The Process called Recruitment

I made a promise but couldn’t fulfill it. These past days since Thursday 21^st May have not been very palatable. Being offline unavoidably is a lot of sacrifice, that kind of sacrifice that you have no choice but to pay. Still tendering my sincere apologies. Working towards being back online fully. And I must say, I missed you, I know you missed me too #coversface.

So, we talked about branding in my last two posts and I believe we all get it, Branding is broad, therefore, we will definitely revisit it.

In my last post, I mentioned that to build a successful brand, you will need people do build it with you. You as the brand owner can actually not do it alone. I will love to learn about recruitment so why not let’s learn it together. So, what is Recruitment? According to Google, Recruitment is the overall process of attracting, shortlisting, selecting and appointing suitable candidates for jobs within an organization.  In simple terms I would say, Recruitment is a PROCESS, not a one-time thing. Okay, so let’s look at the steps involved in the process.

 

1.      Recruitment Planning:

This is the first step in the process of recruitment. Here, you have to know what you need someone for. You have to outline all the responsibilities attached to the job, the job specifications, the skills needed, the qualifications and experience needed, level of pay that you can afford, starting date, if the position is temporary or permanent, if there are special conditions attached. If you don’t know all these things, you can’t successfully recruit someone.

So, let’s see this example, Light Designs and Prints want to employ a Digital Marketer, what do we need to outline? We need someone who will understand the company’s promise to customers, carry it on his/her head and relay it perfectly to the customers. So now, in relaying it to customers, not that they should just hear and go, they hear and patronise. For qualifications, we don’t mind as long as he/she is a B.Sc. holder. And well, for conditions, pay is on commission basis. So now that we have outlined, what we want, we can easily communicate it. Remember, you cannot communicate what you don’t know.

 

2.      Strategy Development

Now that you know what you want to get from your new member of staff, you can decide what strategy to use to get them. You either train them, from the people you have on ground or you bring in new set of people who are trained already. You decide what geographical area you want to consider for candidates and what sequence of activities you want to follow, is it exam, is it a project, is it an interview? Make your decision.

 

3.      Searching

Now we go about attracting job seekers. There are two sources as I mentioned earlier, is it internal? Your people, or is it external? New people. What method would you prefer using, do you want to pay for advertisement? Do you just want to tell people around you?  Do you just want to involve only your customers? Use the methods you prefer and search for people that are eligible for the position.

 

4.      Screening

In screening, you select applicants qualified for the position based on the job specifications. Screening happens in a lot of stages here, from the general when you eliminate some applicants, the ones left are invited to interview, screening happens again before the final selection. The job specifications like qualification, knowledge, skills, abilities, interest and experience which you have outlined at the beginning will help you in the screening process.

 

5.      Evaluation and Control

Here, you need to sit down and think, is the recruitment process appropriate, valid and effective? Are you spending too much to recruit and you are not getting the right person over a long period of time? Ways by which you may incur costs during recruitment process can be through the Salary of recruiters; Cost of time spent for preparing job analysis, advertisement; Administrative expenses; Cost of outsourcing or overtime while vacancies remain unfilled; Cost incurred in recruiting unsuitable candidates. If the method of recruiting is not effective, evaluation makes you realise fast so as to be able to control it, i.e. change it.

 

With these 5 steps above, I believe, recruitment should be easy to carry out. Now after recruitment, it is important to carry out proper orientation for the new employee(s), this is because in building your brand, everything about the company must be saying one thing which is your promise to your customers, everything including your staff members.

 

Thank you for reading always! Apologies once again for being away for a while. Don’t forget to subscribe to get notifications for new posts. Also send in your topic requests to me on olamipoada2@gmail.com I would love to hear from you again.

 

 

 

How to build a Successful Brand

If I write, and you don’t read, I wouldn’t be impacting, neither will I want to do more. But your constant following has made me want to do more and I am really grateful for that. Thank you for reading always and also for telling people about Creative’s Corner. My sincere apologies for not posting yesterday, it was due to a situation which came up and was beyond my control. As compensation, I will drop two more posts after this before the end of this week, so help me God. #winks.

So, in my previous post, you can check it out here, I talked about Brand: What it is and what it is not. A lot of people were able to see what their brand is not but not what their brand is. This is why I will mention it again here and then we will look at how to build a successful brand.

Let me start with some examples for better understanding. Take a minute and think about GoTV, they have a lot of stations. So now, think about African Magic, what do you associate it with? Movies (Sincerely, I don’t associate them with News, they don’t even say news). Now think about NTA, what do you associate it with? News, it’s just imbedded in our hearts to the extent that you don’t even think that they show movies there. Let us look at another example, when you want to buy a new and nice phone, you most times think of Tecno. But when you want to get a new and nice laptop, you most likely think of HP (Hewlett Packard). Now all those feelings of security and trust that you have in these brands, they came because you have experienced it before, or you have someone that told you about it, then you are not scared that they will give you low quality things, that is their brand that they have built in you.

Let us go to drinks which is common to us all. Follow me. You are coming from work on a hot afternoon, you had a long though short and tiring day. The sun is scotching and you just wish you can get something to drink. Now there is a drink shop down the road and you manage to get there. What do you order for? Well for me, I would order for chilled 7up (Yes, it’s one of my best drinks), open easily and gulp as fast as I can. Now notice I did not order for wine, say Veleta, not that Veleta is not very nice too but because I have associated it with having an occasion, it’s a wine for Christ’s sake. But 7up, it will give me that immediate feeling of refreshing which Veleta won’t give me until I chill it, set my table, wear fine dress and pour out in a wine glass. Now these two companies have built a feeling in me, a response, a perception about themselves in me, which I believe is not peculiar to me alone, now that is building a brand. It was not about their name alone, not about their logo alone, not about their tagline alone, not even the website not their colour nor packaging and other things alone, but a combination of all these things.

Now that you understand what a brand is, let us now look at how to build a successful brand for yourself. I will talk about 4 major ways today which can help you.

The first is to define how you want your brand to be perceived. How do you want your customers to think about you after they finish using your product?  How do you want them to talk about you to their friends? Positively or negatively? You have to decide that. Because if you, the brand owner doesn’t know, then it will be impossible to communicate anything to your customers.

Now that you know what you want to tell your customers through your products, organize your business based on this promise. Let everything about you be telling them and showing them. Remember I said in the last post that your tagline is a short-written promise to your customers. As it is written in your tagline for them to see it, it is showing in your theme colours, not the one that they will see and be repelled, it is also showing in your packaging method, it is showing in the way you respond to them when they give you a call, it is showing in the way your product is, it is showing in everything about you. You are shouting it out to them through everything. Now that way, you sure are building a brand.

After you have organised everything about you to give them your promise, now communicate that promise with them. BE CLEAR! Don’t say A and your customers will be hearing C. Communicate with them clearly what you want them to perceive about you. This way they know exactly what you are saying and they understand what to expect from you. So that they don’t get disappointed.

Consistency they say is very important, it is also very important in creating a brand. If you are a brand builder? BE CONSISTENT!! Don’t go on and off, don’t provide good product today and tomorrow bad product. You are a designer and you are building your brand, give your customers designs that they will love consistently. Don’t be good and be manageable tomorrow (I am earnestly working on that too), Be good always. This way, your customers’ trust will never be broken. Okay, this example is ringing in my head, imagine me that likes 7up a lot. I should now decide to buy one on a certain day and it should be bitter, maybe they mistakenly put something bitter in it. To be sincere, I can manage to drink the one I bought o, so that my money will not waste, but after that, that’s no more 7up for me. Even if someone offers to buy me 7up, I would rather not accept it because they have broken my trust, I don’t know what to expect from them. So, you see why consistency is important in building your brand?

In conclusion, building a brand, trust me can be a lot of work especially in being consistent. And of course, it is not something you can do alone, you will need people to help you as time goes on. This is why before you can communicate your brand promise to your customer, you have to communicate to your staff, they have to understand everything you mean so that they can help you in passing it across to your customers. With this, your brand is good to go. Also note that customers can perceive you wrongly, that makes you a not successful brand but if you are able to follow the steps explained above, knowing what you want them to have and know, letting them know what they should know and expect and being consistent with what you are giving them, then you are good.

A big shout out to all my readers! I love you guys! Thank you so much! Don’t forget to subscribe so you get notifications for new posts. Also send an email for topics you want me to talk about to olamipoada2@gmail.com. Watch out for the remaining two posts for the week.

See ya!

 

Brand: What it is and what it is not

As the saying by Aesop goes that "Every truth has two sides; it is as well to look at both, before we commit ourselves to either." I am glad to tell you that BRANDING is not an exception. This is why we will be talking about the topic of Branding: What it is and what it is not.

To know what a brand is not, we will have to look at what a brand is. A Brand can be defined as the sum total of experiences of your customers when they come in contact with you. It is the collection of perceptions about you (your business) in the mind of the customer. It involves what you represent to your customers and what they think of you, ranging from the way you respond to their mails, the music they hear when on hold on the phone, your tweets, your logo and so on. For example, when I think of 7up, I automatically think of a quick soothing feeling and when I think of Veleta, I think of Enjoyment…shey you get?

Now that we know what brand is, let us look at what brand is not. Please don’t forget to send in your questions in the comment session.

1.      Your brand is NOT YOUR LOGO

A lot of people make that error of thinking that their Logo is their brand. As I mentioned in my third post about logo, you can click here to read the full post, logo is a GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION of your brand. Your logo only covers the picture part of your brand. So, what of others? You see why your logo is not your brand but a component of your brand? Let’s move on.

2.      Your brand is NOT YOUR NAME

Your brand is not your name just like YOU are NOT YOUR NAME. Of course, your business name is a major component of your brand, it determines if your customers, especially first timers will even look at your logo or want to experience what you have packaged for them by buying.

 

3.      Your brand is NOT YOUR TAGLINE

Do You know what a tagline is? It is a short, written promise to your customer. For example, my company, Light Designs and Prints’ tagline is ‘We Labour to Satisfy you’. You see, it is a promise that we won’t stop until you are satisfied and I bet you have been satisfied from reading this blog. Your tagline promises your customer what to expect from you.

 

4.      Your brand is NOT YOUR WEBSITE

Do You have a website? Awesome! But it is not your brand, take due note of that, it is only part of your brand.

 

5.   Your brand is NOT YOUR COLOUR, BUSINESS CARD, PACKAGING METHOD, CUSTOMER REPRESENTATIVE APPROACH, MARKETING APPROACH etc.

All these are only important parts of your brand, not majorly your brand.

 

So, what am I driving at? All these mentioned above, all come together to create a brand (A collection of experiences).

Let us go practical. A customer sees your advert- MARKETING APPROACH- hears your NAME and loves it, he or she goes online to see what you promised in the advert, then sees your LOGO and TAGLINE, through the logo, he is able to see that uhm, this company will be dependable and will give me quality stuff. He/She then decides, let me check the WEBSITE. On getting to your website, he falls in love, easy to navigate, succinct, expressive and beautiful- COLOUR- he/she checks out your products and decides to buy. And then his/her questions are answered well- CUSTOMER REPRESENTATIVE. He/she makes an order and gets a doorstep delivery with nice packaging- PACKAGING METHOD. This experience that you have given the customer, starting from the Marketing approach to delivery is YOUR BRAND.

 

In conclusion, to have a brand, you need to meet up with your promises. You can’t afford to make a promise to your customers and then under deliver. In my next post, I will be talking on ways to build a successful brand. Watch out!

 

A big shout out to everyone that have been reading and also giving their comments, it means a whole lot to me. Don’t forget to send in your questions, your opinions and your ideas to me. I would really love to hear from you. To get me to talk about a topic? Send a mail to me on olamipoada2@gmail.com

 

See ya!

 

 

Design: How should it be done for productivity?

Design is one of the three fundamental dimensions of human intelligence. Most people think design is a tool i.e. involving only the use of Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and other software. It is actually the process which takes ideas through a number of CRITICAL THINKING to creation of prototypes and then to reach an innovative product that targets solving consumers’ problems and addressing their needs. You see!? Design is not about knowing how to use the tools but about going through a process.

In my first post about Creativity, I mentioned that being creative gives you the opportunity to try out new ideas, new ways of thinking and getting a problem solved. With this definition, let’s just say Design is the process of using our creativity.

So! We have seen what design is all about. Let’s look at this, how do we design? A lot of graphic designers make a mistake of diving into a job on getting it. And most times if not all, this rush in causes a quick rush out. What do I mean by a rush out, I mean, most people go blank as to what to do at some point. Mind you, since Creativity is not only for graphic designers, design isn’t too.

The process of design should always start with the question WHAT DO I WANT TO DO? You have to define what you want to do, what problem you want to solve, what does the customer want. If you are able to answer that perfectly, then you are on the path of designing.

The second question you have to ask yourself is WHY AM I DOING THIS DESIGN? What is that thing that you want to achieve with people when they see the design? What is that thing you want to communicate. If you cannot answer this question, then chances are that the design will not pass any message.

The third question is HOW DO I DO IT? In answering this question, I as a person, I meditate and search within. Don’t forget to search the internet too for ideas…look through other people’s works because someone must have done something related. And really, that’s the only way we can get a lot of inspiration as to the how. And mind you, there are 1001 ways with which you can do a particular design. So as the inspiration comes, pen them down and choose the best one you want.

The last question is WHERE IS THE IMPACT FELT? Where will the design be used? You know, you can’t afford to design a job which is meant for printing on Photoshop. Answering that question will help you to start out. This will also determine the dimensions to use.

Let’s look at this example, Mr Gbolahan gave you a design job for his furniture making business. He wants something that will bring people to come and buy what he is selling. You have to ask yourself these 4 questions, if you have to ask Mr Gbolahan, please do, so that you can get the right answers to work with. Let us answer them together, What do you want to do? An advert design. Why do you want to do it? Mr Gbolahan needs more customers. How do you do it? Get your answers. Where is the impact felt? Instagram or is it for printing? Get the answer too. Then you are set to use your tools.

In conclusion, these steps of the design process which I have mentioned above makes for productivity for you as a creative. Give just one sentence to questions one and two, so as not to complicate things for yourself. Don’t rush out into designing, take your time because it is worth it.

Please drop your comments, I will love to hear from you. Also, please subscribe to this blog, so that you can get notifications for subsequent postings. Don’t forget to send in your topic requests to me on olamipoada2@gmail.com thank you.

See ya!

LOGO

A logo they say has to be timeless, able to stay relevant for years, passing out the right emotions in the hearts of people who come across it. For us to be able to achieve that, we have to know the right things about logo before creating it. This is why we will be learning about LOGO today.

It is imperative to know very well about logo before starting out to create one…oh yes, I have created logos before I got the knowledge about it too. So, don’t be discouraged.

Logo is a graphical representation of your brand. It is that picture that represents the collection of promised experiences which in turn creates a mindset in the minds of those who come in contact with your brand. It is the FACE OF YOUR BRAND. You can see how important a Logo is for a brand. It is what represents your brand to the outside world with your brand name.

So, let's talk about the types of Logos that there are. There are 4 major types and we will be looking at each one. 

1. Wordmark Logo

This type of Logo relies on unique typography with no other elements. The logo is best for companies that their names describe what they do and it is also very good for new companies that are still working on name recognition, since consumers see the name straight up. Examples of companies that use this logo type are Coca-Cola, Google, FedEx, Disney and many more.

  

2. Lettermark Logo

These are the types of Logos which only consists of letters. It could be initials of the brand or maybe the first letters of each word. This logo type consists of a few words. It could be a monogram or an anagram. For a monogram, an example is CNN, who used their initials from Cable News Network to create their logo. Another example is my company, Light Designs and Prints who used the first letters of each word to create her logo. And for an anagram, an example is FedEx who used the first few letters of each word from their name Federal Express.

This Logo type works well for companies that have sufficient existing brand recognition, not new companies, companies that can afford enough time to explain what the company is all about, because unlike Wordmark, what the company does will most times not be evident from the name.

 

3. Brandmark Logo

This type of logo is that which uses a symbol to represent the company. The company relies on the ability of that symbol to evoke emotions from the viewer. This logo type is effective for companies whose subsidiaries need to associate themselves with the parent company. It can also be useful when the company name is too long and an example is Nike’s swoosh which implies speed and motivation. Another example is Apple’s Apple symbol which has a bite. Another example is the HP laptop which we all know today. The name actually is Hewlett-Packard. But the brand is most known with their logo.

4. Iconic Logo

An iconic logo is that type that consists of both the Brandmark and the Wordmark logo.  This type of logo is effective in communicating brand identity and can communicate to the viewers what a company does as well as what it stands for. Examples of companies with these logo types are Mastercard, Adidas and much more. It also work well with small businesses whose names are not widely recognized but very distinctive.

 

Please note that Logo can be classified into many more types but these 4 are the major types.

In conclusion, now that you have learnt about logo, don’t forget to put this knowledge into use before you create any more logos. Remember that it is not about what you know but about what you do with what you know.

I want to hear from you. How has the two classes been, Creativity and Logo? Also, don’t forget to subscribe for notifications. Do you have topics in mind that you want me to talk about? Please send a mail to me on olamipoada2@gmail.com I would be glad to hear from you.

See ya!!

Creativity

Hi guys! It’s been a good day for me, except for my phone that decided to stop charging. Very painful but I believe it will come back on soon. Enough about me, how are you too? Don’t forget to drop your response in the comment session #winks

So let’s talk about a particular topic that brings us all together, CREATIVITY.

Google defines creativity as the use of imagination to create something, the art of inventiveness and for me, of course I agree. But putting it in my words, I will define creativity as thinking differently to create something extraordinary. Creativity is basically putting different ideas together and coming out with a blockbuster…Boom! You can imagine right?

So, you as a creative, you are someone who sees the world a little differently than others, yes that’s you. And mind you, creativity is not a skill, it is an ability. So you think you can learn it? No! You think you don’t have it? You do.

Let me take you back to when you were younger, do you remember those imaginative thoughts you had that seemed impossible? They were completely out of the blues, looked and sounded stupid but were still awesome. That is what creativity is all about, thinking like a child. Allowing your mind to wander to the world beyond. So you see? You have the ability!

Being creative gives you the opportunity to try out new ideas, new ways of thinking and getting a problem solved. Being involved in creative activities definitely helps you to acknowledge and celebrate your own uniqueness and diversity. It encourages self-expression and is a definite way of creating something from your personal experiences.

Let us look at traits of Creative People

·         Creative people are curious. They are always full of questions.

·         Creative people like challenges. They prefer to stay than to run. They are not runners but ‘stayers’. You are not a runner, you are Creative!

·         Creative people are not afraid to experiment. They don’t consider the consequences, they go right into it.

·         Creative people have high standards. They definitely do not settle for less. They want to make the product or solution the best it can be.

·         Creative people know how to accept and give constructive criticism. They don’t criticize rudely, since they know what it takes to think and come up with ideas.

·          

Have you been having issues with ideas recently? Maybe you are a graphic designer like I am, that needs to give your client a super design, or you are a fashion designer who wants to throw a new style out, the blockbuster you call it, just take a deep breath. Tell yourself over and over again that you are creative and get to work. Boom!!...you are on your way to getting your blockbuster.

Have you learnt something today? Please click on the subscribe button right under the Blog name - Creatives’ Corner - so you get notifications for subsequent posts.

Do you have topics in mind you want me to talk about? Please reach out to me on olamipoada2@gmail.com I will be glad to hear from you.

Don’t forget to give a comment! See you on Tuesday!

Till then, remain creative.

Welcome

Welcome to CREATIVES' CORNER

 

Having more knowledge about topics like creativity, designing, branding and so on is a good idea but going for that particular topic in that big book might be the problem.

Self-discipline they say is important but how well can we apply self-discipline in getting knowledge about a topic we want from that big material?

Light Designs and Prints thought about this and decided to bring to you this blog for all creatives. A blog where you spend a few minutes to learn great insights. A haven for Creatives to hang out. 

Here, we will be learning about a lot of interesting topics that are peculiar to us as creatives.

Posts will be done as much as possible and the beauty of the blog is you can send in requests to us for topics you would want us to talk about.

You can also subscribe to sign up for notifications on our posts on Creatives' Corner.

It's gonna be a smooth ride. So, let the ride begin💃

Don't forget to leave your comments for us in the comment section.

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See you on Sunday!