When you’re a solo entrepreneur or a small-business marketer, you can’t afford to blanket the airwaves with advertising, casting a huge net with the hopes of landing some fish. Your outreach to potential customers has to be count. It has to be focused, well-targeted, and efficient. Therefore, when determining your target audience, you should ask […]
November 22, 2007 by
Can a Credit Card be “Brighter”?
While killing time in a Chicago-area mall last week, I saw a large floor display for Discover Card (Discover Financial is based in Chicago, I believe) with a new branding approach. The solid orange letter “O” in the Discover logo was now lit up, and the one word tagline being featured was the word Brighter. […]
November 6, 2007 by
Tagline Parallelism – One That Works, One That Doesn’t
Today, I was driving behind a car that had a bumper sticker advertising some company (name will be withheld pending notification of next of kin). This company had a tagline of parallel statements that stated…well, precisely nothing. Built on Product. Powered by People. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t go through life […]
September 20, 2007 by
Do You Have a United Image?
I flew into Chicago recently, which is a hub for United Airlines. There were loads and loads of United planes there, of every size and shape…the ideal place for a unified, “united” brand image. But that wasn’t the case. Because the planes also were of every branding scheme. Once upon a time, when you saw […]
August 29, 2007 by
What, Me Worry About my Product Name?
In the most recent edition of Inc. magazine, which arrived in my mailbox this week, I noticed a review of new video projectors (the on-line article is here). Now I like technology and gadgets, but I simply do not understand what thought process – if any – goes into the naming of many of these […]
August 14, 2007 by
Ad Value or Add Value?
One of the first bridges to be crossed when launching or building a brand is advertising. How much time and money and effort do I spend “reaching” my target audience with advertising? What is the “ad value” – what’s the ROI? Advertising certainly has its place in building brand awareness. But perhaps, first and foremost, […]
August 7, 2007 by
“It’s our Biggest Sale of the Season!!”
It’s wearying, listening to the tired and noisy pitches from auto dealers – is it not? Then, there is the experience of listening to the pitch from a sales person when you finally succumb to the inevitable, and force yourself to go to a car dealer because…well, you’ve got to buy a car. Does it […]
