marketing news

Change is the Natural State... 1sts, lasts, and nevers

2010-03-23T00:53:00.000+02:00

Seth Godin (best-selling author, consultant, celebrity) does a daily blog that inspires me for two reasons:

1. Anyone who can write intelligent postings every single day (including weekends!) has it going on. (He’s at one end of the spectrum with an open mind compared to many who blurt out the same drivel every day… and no, I’m not referring to particular TV network “spokespeople”);

2. His range of motion in terms of topics is astounding.

I wanted to share with you his post from today called First and Never (click on the title to access the post) which is an interesting way of looking at change. It is interesting to note that most people devote time to resisting and rejecting change so that they can remain in their comfortable wagon rut (remember TV westerns where huge “ruts” were left by the wheels of covered wagons as they ploughed through mud?) And yet we talk about the Need for Progress (which only comes with change!)

What Seth doesn’t mention are the “lasts” – which relates to my belief that the gift in life is the present (today). Seth mentions the firsts (first time experience – often you recognize these immediately when they happen), never agains (which are retrospective looks at past experiences that won’t happen again), but neglect the Lasts. I believe that the fact that we never realize a “last time” occurrence until after it is past is an important aspect of the experience. While it might sound morbid to think that anything or everything we do could be our “last time” to do it, I prefer to turn that around and extol the moment for its innate virtue. While we lament over the never agains, it is my fervent belief that we ought to enjoy every pleasurable moment (as soon as we realize that we’re feeling something positive) and extol the people, places, feelings, smells, sounds, sights and wonder of it all. Should it turn out later to have been a “last” time we will have a fully experienced happy memory to recall.

Think about how this could transform your life – a staff meeting could become less of a chore and a bore if we take the time to chuckle when someone tells a joke (instead of lamenting how lame it was) or when we feel a sense of joy as someone describes an accomplishment. More than likely it won’t be our last staff meeting (or even a memorable one) but if we take the time to enjoy the little moments of joy as they occur, we’ll find that they are more frequent that we realize (is this what is meant by “take time to smell the flowers”?_

I know how positive this has been for me — when I take the time to recognize the moments of pleasure and joy sprinkled throughout my oft-busy day, the inconveniences and petty disturbances grow smaller. The gift of life is always the present (live for today) – and I’m finding that the 1sts, lasts and never agains are just a (good) part of overall life.

Thank you Seth for inspiring me to look at life in a different and inspiring way!

Have a good weekend!

Regards,

Carol

Carol Dekkers, Software Measurement and Global Software Development expert, author, speaker. Want to engage Carol to be a speaker at your next event? Email Ms. Dekkers at dekkers@qualityplustech.com or carol@caroldekkers.com or visit www.caroldekkers.com for details.

dekkers@qualityplustech.com

www.caroldekkers.com

www.qualityplustech.com

[Via http://caroldekkers.wordpress.com]

The gradual approach to marketing

2010-03-21T00:55:00.000+02:00

Image : http://www.flickr.com

Buy often in small pieces. This is why we recommend a phased approach to marketing, where you offer people a range of experiences little or nothing, inexpensive ways for you before they invest in your business!

In our profession, is a classic example of the gradual commercialization of the "two stages" of the market in a way that sparks interest and then ask the funnel potential customers in a sales meeting, or free. The fact is that people tendResponding to a free, value-added supply will become a full-service price. For this reason, the conference offers free works so well! Potential clients get to know you and understand and know the value of your esteem service before throwing down $ 1,200 for their services.

Examples of "Two Step" approach:

Example I

Step 1: participate in a networking event.

Step 2: Offer free consultation to meet people, you.

Example II

Step 1: Perform a now free to speak.

Step 2:Please take a record "free" clipboard back of the room.

Example III

Step 1: Send a letter of "basic marketing."

Step 2: Follow-up consultation and offer free phone calls.

The list is endless!

During the two phases is a good start, you should use a sturdy step by step marketing approach.

In particular: to provide multiple, simple, low or no cost "entry points" for a potential customerExperience. Thus offer more expensive products and services once a relationship is established.

For this reason, electronic newsletters are so popular (and effective if implemented in good!), For example, and also offer a free session, you can also consult with a free subscription to the newsletter. This is a perfect item for someone to meet you, is not ready to run for their performance at this time. Through your newsletter, the person the opportunity to learn step by step hasCome and trust in you. If and when the person is responsible for the service it provides, you think they call you ready? YOU!

Examples of the concept of "progressive marketing"

Example I

Step 1: Run a free interview for a local connection.

Offer Step 2: During the discussion meetings to consult and comp Sign up for free newsletter.

Step 3: In the newsletter offers half-day seminar for $ 99.

Step 4: A half-day seminar offers products from $ 19for $ 49, another program for $ 199 and the best program for $ 399.

Example II

Step 1: Send a piece of direct mail to your target audience.

Step 2: Place a link to download your free e-book from your website.

Step 3: In your e-book, giving your other products and services.

Step 4: A month has been downloaded from e-book, send a "call to action" follow-up e-mail with a special offer for your services.

E 'extremely important that the no / low cost of the value of the object.Nothing is more a diversion of a sales pitch disguised as a freebie. You really want to serve the people. Enter the great value and thus the possibility for people who have a higher level of experience, if they wish.

As always, there is much more we could say about this topic, but I hope you had the idea and runs with it! The key is to provide added value to your potential customers. Let

learn from you. Be yourself and let your personality, knowledge and experience. Transpire

This takes time, but it did not happen overnight. Be patient! And remember, there are people out there who are waiting. People who can only serve. Go see!

Reach out. Enter the value. Give them options, they can do. Be sufficient time for a measure to build confidence. People want what you offer and when ready,

is what they call.

[Via http://marketleaning.wordpress.com]

Why I love Twitter and Why You Should Too!

2010-03-20T00:07:00.000+02:00

I have heard a lot of twitter bashing recently.

But this is why I think students and young professionals especially should take advantage of Twitter:

A lot of professionals have Twitter, if they are there you should be too
Twitter is an easy was to establish your personal brand and show people you are knowledgeable in your industry
Twitter can help you stay on top of potential jobs, companies and networking opportunities

Getting started: No one wants to hear what you are doing every 5 minutes, but you can share what you’re learning every couple of hours! Read publications that interest you. Tweet cool finds using a service such as http://bit.ly/ to shorten links. Eventually you will start to develop a pattern to your tweets about things you care about. For example my tweets revolve around Augmented Reality in Marketing, Technology, and Philanthropy. By finding unique articles about these

TIPS:

Meet a professional? Follow them; it is an informal way to stay current on what they are doing and another touch point beyond their clogged Outlook inbox.
Asking a favor of a professional? Check their tweets first to see what is going on in their life, if they are out of town or seem busy hold your email until their tweets indicate less stress. It will seem courteous and improve your chances of getting a reply.
Care about a company? Follow them and search for them on Twitter, so when that interview comes you don’t just have the knowledge of a couple of news articles but a real time understanding of what people are saying about them.
Follow recruiters, they often post job openings!
Interested in Communications, PR, Advertising, Marketing or Technology? Check out #coldpavement a great informal networking event happens monthly learn about it through twitter!

You will be amazed as your tweets start to get re-tweeted or you get thanked for sharing cool information!

There is far too much to cover with Twitter so many ways to use it and so many examples of networking and job hunting success via twitter. At the end of the day Twitter places you and your personal brand into the conversation, if your not part of the dialogue someone else will be.

If anyone has tips about how to get listed, get more relevant followers or wants to tell me your twitter experience, leave me a comment or give me a shout out @belmontej http://twitter.com/belmontej

[Via http://jordanbelmonte.wordpress.com]

Competition - the other 'C'

2010-03-18T00:05:00.000+02:00

As promised, I wanted to quickly discuss competition and the role it plays in developing your marketing strategy.

Traditionally, Marketers approach competitive forces by completing a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (S.W.O.T.) analysis. These are effective at gaging your product or services position in the marketplace and where resources might best be focused.

Too often however, we get caught up in press release wars and the race of first-to-market. These tactics result in internally focused strategies and quickly, almost immediately, lose sight of the consumer and their needs; a fundamental marketing error. Yes, we must pay attention to the competition, but look only to determine what information is being brought to the industry or marketplace. Only then, can you forumulate an appropriate response that is valuable to your consumer.

An example.

Thought-leadership and the idea of “content as king” are getting a lot of buzz in the b2b marketing world lately. Do we watch what content the competitors put into the marketplace and then respond with our slightly better, slightly more insightful content? What is the result of this approach and how does it impact our customer base? We must vet our responses to all competitive content from the point of view of the customer and ask ourselves, am I responding to the competitor or educating the customer? More often than not, we are simply responding to the competitive focuses at play and disrespecting or ignoring the customer. The end result here is not that you’ve demonstrated superiour thought-leadership, but rather, thought-followership and have succeed at introduced confusion into your marketplace.

Don’t lose sight of your customer.

Of course we need to pay attention to competitive forces, more importantly we need to understand how these forces are impacting our customers and the marketplace. Respond to competitive content not for the sake of responding, rather in ways that represent your brand appropriately, support your position in the market and educate your customer. Only then will you be able to effectively combat the competition.

[Via http://adamhayden.wordpress.com]

Service Marketing

2010-03-16T00:48:00.000+02:00

Image : http://www.flickr.com

"Sometimes you need their attention first," said the old farmer, who had just finished off his mule in the forehead with a two-four. End The mule, a little 'surprised, but he is tenacious and has initiated moves plow.

Perhaps Dell has some mule blood contains.

Dell is to discover what green marketing discover their fourth year of their career – namely, the service is a product. Like all products, quality and suitability for the needs of the customer determinesSuccess. Because the technology is complex, and users of technology can not last long without the support will be essential to differentiate the long-term economic success.

(A malignant part: if they are a good example of bad customer service, speak with anyone who can use web hosting from 1and1.com, a company that explores the depths of the customer routinely ignored. The horror stories about 1and1. Com technical support would be Reduced Steven King.)

Customers arewho are most vulnerable and often suffer from a degree of frustration when they decided to support the request. Support will be as important (if not more important) than the commodity itself.

Dell discovered this the hard way.

Once praised for customer service, Dell slid down the slippery slope to reduce the support of cutting costs. All he really cut his throat just as the Internet, but everything has exploded with terrible stories of support services for Dell.

ThenMichael Dell is back, some companies would enter inclination, and things turn during their service groups.

Of particular interest was the breaking news of Dell trying to offer flexibility in their services. Like most vendors, Dell has offered the service boxes "- set of predefined and rigid differentiated services. Often, customers found themselves with few options, either to buy services from less than they need, but they could afford, or pay for services that they need,For the few who did. This is the norm in the industry but not optimal for the customer. However, it is easy to understand, model, price, explain and sell.

In other words, is the product marketing people lazy.

Dell breaks this model, and this will probably be put ahead of the competition by Engendering lucrative service contracts and more satisfied customers.

(Under its new system for small and medium enterprises – consumers), the Customerto support specific modules instead of the typical gold / silver / bronze style support packages. Because every organization is different in terms of complexity of their IT infrastructure and the extent of their internal talent, their need for services is very individual. Some businesses need to get the support of Linux, while others have kernel hacker on staff. Others might have storage needs exotic, while others offer is not good with a simple NAS.

Dellensure that everyone gets what they need, and not think, not what they do.

Marketing has two points in this game. First, the creation of products that people want is the key to success in the door to begin. The service is part of the definition of products. Define the right offer service and take all the product easier to buy.

Perhaps more importantly, that the service is of paramount importance to customer satisfaction. And 'well-documented that customer satisfaction leads to highSales of repetition (more money),) positive word-of-mouth sales (plus customers (even more with more money) brings. not the services of law and offer them a good, it 's opposite effect.

Welcome back Michael. You get it.

[Via http://marketleaning.wordpress.com]

Three Most Important Words in Lead Generation: Convert, Convert, Convert

2010-03-14T00:47:00.000+02:00

Recently, I had the pleasure of chatting with Jimmy Ellis the Director of Optimization Research at MarketingExperiments.com about their take on form optimization. I was pretty impressed.

I’ve been doing a lot of research on CTA and form optimization as I’ve been changing things up on oshyn.com. Of course, I didn’t want to change just for the sake of visual appeal – although that was a big part of my concern.

I’ve been reading different blogs and websites including my favorite MarketingProfs.com to find out the ‘best practices’ on forms that lead to conversions. We online marketers spend a lot of time, effort and money to get people to our websites, to forms, and it’s a terrible (yet preventable) loss when they fail to complete the form and convert to a lead. We often wonder, “WHY?”

It’s personal.

Often, when people arrive on your “landing page” with a form or CTA, they have arrived without knowing much about your company. They found you on Google, Twitter, Tumblr, a press release, Facebook, Bing, Yahoo, an

They don’t know much about your company, its reputation, how you will guard the information they supply in the form, whether you will bombard them with email follow-ups (aka SPAM to some) or phone calls. I recently completed a form on Gomez.com to download a research white paper to check the facts I was reading – and within the hour, “…I saw a note from my marketing team that you recently downloaded one of the Gomez white papers,” and while I appreciated the quick follow-up I felt a little like big brother was watching. I hadn’t yet had time to read what I downloaded!

Is it obvious?

So back to Jimmy Ellis. He showed me some case studies and explained the scientific methodology that MarketingExperiments.com uses to make forms and CTAs more effective. And (not in his exact words), as he put it, it’s not simply a matter of getting MORE leads so the marketing department can report a volume increase – it’s a matter of capturing the “right” leads. Oh Jimmy how your words were music to my ears. There’s something really frustrating about capturing a great volume of leads and realizing there is too high a percentage that can’t convert.

Why can’t they convert?

They’re not a decision maker
They’re a competitor (downloading your latest white paper)
They’re just doing research
They’re too big
They’re too small
They’re a partner

But sometimes….

They are a lead that can be nurtured. So it would help if you had a feature like Sitecore offers that allows you to ‘score’ leads to let your sales team know which lead to follow up on, or which approach to take.

Again back to Jimmy…

When you are designing your forms, there are many factors to take into consideration. So many that MarketingExperiments.com designed a scientific process for figuring this out for you. Their process seems to start with semiotics and user experience. When a visitor arrives on the landing page with the CTA or form – is it immediately obvious to them why they should continue and submit their information? Are you distracting the visitor with unnecessary clutter? Is it easy to learn more “About Us”? Is the information required in the form necessary and relevant? (You can ask for WAY too much information…and longer forms can deteriorate the frequency of completion.) Quite simply, does the form explain what benefit you will receive? Would it be better to split the form into two steps? And wait, before you go to your landing pages and start to attempt changes, stop and review your current analytics so you can TEST!

The last word (for now)

Forms and CTAs are crucial to your online lead generation success. But it is complex. It’s not just about visual appeal. It’s not just about copywriting. It’s not just about finding the magical numbers of fields in the form. It IS about understanding the nature of those finding your landing page and what motivates them to TRUST you and provide the (valid) information you are requesting.

I will be writing more in a future post….but in the meantime, check out MarketingExperiments.com – they’ve got some fantastic information about understanding optimization. http://www.marketingexperiments.com/

You can also follow them on Twitter.

And of course you can follow me too!

[Via http://breakingthemarketingrules.com]

The Long Tail Niche

2010-03-13T00:54:00.000+02:00

In my class this semester we discussed an article “The Long Tail” by Chris Anderson. He later wrote a book “The Long Tail” in 2006. In Chris’s article he explains his theory of how the internet propagates a power law he calls the long tail.

A brief explanation is the wall that is hit in the retail market is caused by a lack of shelf space, store area, even number of movie theater screens. These limitations impact the amount of offering that can be carried whether if be music, video, books, food etc. The effect is that physical locations are limited to selling higher volume sellers while products that don’t have a high demand are left off of the shelves. The internet has changed this dynamic as Chris asserts in his theory. Now the internet can provide consumers with a source for less demand products but the easiest is data that can be sent over the web as opposed to physical products though that exists as well. As our choices are narrowing in the realm of traditional media, online media is raising the bar by filling the niche of harder to find media. The purchase of the low demand products does add up and purchases show as a long tail.

Erin Scime’s article The Content Strategist as Digital Curator is a Part 2 to the Chris Anderson’s ‘The long tale’. Erin takes this conversation to the next step by discussing how online media sites become curators of the media they provide. In a museum a curator is responsible for selecting and arranging art in a manner that conveys a story or is viewed as a collection. This same role is also seen in the world of digital media.

My personal daily use of Pandora is a prime example. In 2000 Tim Westergren founded the Music Genome Project. Previously in the film industry, Tim was aware of the factors directors looked for when sourcing music for their films. He and a group of music heads reviewed some 400 elements of songs. The project now has over 700,000 songs and songs are still reviewed and added daily. The Music Genome Project is used as the music selector in Pandora. When you select a band or a song in Pandora it selects a playlist called a “station” based on that selection and similarities with other songs based on the elements of a song. The playlist is further refined by giving songs a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down”.

Pandora uses the Music Genome Project (MGP) as a curator of your musical experience based on your taste. If you friend people on the website you can send each other “stations” making you a curator as well. Having been a user of Slacker and Napster I find that the MGP does the best job at matching my taste and I’ve found some great artists that I would not have found if not for the selection Pandora chose. Pandora’s digital content manager is a skillful curator or popular and more obscure music content. It’s the only place I’ve found one of my favorite disbanded groups, Captain Beefhart, more of a memory of college days then a current interest. The Iphone quadrupled the Pandora membership in 2008 and their future deals with Ford, Alpine and Pioneer to bring Pandora into the automobile will continue to increase their membership.

I enjoyed the article and now see examples of this theory everyday so I wanted to share it with others.

References

Anderson, C., The Long Tail.

Scime, S. (2009) The Content Strategist as Digital Curator. A list apart. Retrieved on January 27, 2010 from http://www.alistapart.com/articles/content-strategist-as-digital-curator

Story and video clip about Pandora. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2010-01-12-pandora-free-radio_N.htm

[Via http://hyoung4489.wordpress.com]

The Mobile Side of Hotpads.com

2010-03-11T00:54:00.000+02:00

HotPads has great mobile functionality for housing shoppers on the go, so even when they are away from their computer, they can still find your homes for sale. Their mobile site for all smart phones, Android app, and iPhone app contain great features like:

Map-based housing search using your GPS location or an inputted address
Detailed listings with photos, pricing, and full descriptions
Rental and For Sale housing search

HotPads’ Android App & iPhone App

HotPads’ Android Application and iPhone Application allows users to experience the same great functionality of searching on HotPads from the convenience of their Android phone.

Housing shoppers can search by their current GPS location, or by entering a specific address to search nearby.

After narrowing their search by price and bedrooms, housing shoppers can opt to see all results that match their criteria on a map, or in the traditional list format.

They can see detailed listings that include pricing, photos, and descriptions and then contact you directly via email or telephone with one touch!

You can learn more about the Android App here: and the iPhone app here, or just give them a try (they’re free!) by scanning the respective QR codes below

For all users who don’t have an Android or iPhone, HotPads still have a great Mobile Site for all smart phone users.

(These mobile apps and sites are also really helpful for real estate agents to pull up comps and see what else is for sale in a particular location!)

[Via http://wolkia.com]

Can't Hardly Wait for the iPad?

2010-03-09T00:56:00.000+02:00

The wait is nearly over as iPad pre-orders start is only 4 days. The pre-order date has been a large source of controversy and speculation. Now, along with the waiting game, the betting is over. Well, almost.

Apple has posted the dates for both the pre-order and the availability date on the iPad product page.

Not sure what to splurge on this spring? Well, whip out your credit cards, and break open those piggy banks. Can’t stand the long lines at the Apple store? Pre-order on March 12. Up for the long line of entertainment at the Apple store? Plan on standing all day on Saturday, April 3.

Not sure how they plan to structure the delivery as many delivery services don’t run on Saturday. So, it’s a tough question. Stand in line all day Saturday so you can get to know your new iPad for the rest of the weekend or pre-order and run the risk of sitting around waiting until Monday.

[Via http://evansmediagroup.wordpress.com]

The Spring Madness Scentsy Sale

2010-03-07T12:37:00.000+02:00

New spring/summer scents have been uploaded to the Scentsy website. I cannot wait to get my hands on these new Scentsy Bar scents. Here is a list of the spring/summer scents: cherry limeade, go-go-goji, sweet clementine, mayflower, mad about mint, plum delicious, calypso, berry blush, sugar, and grape granita. I will have these in stock soon. While you’re waiting, check out “My Scentsy Auctions” going on right now on ebay. The 3 auctions end: Wednesday, March 10, 2010. Don’t miss out on these last minute savings. Supplies are limited.

[Via http://kathrynlc.wordpress.com]

Brand vs. Community

2010-03-07T05:50:00.000+02:00

A discussion on the difference between a brand and a commodity is going on at one of my groups on LinkedIn. This discussion was initiated by Marco Monfils from Hungary. More than 150 comments have been made so far, indicating that marketing and sales professionals like this topic. It is interesting that respondents presented their own definition and description of brand and commodity, no author was quoted and the comments varied greatly. I noticed two significant trends as follows:

a) Though there are more than 150 different comments, these could be grouped into eight major categories. That is, most of the respondents differentiated between a brand and a commodity either via value-addition perspective, loyalty and relationship, functional & emotional attributes, brand personality & experience, perceived value & expectations, needs & wants, unique identity or price.

b) The respondents come from a diverse professional background including Business & Financial Consultancy, Sales & Business Development, Account Management, Marketing, Business & Franchise Owners, and Real Estate. Most of the respondents are from other than marketing profession. Being in the CPG marketing, I considered branding a purview of marketing because marketers are responsible for creating pull for brands. This differentiation is getting blurred and marketing is a cross-functional discipline now, especially in B2B interactions.

I took the liberty of picking the comments that I liked and present these to you here with the name of the group member.

A brand is a product that is elevated above commodity level because of its added value in the mind of a shopper or consumer. By Lynn Wentzel

Commodity resonates with consumer at the functional level; brand goes beyond, resonating at the emotional level. By Keith Kelley

A Brand is that Commodity with a personality! By Thomas Bullock

A commodity is a product, a THING, tangible. A brand is a[n] idea, a thought, a feeling and is intangible……. As Herb Lubalin said, “Products are made in the factory. Brands are made in the mind.” By Bob Bischoff

…… THAT THE BRAND PROMISES AND DELIVERS By Valerie Skala Walker

A brand provides an ‘experience’, a commodity does not. By Chad Symens

A brand improves the life of its loyal consumer because it constantly brings a new and better feature or experience – it innovates. By Dana Mosora

Brand is what people identify with. A commodity is traded, bought or sold. By Craig Castle

And my two-cent worth is as follows:

Brands create and satisfy consumers’ wants, commodities meet consumers’ needs.

Taking a leaf out of Dan Heath’s book, Brands live in the penthouse of Maslow Hierarchy of Needs; commodities live in its basement.

Which of the above brand and commodity description you like or how would you differentiate between the two? Please comment here and let us know.

[Via http://marketingmirror.wordpress.com]

Lessons Learned

2010-03-06T00:35:00.000+02:00

From time to time I will share real stories from my incredibly successful career in marketing. Some are funny, some are painful, some a bit of both. They all happened. Here goes.

In 2003 as I was wrapping up stuff and cleaning out my desk after 20 years at the Seattle office of an inter-galactic super agency I received an email from a client who has since gone on to to lead a Fortune 500 company. Here it is. I haven’t changed a word other than to leave his name out to avoid embarrassment for both of us.

Jan,

I understand you’re moving on to a new phase in your life. (Here was a bunch of praise about what a genius I am.) I learned a lot from you about managing the client/agency relationship that I will carry with me forever. Among the key learnings:

1. Never work with a client that is closer than 2000 miles away. This minimizes the face-to-face contact that is so unnecessary when you can blame each other for revenue misses and budget overruns by email.

2. The agency always has an advantage when the client is dysfunctional and disagrees internally about what its brand should stand for and who their consumer is.

3. Never return emails from the client that challenge why the agency costs so darn much to do everything.

4. Always return emails from the client that invite you to a “bash” at the trade show, or to a sales meeting in a warm weather place.

A wise man indeed. Of course I replied. I will skip the shameless suck-up praise I poured into the email as it might sicken you.

Here is my reply, unchanged:

I can see that you have learned well when it comes to managing the agency/client relationship. I too learned a few things about clients along the way:

1. Clients want a partnership with the agency as long as the agency does what the client says.

2. There is an inverse relationship between how much a client talks about its vision and how real the vision is.

3. Clients and agencies approve advertising ideas together. When things go well, the client attributes the success to their incredible business acumen. When things go poorly, it’s because the agency made the client do bad advertising.

4. The best clients have sales meetings at really cool places and pay for the agency to stay up late, drink and miss the morning sessions.

5. The best clients give their agencies lots of free stuff.

6. The best clients know that the only good advertising is TV, BABY! Particularly, if the tv shoot can be in Europe, with supermodels, an unlimited expense account and the agency folks get to walk around in black clothes and be on their cell phones/Blackberries constantly.

7. Most clients will admit that the best thing about having an agency is…TICKETS!

8. All clients want their agency to be good, cheap and fast.

9. Bad clients are in the risk aversion business. Good clients are in the risk management business.

[Via http://ps1944.wordpress.com]

Help Us Win A Contest!

2010-03-04T00:37:00.000+02:00

We have entered a PayPal Developer’s Contest. First prize is $50,000 cash and $50,000 credit from PayPal. As you know, startups can ALWAYS use money like this and we need your help to get it.

To win, we need you to vote for our demo in the contest before 11:59 PM Friday night, March 5th. Sounds easy, right? It is.

You need to have a PayPal account to participate. If you don’t have one, click here and you can set one up. Pick Personal. It is fast, easy and free.

Once you have your PayPal account, click here or on the screen shot below to be taken to the contest. The first screen will look like this:

Click on the VOTE NOW link to start. You will be prompted to login to PayPal. Honest, this won’t take very long…

Enter your account name and password and then click Log In. If this is your first visit to the PayPal Developers Network, they will automatically redirect your browser to a screen like this.

Please enter a screen name (usually in the format firstname.lastname), check the Java and Social networking boxes and click Submit. You will then be directed to the contest page (finally!) shown below.

Please enter our contest entry number D1039 in the search box in the top right corner and click Search.

You will see our video demo (entry) into the contest on a screen like this:

Please click on the Vote button in the top left corner and you are done!

Except, of course, if you really want to watch the video. If so, click on the Play icon in the middle of the screen.

Please send us your feedback on our (very short – we were only allowed 2 minutes) demo. We’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for your help!

[Via http://blog.connectionpoint.ca]

Managing a Social Media Community

2010-03-02T00:55:00.000+02:00

For today’s mixology posting, I am going to send you to Michael Brito’s recent post on managing a social media community. It is being said over and over again, but it important in any size organization to make sure that you have the right person in the role of your community manager. You need someone who can authentically be the voice of your organization as well have the time to communicate.

Take ten minutes to read Michael’s article.

[Via http://marketingmixology.wordpress.com]

Going Digital

2010-02-28T00:49:00.000+02:00

GOING DIGITAL

Tools for the New Age Marketer

For years, marketing has been done traditionally through direct selling and advertising on trimedia – print, TV and radio. When out-of-home (OOH) advertising was introduced, marketers reformulated their marketing mix to include billboards, transit ads and street signs to be visible to more customers in less time and less cost. As I recall, during my days working for an Ad agency, OOH was still in its infancy. Advertising was mainly done on mainstream TV, Radio and Print and those that are seen in Light Boxes, Bus Waiting Stations and Public Transportation were considered rogue or guerilla style marketing. However, those are days gone old.

Since technology keeps on growing and evolving, creating more digital distribution channels that can reach more consumers in a more timely, relevant and personal fashion, advertising through mobile phones and the Internet have received much preference from majority of marketers today – this is called DIGITAL MARKETING. For most of us, we actively use our emails to correspond and send information. A huge majority of society has forgotten to use traditional or “snail mail” since the internet came about.

I truly believe that any innovation brought about by creativity and out of the box ideas are born due to demand, and this has been the life blood of marketers in general as we see today. As St. Peterian Marketers, the following are suggestions of how to utilize current technology that could easily translate into sales going above and beyond one’s quota.

For this month, I would like focus in on maximizing the usage of these modern instruments in terms of Sales and Marketing. For introductions, let me capture your attention on a few glaring facts that would surprise and excite you about the web in general.

Pinoy Facts

We Pinoy’s do know that TXTing is our favorite past time. We use it 24/7 for work and play. If you are like me, my cellphone is next to bedside table like an invisible umbilical cord that is attached wherever I go, even in my sleep. Aside from the mobile communication, a growing number of Filipinos do actively participate on web activities either for emails, information, gaming and networking.

Many of us have our own nook in the web either in Friendster or Facebook where we interact and socialize with our friends, families and associates. This is called Social Networking.

According to Media in Mind TM 2006…

There are about 20 million Filipinos who access the web everyday
75% percent log on to an internet café, while 19% access them in schools
As our population is relatively young, a huge portion is dedicated to internet gaming (as seen in most internet café’s)
Drop in print media such as newspapers and glossy magazines contribute circulation loss and ad reduction to free news on the web wherein Ad spending is allocated elsewhere

Where Internet is often used (Nielsen Media Index 2008)

Here are some additional facts from Nielsen Media Index of 2006-2008 that may shed light on the increase demands for below the line activities.

Radio, DVD’s, Billboards, Cinema and Internet have even or growth indicators that Filipinos often participate and listen to.
Steady decline on TV and Print in the past 2 years of the survey
There are indicators that the market seeks other alternatives than the norm. Innovation and creativity play a vital role

Pinoy Activities on the Web

Aside from email usage “gaming” is another popular web past time at 45% (Nielsens Media Index of 2008) perhaps mainly due to the youth populous of the nation supplemented by numerous internet café’s where internet is cheap and accessible.

For marketers, advertising on known traditional media is no longer the norm. We have to explore other below the line platforms to get our message across. In recent years, television, radio and print have been dropping steadily as measured by Nielsen Media index of 2006 (see graph below)

Ad Agencies, Marketers and companies seek newer and more innovative ways in bridging the communication gap with the audience. Relatively, internet and mobile usage seems to be the growing segments that provide some opportunity among various media platforms available.

Some Digital Marketing Examples…

1. Email Marketing/Email Blasting

Email Marketing uses this opportunity to send an advertising or promotional message to a targeted audience using a mailing list or database. Email Blasting can reach a large number of people in just a click of the ‘Send’ button and compared with direct mail or printed newsletters, email is less expensive. A great example is when you access your yahoo email account (I am pretty sure, you have one) located at the right hand side of your screen are Ads that push their content and message in an email. But beware…

Push emails can lead to Email Blasting (don’t we hate those, personally I do!) Make sure that your mailing list has consented to receiving your promotional emails otherwise you are guilty of spamming. According to Wikipedia, spam is the abuse of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately). Spamming in Marketing has an adverse effect rather than sending a good connection with your target, spams result to annoyance leaving a bad taste in one’s mouth offsetting the real motivation and objective one’s program. Ergo, use with prudence and discretion.

2. SMS

A few years ago, when part of my job was to use SMS as a medium for advertising, we have utilized SMS as one of the below the line activities for companies and individuals to market their service and product cheaply. Hence, the Philippines being known as the TXTing Capital of the World, usage of this medium is but obvious to most advertisers. On the average, Filipinos send 400 million text messages a day. Like Email Blasting, SMS is direct, immediate, time saving and cost effective. It makes customers and business available to each other 24/7. SMS ads can also be personalized (i.e. using images in MMS) to suit and appeal more to your target market segment.

Telecommunication companies are highly regulated and have set guidelines for the entire telecommunications industry. SMS ads must always have the consent and permission of the recipient and contain instructions for opting out of the marketing communication otherwise can be considered as spam. SMS ads should be within these regulations otherwise the company/individual might be sued for committing such violations.

Furthermore, mobile ads are normally limited to 160 characters of text and 3MB of images or audio/video files. Nowadays, SMS ads, push and pull messages are done by content providers or aggregators licensed by the big mobile operators. (source from HAS Communications)

3. Blogs and Forums

Most of us are familiar with websites that are a wealth of information of almost any topic known to man. However, a sub-category of websites are known as blogs and forums that have interactive tools creating dialogue between consumers and audience. Most modern companies use blogs to relay information and explain about their products and services to their user community and sometimes become information resources. They are also an excellent way of getting feedback if one’s products and services meet the demands of consumers. It is also one way of widening your social network as blogs and forums cut across various interests, professions and hobbies from all walks of life. Usually, blogs create engagement with the reader or audience in a participative manner enabling them to give feedback immediately. Many trends and news information begin on blogs nowadays and snowball from there. Blogs and forums should be taken with caution. As they are public information, hence a bad comment could be easily translated to bad publicity snowballing into a media disaster.

4. Social Media

Social media refers to websites that publish user-generated content. Two of the top four websites on the Internet today are social media sites namely Youtube and Facebook. With FB alone you can create buzz (viral marketing) and it building relationships with customers and potential clients. You can also link your social web pages to your corporate/personal web site to generate more traffic. Last year alone, the Marketing Department of St. Peter ventured into the usage of Facebook with the Pink Casket as the primary focal point. We used our own photos and others inside the Pink Casket during St. Peter DeathCare Week. This social experiment proved to be a huge success with over a hundred of Pink Casket photos across Facebook transcending to Television news clips, and foreign news headlines.

Conclusion

With society and the environment moving at a frenzied pace, the ways of communicating to everyone get more varied and deeper. No can say what’s the next best thing in terms of utilizing technology for communication and marketing means. As we speak, Apple just released, the iPAD the next breakthrough in the line of MAC products addressing the need for ebooks, internet access, presentations and applications. Would I buy it? Perhaps. In the same manner when I switched to using an iPhone. I may be a hardcore book reader but reading on a digital pad may take sometime getting used to.

Technology as exemplified wit mobile phones, computers, the iPAD and others. The trick is to adopt to the situation and evolve with it. As a Marketer, let us use these tools than conform with social and environmental changes to our advantage-representative of the New Age Marketer for the 21st century.

Sources:

Media in Mind TM 2006

Nielsens Media Index 2006, 2008

Wikipedia (definition SPAMMING)

HAS Communication – SMS Messaging

M Ads 2008

[Via http://punkmarketing.wordpress.com]

What Self-Published Authors Can Learn from Big Publishers

2010-02-27T00:22:00.000+02:00

Self-publishing is on the rise. Arsen Kashkashian, the buyer at the great independent Colorado store Boulder Book Store (which we know as Boulder Books) reported on Twitter that self-published books account for more than 1% of sales. “Many look like books from major houses,” said Arsen. “We have three, four, five authors coming in almost everyday to get their books on our shelves. We charge a fee; still they come.”

How far will this trend go? Will traditional publishers disappear? Certainly some will, but we don’t think that this marks the end of traditional publishing—but publishers had better be nimble.

One thing big publishers do well is cultivate audiences and maintain sales channels (i.e. distributing books to the marketplace, either directly to readers, or indirectly through retailers). Self-published authors can do the former through a robust speaking schedule and online presence. The latter is tougher, though a lot can be accomplished by tirelessly doing events, getting in catalogs (which can mean paying), and selling online.

Publishers are good at the nuts and bolts that require special expertise: editing and development, design, production, distribution, pricing, channel management, marketing, and sales. A self-published author would be wise to invest in some equivalent of these roles, since no one person, no matter how talented or brilliant, can do everything well.

[Via http://authorenablers.wordpress.com]

If This Is How You Determine Who You Follow On Twitter, You're Doing It All Wrong.

2010-02-25T00:26:00.000+02:00

Screenshot from justunfollow.com ’s landing page. Great for people who use the service as a popularity contest – “What! You don’t wanna follow me?! FINE. I won’t follow you!”

You can follow me on twitter: @connectwithcoop. I may follow you back if you provide some sort of value to the conversations, if not, don’t expect me to follow you just to be nice.

Thank you for connecting,

Cooper

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Hey, if you enjoyed what you’ve read here today you may want to subscribe to my blog (click image) to receive future updates automatically as they are published.

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[Via http://connectwithcooper.wordpress.com]

How Social Media (probably) Got a Small Hotel into the NY Times

2010-02-23T00:51:00.000+02:00

No other tune could accompany this post as well as Ella Fitzgerald’s rendition of There’s a Small Hotel from the album The Rodgers and Hart Songbook Volume 2. Check out the rarely-heard verse! Hit the play button below, or if you’re getting this by email, visit the blog to listen.

Today my RSS feed coughed up a New York Times article by Susan Dominus about the joys of www.foursquare.com. Read the article or go on the website to learn about Foursquare. That’s not the point of this post.

Susan Dominus met one of her sources for the article at the Roger Smith Hotel on Lexington Ave between 47th and 48th. From my experience, the choice of venue might be no coincidence. And it represents the power of social media.

First let me say that, in my opinion, the Roger Smith is one of the coolest unsung spots in NY City. Its president is talented Connecticut sculptor James Knowles. The property is maybe the last remaining property of his wife’s family’s hotel holdings. The couple has lovingly embraced the Roger Smith, renovated it and given it one of the most delightful personalities in all NY hotel-dom.

I first met Jim Knowles in the early 1990s through a client Joe Scott, founder of upscale Connecticut landscape design firm Glen Gate, who engaged Jim to create an award for his most creative designers. At the time, Jim hosted Monday evening starving artist dinners in the penthouse of the Roger Smith. They were unspeakably charming and so supportive of the New York arts community.

Over time, I’d stop in there to view the artwork on display and noticed that the hotel was succeeding in attracting international visitors. But I will go out on a limb and say that it has become uber-popular with home town folk since social media guru Chris Brogan has made it his official NY stopover.

Chris tweets about the Roger Smith to his almost 125,000 Twitter followers – including me — and frequently mentions the hotel in blog and newsletter posts. So when a New York Times reporter doing a story on the website Foursquare.com hooks up with interviewee “Damien Basile, a 29-year-old social media consultant, and several of his Foursquare-happy friends”, it stands to reason that this person likely learned about the Roger Smith from a Chris Brogan post and might well be wanting to establish Foursquare mayor-dom and badges at Chris’ NY hotel of choice. (Again check out Foursquare or the Times article to interpret the aforegoing.)

Makes sense to me. But more important, and what I’d share with clients, is that recognition in the social media realm has real dollars and cents value. The fact that Chris has established authority and endorses the Roger Smith likely makes it a destination for social media types and probably led to the NY Times recognition. Chris…you’ve proved it before, and if I’m not all wet here, this proves it again.

Obviously, I’m connecting the dots, but if somehow Damien Basile sees this post, please let me know if I’m right or paddling in the wrong pond. Or if Chris Brogan learned about the Roger Smith from Damien or other NY social media folk I’ll reverse, of course. But it was one of those tasty moments that seemed more than coincidence. And Chris’ endorsement of the Roger Smith certainly can’t hurt – regardless of who learned about it from whom.

[Via http://newprwordsandmusic.com]

It's all about perception

2010-02-21T00:48:00.000+02:00

With marketing, perception is more important than reality.

For instance, there has persisted for some years a widespread perception (based mostly on marketing hype) that Toyota and other Japanese autos are in many ways superior to American autos.

I never bought into that notion, which I always felt was based more on perception than on solid facts.

Want a job in Toyota marketing department?

And now we have irrefutable facts that (to me, anyway) prove that Toyota autos are not what they are cracked up to be –

• To date, more than 8.5 million Toyota vehicles have been recalled (by far the largest auto recall in history).

• The four separate recall programs are not because of minor problems. Every one is due to factory defects of major, critical components that, during malfunction, can cause a driver to lose control of a vehicle –

1. Accelerators that arbitrarily stick (even at high speed) and cannot be unstuck;

2. Accelerators that arbitrarily get hung up on floor mats;

3. Brakes that arbitrarily stop working;

4. Drive shafts that arbitrarily crack and fall off of vehicles, causing the driver to lose control.

• Mr. Toyoda (that really is his name), the highest exec for Toyota, has drawn sharp criticism around the world, and especially in Japan, for his mishandling of the whole fiasco.

Nobody knows for certain how the Big Toyota Recall mess will all play out, but to me it clearly proves my point that perception generally means more than reality.

Yes, I know there are many who can provide stories about his or her amazing Toyota, Honda, Nissan, or Mazda vehicle that has been such a wonderful, reliable vehicle. And when folks tell these stories they always talk about how the vehicle has over 120,00 or more miles on it, etc. etc., etc.

To which I say: “Big deal. So what?”

There are just as many owners of Chevys, Fords, Buicks, Chryslers, Jeeps, Hummers, Cadillacs, etc. that can provide the same sort of stories. Just take a random look around you while you drive anywhere around any U.S. city or town and notice the large number of GM, Ford, and Chrysler (or Dodge or Plymouth) vehicles that are 15 years and older still on the road.

Consider my own story. Here’s a list of GM vehicles my wife and I have owned since the late 1980s — a 1986 Olds Cutlass, a 1986 Olds Ciera, a 1989 Olds Ciera; a 1986 Chevy Suburban; a 1995 Geo Prizm; a 2001 Chevy Impala; a 2003 Saturn Ion; and a 2005 Chevy Equinox.

Now, get this track record –

When I traded in every single one of these GM vehicles, each one had more than 120,000 miles on it. And guess what — NOT ONE OF THE VEHICLES HAD EVER BEEN IN ANY SHOP FOR ANY TYPE OF MAJOR ENGINE REPAIR. The only type of repair work done on any one of the GM vehicles we drove were the typical routine jobs that are common to all vehicles — things like replacing a battery, or replacing worn out belts or hoses, or replacing turn-signal bulbs. And I was so glad I drove a GM vehicle the few times I’ve had to make minor repairs, because there’s never a concern about finding parts. GM parts are readily available nearly everywhere, and almost always cost less than equivalent foreign brand auto parts.

We are still driving the 2003 Saturn Ion, which is now approaching 140,000 miles and “runs like a top” (as the saying goes).

Wonder how many auto owners are able to match that sort of performance — 8 GM vehicles, each one providing more than 120,00 miles of reliable service, with no major repair work (just typical, routine maintenance).

I remember when I was about to purchase the 2001 Chevy Impala. I did a lot of Internet research, and had narrowed my choices down to two vehicles — either a Chevy Impala, or a Toyota Camry. I chose the Impala, and here’s why — the Impala’s sticker price was less, the Impala got the same gas mileage as the Camry, the Impala had more interior space and more cargo space, and the Impala had a smoother ride. Boy, am I ever glad I chose the Impala, which turned out to be perhaps the best vehicle we ever owned. The only maintenance it ever required was regular oil changes. That’s it. Period. It gave us nearly 130,000 miles of trouble-free service before we traded it in.

The original tires on that Impala lasted for more than 90,000 miles. When I put new tires on it, there was still enough tread on those tires to perhaps push it to 100,000 miles, but I did not want to push it. The tire store owner was amazed that the tires were the original tires and had so many miles on them. “But, then again, in some ways it does not surprise me,” he said. “That model of Chevy Impala is one of the most perfectly balanced vehicles ever made, and I’ve heard so many stories about what a great car it is.”

And so, while perception may continue to sway many in what they purchase, I, for one, always try to base my purchases on solid facts and personal research (that’s also why I have purchased only Apple Macintosh computers for many years, and why I stick with Nikon digital SLR camera equipment).

[Via http://rnvanya.wordpress.com]

Why scoreboards matter

2010-02-20T00:43:00.000+02:00

Humans are compelled to count. We count everything. Days, weeks, months, years, birthdays, money in the bank, salaray levels, years of experience. It’s part of the human condition, even to the evolution of civilization.

As startup entrepreneur we need to let our people count something. Whether it’s the savings they made or they friends they have, there needs to be a way for them to keep track. So our people know they have made progress. Commerce is an anthropological game of football. So we must keep score. But it must go beyond the corporate scoreboard of profit, share price, turnoever, number of employees… it has to be an audience focused score. Like followers on twitter. It has to be about them, not us, it’s how humans roll.

[Via http://startupblog.wordpress.com]

New marketing articles from CEO Jeff Rutowski

2010-02-18T00:47:00.000+02:00

I have just published five new articles to help you with your 2010 marketing efforts. The keys to marketing are planning, time management, evaluation and understanding of your goals and taking action. The best plans will wither without action.

Selling your products and services is all about the benefits that they provide to your clients and prospects. When the ask, “What’s in it for me?” do you have the right answer? In Features versus Benefits Marketing, Jeff Rutowski shows you how to discover the benefits of your products and services through self-interrogation.

If you don’t have a marketing plan or if you think that you don’t have the time to create one, I have created the tool for you. My free mini e-Book (it’s a mini e-Book because you’re too busy for a long one) can help you propel your marketing to the next level. The mini e-Book is titled Marketing Plans That Create Profits: 6 Marketing Plan Quick Tips On How To Create Powerful Marketing Plans In One Hour. That’s right, an hour and it’s free. If you don’t have a marketing plan, here’s a great tool to get you started.

Time can be a friend or a foe. In Time Management For Marketing Business Planning, I provide 5 practical do-it-today time management tools for immediate implementation.

Understanding Prospects discusses intelligence gathering for your target industry and market. Stay on top of industry changes so you can be ahead of the game. Government and Trade publications can inform you as to new regulations, providing you with new opportunities to address new issues, fears and concerns

In Evaluate Your Marketing Plan, I show that marketing planning is the process of defining who you are trying to reach, discovering the best way to reach them, and delivering a message that will help them. The key to business success is a marketing calendar that uses a targeted, rational approach. These are practical tips that you can put into practice today. The key to success for any marketer is to take action.

The best marketing plans will fail if you and your business fail to launch. Marketing requires consistency and frequency and ACTION. Implementing Your Marketing Campaign gives you specific steps to take to get your marketing plan launched. Successful business people are action oriented and your marketing plan will succeed only if you follow-through.

Please share this post and the articles with friends and colleagues. Let’s discuss your successes, questions, and challenges here.

[Via http://businesslistpro.wordpress.com]

A "Breath of Fresh Air" Regarding Social Media BS!

2010-02-16T00:41:00.000+02:00

A read a wonderfully entertaining post today by Amber Naslund of AltitudeBranding.com. BTW, it was written on Feb 11th, and because of a restful Valentine’s weekend, I am just getting to my “Human Aggregators” suggestions!

The Gist of this post was “Come on, let’s get real about Social Media”, or at least that’s what I got out of it. Go read it! Here are my favorite excerpts, amongst so many great points…

“Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.

Loosely translated: majority isn’t truth. Just because “everyone” is doing it doesn’t mean it’s great. Conversely, just because you’re being the perpetual contrarian doesn’t mean you’re any smarter than the rest, you’re just joining the complaint flock. It takes courage and thought to go against the grain, illustrate a new approach, own it, and take actual risks in execution, not just on paper.

Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.

We don’t need a bunch of internet famous people and a confluence of empty personal brands. We need people that do good work and make a difference to the people in their universe, whether on a business or personal level.

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

We need more clarity, accountability, and translation of social media into terms that everyone can relate to. Enough with the buzzwords and lingo already. “Joining the conversation” doesn’t explain anything.

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.

Teaching and guiding adoption of social media can be an arduous task. But forcing too many rules without context and understanding is a recipe for resistance and resentment. And dragging people unwillingly into the social web before they’re truly culturally equipped will undoubtedly end in failure. Understanding new concepts and ideas takes time, patience, and the willingness of some to make small strides instead of huge leaps.”

I would translate my impression for you, but I think the comment I left on the Blog, regarding this post, says it all…

This was just an incredible post! Bravo for saying what so many of us, trying to figure this whole thing out, are thinking. I am almost ashamed I didn’t say it 1st, though I am not sure I could have done it with such elegance. This industry (Real Estate) is being over-run with career chasers, trying so hard to carve out a position as an expert, thereby creating a need for them as a “Social Media Director” or some other goofy title, that we are forgetting to help the 92% of The Realtors & Brokers who are so very confused about what SM, The Web, Blog, ect… can do for their business. They are chasing an answer out of desperation. Let’s just stop BS’ing everyone, and just work on teaching the community what this, very special, opportunity is and how it works. Then, after we have spent a little more than a year learning it, we can start to find the true “Experts”. I am guessing, we will find them amongst the traditional Marketing “Gurus”, because Marketing is Marketing, this is just a new pool to swim in!

Thanks again for a brilliant look at reality!

Stay Blogging My Friends!

The Coach

[Via http://therealestatecoach.wordpress.com]

What's Pepsi doing and how can the Interior Design Industry learn from that?

2010-02-14T00:47:00.000+02:00

As an Interior Designer I have a very creative mind and love all things art, I also have this crazy obsession with looking at what works in business no matter what their focus is (that’s that left side of my brain working). You could say I am a bit of an info geek!

So lately I have been reading this amazing blog series written by Jay Deragon http://www.relationship-economy.com/?p=8880 that a good friend, who is a brilliant financial business consultant, sent me and I got totally hooked!

Also having a deep relationship with the interior design world, I am always trying to think about ways all this business information might be able to translate to help grow the industry of design since it is very unique and steeped in the world of creativity and art and not typically run as a corporation.

The truth is, that business is business and the interior design world, in my opinion, needs to adapt a more “fortune 500″ way of thinking. We have never felt this more than during this crumbling economy.

The first sentence in Mr. Deragon’s blog series caught my eye immediately. “Those who do extraordinary things change the game for those that don’t. Changing the game for others means you do something which changes the rules of the game before those following the old rules know it.”

He sites just a few game changers like Apple, Google and even Barack Obama on how he leveraged the internet to raise contributions and take his message to millions of internet users.

He also wisely says: “Jumping from one technology to another there is a frenzy of tactical maneuvers, creative uses and all indicative of a race with no clear end in mind”.The limelight of tactical and creative attempts to get the audiences attention are but for a moment”.

“Strategy is What Changes the Game Not Tactics”

Mr. Deragon, couldn’t have said it better myself!

So where does Pepsi fit into all of this, and what can the interior design industry learn?

For years, we have done “BUSINESS AS USUAL”. It has totally effected our industry from interior designers to vendors to showrooms to design centers. The real definition of trickle down. It’s just not working anymore, we need to change it up.

Pepsi is doing just that. For years they took the traditional road of marketing through magazines and television ads. I am sure we can ALL think of an amazing Pepsi ad that cost millions of advertising dollars for the soft drink giant and worked for years.

Well, I don’t know if you know, but they did NOT have one single ad this year during the Super Bowl, when most would say the “super bowl” of audiences is the Super Bowl, right? Wrong, not for Pepsi!

Instead they are using SOCIAL MEDIA as their marketing vehicle. They are launching a huge initiative which you can read about here: http://www.relationship-economy.com/?p=8880.

It’s a totally new way of conducting business and one that the interior design industry needs to incorporate in a smart and strategic way. As Mr. Deragon (and I) say, let’s not just jump into this new technology, we need a strategy!

OLD WAY – CHASING NEW WAY- ATTRACTING

That’s exactly why I do what I do and love it. I work with and teach businesses in the Interior Design Sector think DIFFERENTLY. (that’s that geeky, left brain side!) When companies are financially troubled, they call me. And, shockingly (although, not to me) it works every, single time! However I do not ever throw the baby out with the bath water. I just have them think about a different approach that is strategically and carefully thought out.

That’s also why I began lecturing, teaching workshops and the latest, teaming up with another Interior Design alumnus who knows all about Social Media and internet promotion, to give a workshop on incorporating Social Media into your business strategy.

My mission is to see this industry grow stronger, but one that will be able to weather any economy. I have done this with businesses and will continue to do this in any way I can.

Let’s learn from Pepsi, Apple, Google, Ford and many other THRIVING businesses(including some achemm..Interior Designers)..while others are crumbling in this economy. Let’s start to change our business strategy and rise to the top again….where we all belong! Let’s stop doing business as usual when it just does not work anymore.

PLEASE SIGN UP FOR MY RSS FEED NEXT TO THE END OF THIS BLOG TO RECEIVE MY BLOG EFFORTLESSLY! And please feel free to leave any comments…I love to read your feedback!

[Via http://deborahflate.wordpress.com]

How a Guest Post opened new doors and opportunities

2010-02-13T00:52:00.000+02:00

Recently I had the opportunity to pen an article for Mike Volpe, VP of Marketing at HubSpot. I penned an article on story-telling, which prompted a lot of comments, but some interesting ones too. And it really fleshed out my thoughts. Before I share my new connections and insights, I need to make one strong recommendation:

If you’re thinking of doing a guest post for a hot company like HubSpot, get cracking now. There’s no time like the present.

First, my article prompted discussions from many but one person who connected with me really caught my interest. Michael Margolis is an expert in corporate story-telling and he shared a link to his great eBook called Believe Me: A Story Telling Manifesto. I highly recommend you download and read it.

As I told Michael, I consider story-telling to be the Holy Grail of marketing. Like the Holy Grail, many think it a figment of their imagination. But like the Grail, it is the most powerful marketing weapon a company can wield.

Story-telling is so important, I intend to keep writing about it. So stay tuned as I share ideas from the very best minds in Marketing.

Jeff is the President of Find New Customers “Lead Generation Made Simple” who has turned the website into the best source of free information on lead generation anywhere. His white paper, How to Find New Customers, has become the Bible of demand generation for many firms.

[Via http://fearlesscompetitor.com]

Social Networking, Spending Style

2010-02-11T00:53:00.000+02:00

The newest, up-and-coming social networking fad of 2010 focuses more on public spending than public speaking. The Web site, Blippy.com, updates the credit card purchases of members in real time. Displaying how much was spent, where and on what to millions of viewers worldwide.

The site itself has a Twitter-like look and feel boasting an easy-to-use format for consumers who wish to share their innermost purchases. This new way of learning more about/invading the lives of strangers could provide a new way for market researchers to dig up info on the habits of demographics large and small.

Blippy allows users to follow members and make comments on their spending habits. Some users have claimed that participation increased their expenses, hoping to impress followers with where they are or what they are doing. Market researchers have looked into the mystique behind purchasing for years hoping to target specific audiences with their products or services and Blippy.com seems to be an even faster, easier way to do just that. Referencing users ‘personal profiles’ and their purchases with others could provide the same results as more traditional forms of research.

Will Blippy.com be the social-networking site of the future? Only time will tell but for now I’ll keep my credit card statements to myself J

[Via http://scgianti.wordpress.com]

marketing metrics: 50+ metrics every executive should master

2010-02-09T00:45:00.000+02:00

Buy Cheap Marketing Metrics: 50+ Metrics Every Executive Should Master

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Few marketers recognize the extraordinary range of metrics now available for evaluating their strategies and tactics. In Marketing Metrics, four leading researchers and consultants systematically introduce today’s most powerful marketing metrics. The authors show how to use a “dashboard” of metrics to view market dynamics from various perspectives, maximize accuracy, and “triangulate” to optimal solutions. Their comprehensive coverage includes measurements of promotional strategy, advertising, and distribution; customer perceptions; market share; competitors’ power; margins and profits; products and portfolios; customer profitability; sales forces and channels; pricing strategies; and more. You’ll learn how and when to apply each metric, and understand tradeoffs and nuances that are critical to using them successfully. The authors also demonstrate how to use marketing metrics as leading indicators, identifying crucial new opportunities and challenges. For clarity and simplicity all calculations can be performed by hand, or with basic spreadsheet techniques. In coming years, few marketers will rise to senior executive levels without deep fluency in marketing metrics.This book is the fastest, easiest way to gain that fluency……..

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“This book saved my confidence!” 2010-01-14

By M. Daria (California)

Marketing Metrics is great! I struggled with some reports at work and couldn’t always remember formulas or ways to “think” like a Marketer with such a demanding job. But this book saved my confidence! I do not read it chapter by chapter but more go to the section I need a little refreshment in, it is a perfect blend between great explanation yet not too much detail. I feel like this is a good way to feed your knowledge in between college and obtaining your MBA or when some years of business school wear off…

“A great catalog of Metrics” 2009-08-21

By Brian K. Seitz (Eatonville, Wa USA)

One of the problems with Marketing is that it typically has not spent any real time looking at measuring its successes, performance, etc. While Marketing Metrics: 50+ Metrics Every Executive Should Master is a long way from such a holistic text, it does contain a great catalog of metrics, explanations of use an cautions such that a savvy manager could over time construct his own performance management system.

“This will become part of your ‘core’ collection” 2009-05-08

By LoreDog (North Carolina)

Covers all the fundamentals.great tips on when to use, how to use and when not use. Also provides good tips on dealing with data issues and impact of assumptions and estimations on any given metric.

Unlike many other business books, this one will get dog-eared as you refer back to it time and time again.

“Should be required for all MBA programs. “ 2008-12-13

By Rick Wingender (Knoxville, TN)

This is a great book. I bought it AFTER I finished my MBA program. I’ve now read most of it, and I only wish that I would have had it before I started on my MBA. It’s easy to read and understand, and most of the metrics are very useful. I would recommend this to ANY business student – undergraduate or graduate, marketing, accounting, finance, whatever. Anyone in these professions will find it useful, and I also think anyone who is in a Merchandising role will also find it quite useful. I keep it in an easily-accessible place – it’s great for reference too.

“ok” 2008-04-26

By A. Rastagar (California)

While most of these metrics are true, they are not always relevant. I guess if you use it as a reference, this is a good book and will do fine. But it is not necessarily something that will turn your world upside down with new knowledge.

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[Via http://mathematicsbooks.wordpress.com]

Sports Business: Not Quite Saying ‘Super Bowl,’ but Cashing In on It

2010-02-07T00:48:00.000+02:00

Every year shortly before the Super Bowl, advertisers exhort fans to “get ready for the Big Game” (with a new HDTV), “stock up for the Big Game” (with pizza and ice cream) and score some “Big Game Savings” (on Doritos).

Skip to next paragraph

Pepsi is promoting its brands with a “Big Game Savings” promotion.

The latest news, notes and analysis from Miami where the Colts and Saints will contend Super Bowl XLIV.

Go to The Fifth Down Blog

[Via http://frenkinews.wordpress.com]

10 Simple and Inexpensive Marketing Ideas for a Tough Economy

2010-02-06T00:46:00.000+02:00

The harsh reality of today’s economy is that many people are unable or unwilling to spend money like they have in the past. It used to mean nothing to me to spend $100 or $200 on clothes and shoes every few months, go out to eat several time a week and buy things I didn’t really need but thought I wanted on a weekly basis. I also used to donate money to several local charities. During the past year and a half, I have probably spent only $300 total on these items. Not good for the local economy, not a whole lot of fun for me personally.

Obviously, businesses and non-profits are also reluctant to spend money on marketing efforts when customers like me aren’t adding to their bottom line. Another harsh reality: you can’t ignore your marketing efforts just because business is slow. Maintaining a strong presence now will help customers remember you when they feel inclined to start spending again.

While you may not be able to afford a fancy direct mail piece or advertisements in your local paper right now, there are inexpensive or even free things you can do that will help keep you in your customer’s minds:

Develop a newsletter. Keep your customers informed about new products, services or other information they are interested in.
Create fliers to promote your upcoming sale instead of more costly direct mailers. Remember, though, that any printed materials you send out need to look professional.
Gather customer e-mails. If you can’t afford to have your newsletter or flier printed, send an e-mail version.
Partner with other businesses who compliment yours to create a “niche” event: bridal fair, home & garden show, ladies night out, etc.
Start a blog. Do you have something relevant and interesting to say? Are you an expert at what you do? Of course! It is an easy way to lend credibility and increase awareness about your business or organization.
Create a Facebook Fan Page for your business. Post new products, upcoming events, etc. Remember to update it on a regular basis or no one will continue to visit your page. The same is true if you have a web site. Update your content to make sure people are visiting. This is the same principle as bringing in new merchandise or changing displays in your store.
Participate in a community event. If you support your local community, residents will tend to support your business.
Attend networking functions. Word of mouth will always be the best way to spread the word about your business.
Offer to speak to other organizations about a topic of interest/expertise that you possess. It will only cost you some of your time.
Create a unique in-store event. While you will need to spend a little money to execute it effectively, a fun, memorable event can bring a lot of people into your store.

[Via http://mcguiremarketingpro.wordpress.com]

The First Ten Years of Search

2010-02-04T00:53:00.000+02:00

Search just finished its first decade! Our US Search teams have put together a look back over the past 10 years and key milestones which have shaped the search landscape today. It’s amazing how far the industry has come in such a short space of time and how much it has changed. Most notably, back in 2000 Google was the default search engine for Yahoo users and now they’re main competitors!

Click here to see The Decade in Search highlights and below our thoughts from Amnesia, it’s effect on the APAC region and what the future is set to hold – for the moment at least!

Why has Google become so strong?

Leading innovation, products and add ons that are simple for consumers to use and make Google the one-stop shop for consuming and sharing online
For advertisers they have developed user friendly interfaces, in-depth reporting and free applications such as Analytics and Insights to make sure we can target consumers as effectively as possible on the Google network
Both Yahoo and MSN have both lagged behind in innovation which has ultimately held back their advancement in the majority of APAC

Key Changes for the APAC region:

Reputation management – the force that is social is an exciting time as online becomes more of an open forum. As search engines start to rank more and more social content the process of reputation management becomes more challenging and also brings up the age old question – is all news good PR?

Censorship – hot topic at the moment especially here in Australia. Is the free availability of information set to end? We’ll be keeping a close eye on proceedings and also the effects this may have on advertisers

China is the key market for change, with recent heavy news coverage that Google may pull out over a combination of high levels of censorship and hacking linked to the government.

Accessibility – the imminent launch of new devices, such as, the iPad and Android phones, will open up the way people can search and the frequency in which they can do it

Bing – Microsoft’s new search engine has reportedly been growing, albeit at a small rate. It will be interesting to see locally if consumers in each market will transition once it comes out of Beta and all features are available. Look out Google? Only time will tell!

All in all we are about to enter the next chapter in Search. Especially here in APAC where there are many different types of market, from emerging to mature and everything in between. The key to success is strategy localisation to ensure your advertising is meeting the needs of consumers from very varied backgrounds.

[Via http://amnesiablog.wordpress.com]

CCIM of VA's 2nd Virtual Deal Making Call

2010-02-02T00:47:00.000+02:00

Last month, the CCIM Virginia chapter organized it’s first ‘Deal Making Call’ to help circulate exposure for member’s listings, and the efforts wholly paid off in what can only be define as success! A total of 10 properties were presented with about 12 participants on the call including those members who pre-registered to present listings. Several participants offered feedback following the call saying they really liked the format. One other participant requested a package from a member to present to a potential buyer, so already we have a potential transaction from 1st Deal Call. With my past experience with these formats, I expect the call participation to steadily grow, potentially to between 50 and 100 folks. Going forward, we plan to promo participation on the call in a formal advertising campaigns and heavily across social media platforms.

Over the course of the next few months a formalized advertising program to attract buyers and non-CCIM brokers who may bring buyers to call will be initiated. Only members of the Virginia CCIM chapter will be allowed to present properties on the calls, but all others will be allowed to participate as buyers or buyers’ brokers.

So, please mark your calendars and join us from the comfort of your desk as CCIM of Virginia will hold our next monthly Virtual Deal Making Call on Tuesday, February 9th - NEXT Monday – from 10:30-11:00 a.m.

This month’s call will feature a special guest speaker, Rod Santomassimo of the Massimo Group, who will share with us some details of how he is helping commercial real estate brokers across the US to stay at the top of their game during the current economy.

This is your opportunity to use this webinar to pitch your deals and to find more of what you are looking for to do more business.

First: Register Here: Tuesday, February 9th from 10:30 am- 11:30 am

(You will receive an INVITATION closer to the event date with call-in information.)

Second: Download Slide Template and submit to jtucker@ccim.net by 5:00 PM Friday before the event (February 5th)

Note: Slides are open to CCIM Virginia Chapter Members ONLY. Others are welcome to participate in viewing and discussion.

[Via http://jimtuckerccim.wordpress.com]

Adding social networking buttons to wordpress.com blogs

2010-01-31T00:03:00.000+02:00

I love wordpress and that’s the wordpress.com version and not the wordpress.org one (yes I know all you techies are going to go “what a shoe”. Well sorry but I don’t particular like security issues and the fact that the installs suck up bandwidth. Blogger is fine as well in my book but I think wordpress.com offers a bit more bang for the buck and, oh wait, there is no buck, it’s free, so I’m not going to carp that the .com version is more limiting in many respects then the .org and you can’t have as many bells and whistles.

My feelings and from what I can see from Google and Bing searches on various blogs, quite honestly it doesn’t seem to matter what platform you use, the search engines love them all if you keyword and tag correctly.

I was curious to see if one could also add social media sharing links to blog posts on wordpress.com, its possible on the .org version as plugins and there are people that have done coding tutorials but I had a hard time finding anything aside from http://www.addthis.com to be able to do this on the .com version. I couldn’t find it in the help section as well but figured there must be a way.

I came across http://www.perlitalabs.com/Social_Bookmark_WordPress_Builder/url_builder.php?title=Test%20Title&url=http://www.test.com and http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/social-bookmarkings?replies=42 and a post originating from http://sunburntkamel.wordpress.com/ . I am unable to find the original post but the information originated from there from someone else’s blog, my apologies but could not find the original post I found it on. (Thank you whoever you are)

This is the original code suggests for implementing SM links and images in wordpress.com

social-bookmarking-template-sunburntkamel

It appears the .gif links are still active but wanted to insert my own and also wanted to add twitter (which I don’t know if it existed when he wrote this)

This was my version, please have fun tweeking if need be and please let me know if you have any problems or suggestions.

WordPress.com social media linking codes

I had some trouble with the twitter link but seemed to find out what worked and did not work. Two recommendations when implementing the twitter link: use bitly to shorten the link up in advance and also if you have any special characters in the title or the url, specifically & and ” change them when inserting. If the title has either of those two symbols replace (&) with (and) and delete any (“)s. The characters do not translate when posting to twitter. The link won’t work.

This is kind of a pain because you have to insert for every blog post and change the links but have not found any alternatives as of yet. The nomen should be replaced with the name of the post and the addy with the unique url. If you keep a copy in MS word and then just copy it into another new doc and sub the url and the blog title it only takes a minute.

I don’t have a code yet for Linkedin, which I’d like to add at some point, if someone has done one I would appreciate it and will add it in. If you find some links that don’t work, please let me know as well.

[Via http://chefforfeng.wordpress.com]

What the WSJ Missed: The Lessons of Lady Gaga (For Every Marketer)

2010-01-30T00:52:00.000+02:00

Covered in blood, meeting the queen in bondage attire, and now–the WSJ. Lady GaGa clearly has a few less-obvious and more notable lessons the WSJ skimmed over. While they didn’t quote her, the internet does so here are a few finer points:

It’s Not Just About the Music (Biz)—or the “Product”

Her product goes well beyond what’s distributed on itunes and played in every spin class, club, gay bar, etc. To quote WSJ: “Though she writes her own material, she is as focused on visual theatrics, fashion, and global appeal.”

Similarly, the lessons of GaGa aren’t just for the recording industry. CMOs, CEOs and creative companies and entrepreneurs should be taking notes. She is the biggest brand to emerge in 2009.

Own What Drives Your Brand

House of GaGa gets a WSJ drive-by as “a core team of advisers.” Hand-picked from (her words, elsewhere) “my coolest art friends,” they are the core of her brand. These collaborators help design the shows, the staging, the costumes, the clothing, the hair, the lighting, the everything.

Oh yeah, and it’s under her control.

As she says, “It’s a whole amazing creative process that’s completely separate from the label.”

Share the wealth, but own what counts. Her contract might give the record company some of her MAC cash, but the intellectual vision and property are all hers.

Are you outsourcing everything to a revolving door of agencies or freelancers? Does an AOR own your creative vision? Keep a core team inside and out that’s committed and connected. Famous, cheap, and/or easy = not enough.

Put Your Money Where Your Business Is

Overexposed? Maybe, but you’ve yet to see her yachting around Lake Como or having a balcony bash at Turks & Caicos.

From the beginning, her cash went back into, yep, Haus of Gaga: “I wanted to put my own money into the show… I was making money as a songwriter and I didn’t want a condo or a car because I don’t drive and I’m never fucking home, so I just wanted to put all my money into my performance.”

Where’s your capital—cash, focus, creativity—going?

Strong Direction + Execution, Execution, Execution

The Haus of Gaga isn’t an entourage, it’s an execution-based creative laboratory with a bias toward doing and outdoing. The briefs are simple and well-defined, with very actionable outcomes:

“I said that I wanted to make my face light up. Or that I wanted to make my cane light up. Or that I wanted to make a pair of dope sunglasses. Or that I want to make video glasses, or whatever it was that I wanted to do.”

Take away: Tight briefs and strong vision are crucial to team success. Yet ideas without execution are just happy hour conversation—and worth about as much.

Grammy or not, this is just the beginning. Get more GaGa thoughts here tomorrow.

[Via http://aliasvivian.wordpress.com]

Budgets & Benefits

2010-01-28T00:52:00.000+02:00

On January 16th, we had our first Saturday morning seminar with Suzanne Feucht, accounting coach and trainer, to talk about basic financial tools. There were lots of participants and even more questions, so it was hard to get through everything Suzanne had on the agenda. They appreciated that she emphasized the basics: using the right accounting software, keeping track of paperwork, etc. The big message was they wanted more accounting and financial seminars in the future.

January 21st, Susan Rich joined us for a new addition to her Write it Rich! series. This presentation was on benefit-based copy, and how small businesses can think about what their product or service provides, and use that message to market themselves. We got to look at (and laugh about) some vintage ads, and point out where the key message was and what we were being sold… not a product, but a benefit. There was a lot of great discussion, so much so that we went a little over time. But no one seemed to mind too much – they were busy practicing their benefit-based copy and writing up their own blurbs and ads.

[Via http://mercycorpsnw.wordpress.com]

And the beat goes on

2010-01-26T00:50:00.000+02:00

Just got another email, this time from Hooved Animal Humane Society (Sue’s present home). It turns out they’re having a tack and craft sale at their facility in late February–wanted to know if I would like to participate. Of course!!! This is starting to get exciting. I’ve like the idea of “expo” type shows ever since I did the one at Willow Tree. People come with the idea that they’re going to buy something, while at horse shows they’re much more focused on chasing those prize ribbons. I’ll still do some horse shows this year, but I’m thinking the local “all things horsey”-type shows might be more productive for the product I’m selling.

[Via http://allifarkasartist.wordpress.com]

Manager, Member Services (Houston, TX)

2010-01-24T00:50:00.000+02:00

Manager, Member Services (Member Retention) POSTED: Jan 11

Salary: Open Location: Houston, Texas

Employer: Greater Houston Partnership Type: Full Time – Experienced

Category: Marketing: Other Required Education: 4 Year Degree

Employer Information

About Greater Houston Partnership

The Greater Houston Partnership(GHP)is a not-for-profit organizaton which is the primary advocate for Houston’s business community and is dedicated to building regional economic prosperity. The Partnership is the umbrella organization under which the Greater Houston Chamber of Commerce, the Houston Economic Development Council and the Houston World Trade Assoication were combined. These organizations, while still legal entities, operate as divisions of the Partnership. The Partnership has a….more info

View all our jobs

Job Description

DEPARTMENT RESPONSIBILITIES The Member Services Division is responsible for the retention and acquisition of members. Coordinates business development programs, networking events and visibility including business-to-business opportunities for members.

POSITION OBJECTIVES Drive the retention of members and assist the division in the development and implementation of programs aimed at helping Partnership members see value in retaining their membership.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES The following responsibilities are essential to job performance:

1. Manage and implement the annual membership Campaigns. 2. Identify, train and manage Ambassadors and Allies; volunteers responsible for the retention of members. 3. Design, manage and implement the member retention programs. 4. Organize programs specific to the needs of large, mid-size, and small member companies. 5. Develop and carry out a layered strategy for communicating to Members the services, resources and value of membership. 6. Maintain investor relations by effectively building relationships with Members; develop and conduct action plan for face-to-face contact with Members. 7. Manage and develop business development programs, councils and committees, i.e. Business to Business/Member to Member, workshops, and networking events. 8. Represent the Partnership at corporate and community events. 9. Provide supervision and coaching for assigned Coordinators and Administrative support staff, including performance reviews, career development and other relevant supervisory functions. 10. Design and conduct internal staff training programs for quality service to Members. 11. Other duties as assigned.

NOTES: Local Residents Preferred (No Relo).

Additional Salary Information: Commensurate with experience. Paid parking, 401(k) plan, subsidized group insurance coverage, vacation and sick time benefit hours, 11 paid holidays

Requirements

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES The following knowledge, skills and abilities are desirable for job success:

• Minimum of 3 years experience in a fund raising, marketing, communication, or related field, in a public, private or non-profit organization, or a combination of the above type experience and training. • Minimum requirement is a Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field, or 10 plus years relevant experience. • Experience in retail and customer service a plus. • Excellent verbal, written, analytical, presentation and interpersonal skills. • Proficiency in Windows, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, other software programs. • Ability to coordinate, engage and fully utilize member expertise. • Professional appearance. • Preference for working with all levels of internal and external contacts. • Ability to exercise mature judgment and tact. • Ability to professionally manage diverse groups of people. • Preference for fast paced, goal and team oriented environment. • Ability to work well under pressure and deadlines, with minimal supervision. • Self-motivated and directed. • Ability and flexibility to prioritize and work on multiple assignments.. • Preference for detail work. • Bilingual helpful.

[Via http://marketingjobsdallas.wordpress.com]

Text - a successful family business for your network marketing

2010-01-23T00:25:00.000+02:00

If you are looking for the market, your business, there is no powerful tool than words. Whether you need to copy to the website, marketing materials, business cards, press releases, or even a business card, written on your mastered the necessary basic principles of business success.

Your company's use, text almost all the possible sale or spin-off business's future. NatureYour financial future depends on your written communication skills with a solid foundation.

You have only one chance to make a first impression. If your communication to the public after the circulation of documents or grammar or spelling mistakes, you can also have the opportunity to stand on customers. When potential customers in a written information to their view, the operators are not careful, poorly trained, unreliable, lazy or just plain stupid.

On the other hand, if theYour written communication is perfect, so it is the pictures. Whether you are in print or online communication, your words represent you to a wide audience. Please note that many people will analyze your every word when it is how to deal with these public forums.

When you leave a large enterprise, you will make the best. If the main customers are in the car traveling, be sure to clean the vacuum and get it. In the same way, you must ensure that your image is perfect in the public eyeIn a written statement.

If you like your sense of spelling and grammar did not pass, do not be afraid to seek professional help. Freelance writers and editors are available, so look for your company's best side. When it comes to the text, like a jerry-building to reduce its own throat.

We live in a very visual society. Word of mouth is not enough in today's world. We have advertising everywhere we go in the spread ofIn the home of highway billboards TV ads online, and we at work.

Enterprises need a logo and website. Communication and brand awareness that they are an indispensable tool. If you do not have this you can be sure your competitors do not. In today's highly competitive market, your web content is likely to talk about in a single day more people in person than you do.

This does not mean that they are not important for business referrals and repeat customers, because they ensure that theYes. However, if you look at the current and potential customers of the network that best suits your business, if you do not exist.

Letter signed from the sale to ensure that your company offers a picture, intelligence, exquisite, good common sense and trust. If there is no right of the text can not complete your marketing goals. How do you appear in the printed self-inflicted a lasting public image. To ensure that they carry a positive impressionFor your business and bottom line will thank you for a long time.

[Via http://businessforfutures.wordpress.com]

Pre-show marketing is the key

2010-01-21T00:42:00.000+02:00

There are several ways to communicate with them your audience.

Corresponding some ways more effective, appropriate and cost-effective than others. As always, your budget will determine how many points you touch with your audience. In addition, remember, you should show how the right person to qualified potential customers to find the lowest cost.

Remember that you need to let your potential customers know your booth on theHall. Days line such as "you will find our booth in 1635, such as direct mail and so on before the fair, trade fairs such as press releases and other communications.

Do not let your customers and potential customers to find you.

Recent studies have shown that 83% of the most successful companies in the exhibition series (in the terms imposed on enterprises, and lead to a) those who too much trouble, in such e-mail marketing, the prospects for public participationAnd customers before the show. (Source: CEIR – (for Exhibition Industry Research Center)

You can increase the direct marketing tools are integrated through a variety of pre-fair booth of your qualifying purchase expensive return on investment. Diversity in the pre-show marketing strategy will achieve even greater results, and you will get a higher record of success, in the two tourist destination and sales growth, leading to conversion.

Please do not take a one-dimensional approach, pre-trade –Display marketing, because you is not just the desired results.

The purpose of the mass action through personalized contact with potential customers, multi-level marketing strategy, you have the ability to achieve its goals more easily Expo.

These include the telephone booking phone users personalize the imagination of the invitation, direct mail or e-mail, your products, and encourage them to visit your booth.

By understanding your audience, youThe parties concerned should show your products, and by creating a positive image and brand awareness / or services prior to the fair, objective and start the buyers.

In order to maximize your trade show on the individual effort of your e-mail concerns, needs and interests of its clients.

Need time to really determine your target audience! This is very important.

Do not underestimate the marketing activities before the show a power. In a fair and effective marketing can beSupply from 50% to the appropriate transition to potential customers.

Is always a portfolio of activities, each qualified potential customers at the lowest cost, promoting your schedule so you will be given reasonable notice of your potential customers.

It is always a good idea to better results to your list, there is a relevant and compelling content to provide part of the.

Do you want to go back, get after it when it is time to prove your return on investment, etc. Keep track of your pre-show marketingTactical costs.

[Via http://sampleflyersforrestaurants.wordpress.com]

Redes sociales

2010-01-19T00:49:00.000+02:00

La semana pasada vi una publicidad española. Un vendedor intentaba describir las cualidades del hijo de la clienta para venderle una Playstation. Entre las tres o cuatro que describía, estaba la que tenía no se cuantos cientos de amigos en Facebook. Mismo argumento para la campaña de Obama. Y la de muchos políticos y personajes famosos. Mi sobrina tiene 608 amigos y catorce años de edad. Ambas son cualidades si lo vemos con ese punto de vista.

Con tantos amigos amigos en la red, ¿qué pasa con el tiempo que se pierde en Facebook? Si le dedica diez minutos por semana a cada uno de sus amigos mi sobrina estaría 10 horas por día hablando. Sin contar los miles de minutos que está metida escribiendo en el muro. Lo máximo sería además ser fan de grupos de interés. Entonces sí que lograrás tener un millón de amigos. ¿Sirve para algo?

Personalmente tengo Facebook. En la foto del perfil estoy sacando la lengua, es muy simpática. Tengo 50 amigos. Y me gusta. Si, son amigos de toda la vida o de parte de mi vida. Ya hace casi 30 años que me fui a trabajar “afuera” y todavía estoy “afuera”. Subo fotos viejas, o nuevas cada tanto, y algún que otro video. Me río con mis amigos y la paso bien. Además he podido recuperar a gente que había dejado en el camino y que sin Facebook no hubiese retomado el contacto.

¿Que pienso de las redes?

De Facebook está claro lo que pienso. Solo es para perder el tiempo. También perdemos el tiempo tomando sol en la playa. Por lo tanto lo de perder el tiempo es una apreciación subjetiva. Pero a lo que voy es que para eso está. Como también están otras redes que sirven para otra cosa. Se ha hecho muy popular la red Linkedin para el segmento de profesionales. Y también estoy allí. Bueno, esta vez sin sacar la lengua, con traje y corbata. Hoy en día es utilizada por profesionales que quieren ser visibles en el mercado, ya sea para promocionar sus servicios, conseguir trabajo o hacer contactos de negocios. Entonces ¿la cosa es mas seria? Yo creo que más interesante de lo que parece. Pero no nos engañemos, tampoco es una panacea.

He encontrado allí una empresa que se llama Bridgedworld (www.bridgeworld.com muy linda página, bien diseñada y moderna, con blogs y RSS) que se dedican al tema de consultoría de empresas y están usando Linkedin como elemento de marketing y contactos. Incluso el networking lo explotan como tema de su consultoría.

A unos de los socios David Soler Freixas, en Linkedin lo encontrarán en http://es.linkedin.com/in/dsoler le he tomado prestado esta presentación que nos explica muy profesionalmente de que se trata esto del “networking”. Que lo disfruten, está muy bien hecho.

[Via http://gmrodriguez.wordpress.com]

First week in summary

2010-01-17T00:15:00.000+02:00

In terms, of attendances, it had been a quiet week. This gave us more time and opportunities to continue fitting out our dojo.

we have internet access

we’re setting up the office space and merchandise displays

a small divider constructed for the reception area to offer more privacy and security

It’s rewarding to see our students settle in to the space; especially rewarding to see students from Chadstone and Geelong committing to the travel and making it in to class. One family will be travelling 1.5hrs one way twice a week, so their son may continue his training with us. Gestures like these, are incredible.

Our new class times tested and so far, only a small tweak was necessary.

Advertising in our local paper has been scheduled for end of January and February.

We had a total of 18 new trialers this week, which is phenomenal for the first week back. Next week continues to look promising.

martialjourney.com

[Via http://martialjournal.wordpress.com]

Ubiquity ain't easy

2010-01-15T23:54:00.000+02:00

And ain’t ain’t really a word.

I’d like to think that the Internet allows me to be everywhere at once.

But it doesn’t, really.

Social networks, location based services and constant connectivity through broadband and mobile certainly help. And it all comes at a relatively low price. Or free, in the case of most social networks.

There’s a catch, though. The hidden cost of time.

It isn’t easy being everywhere at once, though that’s something a lot of us would love to be able to do. Both personally and professionally. But it comes at the expense of time dedicated to learning the network or the equipment which you are using, or, the easy part, as well as the hard part, or, the time invested in building a network, developing a message and satisfying the goals of brand development and trust, along with any applicable bottom line business need.

Now it’s becoming a commitment.

Personally, I’ve always been an advocate of trying everything. I’m anchored in Twitter and Facebook, but also have spent plenty of time using Friendfeed, Plurk, Identi.ca and the gone-but-not-yet-forgotten Pownce. For location-based fun, I’ve played around a bit on Brightkite, but have the most fun on Foursquare. And that’s just a select few places I’ve ventured on the social web (as a side note, it’s my quirky mission to reserve my name as a username wherever I go – you’d be surprised how many of us there are!).

I’ve done this on my own time. Some call it addiction, some call it madness. But I prefer to think I’m striving to keep abreast of communication and social technology.

Businesses are doing it too. And that’s where it really gets tricky.

Sure services like the recently-acquired-by-Seesmic-so-you-can-post-everywhere-service, Ping.fm lets you broadcast to the mass audience spread across the capacious expanse of the social Web, delivering one message to multiple sites. But where’s the fun in that? It’s broadcasting, and it misses the point. That’s what TV and the radio are for.

Now everyone wants to, for lack of an unabused cliché, ‘join the conversation.’

Conversation implies there’s certain balance between listening and talking. That’s not possible from the ivory tower of a social broadcast service such as Ping.fm. Broadcasting is OK given that there’s someone monitoring each service and participating in any successive conversation the initial message produces.

In my personal use of social media I tend not to link any one network to another. My tweets are for my twitter audience. They won’t make sense to my network on LinkedIn or my friends on Facebook. And while theoretically a business message does not change across various media, it should be tailored to fit the specific audience inherent to those that use the network. Simply, the MySpace users are not the Facebook users. And so on.

So, yes, it’s easy to join the conversation. But in day-to-day life as in business, it takes a healthy commitment to absorbing the culture and contributing where possible.

Pick your battles. Learn the experience each service offers. Adapt to it. Don’t treat your audience, your friends, your network, like dummies.

They know when you’re faking it.

Sounds like a lot of work.

[Via http://matthewgunn.com]

The photo's of a pilot cleaning his windscreen. But what do you see?

2010-01-14T00:52:00.000+02:00

This is what I saw as I was boarding a Jetstar flight last week. There’s the pilot, perched in the window ledge, cleaning his windscreen with a cloth.

I’ve shown this photo to a few people and it’s interesting what people see.

I see a pilot who doesn’t take himself too seriously, making sure that nothing gets in the way of a good (by which I mean, safe) flight.

My friend sees an example of a shoddily prepared plane and a pilot having to perform embarrassing DIY maintenance just to get it off the ground.

Why do we see it so differently? Very simply because we each see what we expect to see.

I like Jetstar. I’ve flown with them a few times and been impressed each time. So I see the relaxed, down-to-earth attitude I expect to see.

My friend had flown with them once before, in Jetstar’s first couple of days as a fledgling airline experiencing more than its fair share of teething problems. So she sees the slip-shod performance of a second-rate airline that she expects to see.

Which is all very obvious but it does remind me of the conversation I’ve had with clients many times.

As an advertiser, you never start with a clean slate. People always have a view of your brand. And they interpret whatever you do based on that existing view. Even if you’re a new brand people have a view of your category. And they interpret whatever you do based on their expectations of the category.

Which demonstrates what a difficult job being a Marketer really is.

Because those perspectives are so individual and people cling to them so tightly. No one likes to be wrong, so we look for what proves us right. Which makes it perfectly reasonable that a pilot cleaning a windscreen can be both a positive and negative reinforcement for the same brand.

And it also does a pretty good job of demonstrating how hard it is for marketers (and marketing) to change people’s perceptions.

[Via http://philiponeill.com]

Get Visible by Targeting Your Market

2010-01-12T00:35:00.000+02:00

One of the ways for local businesses to keep new customers coming through the door is to make their marketing dollars count through targeting their audience. For example, one of the solutions that TPG Marketing offers is a fitness campaign to help local businesses attract consumers that are image conscious. They’ve created a campaign that targets consumers while they are working out at the gym. These consumers are interested in products and services such as beauty, health, hair, teeth, and looking younger.

By displaying a local business advertisement in a busy fitness club near the business, they are able to filter their customer’s by location and interest.

Target marketing is fast becoming important in a world where many consumers are filtering out an advertiser’s message from information overload. Staying visible and spending wisely is part of the way a business needs to operate in this economy.

[Via http://tpgmarketing.wordpress.com]

Interests of Chris - Since July 2008 - Top 10 Posts

2010-01-10T00:32:00.000+02:00

I thought I would share with you the top 10 posts with the most hits since the launch of the blog back in Jul 2008. So here they are below in order of most hits – many of which are in there thousands!!

1. New Tupac Album on the way?

2. Video Vixen – Book Finished!!

3. Topless – Dr Dre, T.I. and Nas

4. Trials of TQ: Independence – The Reality

5. Dos Santos moving to Spurs

6. Crooked I interview (part 2) – Death Row

7. Trials of TQ – Cash Money!!

8. Video Vixen – Karrine Steffans

9. Coffee Shop Brands – How do they compare

10. Death Row Records Sold!

[Via http://interestsofchris.wordpress.com]

Book your room through online marketing

2010-01-09T00:30:00.000+02:00

In the hotel business it is well known that reserved rooms are preferred rooms and while the walk up business definitely helps the bottom line it is the pre determined revenue of the reserved rooms that hotels use to make their living. That means that getting as many rooms reserved as possible and tied down with credit card confirmations and that means marketing the hotel to get that extra business.

People are always traveling for various reasons and the only reason they do not choose your hotel over another hotel is because they have seen something on the other hotel and they have seen nothing in regards to yours. The key is to not just get the marketing machine cranked up and working in your favor but to identify the key areas where your marketing efforts, and dollars, will see the most return.

It used to be that one of the secret weapons of the more successful hotels was the use of travel agents. The hotels would invite travel agents to stay for free in their hotel to see what the hotel has to offer and in return the agents would use the hotels as part of package deals for vacationing travelers.

The hotels would give discounted rates to the travel agents and the agents would fill the rooms for the hotels months in advance. Today there are still traditional travel agents that are experts at filling hotels and keeping those relationships with hotels all over the world alive but the average traveler has moved away from using traditional travel agents and has moved to booking their vacations on the internet.

A smart hotel is going to hunt down the more successful internet travel agencies and work out package deals and discounts with those internet travel agencies to help book rooms in advance. Your exposure with one large internet travel agency is going to exceed the exposure you would get from any local traditional travel agent.

The internet has become the medium of choice for people looking to book vacations and even more popular than the internet travel agents are the internet discount travel sites that allow people to piece together their own vacations with discounts from various hotels, airlines, and car rental companies.

In order to find success with internet marketing you will need to make sure the information being offered travelers via these discount travel sites is accurate and that all of the processes these sites have in place to book rooms in your hotel are also correctly set up. Keep the channel of communication open with these websites and offer them excellent discounts as well.

Some of these sites try and get discounts out of your hotel by helping you fill rooms you cannot fill at full price and offering them at a negotiated discount with the traveler. Any prebooked room you can get is revenue you can count on and a prebooked room at a discount is always better than hoping that someone walks up and pays full price.

Reaching out to travelers through the internet is a full time job and working beyond the traditional travel sites will help get you more exposure. The larger search engine websites offer advertising spaces that are seen by millions of people a day and the rates are not so expensive for exposure like that. Get your hotel’s name and link on those major search engines to make sure you are maximizing your exposure.

The final piece to the internet marketing puzzle is making sure your website is clean, easy to use, updated, and helpful to any potential customer that tries to use it. People want as much luxury as possible out of a hotel for as little money as possible so make sure you create a website with a luxurious appearance that gives the impression that you have a hotel worth spending the money on.

Make your website easy to get information from and easy to book a room with and make certain that all room booking information is updated in real time from all of your room booking sources. You will have angry customers and bad referrals if you constantly have double bookings due to a lag in updating the website booking information. Create a desirable and functional website and people will use it to book rooms in your hotel and make you revenue.

[Via http://travelagencywebsites.wordpress.com]

Ah blogging, did I miss you too?

2010-01-07T00:34:00.000+02:00

Ah blogging, that slightly-older-uncle in the ‘new media’ family.

You know what? I missed it, I missed it like crazy. I missed being a part of a conversation, I missed contributing, but more importantly I missed listening, reading and seeing other people’s opinions. Blogging, in my opinion, is one of the best things you can get into, even if you’re just a lurker for a while first.

Forrester Research did some amazing, well, research about percentages of people who create, engage, use, comment and lurk, it’s below (until they ask me to remove it)

I suppose it comes back to an issue of feeling like you’re part of a group, an immersion, so to speak, as Seth Godin would call it, a tribe. But it’s also worth considering that’s it more than just being a part of something. It’s is about being heard in that group. You’re not just a follower, you’re a contributor, even if your voice is small and only a few people hear it, at least it was heard.

Cutting off the blogging voice for a while, was an experience I don’t intend on repeating but one worth enduring.

[Via http://rowanw.wordpress.com]

more proud moments in Aussie advertising

2010-01-05T00:51:00.000+02:00

This little gem from an Aussie brewery made me proud. Despite being voted one of the worst ads in 2009, I couldn’t get past loving the bad taste in this sense of humour. I haven’t tried the raspberry ale and can’t see this ad would have enticed me at all (I get their stream of thinking but it’s a bad joke for a premium beer), however as a piece of subversive art it’s gold!

ps I think they got the pants sued off them for this one – don’t mess with Disney

[Via http://markcowell.wordpress.com]

Google and India Test the Limits of Liberty - WSJ

2010-01-03T00:16:00.000+02:00

The rules of political speech on the Internet are usually pretty simple. In America, almost anything goes. In places like China, the censors call the shots. But in India — a boisterous democracy that’s riven by religious and ethnic tension — the game is far trickier, as Google is discovering.

In September, lawyers at Google Inc.’s New Delhi office got a tip from an Internet user about alarming content on the company’s social networking site, Orkut. People had posted offensive comments about the chief minister of India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh, who had died just a few days earlier in a helicopter crash.

Google’s response: It removed not just the material but also the entire user group that contained it, a person familiar with the matter says. The Internet giant feared the comments could heighten tensions at a time when thousands of mourners of the popular politician were emptying into the street.

The incident shows the treacherous terrain Google must navigate as it expands in India, the world’s most-populous nation after China and a major growth market for Web searches, online advertising and mobile phone software. As Google broadens its reach, it must increasingly tweak the way it operates to suit new cultures. While authoritarian countries pose well-known challenges, Google is learning that even democracies such as India can be fraught with legal and cultural complications. Its experience here could serve as a precedent for other Web companies.

The nation of 1.2 billion is the world’s largest democracy and in principle affords free speech to its citizens. But the country has a volatile mix of religious, ethnic and caste politics and a history of mob violence. So, the government has the authority to curtail speech rights in certain cases. India’s Constitution encapsulates that gray zone: Free speech is subject to “reasonable restrictions” for such purposes as maintaining “public order, decency or morality.”

Authorities say Internet companies in India, including Yahoo Inc., Facebook Inc. and Twitter, are expected to help government enforce those standards online by removing objectionable material and, occasionally, helping to track down users. Under a law that took effect in October, corporate officials from any Web site that fails to comply with requests to take down material or block sites can face a fine and a jail sentence of up to seven years.

India is a secular state, but its people are predominantly Hindu, with a large Muslim minority and significant populations of other religions. Religious and caste tensions have periodically erupted in bloodletting in the 62 years since independence from Britain. In 1992, Hindu activists destroyed a mosque that they believed to be the birthplace of the Hindu deity Rama, setting off riots that killed more than 1,000. The memory remains raw in India.

Iqbal Chagla, a leading Indian attorney on civil liberties and public interest litigation, says fears of public rioting sparked by Web content — or incendiary content in any medium — are overstated. “Communal tensions become largely an excuse for denial of civil liberties and denial of freedom of speech,” Mr. Chagla said. “It’s a very thin line that’s being tread.”

Google’s policy, Ms. Wong says, is to review material flagged by Indian users of Orkut and other Web services it owns, such as YouTube. Google checks whether the content violates its global rules for users, which ban materials like child pornography and hate speech. The company pledges to abide by the laws of the countries it operates in. In India, that means making some content inaccessible from the local versions of its sites, such as orkut.co.in.—the default page users see when accessing Orkut from India. Google says it only blocks content brought to its attention by users or law enforcement authorities and only when it considers the request valid. The company cannot control what content is posted on third-party Web sites but controls what can be found through its search engine.

Google began ramping up in India in 2007 to capitalize on burgeoning Internet use. The country has about 52 million Web users, according to the International Telecommunication Union, making it one of the largest markets in the world. There is room for growth, since only about 5% of India’s population is yet online. Google declined to comment about the finances of its India operation.

Orkut, with 17.6 million users in India in October, is the country’s third-most visited Web site, according to comScore Inc. Google acknolweges that it was taken aback early on at how the site gave rise to explosive debates on topics like religion and politics. In mid-2007, the company began fielding complaints from police and users about profile pages with derogatory comments about figures living and dead. These have included B.R. Ambedkar, an architect of India’s Constitution who was an activist for lower-caste Indians, and Ms. Gandhi of the Congress Party.

[Via http://lanle.wordpress.com]

Referral Systems as a Means for Marketing

2010-01-02T00:46:00.000+02:00

Referral systems can be beneficial in some industries but not all. The best way to find out if it works for our industry is to simply test it (I stress frequently testing programs rather than ruling them out). The best way to test this is to ask for 1 to 2 names from your customers who have recently purchased your product (they will be the most happy) and leave it at that.

[Via http://itsthefuturemarketing.wordpress.com]

Twitter co-founder takes aim at mobile payments

2009-12-30T23:58:00.000+02:00

Dorsey, who was Twitter’s CEO until October 2008 and remains the social network’s chairman, said he came up with the idea for Square nearly a year ago with Jim McKelvey, a glass artist who was frustrated after losing out on a $2,000 sale because he was unable to accept a credit card from a customer.

The two started brainstorming about how businesses and individuals could quickly start accepting credit, debit and prepaid cards over the iPhone and other small electronics, and came up with the idea for a credit card reader that connects to a cell phone.

Eventually, McKelvey and a group of engineers decided they should build a gizmo that hooks up to a standard audio jack, which is common on all sorts of consumer electronics from iPhones to BlackBerrys to laptops.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Twitter-cofounder-takes-aim-apf-1023305012.html?x=0&.v=1

[Via http://lanle.wordpress.com]

5 things AT&T should do to save its iPhone business

2009-12-29T00:35:00.000+02:00

Apple's iPhone + AT&T

Over the past month AT&T has struggled to maintain its reputation with current iPhone users. First, we heard that the company might start charging users based on their data usage in an attempt to minimize the massive amounts of data that iPhone users are prone to sharing. Then Verizon went to battle with AT&T by revealing the massive holes in the company’s 3G coverage. And in the last couple days, we saw AT&T suddenly stop selling iPhones to New York customers only to turn around and start selling them again the next day. Clearly, the company is on the defensive and it should take measures to solve these issues as soon as possible.

AT&T wanted the iPhone and it got it. Now, the company is scrambling to figure out how do actually accommodate its users. Here are five meaningful things the company can do to solve this issue:

Sincerely apologize and promise to treat your iPhone users well. This isn’t rocket science. You wanted the iPhone and all the business that was going to come with it. Apple gave you a gift, one that has allowed you to dominate the smart phone service provider business. It was a great move; however, since you got the business you’ve been slow to innovate and have done little to treat this precious market in a way they deserve to be treated.
It is time to make amends and you had better do it before someone else does. Instead of making another television ad that brags about your less-than great 3G coverage, make an ad with where your CEO or iPhone team goes on air and apologizes for their past performance and then layout your plans to take you iPhone service to an all new level.
Expand your 3G coverage and upgrade to 4G: Verizon’s got you beat when it comes to 3G coverage. I have experienced your lackluster coverage first hand. If I leave Salt Lake City, you coverage becomes spotty and downright unreliable. It’s time to invest and add the towers you need to make sure your coverage is up to par with your competitors. While in the process, why not set a goal to offer 4G coverage as soon as possible?
Take a lesson from Zappos. Of all the cellular service providers, you rate the lowest in consumer satisfaction. Now’s the time to look outside the cell phone industry and learn how to provide the world’s best cell service. Take a look at every point of contact with your consumers, from the kiosks in the malls to your website, and identify ways to “wow” your customers every step of the way. Find ways to make your service easy to sign up for (not the easiest thing in the world if you are switching from another provider) and even easier to use after they have signed up. Make “solving customer problems” your number one priority. No one is better than Zappos when it comes to customer service. Take a look at them for starters.
Offer something for free. A while back, you launched your first app, a turn-by-turn GPS service. Instead of trying to find ways to milk your iPhone customers for every cent they are worth, why not build loyalty by offering them several key and useful apps they they really need. Free GPS would be a great way to start. But don’t stop there. Look at what apps are the most useful and needed by your customers and then figure out a way to create and offer them free of charge.
Remember tethering? You have held up this service for some time now. It’s time to allow this to happen and it would be an excellent time to offer this free of charge to your loyal iPhone users.
Let your customers leave for free. Gone are the days when you can punish customers who don’t like your service. Put your business, service and technology to the test by allowing your customers to leave if they are unhappy and do it free of charge. Sure, you might argue that you have made an investment in your customers by subsidizing the cost of their phones. That is completely true; however, that is the business model you built. It’s not too late to change course.
What do you have to worry about? A lot in the initial stages; however, if you are able to offer the world’s best service on the world’s best smartphone, you should not have much trouble with this one.

You have been given a gift. Apple selected you as the provider of choice for the iPhone. Luckily for you, Apple has held up their end of the bargain by continuing to push the envelope on the technology side. It’s time to match the world’s best phone with the world’s best service. The game is yours to win or lose.

[Via http://jwsokol.wordpress.com]

The Top Five Reason Clients Select “Therapy Online” vs. Seeing a Therapist “In Office”

2009-12-27T18:35:00.000+02:00

Since March of 2000, (www.eTherapistsOnline.com) we have been

Online Therapy

providing to the public a pool of well qualified clinicians; mental health professionals who have at least 10 years post graduate experience, provided 6 personal and professional references that attest to their qualifications, “exhibited strong professional skills including a personal interview with a top clinician and management of our company, and in general have made it though the most rigorous screening process of any online therapy site we know of.

It has been extraordinarily rewarding to watch our “experiment” in online therapy grow at a rate we’d never dreamed would happen to where we are now one of the oldest, most established and most publicized online therapy sites online today.

We have conducted a few surveys with our clients over the years, but our most recent one is the one I find most interesting, at least right now. We asked our clients what were the top five reasons they shoes online therapy over seeing someone in office and feel the results are so interesting we wanted to share them with you.

Our research was informal and consistent only of a follow up email to 200 past clients who had purchased a session for the first time within the last 6 months asking them to share with us the top 5 reasons for selecting online therapy.

The results are as follows:

# 5: Availability — People cited that the therapist they wanted to see was available within the next 2 – 5 days as a reason for seeing someone online. Their comments indicated that this window of time, 2 – 5 days was extremely important and they felt that contact with a professional was more important than where the contact took place.

#4: Ease of Use — respondents cited the ease of use of the site as the 4th top reason to select online therapy vs. in office therapy. A frequent remark was that there was little effort to “sell” them on this form of therapy which they liked “Lack of pressure to buy” something was a typical response from respondents.

#3: Price– The cost of sessions was reason number three given. They thought the range of prices from ($39.95 for 1 email to $85 for 1 60 minute chat or phone) was affordable enough to see if this would be a helpful way of “seeing “ someone and over 72% said they purchased an additional session even though we did not ask for this information.

#2: Intake Process – While many people complained that the intake process was long, they also felt reassurance that this was “a legitimate” site; “real professionals” and “ethical licensed professionals” if they were asking this much detailed information beforehand. Credibility, while not using that term, seemed to be the reason they were identifying.

#1: Skill level of the professional – We post an extensive biography of each therapist on the site and the fact that qualifications was cited was not surprising to us, al thought it was surprising that it was the number one reason. Because most of our professionals have at least 15 – 20 years post graduate experience and they write well (as demonstrated in their bio) seems to be an important indicator for those seeking therapy. This lends support to my belief that clients who seek therapy online tend to be more professional, highly educated group of people who are looking for convenience and quality in making a decision about what type of service to purchase online and where to make that purchase.

It was a fascinating experience to review the clients’ comments. While we do not have any plans now for future surveys, we will be conducting some as we go on. We do not present this in any way as an attempt at a “scientific study “so we will not respond (mostly for time’s sake) comments critical of the methodology we used. Our goal here is simply to share information we found interesting. All comments and suggestions are welcome.

Visit us online for online therapy here

[Via http://privatepracticemarketing.wordpress.com]

Tattooink.tv Sponsor of the Singapore Tattoo Show 2010

2009-12-27T06:10:00.000+02:00

Tattooink.tv

=====

Flash your Tats at the Singapore Tattoo Show 2010 and you could be one of the many FACES in the coverage of the Singapore Tattoo Show by Tattooink.tv. Have a global audience admire your pride and joy tattoo/s – see you at the show.

Contact: Tattooink.tv

Call: +61 2 83070860

Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/TattooinkTV/186537002863?ref=ts

Postal

PO BOX 20519 World Square

Sydney NSW 2002

Australia

Website: http://tattooink.tv

Singapore Tattoo Show Tat2 2010 – Jan 8 to 10 Singapore Expo

Join us till then on Facebook – http://facebook.com/tattoopride

[Via http://aplink.wordpress.com]

Life Coach's Are Rats (by Rick London c2009) Sung to Al Stewart's “Year Of The Cat”

2009-12-26T00:14:00.000+02:00

For my DF/Love Lee Hiller

Good Kitty

On the morning of a life coach program the entrance fee is free,

The jest of the speech is material accumulation and a myriad of slime,

At the end of the program $5000 packaged programs and you’re sorry,

Feeling an accessory to a crime.

She comes out from backstage with fake Rolex so stunning,

Thinking the audience has no brains,

Then she wonders why on Twitter that she shunned,

She’ll mutter something about Newton’s inertia reference frame,

But she smells like a rat.

She only has a sec for questions,

And prefers Mastercard or bank transfers,

She counts on you to be dense with no direction,

Till your bank balance disappears.

You later find better advice on public bathroom stalls,

And you realize like so many others you’ve been screwed,

The BS was so thick you could cut it with a knife,

So you sip another brew,

Cheers to the year of the rat.

Well she counts her cash so cruely,

Smiling like another Macy’s shopping spree,

Your migraine now is grueling,

So you tweet her, but her only answer is snide,

I can’t help being a rat.

Well the morning comes and you’d like to believe her,

But the bozos on that bus are gone.

You’d like to form a group and start a line of pickets,

But the life coach took all their funds.

Lots Are Becoming Life Coaches Yes Even Danny Bonaduci

You try to think back at a filthier stain,

But the life coach leaves a permanent decay,

Repackaged ancient wisdom is the game she lives for.

They make Michael Madoff seem okay,

To a life coach you’re a doormat.

————————————————————————————————————–

Rick London is a writer, designer and cartoonist. He founded and creates Londons Times Cartoons, the nets #1 ranked offbeat cartoon. He launched Shoes That Amuse, the world’s only famous love quote shoes which have been featured in media worldwide. He has written over 650 published magazine articles and is brand designer for Mariel Hemingway Healthy Gifts. His funny gift stores contain over 70,000 funny tees funny mugsand other funny gifts such as LT Superstore and Rick London Collection.

[Via http://ricklondonmusic.wordpress.com]

City of Mississauga :: Marketing Consultant, New Media 142700

2009-12-24T12:17:00.000+02:00

Job Type: Full Time

Location: Civic Centre, City Of Mississauga, ON, CANADA;

Job Category: Marketing

Industry: Government

Year(s) of Experience: 3

Number Of Positions: 1

Date Posted: Dec 22, 2009

Mississauga is Canada’s sixth largest city with a population of more than 700,000. With well-established infrastructure and state-of-the-art facilities, the City is considered to be an employer of choice, delivering quality municipal programs and services to its citizens. Mississauga is a dynamic, diverse and progressive municipality, known for its economic strength and for being Canada’s safest city.

CORPORATE SERVICES DEPARTMENT

COMMUNICATIONS DIVISION

CORPORATE MARKETING/PROMOTIONS SECTION

requires a

MARKETING CONSULTANT, NEW MEDIA

Job Specifications:

Post secondary education in Marketing, Web Design, Information Technology, Graphic Arts, or Communications along with a minimum of 3 years progressive experience in the development and management of a large corporate Web site or equivalent combination of appropriate education and experience. Experience in all aspects of the web development lifecycle including: analysis, specification building, design and development, coding, QA testing, promotion and maintenance. Proficient in web design and development software including advanced experience using Dreamweaver, Photoshop, ImageReady and Flash. Must be highly skilled in hand coding HTML, JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheets and Action script. Demonstrated proficiency in user interface design principles and standard web design and development methodologies. Demonstrated proficiency in the development and integration of dynamic content such as Flash, video and audio content within web sites. Experience and proficiency in the development of dynamic multi-media presentations using PowerPoint, Flash and Apple Keynote. Experience with Content Management Systems (creating and deploying content). E-marketing tactical experience, including creative development that supports a broader marketing plan. Excellent oral and written communication skills. A task-orientated approach to projects and the ability to perform duties requiring independent judgment, analytical skills and initiative. Demonstrated commitment to professional development, including a track record of remaining current with emerging web technologies. Ability to work well under pressure and within strict deadlines. Strong problem solving skills and attention to detail.

Primary Responsibilities:

Under the direction of the Manager, Corporate Marketing and Promotions, the successful candidate will be responsible for coordinating and completing assigned Web page maintenance tasks and supporting the design and implementation of various web development and multi-media projects. Completion of these duties will require, but not be limited to creating, managing and integrating web pages into eCity and Inside Mississauga. Supporting the development and integration of multi-media content such as flash and video on to City Web pages. Developing and implementing dynamic and user-focused web content (both internal and external) for Communications division supported projects. Providing support and consultation to the Communications Team with implementing web-based projects. Partnering with Creative Services to develop dynamic multi-media presentations utilizing PowerPoint, Flash and Apple Keynote for high-profile and strategically important initiatives. Prioritizing and responding to web page maintenance requests from Communications staff based on defined priorities and workload demands. Partnering with Creative Services and Information Technology to advise, build and execute web site development plans based on project needs and goals. Participating in section and divisional work teams and projects as required. Assisting with the ongoing evaluation of web sites and other web services by producing quantitative performance measures. Maintaining an awareness of current trends and technology in related fields. Performing other related duties as assigned.

Salary range: $50,947 – $67,929

A Criminal Record Search will be required of the successful candidate, at their own expense, to verify the absence of a criminal record for which a pardon has not been granted.

We thank all who apply, however, only those candidates selected for an interview will be contacted. All personal information is collected under the authority of the municipal Act. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Please note that once you have submitted your resume an on-line a questionnaire will appear on screen and must be completed in order to be considered for this position.

Click here to apply.

[Via http://gerarddolan.wordpress.com]

Top, Best, Monthly, Yearly, affordable, online, on page, off page, search engine optimization company, google search engine, marketing, seo, search engine optimization placement, web marketing strategy, independent, web 2 marketing, marketing to

2009-12-24T06:48:00.000+02:00

Title: Top, Best, Monthly, Yearly, affordable, online, on page, off page, search engine optimization company, google search engine, marketing, seo, search engine optimization placement, web marketing strategy, independent, web 2 marketing, marketing to the social web, For USA, India, Cambodia, China, France, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States – IT Live Web web site marketing Company www.itliveweb.com

Keyword: Top, Best, Monthly, Yearly, affordable, online, on page, off page, search engine optimization company, google search engine, marketing, seo, search engine optimization placement, web marketing strategy, independent, web 2 marketing, marketing to the social web, For USA, India, Cambodia, China, France, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States

www.itliveweb.com is top and best search engine Optimization Company for USA, India, Cambodia, China, France, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States. We work online on page and off page seo for google search engine. We work for web 2 marketing and marketing to the social web. We are affordable for all type of website, Magento, oscommerce, joomla, ecommerce. We gives monthly and yearly feature to our clients. www.itliveweb.com Online Marketing company allows Our clients to promote The website and services online at a affordable cost than traditional advertising such as yellow pages. ITLiveWeb helps you grow your business and gives traffic because We provide qualified leads from potential customers who are looking for your products and services.

[Via http://minervasoft.wordpress.com]

Leadership, Obama Style: Pretty Speeches, Compromised Values, and the Quest for the Lowest Common Denominator | Drew Weston, PhD

2009-12-22T00:42:00.000+02:00

Somehow the president has managed to turn a base of new and progressive voters he himself energized like no one else could in 2008 into the likely stay-at-home voters of 2010, souring an entire generation of young people to the political process.

Meet the new boss…same as the old boss…

Read Article.

[Via http://wbpllc.wordpress.com]

Avatar

2009-12-20T18:27:00.000+02:00

Cel mai asteptat film al anului, Avatar, regizat de James Cameron, a inregistrat in ziua lansarii (vineri 18 dec) incasari de peste 27 de milioane de dolari. Desi ninsorile puternice din acest week-end din America ameninta veniturile filmului, analistii se asteapta ca ele sa depaseasca suma de 80 de milioane de dolari.

Avatar este considerat unul dintre cele mai scumpe filme din istoria cinematografiei, cu un buget de peste 230 de milioane de dolari.

In ziua lansarii, pretul actiunilor News Corp. (gigantul care s-a ocupat de producerea filmului) a crescut cu 13 centi, ajungand la un pret de 13.35 $. De altfel aceste actiuni in 2009 au cunoscut o crestere de peste 49%.

———————————-

Eu nu am reusit sa vad filmul, pentru ca efectiv nu am reusit sa fac niciun fel de rezervare (nici eu, nici prietenii mei) – biletele au fost epuizate in cateva minute de la afisarea programului. Si sincer, intr-un fel parca nici nu vreau.

Ma simt sufocat de marketing-ul agresiv al acestui film. Oriunde ma intorc, aud pe cineva spunand ca de abia asteapta sa vada acest film si ca e filmul care va revolutiona cinematografia. Spun ca nu as vrea sa-l vad pentru ca, datorita acestui marketing subconstientul meu ridica asteptarea mea pentru acest film la un nivel foarte ridicat, si nu vreau sa fiu dezamagit. De multe ori acesta este si motivul pentru care nu imi place sa urmaresc diferite trailere.

Acum sper sa nu fie si cazul acestui film. O sa revin cu un comentariu dupa ce reusesc sa-l vad.

[Via http://mihaifiler.wordpress.com]

Marketing Jackass

2009-12-20T06:51:00.000+02:00

What would the biggest challenge be for an aspiring marketer in the 21st century? Well to me the biggest challenge would be marketing to the generation of what we loosely call…. Jackasses!

Feeling confused, stereotyped, offended? Don’t be! The moral deterioration of future generations is inevitable. It says so in our religious scriptures; we are nothing but this humankind of constant moral dilution, slowly moving towards apocalypse! As a smart marketer, you have to stop whining and accept that fact, or else you would be a failure! This rampant generation of Jackasses is perhaps the most important segment for many consumer goods. Look at some of the top brands in the world – Levis, Axe Deodorant, Fast Track and all their ‘disciple’ competitor brand; they all target the same generation! There are video games where kids learn to beat up old people! Want a broader look into this…why not! Look at how the villain characters of the movies over the years have evolved – the deceitful third wheel in a love triangle in the 60s to mad scientists in the 80s to mafia drug lords and bank robbers in the 90s to ferocious vampires with symptoms of necrophilia that we see today.

Don’t you see a trend here? Our moral state has deteriorated over the years at such a rate that movie makers realized they have to lower the bar further more to establish the concept of ‘bad’ to new generation viewers. So be smart; accept the jackass-generation rather than denying their existence. Who knows, may be a future successful tagline for a cigarette brand can be: “Cigarette is bad, but drugs are worse! So be smart and choose slow death over fast death….choose XYZ cigarette today!” Marketing as a career doesn’t look that hot now, does it?

[Via http://tabletmedia.wordpress.com]

Create the new NYC condom

2009-12-19T00:39:00.000+02:00

“Mach’s mit!” sagen die Deutschen. “Get some!” die New Yorker. Gemeint ist dasselbe: Matratzensport mit Schienbeinschoner. Problem: Wie bringe ich die Regeln auf den Bolzplatz ohne gleich als lebendige Torwand zu enden?

Während die deutschen Werber nach den spannendsten Liebesorten fragen hat die New Yorker Kreativ-Elite zum Design-Wettbewerb aufgerufen. “Design the next NYC condom wrapper” heißt die Kampagne, die ihre Zielgruppe dazu aufruft eine speziell auf New York zugeschnittene Kondom-Verpackung zu entwerfen. Auf beiden Seiten des Atlantiks setzt man also ganz modern auf “user generated content.” Gute Nachrichten für die Gilde der deutschen Kastenbrillenträger. Wir sind dran an den Innovationspächtern aus Übersee.

Fast. Denn in einer Facette ist die NYC Kampagne dann doch durchdachter. Sowohl in den Fernsehspots als auch in der gesamten Printkommunikation sprechen die New Yorker ihre Zielgruppe sehr individuell an. So gibt es Motive für jeden unterschiedlichen Distrikt, damit wirklich niemand sagen kann er hätte sich nicht angesprochen gefühlt. Gut gemacht.

Na dann, let’s get some and then just do it – aber das war ja wieder was anderes.

Natürlich ist die Kampagne auch standesgemäß bei Facebook integriert. Click and enjoy.

[Via http://newyankeediary.wordpress.com]

Dieting Advice - The Day Off Diet Review

2009-12-16T23:23:00.000+02:00

The Day Off Diet is quickly becoming one of the most popular diet programs available for instant download online and unlike more expensive programs like Weight Watchers, which requires a monthly payment, The Day Off Diet is available instantly upon a one time purchase. The main reason that The Day Off Diet is becoming so popular is not the fact that it’s available for download instantly, nor is it the fact that it’s far more affordable than most dieting alternatives, nor is it even the fact that The Day Off Diet is essentially free for the first 60 days due to it’s 100% money back guarantee. No, the main reason it’s becoming such a popular choice for those who need to lose weight is that it’s far more effective than other diets.

The Main Reasons The Day Off Diet Is So Effective is…..

It’s Easy To Follow. Other programs like Weight Watchers requires you to count all of your calories, or programs such as Atkins which require you to count all of your carbs, The Day Off Diet’s ingenious “green light” food guidelines method means you never have to count anything when you’re on this diet. This makes it much easier to follow as counting calories, carbs, or fat makes your mind always on food, the last place it should be!

It Keeps The Metabolism Boosted. One of the biggest problems with low calorie diets is that they cause your body to go into “starvation mode” and this greatly slows down your metabolism and makes it much harder to lose weight and keep it off! The Day Off Diet solves this problem with it’s “day off” (every 7th day). This day off not only allows you to satisfy your cravings it also keeps your metabolism high so that you lose weight faster than on other diets!

It Turns Off The Fat Storing Gene. The “green light” food guidelines are not only easy to follow they are also going to cause your body to turn off the “fat storing gene”. Scientists now believe that some foods cause the body to turn on the “fat storing gene”. The Day Off Diet will help you to avoid those foods so that your fat storing gene is turned off and you lose weight faster!

It Allows Dieters To Satisfy Their Cravings. The weekly “day off” not only keeps the metabolism boosted for faster weight loss it also is essential to the diet’s success psychologically. By having a “day off” to eat anything you want every 7th day, it keeps dieters from “cheating” on the other days of the week. Satisfy your cravings every Saturday so you can stick with the diet the other 6 days of the week!

Also The Day Off Diet e-book comes with a bundle of valuable bonuses, including Day Off Diet Cookbook, Loose Skin Report, Strength Training Program, members only website, and more

http://alturl.com/a8ct

[Via http://reviewlastestdiets.wordpress.com]

From feature to benefit

2009-12-15T00:50:00.000+02:00

Product creators love features – consumers buy benefits!

How many times have you heard or read an ad that was a list of features? Heaps of times probably, especially in the car industry. You know the stuff… ABS, dual airbags, leading edge technology, multiplex electrics and the like.

So why are benefits better selling points that features?

Benefits tell the potential customer the answer to the question that all consumers want answered – “What’s in it for me?”. So instead of listing features a better advertisement would translate those features into benefits. For example: … comes with the protection of dual air bags and an Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) that improves road holding and steering by regulating the braking pressure to avoid wheel lock.

How to turn a feature into a benefit

The clue was in the last paragraph. We need to answer the question “What’s in it for me?”. So next time you’re trying to work out what benefits your product offers you can use the following formula - this feature means that… = benefit

I’ll give you some examples:

multiplex electrics means that there are fewer wires and connections so it’s easier to service and maintain
leading edge technology means the best, most up-to-date, most efficient technology
6 bedroom house means this is a family home with plenty of room for all the kids and then some
dual processor means it will process information faster allowing you to work more efficiently

Do you get the picture?

So next time you hire an ad writer, or write one yourself, make sure talk about benefits not features.

[Via http://thecopywriteronline.com]

Advertising - what works?

2009-12-12T00:43:00.000+02:00

This is a perennial question and one I wrote one of my free articles on. I think it ’s a message that bears repeating so here goes…

Do “clever” advertisements really sell? Can you remember what the ad was for, or which brand? The answer is often “No!”.

Don’t sacrifice clarity for cleverness

It’s good if an advertisement can make you laugh but that shouldn’t be it’s main purpose. Certainly ads that make people laugh have engaged their audience but if they don’t follow through strongly enough then people don’t remember which brand or, sometimes, even what type of product the ad was selling!

So whether you’re engaging a copywriter or an ad agency, or you’re going to write your ads yourself don’t be tricked into thinking that “clever is best”; it isn’t, “clear is best”.

Cleverness wins awards for agencies

Ad agencies love “clever”, quirky ads because they are good contenders for creative awards but how successfully do they sell? Sometimes, spectacularly well, but many times poorly. Make sure your promotional dollars are targeted at selling your product or service and not at enhancing your agency’s PR efforts.

What makes a successful campaign?

We have more than 20 years experience in the advertising, marketing and PR business and can write clear, attractive copy that will sell your product or service. But if you want to do it yourself then you need some rules to follow:

Know who your audience is
Understand what pushes their buttons
See your product or service through their eyes
List the features and turn them into benefits (for more on this look out for my next post)
Write clear copy that catches their interest and explains the benefits

Ads are just one step in the selling process

A successful ad campaign is the result of preparation, research and testing and it doesn’t have to be expensive. Contact The Copywriter Online to discuss your advertising needs or read our article “How to improve your advertising, save money and get better results”.

[Via http://thecopywriteronline.com]

Where’s the Nook In B&N’s “This Week”?

2009-12-10T00:52:00.000+02:00

If Barnes and Noble has your email (and your spam protection isn’t very aggressive), then you most likely get Barnes & Noble “This Week” newsletter delivered to your inbox every seven days. My most recent edition of This Week had most of what I would expect in a holiday season issue– new products, sale items and gift ideas.

One thing that was conspicuously absent, however, was any mention of e-books or the Nook e-reader device. Instead, the email showcased pretty much everything but the much-hyped Nook. Why this might be I’ll get to later, but I find it interesting to take a look first at what B&N is marketing.

In-store events: Apparently, a Bob McGrath Christmas Sing-Along is taking place at my local brick and mortar B&N. Goody. I’ll give B&N credit for dutifully tracking down my current location, as I’m pretty sure my billing address as listed with them is at least six months out of date and roughly 200 miles away from where I sit now. Anyway, it is certainly fascinating that the first thing B&N throws at me is an in-store event. The bookseller seems to be stuck vacillating between marketing its digital prowess and the in-store experience, when it would probably be better off finding out how to leverage the strengths of both aspects of their business and then marketing the heck out of whatever that resulting product may be. Also curious–it is only when I click on the “see more events” link under the in-store events that I learn my location is one of the chosen ones that offers in-store demos of the Nook.

The main attraction: Deals on gift books! That’s right—good old fashioned, dead tree coffee table books. Maybe I am reading too much into this, but it is very interesting that B&N would push what is perhaps the type of book LEAST adaptable to any sort of e-reader: the big, shiny statement piece. Ansel Adams in Color, an example advertised in the email, is of little use on a black and white e-ink screen.

The remainder of the newsletter promotes products and services like in-store pickup of online orders, Harry Potter 6 DVDs and Beatles CDs.

DVDs and CDs for the holidays? This seems so 2003. Where are the Nooks? Why is the e-book store not even mentioned?

For one, it nearly impossible to “gift” an e-book. Second, the Nook has been sold out for the year for weeks, so B&N probably doesn’t want to bother wasting space and time on a product that has its own nice publicity buzz going for it already. Third, the e-mail reminds customers of the warm and fuzzy aspects of books and bookstores. Now I know that I can go into my local B&N this week to catch some free Christmas carols and browse some discounted coffee table books.

Still, this is the first piece of marketing material I’ve seen from B&N in quite some time that doesn’t mention an e-anything. Is B&N backing off of pushing their e-products because of demand backup? Maybe, but it seems more likely that B&N is taking a more holistic approach to marketing for the rest of the holiday season.

[Via http://meredithmazzilli.wordpress.com]

Should PR People be Part of the Story?

2009-12-08T00:49:00.000+02:00

Back in the days when publicists plotted from behind the scenes: Uber-flack Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) with columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) in ”The Sweet Smell of Success.” My first exposure to public relations came not in an agency but on the client side. I wasn’t in an official PR role but was working as an executive assistant to designer Donna Karan right at the time when her company was exploding in size and visibility. Donna was besieged with press requests from all corners of the globe 24/7. As keepers of her calendar, it was our job to coordinate all interviews with her communications team, a task of insane complexity and relentless pace. I learned a lot during that time, namely that I did not want to pursue a career in fashion PR. I’m no stranger to crazy, but fashion PR is crazy crazy. At the helm of this insanity was Donna’s head of corporate communications, Patti Cohen. Patti was — and still is, I’m sure — a whirlwind of frenetic energy with bright red hair and swags of black cashmere wrapped around her tiny frame regardless of the season. I’d sit in her office discussing calendar details while she juggled a phone on one shoulder, whipped through the master calendar (paper!) looking for 15-minute increments of Donna’s day to dole out to WWD and Vogue like a mama bird feeding her babies…all the while chomping on raw sunflower seeds she kept in a big glass bowl on her desk, right next to the towering arrangement of Casablanca lilies and a mason jar full of impeccably sharpened black pencils.

The wall behind Patti’s desk was covered floor-to-ceiling with Donna’s press hits. For all I know Patti started tacking them up there when Donna first started the company and never stopped — by the early 90s, when I was there, several layers of magazine articles and photos and newspaper clippings had already accumulated. It was a gorgeous pastiche, and I’d pore over it whenever Patti got wrapped up in a call and forgot I was sitting in front of her. One day I asked Patti why she wasn’t in any of the photos to which she replied, “A good publicist is never in the picture.”

That stayed with me for years. Not only did I put it into practice, sidestepping photos with clients at public events whenever I could, I also passed it along to the many young publicists I went on the manage at other companies. Somewhere along the line, Patti’s advice morphed into this:

“A good publicist is never part of the story.”

Except now…we are. Or at least, we can be. Sarah Evans talked about this during a panel discussion I moderated recently on how Twitter has changed journalism and PR, and one of the points she made was how boundaries have blurred among PR, journalist and blogger roles. There are journalists who blog, bloggers who do PR consulting, PR people who blog… It is in fact quite possible for PR people to participate in on-line conversations about their client through blogging, micro-blogging, status updates, photo sharing, and so on.

So all due respect to Patti, I believe it’s okay for the publicist to be part of the story, or at least the conversation. I do it, but only with disclosure. I’ll tell you if I’m blogging or tweeting about a client, and it’ll be an honest reflection of my feelings. For example:

I started taking pictures recently at the client events I attend. I’ve got the Droid megapixels, why not? There was a time when those pictures would only have been shared internally at the agency but now, why not share publicly? Especially when apps like Whrrl make it so easy. Here’s how I captured the action at a client’s launch event last week:

So what do you think? I’d love to hear from other communications professionals on how they’re handling the transition from being behind the conversation to participating in the conversation about their clients and brands.

[Via http://ssmirnov.wordpress.com]

Overweight girls feel more lonely and anxious than their normal-weight peers, as early as kindergarten age.

2009-12-06T00:20:00.000+02:00

How to help parents educate their children about healthy weight, healthy foods and eating habits, and a healthy lifestyle is not something many adults have experience in doing. Believe me, as a single working parent of two children for the past 14 years it has been difficult to manage the nutritional content of what my children eat. Advertising targeted at children and convenience to parents send messages of “good for you” and “healthier than” can often be taken as truthful, especially in the busy lives that we lead.

I have always been conscientious about mine and my family’s health, and I believe that all parents are concerned about their children’s nutrition and the foods that they eat. We can all do better by our children with a few simple changes to increasing physical activity and improving the family’s overall eating habits, including the choice of food products that are that are quick, tasty, low cost and good for our kids.

No parent wants their child to have poor nutrition, poor health or to be overweight. However, the tens of thousands of research studies on the physical health effects and the social effects on children who are overweight and obese indicate the predicament that we, as parents, are putting our children in everyday with the foods we buy and feed our children. Not only are we unintentionally and unknowingly hurting their health, we are hurting their emotional and psychological well being.

As reported in a recent study conducted by Dr. Sara Gable of the University of Missouri in Columbia, children who are overweight perceive themselves as having worse interpersonal skills, lower social standing, and worse peer relationships than children who are not overweight. Overweight children also exhibit more internalizing behaviors, such as social withdrawal or depression. And for both boys and girls who are persistently overweight from kindergarten through third grade, these feelings of depression, anxiety and loneliness get worse over time.

The negative impact of being overweight most acutely affects young girls, who are viewed less favorably than other girls because of their weight. Overweight girls have less positive social relations, display less self-control and act more out than girls who are not overweight, also reported in the study.

Appearance-based social pressure can be particularly brutal to children. In fact there have been an increasing number of reported cases of peer abuse against overweight children, from taunting to physical attacks. The self-esteem of children is fragile in any “normal” situation and can be destroyed when negative peer pressure and abuse is suffered.

Obesity is a growing epidemic, as these stats confirm. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 13.9% of children aged 2 to 5 are overweight, 18.8% of those aged 6 to 11 are overweight, and more than 17% of those age 12 to 19 are overweight. Nearly 26 percent of U.S. adults are considered obese. In three states, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, the rate has hit 30 percent.

Unhealthy lifestyles including high-calorie diets, poor exercise and hours spent in front of the television and computer screen have contributed to the surge in the number of children who are overweight and obese in the United States. A quick look at the food items on store shelves and in our own pantries will shed some light on the 37% increase in obesity rates and an 89% increase in spending on medical care for obesity-related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and arthritis, between 1998 and 2006. Those statistics are increasing at alarming rates.

Our markets are filled with products which are not only devoid of nutritional content, but high in calories, chemical additives and preservatives. Americans are looking for products that are quick, tasty and low cost. The result of these demands have provided Americans with over-processed, high calorie, low quality foods to satisfy our grab-n-go, dollar menu, value meal mentality! No matter what you do, food companies will continue to fill your kids’ world with junk food.

While the ultimate solution is fresh natural foods, the challenge for parents is bridging the gap between fresh natural foods and the fast food and snack products. We can replace the fast food and snacks our kids eat with great tasting scientifically designed nutritional food products that provide the same satisfaction as “junk” food while helping, not hurting, our kids.

Learn how you can help make it easier for your kids to be healthier, happier, and perform better as you begin to change your family’s nutrition habits for the better, with kid’s nutrition by design.

Contact me at: d.adame@bellainvestmentholdingsllc.com or by phone at 832-683-9463

[Via http://bellainvestmentholdings.wordpress.com]

get me googled, SEO, Internet Marketingcolchester essex

2009-12-05T00:40:00.000+02:00

Hi world, it’s time for our dynamic company led by Richard Saupe the genius behind the successful launch of the repairman academy. to show our new site off and receive comments and feed back.

The New Company get me googled.com is aimed at small to medium companies with a small budget currently whom would like to grow their reach geometrically and receive a greater amount of leads.

anyway check us out if you full into the sme or small business/entrepreneurship.

regards

get me googled

richard saupe

07538538138

Ps its the time of the google, internet marketing strategies. SEO SERM SERP u name it we’ve probably heard it white hat black hat the cats hat my hat or cap LOL.

Who Cares just GET ME GOOGLED.com NOW!

Always pop in for a chat 66 kendall road Colchester CO12BS

PS we are currently working with some exciting new and dynamic companies! so if you are one and need some help come see us or call for a free consultation

[Via http://richardksaupe.wordpress.com]

The "Star" treatment from Continental Airlines

2009-12-03T00:33:00.000+02:00

As a Houston resident, I can’t help but be exposed to the advertising and promotion of our home town airline, Continental Airlines.

Recently they went through a massive undertaking, of switching airline alliances from SkyTeam to the Star Alliance. Recently, I attended a recent Corporate Forum event, hosted by Continental, and learned more about the changeover – and it made me realize what a massive undertaking this was not only from an operations point of view – but also a marketing, communications and PR view.

It was a lot more than simply taking off the SkyTeam insignia that was emblazoned everywhere (web-site, lapel pins, stationary, decals on the airplanes, etc). As you listen to the staff, they’re excited, well educated and proud of the new alliance. And as frequent fliers, we should be excited about the expanded opportunity it presents us.

Continental invested in their staff…and re-educated them on their updated brand promise with Star.

While the process of changeover took 18 months (I believe) to plan – it was executed – OVERNIGHT with all SkyTeam visuals removed (Ugh – can you imagine!) This was the first time an airline had ever executed such a massive change. We’re now seeing “Star Alliance” livery on several of the Continental Fleet!

From a marketing point of view, the Continental team is very savvy – I just love their play on word advertising campaigns – and their current “You’re about to receive the Star treatment” is genius. I recently came back from a trip to Tokyo – and all staff members, both on the ground and on-board were very excited about promoting the new alliance, and constantly used this phrase. LOL.

Continental took advantage of Twitter on the launch week, by asking users to tweet phrases such as “Get the Star Treatment from Continental” - the promotion to tweet this – 2 round trip BusinessFirst Tickets…ummm yeah – I tweeted – but sadly didn’t win the tickets!

I now want to go on a ‘round the world’ trip – which is promoted on the star alliance web-site…and now, (because of the alliance) for the first time my Dad can fly from Aberdeen to Houston without having to have a separate ticket for the London to Aberdeen portion – hurray!

Congratulations Continental on an amazing branding achievement!!

[Via http://trevoreade.com]

CommunitiesDNA en la INDUSTRIA Magazine, de ASI

2009-12-01T00:36:00.000+02:00

En Septiembre pasado, tuve la oportunidad de escribir un articulo para edicion de Octubre de la Revista INDUSTRIA de la Asociacion Salvadorena de Industriales. A pesar de que estamos trabajando desde hace un tiempo con la Asociacion, y participamos en algunas actividades internas para los socios, realmente fue una sorpresa para mi, y accedi con todo gusto.

Les dejo aca un extracto del articulo en la revista:

Su Empresa en Web 2.0

La “Web 2.0 Conference” organizada por O’Reilly Media y MediaLive en octubre de 2004, catapultó uno de los términos más populares de la década. Sin embargo, Web 2.0 no se refiere a una actualización de especificaciones técnicas de internet, sino mas bien en un cambio trascendental en la forma en se genera y consume el contenido.

De pronto, palabras como wiki, podcast, blog, rss, videocast y otras, empezaron a aparecer en nuestros sitios favoritos [nuestras conversaciones], sumándose luego la avalancha de servicios como MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, WordPress, Technorati, SecondLife y muchos, muchos otros.

La diferencia más notable entre la versión anterior y la 2.0, es que en el pasado, los sitios web eran herramientas para empujar información desde las organizaciones hacia los consumidores. La interacción era casi nula, rescatada nada más por un formulario de contacto. Lo que llamamos “comunicación de una vía”. Además, estos sitios, a menudo tan difíciles de actualizar como costosos, requerían de personas habilidosas para implementarse.

Al contrario, la Web 2.0 surgió del lado del consumidor. Sitios pensados para necesidades sociales y no comerciales. En estos sitios, el creador no es quien produce el contenido, sino son los usuarios quienes se vuelven los dueños del sitio al participar con fotografías, artículos, calificaciones, criticas, videos, arte y cualquier otra forma de material digital que una persona quiera compartir con sus amigos y familiares; atendiendo muy fácilmente la necesidad gregaria del ser humano.

Algunos datos interesantes

¿Pero que tienen que ver estos sitios “personales” y “sociales” con una organización? Esa fue la pregunta que contestaron muy apresuradamente, la mayoría de empresas entre 2004 y 2006; y podríamos decir que en nuestra región, hasta 2009. Ignorando completamente la importancia de los nuevos medios para sus propias marcas.

Aunque el grafico siguiente da pruebas muy convincentes. Debemos notar primero, que 39 de los 100 sitios más visitados en El Salvador, son Web 2.0. La mitad del top 10 es también de este tipo.

Esos 39 sitios representan más de la 3ª parte de todo el consumo de internet en el país volcada hacia Redes y Medios Sociales. Ganándole posición en ranking a sitios de medios de comunicación masivos en El Salvador…

En esta oportunidad, no se publicaron algunos datos estadisticos importantes, y a pesar de haber escrito sobre el Social Media Counts de Gary Hayes, me gustaria agregarlos aca por la naturaleza de negocios de algunos de ellos:

Social Media es la actividad #4 en Internet, antes que el eMail.
US$25.00 es el Gasto Mensual promedio de un usuario de FooPets en Facebook – (la comida virtual es Purina)
US$70 Millones de Ganancias Anuales en "Regalos Virtuales" en Facebook.
US$50 Millones (promedio) de transacciones entre residentes de SecondLife cada mes.US$3 Millones en Ganancias de DELL, por ventas en Twitter.
US$6.5 Millones en contribuciones a la campania de Barack Obama, por una comunidad de 3 Millones de donantes.
80% de las empresas en USA usan LinkedIn como herramienta principal para encontrar nuevo talento.
1 Billon de videos vistos diariamente en YouTube.
54% de Bloggers publican (postean) a diario.
34% de Bloggers publican opiniones acerca de marcas y productos.
Solo 14% de las personas confian en la publicidad, contra el 78% que confian en la recomendacion de otro consumidor, Segun Nielsen, en 2007.

Estamos a sus ordenes, si tienen un ejemplar de la revista a la mano y quieren comentarlo, o si quieren conversar sobre estos datos.

Saludos,

[Via http://communitiesdnablog.com]

Where Marketing Pilgrim Leads, Google News Follows!

2009-11-29T00:16:00.000+02:00

Did you know that Marketing Pilgrim is more awesome than Google?

Seriously! I can prove it!

Google has just announced that Google News is now more mobile friendly–meaning it will recognize that you’re viewing the site from your iPhone, Droid, etc, and serve you a page optimized for your phone.

This new version provides the same richness and personalization on your phone as Google News provides on desktop. Our new homepage displays more stories, sources, and images while keeping a familiar look and feel. Also, you can now reach your favorite sections, discover new ones, find articles and play videos in fewer clicks. If you are an existing Google News reader on desktop, you will find that all of your personalizations are honored in this mobile version too.

Here’s how it looks:

So, how are we better? We had a mobile-friendly version of Marketing Pilgrim up WAY before Google did. Point your iPhone to www.MarketingPilgrim.com and you’ll find a streamlined version of the site:

See? We.Are.Better!

Social Media Monitoring in Just 60-Seconds. Guaranteed!

[Via http://ecommercesnews.wordpress.com]

Raio X: Hotelaria

2009-11-28T00:47:00.000+02:00

Foto: http://portal.anhembi.br/

Você gosta de receber os amigos em casa? Fica querendo agradar, arrumar tudo com antecedência, desde o lençol e toalha que o visitante vai usar, até procurar saber o que ele gosta de comer, quais atividades pode fazer, pra onde levar na cidade? Então talvez você tenha o perfil de hoteleiro! O curso de hotelaria ensina como superar as expectativas do cliente, fazer com que ele seja tão bem tratado, que se sinta em casa! O Bacharelado em Hotelaria possui matérias básicas de um curso de administração, como marketing, matemática financeira, contabilidade, introdução à administração, inglês, TI etc, e também possui matérias específicas para o mundo da hotelaria: recepção, alimentos e bebidas, enologia, governança, lavanderia, entre outros. O profissional de hotelaria pode atuar em diversas áreas, como hotéis, spas, bares, restaurantes, parques de diversão, shopping centers, entretenimento, eventos, cruzeiros marítimos, catering, hospitais e empresas. Algumas áreas que começam a crescer são a hotelaria empresarial e hospitalar: Dentro das empresas, o hoteleiro é peça fundamental para atuar na qualidade do serviço prestado, desde como a empresa atende seus clientes no telefone, qual tipo de revista deixa na sala de espera, como serve um café, quais profissionais precisam vestir uniformes e muito mais. Na saúde, vários hospitais de alto nível contam com departamento de hotelaria, cuja função é trabalhar para receber bem os “hóspedes” e seus visitantes. Para crescer na carreira de hotelaria, o profissional deve ter fluência em outros idiomas, estar disponível para viagens e até mesmo para mudar de cidade ou país. É uma carreira sem rotina, pois cada dia traz desafios novos. É também uma carreira que exige muito trabalho, horas extras e disposição. Portanto, para ser hoteleiro precisa-se gostar de trabalhar muito e ter facilidade de lidar com todo tipo de pessoa. É gostar de servir o próximo, seja num hotel cinco estrelas, num evento ou mesmo em casa, recebendo um amigo.

(Isabela Munhoz)

[Via http://talentoeatitude.wordpress.com]

Personas

2009-11-26T00:37:00.000+02:00

Personas are an attempt to keep it real:

Personas are fictional characters designed to help you empathise with people, usually customers or clients. They do this by forcing you to imagine the life, emotions, motivations, strengths, weaknesses and habits of the people you want to reach. Aiming to reach everybody is dumb.

They’re a tool for anybody who’s in the business of service, information or learning - In the broadest senses of the words. This means Information Architects but it also includes receptionists. It’s most everybody who has a job in the 21st century.

The general advice about personas is that you:

Base them on real people
Make them as ‘lifelike’ as possible (including giving them names)
Stick them on the walls and talk to them when you’re designing stuff
Take the three suggestions above literally

Here are some guides on how to ‘do’ personas:

Data Driven Design Research Personas View more documents from Todd ZakiWarfel.

An introduction to personas and how to create them from Step Two Designs

Developing Personas from usability.gov

The Origin of Personas by Alan Cooper (who is the ‘daddy’ when it comes to personas)

Crappy Personas vs Robust Personas by Jared Spool

Using Personas to Create User Documentation from Cooper Consulting

Personas and the role of Design Documentation from boxes and arrows

Personas are not a document by Jared Spool

A little thing about personas from Adaptive Path

“We don’t use personas. We use ourselves” from 37signals

Perfecting your personas from Cooper Consulting

Examples of persona design:

Persona Patterns from eightshapes

Persona Pattern from eightshapes

Design Ethnography from Semantic Foundry

Persona Pattern (visit site for larger version)

Real or imaginary: the effectiveness of using personas in product design from frontend.com

Example Persona from frontend.com

This last one’s not really about personas, but about empathy mapping. It’s from Dave Gray, founder of XPLANE, and I love it.

Empathy Mapping from Dave Gray

[Via http://cleavefast.wordpress.com]

Why Writers Should Say No to Writer Mills and Yes to Free*

2009-11-24T00:43:00.000+02:00

Do I really think writers should write for free? No. As I’ve written before, writers should be paid for their time, expertise and skill. More specifically, writers should be appropriately paid for their work.

Am I encouraging writers to say no to $15 for a 1,000-word article at Demand Studios (or similar mills), but yes to writing for free? Yes.

*But only in certain circumstances—such as those listed below—should you consider unpaid writing opportunities.

It’s mantelpiece worthy. If there’s a publication where you’ve always dreamed of seeing your byline, it might be worth it to you to write for free (or, at least, what feels like free). For me, it’s an indie magazine that I’ve been reading for years. They pay writers very little but offer lots of opportunity. Many of the mag’s contributors credit their bylines there with new high paying, high-profile work.
Your portfolio is anemic. If you need a portfolio piece or two to get into a new industry, it may make sense to craft copy in exchange for work samples. Should you go this route, try to do the work close to home, such as for a non-profit you support or through contacts you trust. Be sure your client understands why the work is at no cost and get permission to use the work on your website. If the client is extremely happy with the results, don’t be shy about asking for referrals!
You need a good deed. Many non-profit organizations are in need of specific skills and your way with words could help. Now, I’m not recommending that you do grant writing for free or on spec. But you can give back by editing a newsletter or helping to refresh stale web copy. Bonus: Thinking this can help with your tax bill? Not likely. Check out June Walker’s tax advice for indies if you want more information.
It’s better than writing a check for advertising. If a guest post on a highly respected industry blog can get you in front of your prospective clients and give them a taste of your expertise, then it’s better than advertising. Ideally, you’ll build this into your marketing plan and treat your investment (your time) as part of your budget. Using her own experiences with Mashable and Copyblogger, Maria Schneider (of Editor Unleashed) offers 5 Questions To Ask Before You Write For Free. I’d like to add a sixth question: Is your next client reading this blog/ site/ publication?

Writer mills are not good options for meeting the circumstances above. Here’s why:

Writer mills don’t have PIE. Michelle Goodman describes PIE as “paid in exposure,” meaning that you actually benefit from the low-paying or free work through new work that pays you what you’re worth. Places like Demand Studios, LoveToKnow, eHow, AllVoices and the like are not destinations for editors scouting new writing talent or marketing managers seeking a sizzling copywriter.
You have to write and promote. With writer mills, you are responsible for promoting your articles through avenues such as your own blog and social media accounts. Your efforts are to drive traffic to the company’s site. If you write a guest post for a popular, highly respected site in your industry, that site can help generate new readers and even new clients for you without you having to do any promoting. The benefit is yours.
You’re making someone else a whole bucketful of money. Erik Sherman’s WriterBiz blog digs up the truth on these sites and shares the chilling numbers. For example, Demand Media (also known as Demand Studios) has received more than $355 million in venture capital since 2006. Compare that to paying a writer $15 for an article and the numbers don’t add up.

As always, when it comes to writer mills and writing for free, there are arguments on all sides. Personally, I was disappointed to learn that Copyblogger doesn’t pay its guest bloggers. It’s such a fantastic site for writers that I just assumed the posts were paid. And, I admit it, I still think it would cool to see my byline there. Something tells me it gives great PIE.

Have you had experiences working for free that you would or would not repeat? The floor is yours!

[Via http://jesakalong.com]

Cause marketing campaign by HP

2009-11-22T00:30:00.000+02:00

HP have launched a new cause marketing campaign created by Goodby, Siliverstein & Partners at http://summitonthesummit.com as part of their “the computer is personal again” campaign.

Some celebrities will be climbing Tanzanian Mt Kilimanjaro starting January 7th 2010 in order to raise money for clean water globally.

Through the website you can donate money to the cause by sponsoring a foot whereby 1 cent is equivalent to 1 litre of clean drinking water.

The celebrities climbing the mountain will record their experiences using video, images, blogs and tweets created on their HP notebooks which will be displayed on the 16, 709, 709 pixel high site represented at the altitude the media was created. Additional data such as the celebrities heart rates, weather patterns etc will be displayed on the site.

You can also tweet the team and download a badge which can be distributed through various social media channels.

Check it out in January.

SRC AdWeek

[Via http://jaxinteractive.com]

The Case of the Missing Referrals

2009-11-21T00:46:00.000+02:00

One day, the phone just stopped ringing. At first, you may not have noticed it. You were busy serving your clients, keeping up in your field, and getting the bills paid, like all good professionals do. But then a project ended or a client quit, and you didn’t have a replacement waiting in the pipeline.

Suddenly you realized that it had been quite some time since any new prospects were referred to you. Yikes, what’s going on?

Whether you’ve been in business ten months or ten years, it can take you by surprise when referrals suddenly dry up. When business is thriving, referrals routinely arrive in one of two ways — either you hear from prospects who say they were referred by someone else, or people in your network pass along the name of prospects who need you. If neither of those things are happening, you have a problem. Without referrals, you’ll have to work much harder to get new business.

But where have your referrals gone? You may need to put on your detective hat and do some sleuthing to find out. Here are some of the most common reasons why referrals disappear, and what you can do to get them back.

1. You’ve dropped out of sight. When was the last time you attended a networking event? Volunteered on a committee? Wrote an article? Spoke in public? Sure, you’ve been busy, but if you stop being visible in your target market or professional community, people forget about you.

Clues: The only appointments in your calendar are client meetings. When you run into colleagues, they say, “I haven’t seen you in a long time.”

Solution: No matter how busy you are with client work, make it a practice to do at least one thing each month that keeps you visible.

2. Your network has stopped expanding. When your contacts are limited to people you already know, your referrals are limited to only the people that THEY know. Without anyone new in the circle, there’s nowhere for fresh referrals to come from.

Clues: You haven’t added any new names to your contact database in months. You can’t follow up with your network to stimulate more referrals, because you’ve already talked to everyone you know.

Solution: Ask the people you know to introduce you to any of their contacts who might be helpful. Spend some time getting to know these new folks. Then they will become your contacts, too, and your network will automatically expand.

3. You’re networking with the wrong people. Perhaps your clients are consumers, but your networking contacts mostly have a corporate market. Or all your networking is through your professional association where most of the members are direct competitors.

Clues: You’re in touch with many people on a regular basis, but no one is referring to you. When a referred prospect does contact you, their needs aren’t a fit for what you do.

Solution: Identify categories of people who have regular contact with your target market, and are likely to encounter needs you can fill. For example, a small business accountant will be more likely to get referrals from networking with attorneys, financial planners, and bookkeepers than by spending time with corporate consultants, health practitioners, or other accountants.

4. People think you’re too busy. When you give the impression you’re overwhelmed with work, your contacts will stop referring to you. But if you wait for your workload to lighten before putting out the word you’re ready for more, it will usually be too late.

Clues: You hear that one of your old referral sources sent business to a competitor. Someone tells you, “I thought you weren’t taking new clients.”

Solution: Return phone calls and emails from referred prospects promptly, even when you’re too busy to help them. Refer them on to someone else you trust, then thank the person who sent them to you. This will encourage your contacts to keep referring in the future, as they know their referrals will always be taken care of.

The secret to avoiding the “feast or famine” cycle that plagues many professional service businesses is to stay visible instead of hunkering down in your office, and nurture your network even when you don’t need it. In order to keep a constant flow of referrals coming, you need to give your referral-building activities the same high-quality, consistent attention you give your client work.

That way, you’ll be able to focus your detective skills on solving problems for your clients instead of having to worry about where your next client is coming from.

C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients Now!™ Thousands of business owners and independent professionals have used her simple sales and marketing system to double or triple their income. Get a free copy of “Five Secrets to Finding All the Clients You’ll Ever Need” at www.getclientsnow.com

Cultural Object of the Week: The Tampon Stun Gun

2009-11-19T00:46:00.000+02:00

Yep, you read that correctly, there is a stun gun that exists that is shaped like a couple of tampons.

The stun gun, named “The Pink Stinger,” was created for women who was to carry a stun gun, but do so discreetly. It as 50,000 volts of power.

My initial response to this object was “awesome.” However, having thought about it a little bit more, I’m not quite sure how I feel about it, other than that it certainly is interesting.

Is it taking a women’s product and making is powerful, thus empowering women? Or, is it reinforcing negative stereotypes of women being “crazy” while menstruating? It openly acknowledges the fact that women are more likely than men to be the consumers who purchase stun guns, which opens up discussion about rape, sexual assault, and gender.

Discuss. What do you think of the tampon stun gun?

Source:Inventor Spot

#2 | Cursuri Online Gratuite: Dezvoltare Personala, Bani Pe Net, Marketing & Afaceri Online

2009-11-17T00:49:00.000+02:00

Click http://www.AlexTita.com/vip Cursuri Online: Cum Castigi Bani Adevarati Pe Net RAPID cu Afaceri Online REALE! Eliberarea de Limitarile Actuale, Putere & Influenta, Relatii Armonioase, Implinire!

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Click http://www.AlexTita.com/vip Cursuri Online: Cum Castigi Bani Adevarati Pe Net RAPID cu Afaceri Online REALE! Eliberarea de Limitarile Actuale, Putere & Influenta, Relatii Armonioase, Implinire!

Quando il guerrilla marketing diventa guerrilla urbano

2009-11-15T00:01:00.000+02:00

Mailorama.fr, una società web francese, ha avuto la geniale idea di inventare un guerrilla marketing di forte impatto.

L’idea era quella di regalare (anzi, gettare letteralmente) buste con denaro contante da un autobus ai passanti di Parigi. Erano stati stanziati ben 100.000 euro in contanti; preparate 5.000 buste contenenti dai 5 ai 500 euro.

L’autobus avrebbe dovuto girare nella zona di Champ de Mars sabato 14 novembre 2009.

Dico avrebbe, perchè le forze dell’ordine hanno bloccato l’iniziativa.

Sì, proprio così. Per motivi di sicurezza la società Mailorama (una controllata di Rentabiliweb) ha dovuto cancellare l’azione di guerrilla, perchè nei pressi della torre Eiffel nel giro di poco tempo si sono radunate circa 5.000 persone, tutte pronte a raccogliere le buste con i contanti.

Secondo voi queste 5.000 persone come l’hanno presa questa ordinanza di sicurezza?

Direi non bene….

Lanci di frutta contro automobili e negozi della zona, piccole risse con i giornalisti e (sembra) distruzioni di auto delle forze dell’ordine; insomma da un guerrilla marketing pianificato ad una guerrilla urbana improvvisata.

Che dire…con la crisi che c’è in giro forse Mailorama avrebbe dovuto pensare ad un guerrilla non a sfondo economico.

…o forse le forze dell’ordine non dovevano revocare la manifestazione?

Una cosa è certa: il guerrilla non è stato fatto, Mailorama ha risparmiato 100.000 euro e adesso il suo brand è su tutti i giornali nazionali e internazionali; in fondo l’obiettivo è stato raggiunto.

Che avesse pensato anche a questo?

Doug Richards School for startups! Entrepreneur & Businessman

2009-11-14T00:40:00.000+02:00

I’m Excited today, I had the pleasure, along with about 150 people to spend 8 hours in the pressence of a Dragon…Yes A Dragon! Doug Richards. Courtesy of the Business Hub at Essex University(free tickets for new and existing businesses in Essex and Suffolk)The crowd was a real eclectic group from unversity students with bags of enthusiasm(comes from a Greek word “entheos” meaning God within)to entrepreneurs well on their way to their first million!

If you haven’t seen or heared Doug Richards speak. You need to get across to Schools for startups and book your self onto one of his courses. Doug Richards talks about business both of common sense and about stuff that is intuitive and counter intuitive. He really knows how to seek those hidden assetts and opportunies in a business and then help you to realise them. He demonstrated that money is not the only asset, but a creative mind and some balls are equally as powerful. Doug is really amazing and if I could get him to be a partner or a mentor I would pay the price. He would certainly shake my little world up!

School for start ups Event hosted by Essex University

Please leave a Comment and get over to his site or google him.

Yours Positively Richard Saupe 07538538138 01206 43 43 43(Colchester Office) 66 Kendal Road Co1 2BS Ps. Not Your Normal marketing coach. I walk my talk, and I don’t talk if I have Nothing to Say. I only work with dynamic busy people that have made a commitment to working a plan! Oh and before I forget… I offer a completely Free service if What we do has no effect on your business or you don’t like me(the latter is not really my goal)! Pps I know time is the most important commodity that people in business have, that’s why I operate a Fast Track Implementation (NO Drival, NO BS) Just a Clean Logical Process for increasing Your online and Offline domination. I offer this in 2 ways, I show You how to do it in 10-20 mins a week, but this has a massive upfront commitment from you. probably 2 months if you work alone or I can Implement and then show You the 10-20 mins ritual per week to keep it Going. I equate it to walking up a ski slope with your skis on, a rack sack full off books and a laptop and holding a coffee in your mitted hand, while resiting your national anthem back wards! it has taken me 6 months to get my head around keywords SEO SERM and google with all it’s tools and social media networking eg face book, twitter and wordpress. Oh did I add I’ve been a programmer for 15 years and it was in no way intuitive. I don’t say any of this to scare you because I’ve had so much fun learning, doing and dominating! I just want you to understand it is time consuming.

Pps Call Now. Before I get too busy. I have lots of personal interests related to my passion (business).

Are you coming back?

2009-11-12T00:34:00.000+02:00

There are a lot of stores to choose from to buy just about anything, and there is still just 24 hours in the day (and typically very few to dedicate to shopping). Of course now you can buy almost anything online as well. While online shopping has its limitations it wins big for convenience. I recently attended a seminar and the audience was asked, who has bought something online after 10pm—nearly everyone in the room raised their hands.

I’ve shared the statistic before; that the number of hours Canadians spend shopping has drastically decreased. Just ten years ago the average Canadian spend 140 hours a year shopping—that number is now down to just 40 hours. So what are you doing to keep your customers coming back and spending time in your store?

I encourage my clients to think of their competition as far broader than other businesses in the same category. Today each and every business competes for the most valuable commodity – your customers time.

Given the decreased shopping hours, increased shopping choice and the overscheduled consumer, retailers have never had to work harder to keep customers coming back. I admire the tactics of some of the American retail chains. Many retailers of highly consumable goods bring their customers back regularly by printing out a time-limited coupon with the customer’s receipt.

Couponing was a very important marketing and product trial tactic for decades, then in the 1990s couponing rapidly declined in popularity, but with the Internet and now mobile marketing, coupon is back and stronger than ever before.

I am a big fan of both Michael’s Craft Supply Store and Bath and Body Work’s couponing programs. At the time of purchase both of these retailers print out custom coupons to motivate customer to return for a discount (or free product) during a time-limited period. These coupons work (for me anyhow) because:

The type of products they sell. You can return frequently to these stores and always find something to buy.
The coupon cannot be used immediately—you must come back – usually about one week later.
The type of discount. Discounting can be a dangerous game that must be thought-out for the long-term strategy. You do not want to create discount dependant customers. Discounts should be positioned as time limited or as a customer reward.

Could you start a discount program that rewards your loyal customers without devaluing your product or creating a dependency on coupons?

Until next time

Melanie Taljaard

Reaching Beyond Your Front Door

2009-11-10T00:45:00.000+02:00

A few months ago I lived in a city with 4.5 million people. I now live in a rural community of 16,000. I’ve spent the past 2 years working with artists from across Ontario, and without fail each of them believes they’d be better off if they were showing their work somewhere else. Small town Ontario artists have told me they “need to be in Toronto”, and large city artists have told me that they’d be better off being “a big fish in a small pond.”

I believe both are right. In order to be successful, you need to have your feet in both worlds.

You need to build a strong audience for your work in the place you choose to live. Be creative and seek out places and spaces where your work will be welcomed. Engage your audience and ask them to participate in your growth by spreading the word about your work. Build a community to support your work.

And you need to reach out beyond where you live in order to expand and grow. No matter where you are and how large and diverse the population is, at some point you will reach a saturation point. You may continue to sell work, or to fill halls, but sometimes you’re expected to repeat the same work over and over again. Which can stunt your creative growth and make your career feel like just another job.

One way to do that, to reach out beyond your front door and test the market elsewhere, is to use social media as a marketing tool and as a tool for testing the creative waters. There are hundreds of tools out there that are free to use. Why not give them a try?

Over the course of this blog, I will be talking a lot about social media and encouraging you to give it a try. We’ll start with the very basics and take small steps. One or two techniques for you to try at a time. And tips for how to use the time you put into social media marketing effectively.

Step 1? If you haven’t done so, sign up for a Facebook account and a Twitter account. Facebook has 250 million active users worldwide. And while it’s nearly impossible to get accurate numbers from Twitter, it is growing faster than any other social media outlet. These two will give you the most widespread and diverse audience for the work that you do.

OK. Go. I’ll check with you tomorrow.

Slow Your Social Media Roll

2009-11-08T00:33:00.000+02:00

Social media can be very powerful for small businesses, but many try to do too much too quickly. Start by making a social media plan – write goals for what you want to achieve with social media, and try to keep your messaging focused on your target market.

Sometimes it can help to make a profile for your target market. How old are they, where do they live, what are some of their values. Having a detailed picture of who might be interested in your products will help you customize your messaging.

Action Steps:

- Write down the profile of your target audience. Give them names!

- Set goals for social media and keep them in mind the next time you Tweet!

Speaker Summary - Marcia Macomber, Cornucopia Creations

2009-11-07T00:38:00.000+02:00

The advantage to writing your own speaker summary is getting to add things you forgot to say, or show samples of things you forgot to bring! Continuing along Patty’s theme of tips to help with managing the holidays, I reminded members that another product I offer individuals or businesses is custom holiday greetings cards (which I forgot to bring to the meeting). The examples shown below are my personal cards and one client’s, but it will give you a bit of an idea of what can be done with a little Photoshopping.

Ginny

Ginny Xmas Card 08

This brief example merely shows how I can dress up a non-holiday item (my dog) with holiday attire (particularly advantageous since most dogs don’t like to wear Santa hats of goofy holiday ribbons!)

Xmas Card 07

And the sample directly above merely demonstrates heavy application of Photoshopping with LOTS of elements that were not included in the original photography (including a fanciful vineyard view from my house and lots of decorations I’ve never actually applied to my house).

For some clients, I embellish their original logos and build upon them into a holiday theme. Here is one for Bayou Closets’ logo and holiday card:

The gator is frequently added to their promotional literature as a separate element, but it is not part of their logo. If you or anyone you know is interested in custom greeting card work, there is still time before the holidays are completely upon us. The printing cost is surprisingly competitive to the cost of off-the-shelf boxes of cards and is fairly quick in turnaround. Contact me for details.

For demonstration purposes I brought along a finished picture of my niece. Here are the “before” and “after” versions side by side. From the original I extracted the key element and eliminated scratches and poor coloring from the print before dropping in a very different background (her favorite color) to make nice gifts for the grandparents.

These techniques can also be applied to business photography. Here is an example of one of several print ads I designed for Sidelines, Inc. (and coincidentally, I also did the product photography since the clients hadn’t gotten the shot I needed). In this instance, I wanted to give the impression that the basket had fallen from a considerable height and had just landed. So this involved much experimentation and fanciful adjustment to achieve this effect with a still-life photo.

I showed a few other samples of work, along with examples of others’ product promotion that I deemed ‘good’ (Kraftmaid cabinetry) or ‘bad’ (a banking ad) for the execution of their design and message in print. In short, it pays to get the message and imagery right the first time. Otherwise, it is a waste of your marketing investment dollars.

Brand advertising and awareness was discussed as opposed to simply product advertising and promotion. Both are quite valuable and are most effective when mapped out in advance how you will roll out simultaneous or sequential campaigns for greatest impact in the marketplace.

The 501 Strategy...

2009-11-05T00:27:00.000+02:00

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere, goes the old saying.

Though this is a saying that people ask in the middle of the day when wanting a drink, I believe it’s a question that anyone doing anything with mobilizing people need to ask with all seriousness.

If it’s 5 o’clock somewhere, then what happens at 5:01?

Too often, our goal is just to get to 5 o’clock. if we can just make it… we’ll be happy. Really? That’s all?

Over the past several years, I have had a front-row seat in watching some pretty amazing and huge events take place. I have also been a part of planning several meetings myself that last over a few days time. From retreats to business meetings, I have both planned them and ran them. In that, I can say from personal experience, for many of them, I was just thrilled to get to 5 o’clock.

Never once did I ask… what happens at 5:01?

Okay, great meeting, but, what will the attendees do with this experience? Generally, attendees will get pumped up and momentarily encouraged. But, by the time they go back home… it’s like playing a really bad game of telephone.

I know I said orange, but by the time it got to the other side of the room… the word was now… elephant. What? How is that possible?

In this, I am realizing how short-sighted I was. Not only was it critical to put on a quality event that stimulates thought, reflection, and change, but… I needed to spend a lot more time thinking about what that change looked like.

I needed to spend a lot more time thinking about what happens at 5:01. In other words, if my event is over at 5 o’clock, what happens next? How am I engaging people post event? How am I providing resources, areas of opportunity, action points for growth going forward… post event?

It is not enough to come into a city and put on an event, or to host a retreat, or business meeting, and then leave.

What lasting effect will you leave behind?

In going forward, I would propose that before you launch a campaign or post an agenda, etc. about something you are planning, ask yourself one question… what will happen at 5:01 when this is over?

I would propose knowing the answer and have already developed the 501 strategy. Why? For this to be sustainable, don’t you need on the ground leaders who take ownership? Don’t you need boots on the ground at 5:01 ready to mobilize, engage, reinforce, build up, connect, train, and act?

Sure, it’s great to train these leaders up for action during an event. But, I would argue that you are training them to be reactive. But, at 5:01, we need them to be proactive. And to do that, you better have thought through your 501 strategy from the start.

Otherwise, we miss massive opportunities to transition mountain top experiences to life level applications. When we miss that opportunity, experiences can rarely stick.

In the book selling world for so many years, I often wondered… what happens when that guest walks out of the store with that book? Now, some might say… it’s just a book, relax. On the contrary, I believe the power of a good book and the connection that can be made with a good story. In this, what would happen if we developed a 501 strategy for that guest in particular to a specific book to help them dig deeper as to how that story can apply to their life?

Just getting our guest out the door with a book in hand is a great thing. But, getting them out the door with a book in hand …and a resource for us to walk together in reading that book after they leave the store is greater.

I had an opportunity to do this once with New York Times bestselling author, Paul Young for his book, The Shack.

For sure, we sold a ton. We also heard both sides of thought about the content of the book. Some was true and some was not true. But, instead of leaving it alone, we decided to develop a 501 strategy for our guests. In this case, we sat down with Paul and interviewed him. The result, a free website was built using wordpress. On this website, we posted the entire 120 minute interview with Paul.

Does anything say you care more about a guest than a post sale or post event ongoing engagement with them? Not just follow-up, but engagement.

Isn’t that what’s at the core of what I am trying to convey with the 501 strategy? I’m not interested in how you are going to follow-up. I am interested in how you will engage. don’t be confused, they are two different postures.

Conventions or large public gatherings should have 501 strategies too. And like selling a book, what is more important? Getting people to the event or what the people will do… post event?

Sure, sweep into a city and throw a party, in the process, pump the local economy up. But, what is the lasting effect? Is it sustainable? does it translate? Of course, you need to sell books or get people to an event to plant the seed of your message. But, how will that seed then grow?

Building a seamless 501 strategy is perfect soil to watch this come to fruition.

Anyway, just a few thoughts. Sorry for the ramble.

You follow? What are you planning? What are you selling? What does it look like in action?

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere… what happens next?

The Brands With The Best Stories Win

2009-11-03T00:43:00.000+02:00

Our Fresh team met with a potential client a few months ago. This firm tried several marketing plans in the past that have cost them thousands of dollars, but produced minimal results.

This time we were pitching them on a Social Media marketing plan specific to their online storefront.

Their virtual storefront is their only presence – all online and they serve clients throughout the entire US market from their small physical location here in the Northwest. Their client list reads like an A-List of firms – you would recognize all of them.

The conversation locked up when they struggled with the idea that a web-based buying experience could really make that much of a difference to their bottom-line. (This conversation happened before Amazon.com’s most profitable quarter ever!)

An idea hit me to take a risk with this thought – I asked everyone in the room, including the Fresh team, what Seattle restaurant was their favorite place for a fine dinner. Daniel’s Broiler for their nightlife and view, The Edgewater Hotel for it’s view of the sunset and fireplaces, the Salish Lodge for it’s ambiance, location near a waterfall, character, Third Floor Fish Cafe for its location on the water and so on.

Not ONE PERSON said anything about the food. !?

When we go out to eat isn’t the food the most important thing??

That’s not the case. Casa Bonita in Denver is legendary because inside transforms into another world. You’re inside a structure so heavy that when it was built it began sinking into the ground from the weight of the concrete. Inside looks like you’re dining outdoors in Acapulco, Mexico complete with a starlit sky, divers plunging off of high cliffs into water below, volcanic rocks, caves, mud pits and a city center of stores.

But the food at Casa Bonita is cafeteria quality at best. You don’t go for the food. You go for the experience. And we see other models of this around the country including the Rain Forest Cafe (a step up from Casa Bonita fare) and at the Jordan Commons in Salt Lake City.

It’s the customer experience, the buying experience, how people feel about your brand that’s most important.

All of the Seattle restaurants mentioned above have fantastic food, but … our favorite place for exquisite dining in Seattle? It’s called Tropea and it’s in a little strip mall in Redmond. But the FOOD is simply fantastic.

Let me rattle off a few other brands you may have a gut feeling about – Starbucks, Nordstroms, T-Mobile, Marriott, Zappos. These brands are not the lowest price, but they have award-winning customer service and experience.

The potential client I spoke of above is a Fresh client today as this illustration was a turning point for them.

Brands who can tell their stories win. Are you ready for us to help you tell your story?

Contact me at mike@freshconsulting.com or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mikewhitmore

All the best,

Mike

O cateringu

2009-11-01T00:38:00.000+02:00

Catering (jak chyba każdy wie) polaga m.in na organizowniu przyjęć, posiłków..

Jakość wykonania świadczy o firmie cateringowej, dlatego też każda z firm cateringowych stara się zaprezentować najlepiej jak potrafi. Stąd też wielki naczisk na dobrze wyszkolony personel.

W ostatnich lat następował wzrost dobrobytu w Polsce, stąd też zwiększyło się zapotrzebowanie na usługi cateringowe. Oczywiście popyt na catering istniał od dawna, widocze to było szczególnie w wiekszych miastach- np. catering w Warszawie, jednakże duży skok “zapotrzebowania” usług cateringowych dopiero niedawno można było odczuć.

Wszystko układało się bardzo dobrze, do momentu kryzysu. Niestety kryzys ekonomiczny swój odcisk niczym stygmat położył także na wszystkim co okresla się słowem catering oraz gastronomią.

W tej chwili firmy z branży cateringowej odczuwają spory kryzys… np. catering Warszawa ma kilka już na wpół upadłych firm. Najbardziej dotkliwie skutki kryzysu w cateringu odczuły młode firmy.. nie mające dużej ilości referencji, które zapewniłyby im klientów na ich usługi cateringowe.

Niestety jak to mówia business is business.

Heart-shaped chocolates and buns of gouda

2009-10-31T00:15:00.000+02:00

It occurred to me while reading the Sunday newspaper recently that the stuff in the ads and the stuff in the editorials don’t jibe. This is blatantly evident at any time of year, not just Christmas. The tinsel won’t be off the living room floor before we’ll be greeted at every turn of a page and every store-front with smiling Victoria’s Secret models tempting us with heart-shaped chocolates and grapefruit sized bottoms.

Next, it will be green thongs for St. Patrick’s day, exemplars of the runway offering Easter finery, size 2 and under of course, followed by a couple of months worth of string bikinis.

The complimentary side of the coin is an endless barrage of TV presentations featuring early middle aged machismos who, but for the grace of Viagra, would be mere helpless noodles. If all it takes to look like THAT is a little dysfunction, hell, it might be worth the inconvenience!

Meanwhile, plain brown wrappers everywhere peck out diatribes of anti-sexuality as money changes hands at warp speed in the marketplace. Women who haven’t seen size two since ninth grade, if ever, wax indignant about being sex-objects. They should be so lucky. Men who couldn’t bench-press their own shoes snort disapprovingly while secretly enjoying every tease commercial and print ad.

Like it or not, mating season is year-round for the human species. Pheromones fill the air, idealized female’s presenting carefully accentuated characteristics of sexual attractiveness, and rock-solid young males who shave before every meal and exude surplus testosterone fill the fanciful field of vision. Yet, any man who dares to ogle is a “pig” and any woman who shortsightedly purrs at the image of the handsome jocko selling the car that “turns you on” instantly falls off the moral dado in the estimation of her peers doing the same thing more discreetly.

If it is so foul, why does it take an orgasm to sell everything from a pair of living room curtains to a cheeseburger? Who’s selling and who’s buying? The answer is we all are, but we’ve developed this façade of disgust like PITA people secretly enjoying a good steak.

It’s really quite amusing when you think about it. I’ve never seen a gorgeous woman with legs all the way up to her ears complain about being pleasing to the eye, and I’ve never known a man who was offended to overhear himself being referred to as a “hunk”. On the other hand, I do notice a lot of lard butts loitering about the lingerie, and I’ve been guilty of looking at the spandex in the sporting goods store as though an intense stare would miraculously allow me to actually wear the stupid things without looking like an oversized Gouda cheese.

I think the only society ever to be successful at accepting their natural functions as healthy and downright fun were the Tahitians of Margaret Mead fame, but we “civilized” them a long time ago.

Domuz Gribi, Ergenekon, Güneydoğu ve Medya...

2009-10-29T00:17:00.000+02:00

Şu günlerde gündemimizde üç öncelikli konu var. Domuz Gribi, Ergenekon ve Güneydoğu… Bu üç konuda olaylar geliştikçe ülke olarak hala kurumsal bir devlet olamadığını görüyoruz. Çünkü neleri, ne zaman, nasıl, niçin, ne şekilde yapacağımızı hala bilemiyoruz. Yani kurumsallık sınavımız devam ediyor. Grip mi olacağız aşı mı ? Aynı anda iki farklı savcının aynı konuyu ve belgeyi soruşturması ne kadar normal ? Güneydoğu’yu doğuya mı yoksa batıya doğru mu açıyoruz ? Birilerinin İmralı’daki kişinin gelecek seçimler de milletvekili olması için çalıştığı doğru mu ?

Bu üç konunun ortak noktası nedir ? Medya… Çünkü tüm gelişmeleri medya üzerinden özellikle de gazete mecrasından takip ediyoruz. Hem de medyanın verdiği şekliyle. Başka şansımızda yok zaten. Peki bu kadar önemli gündemlere rağmen ülkemizde gazete tirajları neden hala 4.4 milyon adet ve artmıyor ? Basın Reklam Platformu yeni kampanyasını şimdi yapmayacaksa ne zaman yapacak ? Domuz Gribi, Ergenekon ve Güneydoğu konularında haberler yeni değil biliyorsunuz. Ama hala neden aynı soruları soruyor ve kafa karışıklığı yaşıyoruz. ?

Örneğin Domuz Gribi; kurumsal ve sağlıklı düşünebilen ülkelerde şu anda bizdeki kadar panik havası neden yok ? Hürriyet’te Eyüp Can’da yazmış. Ben de somut eklemeler yapayım. Çok yakınım Amerika’da hem de Meksika sınırına yakın bir bölgede. Sürekli iletişim halindeyiz. Ama o bizden daha sakin ve temkinli. Bu Amerika’nın H1N1 virüsü karşısında kayıtsızlık ve panik arasında sakin bir yöntem izlendiğini doğruluyor. Oradaki gelişmeleri özetlerken bizimde sakinleşmemizi ve medyanın bize yansıttıkları karşısında daha sağlıklı düşünmemizi kolaylaştırıyor. Neden Sağlık Bakanlığı ilk kez bugün gazetelere bilgilendirici reklamlar vermeyi akıl ediyor ? Neden reklamların üzerinde aşı ile ilgili bilgi yok ? Medya mensupları neden hala her önüne gelen uzmana aşı olacak mıyız diye soruyor ? Grip yayılana kadar kararsız kalanlar, aşıların gelmesiyle hem de sağlık bakanlığı ile birlikte neden harekete geçtiler ? Ama ne hareket geçmek. Kamuoyunda panik havası estirecek kadar. Ailelere çocuklarını okula göndermemelerini sağlayacak, sıvı sabun ve alkollü mendil satışlarını bir hafta da patlatacak kadar. Önce aşıları sağlık personeline yapacaklarmış biliyorsunuz. Acaba rica etsek sonra da bizim medya mensuplarına yaparlar mı ? Bu şeklide kaç kişi yaptığı haberin ve yorumun arkasında durduğunu da öğrenmiş oluruz.

Sonra şu meşhur Ergenekon davamıza gelince. Belge sahte mi değil mi ? İmza yaş mı, kuru mu ? Neden 4,5 ay beklendi ? Belgeyi sızdıran kim ? Hükümet gündemi saptırarak nereye gidiyor ? Belgeye kağıt parçası ve komplo diyen medya mensupları da neden birer birer özür yazıları yazıyor ? Üçüncü kez zor durumda kalan Genel Kurmay Başkanımız neden hala suskunluğunu koruyor ? Acaba ne yapacak ? İstifa mı edecek yoksa başka kurbanlar mı verecek ? Yoksa hiç bir bakanın veya Başbakan’ın istifa etmediği bir ülkede o da sonuna kadar görev de mi kalacak ?

Güneydoğu’nun sonunda açılımı yapıldı ? Bu muydu açılım ? Diyarbakır da 100 bin kişi nasıl toplandı ? Organizasyonu kim-ler yaptı ? MHP lideri gençleri sokağa dökmeye mi çalışıyor ? Neden İmralı’ya deniz yoluyla yüzbin kişi de biz topla-ya-mıyoruz ? Binlerce şehitimize, milyarlarca dolarımıza ve 24 yılımıza mal olan bu sorunumuzun yeni açılımı konusunda acaba Kurtuluş Savaşımız öncesinde o bölgeyi paylaşan ülkeler ne diyor ? Amerika PKK’nın banka hesaplarına koyarken neden bu kadar geçikti ? Bu konuda niçin bize destek oluyor ? Avrupa neden açılıma ılımlı ?

Bu soruları çoğaltmak mümkün ? Yanlış anlamayın bunlar medyadan çok sokaktaki vatandaşın soruları ? Diyeceksiniz ki medyamız ne iş yapıyor ? Bu sorular daha önceden ilgili kişilere sorularak cevapları bulunamaz mıydı ? Mahalle muhabbeti yaptığını itiraf eden medyamız, kendi problemleri ile uğraşmaktan toplumsal refleksleri zayıflamış görünüyor. Yoksa hala bu kadar neden kafamız karışık olsun değil mi ?

Timeless PR Advice From Media Guru Dick Jones

2009-10-27T00:36:00.000+02:00

Note: Dick Jones is one of the most experienced experts in the higher ed communication world. He’s also a friend and colleague who’s helped Mansfield University land stories and features in everything from The Chronicle of Higher Ed, The New York Times and USA Today to numerous AP stories and a couple prime spots on NPR. So when he sends a missive to his clients, I pay attention. I also asked him if I could use his letter as a guest blog post.

Here it is.

It’s time to oversimplify; to be glib and shallow. Why, after all, should I be different from anyone else? In national media relations for colleges there are five over-simplistic formulae that guide our work. These are:

Results: good.

Process: bad.

Advice: good.

Qualitative judgments: bad.

Events: maybe, but probably not.

The news media like stories with results. A study published in a journal qualifies. So does a new book, if you discuss the substance of the book and not just the fact that there is a new book. Numbers help. Admission applications are up by X. Deposits are up by Y.

The news media usually yawn at process. The faculty is debating a new core curriculum? Wake me when it’s over. A task force has been appointed? Call me when they have a report. We’ve received an NSF grant. Remind me about it when you’ve completed the research.

The news media like advice from experts. And all faculty and staff are experts in their fields. If they aren’t, why do you allow them to teach and serve students who are paying for the privilege? Take every opportunity to make your institution advice giver to the world.

The news media aren’t interested in qualitative judgments. Your college has a better freshman year experience than your competitors? Maybe so, but your competitors claim otherwise. And the news media have neither the time nor the inclination to dig deeply enough to settle the question. Now if you are the biggest, the smallest, the oldest, the newest—something that can be quantified—that’s different. (Tip: use advice stories to advance qualitative claims. “Here are four things students and parents should look for in a good freshman experience program, says Dean of Students Joe Blow.”)

The news media are less interested in covering or publicizing events than you think. This was always true. Now that there are fewer people in newsrooms it is even truer. Getting coverage for (positive) news events is no slam dunk even if the president and the deans think otherwise. Under exceptions see “football teams—undefeated.”

Armed with these concepts you are now ready to go into any meeting with faculty and administrators and quickly make yourself persona non grata when you spout them. I’m just kidding. Sort of.

Postscript: Social media is maturing quickly and these rules apply to these media as well.

How can you think inside the box?

2009-10-24T22:52:00.000+02:00

If you have ever attended one of my sessions you know I am very passionate about helping businesses make it happen! If you know anyone who could use over 100 ideas for finding more business and creating more opportunity I would appreciate hearing from you!!

If I hear one more creativity person say, “you’ve got to think outside the box” I am going to pop someone. I don’t know about you but I don’t have the time, money or resources to go outside the box. Heck, I can barely afford the box! The secret to moving your business or career forward in these tough and challenging times is to learn to think inside the box. Ask what can you do with what you have that will take you one step closer to your vision. My guess is that 70% of all “out of the box thinking” goes nowhere and then because we can’t do it, we do the next best thing… NOTHING!

So let me ask you, how can you think inside the box? What can you do with what you have that would make a difference?

If you are in sales, what can you do with the leads, product and customers you have? In marketing what can you do with the budget, channel and sales force you have? In customer service what can you do with the process you have? Inside the box means making do with what you have, Keeping it simple and taking baby steps that let their cumlative effect make the difference.

Many times I find we spend too much time stuck in “wishful thinking” trying to be more than we can be at the moment. In fact, according to Baha Habashy, Canadian Information Overload Guru, (http://www.integrity-plus.com/) knowledge workers today are spending on average 42% of their time in “planning and reacting” meetings (which sure doesn’t leave a lot of time for the doing!). Inside the box thinking means moving forward with what you have. You don’t get anymore time, money or resources you make it work with what you have.

So what could you do to increase sales using just the things you already have? What could you do to increase customer satsifaction? Why not look all around your business and apply “in the box thinking” and see what comes out.

Now I’m not saying that there is no room for thinking outside of the box. In fact, there is great money to be made, outside the box. What I am saying is choose your battles wisely, its great to go big but don’t put all of your energy going outside the box especially when you know 70% of businesses never ever get there.

DR. WHAW? - October 23, 2009

2009-10-23T23:42:00.000+02:00

And so another week ends! I am sad to say that I will not be traveling to the University of Minnesota to visit my little sister, who is a freshman. I’ve been feeling kind of lousy, and I felt it wasn’t safe to drive for 12 hours this weekend. So I shall be catching up on my blog (get pumped, readers!) and getting my life organized. I’m jet-setting off to Sydney, Australia, in two weeks, and I could not be more excited or more unprepared! In the meantime, I bring you what I Didn’t Read While Hard At Work today!

DR. WHAW? – October 23, 2009

1. Social Media: The Need For Measurement from SEO Book — You know why I’m including this one without even clicking the link, right? Any article that argues for the need of measurement in social media or any other medium is a must-read in my book. So why this one in particular? This one is thorough, and I think that with slight tweaking it could be something you show directly to a boss who needs serious convincing. Do you agree?

2. Explaining (Some of) Google’s Algorithm with Pretty Charts & Math Stuff from SEOmozBlog — Ever wondered how Google works? I certainly have. This is a very thorough and straight-forward explanation of how Google works, and this information could help you to write content that will rank higher on Google’s search pages. Interested? You should be!

3. “Listening” graphics have a long way to go by Mark Schaefer — I’m all about measurement, but I have never claimed that the current methods or metrics are perfect. I love that Mark Schaefer took the time to analyze what is currently available to demonstrate what we still need.

4. How Google Analytics just got a lot more powerful by Guy Kawasaki — Google Analytics recently announced a whole slew of new services, and this is a great explanation of what this means and why you should be paying attention. He says who cares about Google Wave when there’s more to Google Analytics. Your interest should be piqued and rightly so.

5. Social Networking ROI by Greg Gianforte — Wow! An examination of the ROI of social networking, I love it! I’ve not seen this before, and I’m happy to see that someone is taking a look at this. There is no real mathematic backing here, but there is some great theoretical suggestions as to how to measure the ROI of social networking.

6. Coke Weighs in on Earned Media ROI by Carol Kruse — Another big WOW! A major corporation has weighed in on ROI, and I can’t get enough! I’m happy to see a big player recognizing the importance of ROI and hope it will show other corporations that they need to be measuring, too. There’s also just some plain good insight, which is worth a read in and of itself.

7. Top 10 brand and marketing trends for 2010 by Robert Passikoff — This is a great look at what might lie ahead. I strongly urge you to read through these and think about them seriously. Do you think this is right? What would you include or exclude? It’s always important to be looking to the future, and this is a great start to what should be a broad conversation. Weigh in!

Thank goodness it’s Friday, eh? I’m happy to be relaxing and spending some time checking things off my to-do list this weekend. Also, I’ll be happy to sleep in and get really better. What are your plans for the weekend?

(In)genialidade

2009-10-21T23:42:00.000+02:00

Costuma ler autores portugueses?

Alguns, aqueles de que gosto.

Em Portugal há dois autores que vendem muitos livros, Miguel Sousa Tavares e José Rodrigues dos Santos, que aliás têm em comum consigo o trabalho na área da informação [José Saramago foi director adjunto do Diário de Notícias]. Ambos acabam de apresentar as suas mais recentes obras. Já leu algum livro deles? Considera-os como autores…

[Interrompendo] Como poderia não os considerar como autores se eles o são?

Como autores de uma literatura maior…

Bem, essa discussão sobre o que deveria ser ou poderia ser uma literatura maior também nos levaria longe. Mas como eu não li realmente nenhum deles não posso ser efectivo juiz nesta matéria. Em todo o caso, não diria nunca que esses livros não têm méritos literários. Como não os li não posso confirmá-lo, mas não tenho dúvidas de que se possam encontrar ali méritos literários. Aquilo de que eu não gosto, e tenho direito a isso, é a operação de marketing, que essa não tem nada a ver com literatura. O que digo é que a forma de lançar os autores, estes autores, obedece a um marketing implacável.

José Saramago ao DN em 28 de Outubro de 2007

Aprecio muito a escrita do Nobel da Literatura português. Li um número considerável de livros da vasta obra já editada. Ao mesmo tempo que arrebata com as palavras, que encanta com o ritmo e cadência de leitura, Saramago foi sempre um escritor altivo, distante, provocador, atributos que de uma forma ou outra ajudam sempre a vender livros.

O inesperado foi esta aparente jogada de marketing que está prestes a esgotar a primeira edição do mais recente livro, Caim, colocou toda a gente a discutir as declarações da conferência de apresentação e a passar completamente ao lado da obra.

Além de não necessitar, José Saramago à luz das declarações ao DN em 2007, parece relativizar a expressão “manual de maus costumes”.

Sale: Shea Butter . . . prevent stretch marks

2009-10-19T23:46:00.000+02:00

We received a great email and testmonial from one of our customers. dirig her recent pregnancy she used Travertine Spa shea butter to help prevent stretch marks.

She sent us the following quote, “I made it through my entire pregnancy without a single stretch mark on my belly. My secret? Travertine Spa’s Shea Butter Cream – I only trust my tummy with Travertine!” –Peggy L. California

She even sent a picture…see below

The Wonders of Shea Butter

New Uses

From the Karite trees of West Africa, shea butter is known as one of the world’s best natural ingredients for moisture and skin restoration. Our shea butter was marketed as a Hand and Nail Cream and formulated for deep moisture therapy on dry hands and feet.

We did not consider stretch marks. . .

Then we received the following photo and Testimonial from Peggy.

“I made it through my entire pregnancy without a single stretch mark on my belly. My secret? Travertine Spa’s Shea Butter Cream – I only trust my tummy with Travertine!” –Peggy L. California

Shea Butter Promotion

Our Shea butter is the most luxurious product in the Moisture Therapy line. Ultra rich and creamy. Made with natural shea butter. Concentrated, so a little goes a long way. Perfect for dry winter skin . . . and smooth bellies.

Retail: $52

Sale: $34

Purchase via our online boutique.

Use Coupon Code

newshea1009

Free Shipping on orders of $75 or more.

Valid until Nov. 1, 2009

New Reseller Friendly Brochures

2009-10-16T23:33:00.000+02:00

Channel Marketing has updated four brochures for your use: trixbox Pro, PBXtra, Phones and HUD. These new brochures include up-to-date product specifications and information to support you on end-user calls as well as room to affix your own contact information. They are also devoid of pricing and include limited Fonality contact information. You can find these downloadable brochures in the Sales and Marketing folder in the reseller portal. In an effort to be kind to our environment and reduce costs, please email these as often as possible vs. distributing hard copies.

Channel Marketing has updated four brochures for your use: trixbox Pro, PBXtra, Phones and HUD. These new brochures include up-to-date product specifications and information to support you on end-user calls as well as room to affix your own contact information. They are also devoid of pricing and include limited Fonality contact information. You can effort to be kind to our environment and reduce costs, please email these as often as possible vs. distributing hard copies. You can download these brochures from the Sales and Marketing folder in the reseller portal.

Dilution of Meaning

2009-10-14T23:34:00.000+02:00

I’ve long been fascinated by the meaning of words and their origins. Awful, for example, once meant “deserving of awe” rather than a feeling of disgust or discontent. Guess originally meant to take aim. The word sophisticated used to refer to a form of corruption. What’s more intriguing is not the path these words must have taken on their journey from their origin to their present destination, but rather that they weren’t cemented to the ground in the first place. What inertia must have been around to budge these words into motion? Years, if not decades, of misuse softened their footing until our culture took them for a ride like an unwilling passenger in a mosh pit.

The same dilution is true for partnering. While it’s literal translation remains the same, the intrinsic value it carries in corporate life has become a shadow of it’s former self. Now, rather than it’s own discipline, the art of alliance development is likened to it’s better understood and easier to grasp relatives: sales and marketing.

For evidence simply go to any recruiting (monster.com) or social contact site (LinkedIn.com) and search for the word “partner”. Countless entries will appear. In Austin some 251 people currently feature the word “alliance” in their title in one fashion or another. This reminds me of the end of Sparticus when, enslaved and facing death, everyone stood and claimed they were “Sparticus”.

Les 7 vertus du bloggueur !

2009-10-12T23:30:00.000+02:00

Bloguer n’est pas une vertu, ce ne doit pas être une contrainte mais une passion. Celle d’écrire, de communiquer, de partager et d’échanger avec d’autres sur des thèmes de prédilection. Mais après des premiers pas souvent un peu hésitants, tout bloggeur honnête qui se respecte vous dira qu’il est rapidement tombé dans l’interrogation des chiffres et des statistiques : Suis-je lu ? par qui ? pourquoi ? Comment améliorer mes stats ? …

Et parfois l’impatience domine, tant le blogguer, aidé par les beaux graphiques de son éditeur de blog préféré, aimerait voir les courbes de ses stats enfin décoller comme le ferait un bon blog de news un soir de grande nouvelle (au hasard, le décès aussi brutal qu’inattendu d’une célébrité internationale du Show Biz).

C’est bien connu, on n’écrit ni un roman ni un blog si on n’aspire pas à être lu !

Et c’est dans un blog américain que j’ai trouvé une présentation sympa sur les 7 vertus essentielles que tout bon bloggueur se doit de respecter pour atteindre le succès espéré :

- Be Grateful

- Be Humble

- Be Patient

- Be generous

- Be Brave

- Show Respect

- Be Motivating

Ces 7 vertus y sont expliquées et celle que j’ai relevée en priorité concerne précisément la patience, vertu bien banale, mais qui en matière de blog, prend tout son sens :

“Be patient : It’s not going to happen overnight : Don’t be in a hurry for big numbers…it’s better if people discover your blog after you’ve already made a lot of useful, helpful posts. That way, when new readers DO come, they’ll see that there’s a reason to come back… that you’re more than just a one-hit wonder“

Vous pensez que ces 7 vertus vous concernent ? Découvrez toute la présentation (elle est vraiment bien faite et instructive) : cliquez ici !

Branding & marketing, 10 tendenze per il 2010

2009-10-10T23:32:00.000+02:00

La direzione e la velocità dei valori di consumo sono degli indicatori straordinariamente precisi per identificare le tendenze future, addirittura con 12-18 mesi di anticipo rispetto alle esigenze e alle aspettative del mercato e dei consumatori. Sulla base di queste considerazioni, l’esperto di brand Robert Passikoff indica le 10 tendenze del marketing per il 2010. Tendenze che avranno conseguenze dirette per il successo – o il fallimento – delle attività di branding e gli sforzi di marketing del prossimo anno.

1) Più attenzione al vero valore

La spesa dei consumatori, anche in occasione delle vendite promozionali, continuerà ad essere orientata in base alla reale necessità di acquistare. Questo rappresenterà un serio problema per quei marchi privi di un significato autentico, siano essi di fascia alta o bassa.

2) Il brand è sempre più un sinonimo di “valore”

Ciò che dà valore a beni e servizi sarà sempre più intrinseco al marchio e a ciò che esso rappresenta. Lo stile, la qualità e l’unicità di un brand faranno sempre più la differenza.

3) Differenziazione del marchio = valore del marchio

L’unicità di un brand aumenterà la sua importanza, fintantochè elementi troppo generici continueranno ad infestare il panorama dei marchi. La consapevolezza, intesa come fattore determinante nel mercato, è un concetto ormai superato: la differenziazione sarà determinante per il successo, inteso in termini di vendite e redditività.

4) Il peso della credibilità

I valori di un marchio possono rappresentare l’identità di marca, ma devono essere credibili agli occhi del consumatore. Un marchio non può presumere di rappresentare un punto di riferimento, perchè è il consumatore a decidere: sarà più importante che mai, per una marca, avere dei parametri di autenticità che contribuiscano al processo di differenziazione del marchio e approccio al consumatore.

5) Le aspettative dei consumatori sono in crescita

Le marche faticano a tenere il passo con le aspettative dei consumatori. Ogni giorno i consumatori divorano le ultime tecnologie e innovazioni, e la loro fame aumenta sempre più. Le più abili menti del marketing individueranno e capitalizzeranno le aspettative insoddisfatte. Solo quei marchi che andranno incontro alle aspettative più forti, riusciranno a sopravvivere e prosperare.

6) Stop ai vecchi trucchetti

In seguito alla debacle finanziaria di questi ultimi dodici mesi, le persone sono più che mai consapevoli che le banche, pur proclamando grande disponibilità, riducono l’accesso al credito a famiglie e imprese. Poco affidabili anche i sempre più frequenti accoppiamenti tra brand famosi e celebrità: raramente accade che i valori delle celebrità e i valori del brand coincidano. E’ il caso della partnership tra il campione di golf Tiger Woods e Accenture, società specializzata nel management consulting.

7) Una credibilità “virale”

La possibilità di fare acquisti on-line e attraverso circuiti di distribuzione internazionali rende meno importante il più classico front-end. Una marca con la giusta credibilità può diffondersi in pochi giorni, come un virus.

Non solo passaparola

La comunità è tutto: eBay, ad esempio, ha fatto le sue fortune sulla base dei feedback dei auoi utenti. Se i consumatori considerano attendibile la community, la fiducia si estenderà al marchio. Non solo il passaparola classico, ma anche il passaparola all’interno della comunità: questo introduce l’avvento di una nuova era di customer care.

9) Prima utenti, poi acquirenti

Il Social Networking e lo scambio di informazioni al di fuori degli spazi commerciali canonici aumenteranno. Così come ci sarà un incremento dell’utilizzo di Facebook Connect da parte di alcuni brand per condividere le informazioni con amici e fan. Altre aziende diventeranno membri di Linkedin. Un recente dato, inoltre, dice che gli Utenti di Twitter si spendono più soldi su Internet rispetto a coloro che non “tweettano”.

10) impegno non è una moda: è il modo i consumatori di oggi fare affari

I guru del Marketing arriveranno ad accettare che ci sono quattro metodi di approccio col consumatore: tramite piattaforma (TV; online), contesto (Program; pagina web), messaggio (advertising, comunicazione) ed esperienza (negozio, evento). Ma vi è un solo obiettivo per il futuro, l’approccio al brand, o Brand Engagement. Ovvero il percorso con cui un marchio Brand coinvolge emozionalmente e razionalmente i suoi diversi pubblici, attraendo la loro attenzione. I professionisti del marketing si renderanno conto che un diretto approccio al marchio è praticamente impossibile utilizzando gli obsoleti modelli attitudinali.

Accogliere e seguire queste tendenze richiederà radicali cambiamenti da parte di alcune aziende. Ma al di là che un marchio si adegui o meno, il suo futuro e la sua longevità saranno determinati dal modo in cui sarà in grado di rispondere alle esigenze del mercato.

Breve história da comunicação

2009-10-10T17:44:00.000+02:00

Muito bacana esta animação feita para uma propaganda da carphonewarehouse.com .

O vídeo é uma breve história da comunicação, começando lá atrás com a fumaça e chegando aos nossos dias e futuro. O vídeo é bastante curto (1min) e vale muito a pena assistir.

History of communication from DesignTV on Vimeo.

Oferta Diplomado Comunicacion Corporativa UTPL.

2009-10-07T23:44:00.000+02:00

Postgrado en Comunicación Corporativa - UTPL.

Estimado (a):

La Escuela de Comunicación Social de la UNIVERSIDAD TECNICA PARTICULAR DE LOJA (UTPL), pone a vuestra consideración elDIPLOMADO EN COMUNICACIÓN CORPORATIVA, que nace por la creciente necesidad de especializar profesionales en las diversas áreas de la Comunicación, ya que en la actual etapa del mundo globalizado es indispensable la construcción de un conjunto de mensajes armónicos entre los miembros de la organización y su comunidad, como forma de crear imagen y reputación perdurables.

El Diplomado es un estudio de cuarto nivel, dirigido a periodistas, publicistas, relacionistas públicos, administradores de empresas, ingenieros comerciales y profesionales de diferentes áreas del conocimiento que reconoce en la comunicación un valor primordial en el éxito de las organizaciones.

El Diplomado se lo oferta para el período Noviembre2009-Abril2010, en la Modalidad de estudios a Distancia, con jornadas presenciales y soporte técnico.

El período de matrículas es del 1 al 30 de octubre, y lo puede hacer en cualquier centro universitario de la UTPL.

Del 1 al 20 con matrículas ordinarias.
Del 21 al 30 con matrículas extraordinarias.

La asistencia presencial mínima del estudiante a cada módulo es del 90%.

El Diplomado comprende: 6 módulos, dirigidos en su mayoría por docentes internacionales de alta calidad.

I Módulo Comunicación.

II Módulo, Relaciones Públicas.

III Módulo, Marketing.

IV Módulo, Gestión Empresarial.

V Módulo, Estrategias y Nuevas Tecnologías.

VI Módulo, Taller de Comunicación y Responsabilidad Social.

El título que se otorga es Diploma Superior en Comunicación Corporativa y su costo es de 880 dólares, valor que incluye guías didácticas y textos de apoyo, con diversos tipos de financiamiento, entre ellos:

Pago al contado con un 10% de descuento.
Pago con tarjeta de crédito diferido hasta 6 meses sin interés y hasta 24 meses con interés.
Crédito IECE.
Crédito universitario, 50 % al momento de la matrícula, 30% a 30 días y 20% restante a 60 días. (Excepto Quito y Guayaquil)
Ex alumnos de la UTPL, tienen un 10% de descuento.

Además al finalizar el Diplomado se debe cancelar un valor de 150 dólares por derechos de título, cuando el estudiante haya aprobado los 6 módulos.

El tiempo de duración es de 6 meses. Ofertado en 15 créditos, por lo que se califican aspectos como:

Participación en el Entorno Virtual de Aprendizaje EVA 20%
Presentación de Trabajos a Distancia 30%
Evaluación Presencial 50%

La invitación para que forme parte de profesionales que quiere superarse está abierta, en la perspectiva de incrementar los conocimientos y las habilidades para la planeación, dirección, evaluación y administración estratégica de la organización en la que trabaja. Como también lograr habilidades de creatividad, capacidad de innovación, desarrollar competencias para diseñar la identidad corporativa y ejecutar una comunicación estratégica que conlleve a alcanzar los objetivos institucionales.

Siendo pioneros en la calidad de Educación a Distancia, les recomendamos su participación.

Así mismo si desea más información puede contactarse con Cesibel Valdiviezo al teléfono 07-2570275 ext. 2950 o a la ext. 2615 con Luisa Chocho, además puede visitar nuestra página web www.utpl.edu.ec

Será un placer atenderle.

Céline Dion lançará disco em espanhol!

2009-10-05T23:45:00.000+02:00

Desde quando só cantava em francês, Céline Dion já almejava mostrar sua voz em outra língua: o inglês. Desde então, teve aulas particulares, uma espécie de intensivão para deixar menos claro seu sotaque. Quando lançou seu primeiro álbum Unison em 1991, ela ainda não sabia pronunciar frases em inglês, mas aos poucos foi mostrando vontade de aprender e hoje é referência para os franceses que desejam aprender o inglês. Pois bem, anos e anos se passaram e ela também “beliscou” o japonês (versão de Be The Man) e o espanhol.

Confira o texto na íntegra: http://blogs.abril.com.br/guimaraes1982/2009/04/celine-dion-lancara-disco-em-espanhol.html

A base da pirâmide, a internet e o e-commerce.

2009-10-03T23:42:00.000+02:00

O poder de compra das classes CDE cresceu em cerca de R$ 143 bi nos últimos sete anos e, hoje, a base da pirâmide movimenta aproximadamente de R$620 bi por ano. Isso se deve à estabilidade econômica do país, à redução do índice de desemprego e, principalmente, ao aumento do crédito. Para exemplificar este cenário: em 2008, foram vendidos 3 milhões de computadores a mais que televisores.

Para os consumidores de baixa renda, adquirir um computador e ter acesso a internet significa INVESTIMENTO. Significa proporcionar as ferramentas necessárias para o desenvolvimento educacional dos filhos; significa fonte de renda, já que podem prestar serviços à comunidade e cobrar por eles; significa entretenimento de baixo custo; significa , principalmente, ACESSO a algo que anteriormente somente as classes mais altas podiam ter.

Segundo o PENAD 2000, 66% dos domicílios com computadores são das classes CDE e 36% dos internautas da classe C têm banda larga. O acesso à rede aliado ao aumento da distribuição dos cartões de créditos entre os conumidores de baixa renda, proporcionou às pessoas da base da pirâmide os meios necessários para também fazer parte do comércio eletrônico. Em números absolutos, 51% dos compradores online são das classes CDE.

Os fatores de entrave para que os consumidores de baixa renda “se lancem” mais agressivamente ao comércio eletrônico são basicamente dois: a intangibilidade da compra e o receio das fraudes. Comprar algo que não se pode tocar, atravês de um vendedor que não se pode ver e o medo de possíveis clonagens eletrônicas ainda deixam esses novos web-shoppers inseguros. Porém, à medida em que a internet se torna mais segura e que as experiências de compra se tornem mais agradáveis, é possível que o futuro do e-commerce esteja nas classes CDE.

Fonte de dados: Data Popular e PENAD