Unless you have lived in a cave for the past few years, you have seen them in your community. A group of women over 50 years of age dressed as pimps. Big red hats with feathers, boas draped around their shoulders, purple velvet suits, as gaudy as you can imagine. These ladies are no pimps. They are members of a popular women over-50 group, The Red Hat Society.

The Red Hat Society beginnings started in a thrift store in 1997. Queen-Mother (official title), Sue Ellen Cooper, purchased a special red fedora. A few months later, Cooper gave a similar fedora to a friend, along with the poem "Warning" by Jenny Joseph. In the "Warning" poem, Joseph writes about an older women in what eventually became the official "Red Hatter" uniform, red hat with a purple outfit. By 1998, The Red Hat Society was well on its way to spreading across the globe!

What makes The Red Hat Society brand so powerful? Although there are many reasons, here are the top three:

1) Eye-catching Uniforms: The Red Hat Society has a consistent look. You see it in organizations, but in how many associations have you seen it? I have never been able to look at a group of people in a park over 100-yards away and say, "oh, looks like the local Rotarians are having lunch in the park." However, I have personally done that with The Red Hat Society. The outfit makes it easy to see who is in and who is not. If you happen to find a women wearing the outfit that is not already a member, I bet she would jump at the opportunity to be a part of such a sisterhood! When a group of ladies is out wearing the red hat uniform, you notice and probably talk about it. When enough people are talking about you, your brand is going to grow.

2) No Boys Allowed!: I have never and will never be invited to join The Red Hat Society. I consider myself a fun person, I am even willing to wear the red hat - but it doesn’t matter, I am not a woman over 50 years of age. Even my wife is excluded from joining for a couple of decades. If everyone can be a member, being a Red Hatter would not be special. The membership criteria for this group is specific and exclusive - two things that create a bond among members. The stronger the bond among members, the stronger the brand.

3) Licenced Foolishness: Queen Mother, Cooper, authored a book about this movement she created. The sub-title for the book is "Friendship and Fun over 50." Red Hatters take that phrase seriously. I am proud to say that my mom is a member of the Red Hat Society in Las Vegas, Nevada. Friendship and fun is easily visible if you have spent any time around some Red Hatters. My mom’s group actually went to visit a legal brothel in Pahrump, NV. Why? Because it was silly and a little wild. As we grow up, we often put behind us the days of foolish childhood fun. After all, we are adults with adult responsibilities. It’s easier to be foolish when you have a group of your friends doing it with you. The Red Hat Society gives its members a licence to have foolish fun, just because! Sure, anyone can go out and act foolish, but when you are a part of a group doing it - the fun multiplies! Thinking and acting like a group, unifies the brand.

Are these three brand variables what you need to jump start your brand? Maybe, but probably not. What everyone business owner can learn from The Red Hat Society brand profile is that you need to understand your market and what they want and need. When you are learning about your market, dig deeper than the obvious. Build your brand to meet market needs, directly and indirectly .

If you ran an ad in the paper offering a ride to Pahrump, I am not sure how many women over 50 years of age would respond. Yet, once the trip is part of "Red Hatter membership excursion," you can’t keep them away. Successful brands are built by finding and filling a void in the market. The desire to be a part of like-minded individuals is the void, the trip to the brothel is simply one way the Red Hat Society fills the void.

Kevin Kearns is a small business branding coach. He holds a Master of Science degree in Organization Development and is a member of the Coachville Graduate School of Coaching. With a mixture of hands-on experience, research, and FUN, Kevin helps small businesses become the only choice. Visit http://www.kevinkearns.com to join The Branding Bunch - a community of small business owners wanting to Become the Only Choice.

As a founding partner in "The World’s First Snowboarder Hotels" (http://www.theblockattahoe.com / http://www.theblockatbigbear.com), Kevin has experienced success only true branding can bring. Contact Kevin today to start building your brand.

What makes a “good” television ad? What makes a “bad” television ad?

Does “good” or “bad” have anything to do with the effectiveness of an ad?

Here are some definitions for the purpose of this article:

bad ad: There is something antisocial in the ad.

good ad: The ad clearly describes the product or service and is entertaining, direct, and pleasing to watch.

Some Good Ads

Bayer®

Bayer® is currently running an ad for a commodity or generic product. The product is aspirin. But the ad does not call it aspirin, it is Bayer®.

Although aspirin is aspirin to most of us, the ad wants you to know that you can trust only Bayer®.

The pitch lady is an expert at her job.

She has a wonderful, trustful voice full of warmth and pathos. (I just love her!) Bayer® has helped three people in her family. Her mother uses it for arthritis pain, her brother for his bumps in the night, and it SAVED HER FATHER FROM DEATH!

Pleasant scenes of family togetherness say, “ALL CAN BE WELL WITH YOUR FAMILY TOO!”

But, of course, you should be using Bayer®.

Egg•Land’s Best®

Egg•Land’s Best® sells another commodity or generic product.

Eggs!

I know of no other put-eggs-in-carton distributor that bothers to advertise.

Egg•Land® says that their eggs taste best by test.

I don’t know what this means. They certainly don’t taste as good to me as the ones from my grandkid’s chicken coop. But they are eggs and certainly edible. The taste test is not specified. It could have been in the company boardroom for all I know.

But who cares? They taste best by test!

Also these eggs probably have the same health benefits as other eggs but the commercial implies that the ingredients in their eggs are somehow gooder.

But all of the above is strictly tinsel.

The ad versions show grandma, dad, mother, and children eating eggs together in the kitchen. Why, it’s just like the good old days when families ate together and enjoyed each other’s company.

What could be better than that; all made possible by not any eggs, but Egg•Land’s Best®?

Sam Adams®

I know the CEO of Sam Adams® so I keep track of what he is up to. In his ads he tells us that every one in his company has only one aim: Make Good Beer!

He shows that bad beer or stale beer is only good for dunking. He climbs up on that dunk seat and folks throw balls at the target until he is dunked!

What other CEO would do that?

He also says that good hops make good beer. Off he goes to Belgium and sticks his whole face into the hops. At the end of one of his ads you know that he is making good beer and that he (and his crew) intends to keep eyes focused on the beer to make sure it stays good.

I met this gentleman when he was speaking at an entrepreneurial meeting in Boston. While the Dukakis people were suffering from defeat (right there in our hotel) he was being recognized for the company startup.

He is a humble, honest fellow so he told us that he asked his grandfather for money to buy a computer.

His grandfather said, “Why do you need a computer?”

He answered, “To keep track of my customers.”

His grandfather asked, “How many customers do you have?”

He said, “Six.” (That’s if I remember the story correctly.)

His grandfather told him to go to the dime store and by a pocket notebook!

Now look at his company!

Good Ad Summary

I think the key to a good ad is to keep things as simple as possible. You often have only time enough to spotlight the NAME of the product or service and to emphasis the one key BENEFIT. (Drug companies must buy extra time to tell how the same drug can knock you on your petunia.)

Cal Worthington’s ads were always extremely entertaining. He often used animals to catch the eye. Sticking your head into a lion’s mouth will draw attention (especially if the lion has not had lunch.) Cal’s point was always that he would STAND ON HIS HEAD to give you a good deal. (See my article on Cal Worthington.)

Animals, children, cartoon characters, etc., can make ho hum ad more exciting and fun.

All of my advertising is of the print variety so I don’t have the luxury of much more than a cartoon character.

Bad Ads

There are a lot of ads that bother me. The worst are those that are focused so that only a moron would want to buy the product. You don’t want to be in that category so you don’t buy.

I think there are some negatives that may not be negatives to the professionals that write the television ads but they are negative to me. Here is my list:

Negative Personality Spokesperson

Let’s say an actor is chosen as the spokesperson that is popular because of a very negative or abrasive role he or she plays in a television show.

Can anyone separate the actor from the abrasive character he or she plays?

Would you trust that person?

I don’t! Not with my money!

Now, you’ve guessed whom I’m talking about.

I suspect that these ads are successful. Why else would they keep the same spokesperson for so long?

Somebody Does Something Disgusting

One ad I watched this week showed a cook not washing his hands when coming out of a stall in the men’s room. My wife and I looked at each other, said, “UGH!” and I clicked, clicked, clicked. (My wife does not like me to click, click, click but she made an exception in this case.)

What was the rest of the ad about? Who knows? We weren’t there to watch it.

Someone Does Something Stupid

Some brewers love to show some dodo doing something so stupid that nobody else would think of doing it. It gets attention, their intended audience laughs, mission accomplished.

What do these ads do for me? It depends on its originality. If it is funny, I’ll laugh and laugh and laugh. If it’s not, I’ll say, “That was stupid!”

Maybe that’s the test.

Named but Not Identified Product

The drug companies love these ads. Ask your doctor about Zentrap.

They never tell you what Zentrap is!

Actually, Zentrap doesn’t exist to my knowledge. I made it up. However, if you know this drug and it does trap Zen, e-mail me immediately.

I always say to this type of commercial, “Who cares? It can cause diarrhea, backache, dizziness, and sclerosis of the liver.”

General Conclusions

I like it when the CEO of Ford Motor Company comes out and says that the company is doing everything possible to improve the quality of Ford’s vehicles. Lee Iacocca never trusted anyone else to speak for Chrysler. I like CEOs to take me around their operations and say, “Look here! That’s good!”

Remember the horses playing football? I remember that silly scene and it’s planted in my brain forever. (That means until my brain cells say, “We’re out of oxygen! Goodbye, Taylor Jones, the hack writer!)

Do you remember the product?

Sure you do. Glub! Glub! (Well, I don’t drink. I suspect that it is probably against the law here in this part of Idaho. Now I worked for a subsidiary of a brewery and a subsidiary of a distiller, so I’m not completely against you having a drop or two. Moderation is good! Keep that pension coming!)

Some ads are cute but short lived. People tire early of repetition. That’s why talking frogs, toads, dogs, cats and kangaroos are fun at first but then not as fun. Sometimes you have to switch to a spicy old lady that says, “Where’s the beef!”

Copyright©John T. Jones, Ph.D. 2005

John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com)is a retired R&D engineer and VP of a Fortune 500 company. He is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering), poetry, etc. Former editor of international trade magazine. Jones is Executive Representative of International Wealth Success.

More info: http://www.tjbooks.com

Business web site: http://www.bookfindhelp.com (IWS wealth-success books and kits and business newsletters / TopFlight flagpoles)

The news has been reporting that Tommy Hilfiger is up for sale.

As of this writing, there are various clothing brands and investment groups pondering an acquisition of the Tommy Hilfiger company.

There is no question that Tommy is one of the leading clothing brands in the world.

It has been reported that it is gaining popularity in Europe which should more than offset any slowing of its market share growth in the US market.

What should be an interesting situation is the following.

It has been reported that Wal Mart is interested in making a deal with the future acquirer of Tommy.

Wal Mart would like to carry apparel and other accessories from Tommy Hilfiger.

But the dilemma for a buyer of Tommy would be the consequence of having their brand sold by a national discount retailer.

Would the brand lose its cache as a top brand if customers can buy it at a discount at Wal Mart?

Any sane buyer would stop buying Tommy clothing at department stores if they can buy it at Wal Mart for less.

This would lead to the department stores dropping Tommy Hilfiger clothing from their stock.

Why should Tommy Hilfiger take a chance on selling to Wal Mart when it will lose its department store accounts.

Here is what I would do from a brand management position.

I would restrict any clothing that Wal Mart would carry to entry level lower priced Tommy Hilfiger clothing.

The higher end, let’s say $30 plus clothing, would be exclusively carried by department stores.

My strategy would enable Wal Mart to carry a well known brand and increase its sales.

The department stores wold gain since more customers would be introduced to the brand. When those customers decide to buy the higher end Tommy clothing they will have to visit a department store.

Tommy Hilfiger would also benefit since it will see an increase of sales from these new customers, plus the sales it will make to Wal Mart.

Donny Lowy operates the following wholesale sites:

http://www.closeoutexplosion.com
http://www.salehoo.net
http://www.wholesalecloseoutforum.com

Ever see a logo that doesn’t look quite right? The colors and font look good, the icon is just what you were looking for and the shading and overall shape are just perfect, but it still seems like something is out of place? Ever thought the problem might be the negative space around the logo?

Negative space is the space that surrounds a visual object. When you look at a chair, the negative space is the rectangular and triangular shapes between the legs and armrests of the chair. With a logo, the concept is the same. Empty space around the words and icons in a logo can make the image look funny if the spaces are too large or small.

Consider the famous golden arches of McDonald’s. Imagine how weird the arches would look if the two bullet shaped spaces under the arches became triangles. Or what if one bullet was larger than the other? Negative shape is an important design element, but you don’t have to be a design expert to know how negative shape works.

All you need to know about negative space is that if you’re logo is visually appealing, the negative space is probably just fine. However, if a logo’s individual elements look right but the whole package doesn’t quite fit, perhaps some tweaking of the negative space between letters or shapes will do the trick.

Jonathan Munk writes articles for major http://www.logomaker.com Logo Maker companies such as LogoWorks.com.

Read what The Origin of Brands Blog says about LogoWorks

It’s winter time, the breed inspection season has come and gone in North America, and along with it branding season.

Branding season for horses–NOT for horse BUSINESSES.

If you have any business or marketing background, or have done any reading on the subject, you have heard of branding in the business context. Let’s take a look at what that actually is.

Brands on horses and other livestock in the Old West showed ownership. There was some level of claiming recognition for owning a quality animal, but primarily the point was to keep livestock from being stolen. Branding helped to legally retrieve stolen livestock.

In Europe, brands on horses were not an indication of personal ownership, but rather indicated the horses’ affiliations with one of the regional registries.

That idea, which is behind modern-day branding of horses in European-affiliated breeds and some of the other breeds in North America is closer to the concept of business branding. In fact, it IS business branding for the individual horse breed.

So What is Branding Exactly?

It isn’t a string of freeze-branded symbols or a set of moose antlers or other breed symbol. Those are likened to a business logo or trademark, but those things aren’t brands in the business sense, either.

A brand on a horse signifies everything the breed represents: the quality, history, performance record, origin, and so on. A horse that carries a breed’s brand mark ostensibly possesses all of the attributes of the breed, and is theoretically capable of performing to the standard established by that breed association. For example, when you see a horse with a Holsteiner brand (assuming you have familiarity with the mark), you recognize the horse as a Holsteiner. You immediately know a little bit about the horse’s lineage, background, and the kinds of activities it might be good at.

That is why some registries require a physical inspection and approval of the individual horse before giving it a brand–the branded horse is a representative of the breed’s identity, a walking advertisement. It makes sense for the breed organization to want to control the quality of those advertisements.

Likewise, a brand is the embodiment of all the information connected with a product or service. A brand typically includes a name, logo, and other visual elements and encompasses the set of expectations associated with a product or service which typicaly arise in the minds of people. (reference: wikipedia.org).

Logos and such–like brand marks–are a shorthand symbol for the brand. Those marks are meaningless until the brand is built.

Build Your Brand from the Ground Up:

As Chevy Chase’s character, Ty Webb, says in Caddyshack, "Be the ball." Live the brand. Branding is everything you and your business represents. You establish a brand through the quality of your horses, your competitive record, the standard of service you provide to your clients, the manner of your business dealings, trust, your reputation. A brand is a business’ identity. Consistency in all of these elements builds a brand.

Paradoxically, I am on the fence about whether to brand horses or not. Maybe just the bunny-hugger in my personality coming out, but I think branding hurts the animal.

For your horse business, definitely, branding shouldn’t hurt. It might take a little mental stretching to grasp the concept, but the actual establishment and building of your brand need not be painful.

But one thing is certain: There is no end to the branding season for businesses!

Copyright 2005 by I.M. Andrews/Equinnovation Equine Marketing/http://www.Equinnovation.com. For more articles, information, and tips on horse business topics and equine marketing, subscribe to the Equine Business Edge, the free newsletter for horse-related business owners and the equine industry, at http://www.equinnovation.com/newsletter.

The best marketing tip you will ever hear is to advertise your product or business. In fact, any marketing tip you hear or see will be related to some form of advertising. In this article, we will go over several marketing tips and the reason you should use them.

One great marketing tip is to use an auto responder. Autoresponders automatically send out emails to people on your mailing lists or to people who have been to your website. You can then send out advertisements of your business or service. This is a great marketing tip because it is often inexpensive and sometimes free to use an autoresponder.

A second marketing tip you may enjoy is the use of slogans or logos. This is an excellent marketing tip. People will always remember a clever logo or slogan. Many people find it best to use a funny slogan because it brings people happy thoughts when they think of your business. Try to think one up.

A third great marketing tip is to put your URL everywhere. Get yourself noticed. Put your ULR all over your site, in your autoresponder emails, hand out flyers, business cards, etc. This is always beneficial.

The next great marketing tip I have for you is to use an SEO. An SEO (search engine optimization) enables your website to be listed at the top of search engine lists. SEO uses keyword and link popularity to maximize this result. This leads to more visitors to your sight and more profit. Again, this is another great marketing tip.

Another great marketing tip is your web design. A great web design can attract more people to your site, and keep them coming back. In addition, another similar marketing tip is to use flash pictures to get attention. Or, another marketing tip is to use eye catching photographs or illustrations or your product or service. This will attract more attention as well.

My favorite marketing tip is to use testimonials and offer feedback to customers. This marketing tip is a must for anyone who wants to show positive feedback of their business. A similar marketing tip is to post these positive testimonials on your site or to send them out in your autoresponder.

Lastly, a great marketing tip is to keep your domain name simple and easy to remember. People can’t find your sight if they can’t remember it, let alone if they can’t spell it. A catchy domain name is always helpful.

For another good marketing tip, try asking fellow business owners. I’m sure they will have a marketing tip or two to aid you. You can then make some friends in the business circle and swap ideas. Eventually it will all lead you to a successful and promising business.

Jay Moncliff is the founder of http://www.marketing-eficaz.net a website specialized on Marketing, resources and articles. This site provides updated information on Marketing. For more info visit his site: Marketing

Small Dogs Press is a new publishing house. In addition to selling their first title, "She’s the Girl," Small Dogs wants to create awareness of their brand. Here’s what publisher Susan Sabo has to say about some creative (and inexpensive) ways to do so:

"I’ve spent as much time and effort on brand marketing for Small Dogs Press as I have for my individual title that’s about to come out. Totes are good, hats, sweatshirts, bumper stickers . . . the possibilities are all over the place."

"I made up bumper stickers for company branding: they say "I do bad things for love," (the line comes from one of the books, and relates to the fiction we publish, but it’s a long story). Boy, is THAT a conversation starter. Of course, people’s first thoughts go right into the gutter (LOL) but that’s OK, because once they start to ask questions they become quite intrigued by the tagline and the company, and therefore, the books. I have one of these on my car (and have forced them on all my friends), and when I take them to book fairs, I hand them out for free. People literally chase me down to get one. The sticker also includes my URL (http://www.SmallDogsPress.com), and my web traffic spikes likes mad after one of these outings."

Along with the branding of Small Dogs Press, Susan is actively promoting their first book. According to Susan, "I have a tank top for "She’s the Girl" that says "be the girl" on the front, with my URL on the back. These have been really successful in starting conversations as well. People often ask where I got it. I just spin around, they take note of the URL, and sometimes ask to buy one."

"I wear one of my "products" as often as possible when going out. And I’m stopped all the time by people wanting to know what they’re about," says Susan.

Small Dogs Press created fun products with catchy slogans to grab the attention of readers. Can you come up with a tagline and/or image to put on t-shirts, bumper stickers, coffee mugs, magnets, note pads and other products? Not only will they bring you more customers, the products may become a profit center themselves.

Copyright Cathy Stucker. As the IdeaLady, Cathy Stucker helps authors, entrepreneurs and professionals attract customers and make themselves famous. To learn more about selling books and branding your business, subscribe to Cathy’s free newsletter at http://www.IdeaLady.com/

Pixel advertising is a form of internet advertising that is increasing in popularity. Publicity surrounding a pixel advertising website created by a British college student who needed to raise money to pay for his education has created great interest in this type of advertising.

The website, called the milliondollarhomepage.com, has earned its creator, Alex Tew, hundreds of thousands of dollars since he launched it in August, 2005. Tew’s website homepage is a grid that is divided into one million pixel blocks. The pixels are sold to advertisers in blocks of 100 pixels, each measuring 10 x 10 pixels. Each pixel block becomes part of a colorful mosaic of advertising on the website. At $1.00 a pixel, when the page is sold out,Tew will have raised one million dollars for his education with this creative advertising technique.

Could your nonprofit organization, club, or group raise one million dollars by selling micro advertising pixel blocks? It is possible. Anyone can set up a pixel advertising website and The Million Dollar Homepage has inspired many businesses and organizations to create their own pixel advertising campaigns. Your organization may already be selling advertising space in your programs or other printed materials. Selling pixel advertising is just like selling any other form of advertising except that the advertisement appears on the world wide web for as long as you keep your website up. The potential of millions of people seeing their advertisement, for a year or longer, is a great selling point to advertisers and donors.

What do you need to get started with pixel advertising fundraising? If your organization already has a website you can set up pixel advertising on a page of your existing site. Or, you can buy a new domain name and set up a website soley for your pixel fundraising. You will need a web hosting account for your site and a pixel advertising software program. You can buy a software program online and install it yourself or have it professionally installed. Your organization will also need to set up an online payment processor,such as PayPal. When your website is set up you will need a person in your organization to administer and monitor the program. You’ll be able to sell all the advertising online through the software program as well as process the payments online.

Does trying to raise one million dollars sound a bit unrealistic for your organization? When you set up your software program you will be able to set your own selling price for the pixels. So, your organization must decide how much money you need to raise and what the theme of your advertising website will be. If you want to raise fifty thousand dollars, then you would sell your pixels for five cents a pixel. This would make a one hundred pixel block cost only five dollars. You can also change the minimum number of required ad block purchases. If your minimum required ad blocks are one thousand, then your minimum ad block would cost a very reasonable fifty dollars per ad space. You would also only have to sell one thousand ad spaces in order to earn fifty thousand dollars. Even if you sold your pixels for a penny a pixel, you could still earn ten thousand dollars from one pixel ad page.

How can nonprofit organizations use pixel advertising? You could sell pixels and donate the money to a charitable organization such as The American Red Cross. Or, set up a pixel page to raise money for a specific project such as building a playground, or a spring school class trip. Pixels don’t have to be sold to only businesses. A school group could sell pixels to alumni or parents of a graduating class. A graduating class could set up a pixel page and raise money for their graduation night party.

The possibilities for fundraising with pixel advertising are limitless. A well-designed and promoted pixel advertising campaign has the potential to raise money and awareness for your organization. This form of advertising fundraising is well worth considering as a part of your organization’s fundraising strategy.

Article copyright DIYFundraising.com. Visit DIY Fundraising for more creative fundraising ideas for nonprofit organizations. Is your organization raising money with pixel advertising? List your pixel ad page for free at http://diyfundraising.com.

Who holds a conference in December anyway? But, since it was a paid speaking engagement, I decided what the heck.

I should have had a clue as to how things would go when I sat on the runway with an engine light malfunction for two hours. Consequently, I missed my dinner engagement when that turned a 90-minute flight into one that lasted four hours. Remember when airlines distributed snacks? Forget it. We got free head phones for a flight too short for a movie. Who can eat headphones anyway?

That’s another reason missing the dinner engagement was problematic. I was starving. No matter how dog-tired or otherwise out of sorts are when you arrive, you should maximize your travel schedule every night with appointments. Here are some tips to help you do that.

1) Remember, you are supposed to fly into an event the night before so you can be there first thing for the registration networking.

2) This is the time you can catch speakers who are only there for a day or an hour or two to give their presentation. Almost everyone appears for their free breakfast (in my case there wasn’t one).

3) In most events, there are scheduled breaks to catch up to people you want to meet but if someone is on a tight schedule, leave the room and catch them on the way out. This is not the time for lengthy conversations. Use your elevator speech, exchange cards and tell them you will follow up.

After a few speeches, we finally had lunch.

4) Plan to sit with someone different at every meal and don’t monopolize any one person’s attention. If you are ambitious, suggest introductions at the table, a 30-second sound bite introduction and a card exchange. That way even if you don’t get to speak with that person you can use the luncheon as a point of reference later.

5) Make notes on the back of every business card about what you discussed. It helps to have a non-business point of reference when you contact this person later.

6) Don’t spend your time selling. Discussions should include a little business but your real objective is to establish a personal bond with this person, so that they remember you and will respond when you contact them later on.

7) Make it your goal to meet every speaker and attendee. I know this is a lofty challenge especially if you can’t really see a connection, but you never know how someone could refer you to exactly the RIGHT person.

8) Always introduce yourself to the staff and meeting personnel even if you are not a speaker. They can be important people influencing the decisions on when to suggest new speakers for future events. IMPORTANT: Fill out the evaluation forms and mention that you are willing to be quoted or contacted in the future. Again, this bond building good will thing you are trying to establish.

9) If you really liked a speaker’s presentation, offer to write a testimonial. No sucking up here. This needs to be legitimate. Conversely, if you are speaker and someone likes your stuff ask them to write you a testimonial. Trade Secret: Offer to write it for them and then send it to them for approval. This always works! If you wait for them to do it, you will probably never get it.

10) Another trade secret is never to send in your speech ahead of time. Always offer it free to attendees before you begin. Just ask them to leave you a card with their email address. Get It? Now they know you and you know them as opposed to waiting for someone to contact you.

To get back to my speech: I was scheduled for last on the second day of the conference. This is notoriously the worst spot, but in this case attendees were waiting to hear "If You Package It, Will She Buy?" by yours truly. Everyone stayed to the end even though we all scrambled to get to outgoing flights on time.

NOTE: How to create an elevator speech; How to make most of those first 30 seconds or less; How to use networking to build your business; How to speak your way to fame and fortune; are all included in the Packaging Yourself Workbook Order now @ http://www.packaginguniversity.com/pkgustorefront.htm

To subscribe to the personal branding e-zine "Packaging Yourself" email me @ pkgcoach@aol.com

Disappointed consumers often accuse advertisers of making false promises, distorting facts, and even lying. These consumers, are more often than not, mistaken in thinking promises were made or facts were given in the advertisement that lured them into buying a particular product. Expert advertisers do not need to lie or make promises to us, for they know exactly how to make us think we hear promises or facts that are not actually stated.

Advertisers know what we want. They also know how to make us want what they are trying to sell. Just as a magician uses props to make the audience believe that something is happening which, in fact, is not happening, advertisers use props to create illusions and direct our thinking about products. Of all the props advertisers use (pictures, music, etc) language is the most misleading. Learning how advertisers use language to create illusions, and why they work, allows us to avoid making poor choices when we buy products.

One of the more obvious tricks advertisers use is repetition. The next time you are watching television, listen to the commercials carefully. Count the number of times the name of the product repeated. Notice also that pronouns are never used to refer to a product, no matter how many times it has been mentioned before.

A typical clothes soap commercial may sound somewhat like this:

“But I don’t use the old brand anymore. Now I use Sudsy. Sudsy gets all of my clothes so much cleaner. Sudsy keeps them smelling fresh and I don’t worry about static cling with Sudsy.” “Sudsy is terrific! I’m going to buy some Sudsy on the way home.” In real conversation (if you can imagine one so trite) Sudsy would have been referred to as “it” much more often than as “Sudsy”. There is good reason for the advertiser to affect such unrealistic dialogue, however. They want you to remember the brand name.

The human brain has a two-part memory system. There is short term memory which allows us to store up to seven bits of information temporarily, such as a phone number long enough to dial it, or notice that pot on the stove is boiling at the same time we notice the ring of the phone, notice the toddler heading for the door, and so on.

If our short term memory is flooded with one thing, or if that thing is repeated enough such as a phone number dialed enough times, the information will be pushed into long term memory. This is exactly where advertisers want the name of their product. They want us to remember that name until we see the product in the store. If we recognize the name, we are more likely to pick that product out of a line of similar products which have names we do not recognize. There is a list of tricks like this used to sway your purchasing practices, but one stands out as a leading reason people buy into things that they are disappointed with later and feel lied to about.

The most misleading trick advertisers use is to manipulate your categorizing and bridging assumption processes. If they can get you to process their products into the right categories they can create a false association for you and a sense of want and need for that product. They, from there, can make you think you are told something you are not told.

To understand this fully you need to understand a bit about how our brain processes words. This is tricky and much more complicated than I outline it here, but I think that I can give you enough basic information to do you some good when deciphering an advertisement so bear with me and if it’s confusing at first, keep reading and it will become clear.

As we learn language we first learn words - doggy, bottle, blanket, etc. As we grow and learn more words our brain starts to file them into categories. For example we’ll use the words “doggy”, “bottle”, and “blanket,” from which we form the category of “mine” and “yours”. Later these categories will expand and form into categories of their own, and “mine” and “yours” slide into the category of “property” and “doggy,” “bottle”, and “blanket” move down the hierarchy, . The categories will become larger, more complex, and more abstract as we continue to grow and learn. “Property” eventually will fall under “public property” and “private” property, which eventually will become encompassed by our concept or category of “freedom”. These categories do not exist separately as if in a filing cabinet, however, but overlap infinitely. Therefore, the idea “dog” may exist in the categories of “animals”, “protection”, “hunting”, “friend”, according to your experience with dogs in the real world. It is this sinuous overlapping of words, categories, and concepts which allows us to make associations, presumptions and inferences about the world around us.

Our lives take us through associations from birth until death; our minds do the same. By the age of 10 or 11 we are able to be specific about a topic or generalize - my dog - dogs in general - and make assumptions - dog is scratching at door - he needs to go out.

Communication would be almost impossible without the ability to generalize and make assumptions and inferences.

Consider this conversation.

“What time is it?”

“It’s four thirty.”

Notice the reply is not “Well, from the positions of the hands on the surface of this mechanism for telling time that is strapped to my wrist I would judge it is four hours and thirty minutes into the afternoon at this particular region of the earth according to our present perception and use of publicly accepted measurements of time.” If we had to elaborate so extensively just to exchange information on the time of day, communication would become next to impossible. But because our experiences in the real world are much like everyone else’s and our categories, while a bit different for everyone, are built alike enough for us to be able to make assumptions (called bridging assumptions) We assume that they know from looking at the watch or sky, we assume they are using the same time measurement that we know, we assume they are talking about this region and not another. In other words we build bridges between what is spoken and our general knowledge base - which is ordered in categories.

So what happens when we see an ad about toothpaste that says something like “Foamy helps fight cavities”? We know that toothpaste is used for dental hygiene. We know that “Foamy” is toothpaste. What we hear is “Foamy stops cavities”. We’ve made a bridging assumption that “stops cavities” is what is being said because we expect it to say that.

Would you buy a toothpaste that advertises “Foamy does jack but buy it anyway because we don’t care. We just want your money”? What this ad has actually said is that Foamy “fights” - nothing about winning the battle - and it doesn’t even do that on its own, it just “helps”, which indicates something else is doing the basic work. In other words Foamy does almost nothing. It just helps what ever is doing the work. So when the customer uses Foamy and ends up with four cavities, they think they’ve been lied to, never noticing the product has enough sugar in it to eat through steel.

Some ads actually build categories for you. Car ads are famous for this. They use words like sleek, sexy, luxurious, rich – all words that fit into our American built categories of attractiveness, wealth, and success. So people flock to buying the car. Unfortunately, the car payments actually can level some people’s finances, keeping them from achieving wealth. If someone is homely, they will be just be homely with a new car, and the only success a person will achieve from buying a car is buying a car. When a customers buy the car associating that with success or attractiveness, they are disappointed when nothing in life changes except they have a car and car payments and they feel let down by the car company.

Some of the best examples of tricky advertising are internet affiliate programs ads. One program I know of states that “…you can start earning money on the internet in 24 hours”. How I hear people complain when they don’t automatically have an arm long list of affiliates and five figure commission checks waiting in the first week. They feel lied to. Read up people. This does not promise that you are going to be instantly rewarded, no work involved. This merely says that you will set up to the point you can start working to earn that money. We want to see automatic, no effort needed, but that is ridiculous. To get money for nothing overnight is called “the lottery.”

Another problem is here is the categories in which we have placed the idea of working at home. When you add up your own schedule, no boss, no commute, etc., somehow we slip no work right in there with the other no’s. Any woman who has raised children and kept a clean house, can attest to the fact that "staying at home" and "not working" have no place at all in the same categories. Actually this faulty categorization may arise from two sources. The first comes from the fact that when we have time off work from regular jobs we often stay home, thus “stay home” means “not” work for many us. Also there is an old chauvinistic idea that the only work that can be looked at as work is done out of the house to bring the money home for the family. The woman’s work, or house work, no matter who did it, was belittled as not being work because there was no money attached to it – to the extent that it was often called “doing nothing”. Because of the small lapse of time between when this type of chauvinistic idea proliferated in our society and the new movement to work at home, many still faultily connect working at home with doing nothing. When they see ads making statements about starting to earn at home, they assume it means with no work involved and completely ignore the meaning of the word “work”. This tendency will cause them to feel lied to and bulked every time they try a new program. They leave the internet and sometimes their bank accounts in frustration and anger.

The same thing is true of programs that allow you to join for free and actually state "Join Free”, which means there are no registration fees. After sign up there is a fee for upgrade, for software, web hosting, or other aspects of the program. In actuality the program was never stated to be free for everything - just the sign up. So again the program is dropped - not just due to an unforeseen lack of funding to continue, but because the consumer is disappointed or feels lied to.

Another great mislead is the word “virtually” . It is “ virtually” free. This does not say something is free. It literally says “it seems to be free but isn’t”. Even modifying that to it’s milder connotative meaning it comes out to “almost free” at best. In using these examples, I do not mean to tell anyone that advertisers do not purposely lead people. It is the advertiser’s job to make you want what is being advertised, and leading you to buy is what advertisement is all about. I have only attempted, by giving you some background and examples, to give you some of the tools you need to decipher what is actually being said. It is up to you as the consumer to read carefully to see what is being said rather than what you want it to say, or assume is being said, in order to make better choices, and to avoid feeling disappointed when something doesn’t deliver what you thought it would.

I also did not mean to give the impression that all advertisers are just working the language a little. There will always be scams out there and dishonest companies waiting to take a person’s money and disappear with it, or give them a worthless product. The best rule of thumb is to read what is really being said. If you have truly analyzed what is actually being said and it still seems too good to be true, it just might not be true.

©2005 Sally Taylor: Sal is an avid gem and treasure hunter, explorer, writer, and is the owner of http://www.rockhoundstation1.com