Storm Studios Blog
Branding with ATTITUDE
Different Search Engines for Different Markets?
Aug 17th
Do you automatically presume Google is the largest search engine all over the world?
THINK AGAIN!!!
ComScore released figures in August showing a significant rise in worldwide search activity — a story that resulted in many headlines. Hidden in the release was the statement “…with Russian search engine Yandex growing at the fastest rate (94 percent) among the top 10.” Why is Yandex doing so well?
With Google’s growth rate at 58 percent, Microsoft’s (Bing / MSN) at 41 percent, and others, including Baidu and Yahoo, showing much lower rates of growth (8 percent and 2 percent respectively), Yandex is doubling year over year and unbelievably beating the global search query shares of Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, and Ask — even during these more difficult economic times.
Only 24% of Russian’s use Google to search the internet!
A deeper analysis of comScore’s figures shows that Google gained most in comScore’s version of global search share moving up from 60.4 percent to 67.4 percent, but Yandex was the only other gainer with a modest move up of 0.3 percent (Microsoft and Ask were static, Yahoo and Baidu drifted down).
Everything points to Yandex being a remarkable success story. Is it economics? Or is it something to do with search technology?
Often described as a copy of Google, Yandex was actually launched in 1997, slightly before Google. Yandex’s long-held number one spot in Russia is attributed to it being built from the ground up to handle the complexities of the Russian language — and it was a first mover in the market.
The Yandex story also has many parallels with that of Google and Yahoo, with mathematicians Arkady Volozh and Arkady Borkovsky generating the idea for Russian language search through their then business Arkadia Inc. (later called CompTek). Originally, the focus was on document and intellectual property search. Then the parallels become less Googlesque because neither were students at the time, nor did they start in a garage.
Yandex is gathering such momentum and looks set to dwarf Google even further
The why’s and wherefores as to why Yandex is gathering such momentum and looks set to dwarf Google even further within Russia is open to much speculation. However, one thing is very clear to see. The opportunity for any overseas suppliers wanting to tap into the lucrative Russian markets isn’t going to be facilitated by Google. In order for western company’s to gain prominence (if initially a virtual one) is by getting their web sites listed and ranked within Yandex. A complete history of the Yandex search engine can be read at searchenginewatch.com
tailor our SEO processes dependent on the geographic locations our clients wish to do business in
At Storm Studios we work extensively with engineering companies, ranging from Hydraulics manufacturers to Pressure Vessel and Offshore Pipeline manufacturers. Whilst offering very dissimilar products they all have the same desire, which is to tap into new and previously un-explored markets. In previous times and in fact still today, SEO companies are either failing to see the relevance in targeting country specific search engines, or are simply not educating their clients as to the benefits of doing so.
If you manufacture products that are destined for overseas markets, you need to have your web site submitted to country specific search engines.
This year we have started to analyse all the industries we are currently developing web sites for, and through client discussions started to tailor our SEO processes dependent on the geographic locations our clients wish to do business in. The main areas and specialist search engines we are concentrating on right now due to client needs are Russia and India.
To find out more information about how Storm Studios can optimise and submit your web site for country specific search engines, visit us today a www.stormstudios.co.uk,
alternatively email call us on 01246 293012.
Did you get a guarantee with your last web site?
Aug 10th
Web Site Performance Guarantee
What do you mean theirs no Guarantee?
Web Site Performance Guarantee
Would you honestly hand over a significant amount of cash to someone you hardly know, to purchase a product you only, at best have a vague understanding of, with no guarantee that the product will work?
A guarantee is the all important bond between the supplier and the customer, it promises without compromise that the product will do the job, and do it well. In essence a guarantee provides reassurance and instils confidence to the customer.
You got a guarantee when you bought your car didn’t you? You got one when you bought your TV, your laptop and your phone, you even got a satisfaction guarantee with the tin of beans you bought.
If a supplier isn’t going to give you a guarantee, can you really have confidence in their product or service?
Did you get a guarantee with your web site?
Probably not, sure you got to check that it was all working correctly before you signed it off and it went live, all the pages you wanted are there, there are no broken links and all the pictures you wanted on the site are visible for all to see. But did you get a guarantee that your new flashy web site will actually perform its primary role – Allow users to easily find what it was they came onto your site to get?
After all, you didn’t buy a web site just to look good; you bought it to do a job, to attract visitors and convert them into customers!
A web site can look absolutely great, but having a great looking web site is only half the solution to an effective, fully functioning web site. This is the point at which the majority of businesses owners are mis-sold the concept of a web site. If a business has asked several web design agencies to quote on the design of their new web site, and in turn have chosen the company who submitted the lowest quote. Then I can almost guarantee they have chosen the wrong web design company.
With only a limited understanding on how to build a web site, we all have the ability to produce a half decent looking web site within just a few hours. Often due to the nature of any online presence, you may never come face to face with the person who is actually designing your web site and here lies the danger. If a company has decided to assign the job of building their web site to the company who came back with an incredibly low price, then theirs a good chance that they have inadvertently not chosen a company at all, but a kid operating out of their bedroom!
A good looking web site will only at best keep a users interest for a few seconds.
Without a face to face meeting between client and designer a true understanding and uniqueness of the clients business cannot accurately be determined. No two businesses are the same, so it stands to reason that their respective web sites should also be unique to that company! A good looking web site will only at best keep a users interest for a few seconds. To actually keep the visitor on the site and stand any chance of converting them into an actual customer, the site must be a whole lot more attractive, the site must also be structured in a way that it instantly lets the visitor know they are in the right place and quickly tempts them deeper into the site. Only successfully designed web sites will stand any chance of quickly engaging the user sufficiently enough that it results in a sale, or an enquiry. This can only be done once the designer has fully understood your business and your target customers enough to know what will tempt them into making a purchase, what little techniques can be used to speak in a language that best engages the customer and makes them want to buy what you are selling. In terms of successful web design, there is no such thing as one size fits all.
So getting back to the question of the guarantee, the reason very few web design companies will actually offer a guarantee is down to the fact that they can not honestly say that the web site they are providing you with will provide any significant value to you or your business! More >
V&A Logo Deconstructed – To change too much of an established brand is “brand suicide”
Aug 6th
V&A monogram suspended in a cylindrical ceiling-mounted capsule
Troika deconstruct the V&A logo
Original by Mark Sinclair, 4 August 2010, 14:11
Troika recently unveiled a kinetic sign that directs visitors to London’s V&A Museum from the tunnel at South Kensington tube station. Referencing the simple beauty of Alan Fletcher’s celebrated identity for the museum, the designers created the stand-alone artwork, Palindrome…
The piece is essentially a revolving V&A monogram suspended in a cylindrical ceiling-mounted capsule. According to Troika “the logo decontructs and reconnects itself with each half turn forming a playful palindrome legible from either side, while the wheels produce a gentle ticking sound reminiscent of a Victorian automaton clockwork.”
While the piece looks to be made from three floating sections of lettering, the installation in fact features some 85 handmade elements including fasteners, gears and a housing case, which hark back to the objects (and the ways that they’re displayed) in the museum itself.
V&A Logo in mid transition
V&A Logo in motion
V&A Logo at Work
Troika explain how they made Palindrome:
The technique of mirror-polished high-quality brass and stainless steel was followed with an acid-etching process resulting in a highly contrasted decorative pattern. Using traditional machine processes proved unfeasible for gears of this particular thinness and the complex surface design required a bespoke method of cutting.
This distinct work process required that the gear profiles were developed within the limitations of its process. By adopting high precision water-jet cutting meant that we could allow the stainless steel plates to be acid-etched, then filled with gloss black acrylic varnish before being cut into their final profiles.
Suspended from a lit casing, the bright blue letters are each 0.5 metre high, and balanced by an internal pocketing to ensure a minimal load on the purpose-built mechanism. As a result, the work can be powered by a small motor and generate the revolving motion using only the three small mitre gears seen on the top of the ampersand.
The entire delicate compilation is encased in a clear acrylic tube of 0.7m diameter wide and 1.3m long. The tube is closed off with rings, each 0.74m diameter wide produced from solid aluminium to give it its spectacular finish.
SO WHAT HAS CHANGED?
Existing V&A Logo
Whilst the initial and overall look of the V&A Logo hasn’t been altered too much, the way in which it has been engineered and re-packaged in order to become a “Work or Art” places the logo into a whole new dimension.
To change too much of an established brand is brand suicide, and Troika’s delicate handling of the V&A brand image in order to create an animated piece of work is pure genius.
Don’t change the form, change the way the form is viewed.
If we buy with our emotions, then Apple now have TOTAL CONTROL over your decision making process!
Jul 30th
The Power of Your Brand is the Ultimate Tool in Your Marketing Arsenal
This is much more than just good product design and intelligent, intuitive software. This is now TOTAL SEDUCTION of your reasoning and decision making capability.
With many of Apples direct competitors now snapping at their heels and producing like for like products in terms of functionality. Apple are now relying on their powerful brand image to ensure they remain at the forefront of this every increasingly competitive market. Apple are now making their products more of a lifestyle necessity rather than just a product that serves a direct need or purpose.
Imagine if you had the power to produce products at will and seemingly without risk know you have a ready and waiting customer base who will be scrambling to get their hands on it!!!
HOW POWERFUL IS YOUR BRAND IMAGE?
If it’s not very good, maybe you should speak with someone who can assist you and lend a helping hand.
The Ultimate Graphic and Web Design Guarantee
Jul 4th
Is this the Ultimate Guarantee?
Storm Studios make their strongest statement yet – this statement is surely set to put even the most cautious and sceptical customers mind at complete ease.
Storm now question the very definition of what a guarantee actually means, in our constant quest to ensure we are not disappointed with the level of service you receive. A guarantee is usually given to ensure that things won’t go wrong. Storm now turn the guarantee on its head, and guarantee that you will be nothing more than delighted with our work, and whats more we even payout on this claim!
Whats more, with our guarantee you don’t even have a make the claim yourself, we automatically give you the £50 design voucher on completion of your work for use on your next project. We view this as the kick start to your next design project, a contribution if you will.
This guarantee is designed to make choosing Storm Studios for your next Graphic Design or Web Design project a complete no brainer, you simply have nothing to lose and everything to gain!
So why not get your new project underway today and call Storm Studios on 01246 293012, alternatively visit us at www.stormstudios.co.uk – or email us at sales@stormstudios.co.uk
Get £150 OFF any New Web Site
Jun 4th
£150 OFF a New Web Site
Storm Studios are proud to announce their full backing of the National Web Site Scrappage Scheme
Anyone who already has a web site may claim this offer by clicking on the voucher above. This offer is only expected to be available for a few months. If you think you will be wanting a new web site before the end of the year you are strongly urged to claim this special offer.
Sooner or later you will be wanting a new web site so why not secure it now and save money???
Web Site Scrappage Scheme – £150 Discount
Jun 2nd
Recycle this, recycle that – why not recycle your web site once it has outlived its use! As with everything today, sooner or later things become outdated and need updating. The same goes for our marketing aids such as web sites. So we thought well why not offer a trade in option on your old web site?
Benefits to you:
- Your new website re-design gives you the perfect opportunity to give your online marketing a fresh new look and feel.
- Your new site will work seamlessly with new screen sizes, browsers and software, whilst at the same time allow you to incorporate any new social marketing and news feeds you maybe experimenting with.
- A new website will make your business more competitive and attractive whilst being bang up to date with all your latest company news, products and services.
How can you qualify for this scrappage scheme?
As long as you already have an existing web site you will automatically be eligible to claim your £150 scrappage discount.
To take advantage of this scheme just email: sales@stormstudios.co.uk – or call Storm Studios on 01246 293012
Visit our main web site to view some recent examples of our work.
Further details to follow…
Will it be an SEO Summer?
Apr 29th
Maybe it’s the start of the warm weather we’re experiencing, an uplifting summer vibe aor just plain good old positive, forward thinking, i’m not sure. But suddenly EVERYONE is wanting to do a ‘Spring Clean’ on their web sites, and who can argue with that?
Storm Web Sites now come complete with Built-in Social Media tools
Apr 28th
Storm Studios are now developing bespoke web sites with built-in with fully branded Social Networking tools
With more and more businesses wanting to integrate social media tools into their web sites, owners are now facing the added headache of deciding which ones to use and how best to setup the accounts, not to mention the extra workload of managing them!
Always quick to spot an opportunity and stay ahead of the game, Storm are now providing additional services to our web design portfolio and fully integrating these powerful business networking tools into customer web sites. We are also offering marketing services to take the headache of managing the accounts of behalf of the customer.
If you don’t know your Twitter from your Blog, but DO KNOW just how powerful they can be - Then our new Social Media package was built with you in mind!
Benefit on two fronts
1. The main benefit when using Social Networking is the unique way in which businesses can now interact with customers on a completely un-traditional and un-business like platform in which the customer doesn’t feel like they are being constantly hounded or harassed. Due to the very nature of Social Networking, businesses can now interact with their followers in an almost subliminal level allowing the your product information and services to wash across there computer screens resulting in your business name and brand constantly being promoted to them.
2. The second less considered benefit is the ease and speed of which news features and updates can be added to your online presence without cluttering up your main corporate web site which often results in the sites navigational structure not being able to cope.
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Maintaining your Brand and Corporate Image
As powerful as Social Networks can be for business, it is essential that whichever ones you choose to use maintain the look and feel of your company and not look like a separate entity. Another consideration is how you speak to your audience and the relevance of the news items you put on your social network(s). Having many varied promotional and marketing avenues is great, but if you have nothing worth saying or you are not presenting it in an engaging way, your follows will simply stop following! This part isn’t meant to deter or discourage you in any way into entering the Social Networking world, but to make you fully aware of how important it is to devote time and attention into the message you what to get out to your customers.
If you feel you can definitely benefit from using these powerful networking tools, then please contact Storm Studios today and give us the opportunity to assist you on this fast moving and exciting journey!
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How Small Businesses are beginning to see the benefits of maintaining their Social Networking commitments
Apr 26th
Small business – the next frontier for social networks
If anyone had any doubts about the growing importance of social networks they surely passed in 2009 when Twitter burst into the mass consciousness.
The micro-blogging website — which enables people to upload small, bite-sized posts about what is on their mind — joined Facebook, the world’s most popular social network, and YouTube, the video sharing site, in changing the behaviour of people sitting in front of digital screens around the globe.
While the world of business social networking has yet to have such a seismic impact on the behaviour of professionals and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), I believe 2010 could be the year when small businesses start to realise the great benefits that these networks can bring.
Without the resources and technological infrastructure of major corporations, SMEs can obtain great business benefits from so-called next-generation internet services, which enable people to seamlessly communicate with each other using video, voice and instant messaging communication tools.
