Brands exist whether intentionally planned or not. Personal brands, corporate brands, national brands and all sorts of brands become brands on day one of creation.

Our whole society takes issues related to branding very lightly but it affects everything we do. The perception our audience has about our brand determines whether we will succeed or fail yet we’d rather spend endless hours, days,weeks, months, years and decades trying to create the perfect bell as opposed to dealing with the real issue of brand development.

There is a common misconception that nearly all brands typically have positive attributes and associations. Our idea of branding is a fancy logo with fluffy marketing jargon to accompany it. Truth is brands usually have more negative attributes and associations then we’d like to believe. Just because you enjoy a 90% market share does not make your brand a star. In a market full of crap the least crappy option will be taken. Honestly, who can say they would gladly continue paying Kenya Power if they had a choice?

Actively engaging in brand strategy and development not only allows you to do a self analysis on your brand but it also helps you discover, create and deliver sustainable benefits to your audience. It forces you to really think about your target, what are their functional, emotional and self expression needs?

It is important to note that a brand can have positive or negative associations. You do not have to work hard to build up negative associations, it’s a default setting that’s available to apathetic brands. Before the Brand Kenya initiative, Kenya was known more for corruption, impunity and tribalism more than anything else. Brand Kenya is now making a noble attempt to shift focus to Kenya’s positive attributes that will lay a firm foundation for the countries brand identity.

If you as the brand owner do not use the platforms that exist in our global community to communicate your brand identity the conversation will be hijacked by outsiders who’s understanding of your brand is minimal and subject to gross assumptions and personal biases.

We’d like to create a distinction between marketing, branding and product development but in reality we cant. It’s the same animal and it is all related to dazzling the client by creating life enhancing experiences and tools. In this case the client is everyone the brand comes into contact with.

So your responsibility as the brand owner is to constantly evaluate your brand and objectively ask yourself whether it is in sync with your audience. Nurture and grow your brand and in the process you’ll pick up gems of knowledge and wisdom that money cannot buy.

ABOUT: JOHN SENO
FATHER | HUSBAND | BUSINESSMAN | CONSULTANT | BLOGGER | FUTURIST | MARKETER | STRATEGIST | OBSERVER | CREATOR | DREAMER | BELIEVER |

It is shocking to observe the number of businesses large and small that still insist on a hard nosed approach to business. I can relate because I also love numbers, graphs, pie charts, balances sheets and all. But the fact is at the end of the day humans are the ones doing the buying. And as we have all come to learn over time humans tend to talk a good rational talk but nearly all their choices and decisions are irrational.

The hard nosed numbers only approach to business makes the fatal assumption that consumers care and even understand the rational features of your product or service. If this was true Greece and her brothers & sisters in the Euro-zone would not be swimming in insurmountable debt. As humans we have an incredible ability to reason yet we still have little or no control over our emotions. This is a fact that all smart companies like Apple & Coca-Cola know all to well.

In industries where cut throat competition is the order of the day, rapid commoditization of products and services is inevitable so any competitive advantage you gain from adding a few extra bells to your product will be copied overnight, patents or no patents!And once this happens companies revert to the old fools game of price competition, eventually leading to a reduction in profit margins across the industry and erosion of value creating activities.

If a business is to continue on the right path of true value creation it must emotionalize it’s business. It must invest heavily in embedding it products and services with human values, sentiments, feelings and thought. Brand gurus would refer to this process as the brand strategy.

When a company develops human traits it inevitably develops a soul that is deeply rooted in every aspect of the business. This is the biggest reason why Apple products that are manufactured for next to nothing in sweat factories in China command a huge price premium. It is the only reason Coca-Cola has the audacity to sell an hundred year formula of colored water and sugar. And it is all very simple really, when you buy coke your are not buying a drink you are actually buying happiness, a moment, history and the list goes on. If you decide to spend you hard earn salary on the latest Apple product your really buying status, pride, sophistication, beauty and a boat load of irrational & intangible qualities.

Albert Einstein said that space and time are not independent of each other. He argued that space and time are not real and that they are merely a creation of the mind. If his theory is right then the line between what is real and what is not real is as thin as ice and only those companies that walk on it will succeed.

About: John Seno
Father | Husband | Businessman | Consultant | Blogger | Futurist | Marketer | Strategist | Observer | Creator | Dreamer | Believer |

Tuberculosis (TB) is a serious infectious disease that most commonly affects the lungs and is caused by the bacteria (germ) Mycobacterium tuberculosis.  Latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) occurs in people who have been infected with the TB bacteria but who are not yet sick with the disease.  These people feel entirely well and cannot pass the TB bacteria on to other people.

The bacteria are “sleeping”.  The medical concern is that there is a 5-10% chance that the bacteria will become active and that these people will become ill with active (infectious) TB later on in their life.  Therefore, it is important for people with LTBI to receive treatment which involves taking pills daily for up to 9 months.  But it is difficult to take pills, and we know from other research that the proportion of people who complete required amount of pills is only about 50%, well below the optimal level.

Therefore, we helped Weltel develop a support program for patients with LTB to help them successfully finish their treatment and prevent getting active TB.  Its Easier and more effective communication with the TB clinic staff and regular reminders may provide an important source of support.

Patients who started treatment for LTBI at the TB Clinic (BC Centre for Disease Control), and have a mobile phone, were invited to participate in the study.  Volunteers were randomly chosen to be in one of two groups: (1) a group that will receive weekly text messages in addition to standard care or (2) a group that  just receive the standard care at the clinic.

Jesse Coleman says; “Over the course of the project, the TB patients who used the system were quite happy with getting their weekly text messages and it helped them feel connected to the clinic. Once the doctor using the software learnt how it worked, she was able to use it powerfully. Over all, 18 patients received weekly text messages for 12 weeks each, with a 70% reply rate. Those who did not reply were  called back by the clinic doctor to check up on them.”

The mobile device in your hand gives you access to all of humanity’s collective knowledge,” – Paul Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm

Brian Edwards, mHealth feature editor at iMedicalApps highlights five mobile trends in healthcare to look for in 2012.

1. Apps that track patient activity. Edwards said the ability to track patient data on a phone will have many benefits in the year to come. “How many phone calls they take, where they are, and … their activity level” can be “surefire” indicators of patients’ conditions, he said. “Especially with chronic conditions like diabetes; when there’s a flare-up, it’s integral to know when … it’s like a check-engine light for the body.” On his blog, Edwards explained how apps of this nature can be beneficial for other patient subsets, like autistic children. For example, body sensor technology has been developed to detect and record signs of stress in children, “by measuring slight electrical changes in the skin,” Edwards wrote. “Since autistic children have a difficult time expressing or even understanding their emotions, teachers and caregivers can have a difficult time anticipating and preventing meltdowns.”

2. Binary network apps. Binary network apps, or apps that track peripheral devices, will possibly be the biggest trend in 2012, said Edwards. “I think that’s going to be something that’ll be the first big business in mobile health,” he said. “Wearable censors, or apps that fit into the diagnostic process in an ambulatory setting. It’s the ability to take the iPhone and a patient with a T-shirt with a built-in censor and keep track of their vitals all day.” This enables techs and caregivers to “see triggers,” said Edwards, while the app sends an alarm depending on a predetermined threshold for the patient. “It’s powerful,” he added.

3. Health-focused games. “Everyone’s trying to game-ify everything,” said Edwards. He referenced Games for Health, which uses games and gaming technology to improve health and healthcare. Organizations such as the University of Southern California have also studied turning simple games into “stealth health,” said Edwards – and had success doing so. “People love to play games – it’s something across all ages and it’s more enjoyable. If the questions are in the form of a funny little game, and you don’t even realize you’re answering the questions you’re answering, it’s going to be easier to answer the question and comply.”

4. Apps that diagnose and treat patients. On his blog, Edwards mentioned a number of start-ups making progress in developing innovative body area network (BAN) technologies. For example, a device aimed at more efficient EEG data collection uses a miniature electronics box attached to a light, head harness, and electrodes to monitor a patient while he/she sleeps. “The device has HIPAA compliant security for easy transfer of data via the Internet,” he added. A similar tool, designed for the diagnosing and monitoring of epileptic patients, allows for continuous brain wave monitoring. “The patient app guides the user through the application of the body worn sensors, which can currently include up to 16-channels of EEG data. Once the patient has applied the body worn sensors, they simply pair the sensors and peripheral device via Bluetooth with the app and go about their day while the data is continuously captured and sent to remote server,” Edwards wrote.

5. Apps that empower patients. Tools that help consumers make health-related decisions will be popular in the upcoming years. On his blog, Edwards documented apps that take publicly available information from government and non-profit grounds and divide it into categories, such as healthcare facilities, medical suppliers and prescription drugs. “Using the phone’s geo-location, an individual can enter his or her ZIP code and find provider facilities in their area,” he wrote. “By utilizing the Center for Medicare and Medicaid’s Hospital Compared database, users can review ratings for all facilities, details on quality of care and patient services, as well as what coverage is provided for Medicare and Medicaid recipients.”

Source: healthcareitnews.com

Principles Of Effective Web Design

In order to use the principles properly we first need to understand how users interact with web-sites, how they think and what are the basic patterns of users’ behavior.

How do users think?

Basically, users’ habits on the Web aren’t that different from customers’ habits in a store. Visitors glance at each new page, scan some of the text, and click on the first link that catches their interest or vaguely resembles the thing they’re looking for. In fact, there are large parts of the page they don’t even look at.

Most users search for something interesting (or useful) and clickable; as soon as some promising candidates are found, users click. If the new page doesn’t meet users’ expectations, the Back button is clicked and the search process is continued.

Users appreciate quality and credibility. If a page provides users with high-quality content, they are willing to compromise the content with advertisements and the design of the site. This is the reason why not-that-well-designed web-sites with high-quality content gain a lot of traffic over years. Content is more important than the design which supports it.

Users don’t read, they scan. Analyzing a web-page, users search for some fixed points or anchors which would guide them through the content of the page.

Users don’t read, they scan. Notice how “hot” areas abrupt in the middle of sentences. This is typical for the scanning process.

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