A corporate or company logo plays an important role in projecting its image to the people. As a result, it is very important to evaluate whether your company logo depicts the right image or not.

A company logo is like a visiting card, which gives one insight into the company. A company logo should be very professional, precise and attractive to the viewer. Company write-ups may be good but will only play a role if people get around to reading them. All representations and communications of the company include the company logo, be it in print media or on the web.

One has to make sure that the company website has a good layout, interface and design along with the placement of the company logo. A well thought out and detailed logo makes a very good impression on the customers and prospects. A logo is the first glimpse of the company. If a company does not have a good logo then there are strong chances that the viewers may feel that this unprofessional approach will also be present in other aspects of the business. It is quite upsetting to see a badly turned out company logo. Very rarely does one come across a corporate, that has an unprofessional logo.

Companies, nowadays, fully understand that they have to work hard to maintain their image in the business world. The idea is to present the information to the audience in a professional, precise, user friendly and an attractive manner. In today’s time when people are ready, to reject any website and move on the next in a flash, it is important that the company website looks interesting enough for people to stay on. The aim should be to attract the user in the first instance. Remember that first impression is the last impression.

It is common human nature to be attracted to good looking things. You can observe your own behaviour and you will notice that you are more likely to visit a shop that has a professional and a good décor, rather than a shop, that is in a run down condition. Considering the wide choice that is available to web visitors, it is important for one to represent the company well through its logo and content, on the internet.

Developing the company logo

· Develop a great looking and professional company logo to reflect a professional image of a company

· Hire the services of a good specialist logo designer or

· Use special companies whose task is to develop inexpensive professional logos

With the growth of commercialisation, even logo design has become a specialised job with various design companies offering different options. You have both expensive specialist logo designers and inexpensive logo design services available to you.You have to take a decision based on your requirements and budgetary constraints.

A low price like this is bound to make people apprehensive. Some would wonder about the credibility of the offer imagining it to be just a gimmick to attract the customers with hidden costs. While, there would be others who would be attracted by the low price and would want to try this scheme.

You can get a logo designed for even as little as $25 by a great company I recommend and use myself in less than 72 hours. available at http://www.gotlogos.com. You can visit their site to have an idea of the kind of work that they do. If you have any doubts about their abilities to do justice with your company’s logo then you can check out the various samples available on their on-site gallery.

However, before you decide to change your logo you should first evaluate your requirement with an open mind. Try to compare their logos with your own. Is your money, going to be well spent or not. Analyse and then decide whether changing the logo would actually change people’s perception of your company. Changing your logo is a serious business. Once you have a logo in place be it good or bad people start associating your company with that logo. When you decide to change this logo, you will also have to undertake the task of making people familiar with the new logo.

This article was written by Craig Dawber of smarket-associates.com Need advice and guidance with your online business check out the resources found in this website.

For years people have tuned into radio talk shows, radio morning shows as well as all those broadcasters and their funky styles. If you are like many, you flip on the radio as well. From a marketing standpoint, though, do you realize the value of radio advertising? While many say that your marketing dollars should be split into various categories, you will find that this is an excellence place to start. What does radio advertising have to offer you?

Consider first the amount of people that are on the radio at any given moment. In the morning, as people get dressed for work or school, the radio is on. When they get into their cars to head to work, the radio is on. The radio is playing in the office, on the way home again and maybe they tune it on before bed as well. It is the first thing that people wake up to. Radio advertising is powerful medium.

You can put just about anything on it as well. You can fill your marketing dollar tightly by putting it on a number of various types of radio advertising markets. Young adults tend to be one of the largest radio listeners in the afternoon hours. Market your product effectively to them during those hours. Adults love to tune in on their way to and home from work. Market your radio advertising dollars to them during this time. In fact, you can even market your product to young children on various radio stations geared towards them.

Radio is very versatile and allows you to tell your story for a smaller amount of your budget with excellent results. You will see that there are many reasons to head to the radio advertising market with your next product. Check out how well it can work with you and be impressed.

for more information please see http://www.radio-advertising-help.co.uk

Size matters. Or, at least, that is what the big players like to think. Here in Ireland, we have been more aware than most that size is relative. More than most too, we have taken sides when the little streets have hurled themselves against the great. Unlike the Swiss, we don’t do neutral terribly well. Almost always, our sympathies are with the small player, the one who is outweighed and outgunned, and we take more than a little pleasure at the prospect of seeing the lumbering giant brought to earth with a crash. But such an outcome is by no means inevitable. The playing field is littered with the bodies of the diminutive and the gallant and for every David who stands triumphant over a fallen Goliath, there are dozens more who lie beaten and crushed in the wake of a rampaging giant.

In the Irish context, Jacob Fruitfield is one of the big players. With sales projected to hit €110 million in 2005, and a number of Ireland’s best-known food brands on its books, the company enjoys an enviable position in the Irish market. Enter Goliath or a very close relative of his. But in the global context, the company is a small player. Each of its brands compete with brands owned and championed by the largest food companies in the world. These leviathans can dig into pockets a hundred times deeper than those of a local company. Their scale is difficult to imagine. When Heinz or Unilever or Proctor & Gamble lumber into view, they block out the sun. Enter David. Or Chef or Silvermints or Jacob’s Fig Rolls.

So how does a big fish in a small pond, fished by giants, go about its business and what lessons might we learn if we wish to take on the big players? Recently, I met with Michael Carey, Chief Executive and majority shareholder of the stand- alone, wholly Irish-owned Jacob Fruitfield food business. Three years ago, the Jacobs and Fruitfield companies in Ireland were owned by multinational corporations, with the Fruitfield business losing money for its owners. Since then, Michael and his partners have integrated the two companies, invested in their brands, launched over a hundred new products and taken on the global giants. The company is turning a profit and has recently won the Ernst & Young Industry Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2005.

For Michael, whose background includes senior management roles with a number of global food companies such as Kellogg’s and Groupe Danone, the approach was simple, "As a small company, our competitive advantages are in being local, flexible and right for the local market. For Heinz or McVities, their advantage lies in being the lowest cost producer, about being a big, big player, about having brands that can work in lots of markets in the same way."

Whilst these brands can work across many territories, Michael has also seen the difficulties of applying global marketing strategies in a local market. "We can do things with a brand that is absolutely right for the Irish market. Our competitors, pretty much all of them, have to do things with their brands that are right for international markets. We can look at the Irish market and see what’s working and what doesn’t work."

But isn’t this approach also available to the multinational owner, who can simply work on some variation of a theme beloved of the big players: Think Global, Act Local? For Michael, it is very much a question of priority. Put simply, the big players are too easily distracted. "They have bigger fish to fry. We don’t. This is all the fish we have. So we give it the focus and we invest in the brands." This approach extends to new product development where Irish companies have traditionally been the poorer relations of their international cousins. The company has recently completed the acquisition of The Real Irish Food Company and plans to step up its innovation activity. It has also signed a 20-year brand licence for the use of the Bewley’s brand in food outlets, another great old Irish brand adding to a growing local portfolio.

So what exactly does it mean to act local? "It’s not about putting up an Irish flag over the packaging and saying ‘These are Irish brands’. We have to compete with the international brands. Chef has to be as credible as Heinz, Silvermints as Polo. We very rarely make reference to the fact that these brands are Irish in terms of advertising. We don’t apologetically present ourselves as an Irish brand in that sense. It’s about being closer to and more clearly understanding the needs of the Irish consumer. And, of course, we have heritage. Lots of the multinationals invent that heritage and we don’t because we have got real heritage."

But aren’t consumers, particularly teenagers, looking for brands that are international? "No, there are obviously some very powerful multinational brands that appeal in that way. But customers in the food business seek out realness and localness and some understanding in terms of where the brand comes from, where the product is made whether that is in a factory or a bakery or a place they can trust. I think local brands in food have a bright future."

Mention Steve Silvermint or ask how Jacob’s put the figs into the figrolls and you will bring a smile to the face of the average Irish customer (or, at least, one of a certain age). Is there a conflict between being a business or a brand with heritage and being innovative? "No, we enjoy having a strong starting position. Take, for example, some of the more traditional Fruitfield brands, Little Chip and Old-time Irish marmalade; these are long-established brands in sectors that are pretty mature. We want to take that strength of maturity, that stability and move that brand on from that platform.

We’re just about to launch a range of premium jams and marmalades under the Fruitfield brand with a higher fruit content and a more premium position. But we couldn’t do that if we didn’t have the Fruitfield base to start from. If we were starting from scratch, the chances of successfully launching brands in areas where we see opportunities would be nil. You couldn’t do it without a name.

We’re helped by the fact that we have so many brands with a strong heritage. Of course, we also have to make sure that we don’t undermine the position of the brand. We might get some short-term sales but if it’s going to do damage to the core brand, we won’t do it."

For Jacob Fruitfield then, a local David taking on the multinational Goliaths, success in the Irish market comes down to keeping it fresh, keeping it real and playing to your strengths. In that sense, and in this neighbourhood, it’s clear that size really does matter.

Gerard Tannam is the founding Director Islandbridge Brand Development, an independent business based in Dublin, Ireland, which delivers brand direction, planning and communications.

Advertising, what does the point of diminishing return mean?

The point of diminishing return simply means that no matter how much more money you spend on advertising, your gross sales will only increase in small increment, if any at all.

Below are some sample budgets for a single product showing how diminishing return can affect your profits and sales.

Example 1
Product: Widgets
Price: $100.00
Monthly Ad Budget: 2k
Monthly Widget Sales: 30
Gross Revenue: $3,000.00
Less Advertising: $2,000.00
Gross Profit: $1,000.00

Example 2
Product: Widgets
Price: $100.00
Monthly Ad Budget: 3k
Monthly Widget Sales: 35
Gross Revenue: $3,500.00
Less Advertising: $3,000.00
Gross Profit: $500.00

Example 3
Product: Widgets
Price: $100.00
Monthly Ad Budget: 4k
Monthly Widget Sales: 40
Gross Revenue: $4,000.00
Less Advertising: $4,000.00
Gross Profit: $0.00

The examples above clearly illustrate that sometime spending more money does not necessarily mean making more profit. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that example 1 is clearly the most cost efficient budget. Assuming that without the advertising the merchant wouldn’t have any sales.

When you’re planning your advertising budget, take into consideration the demand for your product and always be very careful when adding dollars to your advertising, just because your selling 30 widgets when you spend 2k per month doesn’t mean if you spend 4k you’ll sell 40 widgets.

Steve Moundzouris
BigWater Media Group
http://www.bigwatermg.com

The brands are coming! Their arrival has been evident in our supermarkets and on the main streets of our towns and cities for some time now. It started as a trickle, led by the makers and the retailers of consumer goods, but it has more recently become a fast moving torrent that races headlong through almost every business and walk of life. In certain respects, it has come later to the hospitality world than to many others but now that it has arrived it is clearly planning to stay.

Make for the high ground! For many in the industry, it is something to be viewed uneasily as it threatens to burst its banks and overwhelm everything that stands in its way. Others are out constructing canals and reservoirs. For us, branding offers something new and exciting; a fresh flow of ideas that will bring renewed direction and vigour to our business.

So, to brand or not to brand? This is just one of the questions facing Irish business owners in 2003 as we regard the landscape and consider our choices.

Any unease that we may feel in the matter is readily understood. The B-word has been bandied about a great deal during the last few years and has been blamed (most famously in Naomi Klein’s recent book No Logo) for some of the worst excesses of globalisation. It is often presented as invasive, almost colonial, in its intent, something that we are particularly sensitive to on this island. (Ironically perhaps, two of the more prolific brands sweeping hospitality in the UK – Jury’s Inns and O’Brien’s Sandwich Bars - are Irish).

Branding too is often associated with a cookie cutter approach to business and thanks to the efforts of brands such as the global burger chains it can seem to offer only faceless uniformity and hopeless mechanical repetition (albeit whilst helping to deliver huge profits).

Smoke and mirrors! At times, it can seem to be nothing more than a navel- gazing exercise that promises much and delivers little, or at least little of any substance.

Finally, our unease probably owes a great deal to our native resistance to some of the worst excesses of marketing-speak, particularly that which has its origins on Madison Avenue. For some of us, the recent fuss about brand culture seems to provide yet more evidence of US-style marketing gone mad.

Brand As Opportunity

But branding is too valuable a tool to be dismissed out of hand. It is vital to the good management of reputation and relationships. Consider any of the great businesses – including the independents and the family-owned - and you will see a great brand at work. The great business leaders use it intuitively and unselfconsciously. Like all tools, it can be pressed into service in a variety of ways. Used properly, branding offers a business the opportunity to marshal its resources, play to its strengths and gain significant competitive advantage.

It is a tool that can be used to great effect in those areas where it is difficult to offer something truly distinctive and influence choice. We have seen how brands such as Kelly’s of Rosslare and Derry Clarke’s L’Ecrivain can offer their owners the opportunity to own a niche in a fiercely competitive market. For businesses operating in hospitality and tourism branding offers a powerful way forward.

Brand Influencing Choice

As we have seen, during these past ten years, the hospitality and tourism landscape in which hotels and restaurants operate has changed almost beyond recognition. These years have seen huge growth, both in terms of market size and choice, and this growth has been matched by considerable investment at all levels.

As a result, we can truly say that the customer is spoiled for choice. At the same time, recent events internationally and at home have contributed to a falling market (although certain parts of that market, e.g. the leisure break, have typically remained strong). In the current climate, hotels and restaurants in Ireland are now faced both with opportunities for further growth and with significant challenges to that growth.

Where the customer is spoiled for choice, many of the features and benefits that are on offer are no longer influential. In a market where there are few functional differences between products or services, the customer choice is driven largely by emotional factors. What you do has become less important, it merely brings you into play. What increasingly influences choice are the values that drive your business, in other words, who you are, what you stand for and how you deliver.

And yet, for many hotels and restaurants, product features and functional benefits continue to provide the basis for all marketing and communications.

Say something! Anything! Think of the rash of advertisements and directories where hotels and restaurants slavishly list the central location, the number of rooms, the genuine hospitality and the fusion cuisine that fail to distinguish one offer from the next.

Clearly, something extra is required in order to gain competitive advantage. A distinct and well-defined identity gives a business something significant to say to the market whilst providing a clear blueprint for the development of all communications.

Brand Driving Strategy

Branding as an activity is seen principally in marketing and communications but its effect is soon felt throughout the business. In addition to giving a business something to say about itself, the identity of a business provides it with both purpose and direction.

In order to successfully make any business stronger than the sum of its parts, it is vital that the organisation support and direct its business and management strategy through the development of a strong brand identity that enables it to establish a clear, compelling and competitive presence in the marketplace.

In business people buy people and good business management is primarily concerned with the effective management of business reputation and relationships. This is especially true of hotels and restaurants.

At the same time, the business identity enables the team to accurately reflect the long-term goals of the business (particularly in terms of positioning and behaviour) whilst helping to drive the business strategy to achieve those goals.

Central to this role for the brand (and to the strategic and management decisions that this prompts) is the requirement for a robust brand model that enables the business to manage the identity and which is able to withstand the wide range of demands that are being made on it by the various business functions.

Active management of the identity using a brand model or framework enables the business to make a clear statement of intent and focuses all effort on the achievement of business goals in a consistent and credible way. It also delivers economies of money, time and effort as it streamlines decision-making throughout the business.

Brand Delivering Benefits

What then does branding deliver to the hotel or restaurant business?

- It enables the business to build its reputation, manage its relationships (especially its relationships with its customers) and play to its strengths.

- It levels the playing field. One of the beauties of brand development is that the small business is at least as well equipped as the national or global chain to build and maintain reputation and relationships (albeit at a more modest level).

- It provides a guiding principle and organising framework for the business and takes the guesswork out of business decisions relating to relationship management and communications.

- It allows business owners to make a clear statement of intent with regard to their business direction and behaviour. It offers a common language for the business team and a means by which they can readily describe what they do and what makes them different.

- It enables a business to lead through its values and enables business owners to trust to the intuitive leadership that distinguishes many of the great businesses.

- It makes for fresh and compelling communications that engage the customer and provide a basis for long term business relationships.

- Finally, and most importantly, it helps a business to identify its market, carve out a territory for itself that it can own and defend, and enables it to establish genuine and sustainable competitive advantage.

Gerard Tannam is the founding Managing Director of Islandbridge Brand Development. He delivers brand direction, planning and communications across a wide range of sectors including property development, retail, hospitality and tourism.

My wife and I wondered across the high school parking lot next to our home this afternoon and watched a girl’s soccer game. We heard shouts like:

“That a girl, Cindy!

“Go!

“Watch out!

“Move your…”

If there was a verb in a sentence, it was an action verb.

Most sentences had no more than 3 words.

I thought, we’re out here with a bunch of copywriters!

We know that we should not use passive verbs in our ads and promotion copy. Well, watch out for the helping verbs too. They will instantly turn a steel spike into that proverbial wet noodle.

If you don’t remember the 23 helping verbs, here they are as I memorized them about sixty years ago:
be is was were,
am are been being,
have has had,
do does did,
will would,
shall should,
can could,
may might must.

There is a place for these critters if you are studying Spanish verb conjugations. But there is not much room for them in copywriting.

Take a look at these examples:

Have you been tired of getting really bad headaches?

Are you sick and tired of headaches?

Sick of head splitting headaches?

The last one brought up my grammar checker because it doesn’t have a well-defined verb. It claims this is a fragment. It gave me this advice: consider revising.

If you are writing good copy, your grammar checker should be telling you that you should go back to grade school.

The first example has two helping verbs. The second has one helping verb. The last one has no helping verb despite the fact that my grammar checker tells me it needs a helping verb.

Tough!

The last example has punch to it. The answer, “YES” is demanded to the question. It has your attention and you hope like crazy that you are being offered a solution to a serious problem.

Having said that, what do you think the answer to the first two questions would be? It could be, “Well, yes. I had one a couple of weeks ago. I went to the drugstore and bought some ….. blah, blah, blah. Oh, I’ve got to get the telephone.”

Try this one (Forgive me. I live in Idaho.) :

You mustn’t miss out on what could be the big breakthrough in milk production!

Did you hear about our big milk production breakthrough?

Bossy is ready to give more milk. Are you?

Increase Milk Production–Now!

The only exciting thing about the first sentence is the exclamation point.

The second one will bring a response like, “I haven’t read the Farm News this week because I got more plowin’ to do.”

The third sentence will be a joke to farmers so it may get some attention, but not because of the breakthrough.

The last sentence spells one thing to a dairy farmer, MONEY! You’ve got his attention with no thanks to helping verbs.

Helping verbs are like adverbs and adjectives; they dilute the power of your writing.

Take Mark Twian’s advice and don’t use them unless you must!

Darn, I used a helping verb!

Copyright©John Taylor Jones, Ph.D. 2005

John T. Jones, Ph.D. is a retired engineering R&D executive from a Fortune 500 marketing oriented company. He is an author of detective and western novels as well as engineering books. Details are at http://www.tjbooks.com. His main ecommerce site is http://www.bookfindhelp.com.

Remember this passage from the movie, "Pulp Fiction"?

In the movie, Samuel L. Jackson told you it came from the bible, Ezekiel 25:17, and it went like this:

"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish, and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and goodwill, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness for he is truly his brother’s keeper… and the finder… of lost children.

And I will strike down upon thee with great vengence and f-u-u-r-rious anger, those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers, and you will know, my name is The Lord when I lay my vengence upon thee.

Yeah!"

Immediately after reciting this passage, Jackson then proceeded to violently unload several rounds of bullets into the person he was talking to.

So you soon discovered, whenever Samuel L. Jackson recited that passage, you knew he was getting ready to blow someone away.

I guess you could say, that passage was his "brand".

And while "branding" is definitely NOT the best way to go as far as marketing goes, at least, if by "best" you mean, "making you money"…

You won’t ever go wrong "branding" yourself, your guarantee, or your processes, to give your marketing an edge.

In fact, if you get it right… it’ll give you…

A HUGE EDGE!

Over the last 6 months alone, I’ve "created" the following people:

The PCO Millioniare… Mr. Math… and, most recently, The Titan Of 100% Income Tax-Free Real Estate Deals.

And believe me, those identities are a lot more likely to catch your reader’s eye and your prospect’s curiosity and interest, than using your "real" identity.

Call me stupid, but those identities sound a lot more engaging than Chet, Rick, and Dick.

Don’t they?

Plus, who’d you rather buy stuff from: A former teacher, or Mr. Math?

Is there an amazing identity, process, or guarantee you’re overlooking inside your business?

Think about it and let me know.

Now go sell something,

Craig Garber
http://www.KingOfCopy.com

P.S. Check out all the prior archives you’ve been missing, right here at: http://www.kingofcopy.com/tips/tiparchives.html

If you want to know how to consistently attract a steady stream of fresh new prospects, who are pre-qualified, eager, and excited about buying from you, then Craig Garber — recognized by his peers as America’s Top Direct-Response Copywriter — can show you exactly how to do this, step-by-step. Garber’s written winning promotions across a HUGE variety of industries and you can see them all for yourself on his website at http://www.kingofcopy.com

Those who love to write and have a head for running a business should seriously give it a thought. Running a print newsletter can be fun and can also rake in the money, if that is what you love to do.

Like in any business, one has to be ready to shoulder responsibilities and think of eventualities. The success may be there or may not be there. It takes quite a bit to become successful in this industry.

First the ground rules

You have to create a product, which should pertain and pander to the tastes of the people. You need to sell this product via subscriptions taken from the customers. Newsletters are to be written every month, bi monthly, six monthly or whatever periodicity that you have deemed for it. Subscriptions also need to be renewed. You would require advertisements to keep the subscription cost down etc.

The costs of printing and delivering the copies are relatively low. These are just some of the costs; they can vary with time and inflation. All prices are per copy

· Printing a newsletter less than 12 pages - £ 0.60
· Mailing on a monthly basis - £8 or more
· Subscription prices can range from £40 and above
· Those with lesser number of subscribers (500 or less) are more profitable

There are two priced models for newsletter

· High priced – which has no advertisements, only subscriptions
· Low priced – which has advertisements

The High priced newsletter

As we have said earlier, these have no advertisements. Thus, all the expenses are made from subscription revenue only. Therefore, they tended to be expensive. Most are priced from £99 to £200. Therefore, the entire content in the newsletter is geared towards the customer. They only have text content, illustrations and pictographs pertaining to the subject matter.

It’s an easier newsletter to manage and can be managed by a staff of just one. Therefore, the content matter has to be strong and attractive enough to keep the subscribers as well as make many more. Therefore, it’s not for the faint-hearted writers as this sells on content matter alone.

The low priced newsletter

This is a strategy, which is followed by almost the entire publishing industry. This revenue keeps the newsletter afloat.

Normally the subscriptions rates are around £50, which many subscribers are willing to pay. The more the subscribers, more interest is created in the newsletter by the advertisers, who provide the revenue for the newsletter.

A typical issue has 48 pages, 30 pages of paid advertisement. Advertising revenue per page amounts to £600 and 1000 subscribers. Let’s calculate the revenue stream for this newsletter – that’s a cool £18,000 per month. Added to that is the subscription revenue per year of £50,000. These advertisement rates may also change compared to the number of subscribers that are there. However, this is definitely a more profitable venture.

This however, entails a lot of work and needs many people apart from the editor and the publisher to be a successful and a profitable venture. It requires that there be many overheads and sometimes these can become quite costly.

The easiest part here becomes the writing of the content. If it is tolerably good, your newsletter is definitely worth the time and effort that you are putting into it.

There are other options, which are available apart from these two revenue stream models

1. Low price, no ads – very tough proposition to hold and run. This needs thousands of subscribers to break even. This can take quite a while.
2. High price, many advertisements – those who pay a higher price for their bit of information can get quite disgruntled when they see advertisements. To convince them of the benefits of higher subscription rates in this case can become quite an uphill task. If you lose confidence of the customer, in this case then the newsletter business can altogether close down.

The choices are entirely yours of course as dictated by the market conditions.

Choosing the topics and subject matter for the newsletters

1. It should be of interest to the specific target audience whom you are targeting. For example a newsletter on dogs should pertain to just that, not something off the mark. The information is paid and the audience wants the information that they are paying for.
2. By writing about niche subjects, your newsletter will attract more attention and readership. Therefore pertain to at least one niche topic in the subject matter that you have chosen.
3. Homework…homework…homework. Like in any other business, doing your homework on all fronts is the layout, the revenue streams, content matter helps. Otherwise you might get stuck in the launch process for a substantial period of time.

These are some of the differentiating factors. Success and failure is dependent upon these as is exposure and experience. So go ahead publish the newsletter and best of luck to you.

This article was written by Craig Dawber of smarket-associates.com Need advice and guidance with your online business check out the resources found in this website.

The recent “Got Milk?” TV spot produced by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners has been under fire by Major League Baseball for making light of the steroid conflict within the league. The scene opens upon a player who was pulled from the game for “testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance.” The substance turns out to be a carton of milk found within the player’s locker. Major League Baseball claims the ad is a cruel mockery of a serious problem within the sports sphere, but Jeff Goodby suggests that their parody is “goofy enough so that people didn’t get upset.”

Milk is in universal demand while MLB is working to please and maintain a rather tempestuous audience, otherwise known as fanbase. It is no secret that MLB has taken a hit with the exposure of steroid scandals. Without a doubt, baseball’s entire history has been littered with scandal, whether it be drugs, gambling or even fixing the World Series. The brand of MLB ebbs and flows every year, but somehow still manages to sell tickets and fill stadiums. In fact, sales are actually up in 2005, boasting an overall season record attendance of nearly 75 million people. So why is Tim Brosnan, the VP for business for baseball, up in arms? What does this milk commercial say to the customer, and does MLB have good reason to protest?

Famous “Got Milk” ads continue to appear on TV and in the most widely read publications. Various celebrities from multiple industries sport the “now cool” milk mustache while striking a sexy pose for the camera. The campaign was an immediate success, and a seemingly staple consumer product now had a face, a personality and, more importantly, a brand position. From a brand perspective, milk most certainly has permission to produce this form of advertising. In addition, Major League Baseball needs to recognize the healthy, rejuvenated exposure it receives from this “parody” ad.

You can draw a couple conclusions from this ad. First, that Milk has deliberately chosen Major League Baseball as a positive marketing vehicle during the MLB play- offs. Regardless of the parody or face value of the commercial, the TV viewer immediately connects with baseball; it becomes top of mind during a very crucial time period in the baseball season. The viewer thinks about baseball before he even sees milk.

Using something as popular and powerful as MLB is actually taking a risk for milk. Association can actually even be a mistake for the advertised brand. For example, Napster currently has a commercial where an iPod is seen as the object of focus before Napster’s logo even appears on the screen. Directly positioned against the iPod, Napster makes a large promotional mistake by even showing the iPod on the screen during their ad. milk, in this case, is certainly promoting baseball rather than discouraging it.

Secondly, milk has gathered enough brand muscle to put itself in the realm of sports while being “funny and cool.” For once, Budweiser could not have done it any better. Sports teams never refute a silly beer ad that may or may not reflect poorly upon the sport (and its fans) because “it’s beer, and it’s cool.” If Major League Baseball has an issue with a beverage, they should go after the alcohol served in all of the stadiums that cause injuries, drunk driving and improper fan conduct.

Major League Baseball should not take offense to this ad. It certainly was not meant to target Major League dissenters and to take shots at the league’s current steroid debacles; it was created to both promote the use of the product for athletes, contribute to the October play-off hype and to use the performance enhancing drugs as commercial foil for milk, “the real thing.” Similar to the physical characteristics of the product itself, milk can only aid in the strengthening of the brand of Major League Baseball.

Molly Sunderdick
Brand Strategist
Stealing Share Inc

If you are trying to promote your business now, you can move in one of two directions:

You can take the conventional route to promotion and mount an elaborate media campaign, spending a considerable amount of money.

You can let your creative juices flow and mount a low-cost promotion effort, using a potpourri of attention-getting strategies to bring your message to the buying public. Now, to be sure, conventional advertising is valuable. If your enterprise is large enough or if you’re selling numerous product lines, you may find that a full-fledged media campaign is the most efficient and cost effective way to promote your business.

If money is tight, however, or you’re not sure you can amortize the heavy cost of a media campaign over a period of time, the following is a assortment of low-cost techniques you can try. Not all may be appropriate for your particular business, and certainly it would be costly to try them all. But you’re sure to find some ideas that will work for you.

PARTIES. Everyone loves a party. Why not celebrate the anniversary of your business or some special holiday by offering baked goods and beverages? If you’re running a service business, perhaps you can offer an open house or obtain a small banquet room in your community. Besides refreshments, be sure the place is brightly decorated.

GREETING CARDS. Do you send out greeting cards to major customers or clients? Holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries make nice greeting card occasions. Greeting cards create enormous goodwill and keep your name in front of people.

SEMINARS. In this information hungry age, people love to receive advice, especially about their personal needs and hobbies. If you sell health foods or run fitness classes, perhaps you can offer "wellness" seminars during lunchtime to your area’s business community. If you’re an interior decorator, perhaps you can offer one-hour decorating workshops to any group of ten people who will gather in someone’s home. If you’re running a printing business, perhaps you can offer tours and layout seminars at your plant.

MAGAZINES. For free advertising space, many publications will write an article about you or your product if you purchase advertising space with them. One way publications sell advertising space is to agree that if the advertiser purchases the ad, he will also receive a certain amount of free editorial space. This free editorial space essentially doubles the amount of space you get for a given amount of money. This editorial space is devoted to an article about the company or individual or product, and it has the added cachet of seeming to be work of an outside source. The editorial company be written by the publication staff, or the advertiser may provide the copy.

GO WHERE THE PEOPLE ARE. Can you open sales information booths at community fairs, festivals and swap meets? This promotional technique can work for gift retailers, craftspeople, and personal service firms. If you have the people and the time, can you handle regional fairs or even trade shows?

COMMUNITY SERVICE. Nothing brings you to the attention of the people faster-or more favorably-than community service. Ask yourself how your enterprise can be a "good neighbor" to your community. If you’re running a lawn care and gardening service, perhaps you can offer one season’s services at no charge to a needy charitable organization or nursing home in your area. Hundreds of people will hear about your work in the process. Volunteer for various community causes. If appropriate, you can step in during community emergency, offering products and services to help an organization or individuals in need.

BADGES AND NOVELTIES. You can easily and inexpensively produce badges, bumper stickers, book covers, and other novelty items for distribution in your area. You can imprint your business name and the first names of the customers on many of these products at little cost and distribute them for free. Or you can tie your novelty program into a contest: once a month, you can offer a prize to any individual whose car happens to carry one of your bumper stickers or badges with peel-off coupons, redeemable at your place of business.

CELEBRITY VISITS. With a bit of persistence, you may be able to arrange to have a local media celebrity, public official, or entertainment personally-even a fictitious cartoon character or clown-visit your service. The celebrity can sign autographs, read stories to children, perform cooking demonstrations, or perform any one of a hundred other traffic-building activities.

By all means, advertise in the media if you can. But don’t neglect your greatest promotional asset-your mind. Ponder the products, services and events you can offer the community and devise a creative promotional strategy around them. You’ll have to invest a bit of time and energy in the project, but the payoff will be worth it. You’ll save hundreds-or even thousands-of advertising dollars and better yet, you’ll travel a well-worn shortcut to profit.

I hope this helps in your future marketing decisions

David Bell

# 1 Internet Marketing Agency -Online Advertising Agency

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