Breathe Marketing Blog

Christmas, Easter, Bank Holidays… here we go again. Another list of the same old same old promos, mailers and frankly excruciating puns. Some calendar events are done to death, as everyone jumps on the bandwagon of big days and hopefully big spends. But don’t tear up your year planner just yet. Campaigns and communications around big dates can serve you well, if you give them a bit of creative thought and bear your audience in mind. (more…)

Web Developers and designers don’t have an easy life they design and code a website striving for the very best job they can. They get their code working in Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera even Safari with out too much hassle, as all these browsers render code in very similar ways (having been designed to interpret and use web standards). Then the poor web designer/developer checks their shiny new design/code in Explorer and the real work and heartache begin. (more…)

The New Year is almost upon us and now is a great time to make sure your brand and marketing are in good shape for the year ahead. Here are a few pointers to help you.

Test, test, test!

If you aren’t already fanatical about testing your marketing campaigns before rolling out en masse then make testing your New Year’s resolution as it will save you money and make your campaigns more effective. (more…)

We at Breathe believe that stamps are very visible evidence that Britain is at the cutting edge of creative design and the Royal Mail’s commitment to regularly commissioning new stamp designs throughout the year should be commended. Although so far they have overlooked a very talented bunch of designers based in Henley-on-Thames!

The advent of email and mobile phones technology has changed the way we communicate with fewer and fewer letters being sent by post or ‘snail mail’ as it has become known. (more…)

Web 2.0 and particularly Social Media are hot topics at the moment and we are finding clients are asking us how they can use it to enhance their marketing. So we thought we would put together a short overview along with some useful tips for implementing in your business.

Let us first define Web 2.0 – ‘Web 2.0 refers to a second generation of web development and design which facilitates communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and applications such as social networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashup and folksonomies.’ (Definition by Wikipedia, itself part of Web 2.0) (more…)

A single word can paint a thousand pictures

• Be sure of exactly what you want to say. Clarity of thought aids clarity of writing.
• Think of who is going to read the copy. Picture a person holding the written item and reading it. Imagine where they will be sitting and how they will be holding the item.
• Consider why the person will read this copy. Remember that they know nothing about you and may know little or nothing about your product or service. What advantage will they gain from reading what you have to say?
• Think of your key message. (more…)

When companies set out to build a Brand they are creating a promise to their customers of what’s on offer from them.  Brand is fundamental to business success, because having built the promise, good delivery then reinforces that Brand and that starts the development of customer loyalty.

As a result, the look and feel of collateral that carries the Brand is also important, because customers judge every interaction with your company against the promise, or expectation, that the Brand (more…)

Your web site is the greatest opportunity to engage and educate your customers and potential customers about your products and services. Now, more than ever, you cannot allow poor web site design and navigation to turn customers away from your business and into the hands of your competitors.

Today 393,373,398 Europeans use the Internet, that’s 48.9% of the population of Europe. Source www.internetworldstats.com. Web sites have become the most essential element of the marketing mix and these days most businesses have a site but it’s not enough just to have an online presence you have to have an effective one.

Everybody sets out to create a well designed and effective web site so why (more…)

Since 1980 Alessi have been synonymous with design innovation producing everyday products in collaboration with some of the world’s top designers and architects. Amongst its design classics are Michael Graves’ kettle with its bird shaped whistle and Phillipe Starck’s playful three-legged Juicy Salif citrus squeezer.

We at Breathe have admired Alessi innovation for a number of years now so when Alessi featured in The McKinsey Quarterly I felt compelled to share the link with other interested parties who may have missed the article. 

When you get to the article look for the multimedia interactive link just under the photograph of Alberto Alessi and get a behind-the-scenes look at the design and operational processes of one of the world’s best-known design firms. The feature showcases Alessi’s formula for evaluating the risks and rewards of new product designs. It also includes video commentary by Alberto Alessi and a narrated slide show on the design firm.

Will design innovation continue to prosper even in these recessionary times?

Blogs, love them or hate them they are here to stay. Personal, political, product, biased, unbiased, critical……and business blogs, whatever the subject matter blogs are an important part of the web. They have the benefit of being extremely searchable and a powerful part of that are the tags, categories and RSS feeds, all of these make it easy for the customer to find what they are looking for (as long as everything has been tagged and categorised properly). Another important point to remember is to post regularly and make it relevant, there are about 112 million blogs out there (more…)