The success of a product is no longer determined solely by its features, price, or technical performance. Modern consumers are inundated with options, exposed to numerous advertisements daily, and influenced by recommendations, online reviews, short-form videos, and global social trends. This environment has fundamentally changed how people discover, evaluate, and ultimately decide what to buy.

Rather than choosing based only on utility, customers now respond to identity, relevance, and emotional resonance. A compelling product brand gives meaning to something far beyond its physical attributes, shaping how audiences perceive it, trust it, and talk about it. That is the essence of product branding: transforming a product into an experience, a lifestyle accessory, a story, or a symbol that consumers want to associate with.

Branding matters more than ever, as competition is fierce and attention spans are increasingly short. The moment a product appears on a shelf, a website, an Amazon marketplace, or a TikTok feed, it immediately competes for recognition against a long list of alternatives. A strong brand makes that moment count. It captures attention quickly, communicates value clearly, and establishes credibility long before a consumer reads specifications or compares prices.

For modern marketers, branding is not an optional aesthetic; it is a measurable business asset. When executed strategically, branding services enhance profit margins, accelerate growth, and inspire loyalty that no discount can replicate. Brands that understand how customers think, what influences them, and how they engage online are better positioned to win not just a sale, but a long-term relationship.

What is product branding and why does it matter today?

Product branding is far more than choosing an appealing logo, applying a set of colors, or creating a clever slogan. At its core, branding a product involves shaping how people feel about it, how they interpret its value, and how it fits into their lives. The strength of a brand lies in its ability to create a recognizable identity that customers can instantly associate with qualities such as elegance, reliability, innovation, affordability, sustainability, or aspiration.

In modern markets, branding a product is rooted deeply in psychology. While functionality remains important, consumer decisions are often guided by emotional signals, perceived lifestyle alignment, and subconscious associations. The way a brand speaks, behaves, packages itself, and interacts across channels directly influences consumer perception of products. Two items with nearly identical features can experience dramatically different outcomes if one communicates a stronger emotional promise than the other.

Today’s customer journeys are overwhelmingly digital. A product may be discovered through a social media reel, validated through online reviews, researched on multiple websites, compared through influencers, and purchased without ever entering a physical store. Each of these touchpoints becomes part of the brand experience, reinforcing or undermining the product’s identity. This means that visual consistency, narrative clarity, and emotional authenticity are no longer branding luxuries; they are strategic necessities.

Product branding matters because it transforms a commodity into a meaningful choice. It helps customers remember a product, trust it, and feel connected to it long before a transaction takes place. In a marketplace where attention is scarce and competition is intense, the brands that win are those that understand how perception is built, how emotions influence value, and how digital interaction shapes loyalty.

Explore a modern B2B branding strategy that strengthens buyer confidence and positions your brand as the clear expert.

Key elements of successful product branding

A well-defined product branding strategy is built on more than visual assets; it is a complete framework that guides how a product is positioned, communicated, and experienced by its intended audience. The following elements form the backbone of any successful product brand:

• Brand positioning

Positioning determines where the product stands in the market and how it is perceived in comparison to alternatives. A clear positioning statement helps consumers understand why the product exists, who it is meant for, and what makes it different, without relying solely on price or functionality.

• Product name and value proposition

A strong product name should be memorable, relevant, and easy to associate with the product’s benefit. When paired with a compelling value proposition, it communicates the product’s essential promise and helps customers see its unique role in their lives.

• Brand identity design

Visual identity is the first language a product speaks. Colors, typography, iconography, and layout create a recognizable signature that carries emotional resonance. When designed with intention, the visual identity frames the product’s personality and strengthens long-term brand recall.

Dive into our guide to luxury color palettes—and learn how to choose hues that signal refinement, trust, and timeless appeal.

• Packaging style

Packaging is an extension of the brand experience. It can define the product’s perceived quality, elevate unboxing moments, and influence purchasing decisions even before the customer interacts with the product. Well-designed packaging is tactile storytelling in its purest form.

• Tone of voice and messaging personality

The way a brand speaks its vocabulary, rhythm, values, and emotional nuance shapes how customers interpret its character. A distinct voice reinforces authenticity, builds deeper affinity, and brings coherence across campaigns and channels.

• Customer experience and after-sales communication

Branding continues long after the transaction. Every step from onboarding to support, from instruction materials to loyalty programs, affects how customers remember and advocate for the product. Brands that invest in thoughtful after-sales engagement create communities, not just customers.

• Digital footprint

In a digital-first environment, a product’s online presence is inseparable from its identity. Website interface, paid campaign visuals, email design, and user content become part of the brand’s language, shaping perception at every click, scroll, and interaction.

Dive deeper into the importance of web design and learn how smart structure, speed, and visual coherence turn attention into action.

How product branding differs from corporate branding

Corporate branding refers to the overall reputation, values, and personality of an entire business. It represents how the company wishes to be perceived in the marketplace, how it communicates its principles, and how it builds trust with investors, partners, employees, and broad audiences.

Corporate identity is therefore long-term, foundational, and less tied to a specific offering. It influences the organization’s credibility, ethics, and market presence as a whole.

Product branding, on the other hand, focuses on the identity of a single product or product line. It is shaped by how the product is named, packaged, advertised, and experienced. While corporate branding speaks to the character of the company, product branding speaks to the specific promise, lifestyle appeal, and emotional value that a particular product delivers. A single corporation may develop multiple product brands, each with its own visual language, tone, and market positioning.

Coca-Cola is a classic example. The corporation owns Coca-Cola itself, but it also owns distinct product brands such as Fanta and Sprite. Each product has its own visual identity, flavor, personality, and customer base. For marketers, the challenge is knowing when a product should stand on its own and when it should remain closely tied to the corporate brand to gain added authority, trust, or shared reputation.

The role of storytelling in modern product branding

In a saturated marketplace where products increasingly resemble one another in function, it is often the story, not the feature list, that convinces customers to buy. Modern audiences look for meaning, personality, and belonging. They want to understand not just what a product does, but why it exists, how it fits into their lifestyle, and what values it represents. Storytelling gives a product emotional depth, turning a transactional decision into a personal choice.

The most effective brands weave their stories into every touchpoint across the digital journey. From landing page visuals and explainer videos to testimonials, unboxing experiences, behind-the-scenes content, and short-form social media clips, each interaction reinforces a narrative. Together, these elements show not only how a product works, but how it feels to own, use, and live with it.

A strong narrative taps into aspiration, identity, and unmet needs. It may speak to sustainability, luxury, convenience, empowerment, or personal transformation. When customers recognize themselves within a brand’s story, they are more likely to adopt it as part of their lifestyle.

Storytelling—especially visual storytelling— also delivers tangible marketing value. A memorable brand story increases word of mouth, strengthens campaign performance, and reduces paid advertising costs because customers remember, share, and advocate for the product more naturally. For marketers, a strategic narrative is no longer decorative; it is one of the most efficient tools for building trust, differentiation, and long-term loyalty.

Designing visual identities that resonate with customers

A compelling visual identity gives a product its language, mood, and emotional presence. Each element becomes part of a unified brand story, shaping how customers recognize and respond to the product online and offline. The following components form the foundation of elevated brand identity design:

• Logo design

A logo serves as the visual anchor of a brand. When thoughtfully constructed, it becomes a symbol of personality, assurance, and memory.

• Color system

Color is one of the strongest emotional triggers. A defined palette harmonizes communication, signals positioning, and helps the product stand out with clarity.

• Typography

Typography expresses tone, intention, and character. The right typefaces communicate sophistication, energy, minimalism, or accessibility, all without a single spoken word.

• Iconography

Custom icons translate complex ideas into simple, intuitive forms. They enrich the visual language of a product and increase recognition across digital environments.

• Photography guidelines

Imagery defines lifestyle, atmosphere, and narrative. Consistent directions for lighting, mood, framing, and subject matter help a product feel familiar across campaigns and channels.

• Packaging design

Packaging is tactile storytelling. It shapes first impressions, elevates unboxing rituals, and becomes part of the emotional exchange between product and consumer.

• Landing page design

A landing page is the modern storefront. Clean layouts, intentional hierarchy, and persuasive visuals guide discovery, reinforce value, and increase conversions.

A branding and web design company can translate these elements into cohesive user experiences by ensuring consistent UI, responsive interactions, performance-driven layouts, and AI-assisted heatmap insights. They also create structured brand guidelines and digital brand kits for advertising, product pages, and launch campaigns, ensuring every touchpoint feels intentional, recognizable, and unmistakably on brand.

Leveraging digital channels to strengthen product branding

Modern audiences encounter brands primarily online, making digital ecosystems essential for shaping perception, sustaining visibility, and building emotional affinity. The following channels offer marketers powerful ways to strengthen a product branding strategy while maintaining coherent storytelling and visual identity:

1. Website and landing pages

A website is the central touchpoint where customers explore a product, compare benefits, and make purchasing decisions. Well-structured landing pages with persuasive visuals, intuitive layouts, and a clear narrative deepen trust and elevate the brand experience. A design agency supports this through UX-driven product pages, strategic funnel architecture, and tailored conversion journeys.

2. Social media storytelling

Platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn allow brands to share daily narratives, micro-stories, and visual diaries. When stories feel authentic and emotionally aligned, they strengthen digital relationships and accelerate brand recall. Creative agencies contribute brand storytelling templates, content rhythms, and visual systems to ensure every post reinforces identity.

3. Influencer collaborations

Influencers extend credibility by translating a brand into real-life contexts. Instead of traditional endorsements, modern collaborations focus on lifestyle integration, behind-the-scenes content, and relatable micro-moments that humanize the product.

4. Paid ad campaigns

Paid campaigns require consistency in color, typography, messaging, and emotional promise. Cohesive ad assets increase recognition, reduce cost per click, and create stronger psychological anchors. A digital branding studio can craft creative campaigns that feel unified and memorable across platforms.

5. Conversion-optimized emails and onboarding

Email design, tone, and timing influence loyalty as much as first impressions. Structured onboarding sequences educate, nurture, and elevate lifetime value while preserving narrative continuity.

6. Short-video platforms

TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts allow brands to communicate rhythm, personality, movement, and lifestyle in seconds. Short-form storytelling feels intimate, experiential, and highly shareable, an invaluable channel for new product launches.

7. SEO and organic visibility

Organic search is one of the highest-intent discovery channels in the customer journey. Strategic SEO services help products rank for the queries buyers use to research and compare options, strengthening credibility while reducing reliance on paid traffic. When aligned with brand positioning, SEO improves visibility through optimized structure, content, and performance.

Common mistakes in product branding and how to avoid them

Even well-intentioned branding efforts can fall short when strategy and execution lose alignment. The following are some of the most frequent pitfalls and how to avoid them with clarity and intention.

1. Inconsistent design identity across channels

When visual elements shift across websites, packaging, ads, and social media, the product feels fragmented and unreliable.

Solution: Establish a unified visual system with clear guidelines for color, typography, spacing, and imagery to ensure every touchpoint speaks the same visual language.

Want a clearer system? Read our breakdown of the elements of art and principles of design to build consistency into every layout and touchpoint.

2. Over-designing without emotional clarity

A product may look polished yet fail to communicate meaning. Excessive design can overshadow emotional positioning.

Solution: Start with the story and emotional promise. Let design amplify that message rather than distract from it.

3. Weak differentiation from competitors

Blending into a category makes the product instantly forgettable.

Solution: Define a sharp positioning statement—why this product exists and why it’s different—then let that differentiation guide creative decisions.

4. Ignoring consumer perception

Brands often prioritize internal opinions over real customer insight.

Solution: Observe how consumers talk about the product, what they value, and what influences their decisions. Use those insights to refine messaging and experience.

5. Lack of packaging story or digital narrative

Packaging without intention or digital presence without narrative leaves the brand emotionally flat.

Solution: Treat both physical and digital presentations as storytelling tools that reveal personality, lifestyle cues, and purpose.

6. Treating design as decoration instead of a business tool

When design is seen as superficial, branding loses strategic depth.

Solution: Approach design as a driver of recognition, trust, and conversion, an essential contributor to revenue, not an afterthought.

Future trends: Where product branding is headed

Product branding is entering a new era, one shaped by technology, cultural shifts, and consumers who expect relevance, personalization, and authenticity in every interaction. As digital ecosystems evolve, the future of branding will be defined by fluid identities, intelligent systems, and experiences that feel both immersive and deeply personal.

One of the most significant developments is the rise of AI-powered brand kits. Instead of static guidelines, brands will rely on adaptive systems that generate variations of logos, layouts, and campaign assets in real time, adjusting design logic based on platform, audience segment, or even behavioral patterns. Branding becomes dynamic rather than prescriptive, allowing products to express themselves more naturally across a fragmented media landscape.

Equally transformative is the emergence of personalized storytelling at scale. With advanced analytics and automation, brands will tailor narratives to the individual rather than the masses, shaping product stories that reflect a consumer’s habits, aspirations, and emotional triggers. This level of personalization strengthens affinity and elevates brand relevance far beyond traditional campaigns.

Digital identity will also expand through NFTs and virtual assets, offering collectors, communities, and early adopters new ways to build relationships with products. A brand may exist as much in a digital environment as it does on a physical shelf.

The growing influence of micro-influencers and community-driven branding will continue reshaping how products gain trust. Instead of relying solely on major ambassadors, brands will cultivate networks of authentic voices whose niche audiences value transparency and relatability.

We will also see the rise of hyper-niche product sub-branding, where companies create micro-identities tailored to specific demographics, lifestyles, or cultural groups. This allows brands to speak more intimately and carve out deeper pockets of loyalty.

Perhaps the most exciting frontier is immersive experience design. AR try-ons, cinematic unboxing reels, generative visual content, and interactive digital touchpoints will redefine how customers evaluate, understand, and emotionally connect with a product. These experiences collapse the distance between physical and digital worlds.

In this new landscape, branding becomes real-time, data-driven, and social story-led, a living system that responds to how people behave, communicate, and discover products in an ever-evolving digital society.

The future of product branding will reward those who embrace adaptability and creativity. Artificial intelligence, immersive experiences, and community-led engagement will only amplify the importance of authenticity and strategic coherence. For businesses seeking lasting relevance, the mandate is clear: build brands that feel alive, speak with purpose, and earn trust through every interaction. Those who do will not simply compete; they will define the standards by which others measure themselves.

OWDT, a leading web development and design agency, recently collaborated with Carlberg, a marketing and branding firm, to assist Platform Partners in launching their new website. The website was designed to improve the user experience and provide easy access to important information about the company’s services and products.

The process of launching the new website began with a thorough discovery phase, where the team at Platform Partners outlined their goals and objectives for the website. They wanted to create a modern, user-friendly design that would make it easy for clients to find the information they needed and showcase the company’s portfolio of products.

OWDT and Carlberg worked closely together to create a visually stunning and intuitive website that met the needs of Platform Partners. The design team at Carlberg created a clean and modern layout focusing on showcasing the company’s services and products. Carlberg also provided the branding and messaging to ensure that the website accurately reflected the company’s identity.

The development team at OWDT then began building the website using the latest web technologies, including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. The website was optimized for both desktop and mobile devices, ensuring that it looks great and works seamlessly on any device.

Once the website was built, the team at OWDT and Carlberg thoroughly tested it to ensure that it was free of bugs and that the user experience was smooth and seamless. They also worked to ensure that the website was optimized for search engines to help improve its visibility in search results.

The final step in the process was launching the website and making it live for the public. Platform Partners’ new website is now live, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. The website has received praise for its sleek design, intuitive navigation, and the wealth of information it provides to clients.

Overall, the launch of Platform Partners’ new website was a great success, thanks partly to the expertise and efforts of Carlberg. The collaboration between the two agencies allowed for a holistic approach to creating the website, resulting in a valuable asset for the company and will no doubt help them attract new clients and showcase their capabilities in the field of platform services and products.

Please visit Platform Partners.

• Internal marketing campaigns
• Examples of internal marketing campaign strategy
• Brand Education
• Internal marketing vs external marketing
• OWDT’s marketing services

Internal marketing campaigns are like the glue that holds a company together. They’re all about making sure everyone in the team feels in the loop and appreciated. When we share our values, goals, and exciting projects within the company, it’s like we’re saying, “Hey, you’re part of something big here!” It’s not just about spreading the word; it’s about making sure every person knows they matter and are contributing to the bigger picture. And you know what’s really cool? When we do this well, it’s like giving everyone a boost of energy. People feel more motivated, and they start bringing their A-game to work every day. So, in a way, these campaigns aren’t just about making us feel warm and fuzzy inside; they’re about helping us all shine brighter and grow together.

Internal marketing campaigns

Although it may sound like an oxymoron, internal marketing can be an extremely important part of your company’s overall marketing or branding strategy. Internal marketing is often overlooked, especially when compared with traditional external marketing (defined as all efforts to improve customer experience and build external loyalty to a product or service), but it deserves perhaps as much time, care, and personal investment. Why is this? When employees feel like they are stakeholders in the day-to-day progress of their company, they become the best brand ambassadors for their organization’s products or services.

“The goal of an internal marketing campaign is to earn a sense of loyalty to the brand and the team,” says Kyle Mani, CCO/CEO of OWDT. The Hinge Research Institute reports “A formal employee advocacy program helps shorten the sales cycle. Nearly 64% of advocates in a formal program credited employee advocacy with attracting and developing new business, and nearly 45% attribute new revenue streams to employee advocacy.” In other words, companies that invest in internal marketing see more revenue.

Examples of internal marketing campaign strategy

Everyone is familiar with traditional external marketing, but what about internal marketing communications? Press releases, memos, internal signage, plaques, contests, testimonials, motivational meetings, bonding and team-building exercises, branded promotional products, giveaways, and employee rewards are effective ways to make each employee a brand advocate and enhance employee collaboration toward beneficial goals. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander – and vice-versa. This issue has another pivotal aspect with critical ramifications for the ability of a business to survive employee turnover. This has always been true, but more so in our Great Resignation era, when about one-third of new hires quit after six months. And those who quit are not likely to have a favorable view of the company’s culture and maybe even the products and services. If there are negative online reviews from former employees, the situation can be even worse. These have proven to be significant barriers to attracting and winning new talent in a job seeker’s market.

Done consistently and in good faith, internal marketing strategies can help transform a bored, uncaring, or confused staff into a dynamic team of brand ambassadors. This can have a significant impact on the bottom line—and, perhaps more importantly, it can ensure that employees are excited to return to work every day to pursue the company’s shared mission and goals.

1. Internal communications

With a little creative construction, internal comms can help build brand awareness and make employees feel like their contributions are welcomed and that they are integral and valued members of the organization. Generic communications collateral and platforms can have company branding integrated in the form of logos, slogans, mission statements, and more. In traditional office environments, a plain memo sheet can be modified to include some of the company’s color and logo. More modern internal communications using digital applications can receive a similar treatment so that employees can always have “top of mind” that they are part of a whole. Their attitudes and actions all contribute to the success of everyone around them.

Internal communications can also be a great place to recognize those who have made a positive contribution, thereby rewarding current and past brand ambassadors and encouraging others to follow in their footsteps. This is not a new concept. The ubiquitous “Employee of the Month” plaque has been around for a long time. And it surely encourages employees to put greater effort into their tasks. But these plaques and other similar recognitions have to be seen as actually mattering to management. A plaque that nobody sees or that has not been updated in months sends a message that it does not really matter – and thus the employee does not really matter.

2. Employee feedback form

Most employees like to feel that they are valued by their supervisors and co-workers. Employees who see themselves as valued have shown increased productivity, higher sales, fewer complaints, less absenteeism, and lower turnover. At some workplaces, it can be hard for an employee to feel valued if their opinions and concerns are not acknowledged or followed up on. One internal communication strategy to help with employee engagement is to create employee feedback forms. Either through internal methods or by hiring an outside marketing company (such as OWDT), employers can create a means by which any and all employees can voice their concerns, give feedback on operations and personnel, or provide potentially valuable ideas that can lead to more efficient production, reduced costs, greater sales, and the bottom line. But it’s not enough to intake forms. There must be a system in place to examine these inputs and to acknowledge and respond to each entry. There must also be a way to communicate these concerns and ideas to the appropriate management personnel. When team members see that their feedback is taken seriously and acted upon when necessary and possible, it completes the cycle of engagement that is so important to a holistic, positive company culture.

3. Brand authenticity

It would not help much to invest large sums of capital in an external marketing campaign if, in the end, your potential customers do not feel that your company is sincere about the products and services it offers, or that its promises will not be fulfilled. Here, a strategic internal marketing program can be crucial to aligning perception with reality. A brand-loyal employee who is the first point of interaction with a customer can set the stage for success. A customer with a negative first impression is unlikely to complete the transaction, return for more, or recommend the company. Other brand ambassadors further down the acquisition or business development pipeline can reinforce the notion that what your company promises is what it delivers. Finally, once the sale has been made, happy valued employees can keep the customer engaged and primed for further sales and/or referrals. A customer who has been helped along the way by positive and optimistic brand ambassadors is much more likely to become a new brand ambassador. Through word of mouth and exponential dissemination (think Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon), each of these new external brand ambassadors can lead to many more advocates and much higher profits for your company.

4. Social media-friendly environment

In the ever-changing world of digital marketing, social media has become one of the most important outlets for your company’s voice. It seems that every week there is a new platform that is taking the world by storm and which must be exploited. However, a company’s official channels can only do so much to reach customers on every platform and in niche markets and to convince them that its products and services are genuine, helpful, and valuable. If every employee is a brand ambassador and is allowed and encouraged to engage customers through social media, the outreach power of the company can be increased many times over and without any direct additional cost. See the paragraph above about exponential dissemination. Additionally, with the rise of artificial intelligence in advertising, the future holds even more potential for personalized and targeted outreach strategies. AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data to understand consumer behavior and preferences, allowing companies to tailor their messaging and ad placements for maximum impact across various platforms. This integration of AI technologies into advertising further amplifies the effectiveness of internal marketing campaigns, offering new avenues for reaching and engaging with customers.

It is therefore helpful and sometimes even vital for a company to allow its employees to act as additional voices for the brand. Now more than ever, a company that expects profits cannot afford to shut itself off and live in the past.

Furthermore, many people, especially those joining the workforce in recent years, are increasingly using social media to learn about and connect with the world at large. It might be where they get their news from or it might be how they communicate with friends and relatives. Keeping these lines of communication open is going to be even more important for years to come.

Brand Education

Many companies make the mistake of allowing the creation of information silos. One department keeps its operations secret from every other. Only the managers or directors know the vision for the company as a whole. Internal marketing aims to tear down such walls. The exchange of information, concepts, and plans between departments can help employees become more invested in their work. It can help them see the work of others and vice-versa. And when everyone sees that the company as a whole is moving in the right direction, it can help elevate everyone’s attitude and performance. Instead of employees feeling like they are easily replaceable cogs in a cold, uncaring machine, it can help them feel like they are important members of a team – all working in unison for the greater good.

Internal marketing vs external marketing

External marketing has been defined as all efforts to improve customer experience and build external loyalty to a product or service. While this is a vital part of any business, internal marketing can be almost or just as important. A company that focuses solely on attracting new customers and neglects the very people who attract and serve those customers may not be around for very long. The cost of producing goods and services with an unhappy or indifferent workforce can be much higher. Turnover might be so high that there are never enough qualified people to keep up with production, sales, service, or management. The cost of acquisition can be so high that the company never turns a profit. Therefore it is of supreme importance to invest in effective internal marketing, for the good of your employees and of the company as a whole. One OWDT client which is known to have a great company culture is LJA Engineering. To quote their late president, “We genuinely like our co-workers, and this shows in everything we do.” Because of their great commitment to internal marketing and a positive internal company lifestyle, they are normally voted among the Top Workplaces in the Houston area. And this positive outlook on work and life helps LJA be a highly successful, highly-regarded company.

OWDT’s marketing services

It may not seem immediately obvious to have a web design company help craft and carry out your internal marketing or internal communication plan, but OWDT was founded by digital marketing experts with years of experience helping small and large companies accomplish their mission and reach their financial goals through adept internal and external marketing and related services.

It remains a difficult challenge to understand the psychological dynamics of what causes users to stay, engage, and return to a website remains a difficult challenge.
The best in the industry spend more time asking questions, being curious, and knowing that they don’t know everything about their potential target audience. From that space of curiosity, innovation can begin. Following is an overview of essential steps to achieving customer engagement loyalty through user experience (UX) design.

Behavioral research offers insights into the habits and preferences of large demographic and psychographic groups.

Marketing teams get into the ins and outs of realistic user personas. Creating a well-defined user persona that represents a single consumer in all of their complexity is the best way for teams to vet the digital experiences of their potential customers.

Specificity is Key: The Art of User Personas

After extensive user persona research, teams gain an in-depth understanding of the consumers’ reasoning, intrinsic motivations, personal priorities, and aesthetic preferences. For example, User persona research might inform a branding team on what will resonate with their users.

Energizing primary colors, bold text with meaningful claims, and calls to action that represent a larger purpose might all help to engage the deeper motivations of those eco-conscious consumers.

From The Inside: Intrinsic Motivation for Customer Retention

Appealing to a virtual consumer’s intrinsic motivation is crucial in converting casual viewers into leads and converting leads into actual sales.

A website that’s designed to answer to the inherent motivations of its users is always one that’s well-designed and easily navigated. For example, lean home pages with prominent and noticeable search bars help users of all digital literacies find the information they’re seeking.

In short, the world of website development and virtual marketing is going beyond categorical research to consider the intrinsic motivation of individual consumers. With extensive research on consumer profiles, the aesthetics and the concrete infrastructure of the web experience can be adjusted in accordance with what those consumers like. Leads are one thing; loyalty is entirely another—with the above steps, companies can find, engage, and keep their loyal consumers.

Click this link to read the full article

https://www.computertechreviews.com/the-link-between-experience-and-loyalty/

The board of judges with Houston’s Annual American Advertising Awards, now in its 60th year, has announced that Houston-based OWDT is the winner of their award for excellence in . This second high-level recognition for OWDT’s Trusted Experts Group corporate rebranding project came from the most prominent local presence in Houston’s visionary creative economy.

‘Our client’s company had outpaced its competition, and that needed to be reflected across every brand touchpoint—internally and externally—to make this clear to their customers and their teams. ‘We’re honored,’ says Kyle Mani, OWDT’s CCO and Founder. ‘We understand these awards to be a real tool for innovation, conversation, and collaboration in our industry.’
— Kyle Mani, CCO/CEO and Founder of OWDT

OWDT went back to the drawing board in its rebranding of the Trusted Experts Group. The OWDT team provided extensive consumer testing and brand strategy ideation to provide one central, unifying idea to align the breadth of the brand’s offerings.

OWDT executives identified the need for a new, captivating name that captured the entire span of their services. Along with their new name, OWDT’s brand design project included a modernized and highly dynamic identity system, including a logo and a comprehensive website development. From company cars to employee uniforms, the new brand experience and all it represents are integrated across daily operations.

With exciting projects underway, OWDT’s committed mission is to continue to push the design envelope, to think outside of traditional solutions, and tailor every creative decision toward the client’s goal.

Click this link to read the full article–

https://www.einpresswire.com/article/566097075/what-is-in-a-name-acclaimed-owdt-wins-the-american-advertising-awards-for-corporate-branding-overhaul

The impact of the pandemic on global marketing has been greater than most could have imagined. How so? COVID ushered in a dramatic increase in consumers going online to make their product decisions. This has resulted in significant growth for many large corporations while opening tremendous opportunities for smaller companies.

With increasingly minimal capital investment, many smaller organizations have grown exponentially in the international arena. This is especially so for those that have established reliable international digital networks promoting new products that meet unmet consumer needs. All this has significantly ‘democratized’ the global economy, a shift that has impacted both the B2B and B2C domains alike. However, the clout that goes with being a large corporation is lost without adapting products and messaging to local market cultures, regulations, payment options, and sales regulations. Starbucks is a prime example of how to navigate these challenges skillfully.

Here is a link to the complete article on 60 Second Marketer

Success on the Big Stage: Design Translations for Global Transitions in the Post-Pandemic Age

OWDT was selected by the judges of the NYX MarCom Awards as the winner of the 2021 Gold Marcom Award. This international award celebrates the best-in-industry marketing communications ideas and executions. Winners are selected from over 300 categories spanning the most recent print, Web, Video, and Strategic Communications achievements.

Kyle Mani, CCO of OWDT, says ‘Beyond the validation of the work, we’re especially grateful for what the MarCom initiative represents in our industry—taking joy in the art, the industry dialogue, and the chance to give back to the community from which we all come.’

OWDT helped create a new brand identity for an established organization that had made a transition to new ownership. Mr. Mani emphasizes the critical importance of carefully selecting a new name for the organization, which was pivotal to establishing market value. The success of the identity campaign delivered the company to its long-time desired exit, an acquisition by industry leaders SGS. The team is now a part of SGS under the name OGC Experts.

OWDT slowly built the Trusted Experts Group brand’s new architecture. Stakeholder research, competitive audits, usability testing, and user persona discovery led the team to consequential and clarifying changes, beginning with the company’s name. This extended to a captivating logo, on-site uniforms, company vehicles, and business cards–important reminders across multiple touchpoints of their brand and culture.

Click this link to read the full article–

https://www.einpresswire.com/article/where-ideas-meet…

Leading digital competition for big and small agencies and everyone in between—Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts crowned OWDT winner of 16th Annual Award in 2021.

“The w3 is the leading digital competition that recognizes the biggest agencies, the smallest firms, and everyone in between.’ The recognition from the Academy and their team of top-tier professionals is a profound honor and an important sign that we’re keeping our clients at the forefront of industry-changing design.

The recognition from the Academy and their team of top-tier professionals is a profound honor and an important sign that we’re keeping our clients at the forefront of industry-changing design. It’s an honor we don’t take lightly to be involved in that collective force.”
— Kyle Mani, CCO/CEO and Founder of OWDT

HOUSTON, TEXAS, UNITED STATES, November 2, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ — For 16 years, the w3 Awards have recognized the frontier firms, designers, and creators behind digital excellence in the realms of Website, Marketing, Video, Mobile Sites & Apps, Social Media, and Podcasts. Out of 3,000 entries, the Academy of Interactive and Visual Awards (AIVA) crowned OWDT the winner for its work on the Prince International Corporation website design.

In their work for Prince International Corporation, a global manufacturer of specialty chemicals, minerals, and industrial additives, OWDT took a rigorous, insight-driven approach to visual design. By putting early designs through rigorous stakeholder usability testing, the OWDT team developed personalized information architecture, complete with visually-striking designs to help create a superior and purposeful user experience. By providing further UI & UX Strategy, CMS Development, Web Design, and Hosting services, OWDT was able to bring the best of Prince’s brand offerings and raison d’être into their digital strategy.

OWDT’s new design elevated the user’s brand experience and prepared for Google’s best practices while significantly improving conversion and other metrics.

Click this link to read the full article

https://www.einpresswire.com/article/555150402/internationally-acclaimed-design-firm-owdt-wins-the-w3-award-for-creative-excellence

Our journey to becoming a sustainable company

How to become a sustainable company

We are proud to announce that OWDT has officially been recognized as a Green Seal TM Green Office Partner. We are confronted everyday with images of smog over cities, glaciers melting, dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico, overflowing landfills, garbage islands in the Pacific. As a country we all share some of the blame and yes there are systemic changes that need to be made at the highest levels of government to solve these issues on a macro scale, and we put our faith in these people and trust they will make the best decisions to address these environmental concerns.

This leads to the next question, what can we do as individuals to affect sustainability? We trust in officials to make the right decisions to protect the environment, but what do we all do on a day-to-day basis to contribute to the issues affecting our environment every day. This question is what lead our company to start on our journey to becoming a green company.  From this point forward we were committed to finding a reputable non-profit that could guide our company towards becoming sustainable. On a micro-scale, we can all do something to affect positive change in our environment and help preserve nature.

Americans are less than 5% of the world population yet consume more than 25% of the world resources.

We all have contempt for the litterbug, we have all seen the person casually discard their gum wrapper to the ground or throw a McDonald’s bag out of their window. Seeing this makes most in our society feel a bit queasy because we all share the same high standard. We need to all as a community live up to these standards to maintain the quality of life that we want. The same thinking can be extended to small business owners and individuals. If we can make the choice to hold ourselves to a higher standard we will be able to ensure a sustainable future for our country and planet.

“We as Americans, according to the Scientific American are less than 5% of the world population yet we consume more than 25% of the world resources. We have created an unsustainable pattern. Therefore as businesses, we need a creative solution to cut down on our waste. We need to be the leaders that create ways to make sustainability a little bit more manageable. If we can make some small difference, we feel we must do what we can. One of the solutions that we have implemented is reducing our paper consumption, reducing our electricity usage, we have created ways for our employees to reduce their greenhouse gases by carpooling on their commute. We are proud to have made a lot of the changes that Green Seal, specified to and help us in our goal of sustainability.”

Kyle Mani – CEO, OWDT

Go green ideas for companies

At OWDT, we already were implementing green practices for the office, but we wanted to make it official by incorporating them into our company-wide policy and incentivizing employees who participate. Employees are already taking advantage of the new green policies like, Tyler Stavola and Justin Nowroozi who carpool (daily) to the office which reduces our contribution to transportation emissions. Andrew Mani spearheads our recycling, in where he drops off our recyclables to Westpark Consumer Recycling Center due to our buildings waste management company not offering to recycle. We have remote employees like Dennis Ghyst who work from their ‘virtual offices’, which reduces our emissions from transportation. There are millions of blogs that talk about ways to make your company green, but we wanted to go with a credible non-profit that could really guide us to becoming a sustainable company. That is why we decided to partner with Green Seal to codify what we were already doing, and to receive direction as well as third-party verification. Under the direction of Fernanda Cabrera being appointed as our fearless “Green Leader,” we have made great strides towards the goal of sustainability by meeting Green Seals partnership requirements. Seth Leitman, better known as the ‘The Green Living Guy®‘ lends his support, “Having any company become a Green Seal Partner is always a great thing. So when OWDT web design company (first in this type of genre) became a member I said two thumbs up!”  Our next action was to create our own unique commitment to sustainable business practices with the direction of Earth Forward Growth a sustainability firm that specializes in small business solutions.

OWDT’s commitment to sustainable practices

We believe that good environmental stewardship is a personal and corporate responsibility and that we can all contribute to tackling the global challenge that climate change presents. OWDT is committed to incorporating environmentally positive policies in our business model, to ensure day-to-day operations minimize our environmental footprint, and reflect our core values. OWDT supports the generation of clean, renewable energy in Texas and will purchase 100% of our electricity needs from recognized renewable energy providers in the state. We commit to purchasing all equipment and materials locally, to support the regional economy and mitigate transportation emissions.

We believe responsible energy use benefits us all, so we will adopt smart technology to reduce our daily energy demand, while purchasing only appliances and equipment that are energy efficient and track our overall energy consumption and emissions via the US Environmental Protection Agency Portfolio Manager system. We will regularly audit our performance to ensure we are in compliance with our targets.

We believe responsible energy use benefits us all, so we will adopt smart technology to reduce our daily energy demand.

OWDT supports the work and recommendations of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and we will voluntarily disclose our energy consumption data annually, which can be used by the scientific community for research, analysis and long-term energy planning scenarios. We are committed to achieving our target of an 80% reduction in our carbon footprint by 2050.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: OWDT policy is to be a zero-waste company and therefore we will recycle and repurpose all our business materials to ensure we avoid contributing to the waste stream. A safe and healthy work environment for all our employees, customers and suppliers is of paramount importance to us all. We will ensure indoor air quality use by using certified low-emitting products with the Green Seal® and office furniture with the Green Guard® or those that are made from certified renewable resources. At OWDT we pride ourselves on our environmental commitment and look forward to helping our customers do the same.

To learn more about how to get started with your sustainability goals contact Diana McCarthy-Bercury at Earth Forward Growth, LLC 203-687- 8278 or email info@EarthForwardGrowth.com

About Green Seal

Green Seal TM, a nonprofit organization founded in 1989, is the nation’s premier eco-label, symbolizing transparency, integrity, and environmental leadership. It is most widely-known for its flagship Certification Program, which develops life-cycle-based environmental standards and certifies products and services that meet these standards. Green Seal standards cover 450 categories – from janitorial supplies, paints, and windows to restaurants and hotels – and are specified by countless states, agencies, schools, and institutions. The Green Office Partnership is one of its many other initiatives and was developed to help companies green their office operations and receive third-party recognition for their improvements.

Mission
A Green Economy. One that is as sustainable as possible – renewable, with minimal impact – so that our environment, all forms of life, and our natural resources are protected, and our social needs and values are honored.

Vision
Green Seal is a nonprofit organization that uses science-based programs to empower consumers, purchasers, and companies to create a more sustainable world.

History
Green Seal is a pioneer in promoting a sustainable economy. In 1989 there were no non-profit environmental certification programs in the US. During this year, our founder had the foresight to recognize the need for a tool to help shoppers find truly green products. Green Seal was developed as a nonprofit to stand for absolute integrity. Over the years the reputation of the Green Seal brand has grown to symbolize environmental leadership, and it continues to represent proven-green products and services.

What is the Green Office Partnership Program?

Whether you own your office space or lease it, as an office manager you make operational and purchasing choices every day that can significantly reduce the footprint of your office and provide a cleaner, healthier environment for your staff.

The Green Seal™ Green Office Partnership Program is designed to guide offices in the straightforward steps they can take to become more sustainable. The program focuses only on those areas that are within the direct control of office managers, including:

• Waste reduction and recycling
• Office supplies
• Kitchen and pantry supplies
• IT equipment and management
• Operational systems
• Transportation
• Training and education for staff

For more information on the Green Office Partnership, visit GreenOfficePartner.org or call 202-872-6400, and for general Green Seal information visit greenseal.org.

How to help your company go green?

The U.S. small business administration (SBA), US environmental protection agency (EPA) and ENERGYSTAR(r) are a great starting point when looking for information on green ideas for small and medium-sized companies. Becoming a green company starts with small steps, and once you start on the journey of sustainability all you need to do is rinse and repeat. Here are a few suggestions you can use to start the process of becoming a green business.

Build a green business budget

Lately, due to hurricanes, Harvey and Irma, environmental concerns have become greater than ever. Lots of us already recycle at home and have made the decision to change our behavior. Although several companies from large corporations to small mom and pop shops still believe that going green is too difficult and too expensive. The truth is that there are many easy ways that businesses can be sustainable and reduce their footprint on the environment. Going green at its essence is about reducing waste, and being conscious of your business’s impact on nature. The curious thing is that going green in many ways can save a company money over the long run.

Green office ideas

• Start recycling
  Find a way to recycle your recyclable goods even if it is not offered in your location. Recycling is a stable of sustainability across the world over the last few years. People want corporations that do not focus solely on short-term profit maximization, recycling helps. People want these businesses to be responsible and have the policy to keep waste in check. Cutting down on waste is another way of making your company green. Use biodegradable packaging along with recyclable materials. This simple change reduces waste dramatically. Your company may be able to recycle, paper products too. So instead of making physical copies of everything, try to transition to working digitally as much as you can. Writing out schedules, memos and copy via digital programs instead of on paper will lead to less waste. Keeping files stored digitally reduces waste and improves the organization.

• Build an effective green team
  Green teams are often at the heart of a company’s successful sustainability efforts. Engage employees from all areas and all levels of the company. Identify a team leader who can help provide a process and methodology to help the team identify, quantify, prioritize, and address potential environmental and cost savings to the company. Leslie Barland, Green Business Network Program Manager Bridging the Gap. “To engage your staff in environmental initiatives and work towards changing behaviours, it’s important to involve everyone at all levels and lead with the culture, in addition to this, it’s key to put forward both the rational and emotional reasons for eco-initiatives in order to achieve the biggest impact,” explains April Sotomayor, Sustainability Consultant at Investors in the Environment.  “In addition to this, it’s key to put forward both the rational and emotional reasons for eco-initiatives in order to achieve the biggest impact.”

• Conserve energy
  Turn off the lights after you leave a room. Also, as a company, you can switch to energy-efficient compact fluorescents (CFLs) and fluorescent tube lighting throughout the office. This change alone can make a major impact on your energy usage. Investing in energy-efficient electronics, appliances, and lights will make big difference. Installing these energy-efficient products will most certainly cost money up front, but before long this will all pay for itself, and in some cases, purchasing these products make small business owners and corporations eligible for tax cuts – so what’s not to like about that? Saudia Davis, CEO of GreenHouse Eco-Cleaning adds, “There are a number of ways businesses large and small can “go green.” An easy one is to power down non-essential equipment and lights after business hours. You can set up computers to automatically power down at night, and invest in SmartStrips is a good start. You should also replace older equipment with Energy Star compliant equipment. Not only is this environmentally beneficial, it will also help save the business considerable money annually. Setting up conference rooms and offices with motion-sensor light switches will help minimize wasted energy consumption.If possible, use LED lights in the office. Though the bulbs cost more than CFL bulbs, they also last longer. How much longer? Well, CFLs uses 25-35% less energy than incandescent bulbs, but for the biggest environmental impact on the environment, choose LEDs. For example, residential Energy Star LEDs uses 75% less energy and last 25 times longer than incandescent lighting.”

• Turn off electronics
  To take this thinking a step further it is recommended to turn off all the computer equipment at night. A great way to implement keep an eye on this is to install energy-management software that can track the impact. Try turning off computers, printers, lights, and equipment at the end of the workday or when not in use, you can immediately make a positive impact on your company’s bottom line. Computer monitors should be turned off when not in use. Other smart hacks like unplugging mobile phone chargers after use helps because they use energy even when they are not charging mobile devices. Even adjusting the office temperature by a degree here and there saves a lot of money, and most people will not feel the difference of a few degrees. It is this type of involvement that makes a difference when you add it all up in the end.

• Let employees work virtually
  Virtual offices are the way of the future. With video chat, email and the good old telephone, employees can help make an impact by cutting emissions and city gridlock while remaining highly active in their roles. Nicole Fallon, Managing Editor at Business News Daily is a proponent of virtual working, she says, “One simple way a business can become more eco-friendly is by letting employees work from home, whether it’s once or twice a month or a few times a week. Remote work policies not only promote a culture of trust and flexibility, but they also help the environment. You and your team will reduce your carbon footprint by avoiding the commute to the office (fewer gas emissions from cars) and cutting down your office building’s energy consumption (fewer people in-office means less electricity and water use).” Simple initiatives like encouraging employees to go green while at work can lead to a large decrease your business’ impact on the environment. Brie Weiler Reynolds, Senior Career Specialist at FlexJobs agrees, “One of the biggest things companies can do to become more sustainable, and also to help encourage their team members to do the same, is to utilize remote work. By allowing employees to work from home, even occasionally, companies can immediately eliminate one of the biggest daily components of their carbon footprints. According to the 2017 State of Telecommuting in the U.S. report, existing telecommuters (only 3.9 million workers, or 2.9% of all workers) reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of taking over 600,000 cars off the road for a year. If everyone who had a remote-compatible job (56% of all workers), the greenhouse gas reduction could be the equivalent of taking over 10 million cars off the road for a year!”

• Empower employees to make sustainability personal
  Sustainability isn’t just recycling and resource management, it’s healthy workspaces, eating right, exercise, and being in nature. Employees who work in cubes and under manufactured lighting need to be able to get away from their desks and be rejuvenated by natural elements. Encourage health breaks throughout the day to increase cognitive ability, productivity, and employee satisfaction. In addition, creativity is often bolstered by standing or walking and being outside. Get outside of the conference room for meetings once in a while to break the monotony of “business as usual” and watch innovative ideas grow. Miles Hoffman, Product Development Program Manager at REV

• Start an employee recognition program
  To keep the ball rolling forward on your sustainability journey, make green goals part of your meeting agenda items. Keep the conversation going. An employee recognition program is a great way to empower employees to make suggestions for improving operations, reducing waste, and conserving energy. Credits can be given to a company story or dollars donated to a favorite charity. Engage employees in health and wellness program like “Green Heroes” at UH in Cleveland where employees share their actions and behaviors to improve healthy eating. You can even create a Chairman’s Club program where employees are given financial awards and in person recognition from the C-suite. It is all about getting your people involved in driving sustainable change. Kristina Kohl, MBA, PMP Principal at Becoming Sustainable

• Go paperless
  Over the years OWDT as a company has spent too much on paper and ink toner. One of the quickest ways for a company to go green is to shift to electronic methods of payment with customers, suppliers, and billers. Katie Gannon, Founder at Eco Friendly Fashion is a big supporter of this method. “My main business is freelance graphic design. While it is tempting to print all briefs, inspiration & drafts on paper, I try to keep a rule of only printing when absolutely necessary. Any other paperwork is stored in applications such as Pinterest for inspiration, Google docs for briefs and Dropbox for interactive commenting on draft designs. With so many great applications available, why waste ink, paper & power unnecessarily printing? This is how we minimize waste and keep our office green.” Diane MacEachern, Founder & CEO at Big Green Purse adds, “One way companies are going green is by reducing the amount of printing they do. What with electronic file sharing and apps like DropBox, there’s less and less need to waste paper and ink on printed documents. That’s especially true when it comes to sharing rough drafts of documents that are going to be revised several times before the final printing. Other companies aren’t printing business cards anymore or cutting the size of the standard card in half. And it goes without saying that whatever you do print should be on 100% recycled paper. Recycled paper quality these days is excellent, even for high-end design. Buy recycled, and then recycle as much as you can at the other end.”

• Purchase Green office equipment and supplies
  When purchasing equipment for the office, look for brands that dedicate themselves to having a sustainability policy and history of producing green-friendly products. Examples of office supplies that will fall into this category are monitors and toner to equipment and workstations. If you can set a policy to only purchase products from other companies that offer green products and have a public sustainability policy, then you can be assured that your company’s purchases will contribute to environmental protection and sustainable growth. Tom Permatteo President of Green Business Bureau adds, “Not only can going green help the environment, but it can also help your business cut down costs and save money. Some easy things you can do to make your company more sustainable is to focus on the following: conserving energy, investing in eco-friendly work materials that produce less pollution, replacing outdated appliances and upgrading to more energy-efficient options, and practicing waste segregation to encourage employees and customers to recycle. These four, simple tasks can easily help any business begin to take steps toward being more eco-friendly.”

• Solar Power – produce your own energy!
  As energy bills continue to soar, and as we understand the real strain we are putting on the earth’s resources, it’s now more important than ever to stop burning fossil fuels for our energy and look at alternatives. Harnessing the sun’s energy with solar allows you to save money on bills, produce clean green energy – and now with the option of backup battery storage, this energy can be stored and used in the evenings too. For more information, see why businesses must really start to think about going green. Lily Veale, Marketing Assistant at Solar Plants

Whether you own a small business, are an employee or a large corporation, going green is about reducing our impact on the environment. This process may seem difficult first but there are many resources available to small businesses. With a few small changes, you can greatly reduce your business’ carbon footprint in several ways. Doing this shows a certain amount of vision and innovation to understand that going green is the smart thing for business. On top of saving the environment, much of what is recommended by Green Seal and the overall process will reduce spending by thinking smarter and planning for the future.

Like Ray Cycle the ‘superhero of recycling‘ once said, ”There’s so much trash, there’s so much waste, it’s polluting our water and taking up space”. We ask that more companies take a step forward like OWDT has and implement a green program. Please start the initial steps to bring your company towards sustainability.

Tyler Stavola – Digital Visibility Director, OWDT

Damage control to protect your ROI

The internet abounds with fraudulent information, including fake news and bogus product/service reviews, generally referred to as ‘review spam.’

Review spam falls into two general categories—

• People who write bogus positive reviews to increase the rankings and product sales of a business.
• Fake negative ‘customer’ reviews attacking a business’s products or services, originating from competitor-aligned individuals and spam networks posing as legitimate consumers.

Online reviews are critical both for online and brick and mortar sales

As we know from continuing news of major retail chains closing stores or going out of business entirely, online purchases have been rapidly increasing. However, according to a recent Pew study, 65% of shoppers still prefer to buy from physical outlets when possible. Surprisingly, non-store purchases, despite growth, are still only 11%.

Surveys indicate that 90% of consumers read online reviews with 85% considering them equivalent to personal recommendations. A recent survey also revealed that 90% of consumers read less than ten reviews before deciding whether to do business with you or not. If potential buyers find three or more negative reviews about your business, over 60% will be scared off and go with one of your competitors. Even a few one-star negative spam evaluations will kill sales of online products and significantly reduce the number customers doing business with local service providers like, e.g., auto repair shops or plumbers. Many potential buyers focus on negative reviews, especially those with 1-star, to assess whether a product or business has serious shortcomings.

Price is the most important determiner of whether consumers purchase online and, if they do, who they choose to buy from. After selecting a specific product, consumers check comparative prices among e-commerce and brick and mortar distributors. The latter, of course, are also reviewed and ranked. Bottom line—online reviews have a critical impact on your business, whether it’s exclusively e-commerce, brick, and mortar, or a combination of both.

The many sources of review spam—

• Reviewers are the owners, their employees, or marketers (with links to review spammer networks) which falsify positive reviews to increase product ratings and sales.
• Reviewers who pretend they’re customers but are lying about critical details of a transaction to help or hurt a business.
• Reviewers who are paid or otherwise rewarded for writing a favorable or unfavorable review.
• Reviewers who knowingly or unknowingly violate platform guidelines by including hateful, obscene speech or personal attacks. This goes against all terms of service, but review platforms sometimes fail to red flag these violations. Immediately report this kind of attack so that platform administrators can remove it.
• Reviewers who blackmail business owners with a flood of one-star ratings, communicating that they will delete them only if paid a given amount. Carefully document all such incidents!
• Reviewers who are fired or otherwise disgruntled employees.
• Reviewers who are internet trolls out to do damage wherever possible, whenever possible–regardless of whether they were a previous customer or not.
• Reviewers who intend no harm but don’t understand that, e.g., asking family and friends to give their business high ratings is unethical and violates terms of service guidelines.

However, a review is not spam if—

• It comes from real customers, never excluding those reporting genuine negative experiences.
• It captures the details of a transaction with reasonable objectivity (without misrepresentation of facts).
• It conforms to the review submission policies of the platform on which it’s published

Some indicators that reviews are spam–

• Reviewers whose profiles reveal they’re in many different geographic locations over a short period.
• Reviewers with a pattern of giving 1-star ratings to businesses contrasted with 5-star ratings to their direct competitors.
• Reviewers with excessive praise for a business owner mentioned by name.
• When the number of reviews for a business skyrocket from, e.g., 10 to 100 over a short period that can’t be connected to a major news event, it’s probably coming from a spam network.
• Reviewers who make demonstrably false claims about an incident.

Establishing a damage control policy

A Chief Marketing Officer needs to establish a clear, detailed policy to deal with all contingencies. This includes identifying spammers and holding review platforms accountable. Review spam sources range from individuals with an axe to grind to global networks comprised of individuals who are paid to hype or libel a company and its products. You may be surprised to learn that your business may be evaluated by 10 or more websites you had no knowledge of. Do a thorough internet search to locate those sites so you can respond to posted customer feedback you had no knowledge of.

To protect your reputation and ROI, you require monitoring software to capture all incoming reviews. Depending on the volume of evaluations you receive on e-commerce platforms and social media, you’ll also need to assign one or more of your employees to respond to negative reviews, one at a time. They must demonstrate outstanding communication skills before originating posts independently, mentoring them to ensure they are consistent with your established guidelines for projecting a customer-friendly, cooperative company image.

Be aware that while all major review platforms provide some support for locating and removing spam reviews, those protections are partial at best. Therefore, brands need to continue to push for better support from review platforms. Yelp, one of the best among them, is still contending with review spam at the 20% level. Unfortunately, the most important review platforms with the heaviest traffic often fail to enforce their own guidelines. This may result from inadequate algorithms or insufficient staff to monitor review spam. When spammers continue ‘to get away with it,” a platform’s reputation can be damaged over time as customers come to realize that its content is inaccurate.

Some businesses choose to turn off their notifications from a large platform if they discover that administrators are consistently failing to identify and delete bogus reviews. However, most marketing analysts caution against doing this, because you’ll also be losing valuable feedback that can help improve your products, services, and brand.

Strategies for reducing or eliminating damage from fake negative reviews

• When possible, contact the unhappy customer directly. Calmly, respectfully listen to what they say and apologize for their inconvenience (whether it’s your fault or not) and describe how you’ll take corrective action to prevent that problem in the future.
• The ideal outcome in this case for them to delete their negative review and replace it with a more positive one. There’s a moderate chance of success in these situations.
• If a reviewer’s identity can’t be tracked, publicly comment on their review, hoping they’ll read your comments and contact you. You also may be successful in identifying the reviewer by comparing their pseudonym and date of the review with any received product orders issued.
• Never respond to negative reviews with a counter-attack. This will blowback to hurt your company’s reputation. Not should you risk violating most platforms’ rules by pressuring the customer.
• Another approach is to contact the platform’s administrator to see if they will delete a negative review (for example, if you believe the review is libelous). Unfortunately, unless a post directly violates their narrow, very specific guidelines, they generally don’t comply.
• Carefully write and edit all your responses to unfavorable reviews that can’t be deleted. This is at least as much Public Relations as Marketing, and so the language must be precise, friendly, and diplomatic. This approach demonstrates that you take customer complaints seriously and take action to fix problems. The low rating will still be there, but your response may reduce the concerns of prospective customers. NOTE: never copy and paste the same response to subsequent reviews. Each response must stand on its own merits.

Observe the following when communicating with customers

• Emphasize how important reviews are for you as a seller and how much damage bad reviews can cause. (I once got such a call, after posting a two-star rating for an Amazon product). After getting such feedback, many customers will then delete their low product or service rating posted when they were especially angry.
• Some users are unaware that third-party sellers are often involved with the sale and delivery of the products they purchase. Remind them of that fact if that’s the source of their complaint and suggest they carefully read the sellers’ terms of service in the future.
• Post FAQ page information addressing common issues that have direct, easy solutions. You can select and integrate relevant segments of that document into your online responses to help resolve customer complaints.
• Above all, this is an opportunity to ‘flip the script’ by addressing the customer’s concerns while highlighting your business’s strengths—e.g., your growing volume of business, strong record of quality control, dedication to customer support, etc.
• There are times when the customer will be unreceptive to any response. All you can do is tell them you wish things had turned out differently. Most potential future customers reading your online response will recognize that you have taken all reasonable measures to satisfy the unhappy customer. If the disgruntled customer continues to post critical comments you can block them, though do this only as a last resort. They can easily take their wrath to other platforms, so you’ll need to monitor their activity via a Google alert with their username and your brand name.

A complex, often inconsistent, legal framework

Some businesses have taken the extreme measure of filing meritless defamation cases against reviewers, hoping the high costs of litigation will squelch the critics and cause them to retract their comments. These baseless libel suits are known as SLAPPs – (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation). Legislation has been passed in over half the states to restrict SLAPPs. In one extreme 2010 case, a man who posted a negative review about a towing company was slapped with a $750,000 damage claim.

A more common technique for suppressing negative customer feedback is to write Terms of Service agreements with gag clauses, in which customers essentially sign away their rights to criticize a company. These clauses are often buried in fine print for products ranging from weight loss products to apartment complexes. Some courts consider gag clauses invalid and unenforceable, while others support them. A customer violating a gag clause thus risks paying out whatever amount was specified in the contract for breaking the gag clause.

Section 5(a) of the Federal Trade Communication Act states: “Unfair methods of competition in or affecting commerce, and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce, are hereby declared unlawful.”

This clause is cited when businesses bring charges against those posting widespread fraudulent reviews. While the First Amendment protects our right to free speech, it doesn’t protect those who make false allegations about individuals and organizations. This is the legal basis for the current proliferation of lawsuits between platforms, brands, and customers. Yelp, for example, has sued many agencies and businesses for posting fake reviews. Also, companies have successfully sued competitors for recruiting third parties to post malicious comments against them. And Amazon is among mega corporations now actively suing websites that post fake reviews. Even more surprisingly, they’ve sued 1,000 unidentified people who have sold fake reviews on its Web store.

Legitimate negative reviews now have greater legal protection under the Consumer Review Fairness Act of 2016. So, customers posting negative reviews complaining about an airline’s policy of bumping passengers from flights–or about getting slow, poor service at a restaurant, are expressing opinions, all of which are theoretically protected. I say, ‘theoretically’ because many jurisdictions still enforce SLAPPs. From my perspective, it seems ill-advised for a company to file SLAPPs given the negative publicity that can generate.

The Lanham Act protects you against libel from your competitors

Although marketers still have the challenge of managing the growing plethora of fake negative and positive reviews, they are protected against slander/libel from competitors by the 1946 Lanham Act which specifically prohibits false negative advertising directed at competitors. More specifically, when a competitor publishes a false review about your business online or fake positive reviews about their own company, this violates the Lanham Act. Significant damages have been awarded in such cases. In our new digital world, it’s easy to identify the culprit if they leave a traceable IP address. When proof has been established, the court issues an injunction to website(s) hosting false reviews as well as search engines to remove them.

Significant damages have been awarded in such cases, and this issue continues to be increasingly important for industries that rely heavily on online visibility, such as SEO Houston agencies and local digital marketing firms.