.

So as you can see achieving branding on your blog is not as difficult as the “experts” claim. It is more about having to invest and work on your presentation a little bit. A few sensible moves towards branding and you can achieve a lot more than you expected out of your blog.

Hi Everybody, I hope that everyone watched the latest movie Avatar back home this new year. I did and I will say that the movie has been a treat for my eyes. Right from the beautiful alien Neytiri to the courageous Jake Sully’s avatar. Watching the Avatar movie, I really wished I too had an avatar – then I realized that I did have one! My very own internet Gravatar. This is the image that I carry around with me everywhere on the internet, people can simply recognize me with my image.

Gravatar is a concept founded by Matt – the same guy who found WordPress.

A Gravatar can be summarized as what you project yourself as to the rest of the web. Because, anywhere you comment or leave a response your Gravatar will follow you. However, many bloggers fail to realize the true potential of a good Gravatar as many leave it to a vague photo from the web.

The importance of a Gravatar cannot be underestimated as it is the image that will follow you to every site. Your Gravatar is the face which you show the web. Gravatar helps people to recognize you quickly and lets you brand yourself.

The Gravatar is more than anything a tool which you should use to create a brand image in the minds of people. If you want to create a good connect with your audience then a Gravatar can prove to be very helpful.

You can edit, change or add as many Gravatars as you want. You can even have a different Gravatar for each email id of yours. Get your Gravatar here.