Love and pepperoni: the perfect delicious match. Pizza Hut wants to help you pop the question to your main squeeze with the $10,010 Ultimate Valentine’s Day Proposal in a Box. The package includes limo service to a local Pizza Hut location, a professional photographer and videographer, fireworks display, flowers, ruby engagement ring, and, most deliciously, a Pizza Hut $10 Dinner Box. Domino's, your move. Full story at Eater. Love is pizza. Permalink | Leave a comment »
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Pizza Hut's proposal package
Holy Kaw!9 Feb 2012 | 9:36 am -
10 things you still need to know about social media / social business.
The BrandBuilder Blog8 Feb 2012 | 2:34 amSince I am bouncing around Europe this week, (come say hi at #tsc12 if you can), now is a good time to republish this list from a few months ago. It is still as relevant today as it was then: 1. “Social” is something you are, not something you do. If your company culture doesn’t focus on building relationships with your customers, then chances are that you won’t use social media to do it either. The “media” doesn’t dictate how social a company is or isn’t. It simply enhances its ability to be a social business – if in fact it is – or illustrates the extent to which it… -
Are You Using The Right Words For Your Brand?
Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel8 Feb 2012 | 10:30 amAre you using the right words to build your personal brand in your resume, marketing materials, and social media updates? Often, there’s a disconnect, or gap, between the words used in resumes, marketing materials, & day-to-day social marketing, and the personal brand an individual is trying to build. Personal brand building is impossible if you’re not using the right words! To make sure that you’re using the right words, I’d like to share a free online tool you can use to visually display the contents of your resume, marketing materials, and social media marketing… -
Apple stock soars, company worth more than Google, Microsoft combined
TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog9 Feb 2012 | 9:30 amWhoa! As of this writing (noon EST) Apple stock has reached a new high of US$493.85, which is a new a record. It also gives the company a market capitalization of $465 billion, which exceeds the combined totals of Google and Microsoft. Apple passed Microsoft in Market Cap back in May of 2010. At the current prices, Apple is comfortably ahead of Exxon Mobil, with has a market cap of about $400 million. Just yesterday we reported that Apple had gained $100 in share price since Steve Jobs died last October, but those numbers are already outdated.Apple stock soars, company worth more than Google,… -
Nature's Greatest Predator Reduced To Blaring Your LMFAO
Gizmodo: Iphone8 Feb 2012 | 8:20 am
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Holy Kaw!
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Pizza Hut's proposal package
9 Feb 2012 | 9:36 amLove and pepperoni: the perfect delicious match. Pizza Hut wants to help you pop the question to your main squeeze with the $10,010 Ultimate Valentine’s Day Proposal in a Box. The package includes limo service to a local Pizza Hut location, a professional photographer and videographer, fireworks display, flowers, ruby engagement ring, and, most deliciously, a Pizza Hut $10 Dinner Box. Domino's, your move. Full story at Eater. Love is pizza. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Uncertain choices light up ‘explorer’ brains
9 Feb 2012 | 9:19 amPeople who consistently select for uncertainty may harness the computational power of a specific brain region. Some people—”explorers”—choose to grapple with uncertainty head on. It’s a strategy of maximizing rewards by discovering whether as yet unexplored options might yield better returns. While some might stick with the usual, “explorers” might order the special in a restaurant because they aren’t sure they’ll like it. Prior to the Brown University study, there was no consensus that a precise area of the prefrontal cortex, in this case… -
Valentine's Day rebooted as Generosity Day [video]
9 Feb 2012 | 9:05 amOut with the chocolate, roses, and edible underwear, in with spreading kindness. The big hearts at Causes.com have set out on a mission to rebrand Valentine's Day as Generosity Day and it starts with you pledging to share the love on February 14th. The Generosity Day pledge: Just say YES. This February 14th, let's reboot Valentine's Day as Generosity Day. Practice saying YES to every request for help and by being generous. I pledge to spend February 14th saying YES to all requests for help. Say "yes" to generosity at Causes.com. Spread the love by doing something good. Permalink | Leave a… -
How coffee changed America [infographic]
9 Feb 2012 | 8:57 amFull-size version at Lumin Consulting. Delicious coffee. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Restaurant brands flock to Kids LiveWell program
9 Feb 2012 | 8:54 amThe number of restaurant brands participating in the Kids LiveWell program has tripled to 70 companies and 20,000 restaurants across the country. Eateries are finding creative ways to participate in the program that helps parents find healthier dining choices for their children, says Healthy Dining President Anita Jones-Mueller. Full story at SmartBlog on Restaurants by SmartBrief. More SmartBrief stories. Permalink | Leave a comment »
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The BrandBuilder Blog
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10 things you still need to know about social media / social business.
8 Feb 2012 | 2:34 amSince I am bouncing around Europe this week, (come say hi at #tsc12 if you can), now is a good time to republish this list from a few months ago. It is still as relevant today as it was then: 1. “Social” is something you are, not something you do. If your company culture doesn’t focus on building relationships with your customers, then chances are that you won’t use social media to do it either. The “media” doesn’t dictate how social a company is or isn’t. It simply enhances its ability to be a social business – if in fact it is – or illustrates the extent to which it… -
What every CEO can learn from P&G’s Robert McDonald
1 Feb 2012 | 4:45 amWe’re going to talk about a few things today: The relationship between ad spend and sales, the importance of focusing on the right metrics in order to make smart budget decisions, the problem with using impressions as a unit of campaign success, and how easily die-hard habits can trip us up. Hat tip to Chris Young for pointing me to this story in Business Insider. Pay attention to how the story begins: Reality appears to have finally arrived at Procter & Gamble, the world’s largest marketer, whose $10 billion annual ad budget has hurt the company’s margins. P&G said… -
Dispatches from the future: The moon base mission patch.
30 Jan 2012 | 11:42 pmPosted November 8, 2020. Above: Mission patch commemorating the establishment of the first American moon base in the final year of President Gingrich’s second term. Though the moon base’s name was auctioned off to the highest bidder as soon as it became operational, it was originally named after Vice-President Herman Cain’s famous 9-9-9 tax plan, which made it possible for federally-backed private funding to finance 100% of the project. Happy Florida primary, everyone. It only gets weirder and crazier from here. Note: Credit where credit is due - The original template was… -
More things you need to know.
19 Jan 2012 | 4:01 amWe’ll resume our Deathbed Confessions series next week with Part 3. In the meantime, here are a few insights from people far smarter than me that might come in handy: On innovation, grabbing life by the horns, and not pissing your life away: “Do things that are gaspworthy.” That was one of the main messages delivered by Tom Peters, the influential business thinker and management [expert], in a speech at Epsilon’s Integrated Marketing Symposium 2006 at the Quail Lodge in Carmel, CA. “Do cool stuff that make people gasp,” said Peters, who looked older and angrier than in his… -
SOPA, PIPA and bills like them want to kill this blog. And yours.
17 Jan 2012 | 8:01 pmIf you like this blog and others like it, don’t support SOPA or any of its variants. If you hate this blog and others like it, support SOPA and all of its variants. It’s that simple. 1. None of it effectively impacts piracy. 2. It throws the baby out the window but doesn’t do a whole lot to throw out the bathwater. It’s backwards. As much as I’ve loved writing here for the last 7 years, if SOPA or any future incarnations of SOPA pass, I will have to shut down this blog. Here is why: http://mashable.com/2012/01/17/sopa-dangerous-opinion/ As for the reason why…
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Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel
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Are You Using The Right Words For Your Brand?
8 Feb 2012 | 10:30 amAre you using the right words to build your personal brand in your resume, marketing materials, and social media updates? Often, there’s a disconnect, or gap, between the words used in resumes, marketing materials, & day-to-day social marketing, and the personal brand an individual is trying to build. Personal brand building is impossible if you’re not using the right words! To make sure that you’re using the right words, I’d like to share a free online tool you can use to visually display the contents of your resume, marketing materials, and social media marketing… -
Interview Rejection To Selection
8 Feb 2012 | 2:30 amPeople unfamiliar with sales techniques usually become depressed by interview rejection and then lose momentum for continuing in their search for employment. From a typical salesperson’s perspective, rejections are not necessarily bad particularly when used as valuable learning lessons. BUT the seasoned sales professional, with a smile on her face, will mentally say, NEXT! Early in my sales career, I learned that it was necessary to make 100 sales calls in order to make 10 sales. It was not motivating to learn I only had a 10% chance for making a sale. We were then told, the more… -
3 Ways To Implement Your Personal Brand Offline
7 Feb 2012 | 10:30 amFor most professionals, personal branding thrives online. Through juggling social media profiles, managing reputation, creating content, and securing our sites, we may forget that personal branding can also be done in person – and can be just as effective, if not more so. Attending an industry event, association meeting, or even a professional cocktail hour in your city can be a great and easy way to transition the brand you’ve created online into the real world. Consider below three ways to implement your brand in person once you’re there: Keep The Conversation Going. Since you’re… -
20 Questions Smart Employees Ask Themselves
7 Feb 2012 | 2:30 amThese 20 questions cover five key areas that are critical to your accurately evaluating how well you’re doing at work. Your answers (or score) predict whether you’re likely to be promoted, fired or kept simmering in the same spot for years to come. Score each question on a scale of 1-10 (10 = AWESOME). Add up your total score in each category. If you are totally awesome, you’ll have a total of 200 points. If you score below 30 points in any category, it’s time to take remedial action. Job mastery How well do I? 1. Exhibit expertise of the particular knowledge and skills that make me a… -
How To Really Impress During A Job Interview
6 Feb 2012 | 12:00 pmNext to a root canal appointment, few things in life are as nerve inducing as the job interview. In this day and age, the face-to-face interview is typically the first time a prospective employee will speak to an actual person. This “actual” person literally has your career in the palm of their hand. They will determine, based on this portion of the hiring process, whether or not the process will continue or come to a screeching halt. Wow! No wonder you’re nervous. Right? Below are a few ideas that will go a long way toward taking some of the pressure off of you and making the most of…
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TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog
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Apple stock soars, company worth more than Google, Microsoft combined
9 Feb 2012 | 9:30 amWhoa! As of this writing (noon EST) Apple stock has reached a new high of US$493.85, which is a new a record. It also gives the company a market capitalization of $465 billion, which exceeds the combined totals of Google and Microsoft. Apple passed Microsoft in Market Cap back in May of 2010. At the current prices, Apple is comfortably ahead of Exxon Mobil, with has a market cap of about $400 million. Just yesterday we reported that Apple had gained $100 in share price since Steve Jobs died last October, but those numbers are already outdated.Apple stock soars, company worth more than Google,… -
Satechi's Cup Holder Mount keeps your iPad and iPhone close at hand
9 Feb 2012 | 9:00 amSo, your Family Truckster is loaded with sixteen cup holders in various places. Since you already have a place to stash your hot coffee while driving, wouldn't it be nice to use one of those cup holders for something really useful, like holding your iPad or iPhone within arm's reach? Satechi yesterday delivered the SCH-121 Cup Holder Mount (US$29.99), which comes with two cradles, one for 7" - 10" tablets and the other for your smartphone. While you don't exactly want to be going down the road watching movies on your iPad, this is perfect for the back seat crowd, front row passengers, or for… -
Steve Jobs' 1991 FBI file has been released
9 Feb 2012 | 8:26 amHave a bit of time? Want to learn more about Steve Jobs' life than you were able to dredge up reading the Walter Isaacson biography? All you have to do is read the 191-page 1991 FBI background investigation of Jobs that was done when he was being considered for an appointment to the President's Export Council. The file also include records of a 1985 bomb threat made against Jobs. John Cook at Gawker noted that "I've read the files from a lot of background FBI investigations; it's pretty rare in my experience that this much derogatory information gets dredged up." What kind of derogatory… -
Google after 2.25% of every iPhone sale
9 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amGoogle is in the process of acquiring Motorola and its 17,000 patents. Everyone from analysts to tech pundits are wondering if the search company will adopt the handset maker's aggressive patent litigation strategy. Legal experts criticize Motorola for violating the terms of FRAND, which requires patent holders to license standards-based patents to other companies under fair and reasonable terms. Motorola reportedly uses FRAND patents to sue rivals and asks for unreasonable royalty fees which seek compensation based on the selling price of a product, not the core technology it is licensing. -
Daily iPhone App: Spice Invaders
9 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amIf you're tired of tower defense games, I don't blame you. Feel free to skip this post, but let me say this before you go: I wouldn't spotlight yet another tower defense game if it wasn't special. That's why Spice Invaders has made the cut. The standard tower defense tropes are in place. Build and upgrade towers with spells and abilities to repel invaders while carrying on a map-wide campaign. But Spice Invaders by On5 Games (published by Chillingo) goes a step further. First of all, the game is super polished. It runs great and looks terrific, and everything from the characters to the UI…
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Gizmodo: Iphone
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Nature's Greatest Predator Reduced To Blaring Your LMFAO
8 Feb 2012 | 8:20 am -
An iPhone Used as a Hockey Puck at 82 MPH
8 Feb 2012 | 7:36 amIf you want to sell something in tech, you can either employ cleavage or violence. In this case, the boys at G-Form are demoing their new iPhone case by beating the hell out of it with a hockey stick. Sure! More » -
TripLingo Romance Edition: Love Abroad
7 Feb 2012 | 3:28 pmMore » -
DigiTech's iPhone Guitar Pedal Lets You Shred Without Your Phone
7 Feb 2012 | 12:40 pm -
Nooka: The Not-So-Intuitive, But-Still-Cool-Looking Clock
6 Feb 2012 | 3:00 pmMore »
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Mashable!
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An Olympic-Style Torch Relay … With Lightsabers [VIDEO]
9 Feb 2012 | 9:33 amEach day, Mashable highlights one noteworthy YouTube video. Check out all our viral video picks. The fine folks at Nerdist are teaming up with Lucasfilm, Octagon and Machinima to do the first ever “Lightsaber Run” in the days leading up to San Diego Comic Con. That might be the geekiest thing we’ve ever written. Considering our penchant for robots, that’s saying a lot! Dubbed “Course of the Force,” the Olympic-style lightsaber relay will take place on July 7 to 11 and cover the trek from Santa Monica to San Diego. At each quarter-mile marker, participants… -
Kickstarter Project for Adventure Game Raises $600,000 in One Day
9 Feb 2012 | 9:18 amA video game developer’s Kickstarter project has raised more than $600,000 in just 24 hours. When game veteran Tim Schafer put up a Kickstarter Wednesday night, he wanted to answer the question: are adventure games still viable and popular? Adventure games, mostly seen on PCs and some consoles in the late ’80s and ’90s, were known for their creative stories, immersive worlds and difficult puzzles. Schafer was responsible for designing and writing of the most popular ones, including Full Throttle, Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle and The Secret of Monkey Island. He has… -
Listen, Then Vote: Who Should Win a Grammy?
9 Feb 2012 | 9:03 amThe 54th annual Grammy Awards ceremony is imminent, and the nominations are in. This year, the Recording Academy continues to embrace digital and social technology, providing you ways to follow the activity leading up to and during the big night. Of course, we’ll all have to wait until Sunday night to find out who the winners are. Prolific Tweeter Kanye West leads the way with seven nominations, but the major four categories (Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best New Artist) are dominated by Adele, Bruno Mars, and Bon Iver (3 out of 4 each). Last year’s… -
Thrillist Co-Founder Ben Lerer Answers Your Questions [LIVE CHAT]
9 Feb 2012 | 8:50 amBen Lerer is the co-founder and CEO of Thrillist, a leading men’s multi-platform lifestyle publication with over 3 million daily subscriptions in 21 localized markets in the U.S. and the UK. Since its launch in 2005, Lerer has overseen the growth of Thrillist’s marketing, sales and business development efforts, as well as its expansion into e-commerce with the acquisition of members-only online retailer JackThreads.com, and the launch of localized deals platform Thrillist Rewards. Lerer was among Crain’s “40 under 40” class of 2010, Entrepreneur magazine’s “Top 5… -
DARPA AlphaDog Robot Steps Lively With 400 Lbs on its Back [VIDEO]
9 Feb 2012 | 8:14 amThe typical soldier can only carry about 100 lbs. worth of gear, but not indefinitely. DARPA’s (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) new robotic mule, however, can carry 400 lbs. of gear and never get tired — and it can do it with a surprising degree of agility. Physical overburden of soldiers is one of the top five biggest challenges for the U.S. army, according to DARPA, and a semi-autonomous legged robot, officially named the Legged Squad Support System (LS3), might be one way of fixing that problem. In the video above, the LS3 prototype (original developer Boston…
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TechCrunch
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Avast, Me Hearties: How The Pirate Bay Changed The Way We Steal
9 Feb 2012 | 9:41 amThe Pirate Bay, in many ways, is disappearing. It is one of the most popular torrent sites on the web and its database of millions of torrent files – essentially pointers to pieces of files hosted elsewhere – has long been the go-to spot for budding pirates around the world. While it still exists in spirit, the admins are now moving all of the torrent files off the site and are instead offering magnet links. This is an important distinction that will move the locus of general piracy from a single site to any number of sites, reducing the Pirate Bays importance as a source. First,… -
Cinemagram Turns iPhone Photos Into Animated Gifs In Seconds
9 Feb 2012 | 9:07 amRemember when the iPhone app GLMPS launched last summer, seemingly heralding the start of a new image format that blended static photos and video? No? That’s OK. Today, there’s a new twist on the idea of reinventing the mobile photo, this time by turning static photos into animated ones. With the newly launched app called Cinemagram, you can turn your iPhone pics into animated gifs in a matter of seconds. Cinemagram isn’t quite the same as GLMPS, to be clear. “The GLMPS app embedded an entire video as a picture-in-picture onto the image,” explains… -
Google, Microsoft Search Queries Grow In January While Yahoo Continues To Slide
9 Feb 2012 | 8:56 amcomScore has released its ‘explicit’ U.S. search data for January of this year and while Google and Microsoft Bring’s search share continues to grow, Yahoo’s share dropped both year over year and month over month. This comes after Bing overtook Yahoo in terms of search queries for the first time in December. While Bing grew slightly from December 2011 to January, Google reached its highest share since December 2010 this past month. Google search queries increased 6% year over year in January, to 66.2%, compared with 65.9% in December 2011 and 65.6% in January 2011. -
Fab.com Rolls Out New Mobile Apps With Browse By Color & “Fab Shops”
9 Feb 2012 | 8:05 amAfter hitting 2 million members at the end of last month, design shopping startup Fab.com is today rolling out new iOS applications that offer a number of new features and improvements. In addition to an updated layout, search and navigational elements, one of the apps’ biggest new features is the inclusion of the recently launched new storefronts called “Fab Shops.” These Fab Shops went live late January, allowing Fab.com members to visually browse through products via dedicated online storefronts that were organized around product categories, as opposed to by designers. -
YouTube’s Latest Original Programming: Olympic-Style Lightsaber Relays
9 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amHere’s a fun example of the original programming that YouTube is supposed to be investing in these days — a relay from Santa Monica to San Diego. With lightsabers. Geek celebrity Chris Hardwick is announcing the event, dubbed Course of the Force, on the YouTube blog. Hardwick hosts the popular Nerdist podcast, and he plans to launch a Nerdist YouTube channel in April,which he says will include “Neil Patrick Harris, Rob Zombie, Awkward Family Videos, The Dudesons and The Kids in the Hall,” plus more programming that covers “gaming, science, tech and cosplay.” As…
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chrisbrogan.com
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Throw Away the Maps
6 Feb 2012 | 1:30 amPeople judge us by the path they’ve seen us walk before. They can’t anticipate our future steps. We, ourselves, look to how things have been, what seems to be the lay of the land, without realizing that the maps are not the territory. Want to succeed at work? Then don’t try to do your job. Instead, work towards something larger, more meaningful, and something that blends your convictions internally with your best ability to help others externally. Want to create something new? Then throw away the old, or maybe join two disparate old things together into something new. The… -
The Next Social Networks
5 Feb 2012 | 1:30 amThe rage in social networks right now is Pinterest, partly because it’s probably the first social network that has a much higher adoption rate by females than males, and partly because it’s an interesting concept: somewhere between visual social bookmarking and scrapbooking. What also might not be immediately obvious is that it’s just “easier” to interact there. In that way, Pinterest has something in common with Instagram, which is community around photos. What I’m interested in, though, is Gentlemint, which I keep calling “Pinterest for… -
Learn From Adele – Build Your Platform
3 Feb 2012 | 1:30 amJacq and I just watched Adele Live At The Royal Albert Hall (amazon affiliate link), and though every song was just wonderfully done, I found myself fascinated by what Adele was doing in between each song. Because even though most people would be interested in hearing her belt out her amazing repertoire of hits, what I took away from the performance was Adele’s real magical ability: the ability to resonate with her audience. What Adele Could Teach You About Impact I’m writing something about this right now for my upcoming book with Julien Smith, but I had to share some of the… -
Rob Gokee is a Musical Wizard
2 Feb 2012 | 8:05 amI had such a great experience working with award winning musical composer Rob Gokee. We did some musical work together, and the process was so amazing. Rob helped me create my theme song for Shhh! The Secret Show. So anyhow, he and I sat down to do an interview, and it’s a bit long, but it’s totally worth it. We talk about what collaboration feels like at a distance, what it takes to get music like this made for your own show, and a lot more. Rob’s a hero to me, and has been part of the community for a while. I was so fortunate to have worked with him. Can’t see the… -
Build Your Platform – Start
30 Jan 2012 | 1:30 amThe following is part ONE of a series called Build Your Platform. If you find it interesting, please consider subscribing for free to get the rest of the series. This post is long. You might want to bookmark it for later. The age of social media oversaturation is upon us. People are declaring Twitter bankruptcy to go along with their email bankruptcy. They cite not wanting to start on yet another social network as their reason for not getting more involved with Google+. And just as soon as you start getting into Pinterest, you hear about Path, but wait: there’s Gentlemint, which is…
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Branding Strategy Insider
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Time For Brand Marketers To Lead A Comeback
7 Feb 2012 | 9:10 pmIt’s a good thing the game between the NFL's New England Patriots and the New York Giants was exciting because this year’s Super Bowl commercials were dull, and what a weird thing to say about the Super Bowl. Generally, it’s the very opposite of that. Perhaps it’s best not to read too much into Super Bowl ads vying for viral buzz (many of which adopted a new pre-game, social media preview approach to generate buzz, albeit some have argued it was poorly done). But there was one thing that stood out. In a noticeable departure from the tradition of Super Bowl Sunday, this year’s crop… -
When To Reposition Your Brand
6 Feb 2012 | 9:10 pmBrand repositioning is necessary when one or more of the following conditions exist: Your brand has a bad, confusing or nonexistent image. The primary benefit your brand "owns" has evolved from a differentiating benefit to a cost-of-entry benefit. Your organization is significantly altering its strategic direction. Your organization is entering new businesses and the current positioning is no longer appropriate. A new competitor with a superior value proposition enters your industry. Competition has usurped your brand's position or rendered it ineffectual. Your organization has acquired a… -
How To Transform An Under-Performing Brand
5 Feb 2012 | 9:10 pmOnce the decision has been made to continue to invest in an under-performing brand, brand owners will be faced with a new set of challenges completely foreign to them. The temptation is always to do more of what got you there. That rarely works when brands face reinvention. By that I mean brand relevance. The main reason brands begin to under perform is that people no longer care. When that happens, like it or not, you’ll be starting over from scratch. This is a hard pill for brand owners to swallow, particularly if the brand was once an iconic leader in its category. For brand owners… -
Logo Design Requirements
4 Feb 2012 | 9:10 pmA brand’s identity is a combination of visual, auditory, and other sensory components that create recognition, aid in memory encoding and decoding, represent the brand promise, provide differentiation, create communications synergy, and are proprietary. The logo is one key component. Here is what we look for when we evaluate logo design: Memorable – highest recognition and recall (both of which can be tested for) Including recognition at maximum distances (can be tested for) Aesthetically pleasing Timeless quality - the logo will not become dated Appropriate for the product/service… -
Brand Tagline Requirements
3 Feb 2012 | 9:10 pmIn definitive global research, The Conference Board has found the development and consistent use of a tagline to be a key factor in brand strategy success. A tagline that succinctly and powerfully communicates the brand’s promise is one of the quickest, easiest and least expensive ways to communicate the brand’s new position to internal and external audiences. It should consistently accompany the brand’s logo in situations outlined by the brand architecture. I believe that developing brand taglines (and elevator speeches) are the most important next steps one can take once a brand has…
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Ries' Pieces
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Super Bowl of Advertising - 2012
6 Feb 2012 | 11:37 amWhile the gridiron battle between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots was close, the advertising battle on the tube was not. The Super Bowl battle for commercial success might better be described as a mixture of the old classics, the new stuff, the overly sexy and the over the top. Here is my brief recap on the best/worst ads of the night. The Old Classics The Super Bowl isn’t for also-rans. The big game is best served by big brands that are category leaders and that support the game year after year with consistent themes. Coca-Cola The three polar bear ads… -
Tim Tebow, the brand
16 Dec 2011 | 10:07 amTim Tebow is the hottest story in sports. While the Green Bay Packers are charging ahead with an undefeated record, everybody is talking about the Mile High Messiah and Tebowing. How did this happen? What can you learn from it? The Keys to Tebow’s brand success: 1. Be Different. While there is nothing new about the collision of faith and football, Tim Tebow went out of his way to show PDF – public displays of faith. He also lives the life of a church going goodie-goodie. No alcohol, no smoking, no drugs, no sex (he is staying celibate til marriage.) His outspoken and open… -
The Secret of Steve Jobs
9 Nov 2011 | 9:53 pmSteve Jobs was a rebel who didn’t go about life or work in the normal way. He dropped out of college, was a fruitarian for a time and was often called an arrogant, obnoxious, weirdo. Being a rebel, however, wasn’t the secret of Steve Jobs. In our youth-obsessed culture, rebels are a dime a dozen. Steve Jobs was a technology genius. From an early age, he was fascinated by electronics. He tinkered at his father’s workbench and joined his high-school electronics club. Jobs was so gifted that Atari's… -
Netflix Strategy is Right and Wrong
20 Sep 2011 | 1:49 pmThere are several important lessons to be learned from the Netflix brand story. In recent days, the story has heated up after CEO Reed Hasting’s Sunday night email blast and blog post. In his email, Hasting apologized profusely, then turned around and further enraged his loyal 23-million subscriber base by taking the Netflix brand away from its red envelopes. Let me break down the good, the bad and the ugly of this classic story. In the beginning. Netflix was founded in 1997 and two years later it became the subscription-based DVD-by-mail service millions of customers in the United States… -
Walmarts needs to stop being so cheap. At least when it comes to advertising.
22 Aug 2011 | 7:40 amPublished by AdAge.com, August 22 In a down economy with consumers pinching every penny, you would think that sales at a retailer synonymous with "cheap" would be up, not down. Yet sales at Walmart have been down for two years in a row. Actually, that's nine straight quarters of decline. The only good news at Walmart is profits rose this quarter 5.7%, but that was mostly due to cost cutting and international growth.
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TheDieline.com - Package Design Blog
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güd from Burt’s Bees
9 Feb 2012 | 8:32 amBurt’s Bees takes Natural to the next generation with güd, a brand targeting millennials, women 18 – 34. (güd is pronounced “good”) -
Sofi Bath Bombs
9 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amBeautifully designed bath product incorporating gold foil, unique typography, and a handmade print quality. -
The Tea Bar
9 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am"Tea Bar company in Amsterdam. Tea Bar is a Amsterdam based tea shop where you can select, mix and drink your own blend of loose leaf tea. We were asked to create a pack for their most favorite and special blends of loose leaf tea. -
Angioletta
9 Feb 2012 | 6:00 am"National importing company, Wein-Bauer, Inc., engaged Kaleidoscope to develop a simple and elegant packaging design for Angioletta, a sweet, “casual” white wine produced in Italy from a Spanish Moscato. -
Hobel Wine Works
9 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amIn response to this weeks trending topic: Wood, we received this submission for a wine bottle design that was inspired by German woodworking.
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Brand Insight Blog
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Conversion Branding. How to make your website work — on many levels.
17 Jan 2012 | 2:00 pmThere seems to be a trend in website development these days… more and more cookie-cutter, template-driven websites that are wearily one dimensional. The fact is, if you want the maximum return from your website investment, it needs to work on many different levels. Let’s look at what those are: The Functional, Phonebook Level In case you hadn’t noticed, the phone book is fading faster than the first generation Blackberry. Now that we all have a web-enabled computer in our hands at all times, Google is the phonebook of choice. So on the most basic level, your website needs to… -
Incongruity: Breaking through all the babaganoushit.
11 Nov 2011 | 3:58 pmSometimes, one single word is everything. The difference between a marketing home run and a dribbling bunt. I recently ran into a client who was completely fixated on one word in a headline: “Precious.” “Babies are precious, not parking places,” she argued. “Yes, but diamonds are also precious. And what’s more valuable than diamonds?” I countered. By using that one word I exaggerated the value of the free parking and elevated that little product feature to an entirely different realm. It was an effective use of incongruity in advertising, and she just couldn’t get her head… -
Brand authenticity — Keeping it real, honest, genuine and true.
28 Apr 2010 | 2:14 pmI hate buzzwords. Every time a new marketing term shows up on the cover of a book I find myself having to translate the jargon into something meaningful for ordinary, busy business people. Lately, it’s “Authenticity.” Seems “keeping it real” has become a household term. And a branding imperative. In The New Marketing Manifesto John Grant says “Authenticity is the benchmark against which all brands are now judged.” If that’s the case, we better have a damn good definition of what we’re talking about. “Authentic” is derived from the Greek authentikós,… -
Masterful Brand Management
8 Apr 2010 | 10:18 pmIt’s Masters Week — the biggest week of the year in golf, and a tide-turning event for several brands. Most notably, this one: The Tiger Woods logo for Nike Over the last 9 months the Tiger Woods brand has, shall we say, strayed a bit. The “indiscreations” of Tiger’s personal life have cost his brand millions in endorsement deals, and even more in public goodwill. As one sports writer put it, “it’s the most dramatic fall from grace in the history of sport.” For Tiger Woods and company, The Masters represents the perfect venue for a comeback, and an ideal brand affiliation. -
Inspiration For Office And Website Makeovers.
14 Mar 2010 | 12:30 pmMoved into a swanky new office building last week. (Great views of Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top, Three Sisters and the Phoenix Inn parking lot.) The Alexander Drake Building, Downtown Bend, OR As I was unpacking boxes, lifting heavy furniture and contemplating the feng shui, it occurred to me that professional service firms spend a lot of time and money on their office space. And rightly so. For companies with no tangible product to sell, it’s a crucial component of the brand. For instance, when it comes to selecting an ad agency, office space always figures into the equation. The workspace is…
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BrandingBlog by Dave Young
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BrandingBlog Radio: Brett Feinstein – Political Advertising
3 Feb 2012 | 12:16 amBrett Feinstein - no doubt going negative Brett Feinstein is a partner in the political advertising agency Pound & Feinstein. He’s one of those guys that you have to get to know to understand. He’s loved and admired by those who take the time. If you know Brett Feinstein only superficially through Facebook or another near anonymous web arena, you probably only think you know him. That’s because he treats Facebook as his own psychology lab; questioning, pushing, shocking and provoking to see what kind of reaction he can get. It can be alarming…if you don’t… -
Soundbites: Super Bowl Reach
31 Jan 2012 | 3:18 pmNOTE FROM DAVE: The “SoundBites” podcasts are usually re-written in an article style (via Shortcut Blogging), but this one was such an interactive conversation that I decided to simply use the transcript. Enjoy the game! So far…in these pre-game days, this is my fave: Beuller? Beuller? Want to read the transcript? Chris Loghry: Welcome to BrandingBlog SoundBites with Wizard of Ads partner Dave Young. Dave wants to talk Super Bowl. I didn’t know you were into football. Dave Young: I’m not into football, Chris. Chris: Oh, you’re into advertising. Dave: Yeah, that’s… -
BrandingBlog Radio: Chandra Clarke – CEO of Scribendi
26 Jan 2012 | 11:55 pmRemember the scene in the movie Pulp Fiction where Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) accidentally create a serious mess of their car by shooting the guy in the back seat? The only solution is to call in an expert…a cleanup guy. Winston Wolfe (brilliantly played by Harvey Keitel) to the rescue. I love the Winston Wolfe character. He knows how to fix a bad situation. When you’ve got a writing mess (a dog’s breakfast, as my Aussie friends would call it) you need to call in an expert. Scribendi is to bad writing as Winston Wolf is to Jules and… -
Soundbites: Fire Fast, Hire Slow
25 Jan 2012 | 7:54 amThis is age old advice in management circles. Kinda funny how hard it is to do in practice. And it’s one of those topics where you look at business owners and managers and you think, “They really should take this advice.” I really want to talk about the “fire fast” but I’ll just touch briefly on the hire slow, because there are loads and loads of resources on how to hire people. Just remember that the worst thing you can do is hire the first person through the door that you think could probably learn to do the job. The biggest pressure point on hiring somebody too fast is that… -
Blog Ghostwriting with no time-sucking Ghost
23 Jan 2012 | 10:23 amI know I’ve mentioned Shortcut Blogging to you quite a few times, but we’ve finished our web site and have our infrastructure in place to take on new clients in bigger numbers than onesy-twosies. Many business owners know that they should be blogging. Why? Because, blogging creates relevant content on your site, gives you increased credibility as an expert and gives people a reason to talk about you in a good way. Trouble is, most business owners are so time-deprived that they just can’t make writing a priority. Hiring a ghost writer for your blog won’t save you much…
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The Engaging Brand
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How Memories are Made and Unmade
8 Feb 2012 | 11:47 amIt strikes me as odd that we see the future as unmade and the past as made, because in a sense I think it works the other way! I was coaching a leadership team today and when they started to talk about an acquisition, it was really interesting to compare how people perceived what had happened. This is so often true. We imagine that the past fixed and yet as we talk about the past we preserve it, but we also slightly evolve it based on our emotional investment. Memories are made, unmade..... Ironically, we also make the future with the decisions we take today. We decide our future by what we… -
How to Optimize Your Resume with Social Media
7 Feb 2012 | 9:35 amThere are two things we know for certain about today’s economy. 1) Finding jobs is getting more and more difficult, for both college educated and non-college educated people. 2) Social media has made job hunting and job candidate hunting trickier. Social media brings a degree of transparency - for better or worse - to the application and interview process that wasn’t there before.In the old world, before the heavy use of LinkedIn and Facebook, employers relied on personal networks to find great candidates. Now, they combine that with these impressive social networks, not just for fact… -
Why Social Media Can Work For Your Brand
6 Feb 2012 | 7:01 amIt is often said that art externalises and fixes beliefs. When we express our ideas in whatever format, we bring our ideas to life. Social media is an art form. It allows us to share experiences, expectations, fears and hopes in a format that personalises what you stand for.... The social part of this kind of media means that it can be shared. Just like art, the 'can be shared' can be transformed into 'will be shared' if it reflects real life, real problems, real facts or real opportunities which people can relate to... And just like art, there is nothing new to share...there is just your… -
Show 371 - Little Black Book of Innovation
3 Feb 2012 | 3:04 amI hope you enjoyed last weeks show on Steve Jobs and here is show 371 of The Engaging Brand business and marketing podcast talking about social media, leadership and marketing and sponsored today by MozyPro Online Backup: Simple, Automatic & Secure Backup - for special offer try today! Today Scott Anthony of Innosight joins Anna Farmery to discuss The Little Black Book of Innovation and we discuss The paradox of innovation - the optimism of the word and yet the stress it causes How to look at innovation The idea of "thunk' value How we all have to find our inner salesperson Is… -
Martin Luther King on Consensus
1 Feb 2012 | 11:15 amConsensus is a word you hear alot in businesses. And yet I always struggle with the idea...although it seems a good one....I think it can be a dangerous one. Consensus is a compromise.....or in another sense, no one is happy! Consensus tends to take you to mainstream rather than the edges were the premium lies Consensus is settling rather than inspiring Consensus is a lack of leadership...why? Think of what Martin Luther King said "Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus" I see consensus can be a sign that people have not bought into the vision,…
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The Brand Show
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The Grande Takeaway from a Retail Leadership Tour
7 Feb 2012 | 8:10 amWelcome back. I’m assuming you’ve read the Four Large Takeaways. At least I hope you did, because interactions between retailers and shoppers as well as those between retailers and manufacturers are important ones. You are now ready to graduate to the “Grande.” This final observation is of the “Do Not Pass Go” variety. There are a few golden rules in marketing, and this is one: Listen and do With apologies to Vincent Van Gogh, it’s symbolic that we all have two ears and one mouth: it’s an indication as to the proportion to which they should be used. For the mathematically… -
One Grande and Four Large Takeaways from a Retail Leadership Tour
2 Feb 2012 | 7:20 amI had the pleasure of going on a retail leadership tour in New York earlier this week. I came home with a blown-up pair of Bass Weejuns and five takeaways that are important for any retailer looking to thrive. Well, sort of. I should say that I came home with a single really big takeaway – one that you simply cannot live without – and four other important ones. It’s like George Orwell wrote in Animal Farm: “Some animals are more equal than others.” Same goes for observations and the stores they came from. As advanced as we are with search engines and expensive research… -
Sell Through Purpose: Golfsmith
26 Jan 2012 | 11:00 amAllowing brands to tell their story inside your store environment without compromising the retail experience can be a challenge. Learn how top retailer, Golfsmith, retains its own retail brand integrity while allowing other dominant brands to experience success. Matt Corey, CMO of Golfsmith, shares the secret of great sales – starting with a core purpose that is greater than your brand.Golfsmith uses its sales staff and store environment to inspire their customers to love life more. What other retailers inspire you to live life better? Share your thoughts below or on our LinkedIn Group. -
Boundaryless Retail: Day Three at NRF’s 2012 BIG Show
18 Jan 2012 | 12:52 pmDay three at NRF’s 2012 BIG Show kicked off with a new term that will soon be common jargon among the retail industry: Boundaryless Retail. Mindy Grossman, Chief Executive Officer, HSN, Inc. introduced the concept of boundaryless retail. It implies that through innovation and collaboration, companies can leverage the power of technology to create an engaging experience for customers. It goes beyond omnichannel strategy and marketing; it’s about creating stories that cross channels and media. One retail category that is harnessing the power of technology and emerging as an industry… -
Retail Politics: Day Two from NRF’s 2012 BIG Show
17 Jan 2012 | 2:00 pmDay two of the NRF’s 2012 BIG Show, was just that, BIG. Attendance rose in 24 hours from 22,000 to 24,000 retailers – all rushing to snag a seat in the North Hall for the opening address by Matthew Shay, President and CEO of the National Retail Federation. Shay’s opening remarks on the role 2012 will play in the history of retail formalized the reported undertones of Day One (immediacy, impact, identity, investment and innovation). Promoting NRF’s ‘Retail Means Jobs’ campaign, Shay celebrated the successful outcomes of the retail challenges of 2011. The last 18…
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brandflakesforbreakfast
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don't push my political buttons
9 Feb 2012 | 5:15 amBefore there was the Like button, there were political buttons. Check out images of a select handful of them, provided by the Busy Beaver Button Museum, here on Time.com.The designs are interesting, fun and in some instances iconic, and a little different creative inspiration for this Thursday. The history behind them is worth a read, too.Via. -
mama don't take my kodachrome away
9 Feb 2012 | 5:10 amKODACHROME 2010 from Xander Robin on Vimeo.Nostalgia alert: Xander Robin created a documentary, "Kodachrome 2010," shot on Kodak's Kodachrome film about this iconic color film and the last lab to develop it in 2010. In light of the sad news that Kodak filed for bankruptcy, it's a nice tribute (and goodbye?) to the brand and its iconic product. Cue Paul Simon. -
mmmm....baked bus stop potatoes
9 Feb 2012 | 5:05 amLike a giant, digital scratch 'n sniff, there is an outdoor campaign in England for McCain's "ready baked jackets" that emits the smell to entice consumers. At bus stops, users can push a button and a light will 'heat up' a large image of a potato and produce the delicious smell, and a coupon for the product. Created by JCDecaux, posterscope, and BMB Creative. Yum. If you like potatoes, that is. (And yes, there are people out there who don't.)Via. -
go weeeeee all the way to your next meeting
8 Feb 2012 | 5:10 amWhy use an elevator to descend down the three floors of your office when you can shoot down a SUPER AWESOME slide like the one Red Bull installed in their London offices? So jealous! -
How Superbowl ads did digital - stats
8 Feb 2012 | 5:09 amResearch advisory firm, Altimeter, analyzed the 2012 Super Bowl commercials to see how well they integrated with digital and social media. The results are kind of surprising given the growing acceptance of how important digital integration is. A whopping 32% had no online references at all, and of those that had urls, many of them were with no call to action and only 16% were to social media vs. a corporate website or microsite. More interesting stats in their full report.
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Name Wire: The Product Naming Blog
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Madonna's "Girls Gone Wild" Naming Dispute
9 Feb 2012 | 5:56 amA few days before her Super Bowl performance, Madonna received a cease and desist letter from the founder of "Girls Gone Wild," Joe Francis, threatening to take legal action if she sang her new song titled, "Girls Gone Wild." Francis, holder of the trademark for the video series featuring co-eds in various states of undress, is furious over the "free ride on the valuable consumer goodwill and brand recognition" that Madonna has enjoyed by using the phrase as a song title on her new album M.D.N.A. I smell a publicity stunt, as does Donna Ray Berkelhammer at North Carolina Law Life, who points… -
NFL Tackles Anyone Who Messes With Super Bowl Naming
8 Feb 2012 | 6:01 amIt is interesting how the Super Bowl name is treated by advertisers. "Trademarked and tenaciously defended by the NFL, the phrase 'Super Bowl' is available to just a handful of official sponsors that pay a significant amount for the rights to include the name in their marketing efforts." The NFL has 22 official sponsors that pay over $100 million annually to be affiliated with the league, allowing them exclusive usage of the Super Bowl name in advertising. Consumers are expected to drop around $11 billion on Super Bowl related merchandise this year alone, so it is clearly worth advertising… -
Walmart Branding Assures Us That Its Food Is Great For You
7 Feb 2012 | 6:02 amWalmart has decided that eggs are "Great for You," along with hundreds of other food items. The retailer is giving its private label healthy products a "Great for You" seal in its effort to convince us that good eating doesn't have to be expensive. This is an interesting move for the largest U.S. food retailer. The seal is an effort to "implement a transparent, summary icon for its private label brand products backed by rigorous nutrition criteria." In other words, it helps consumers see at-a-glance the healthier choices - at least as far as Walmart private label products are concerned. This… -
J.C. Penney Moving from a Recognized Name to a Loved Brand
2 Feb 2012 | 5:59 amJ.C. Penney is tearing a page out of Apple's playbook to move from being a recognized name, to a brand, according to Forbes. Robert Passikoff the Forbes reporter comments that "J.C. Penney has become a 'placeholder,' a kind of ACME Department Store of the 21st century where low, lower, lowest pricing has become the price-of-entry, certainly not an emotional differentiator." I agree. J.C. Penney is trying to move away from simply being well known to being well liked by hiring CEO Ron Johnson, the ex-Apple Senior Vice President of Retail Operations, who helped make Apple the retail super brand… -
Burt's Bees Güd Tagline May Not Be Good for Product Naming
1 Feb 2012 | 6:04 amHere's a naming challenge for you. You have a product with a distinctly unfeminine name (like Burt's Bees), and you need to sell a brand extension to young women. Well, Burt's Bees has faced exactly this problem with some panache and created a new beauty care line called "güd," pronounced "good." To add distinction, the company has stylized the umlaut above the letter "U" creating a smiley face. Then there is the "güd happens" tagline. This tagline is reminiscent of "sh*t happens," a common colloquialism. And sh*t isn't so good. This expression is "an acknowledgment that bad things…
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Brains On Fire Blog
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I Watched, I Purchased, My Problem was Solved
9 Feb 2012 | 6:42 amI recently remembered a story about advertising that worked wonders in introducing me to a product that I purchased and loved. Being somewhat of a music and technology nerd, I follow several blogs that keep pace with what’s happening in the industry. I can’t remember exactly where, but in browsing one of those sites a few years ago I ran across this marketing video from a company called Tune Up Media (1): They happened to be running a discount promotion at the time, so in an extremely rare instance for me, I acted on their message, went to the website, and purchased their product. -
Get Your WOM Notebook Ready… Chapter One: Believe
8 Feb 2012 | 6:30 amSo, here you are… a friend of WOM or maybe you are just starting to explore. Word of Mouth Marketing is a passion for me, and I’m lucky enough to have a career in it. But this didn’t happen by accident. My career took root organically, as a result of my belief in the power of WOM, not because I set out to do it. Back in 2001, Brains on Fire partnered with the Department of Health and Environmental Control of South Carolina. We were tasked with the challenge of tackling teen smoking in our state. If you are at all familiar with South Carolina, you probably know tobacco plays a… -
Airport Conversations and The Secret Sauce of Success
7 Feb 2012 | 6:59 amEvery once in awhile someone will ask me what I do for a living. These conversations usually occur in the kinds of places where strangers feel compelled to carry on polite chitchat. In line at the grocery store. Doctor’s office waiting rooms. Airplanes waiting to be cleared for take-off. When I tell people I am a writer, they often respond in the same way I imagine I would respond if someone told me they traveled with the circus or roadied for Def Leppard in the 80s. An incredulous mix of shock and awe, with undertones of questioning my sanity. “That’s…brave,” they… -
Inspiration.
6 Feb 2012 | 7:28 amThe Erics, looking for inspiration. Hello! Hope you’re excited about the week ahead of you. I am. About a year or so ago, I posted a blog asking YOU a simple question. And since I LOVED the answers and they all inspired me, I am asking again… I really need you guys today. I love writing. Think I have shared this before, but I believe writing inspires thinking and exploring and sharing. And thinking and exploring and sharing are good things. If you are reading this and hanging out with us, I have to believe you think we add value in your life. So, I have a question for you: If you… -
The Power of Kindness.
2 Feb 2012 | 8:30 amFresh flowers from Libby William’s Photoblog. The other day I got a note in the mail. The old fashion “ink on paper” kind. It started like this: Dearest Darling Robbin, Hmmmm. I have to tell you in the middle of my crazy, busy, over stimulated workday, those words stopped me dead in my tracks. I took a deep breath and smiled at the “over the top-ness” of this salutation. What came after that was nothing short of the kindest words anyone’s written to me in a long time. Just a couple of heartfelt observations mixed in with some wit and honesty. It was a nice gentle break from…
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Logo Design Blog
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6 Reasons Why Your Business Should Not use Google Analytics Alone
7 Feb 2012 | 2:35 amA website without analytics and a website owner unaware of the intricacies involved in the traceability of websites using Google analytics are sure to lag behind in the competitive business world. Although, the God-Like image of Google has made organizations completely dependent on its tools for rankings, analytics and reputation management. But here are six beefy reasons to why you should not use Google Analytics alone. -
Why is it Necessary for the Domain Name and the Website Name to be Similar?
23 Jan 2012 | 2:05 amMost people make the mistake of naming their websites and their domains differently. It is good to be creative with names but sometimes this creativity may cost a lot. Most effective website names are usually the ones where the domain name is either identical or at least similar to the website. This will do one good thing, something which every website businessman wants for their websites; it will make the name search engine friendly. -
How to Find a Reliable Web Design Service?
17 Jan 2012 | 2:44 amThe foremost thing to understand is: what do we mean when we say that we are looking for a reliable web design service? In simple words, it means that we need to acquire the expertise of a company that will create a design to perfectly represent our business model. Plus, a reliable service also offers revisions to ensure your complete satisfaction. If for some reason you are not satisfied with the design, they will happily make modifications according to your needs and business requirements. -
Make Your Facebook Timeline a Social Resume
11 Jan 2012 | 10:20 pmAs most of you probably know, Facebook is in the middle of updating everyone’s profile to the new Timeline format. Not only does this new layout and design enhance your Facebook browsing experience, but it can also be used as a tool to affirm what you’ve stated on your curriculum vitae and cover letter. -
Logo Evolutions in 2011
1 Jan 2012 | 10:03 pmIn 2011, some big organizations thought of bringing change to their corporate identities and accomplished it brilliantly through small amendments in their logo. They needed the change for better positioning, an enhanced brand image and for a stronger market presence.
