Your advertising schemes can carry out truth to them. People will appreciate it more when they feel the authenticity, even with your promotional tools. Why hide beneath the glam when you can produce ads that can easily mirror the reality? There are many online printing services that you can opt for such purpose.Over the TopAdvertising used to be about creating an image that the product is better than what it really is. Maybe this is the reason why people nowadays do not easily believe what they see and what they hear.Marketing is very different from creating movies. In films, you can go over the top and people will like it. You can make the story far from truth and people will still queue to watch it. But when you advertise a product, whether on broadcast medium or you acquire the service of online printing, people will get turned off when they catch you lying.Leave the fiction to TV programs and films. The truth must prevail when it comes to advertising. Over-hyped marketing causes trouble. In the end, people will realize that you were not being true and they will easily leave you.You are giving your competitors the chance of gaining clients by doing so. People will not think twice about turning to the one who they think has the better products and services. And who will they prefer, the one who’s being true or the one who’s giving them false hopes?You RepresentationYour ads are your representation to potential clients. They view your ads for the following reasons.• People will base their buying decisions on the ads. But to do so, you must be able to convince them that you are authentic and that you are telling the truth.• They want to seek your brand because of how it created an impact on them through the ads. Make sure that you emit a positive appeal.• They are looking at the market to see all the options that are available to them. You have to remember that you are in constant competition so you must think of ways to spice up your tools.• They want to try something new. They are willing to try you out once you have convinced them to do so.As the business owner and also the advertiser, your aim is for these people who are viewing your ads to choose you over your competitors. Give them reasons and give them what they are looking for.The reputation that you will be able to develop through your ads will be the basis of other people if they will seek you out. It is important to have a good background to be able to easily get people’s trust.Authenticity is the name of the game these days. If you will veer away from truth, you will definitely suffer from the consequences. This is comparable to online printing services, you will seek a company for its reputation. You will choose the type of service that can give you the best output and not the best promises.

In the early days of television-and up until recently, in fact-one’s choices of what to watch were narrowed to whatever broadcasters chose to offer and those choices were likely only spread across three to five stations. Most of the stations, since they only had each other for competition, offered largely similar programming.Today, with the advent of the Internet and digital technology in general, consumers are less and less tolerant of a narrow range of choices. Watching sports means watching one’s favorite team, not the game the network decided to carry. Watching movies is a time to relax, on one’s own schedule, a schedule that is designed by the viewer, not handed to them and necessarily accommodated.The same holds true for music. Even in a large metropolitan area, radio broadcasts typical entail a narrow range of choices and often include the stereotypical song that “they play every five minutes”, much to the frustration of listeners.As technology has advanced, services have become integrated. Television services, for instance, oftentimes include a music service as part of their bundle, taking advantage of the enormous amount of music that can be broadcast digitally with very little bandwidth consumption. The clarity and steady signal-no more “fuzzing out” or radio interference from household appliances-have been successful selling points for providers. Mostly, however, it’s the fact that consumers can choose from hundreds of commercial-free music streams that broadcast 24/7 and cater to many styles of music.The situation is largely the same where sports is concerned. Sports fans often want to follow a particular season for its duration and, sometimes, are particularly interested in one or two teams above all others. The sports packages offered by digital television providers are made to accommodate such needs, providing comprehensive coverage of an entire season of a particular sport or spanning several different sports for the truly dedicated.Likewise for the news-obsessed, possibly one of the most demanding of all television customers. The newshound not only demands to be fed a variety of news, oftentimes, second by second comparisons between the coverage and analysis of multiple outlets are a practical necessity. Much to the dismay of others in the house, this has often resulted in more than one avid news follower switching between channels so fast that he effect was similar to a strobe light. New packages actually allow customers to watch several news channels at once on the same television, so that keeping apprised of what politicians and pundits are saying is not such an erratic affair and making it much easier to choose the most interesting feed.

…exposes “Top Down” management at its worst!So Sky & Virgin, you obviously don’t think that you ought to start a regular dialogue with your subscribers!Because the disgraceful public row you both have had very recently provides enough evidence that you really still haven’t got it. Your advertisers are not that important to you, certainly your very own Top Management is not important to you, after all they are in the process of ruining your business!As they said in a recent American Presidential Election…”It’s your viewers stupid.”This headline says it all. “Sky channels disappear from Virgin cable TV.”
And, low and behold, in the day when viewer/consumer empowerment is causing great concern to the advertising/media industries. These companies decide, arbitrarily, to remove Sky’s basic channels from Virgin’s cable platform “in the early hours of yesterday morning after an extended and unedifying public spat between BSkyB and Virgin Media”Obviously they haven’t heard the word “empowerment”!Empowerment is a very overused word.However in the near future the primary strategic marketing communications battle will be to see who goes furthest in empowering their customers, and this little spat between BSkyB and Virgin Media confirms that the Top Down Management in these companies prefer the words “Just do as we tell you”.So OK BSkyB and Virgin Media here is your first lesson in “empowerment”To empower your customers you will have to:1. Provide them with far more information than you currently do.2. Allow them to make decisions about you and your company together with your resources.3. Give them plenty of choice.4. Give them the perception of control!5. Allow them to feel that they are running your organisation!Because anything that tightens your relationships with an existing customer increases the revenue you get from your customer.
And the only form of communication that can do all the above so that you do tighten your grip on your customer is…. Interactive communication!Here is your second lesson BSkyB and Virgin Media and this time it is on the meaning of “Communication, which again you don’t obviously understand!After a little thought, most people come up with a definition that is about transmitting and receiving information. A little more thought might produce the word exchange.This is more satisfactory, but still assumes that communication is about moving something about conveying, or sending, or delivering, some commodity called ‘information’.In fact, the word has quite a different root meaning. It derives from the Latin communis, meaning ‘common’. Or ‘shared’.It belongs to the family of words that includes communion, communism and community. Until you have shared information with another person, you haven’t communicated it. And until they have understood it, the way you understand it, you haven’t shared it with them.Communication is the process of creating shared understanding.There is nothing “shared” about this little gem from yesterday’s press, “Virgin cable customers will now be unable to watch Sky One – which carries popular shows such as Lost, 24, The Simpsons and Battlestar Galactica.”Virgin was paying Sky approximately 60p per subscriber per month for the affected channels. It then charged its subscribers from £11 per month.Some pompous person from Virgin Media had this to say, which I don’t believe for one moment, after all you can prove anything with research! Simply listen to this little gem!“We have carried out customer research and a clear majority would rather we reinvested our money to give them a richer content package,” he said.
“We have been constantly enriching the Virgin media experience for the last six months.”Perhaps the reason for this hanging on to the past way of doing things is the persistence of mass media, which came about as a result of the needs of business as a way of reaching mass markets.Like the management of large corporations, broadcast advertising partakes of the same top-down style of command and control.
Customers were told what to do – shop hard – but not asked in any substantive way for their input or opinions!And, sad to say, command and control remains the order of the day. There is much talk today these days about the empowerment of consumers although corporations still communicate their demands by broadcasting them to demographically determined abstractions of whom they know very little about and have no genuine relations with at all.IS IT ANY WONDER THAT CUSTOMERS ARE MOVING AWAY FROM OLD MEDIA AND MOVING TO THE WEB!

Broadcasting schools have always offered training for television and radio news professions, but these schools now train students for online newscasting and journalism as well. Natural skills and attributes, such as a strong voice, good diction, writing skills, love of public speaking and communications, working well under pressure to meet deadlines, and ability to research facts and issues to create sound stories, are all good indicators for success in this field.Degrees from traditional four-year colleges and universities prepare students for bringing mass communications of all kinds to the eyes and ears of the public. Broadcasting schools located in vocational and technical schools and community colleges also train for local news broadcasts, sports announcing, political press, music and entertainment broadcasting, and much more. Advanced programs in broadcasting often focus on “new” types of broadcast journalism, some of which are advocacy journalism, infotainment and celebrity journalism, science journalism, and investigative journalism.A broadcasting education can also prepare students for careers behind the scenes, operating cameras and microphones, or managing recording equipment and other broadcasting devices. Students can get experience with editing, producing, and directing news broadcasts for radio, television, and media of all kinds.Broadcasting schools in colleges and universities, as well as online these days, provide important services to magazine, newspaper, radio, television, and Internet journalism. They provide skills for exposing the public to vital communications about people and events; they help develop the skills tomorrow’s journalists need to report and influence public opinion, public affairs, political action, and public response. Broadcasting schools affect the world by teaching effective ways of creating and reporting stories, filming the actions, shaping, hosting and editing news, and providing the public with education and entertainment.Future broadcast journalists learn to take on duties of developing ideas for stories; conducting interviews, researching, preparing, and shooting video; preparing scripts and news copy for live and taped programs; preparing and publishing radio, television, and Web productions; and acting as radio DJs and television anchors.There are many large and small broadcasting schools in traditional and online colleges and universities providing extensive studies that can lead to bachelor and master degrees in various areas of Journalism. If you truly enjoy reading, writing, journaling, and news, check out some broadcasting schools that focus on your special interests and begin the journey. This may be first step that sets you on the career path of your dreams!If you are interested in learning more about Broadcasting Schools or Online Broadcasting Schools please search our site for more information and resources.DISCLAIMER: Above is a GENERAL OVERVIEW and may or may not reflect specific practices, courses and/or services associated with ANY ONE particular school(s) that is or is not advertised on SchoolsGalore.comCopyright 2007 – All Rights Reserved by Media Positive Communications, Inc.Notice to Publishers: Please feel free to use this article in your Ezine or on your Website; however, ALL links must remain intact and active.

From the time Alexander Graham Bell’s little invention first allowed man to speak to others across the miles, it’s been pretty much a given that nothing is as strong a tool for communication as the sound of the human voice . . . not newspapers, not magazines, not even the knowledge-stuffed texts on the Internet. Seeing may be believing, but seeing AND hearing motivates people to act!
With that in mind, I’ve been peddling audio on the Internet for more than 4 years. As a professional singer for most of my adult life, I’ve always understood the importance of sound and the effect it has on an audience. The challenge for me has been to open the eyes and ears of my own audience. It started while marketing our company’s first product Rave Reviews. Rave Reviews are professionally interviewed and produced audio testimonials that can be featured on web sites for added credibility. Wouldn’t every business owner want to have “real-life” testimonials on their Web sites rather than those typically boring text ones that everyone else has? One would certainly think so.
But frequently people have trouble seeing the potential for their businesses and the question in the back of everyone’s mind was “do testimonials actually “sell” anything?” What proof is there? Does hearing a customer endorsement really differ that much from reading one? Can testimonials actually increase ROI? Lots of questions . . . but in this case, there’s a better way to gauge the effectiveness of a new media form . . . think of yourself as the customer, and how a multi-media pitch might affect YOU.
I’m of the opinion that no matter what walk of business life you’re coming from . . . the successful corporate CEO, the dedicated marketing specialist, or the struggling entrepreneur . . . we’re all emotional creatures and because we’re so intensely influenced by those emotions, external stimuli via our five senses play a very important role in how we perceive others and with whom we choose to do business. It seems logical that the more senses used in gauging something, the truer the evaluation. A simple inflection of the voice from an audio book can take the listener through emotional twists and turns that speak volumes over a comparative text-only version.
Obviously, reading offers one advantage over audio in that the reader can have a “pure” experience through his or her own imagination and perception, rather than listening to a voice that through its inflections and tone conjures up an image for them. But, as a business owner, marketer, or sales manager, do you really want your Internet customers to judge your product or service strictly by what they read, or think they read? Wouldn’t you really like the opportunity to “talk” to them directly to personally point out the benefits of your product, and let them hear the pride of workmanship in your voice?
Through the earliest days of worldwide newspaper communications, through the era of radio that brought a faceless voice through a simple speaker, and on to the invention of television that literally changed the world . . . each medium as its turn came, gobbled up large percentages of the market. We can compare these three powerful mediums; newspaper, radio and TV, to the transitional phases of the Internet, which went quickly from obscurity to a household “must have”. Now with the onslaught of audio and video to enhance it, we’re well on our way to a new age of sight AND sound in our everyday online experience.
Prepare to dazzle and be dazzled as a witness and participant in the next generation of online communication and marketing: audio testimonials, audio quality assurances, audio facts and figures . . . all confidence-building messages of value from business owners directly to their target market, and all heard by potential customers. You never know if your web site visitors are actually reading all the sales text that’s available on your site. But if they listen to the audio, you know they’ll hear all the facts that are important to their decision-making process, and that can make the difference in helping you close the sale.
As business owners recognize the swaying power of using audio to communicate the value and quality of their products and services, online audio will come of age in a big way. Just as radio provided the sound that newspapers lacked, and wooed whole families to become an eager audience to sit and listen, audio technology for the Internet will draw in its own new generation of eager potential customers . . . it’s a theory that follows history and just makes plain ol’ sense . . . and good sense is something every customer appreciates!

Who needs self promotional products? Anyone that is selling or promoting anything.What most self-promoters need is a way to keep their name and contact info in front of their prospects or “suspects”; in short they need a message that keeps on messaging.We all have received promotions in the mail, by visiting salesfolk or at trade shows. At most trade shows, some businesses even give out custom bags so attendees have a place to put all their promo stuff; a promo bag to hold all those promo handouts.Why do businesses bother with promotional materials? The simple reason is they work by spreading messages, themes and images and keeping those messages in front of those that have been targeted.Let’s say you are a plumber that gives out magnetic business cards so folks can stick them on their refrigerators. Most plumbers have their business name and contact info on their trucks.A self promotional plumber may also have his magnetic business cards stuck on his truck with a sign “Please Take One”.Sure it’s a silly idea and you may laugh. But plumbers that use this strategy report they usually replace all their magnetic cards every day.Magnetic cards are cheaper than mass media, almost as cheap as some standard business cards, and have a lot more ’staying’ power.And it makes sense if you have ever needed a plumber.The key is to look at your sales process and sales cycle and determine where promotional products can be leveraged to deliver your message. Most promotional product campaigns fail because they fail to focus first and foremost on the desired results.Before purchasing your promotional products determine how and to whom you will deliver them. This will help you narrow down your choices for appropriate products.”And don’t forget to track your results so you can improve” adds Wilcox.Not only is there an endless array of self promotional products but also a seemingly endless way to “package” or merchandise your self promotional messages.Take promotional caps. There are caps of all colors and styles. Some can have custom logos embroidered with a 3-D effect and even messages printed on the edge of the bill.Given the right strategy many people could be wearing your self promotional caps. Strategy is why it is important to think through your desired results first.Self promoters are strategic, not reactive. For instance, farmers in the Salinas Valley give their farmworkers company logo caps at the end of the growing season.The idea isn’t that the farmworkers will return to Mexico for the winter and wear their caps everywhere spreading the company message; the cap logo is simply a promotional reminder of the farm’s name and where to go for work at the start of spring season.Self promotional products can take many forms. There are pens, HiLiters, letter openers, staplers, badge holders and dog tags. There are memo pads, PDA holders, calculators, clocks, radios, mugs, coasters and water bottles.You can try backpacks, tote bags, coolers, velour pouches, tape measures, knives and flash lights. And key chains, pill cases, first aid kits, luggage tags, combs, fans and pedometers.And candles, shampoo, hand lotion, hand sanitizers, lip balm, sunscreen and bug repellant. And golf tees, balls, towels and totes. And more.It is helpful to remember that not all promotional items need to be useful like calendars or pens. You can also try fun items like stress balls, yo-yos and piggy banks. My favorite are those clear balls that flash when bounced. Next to food and chocolate.Food and candy are always popular. How about gum, mints, gourmet food, cookies, coffee, hot chocolate, ice tea and bottled water. Customers, prospects and suspects love to eat and drink! But then again, don’t we all?And what if your promotional targets are chocolate lovers like many of us? You can try chocolate wrapped in foil, coins, sports balls, squares, gift sets, bars, truffles or custom molds.And of course the more traditional magnetic business cards, notepads, calendars and even custom business cards. That’s a lot to think about so where to begin?Start with your sales and promotional cycle and see where your customer and prospect “touchpoints” or points of contact are. Your message’s desired result may be a phone call, an appointment or an e-mail inquiry.Use your self-promotional products to leverage or “convert” to the next step toward your desired promotional results.With focus and attention to results, self promotional products can add power and zip into your promotional campaigns.

If you are a first time business owner, the process of building a home internet business can be intimidating; especially if you don’t have the experience or the knowledge to do it. However, it is a challenge you gladly take on so you can reap the benefits of obtaining a better quality of life. Use these three success tips to help you build a business that will generate the income you want and give you the personal freedom to enjoy it.Build a Mailing ListA mailing list is vital for building a home internet business. A mailing list allows you to stay in contact with your customers as well as promote your company. Because the people on your mailing list have already expressed interest in you by signing up, they will be more receptive to your sales message as long as you don’t abuse the privilege.A good way to build up your mailing list is to give away something for free, such as an informative ebook or access to a web course, in exchange for their email address. Another way to generate a mailing list is to create a newsletter filled with information relevant to your target market. Whatever you do, don’t spam the people on your mailing list. You will alienate your customers and destroy the reputation of your home internet business.Use Social MediaSocial media is an excellent tool for building a home based internet business. The sales landscape has changed drastically. Customers have become resistant to old sales methods, such as broadcast advertising. The only way to reach consumers is to engage in one on one conversation with them about their needs.Social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook help you connect with your customers on a personal level. However, remember social media is about talking to your customers. Don’t use your social networking profile like a microphone and constantly belt out your sales message. Use it to get to know your customers better and how your home internet business can help them solve their problems.Talk to Experienced EntrepreneursThe best way to learn how to build a profitable home based internet business is to sit at the feet of people who have already done it. Listening to the successes and failures of entrepreneurs who have gone before is a worthwhile education that can help you navigate the rocky waters of business ownership.You can find tons of blogs by entrepreneurs online that detail their struggle to build a home internet business. They also hang out in business forums helping other entrepreneurs and you can often find them on the same social media sites you use to connect with your customers. Don’t be afraid to pick their brain for useful information. Who knows, a minor tip could make you millions.Building a home internet business is a challenging task. But with passion, persistence and discipline, you can build a business that will give you the financial freedom to have the life you’ve always wanted.

Service design, or multi-channel proposition development, may sound like a grand and complex idea but it’s actually quite a simple (and hopefully familiar) one. In this article we introduce the concept of service design and explain why it’s important for us to think about how a product is conceived and designed across multiple touchpoints.What is service design?If you think about a recent, personal experience of finding a holiday destination, booking flights and a hotel, you may have used lots of different information sources from 1 or many companies.You may have:* Seen a TV advert promoting the country you decided to visit
* Spoken to a friend or acquaintance that’s visited the country before
* Used a search engine to find out more about the country
* Popped into a travel agent on the high street and spoken to an advisor
* Browsed through glossy resort pictures in a paper-based brochure
* Visited the agent’s website to get a details on a particular hotel or read reviews from previous customers
* Booked online to get the best deal
* Received printed matter through the post or by email to confirm receipt (and perhaps some up-sell communications for an excursion)
* Printed your own boarding pass at home
* Signed up for mobile text alerts giving excursion ideas when actually on holidayObviously all these activities could easily span a number of weeks or months and involve a number of people, collaborating to achieve the task goal at hand.It doesn’t matter whether your company’s in the business of selling holiday packages or mobile phones the concept is still the same. All those touchpoints when a customer interacts with your brand is part of your overall service. This includes:* Any brand building or promotional messages received through multiple channels
* The high street experience and the experts in your stores
* Your call centre experience and it’s relationship to the customer’s journey
* Any printed materials used to help customers understand your proposition
* Your website and any related electronic communications
* Any printed materials or the packaging supplied with the product itselfService design or multi-channel proposition development is about organising the different bits and pieces that make up a customer’s experience of your company’s brand and product into a coherent and interconnected journey across channels.Why is service design important?In a highly competitive world it’s very easy for a customer to switch from one service or product provider to another, especially when the customer experience is of a low quality. An entire business has emerged around switching energy or financial services suppliers. Often customers are motivated by cost, but the importance of customer experience shouldn’t be under-estimated.When a customer has a positive experience when using the touchpoints of your service it adds a great deal of value to your brand’s perception. We believe that effective conversion, word-of-mouth recommendations and ongoing brand loyalty are symptoms of a coherent and well-conceived multi-channel design.Nowadays, customers are becoming increasingly savvy and recognize a good overall service when they see one and are quick to feel frustrated when they have to deal with a poorly conceived journey.Breaking down silo wallsThe biggest challenge when trying to work out your proposition development across multiple channels is your organisational structure. Most companies tend to organise silos around their communication channels or service elements. For example, the team that deals with broadcast advertising is separate to the digital team that design and manage the website, who in turn is separate from any direct marketing and so on. Given the diverse skills involved it’s not surprising that many companies tend to organize themselves in this way.Unfortunately, silos don’t encourage an overall service view. But the customer’s experience is something that goes beyond the boundaries of different silos. So, what’s the solution?Breaking down silo walls isn’t realistic, so put away your sledgehammer and get out your user experience cookbook instead. The key to meeting this challenge lies in:* Gaining detailed knowledge of your customers, their behaviour and their journey using user research methods
* Recruiting key champions from across the company, from different silos and engaging them in a multi-channel design and proposition development process
* Building a multi-channel ethic into your company culture to encourage all staff to think beyond the confines of their own projects and silos
* Regularly usability testing the touchpoints that make up your service with real customers to make sure it’s all joined upConclusionLike all good design, coming up with a logical and coherent multi-channel proposition and providing an excellent customer experience doesn’t happen by accident or by magic. It needs a determined effort to bring the right people together with shared values and goals.

Fax broadcasting, also called fax blasting, is a highly effective form of advertising if executed correctly. Fax broadcasting allows a company to instantly deliver targeted marketing messages to a large audience for an incredibly low price.Fax broadcasting is a way to get real, physical promotional messages into the hands of your target audience at a cost of about 96% less than sending information through the mail. Blasts of up to 1000 faxes, complete with statistics, can cost as low as $40 with price breaks on larger quantities.The two most critical factors in ensuring a successful fax broadcasting campaign are the accuracy of the fax mailing list and the quality of the marketing message. Below you’ll find some tips and ideas to maximize the return on investment of your fax broadcasting campaign.Define the recipient’s specific actionToo often people send out marketing messages hoping that customers will react in a way that benefits the company. Before you even start creating your message, ask yourself: What precise action do I want a recipient to take after reading my message? Will they call a number for more information? Fill out a form and fax back to receive a special free report or bulletin? Or perhaps file the fax in a specific folder in their filing cabinet for future reference?Include a call to actionDon’t just hope that recipients will infer the action you want them to take. Make sure to include your specific call to action on the page. A call to action might be: “To receive this free special offer, log on to http://www.website.com within the next 24 hours and order online.” By first determining the specific action your customers will take, then creating your marketing message around it, you are more likely to get the reaction that you are anticipating.Designing the contentA fax broadcast should be eye catching and encourage the recipient to pick it up and read it after just a glance. Include different sized fonts to accomplish different goals. Use large fonts for brief bursts of relevant yet intriguing text to catch the reader’s attention. Provide a brief follow up to your large text in medium sized font. Add some details in smaller text for those who are interested and want to read more. Give the prospective client enough information to pique their interest then encourage them to seek you out for more information. This not only stops you from crowding your fax broadcast with text, but also engages the prospect.Fax Broadcast layout and designWhile art and design are highly subjective, there are a few basic rules of thumb to stick to. Give the page adequate margins. Think of the white space as a design element to give shape to the other elements on your page, not just blank space to fill up. Choose a professional image or illustration that doesn’t include a lot of dark areas and will look great in black and white. Unless you’re a graphic designer, do a search for professional stock images to find illustrations and photos at low prices. iStockPhoto.com offers more than half a million professional images for just $1 per image.Test your MessageBefore sending your fax out to thousands of people, get the opinions of a few people who aren’t completely familiar with your business. The goal isn’t to find out if they like your promotional flyer, but to test whether or not it delivers the intended message. Make a list of 3-5 very specific questions to ask your test audience such as: “What exactly does this company do?” “What problem does this company’s product or service solve?” or “What action will I take after reading this offer?” Continue testing until you get the desired results and you’ll improve the chances that your target customers will have the same reaction.Find or Create a Targeted Fax Mailing ListThe accuracy and quality of the mailing list for your fax broadcast will ultimately determine if all of your hard work will pay off. To accomplish this you can purchase a fax mailing list, create your own custom list by gathering info from company websites, or hire someone to collect the information for you. A quality fax broadcasting service will offer statistics to let you know how many were delivered successfully so that you can fine tune your mailing list.Fax broadcasting can be an extremely effective marketing tool, especially for small businesses on a budget that need to make a big impact quickly. While everyone else is concentrating their efforts on email marketing, you can deliver a hardcopy right into the hands of your target customer. Unlike email, someone is sure to look at it and not just instantly toss it away. By designing your fax broadcast effectively, you can easily expand your reach and grow your business.

It really won’t matter if no one knows your product or service because you haven’t branded your business correctly. Some companies and businesses spread their ad dollars around with direct mail, radio, broadcast and web. But without long-range branding plan you are wasting your time and money.The Age Old Branding QuestionLet’s presume that you own a ‘brick and mortar’ jewelry store, plus you sell your products online. How do you convert casual browsers into buyers in both situations? I can say it in one word.
BRANDING.People buy brands. A brand should represent everything you stand for. What do you think of when you hear the name ‘Tiffany’s’? Expensive, chic and elegance are a few words that come to mind.Ask yourself, How do you want people to identify with you or your brand? Find and identify a niche in your market and exploit it any way you can.Logos, Taglines, Mascots and AttitudeThe long-range branding of Nike has been a steady-on, unwavering approach. They show imagery with ambient sound effects followed by their familiar Nike logo swoosh. Sometimes they add the tagline, ‘Just Do It’. This is their branding attitude.Aflacs’ insurance commercials feature a bumbling duck. This cute, feathery, accident-prone mascot became the quintessential reason why you need to buy insurance – - their insurance. Aflac took this sleep inducing subject and made it entertaining and memorable.Local Branding Hero’sThe home town branding factor can bring you excellent recognition. Can you think of a restaurant, car dealership, jeweler or any local business brand that sticks out in your mind? Identity is branding’s most common denominator. You have to stand out in the crowd or get lost in the clutter.Give your customers a reason why they should do business with you.Where to StartStart by consulting with a full-service public relations agency or advertising agency. We use Rourk Public Relations in Virginia Beach, to help establish our company brand. David Rourk, President of the company, has captured in words our business philosophy, unique product and value to customers. This branding has helped VISIONEFX become one of the leading Web design companies in Virginia.Good branding will last the life of your business. Go forth and brand!