Have you seen that “weeeeeeeeeeee” piggy ziplining in the new GEICO commercial – I just love him!! Not only is that damn piggy freakin’ adorable but it totally reminds me it’s GEICO… and that’s total brand building at it’s best. I know, I know but what the old school “rules” of consistency and repetition to build a brand? Well look at the GEICO GECKO and the CAVEMAN…yep, all different brand images that GEICO has also utilized in their marketing campaigns. Consistency and repetition are the sure fire methods to building any brand but as you can see from GEICO, if done right you can break the “rules” and have numerous iconic ads running simultaneously.

I read this great article by  Renee Quinn of IPWatchdog and thought it would be great to share her take on GEICO’s multi-brand tactics. Take a quick read and enjoy that piggy commercial….. weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Customers often ask “why should I spend money on promo products – aren’t they just a waste of money?” Well here is a prime example of just how small branded promo giveaways can have big impact on your marketing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
Having some back pain issues a few weeks back I had an appointment with a new chiropractor in the area. As a new patient I received a “Welcome Bag” which included a t-shirt, some great muscle soothing gel, a mug, pens and keychain – all personalized with the chiro’s logo and contact info: This week while riding my bike, I happened to wear the shirt and coincidently ran into a friend looking for a chiro, they saw my shirt and asked if they were good – i said yes and they took down the chiro’s number – that was referral #1.

Later on that week – my father was having shoulder pain, I remembered I had the muscle soothing gel in my purse so I gave him the packet. This week he called and told me he had made an appointment with that same chiro! That was referral #2. So from one little “welcome bag” that chiro got two new patient referrals –  unknowingly, I was his walking advertisement, and as most people know – chiro appts turn into several — so the return investment on his promo bag was tenfold.

Using logo-imprinted giveaways, promotional items, corporate apparel and personalized gifts can help spread your company info at any given moment. A little thing can go a big way and can help in so many ways:

• build brand awareness
• raise funds for a cause
• reward a job well done
• spread the word
• create buzz
• strengthen team unity
• stand out at a tradeshow

Check out some of our new 2012 promotional products  and let us help develop a branding campaign that gets you noticed!

As the new year approaches we begin to plan goals, some of those may include goals to increase business and marketing efforts. In today’s tough economy most small businesses tend to disregard any marketing however there are many low cost tools that can really help increase your business exposure. Here are 7 ideas to review to kickstart you in the right direction.

Professional Brand – is your company’s logo and advertising representing your business brand? Does your company image or website need a fresh new approach? Take a look at your business card, brochures and marketing tools – are they clearly speaking your message, do they include website and social media links?

Social Media Branding – Are you taking advantage of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc to engage with your audience? Is your company logo or brand image clearly defined and streamlined on these platforms? Are you including live links to all your social media platforms so customers can easily click and find you?

Promotional Products – There are many budget friendly promotional products available to help you brand your business. Promo items are great for new client meetings, holiday or contest giveaways. What about tradeshows and business expos – are you ready with promo items that can easily help promote your business?

Business Email Signatures – Look at your email signature – does it include your logo, website and social media links? This can easily begin to build brand recognition.

Start a blog – one of the biggest things that can help your website is a blog. From an SEO standpoint content and inbound links can help increase your visibility, and from a marketing standpoint, creating a blog about your business or service makes you the “go to” resource for that particular subject. Sharing information and experience can be an asset and if used wisely can create increased exposure to your website.

Facebook Fan Page – Does your business have a custom fan page – are you taking advantage of the tools to help increase your “Likes” A custom fan page is a tab set up on Facebook that includes your business look and feel. It can highlight your service or product, it can help build email lists and drive traffic to your website and turn visitors into fans which can turn into leads.

Website Landing Page – When visitors land on your website can they clearly find info about who you are or what your business does? Does it clearly communicate all of your services or define your products and how to contact you. Adding social media icons right on the landing page is also a great way to help build your small network.

So now you have 7 ideas to help increase your marketing – so what are you waiting for? Go start your new year marketing right and check off some of these items. Wishing you much success for 2012!

As the holiday season approaches, promotional products are often used as giveaways to employees, business associates and customers with the intention of increasing your brand awareness and exposure.
The fundamental aim of promotional products is to reinforce your marketing message, like with all other marketing tools. Any brand needs different mediums to reach its target audience, promotional products are just another way of creating publicity for your brands. Promotional products constitute a significant part of the interactive marketing strategy as they allow you to connect with your target market on a different level.
Promotional products are customizable and for that reason they add an element of tangibility to your brand. They give substance to all your advertising efforts, and always make your brand stand out no matter whether it’s a branded stationery, shirts, baseball caps, mugs, jewelry, key chains, gift items and the like.

Since promotional products are one medium that engage all five senses i.e. the target audience can see, hear, touch, taste, and even smell them, they have a greater impact on their perception of a brand. These promotional products not only leave a long lasting impression on the audience, but have readily measurable effectiveness.
What’s more is that these promotional products come in pretty affordable rates, and offer great value and usability to customers, while strengthening your brand’s awareness and recall. Marketers can use promotional products as gift items to clients, employees and customers, sales items for Corporate Social Responsibility causes, as mass giveaways in tradeshows and other special marketing events, and as rewards for your vendors and distributors.
The process of effective branding includes using various marketing strategies for keeping the demographically diverse target audiences engaged with the brand. Promotional products allow you to create a place for your brand and company in the target market’s minds. So if your company is looking to build its brand equity then creating brand awareness is the first step towards the goal, which can be effectively achieved by transferring your brand logo to promotional items that you can give away to promote your business.

Promotional products can help you:
• Drive traffic and prospective customers to your brand’s stall in a tradeshow.
• They help develop a greater consumer response rate to your direct mail campaigns.
• With their help, you can increase your referrals, and consequentially, the business returns.
• Increase employee morale and as a result, their productivity level.
• They boost brand loyalty and help customers retain your brand in the top of the mind category of recall.
• Constantly remind customers of your brand’s existence.

Using promotional products can increase your brand’s awareness and its involvement with customers in a cost-effective manner. They help in brand reinforcement by improving the advertising returns, meanwhile also increasing the power and awareness of your brand. Furthermore, they work like an incentive for potential customers by compelling them to buy your brand in order to avail the free promotional products. For that reason, promotional products are always a part of a smart marketing strategy. Why not check out some of our products and we can find the right item to fit your budget and your brand@

How to get Twitter follower is a question we often get this asked and in our quest to find the the right answer – we came across this great graphical representation from Twiends that explains it all~ and since visuals always help we’d thought to share, enjoy!

It goes without saying that in the business world, effective marketing leads you to success. It is successful if it can sell well, and just how can your product offerings be taken up by your target market eagerly? Through effective marketing, the instrument of any business’ prosperity and continuity. Want to build a successful business right from the start? Then you will need the help of all the marketing tools that you can employ as means to attract customers.

To reach to your customers above all the noise that the saturated business world makes, you need to do a lot more than just grab the attention of your target market. You have to market yourself in a way which can attract the customers, create an impact on the consumer perception and lead them to make the buying decisions.

In the initial phase only the course your business is going to take over its span is decided. What effects this decision is the how you market yourself. Marketing being the most important function of any business can help you achieve new heights of success if only you were to use the right tools.

Crucial marketing tools for new businesses:

Today’s world is owned and run by the Web 2.0 technology, you need to take into integrate both the conventional and contemporary marketing tools in order to ensure your business’ success. Following are some of the marketing tools imperative to success of any business, regardless of the industry you are in.

· Corporate Website:

The first step towards effective marketing in the age of the internet is to have a corporate website established. This is to increase your accessibility and visibility to your target market.

· Expert blogging:

Blogging is how you persuade your potential customers to become you loyal to your brand. This persuasion takes place through expert opinion, honest product reviews and recommendations, interesting product experiences, as but a few ways to convince people to buy your products.

· SEO & SEM:

Search Engine Optimization and Marketing is the name of the game, through engaging in it you can attract more targeted and quality target audience for your product offerings online.

· Digital Marketing:

Web advertisements, banner ads, e-mail marketing, Pay Per Click advertising, and the like are all but constructs of digital marketing, which are not only inexpensive compared to the conventional marketing but extremely effective as well.

· Social Media Marketing:

The power and impact of the social media networks on the customers across the globe cannot be overlooked. Every business nowadays runs a social media campaign in order to remain updated and in touch with customers’ preferences and demands.

· TVCs and print ads:

While you should actively employ internet marketing, nevertheless, you cannot ignore the traditional marketing tools like TV commercials, print ads in newspapers, magazines and journal, hoardings and billboards, as these are what have the highest customer reach.

· Content and copy writing:

With the right words, you can change the whole outlook of your brand and make it so that customers will come swarming to it automatically like bees to honey.  You need to know what your customers want to hear and know about your brand and tell them exactly that through your messages.

The effectiveness of any marketing tool to drive your business towards success depends on its ability to generate a positive buzz about your brand in the market and then to sustain it, so make sure you utilize all the right and relevant ones.

Someone sent me this little graphic gem and had to post it for all my graphic designer friends!

In the constant struggle to keep up with the social media train and the ever-conquering quest for social media ROI, I came across a great read that I would highly recommend to any small business. It truly emphasizes that if your a business – big, small, entrepreneur, solopreneur – and you’re not utilizing the vast capabilities of social media – you are missing out on a huge  marketing shift that is happening NOW. 

This book is so full of little nuggets of information and wisdom, that I was so excited to finish in 2 days!  The book, The Thank You Economy, by  Gary Vaynerchuk total focus is on how we’ve entered into a new business era. The businesses and brands that harness the word-of-mouth power from social media, those that can shift their culture to be more customer-aware and fan-friendly, will pull away from the pack and profit in today’s markets.
Gary Vaynerchuk, renowned entrepreneur, keeps you flipping the pages fast with his irrestible candor and wit. He was interviewed by Brian Elliot of Behind the Brand not to long ago and I happend to find the YouTube video – take a look to get an insight into Gary and his passionate sense for the small business.

We all know that the internet marketplace runs rampant with cut-throat competition, so, having a strong brand identity is all the more important to survive in the business world, especially in todays internet marketplace. The success of your brand depends upon your brand identity, the more authentic and appealing it is, the more customers you can attract.

Therefore,  if you have a sophisticated, distinguishing, and professional brand identity, it can do wonders for your business. A brand identity is based on a set of consistent marketing materials, which includes numerous pieces like logo, brochures, business cards, letterhead, online advertising, web promotions, internet articles, company profile, corporate website, e- newsletters, just to name a few.

When the competition runs tough, and as your target market comes in touch with your brand online, you have only but a few seconds to leave your mark and make a positive impression in the mind of a visitor to make him a more loyal and regular customer or to covert him into a potential customer.

So where exactly does the point of difference between your brand and the million others out there in the market lie? The answer is brand identity, which defines who and what your brand is. It is what makes your brand simple and yet unique, while strengthening its positioning and adding to its effectiveness. Following are some ways in which having a polished brand identity and marketing materials can create an impact on your online business:

· Brand identity to influence people:

If your brand does not possess a professional, high-quality, and consistent look in its marketing materials then it is likely you won’t make an impact on your audience. This is because of the fact that you need to attract customers by convincing them to sign up or buy your product offerings through using various visual materials. Globally, all successful brands have a brand identity, and with a good reason: it lends them credibility and increases their brand awareness.

· Benefits to be gained from brand identity and marketing materials:

Brands are the personality of your business. They have feelings that that they express, opinions that they voice, messages that they communicate, behaviors that they enact, causes that they support, background that they hail from, so that is a personality that they depict.

A brand’s identity is what creates the desired and right brand perception in the minds of your target market, represented by the quality of the marketing materials you utilize. You can ascertain your brand’s success by maintaining a polished online presence.

• If you have a professional looking webpage, blog, advertisement, offering, etc., they are more likely to generate a huge fan following and be distributed widely over the internet.
• A corporate and elegant look implies that your brand comes from a reliable and financially sound company and, thus, adds to your customer base.
• The buying behavior and purchasing decisions of the customers are greatly affected by the image that your brand identity causes in the consumers’ perception.
• Brand identity is the driving force behind increasing brand recall and brand recognition, which ultimately leads to brand awareness across different online platforms by aiding the target audience’s memory.

So basically, brand identity is how you differentiate yourself and stand out among all the clutter. A well-designed and executed brand identity will communicate your message effectively, attract customers, and also build your brand equity. Have you thought about what your brand identity is saying about your business and what you could do to make yourself stand out better?