IPromote ad platform to break mobile barriers for local businesses

IPromote has released a mobile advertising platform to help local businesses take advantage of the marketing capabilities of the mobile channel in a cost-effective manner.

For $5 a day, iPromote said small businesses will now receive instant mobile and PC Web-based ads. Local businesses will also be able to target locally in one campaign through iPromote’s local ad server, AdXpert.

“The iPromote mobile platform enables local businesses to obtain a turnkey display advertising solution in the mobile market,” said Michael Barr, CEO of iPromote, San Luis Obispo, CA. “We wanted to break down the barriers for small businesses to locally advertise on mobile devices in a cost-effective manner.”

IPromote is a division of 2KDirect and provides display advertising services.

Leveling the mobile playing field

IPromote has created a process for local business in which they can obtain Web-based and mobile ads instantly by using the URL of their Web site.

IPromote’s technology automatically detects images, text and other content  from a client’s Web site and builds an online media package.

If a business has no Web site then a business can use their online directory listing. IPromote’s technology automatically goes to its stock photography database and places relevant photos into clients’ ads.

A business has total control of local targeting, budget and campaign duration. 

“The addition of mobile not only gives our advertisers more reach, but also a competitive edge, since they are now advertising across mobile devices,” Mr. Barr said. “Mobile users are now obtaining relevant ads from local businesses in their area instead of the national ads that are currently on smartphones.

“For example, it is much more interesting to see an ad for the local restaurant in your neighborhood than a national ad,” he said.

Proactive eyeball catching

IPromote is talking with some of the top mobile ad networks, which currently work with many of the most popular applications and mobile-optimized Web sites. 

The company will also be directly integrating with mobile sites through current and near-term partnerships.

IPromote targets businesses in 30 verticals such as food and dining, health and beauty, real estate and retail.

Mr. Barr said display advertising is a highly effective way for local businesses to proactively reach new customers.

“Mobile advertising is a high-growth sector with no signs of slowing down,” Mr. Barr said. “As the smartphone market continues to grow, we will most likely see the amount of time spent surfing the Internet shifting to mobile.

“Location-based targeting is something that can be achieved more effectively across mobile devices,” he said. “Users tend to interact with mobile ads more than Web-based ads, which provides brand awareness for the advertiser.”

Source: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/4974.html

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

Make your own mistakes.

Everyone makes mistakes. It’s a fact of life. Every company makes mistakes, too. Are the companies that make mistakes the ones that fail? Only if they keep making the same mistakes.

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. I think whoever came up with that definition must have been in advertising. Too many brands try the same thing year after year and seem surprised that they lose ground to their competitors.

It’s easy to spend too much time worrying about making mistakes, especially in this business. We can get caught up in over planning, over thinking and over talking—not to necessarily ensure more success but to minimize the risk of our mistakes.

But the annals of business history are filled with business mistakes that led to huge profits—from the invention of rubber to the now ubiquitous Post-It note.

When asked about his invention of the light bulb, Thomas Edison is widely reported to have said that his first failed attempts weren’t failures at all, he simply discovered 10,000 ways that wouldn’t work.

In the end, people don’t remember the mistake, they remember how you deal with it, what you learn from it and what you make of it.

If you’re not making new mistakes, you’re not innovating. You’re not pushing the envelope. You’re not doing anything new. In other words, you’re becoming a commodity.

You need to learn to budget for mistakes. If you’re making new ones and not the same ones, they are an investment, not a liability.

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

Effective Promotion

Rules for Effective Promotions

Effective Promotion

• First, FOCUS all promotion efforts on your target market and your show objectives. Don’t fall into the trap of just getting a full list of registrants and sending blanket invitations. And don’t do something at the show that will attract everybody. You don’t want everybody in your booth, you want the right people in your booth.

• Be CREATIVE. You can be innovative without spending a lot of money. Look for ways to make it fun, different, and exciting.

• Try very hard to PERSONALIZE each mailing. Avoid using mailing labels and bulk mail stamps. Even if you get labels from the show management, take the time to retype the names on the envelopes. It makes a huge difference in whether or not your target even opens and reads it.

• It’s always better to plan for FREQUENT preshow contacts, rather than depend on a one-shot promotion. If a prospect receives a personal letter, a fax, and a postcard over a period of 3 or 4 weeks before the show, they’re much more likely to remember you and stop by.

• Give them a compelling REASON to visit you. Do you have a show special they can take advantage of? Do you have a new promotional product line or service? Make sure you say that in your promotions. The top complaint from attendees regarding promotions is the fact very few actually give a good reason to visit.

• And make darn sure you send any preshow promotions out EARLY enough. It is truly distressing to hear over and over again from attendees about this. It’s far too common for an attendee to return from a trade show and find several invitations waiting in the pile of mail that arrived while they were AT THE SHOW! Send everything to ARRIVE at least ten days in advance. What a waste of promotional dollars when a preshow communication doesn’t get there before the show.

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

Social media here, there, everywhere

Social media is no longer just a cool toy for the nerds.  It’s an established platform that can advance multiple phases of your business, including marketing, sales, customer service, and recruiting.  I’ve put a few of these uses in  the chart below.

What Social Media Can Do Branding Company news

* What people are saying about you

Positioning

Expertise Other Marketing PR & Communications

Product updates

* Industry news

* Competitive news Sales * Lead generation

Promotions

Sell distressed goods Customers Problems

* Suggestions

Questions Other Recruiting

Funding

Background checks * Top 5 small business uses according to a survey

in Ad-ology Marketing Forecast 2010

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

The Pursuit of Bollyness-II: Wagging the Dog

Continued from P of B Part-I…

For the next couple of weeks things got so hectic that there was no time to worry about the promise made to Mr. Prakash and the next meeting due.

A scene I was beginning to picture increasingly with graphic images of dangling Damocles’ swords and me as the hapless Damocles. Uneasy, however, did not seem to lie our modern day Dionysius’ head. At least, to all outward appearance.

I tried calling Karan Sabjan for his opinion on whether the Big M would be interested. Sabjan thanked me for adding years to his life by giving him his best laugh of the month.

This was one situation where I had nothing further to contribute. Either one knew how to get to Amibath Machchan or didn’t. I didn’t.

Feeling a bit like Pandora, with thoughts leaning increasingly towards aftermaths of usual Greek tragedies, I decided to broach the subject with LL.

As the days went by, this was not easy though. Surely he wasn’t avoiding me?

With the next meeting just a couple of days away, I redoubled my efforts to corner LL and ask him for strategic guidance*.

*This is polite subordinate to boss management-speak for: Hey, you got us into this mess, and this time, you’ve gotta get us out.

“Get me Prakash”, said LL.

Having got him on phone, LL proceeded to tell him how his father had an urgent though minor surgical procedure due on the very same morning of the next meeting scheduled and could we reschedule it? Mr. P was fortunately off to Denmark and so the next meeting was fixed up to be a whole two and a half weeks away.

Admiring this adroit manoeuvre; I admit it freely, would have never thought of it – we heaved collective sighs of relief, but I felt the figurative dangling thread fray a bit, and the sword inch closer.

But LL had thought of something.

There were only two possible approaches as advised by LL’s role model Confucius:

One – Man who run in front of car get tired.

Conversely, also known as – Man who run behind car get exhausted.

Two – He who will not economize will agonize.

Next meeting, Mr. Prakash walked in fully expecting to see Machchan ensconced in our humble office abode. In his best suit and tie too. Mr. P, I mean.

LL informed him that we had contacted the Big M and that he had quoted an astronomical rate similar to his Badur contract.

I adjusted my expression accordingly so as to try look like we were the sort of people who had Machchan on call.

Knowing fully well Mr. Prakash would have never been able to loosen his purse strings to this extent, LL then commenced upon a severe campaign against using celebrities in advertising. Having embarked upon the celebrity route once, you are stuck with them forever. You’ve got to continue using a well known face else all will be lost. The fickle customer would move on. The astronomical fees you pay would have to be permanently budgeted for.

In short, hiring a celebrity for advertising would be like riding a tiger. You couldn’t ever get off.

And what if the celebrity you’ve chosen lost popularity suddenly? Made a racist slur or in a drunken haze drive over a number of innocent people on the footpath. It would rub off negatively on your brand. A dreadful fate indeed.

Having made this convincing argument, LL decided to hammer the final nail in the coffin.

Amibath Machchan, while shooting in a rural, drought prone area for his next film, had insisted on a truckload of mineral water bottles. No, not for distributing amongst the thirsty populace as you may be excused for imagining. The popular brand of bottled water was used by him – wait for it – to bathe.

As LL would have it, this generated a lot of controversy and criticism for the Big M. In reality, it was soon forgotten.

This same region incidentally was an important one for Mr. Prakash’s brands, generating a substantial amount of sales. As LL drew an eloquent picture as to what would have happened had we paid so many millions for the Big M; Mr. Prakash’s disillusionment was complete.

Having reacted true to type, he now thanked us fervently as we had been personally responsible for saving him from a fate worse than death.

It took him only another ten more minutes to decide that he had actually arrived at this conclusion himself and claim that he had already planned to decline the offer for Machchan’s endorsement should he have been ready and willing.

It is just as well the Big M would never know how far he fell from grace in our conference room in that one hour.

To soften the overall blow, LL suggested several second and third level Bollywood stars but Mr. Prakash was now a staunch convert to our cause. He happily agreed to endorsement from a humbler actor, known for playing character-led roles, suggested by Karan Sabjan.

Thus concluded another successful chapter of a highly strategic, skilfully played zero sum game.

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

Box Office Success

Awe inspiring movie making…; Creativity at its best…; Technological innovation transforming into silver screen magic…; Intriguing way of unveiling the plot and storytelling…; Top notch technicians….; Celluloid beauties and Screen idols…; Personal touch moulding century old story lines into modern-day novelties… This is how I would think of most of the Hollywood Box office successes and their reasons for raking in the millions and made them Historical master pieces worth watching over and over.

The story in Bollywood is a tad different. They thrive on sensationalism, fantasy, demi god heroes, script and lyrics and music to create success and draw the crowd. For decades it has been the family values and tradition that they utilise to define the plot. Very few movies stand apart and have experimented and travelled the Road less travelled. There have been far more people taking these bold decisions off late.

Coming down further south and seeing how Box office success was and is created in Kollywood….

For several years it has always been Hero centric movies in the Kollywood. Right from MKT Bhagavathar, M.G.R, and Rajinikanth to the current crop of heroes, its been all about the hero worshipping the mother’s feet, speaking bold dialogues on the face of the camera, dancing around trees with gorgeous actresses (most of them totally alien to the Tamil language) and pouncing on the bad gang. Again the ones who take the other road are very less here too. But there has been a prominent rise of one particular force in one of the biggest film industries in the world.

That force is nothing but – “Marketing and TV media publicity”. This has been the reason behind several latest successes (in terms of box office collection).  Even though most ofthese films might get only average rating from a traditional film critic, they all have managed to earn decent returns. Sun Pictures with with backing of Sun Network’s array of channels, FM stations, political muscle and marketing acumen has made a string of medium budget movie releases. All have been above average on earnings. The group buys distribution and marketing rights of many Minimum return-guarantee  films and plans the release of all of them on a sequential manner. Targeted, well planned list of trailers get released day after day, building momentum gradually right up to the release day. This is followed by half an hour interactive programmes with the Movie team (Director, Actor, Actress, Producer and comedian) on each of their channels. Dont forget the Audio release, Movie preview, Movie Launch functions aired on a 3 hour time slot. This is what we call Fully Loaded 

This is one aspect of the force. the other aspect is that it has become a blessing in disguise for the movie production houses who find it difficult to market and bring in the needed RoI for their films. This has helped them to recover whatever they have invested with a decent margin and thus encouraging them to produce more movies. It has also helped a lot of new comers get chances to prove their mettle. Overall even though the movies run just because of the marketing genius, this new found success formula has extended the shelf life of medium budget movie makers.

Can the same tactic work out for other products genres too ??!!

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

Pets.com – a classic example of product development failure

Reflecting back on the noughties (2000-2009) there are plenty of high profile cases of businesses built with high expectations but which failed to deliver. Many of these are examples of products being developed with little or no understanding as to whether or not there was a market demand for it.

In this post I analyse the much publicised example of the dot-com disaster Pets.com.

Build it and they will come… won’t they?

An all too common error at all levels of business from small garage inventors to mega corporations is a tendency to create products and services in a state of isolation and then task marketing and sales teams to “go out and find a market”. It’s quite an insane approach when you think about it. It would be like gluing a toaster onto a skateboard, calling it the Roadtoaster 5000 and then asking a friend to find a few thousand people who’d like to buy it.

There may be some anomalies, but the vast majority of successful products are developed following an analysis of a market – to identify if there are any needs or problems that people are facing, how important these needs are, how many of these people there are, if they would actually pay for something that meets their needs, if any competitors are already serving those needs and what it would take to offer a more compelling proposition than them.

Throw in a bit of basic segmentation, targeting and positioning and you would then have the beginnings of a business case to then look into developing a product to meet those needs. That in itself is a multi-step process because it may not be financially viable or even technically possible to meet the needs.

In short: Don’t build a product and then look for a market to sell it into. Look for a valid market requirement or need first. Then you can go about developing a product.

It’ll make squillions

Launched in August 1998, Pets.com was created to sell pet food and accessories via the internet. The premise was that you could “buy online and cut out the middleman” and “take advantage of Pets.com’s strong buying power”. Users of the site could browse through different categories, choose products they like and have them conveniently delivered to their home. Think Amazon’s original premise – books – but for pet products.

Interesting concept right? Sure, but Pets.com did no market research before launching. They made a lot of big assumptions: that pet owners would want to buy online and knew how to (remember, this was 1998); that selling pet products alone was compelling enough (as opposed to say an online supermarket which could sell pet supplies and other groceries); that people wanted to have such pet supplies delivered and were happy to wait a few days, rather than just driving down to the shops and getting it now.

But market research and validation of ideas seemed to be unimportant back in the heady early days of the information superhighway. Within a year of launch it had been acquired by venture capital firm Hummer Winblad (who amazingly still list Pets.com on their timeline of acquisitions!) and industry executive Julie Wainright. They even got Amazon.com on board as an investor.

Here’s the product – start marketing now!

With cash in the bank and fire in their bellies, Pets.com’s owners spent big in marketing communications and developed a brand around a sock puppet character that was regarded as either hugely entertaining or incredibly irritating depending on whom you spoke to.

They then poured cash into a massive advertising campaign, launched in January 2000 with a Superbowl TV commercial with a media price tag of $1.2 million. This was followed by intense online, print, television and radio advertising as well as a massive publicity push that saw the Sock Puppet make an appearance in the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.

Awareness skyrocketed. Everyone was talking about Pets.com. The site was hit with traffic as people began to place orders. A month later Pets.com went out and raised over $80 million dollars in its IPO.

There must have been a lot of back patting and happy Friday afternoon drinks. Pets.com was on a roll. The money would surely start pouring in, wouldn’t it?

A flawed business model

Pets.com’s owners soon noticed some issues. They discovered that demand wasn’t anywhere near as high as they had estimated. They may have been perplexed – why wasn’t Joe Sixpack in Suburbia placing orders? Didn’t he realise how awesome Pets.com was?

Pets.com had obviously not heard of the simple AIDA model (Awareness -> Interest -> Desire -> Action). Their massive marketing campaign had certainly generated a lot of Awareness and some Interest. But it wasn’t translating into sufficient Desire and certainly not to enough Action. Not enough people were ordering products and those that did were ordering only small amounts.

Had Pets.com actually done some research and investigation it could have known this in advance. Pets.com did not offer a compelling enough value proposition – there was simply no market requirement for home delivered pet food.

Whilst this meant revenues were much lower than expected, it also meant that costs were higher than necessary. Pets.com had invested in massive warehousing facilities to store all the dog food they figured they’d sell. This was a fixed cost that could not be avoided and it made a serious dent in their sales profitability. To make things worse, Pets.com went so far as to offer discounted and even free delivery which given the physical size and weight of the product was hugely expensive.

Sales did grow due to aggressive pricing and the massive marketing spend, but this only meant that Pets.com was losing money on most sales. The model was unsustainable. It was argued that this was just the nature of building a new business but even a fifth grader running a lemonade stand knows you need to charge more than you pay otherwise you won’t be in business long.

RIP Pets.com

In November 2000, Pets.com folded after having burned through $300 million in less than two years. Over 300 people lost their jobs and the site was shut down. CEO Julie Wainright said in a statement ”It is well known that this is a very, very difficult environment for business-to-consumer Internet companies. With no better offers and avenues effectively exhausted, we felt that the best option was an orderly wind-down with the objective to try to return something back to the shareholders.”

Whilst it was a high profile example of dot-com foolishness it was not an isolated occurrence. It’s still astounding that so much money was lost at the time. It’s hard to accept the argument that people simple overestimated the potential of the internet. Sure, that may have happened but Pets.com’s entire business model was flawed with apparently no real understanding of some very basic business models (i.e. you have to make more money than you spend!).

What would a product manager do?

It’s unlikely that we’ll see this sort of extreme silliness again. To be fair, over the past ten years a lot of niche specialist pet supply stores have started up but they operate at a much more scaled down level and have focused their product offerings and services on specific market segments.

As outlined at the beginning of the article I still see many examples of products being developed with no preliminary research, analysis or investigation to see if there is actually going to be any need for the product. This inevitably leads to wasted money, time and effort.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Once again, the lesson of the story is simple:

Don’t build a product and then look for a market to sell it into. Look for a valid market requirement or need first. Then you can go about developing a product.

NOTE: This blog post of mine was originally published on the brainmates website. brainmates provides product management and marketing consulting and training services for leading organisations in a range of industries. And I work there so check them out!

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

Become a Better Investor with REIWired

Do you find it difficult to find and close deals? Worry no more because REIWired can change all that! Boasting a huge collection of various learning tools, REIWired.com is the perfect partner for investors who want to bring their real estate investing business to a whole new level.

With its extensive database of instructional materials, REIWired has established itself as the prime source of quality real estate education in the country. With the website’s help, real estate investors would be able to learn various strategies and techniques from some of the biggest and brightest names in the real estate business.

Whether you are into wholesaling houses, rehabbing homes, or flipping properties, you will get all the information you need to step up your game. Learn various real estate investing hints and tips from the likes of Mike Collins, Preston Ely, Cris Chico, Tim Mai, Steve Cook, Mark Jackson, Larry Goins, and “Flip This House” star Than Merrill. You can also get valuable pointers on financing and generating leads from marketing gurus Heather Seitz and Dan Stojadinovic, among others.

REIWired also has a large collection of articles that discuss various topics on investing in real estate. So if you are having trouble negotiating with home buyers and sellers or wondering which medium to use when advertising the properties you are selling, head over to the website’s article page.

In addition, the website has dedicated a page for those who want to listen to audio recordings of various tele-seminars on real estate investing. By registering with REIWired.com, you will be able to get access to these informative audio files and learn something new without having the need to read articles or watch instructional videos.

Because REIWired is a “one-stop shop” for your real estate education needs, you don’t have to surf the Internet for hours just to find the information you need. You also don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on instructional CDs, DVDs, and manuals that don’t give you clear and positive results. And most of all, you don’t have to create important real estate documents on your own as the website can provide you with templates of quitclaim deeds, authorization for mortgage, assignment contracts, “we buy houses” flyers, power of attorney, and more.

So if you want to make millions of dollars in the real estate business, log on to www.REIWired.com today.

[Via http://flippinghouses12.wordpress.com]

It's A Heart Issue Part Four

So we’ve looked at what is the heart of your business and last week we looked at how that new perspective applies to your customers.  What did you come up with?  Did you try it out?  If you haven’t yet, this week that is your assignment, along with what we are going to talk about now.

No doubt that as you worked, or will work your new found heart, you will begin to realize that there are holes.  Holes in your sales process, in your marketing strategies and most definitely, holes in your media that you use to share that heart with your customers.

As the Christmas season is drawing to a close.  Take this time to think about just what types of media you use.  What is missing.  How can you tweek what you have to align with your new found heart.  These areas are key in refocusing your media to align with the heart of your business.  If you don’t have heart you are dead.  If your clients don’t know your heart, how can they interact with you and trust who you are to them.  How do they know what sets you apart.

As you move into the New Year, thinking about these questions.  Answer them.  Then search out a professional to help design and create the media that can make all the difference.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

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

Jarritos

It’s been an interesting year for me with tons of firsts. My first year of being married. My first time in grad school. My first time going to Europe. My first time receiving something from another company because I was blogging about them.

Couple months ago, I wrote a rather innocuous post about eating take out dinner from Cafe Habana in NYC and washing down our delicious Cuban sandwiches with a Mexican soda called Jarritos. Well many weeks ago, I had a representative from Jarritos, David, leave a comment on the site about wanting to send out some samples due to my particular interest in the drink. I got back in touch with them and a week after that exchange, I had a large box from UPS waiting for me. I received 12 different flavors, a Jarritos mixtape CD and a Jarritos t-shirt! It was like an early Christmas gift.

The drinks have been delicious. I’m about halfway through them. My faves so far: Mandarin Orange and Toronja. Thank you Jarritos and David!

Bottled skittles.

So good.

Hecho en Mexico.

Thanks again!

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

What you don't want for Christmas

Oliver Wright writes:

One of my seasonal ‘jokes’ goes that you can tell when Christmas is approaching by the adverts on TV. Thus, like many others I suppose, I am thrust from my usual lethargy into a mild panic, making hurried calls to my siblings and parents, enquiring what they might want for Christmas, with the implicit fear that the shops might somehow run out of appropriate gifts.

In spite of our recessionary times, the high street in London has done surprisingly well for itself compared to 2008 when the onset of the recession dampened the Christmas (spending) spirit. November sales are up only 1.8% on last year nationally, but in the capital sales are up 13.3%.

Even if we are short of cash, we certainly shouldn’t be short of ideas: most of the major newspaper websites have a glut of buying guides, telling us what we could buy, and for whom. But for every article about ideal presents, one often finds a dissenting contributor in the comments sections, outlining the merits of a presentless Christmas. Capitalising on these frugal sentiments, The Green Thing has created a cunning spoof of the Amazon.co.uk website, delightfully titled Amazero.com, encouraging us to buy their single product – nothing (it’s priceless, of course). With a slightly more traditional approach, Adbusters sponsored ‘Buy Nothing Day‘ on the 26th of November this year.

Both of the above campaigns make the claim that Christmas – or more simply, buying lots of stuff – is bad for the environment, and detracts from the true spirit of the season. However, if you’re more inclined to think that Christmas is a waste of money altogether, then Joel Waldfogel’s book ‘Scroogenomics: Why you Shouldn’t Buy Presents for The Holidays’ may contain some more compelling arguments. Based on US surveys, he suggests that people would generally be willing to spend 20% less on the gifts that they received were they to buy them for themselves. This difference – in economic jargon, the deadweight loss – is worth $13bn a year in the US. He continues:

There’s every reason to believe the deadweight loss is as big elsewhere. That would get you to $25 billion a year around the world in value destroyed through gift giving.

Waldfogel isn’t against gift giving – just bad gift giving. Tim Harford has some useful recommendations based on Waldfogel’s arguments: spend modest amounts (hence reducing the likelihood of a large deadweight loss), or increase the sentimental value of your gift – invest time or creativity into making something personal. In other words, give it value to which you can’t attach a price.

In a neat twist, Waldfogel’s book is out for Christmas. But before you buy it, make sure the recipient wants to read it first.

The Image above is taken from the Amazero.com website, and is used with thanks.

[Via http://blog.thefuturescompany.com]

Is the purple cow killing businesses marketing strategies?

I recently viewed a presentation from Seth Godwin, (have also read his books). Fundamentally he makes a great point. With the emergence and unbelievable growth of the internet, businesses and services have become interchangeable. So Seth states you have to hunt for something unique about your business to enable you to stand out. Sounds like a sensible strategy but got me thinking.

During writing for my latest seminar I uncovered some amazing facts, in 1950 in America the average person got bombarded by fifteen adverts a day! Can you image that, I have the picture of a family sitting around the dinner table (eating meat with two veg, it is the 50’s after all) talking and recalling all the ads that they saw that day. Imagine that! Now the average American gets hit by around 3000! Yes 3000, I find that amazing. Makes really bad news for traditional marketers, you sort of get to the point of saying what’s the point anymore to billbords, magazine advertising etc

Seth makes the point given a market is as complex as this then you have to be a purple cow, for those that haven’t read his books he says if you drive down a country road and see a normal cow do you even notice? Would some even raise a eye brow at a normal cow? But if you drove and saw a field of cows and one was purple would your stop or even look? He makes the point of course. Now I agree that you need to find your purple cow but sometimes I think too many business try to be cleaver and find a point of difference. I think accept it that it if you sell a widget and ten others sell the same except it’s the same widget! Now I believe if you get resigned to the notion that because every widget is the same why would you buy mine and give up your missing marketing 101. GET A COMPLETE SALES AND MARKETING PLAN

You have to think of your client (or potential client) and solve their biggest issues, then and only then work out how to get to them! In New Zealand theres a website www.trademe.co.nz a takeoff of ebay, I get pitched every month from someone wanting to create a takeoff trademe. None work! There’s lots of reasons why but one nice one was in trademe’s first five or so years every weekend they dropped flyers on cars in supermarkets! Our biggest website, now equating to 60% of all internet traffic in New Zeland had to get their customers to find out about them by dropping flyers (manually!!) on car windows!

They had no purple cow, no new amazing breakthrough in technology but good old fashion brains to realise they had to work out ways to go direct to their potential customers.

In my experience advertising clutter is getting horrible but theres a silver lining, I believe that this growing clutter is evening the playing field for all companies (there will always be a few this doesn’t work for, coke, nike etc). Now if you can think of a way to get to the end customers then most of the time your one up on the big guys. I can’t see ATNT or AMAZON doing flyer drops!

Your big advantage as a small company

Yes the worlds changing and for the small businesses this change will benefit you, if you’re smart. The best way now to cut the clutter is to enter the world of social networking. Stuff purple cows, get friends to buy your products. Be liberal with the term friends, in my mind anyone that wants to buy from me can be my friend. Hell give me enough money and come round for dinner!

I was amazed that I set up a twitter account and within a month I had over 2000 people following me, imagine the world were regardless of advertising budget I can get a daily message to them if I want. Everyone should check shitmydadsays in twitter, 500,000 people follow him! Amazing. Use facebook, twitter, bebo any social networking. The bets stratergy I believe is to get as many followers then sell your heart off! There is rules and tricks which I might talk about at a later date.

Hope people get value out of my blog, feel free to visit my website www.webpartners.co.nz

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

Marketing - l’apparition de nouveaux produits et services

Quels changements de comportement qui entraînent l’apparition de nouveaux produits et services

Le sens individuel n’est pas donné ni par l’église, ni par l’état le matérialisme est arrive au pouvoir ! L’identité n’est pas lie par production, mais la consommation. On fait des achats, on existe ! Le sens de la vie a cédé devant le sens de la superficialité. Plus que jamais les gens cherchent l’expression de soi et l’identité à travers de shopping.

Le droit d’être, le droit de choisir, le droit de consumation sont indispensable à notre être. Nous avons donc l’occasion d’inventer de nouvelles significations pour nous même. Dans ce nouveau monde l’individualisme, la capacité de choisir, la marchée économique tous créent confusion.

Peter Katz, auteur du livre « Nouveau Urbanisme » a dit « Nous vivons dans une société basée sur des réseaux et qui a encore faim pour la communauté» Incertain, douteux, les gens commencent à la recherche de ceux qui partagent les mêmes valeurs. L’humanité aspire à un sentiment d’appartenance. L’humanité a été et restera toujours une réunion tribale.

La géographie, la culture ne sont plus lie et entretoisé car la notion d’espace a une signifiance différent sur l’entèrent. On peut être membre dans des différentes communautés. Le principal Progress du monde post industriel se reflète dans le domaine de technologie d’information et de communication.

La technologie IT a aussi valeur personnel, car il se trouve dans nos maisons. Il nous donne l’illusion d’avoir contrôlé, l’accès à l’information, la possibilité de savoir nous invite à consommer. La technologie nous donne la possibilité de modeler toujours notre identité librement

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

Business Advice from Unexpected Sources?

I was watching the episode of Lipstick Jungle where Victory was opening her own boutique and hired the cheap contractor to save money. That wasn’t working out so well. Joe swooped in and began drawing on the wall.

He drew a triangle with a word at each point: good, cheap, fast. He explained that you can’t have all three at the same time. You can have good and fast, but it won’t be cheap. You can have cheap and fast, but it won’t be good. Cheap and good? Be prepared to wait for it.

That really made sense to me. I also started thinking about it from almost an opposite side as a way to evaluate which projects would be worth pursuing. Project A doesn’t have much of a budget but the project doesn’t last long and will allow us to produce a quality project that can help us get more business. Let’s take it! Project B has $ but not enough time for us to produce good work. That’s a pass because we never want to take something that won’t allow us to do quality work. And so on and so forth.

It’s a bit of a twist on the original concept but when looking at Project C that needed us to work for a long time at a low budet on a project that wasn’t relevant to prospects, that had to be a pass. If you can have none of the three, run!

Since seeing that episode, I’ve noticed Joe’s triangle theory in a couple of business books and articles. It’s quite possible it’s common, and I had just never heard it before.

Got me to thinking about other tips or theories that might have been picked up from non-traditional sources of advice. Please comment if you’ve had a similar experience.

[Via http://blah2voila.wordpress.com]

Uncover The Quick And Easy Way To Get Website Traffic With These 7 Steps

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Marketing can be defined as recognizing the needs of the customer, foreseeing them as well as satisfying them and earning a profit in the process. Online marketing has created a change in the way businesses deal with their existing as well as would-be clients. A marketing professional will find the Internet to be a source of unlimited promise. Nowadays, the Internet is being widely used. Most areas now have the broadband technology. With the help of Web 2.0 tools, the broadband technology enables all customers to enjoy a rich multimedia experience. When you would like to get more information on web marketing check out this site.

Identifying and recognizing your market is the first step towards the success of online marketing. Looking ahead and taking note of the products you wish to sell, work out your potential customers’ profile. When you have identified some general aspects of your target market’s profile, you can make changes to your product offerings to suit these new customer needs.

You may have to get people to visit your site by adopting different methods. Having your very own blog is one of those things. You might even consider free publication of your articles on some of the leading websites. You can have on-line press releases and also consider paid advertising.

To keep visitors interested in your website is has to be professional, rich in content and frequently updated with relevant content. The home page should lead the guest to the pertinent pages he may be interested in. Keyword phrases strategically placed within the website’s pages ensures that the search engine will find them without difficulty. To get a closer look on internet marketing service visit this site.

Visitor profiling can make your content much more meaningful and every page more useful to the user. This task must be handled with considerable tact so that your users are not deterred from visiting your site. Pertinent information provided on your website will induce the customer to buy your product or service.

Explain the user why your products are better than existing ones. Explain how your products and services are of high perceived value and low perceived risk. Your trustworthiness in the market must be indicated by the text that appears on your web pages. Client testimonials appreciating your product are a big advantage.

Prominently announce any compelling offers that you might have on hand – offers that are too tempting for the visitor to resist. Visitors must be given the choice to select their preferred mode of payment along with the facility of multiple communication channels to reach you. Even though the visitors do not buy at the first instance, you can have a system of following it up with them till they give a response.

Make sure to include a database on your website so that it operates in the background. Data related to each transaction happening on your site should be captured by the application. Ideally, a control panel must be built-in into your website so that you have a record of transactions that need immediate attention. A synopsis of the past data is available on the control panel so that you can monitor the business trends and take any remedial action if necessary.

[Via http://onlinemarketings5713.wordpress.com]

Article Marketing Basics for the Small Business

Businesses today rely on word of mouth combined with Internet searches to attract customers. Article Marketing is a leading way for any small business to get the word out about their offerings. Why not learn how to harness the power of article marketing for your own small business? Get your copy of Article Marketing Basics for the Small Business and learn the secrets of marketing through the written word.

Page Count: 12

Buy Now

About the Author: Tess C. Taylor is a Freelance Web Writer and Content Manager with an extensive background in business and human resources. Through her popular articles on business topics found on many major websites, Tess shares tips and tools that the small business owner can use to succeed in the digital market. Tess is the owner of Taylor Resources Writing LLC, a full-service writing company in Charleston, SC.

To learn more about the author, please visit Taylor Resources Writing LLC.

Read/Submit Book Review(s) in the Comment Section below.

[Via http://guides2successfulliving.wordpress.com]

Economy coming out of recession... are you?

There are indications that the world is slowly coming out of recession and companies globally are hoping to regain lost momentum. India, in fact, has outperformed predictions and is looking at a robust growth in 2010-11. While some may not, most companies will manage to survive this slowdown and some may actually come out stronger!

This does not sound very surprising if you look at some fundamental stuff that companies do, or should do, in a slowdown. Any company that engages in consolidating its market share and focuses on long term goals during a slowdown, is actually taking a step forward rather than cutting back.

So what type of companies will come out stronger? What do you need to do so that your business too improves with improving market conditions? Here’s my list;

Value proposition – Additional value offered to customers, rather than discounting price, will not only keep them motivated to be loyal but also help in retaining your margins and increasing your goodwill.

Costs vs. efficiency – Most of the focus is obviously on cutting costs, but there is a real danger of losing your competitive edge if you stop or marginalize activities that affect your customers’ overall experience. Many companies that stop marketing completely are at a risk of losing their ground; the focus should rather be on improving marketing efficiency.

Engagement with customers – Only your customers can tell you if they are, and how much they are likely to use your product or service. Market conditions for you will improve only when your customers’ confidence improves, so discuss these broader issues with them.

Efficiency analysis – Review various business functions and run marketing analytics to fill holes that may be causing leaks in your resource pool.

Manage relationships – It is very important that your vendors do not run out of business and your employees don’t lose motivation during trying times. You will need them to gain momentum once the markets are looking up.

R&D and innovation – Some amount of resources can be moved to research and innovation. For instance, you may not spend so much on sales and promotion and instead channel some of these resources to develop new capabilities or improve on existing ones.

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

When its ok to sell on price.

This is a great article put together by, S. Anthony Iannarino, Many thanks to him for putting this together.

Not selling based on price is the third rail of sales wisdom; it is dangerous to suggest otherwise, I know. The common wisdom says that it is wrong to sell on price. The common wisdom is wrong. Sometimes selling price is exactly the right strategy. We run into trouble as salespeople when we don’t know enough about our own company’s business to know whether or not it is the right strategy.

Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema outlined the the three basic strategic choices a business might make in their wonderful little book The Discipline of Market Leaders. Those choices  include Operational Excellence (the price leader, think Wal-Mart), Product Leader (innovation, think Apple), or Customer Intimacy (best total solution, think your company if you are in B2B). Companies do well when they make one of these choices and act accordingly. Salespeople run into trouble when they work in opposition to their company’s choice.

If your company has made the choice to be the low price leader in their space, then you must sell price. Your target market must be those for whom price is the most important factor. When you align your efforts with your company’s strategy, things work out well for both of you. But when you decide to try to capture a higher sales price when selling to the price-motivated prospects, you are working against your company’s strategy. They have built their strategy on volume. Ultimately, the higher price you captured will cause customers to continue looking for another provider, and they will find one. You will lose sales, and your company will lose the volume for which it was designed.

What the common wisdom against selling price is really addressing is the fact that salespeople often choose to sell based on price when it is not their company’s strategic choice. If your company sells B2B, it is doubtful that they have chosen lowest price as their strategy. It is a very difficult position to hold. They have more than likely chosen to be the innovative product leader or to focus on the best overall solution. Both of these choices require that a company capture a higher price for the cost of innovating or the cost of customizing solutions to create the best overall solution for their clients. As a salesperson, selling based on price here works against their company’s strategic choice. It works against their own interests a salesperson too; it makes the clients you acquire expensive to serve because your company is not capturing a high enough price to be able to provide the level of innovation or solution that they really need. It leads to unmet customer expectations, lots of complaints, and lower than necessary margins.

If your company is the innovator, align your efforts by selling to those who need your innovation. This group of prospects can capture the value of using your company’s offering to better compete in their own space and you can easily create value. If your company’s choice is customer intimacy, sell to those for whom the best overall solution is the right choice for creating value in their organization. Align your efforts to the market your company is designed to serve. If your company has not chosen price as a strategy, it is wrong to sell on price.

Salespeople who believe that every customer wants the lowest price are wrong. Many companies choose to buy based on innovation because that is where they create and capture value themselves. Others really want the best overall solution. In all likelihood, if you are selling price to these segments it is because you have not successfully differentiated yourself and your company from the pack and you have not created enough value for the customer to capture the a higher price.

The rub? Too many companies try to occupy more than one of these strategic choices, confusing both their customers and their salespeople.

Source: Thesalesblog.com

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

The 10 Commandments of Effective Homepage Design

This article is from Convio’s Connection Cafe.  It’s short, to-the-point, and can help improve your online presence quickly! Posted by Lacey Kruger at Nov 18, 2009 11:06 AM CST

Categories: Content Management, Usability

 

Just coming out of the Homepage Design Slam session at the Summit, I wanted to provide a brief recap for those who couldn’t make it. Don Roach, our Art Director, and I led the session and got some great (and brave) volunteers to project their homepages and subject them to constructive critiques from their peers. Each volunteer got a party favor in the form of a large Post-It tablet sheet listing some quick fixes they can consider to optimize their homepages. I’m hoping it will be a great tool for them to use to convince others in their organization to make some iterative changes. Don and I made a list of 10 Commandments for designing effective homepages, which we shared with the group to use as guidelines as we reviewed each page.

The 10 Commandments of Homepage Design

I. Thou shalt clearly state who you are and what do you.

II. Thou shalt be able to point to where your top 3-5 online goals are represented on the homepage.

III. Thou shalt offer clear, concise navigation.

IV. Thou shalt provide scannable, up-to-date content that entices visitors to click for more.

V. Thou shalt dedicate space to each of your audience groups.

VI. Thou shalt convey a visual hierarchy so visitors know where to look and what to do first.

VII. Thou shalt include 3-4 ways for visitors to engage.

VIII. Thou shalt avoid the Flash intro or any other gratuitous animation.

IX. Thou shalt make sure most relevant content is above the fold.

X. Thou shalt balance meaningful content with relevant supporting graphics.

Do you have other ideas on guidelines to consider? If you attended our session – what did you think? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

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

Social Media Marketing with Facebook and Twitter (Video)

Lynda.com :: In Social Media Marketing with Facebook and Twitter, Anne-Marie Concepción shows dozens of ways to promote a company’s brand, increase sales, drive traffic to a site, and engage with customers using two of the hottest social networking venues today, Facebook and Twitter. Anne-Marie teaches not only the fundamentals of social media marketing, but also how to create a professional, top-level presence that can put a company in the viral marketing sweet spot. From creating Facebook fan pages to crafting the most perfect Twitter bio for SEO, Anne-Marie dives into the details of both services, and discusses the best third-party add-ons that maximize the social marketing impact. [view video]

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

Social Media in Marketing is Just That...Social

Last month I spoke on a panel at a Marketing conference at Electronic Arts in Redwood City with several marketing professionals speaking about innovations in marketing.  The panel was set up a bit around brand marketing as well as social media so those on the panel spread across a large group of marketing functions as well as types of companies.  After all, marketing for a consumer packaged goods company is not the same as marketing for an online gaming company.  We have a much better educated consumer these days.

The questions were pretty basic about our own particular experiences.  I always think that each industry, product and company has its own challenges/barriers to overcome.  In the entertainment business where I have run affiliate marketing partnerships for the last 10 years, the challenges are very unique whether an established brand such as Ticketmaster or a hot new start up like Reel.com was back in 1997.  It is hard to give advice when such antedotes do not apply to other situations.  In the end the basic principles of managing your brand are still the same though and  times have changed in brand marketing, product, promotion, placement, and pricing (the 4 P’s) are still very important and fundamental to the marketing of a product or service.

There did come a point during Q&A though when the panel was asked about what is the new hot thing or what is innovative in Marketing today.  Many on the panel hesitated and I started to agree with some of the responses that there is nothing really new and innovative.  Maybe there were new channels such as the internet and social networks where placement was just more timely and pricing is more discounted and services and browser based products seemed to succeed better than physical products.

Just as the conversation stopped I asked everyone if they knew who the CEO of Electronic Arts is (this panel was taking place in their building after all) and a few hands were raised.  I asked the same about Proctor & Gamble.  Again hardly anyone raised their hands.  I then followed and asked if anyone felt either of those brands knew who they were.  Silence.  When I asked the same of Amazon, Microsoft and Zappos, the names Bezos, Ballmer and Hsieh were blurted out and hands were raised and people agreed those companies sure knew a whole hell of a lot about who their comsumers are.  For years, companies have been wanting to “own” the customer so that they could market to them as efficiently as possible on a 1 to 1 basis.  Well the big deal and innovative piece is that these companies are now able to do this.  Faces now represent the brand more than ever.  Sure we all knew Lee Iacocca but he never had a dialogue like new companies do today.  The opportunity to get to know your customer is there so that the dialogue is no longer about name less faces and people talking to you from a call center in some 3rd World country asking you about the weather.

Sending an email or letter to a company CEO used to be hard enough as nobody gave you their information.  Now people like Tony Hsieh of Zappos have their own public Twitter accounts where you can have a public or private dialogue with him about how much like his company or your favorite pair of shoes that you want him to carry.  Now while that may not be quite that personal and while Tony might not respond to everyone, it is quite empowering to the customer that at least their voice will be heard.  In this day and age our society always wants to air their grievances and praises publicly.  Things just aren’t that personal anymore. 

That said, in the world of music, there is a lot of impersonalization going on when it comes to music discovery.  It always used to be that you had one or two good friends who you could rely on to recommend a hot new song.  You could allso rely on your favorite DJ to introduce you to something cool.  Nowadays, radio stations are being condensed, Djs are now replaced online by music sites where you self select and program your own radio station and or get recommendations from perfect strangers.  I personally find the recommendations on iTunes to be very off-putting.  Artists such as Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) and Matt Morris (@Mattmorris) are getting personal on Twitter, interacting with their fans. Back stage passes mean a whole new thing with artists granting you the opportunity to meet them before a show and take photos for just a little more money.  Gone are the days when the artists were held on a pedastal like gods and you swayed in a mosh pit of 50,000 people barely able to see the band.  People want to touch and feel the merchandise.  My 7-year old daughter now believes that every concert starts with getting together with the band for a photo shoot.  She doesn’t root for people on the awards show because of the music they play but rather on how nice they were to her when we went to see them play.  She wants me to text them during the concert to win an after concert meeting as well.  Of course my job affords me these luxuries occasionally, but as this example points out.  People have a tendency to have an affinity for those things which have a little more touch in their lives.  People don’t want to just have a photo of Lady Gaga, but they want to be in a photo with Lady Gaga

So here’s the point.  Social media now allows us to do what we used to do on a more realtime basis.  We used to get advice from the 3-4 resources in our lives that shaped our tastes.  Now we still can, but we are able to share more information and on a more timely basis.  We’re also able to get more information in your hands so you can make a better decision.  Sometimes the brand, or serice or product is presented to you in a way that is more personal as well.  Your friends who told you about the next great thing, now can just send you a quick note via Twitter to your cell phone.  Why is this important?  Because you’d rather hear that advice from a face and name you know rather than a person you’ve never met.  We learn more about each other and sometimes we get to give feedback that someone will really use.

In the end its all a personal sale, a personal purchase that means more to you than it probably would have 10 years ago.  Its the real change in marketing evolution.  It’s about at lea three things that help social media to change the way we make our buying decisions today: 1) More product information 2) More Personalization/customization and 3) more timely interaction

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So where do we go from here?

Down economy,   Low Cash,  Corporate Downsizing…Mortgage Crisis?

Sound or feel eerily familiar?  I have been down that road.  I have been burned out of every last red penny in my name.  I have slept in my car in the dead of winter…when it won’t even start.  I have stolen food, when I was so hungry that theft being illegal wouldn’t deter me from my mission of finding sustenance.  I ate meals at charities and churches and relied on charitable organizations for a warmer coat.

So how did I find a new comfortable life?  Where did I go that turned my life around.  How did I go from literally nothing at 19 to being retired and financially set at 25?  Well it was a long bumpy road.  Finding odd jobs as a mechanic and working as a night janitor for a fellow I met at my church ( I began going just for the food).  I realized my life wasn’t really going anywhere.  I was living in a small town where people being afflicted homelessness and drug addiction where more common than decent folk holding down jobs.  I was delinquent on all accounts of credit.  My only shelter was a 1995 Saturn Sc2 with a cracked crank and a busted clutch.  My friends and I commonly referred to the town as a “Time Warp”  because people moved in, lost there way, and never were saw by decent society again.  I refused for that to be me.

I joined the U.S. Army in 2005.  I was moved around the country for training courtesy of Uncle Sam.  I found the old Basic Training cadence “Freedom Isn’t Free” to be absolutely correct.  As I was sent to Iraq in Aug 2007-Jul 2008.  I provided maintenance support to a target acquisition battery.  I rode convoy, was shot at, and eventually suffered during an explosion in Mar 08.  In which myself and two more of my friends were injured.

While recovering I realized that besides my eye-sight being taken from me temporarily, my  balance being off and my left ear not working right anymore.  That I did not want to be a career military man as a way of life.  I began hunting on what little internet could be found in Balad, for a new means to support myself and my new soon to be wife (now my wife as of 11 Jul 09).  I saw every scam under the sun.  I was even taken by a few.  I was just about to give up and look for a job as a Police Officer or something Military or Civil Service related when I stumbled across the (now) biggest thing in my life (besides my loving wife).

I was horribly skeptical at first.  I thought MLM’s were a bust.  That the only man who gets paid is the man on the top.  I just never thought that I would find what I found.  I found a company whose sole mission is to make YOU the man on the top of your MLM.  This was huge.  I was still skeptical but signed up anyway to see some free video’s of how these guys were going to teach me how to be the Big Dog.  Lo and behold they came through and taught me everything I needed to know and even stuff I didn’t understand and won’t need to or never will use.  They did it all so awesomely in fact that I feel it’s my duty to share it with my fellow man.  I’m not even going to get paid for this.  I just want you to know that there is a few people out there that have really figured it out.  They gave me step by step instructions on everything from setting up my first sight, to what to cover in my video’s, to advanced media marketing tips.  They even thought of things to help me that as I was looking for help was I was thinking there is no way they thought of letting me track the progress of my site through them.  WOW!  Was I wrong or what.

The first thing I feel you need to know is what Emerson wrote. “Change happens when the pain of staying the same, becomes greater than the fear of change”.  That’s my life quote.

There is no magic turn key site to instant cash.  There is no buying 10000000000 page views a day that convert at 85% for $1.00   However I do allow you to see the same system that saved my life.  Yes you read it right.  This system SAVED MY LIFE!  For a $1.00 for the first 14 days.  No bull though, I put $1.00 into this thing at the recommendation of my father.  I made $95.00 three days later.  Those three days I didn’t sleep, I barely ate, and I worked non-stop.  The money was really there though.

That’s my point.  You don’t get anything without a substantial amount of effort.  If you are willing to work towards good things.  Good things will come!  If you do not desire to go into this Internet World looking for your path to freedom and success, I can be your guide.  For someone once helped me.  I will not claim to be the richest Internet Guru out there.  Lord knows I am not.  I don;t sleep in a car or eat out behind churches anymore.  All my cars are new and work right.  I don’t need rims and a stereo…I will settle for the GT on the back of my new Mustang (paid in cash) be enough for me.  So if you are looking for an honest team mate who’s got your back to help you on your way to success in life.

Please join me.

http://www.sevenfiguremastermindteam.com/DanielJSmith/30584

http://www.workwithdansmith.com/

After all I don’t spam, you searched and you found me.  I am only wanting your email address so I can Give you my knowledge with videos and letters.  I expect you to know that I am real and, that if you are serious you will join with me to build a better life for yourself.

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

ad of the day - Suicide Sells Pepsi Max

I was amazed to see this Pepsi Max advert using such a taboo subject to illustrate the “one very lonely calorie” idea behind the campaign targeting weight concious consumers. The underdog brand of cola have found the common enemy in this consumer group, the calorie, and so I guess nobody cares if the calorie commits suicide. I think it’s great, it has balls and it certainly doesn’t lack the “LOOK AT ME!!” factor, however, strangely it seems to lack brand consistency with the usual Pepsi Max guidelines, but we’ll let them off for this amazing and evocative illustration.

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

How a web design goes straight to hell

Many of us have had clients or bosses turn an awesome project into a complete nightmare. I stumbled upon a website called www.theoatmeal.com, and I found a piece that illustrates a web design project gone bad.  I totally laughed my head off.  Check it out:

Source: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

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

WHY YOU NEED A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY!

If you had any doubts about the value and potential of  using social media, check out 30 Interesting, Useless and Pointless Facts on Jeff Bulla’s blog at the following link!  Don’t be put off by the title!

You begin to understand why you can’t afford not to know to about Social Media whether you are in the public, private or community sectors!

Here is just one example and three facts!

37% of Generation Y were aware of the Ford Fiesta via social media before it launched in the USA.

25% of Ford’s marketing spend is on digital/social media!

Ford is the only US Auto company not to take a government grand!

Now you begin to see the possibilities now that using LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook may bring?  We have some tips for developing a Social Media Strategy at this link

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

Bagel and Pap Smear with a side of Santa?

Oh yes, ladies and gent(tile)s, the CBS Cares pap smear commercial has a christian version. If you missed my post last week you can read about it here. In short CBS has created a campaign around gifting pap smears. (that would be a hell of an item to regift, no?) Here is the jewish version complete with cream cheese reference (ew)

Thanks to my friend 24 at heart, I have been made aware that it’s not just jewish guys that think a pap smear appointment is the perfect holiday gift. I’m not going to lie here, I am a little put off that the christian guy is so much better looking than the pap ’schmear’ jew with the nasal voice. And who could resist the line, “Give her the gift that even Santa can’t deliver”. Check him out (what a babe!)

But… it gets better. You see CBS is an equal opportunity advertiser. So for all you guys out there, this babe is urging us to schedule you a prostate exam. Oh yes, this is not a joke. And the tagline from this sultry blonde would be? “Give the gift that says Merry Christmas, I love ALL of you”. Shouldn’t that have been, “Give the gift that says turn your head and cough?”

What, you say? No woman of the tribe hawking a prostate exam. Oh yes there is! And her line? Oh really, I can hardly type from laughing so hard, “This Hannukah, give the gift of a kosher prostate.” WTF!!!! Again with the food reference. And this hebropsycho has this creepy way of smiling when she says the word prostate, like she is about to… never mind, you know what they say about jewish girls.

Ok, I will have to admit that these are getting attention, but they are kind of like staring at the accident. Since when did secular patient information go out of style?

I can’t wait to hear the hispanic versions!

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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