Bad To The Brand.

You wake up every day, get dressed and head to the office. (Or wherever you make your living), and before you leave, you are generally dressed in the same style as the day before and probably how you will be the day after.

Today’s Armani suit doesn’t usually give way to leather pants, 6-inch platform shoes and lots of chains in place of where a shirt should be. You- my friend - have a brand.

 So when it comes to your business or your company’s business, ask yourself: are you true to your brand?

The brand, like a puppy needs to be attended to everyday. Some days it needs more care than others. And other days, it needs you to pay attention to the big things as well as the small things.

Ad campaigns. Website development and maintenance. Social site updating. These are some of the elements of activities that fuel brand retention. It is this eclectic mix of stirring up the “brand identity pot” that keeps your brand alive and constantly touching different people thru different avenues.

So before you walk out of the office or, before you head in, ask yourself if you have done all you can to propel your brand forward.

So much for thinking outside the box

At the end of the day, thinking outside of the box is, well, in a nutshell, something that you must have the bandwidth and the skill-set for. Heck, if every Tom, Dick and Harry could do this work, then we’d all be a dime- a-dozen and making our work the next best thing since sliced bread would NOT have our client’s items flying off the shelves or selling like hotcakes. After all, it’s just advertising. Not like it’s rocket surgery.

Are you hiding behind a veil of technology?

Recently, a business coffee meeting turned into casual talk about electronic gadgetry. Of the business persuasion. Smart phones, iPads, laptops, desktops and on and on.

The question came up: “Are we all hiding behind a veil of technology?”

With the dozens of ways to instantly communicate, we have lost our ability or desire to speak on the phone, meet face-to-face, or break bread.

Furthering that sentiment is the fact that along with using these convenient, yet sometimes impersonal methods of communication, many of us are still doing that very thing we all did with our first answering machine. Ducking calls and skirting real conversations.

Very few of us could have ever imagined a world with such fantastic machinery, technology, accessibility and convenience. But every once and a while, it is nice to get off of the cloud, remove the veil and make a connection.

And no, Bluetooth does not count.

Mobile Ad Spending Soaring to Billions, with a “B”

“Back in the day” when the internet was first making its appearance, I remember the countless discussions about how it would change business and commerce. The way we shopped and researched items would be altered for the better, forever. And while, for many it was hard to grasp how the internet was going to eliminate brick-and-mortar establishments or how we gathered our news, there is a whole new ball game in town and I wonder – are people embracing the emergence and intensity at which mobile is taking over?

Ad Age recently reported that US mobile ad spending today rests at an impressive $743 million. Next year, $1.1 billion and is anticipated to more than double by 2014. ( http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=146553 )

These are very exciting times for marketers, advertisers and consumers. Learning, communicating and shopping from the palm of your hand is a marvelous tool that has changed everything in our world. I wonder, as we take into account projections like Ad Age’s, how quickly will the collective “we” make the shift and change for good.

An interesting snip of digi history

http://pewinternet.org/Commentary/2010/September/The-Power-of-Mobile.aspx

Have You Moved To Mobile?

Re-purposed from the confidentcopywriter.com

Dan Butcher, associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily and himself a mobile marketer, recently referred to an important survey conducted by PriceGrabber, a Experian-owned, Los Angeles-based online shopping site boasting more than 11,000 merchants and 23 million+ unique shoppers monthly. The survey polled 2,445 online consumers from March 26 to April 12, 2010, focusing on smartphone shopping behavior, specifically the increase in consumer mobile shopping (especially purchases of digital content and consumer electronics).

Mobile purchases have seen a steady increase since 2009. Over the past year, ownership of 3G-compatible Web-enabled phones shot from 48 percent to 64 percent. Fifty-three percent of online consumers own a ‘smartphone’. Twenty-two percent indicated they planned to purchase from their mobile device in the next 12 months.

And what are all these people buying?

• Consumer electronics: 57%
• Ringtones: 61%
• Books: 42%
• Clothing: 34%
• Jewelry: 16%

Hey! Just like a day at the mall, sans wasted gas, traffic, angry shoppers, screaming babies, rude salespeople….this mobile marketing thing may just catch on after all!
What else are people doing with their smartphones?

• Checking prices…22%…compared with 16% in 2009
• Researching products…21%…compared with 16% in 2009
• Browse for products…compared to 14% in 2009

Barbary Brunner, PriceGrabber’s chief marketing officer, explains the trend, “Because mobile is an anywhere/anytime device it can enable a brand or retailer to connect with consumers at their moment of greatest interest or need and is most meaningful for the retailer. Mobile devices reduce the gap between the virtual and the physical world, allowing for greater efficiency for and value to both the purchaser and the seller.

Consumers are not only researching products, they are also making purchases and comparing prices. When purchasing from a mobile device, consumers currently favor digital content like apps and ringtones, as well as consumer electronics. By providing all the tools and information that consumers need to make purchases in a format that is easily consumed on mobile devices, retailers can drive more in-store traffic and ultimately increase sales.”

In today’s blink-and-you-missed-it marketplace, businesses of all types seek groundbreaking methods for building consumer relationships. Yet, the very speed of business chops the typical merchant/consumer dialogue to bits. By time the buyer shows up, credit card in hand, they’ve already done the legwork to reach a buying decision…and the merchant often loses the powerful opportunity to influence that buying decision. Technology like mobile marketing restores some of this two-way transparency.

As more mobile applications are brought to the marketplace, consumers with smartphones will continue to scout out the best deals ‘over the phone’ in greater numbers, ultimately transforming how we research, evaluate and purchase the items we want and need.

Is mobile marketing in your future, either as a merchant or a consumer?

“We’ve Always Done It That Way.”

It’s been suggested that those six words are the most expensive words in business?

Business and marketing, much like life, is a living and breathing entity. To get to a point of success demands planning, tenacity and, face it, a little luck. So why is it that when businesses reach a level of success, they become content to rest on their laurels? Is it contentment, complacency or just apathy?

Someone once said that, “even those who are on the right track eventually get run over.”

If you think your business may be one of those, it’s time to drag it out of that rut. Choose an agency that knows the art of zagging, while the others continue to zig. Remember, if you don’t have a choice, you don’t have a chance.

The Importance of Being First Off the Blocks

A “few” years ago when I was competing in high school track and field, I was constantly reminded of how important it was to get “off the blocks” at the precise time. Too early, foul. Too late, you are already behind. Anticipating the start and jumping just a fraction of a second early – bam! Instant advantage.

The same holds true with your marketing plan. So many of us have been sitting on the sidelines, waiting for the “right” moment.

Over the past year, we have been working with several clients who know the value of staying in the race. While everyone isn’t necessarily sprinting, the pace has been competitive and we now sense a second wind coming.

These folks are in the lead.

If you and your business have been sitting on the benches waiting for the “right time” to get back on the track, today is as good as any.

Successful companies market during the soft times because they can and because they know the value of capturing market share from those that slowed to a jog. Or worse.

Lace up your shoes, have a long drink of water and get back on the track.

Just launched a new app.

iBlurb was launched about 3 weeks ago. Sales have suddenly grown exponentially. See what all the fun is about!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iblurb/id349886725?mt=8

Cold Country

You know the climate you are living in is brutally cold when you reach into the refrigerator just to warm up.