Over regulation of our free markets is stifling our growth in America and killing the next superstar Entrepreneurs. Let’s discuss just how bad it really is. Let’s us discuss Ray Kroc, founder of McDonalds and the Father of Franchising. In this philosophical discussion let us look at history for a moment shall we? If Ray Kroc had to pay $45,000 to create disclosure documents to franchise right out of the gate, could he have still had the capital to do it? Would he have wanted too? What if he had to pay an additional $15,000 per year to stay registered in all the states; another $10,000 to $20,000 to keep up with the law changes and case law? Could he have actually stayed in business?

If Ray Kroc in those early days had to pay $25,000 for financial audits could he have survived? If the number of accountants willing to do audits were cut in half due to current errors and omissions insurance and peer review costs would Ray Kroc have been able to juggle that during his first five years traveling the country and sleeping in hotel rooms, while building the business? Remember Ray Kroc was not married to wealth like the late Sam Walton who toured the country in a motor home looking at sites and studying the competition. Ray Kroc and Sam Walton both had to do it the hard way, but Ray Kroc was doing it out of cash flow. With the current problems in complying with all the accounting audit issues in franchising after the most recent Sarbaines Oxley Law causing delays of necessary audits in a timely fashion due to fear of violations in the accounting industry, demand for more audits in all sectors causing serious supply and demand issues getting an audit done on time for franchise registration renewals is tough?

Could Ray Kroc have accomplished this too, along with the additional costs and state registration deadlines? Wait we are not done yet. If Ray Kroc had to comply with all these proposed rule changes and existing rules and revise his disclosure documents each time an attorney created case law which might be detrimental to the over all system, could he have survived in the first five years? Yes or No? If Ray Kroc had to deal with all the different state laws and contradictions in Federal Trade Commission rules, could he have done it? Remember his first stores were in “Cal-if-Forn-ia” (Arnold Humor) and Illinois. I submit to you that Ray Kroc could not have done what he did and McDonalds would never have come to be. I also submit to you that NPR would be closing it’s doors and gone off the air this year if it were not for his wife’s donations. Ronald McDonald House would not be available either. Millions of Americans would not have learned customer service or had that first job to teach them such important aspects business. The State of Idaho, where Simplot Potatoes grows it’s crop would not have made the profits and paid the tax income which allowed that great state to prosper. The Beef industry would have also been severely impacted, how would that industry have faired in the heated mass media hysteria of Mad Cow or the droughts causing cattle to be taken to early slaughter. Those frivolous lawsuits in Canada about being fat would leave our Canadian neighbors with nothing to bitch about and we wouldn’t want that? Also the reality of the need for tort reform example of spilt coffee would never have existed? Do you doubt what I am saying? Well then “Grinding It Out” Ray Kroc’s book can be found still and it ought to be required reading for all Federal Trade Commission employees who have never had to make a payroll and any attorney who has never made a legitimate living in a business of their own before commentary on this proposed set of rules. It appears that the word smiths are out in full force and we are maintaining an on-going dialogue from a topic proposed in 1995, with comments in 1997 and 1999 at a time when much of the those comments are in fact irrelevant here in 2004. A more relevant discussion would be how best to separate out the business opportunity rules from the franchise rule and then close the Federal Trade Commission’s franchising division all together since no problems perceived or known currently exist. Does anyone doubt this truth?

Perhaps another example, forget about Ray Kroc, the father of franchising for a moment, let’s just say for the sake of argument that this current situation in the industry existed back then and Ray Kroc grew up an old bitter man and retired salesman? Forget that the McDonalds Big Mac is used by the International Monetary fund as a guideline for international cost of living standards in modern and developing nations. Think of the story “death of a salesman” and leave it at that. Put Ray Kroc in the same shoes as any of the current up and coming home grown entrepreneurial superstars of today, being stifled under a Tsunami of tort law and a Hurricane of over regulation. Why can’t we end this storm, why are we unwilling to see the truth at the Federal Trade Commission? And that is just one of many agencies Ray Kroc would have to deal with today, think about it.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

If you’re a retailer and the only kind of advertising you do is built around sales events, you don’t need much in the way of advice. All your advertising needs to do is spell out as clearly as possible what’s on sale, the amount to be saved and your store’s name, address and phone number. You should also include your web address as most of today’s consumers expect you to have one.

But what if you’re not a retailer or you don’t have a sale to advertise?

Here are my seven tips for kicking up the power of your print advertising

Know thy customer. Close your eyes and try to visualize a typical customer. What’s important to him? What problem(s) is she trying to solve? How old is he? Does she have children? How much do you suppose she earns a month? What would make him want to do business with you? What does he want from your product or service? The better you understand your customer the stronger a sales message you can create.

Your headline must capture your propects’ interest. Your reader’s eye will be drawn to your ad by its main graphic, be it a picture or illustration. The second thing he/she will see is your headline. It must serve as a bridge between the graphic and your ad’s copy, and then capture your readers’ attention or you will lose them and will have wasted your money. The best way to do this is to build your headline around a strong benefit statement. Again, keep in mind your prospect’s needs and interests or the problem they are looking to solve. For example, a strong benefit statement would be“How to retire at age 55 without sacrificing a penny of income.” I also like headlines (see the title of this article) with numbers, i.e., “Eight ways to look younger in minutes,” “Five mistakes to not make when buying fine furniture.”

Everybody wants to talk about their children and not yours. Of course, I don’t mean this literally. What I mean is that people don’t care about you and your business. They care about themselves and what you can do for them. I know this is going to depress you, but customers don’t care how long you’ve been in business, how big your business has become, how beautiful your new store is, etc. They only want to know what you have to offer that can make their lives better, save them money or help them solve an important problem.

People love stories. I’ll bet that when you were a kid, one of your favorite things was story time. As human beings, we just seem to be hard-wired to love stories. If you business lends itself to this idea, try starting you ad with a simple story. For example, if you were selling financial advice, you might start out with: “I have two old friends. Let’s call them Scott and Janet. They both loved gardening and their lifelong ambition was to retire early and start a garden shop. Unfortunately, they suffered some financial setbacks and found themselves at age 55, with enough money to retire but not enough to start that dream business. When Scott and Janet came to me ….etc.”

Start paragraphs with connecting words to keep your readers reading. Once you’ve pulled your readers into your ad, the challenge is to keep them reading to the end. The way you do this is by using connecting words at the beginning of paragraphs. Some good connecting words are “also,” “in other words,” “so,” “but,” “and,” in short,” “for another thing,” and “plus.

Give your readers a reason to do something. You must end every ad with a call to action (see #7 below). But don’t forget that you have to give your reader a reason to take that action. This could be the offer of something free such as a booklet or brochure, a free demonstration, a free sample, etc.

Always end with a call to action. Never, and I mean never, end an ad without asking your reader to do something. The something could be to call you (with a prominent phone number), stop by your store, cut out and mail a coupon, or visit your web site. This is not only critical to “closing the sale,” but also can help you track the effectiveness of your advertising. If your call to action is for the prospect to phone you, it’s always good to add something like “call us at 303-555-1234 and ask for, say, Bart.” That way, whenever a person calls and asks for Bart, you will know your ad generated that response. The next time you run the ad, you could tell your prospect to call and ask for Chuck, etc. If your advertising includes a coupon, be sure to code it so you will know which ad generated the response.

Have you heard about HD radio technology? It makes AM sound as good as FM and FM sound almost like you were listening to a CD … and its free! To learn more about this amazing new technology, just go my Web site, http://www.hd-radio-home.com, to get all the buzz. Douglas Hanna is a retired marketing executive and the author of numerous articles on HD radio and family finances.

The Federal Trade Commission has an obligation to the general public, their stated consumer education mission and to the over regulated franchising industry and the small business operators running Biz Ops to separate the two business models by way of legal definition. Any failure to completely separate them will trigger additional problems down the road and cause the current on-going process of rule review to continue, without any formalization for decades.

This of course is good for attorneys who make money on these ambiguities for lawsuits and great for Federal Trade Commission tenure and job security. A few also realize it could allow for additional travel budgets of governmental employees during these rule making processes on the taxpayers money. It would also trigger more time-out, “let’s think about this one”-coffee breaks on various floors of the Federal Trade Commission’s fully furnished 1970 desk style ambiance. However it is not good for consumers or industry and creates unleveled playing field on one hand and complex barriers to entry for start-up entrepreneurs with regional dominance and efficiencies, which lend them selves well to the franchise business model on the other. This is because Biz Op MLM salespeople are purporting that they as similar to franchised business, by using terms like ‘Private Franchising’ in their presentation.

These MLM business sell in coffee shops and public presentations, which would send chills down the spine of any compliant franchising executive or real franchisor. So then, what is a real franchisor? What is private franchising? What is a Business Opportunity? What is an MLM business? What is a hybrid or cross-breed of any of these combinations? How on Earth in laymen terms can the Federal Trade Commission explain this to us, so that we might explain the differences to consumers when asked. Where on the Federal Trade Commission website is there a place which describes all of them and the possible variations? Due to the introduction of the term “Private Franchising” in the interim between 1999 comments and 2004 evaluations of possible definition revisions by Federal Trade Commission it appears that the definition landscape in the real world is hyperspacing the definitional upgrades to the franchise rule in the wonderful world of bureaucracy. We should not kid ourselves into thinking that the latest FTC report or any subsequent changes now, will change anything in the actual market place as to the number of; non-existent fraud events in franchising. The number of fraud cases in franchising is basically nil as per Federal Trade Commission’s own statements to congress. Yet the MLM crowd is manipulated truth by miss using the word franchising and that misrepresentation is damaging consumers. Think about it.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Bob is excited about his new business. He secured funding. He leased the building. He stocked it full of new gadgets. He hung the sign. He posted a banner on his window that reads,“Grand Opening!”. And now he stands behind the counter, waiting for customers to come flocking in. And he stands there. And he stands there. And he stands there.

And then it hits him: No one knows about his shiny new store!

I’ve seen new and even established businesses make this same mistake over and over again. Advertising is the last thing they think of. They assume that since their doors are open and the merchandise is on display, customers will come running in. But they won’t come. Not until they know how great your new business is! And to do that you need to plan and execute an advertising budget and strategy.

Many times I’ve been called in to consult with a new business to help plan their ad strategy well after their stores have opened when in fact, this is something that should have been done during the initial planning stage.

So is it too late? No, but sometimes it’s a major sticker shock to those who did not put a realistic plan together from the start. Remember that advertising, like your store and your merchandise, is an investment towards your profits.

But let’s say you’re like Bob and your business is already up and running. How do you put together a realistic ad budget? Well most people use a percentage of gross sales as a means of figuring this out. If however, you’re a new business owner with no prior sales, you can base it on industry standards. Use the web and search out other related businesses for a guide. Once you’ve figured what your gross sales should be, think about using 3 to 5 percent as a starting point for your ad budget. Another factor to consider when planning an ad budget is that it should encompass all aspects of your advertising from media placement to creative costs and production of your ads.

And remember: advertising must be done with consistency. Let me write that again. Advertising must be done with consistency. When planning your ad budget, make sure you allot enough funding to allow it to last throughout the year whether your sales will be spread out evenly or are cyclical. If you spread your budget too thin, chances are your ad campaigns may not be heard or seen enough to stay in the minds of consumers. And if your business is brand new, you’ll want to plan on spending more at the beginning for your initial start up campaign.

Some businesses make the mistake of advertising strong for about three to four weeks and then they stop. Keep in mind that consumers have very short memories and with 3000 plus advertising messages that pummel their brains everyday, it’s no wonder! That’s why you have to stay in the public’s eye consistently. Oh, and it also helps to have a clever message but we’ll talk about that in another article.

Once your ad budget is established, the type of advertising you use will be based on your specific business but normally if your business is consumer based, even in these modern web based times, traditional media such as radio, television, print, billboard and direct mail should still play major roles.

Many times I’ve helped clients put together an in-house survey for their customers to fill out. This can be helpful in determining what type of advertising they’ll need as well. Questions like, “What radio stations do you listen to?” “Do you subscribe to the newspaper?” and “Do you shop on-line?” can be useful in getting to know your customer’s habits as well as how to attract more like them.

Consulting an advertising agency is a very good way to get started as well. To find a good agency, try contacting other business owners you know for a referral or perhaps an established business whose advertising style and creative appears to fit your goals.

Remember: planning your advertising budget and strategy is as important as the products your trying to sell. Think about your advertising now and you’ll never end up like Bob: standing behind the counter waiting for customers that never come.

Hal Eisenberg is an award winning copywriter, voice over talent and producer, as well as owner of The Eisenberg Agency, a full service advertising agency specializing in creative ads that get results. Visit his web site at http://www.eisenbergagency.com. Mailto: halacious@eisenbergagency.com.

The number of complaints to the Federal Trade Commission on Franchising do not indicate ramped fraud in the franchising sector. The FTC before Congress gave a report showing that the number of complaints was fewer than one tenth of one percent, lower than any other industry. Nearly all the franchising cases the Federal Trade Commission filed, were gray, crying wolf area of law and most settled as soon as possible; considering the slow nature of our courts in America.

Some of the cases the Federal Trade Commission had brought since 1970, which fell within their franchising rule jurisdiction were doctored up claims against smaller franchising companies, involving false declarations, secret Federal Trade Commission court filings and Federal Trade Commission runaway case worker investigations to prove themselves right once the target was sighted. I know this because our company was filed against in such a way. These tactics and thought process of course is part of the flawed human behavior to prove ones self right. The FTC’s behavior in case filings is not too different from a student Thesis at University Level, Politicians justifying actions, policemen lying in paperwork and religious cults. We will not comment on the serious nature of the Federal Trade Commission, starting a case and working hard to prove guilt of the target to justify their existence or next years budget.

It is safe to say however that in franchising, significant checks and balances already exist along with the rights of private action which abound with the sharks of the legal system looking at small fortunes and pots of gold created by franchisors in the market place. The ambulance chasers are in fact ready to pounce on any possible violation or perceived violation in the franchise rule. If not these fake EMTs will attempt to create a gray area to slither thru an open window, cracked screen or drive the ambulance right through the front door like a crazed Islamic radical suicide bomber coming from a Cleric’s meeting to snatch the cash, take the safe or just to collect the 72 Virgin C-notes in fees for filing the suit. The Federal Trade Commission also often abuses their power with regards to the franchise rule as they need to bring so many cases every so many years to prove they are doing something.

Think about it; should we really worry about International Terrorists or should we concentrate on the cancer within and the bureaucracy which threatens to destroy all we are and all we have built?

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Many people online are not using one of the best advertising methods around. I’m talking about offline print advertising. I’ve been using it since 1998, and I have a secret to share with you. Over 60% of my online business comes from offline print advertising. I know that 60% sounds very high, but it’s because I use offline print advertising as my main advertising method.

Before we go any further, I’d first like to tell you to not give up on your online advertising methods. You just need to learn to use online and offline advertising methods together.

Here is how I used offline print advertising to drive people to a struggling “name squeeze” page.

I know that many of you are frustrated with your online advertising methods. Email advertising, PPC advertising, website advertising, and the like can all be very over whelming. A few years ago when I was new to Internet marketing, I tried everything under the sun to get people to a “name squeeze” page I had built to promote a product. I finally decided to go back to what I knew worked. Offline print advertising!

I took all the copy that was on my “name squeeze” page. I opened up Microsoft Publisher (All it is, is a word processor program.) and pasted all of my copy from my “name squeeze” page into Publisher. I took the ad copy and made it into a full page (8×11) ad. It’s very easy to do, so don’t let this part scare you.

Now, I had an ad that looked just like my online “name squeeze” page, but without the email sign up box. Instead of the email sign up box, I directed the reader to my website address.

I looked for places I could now advertise my ad in. Since I had been using offline print advertising, I knew exactly where to go. You may be new to this kind of advertising, and that’s okay because I have one of the only websites that will thoroughly teach you how to use many offline advertising techniques like this one at little or no cost. It’s loaded with resources on where and how to advertising offline.

I placed my “name squeeze” website ad in several publications. The total readership was about 200,000

Once my ad for my “name squeeze” website hit, my site was flooded with visitors, and I had people signing up left and right via my email form on my website. It’s a little harder to track when using offline advertising methods. When I ran the ad to promote my “name squeeze” page, I made a special page just for my offline advertising people. That way I could track my ROI.

When it was all said and done, I had spent $120 on advertising. The counter on my special page for my offline advertising people showed that I had gotten almost 16,000 unique visitors to the site. Out of those 16,000 unique visitors, almost 2,000 of those visitors signed up for my offer on my “name squeeze” page. Out of those 2,000 people, 156 of them bought my $9.95 product. I made a total of $1,552.20. I only spent $120 on advertising, and the product only cost me $2.83 to fill and ship. My total profit was $990.72! Now that’s not a bad ROI at all!

As you can see, using offline advertising methods is very powerful. There is an art to it, but once you get it all figured out, you will be making incredible profits every time you start a new advertising campaign!

I wish you much success in all of your offline advertising adventures.

Liz Tomey

Liz Tomey has owned a direct mail advertising business since 1998. She runs two different networks of sites. One in the direct mail advertising niche http://www.Mailorder-HQ.com and one in the Internet marketing niche http://www.TomeyMarketing.com. If you would like to learn how to use offline advertising as part of your marketing efforts, stop by her super informative site at http://www.OfflineAdvertisingSecrets.com

Every company has a brand (how people think of them) whether they created it through design or accident. By creating your brand through design, you shape the way you wish your company to be viewed by customers and potential customers. This will remove some of the uncertainty concerning what others will expect from you and say about you. The power of a brand can’t be over-estimated. The Golden Arches are known worldwide.

However, many people confuse a logo with a brand. The logo is a very small portion of the brand effort, especially during the startup phases. Later, once your brand has been repeatedly communicated, in multiple ways, with consistency, the logo can begin to embody the overall brand. But, it will never be the brand.

Do you know what makes your company or its products unique? If you don’t you can’t begin to establish a brand identity by design. There are seven elements to remember when designing your brand.

One: Know Your Customers Better Than You Know Yourself

Customers buy for their reasons, not yours. If you want to sell them your product, you MUST sell to their concerns, not your own. Every piece of marketing copy must FOCUS upon them. If you don’t speak their language, you don’t get their money. With branding as with selling, if you don’t understand your customers, you won’t build a brand of which they want to be a part.

Let’s say you were trying to sell a snowboard. To effectively sell a snowboard to a fifteen year old requires an entirely different conversation than selling the same item to his mother. How you brand your product in these two different customer bases is entirely different if you wish to be successful. If your product could be sold to a fifteen year old or a 40 year old, you’d better decide who you are going to focus your branding efforts upon for the greatest success.

Crawl within your targeted customer’s mindset. Understand what they think about the product, what they want from the product, and the alternatives they have to the product. Now that you know what the customer wants, you need to understand your competitive environment and your competitors.

Two: Understand Your Competitive Environment & Competitors

Your competitive environment has a major impact on how you brand your products or your company. For instance, retail is a highly competitive environment. There are companies that deal in the high end of the market and those who don’t. WalMart has chosen to compete in the low price arena of retailing. They work hard to build a brand of “low price, friendly company”. They obviously do it well. All one has to do is look at their financials to draw that conclusion.

You need to understand your competitive environment as well as WalMart understands theirs. But how can you do that effectively, without WalMart’s budget?

Start by asking your existing customers, “If you weren’t working with us, with whom would you be working?” Identify the companies to whom you most often lose business. Learn as much as you can about these competitors, including how customers perceive them, what makes them unique, and why they win the business they do.

Three: Define Your Brand Personality

Brands are like people. They have personalities too. People choose brands based upon whether or not the characteristics of the product or company brand fit them. My mother wouldn’t be caught dead in a WalMart. I love a bargain, so I love WalMart. Two customers. Two different perspectives regarding the same business.

If you have defined your ideal customer well and understand your competitive environment, you can select a brand personality which will appeal to your audience. Think of your brand personality just like any personality. It will have traits. Choose two or three personality traits to develop for your business. Will your business be youthful, fun and irreverent? Will it be conservative, sophisticated and elite? Once you have defined the two to three personality traits that define your business, they must be visible in everything you do. All advertising, your website, your emails, everything must be consistent with your brand personality. This also includes your collateral materials, the people you hire, and even the way you answer the phone.

Your brand must come through loud and clear at all times. With a brand also comes a promise. WalMart promises the lowest prices and friendly people. Your brand will have a promise too.

Four: Make A Brand Promise

Talk with your customers. Understand how they see your business, and what your brand means to them. Find out what is important to them about choosing a business like yours and what benefits they get from doing so. Make sure your brand promise is important and valuable to the customers you want most. Once you understand your customers, you can create a brand promise. Serta, the mattress company, has a promise of “We Make The World’s Best Mattress”. Maytag has the lonely repairman, reinforcing the promise of dependable service and called the “Dependability People” with the headquarters located at #1 Dependability Way.

Your brand promise should be stated clearly, in concise language so everyone in your organization and your customers understand the promise, just like Maytag’s and Serta’s promises. Then, you must bring the brand to life through a brand strategy and action plan.

Five: Define Your Brand Strategy

Think of a brand strategy as defining the limits of your approach and the outline of your methods. Later, we will design the tactics to make it happen.

You now understand your customer and your competitive environment. Your strategy comes out of that information. Where will you position yourself? Just as WalMart uses stand-alone stores rather than join established malls, you must decide how to approach your environment in order to successfully brand your company or your products.

You need to develop a brand that is distinct from your competitors. Many people mistakenly think that by emulating a dominant brand, they will succeed. In reality, you don’t have the resources necessary to duplicate their strategy. Seek out a niche of the dominant business’ market. You can successfully determine that niche by asking yourself, “Where are they vulnerable?”

If your business specializes in a specific product area, such as sports equipment, build a brand of energy, strength, competition, and youth. If your advantage is consulting or ideas, make sure your brand is innovative, exciting, and cutting-edge. If you are the lowest price option, make sure to look conservative with money. If your products are more robust, like a John Deere tractor, build a no-nonsense, industrial-strength feeling into the brand.

Your branding strategy will set the overall limits of your branding “playing field”, now it’s time to design the game plan.

Six: Identify Your Branding Game Plan

Moving to action, you need to define the specific actions you will take to create your brand. They must be the tangible demonstration of your company’s values and beliefs. They come directly from your brand personality, brand promise, and brand strategy.

Southwest Airlines is a great example. Employees dress casually and have some fun in the way they greet passengers. The company’s symbol on the NYSE is LUV and the name of their in-flight magazine is Spirit. These actions reinforce Southwest Airlines’ brand personality and brand promise every day. Think hard about every planned action and its possible ramifications in your competitive environment. Many companies make the mistake of taking actions inconsistent with their brand personality. Don’t make that mistake.

If you focus on women, then focus on activities that women support like breast cancer research and childhood disease. If your focus is on young males, then make your actions bold and worthy of bragging. The hardest part of your branding process will not be designing your tactics. The hardest part is being consistent in supporting your brand.

Seven: Be Consistent in Action

A brand builds over time. A brand becomes successful after years and years of consistent action. My grandmother used to say, “The proof is in the pudding”. This is a very descriptive way of saying “in the end, it’s the result that matters”. Keep that in mind as you move forward in building your brand. An excellent method for helping you maintain consistency in your branding efforts is to pick a brand personality indistinct from your own personality. In that way, it won’t take as much acting or thought to be successful. Your brand will become a natural extension of yourself.

A Final Thought

In today’s business climate, the world is highly competitive. It is important to differentiate your brand. A sound investment is defining and communicating what is truly special about your business. Your brand will bring you financial results through loyal and happy customers. Your brand will tell the world why they would be crazy not to do business with you.

Michele Schermerhorn calls herself a “Corporate Freedom Fighter” dedicated to freeing cubicle prisoners to experience their own successful online business. She has over 30 years experience in the business world and over 12 years running her own successful online businesses. She is President of Online Business Institute Inc. (http://www.obinstitute.com), authors a sassy marketing blog (http://www.imarketblog.com), and regularly conducts free online seminars. Online Business Institute Inc. exists to “Create Successful Online Business Owners One Person At A Time”.

In the world of advertising there are many forms of media that can be utilized to get an advertisers message to its intended audience. Newspapers, television, radio, Internet and billboards are effective tools in this effort but one form of advertising that is often overlooked is Cinema Advertising.

Most people see cinema advertising as the little slide that is shown right before the movie starts, but it’s much more than that. Cinema advertising does offer slide advertising, but it also offers something that is called rolling stock that is similar to a television commercial. Some theatres offer dynamic digital advertising opportunities in place of slide advertising while others offer advertising opportunities on large LCD screens in the theatre lobbies.

They offer advertisers an opportunity to present their message to a captive and receptive audience in a family oriented environment. Hollywood spends billions of dollars each year promoting their movies and these massive marketing campaigns lure hundreds of millions of people to the movie theatres every year. It’s an audience of brand conscious teens, tweens and young adults with high disposable income and active lifestyles that makes this medium very attractive to a marketer.

Some toy manufacturers and beverage companies are aware of this and have taken full advantage of the opportunity. Other industries have followed suit, as they are starting to adhere to the title of this article, “Brand Young and You Brand for Life”.

Some may call cinema advertising intrusive but they cannot deny the fact that it is highly effective. The recall rate of cinema advertising is upwards of 70% while the recall rate of television sits at approximately 23%, the reason for this is that advertisers have a totally captive and receptive audience. They finally can advertise directly to the elusive teen and tween market in their own environment.

With the Tivo age growing this has forced marketers to become more innovative in their media planning efforts. They not only have included cinema in their media mix but they have also included other forms of advertising such as guerilla marketing, trash can advertising and even beach umbrella advertising.

This is all in an effort to reach the masses, but man does not live by advertising alone. An effective public relations plan should be in place to work hand in hand with any advertising campaign. The goal of the campaign is to get as much attention to your product as possible during the course of the campaign. So an effective public relations plan would only enhance the results, as it will allow the marketer to utilize the media to assist in getting their message out.

Louis Victor is the Executive Vice President of New Age Media Concepts, a Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations Firm.

For more information on Cinema Advertising or Public Relations go to www.namct.com.

For media inquiries contact:
Louis Victor
New Age Media Concepts
888-463-9237

Have you ever thought about branding your name? Does the idea sound too egotistical for you or does it make good business sense? Let’s examine personal name branding and how it can help you achieve the recognition you need for your business and put you quickly on the path to success!

Promptly upon receiving my layoff notice from my position of nearly eleven years, I decided I needed to venture out on my own. I formed a limited liability company and named the concern after my name. Why? Because my name was more known than what I did. I possessed a lengthy work history as an accomplished technical writer but mostly everyone I dealt with in and out of my company knew me more by my name than by what I did for a living.

It also helped that I did a lot more than technical writing including public relations, creative writing, resume writing, etc. Usually when someone needed any type of writing project done, they contacted me first even if it was outside of my realm of responsibilities. Hence, for me, keeping my name "front and center" has been invaluable as I grow my business.

Think of some other names that transcends what these individuals do for a living. Martha Stewart is one of the most famous people — or infamous depending on how you define the category — that has used her name wisely over the years. KMart carries a line of her name branded products, a magazine is named for her, and popular books bear her name. Indeed, while Martha was in jail, her company’s stock tripled in value. Investors knew that the success or failure of her company depended chiefly on her direct involvement with the company. What a valuable name!

Tommy Hilfiger Corporation, through its subsidiaries, designs, sources and markets men’s and women’s sportswear, jeanswear and childrenswear under the Tommy Hilfiger trademarks. You may not know what Tommy looks like, but you know the name.

Donna Karan, a/k/a DKNY, is another pervasive name that has been popularly branded as has Louis Vitton [fashion handbags]; Michael Dell [computers]; Alexander Graham Bell [telephones]; Estee Lauder [cosmetics]; Dr. Atkins [diets]… the list goes on.

No one is saying that your name will become as well known as any one of these esteemed names. Few people reach the pinnacle of pervasive name recognition. However, in the overall scheme of things, your name may have more value in marketing your products than would an unknown generic name. Consider your options and weigh them intelligently!

Matt branded his name — Matthew C. Keegan, LLC — and has successfully launched a pair of websites off of his business at http://www.corporateflyer.net and http://www.aviationemploymentboard.com

Advertisers that are beginning to focus on the young Hispanic market have been given a gift in the form of Latino television programming. Now mind you it’s not your typical Latino television programming that you would find on Univsion, this programming is geared towards the large and most overlooked demographic, U.S. born Latinos.

Advertisers crave the buying power of the Hispanic market, the largest minority group in the United States today. But the problem is that they are limited in their knowledge of the Latino community. While they are looking for different types of media to use to hit this desirable market and have their agencies working overtime on the creative end, they are still missing the point.

They are not hitting their intended market, but that has been made much easier for them. They received a gift from the television world in the form of AIM Tell-A-Vision, a distributor of English language Latino television programming. Too often advertisers specially create an ad campaign in Spanish to hit the young U.S. Latino market and by doing that they are shortchanging their brand. As I have stated in various articles, the U.S. Latino market is not a mystery, but advertisers have to go beyond their ad agency and do their own homework.

AIM Tell-A-Vision has made it easier for an advertiser to hit this desirable market by developing various English language programs such as UrbanLatino Television, American Latino Television, Sonidos and Latination. This programming is developed especially to attract young U.S. born Latinos that speak English, which represents over two thirds of the Hispanic market here in the United States.

An advertiser can actually create an ad campaign in English and get their message in front of the intended audience and not the assumed audience. That’s not to say that an advertiser doesn’t have to gear the campaign towards the Latino market but this medium makes it easier for them to actually gauge their efforts.

Marketers have to disperse of the “Stereotype Marketing” that has engulfed the media dollars which are intended to build brand awareness within this demographic. They need to realize that the U.S. Latino market cannot be put in a cyclone, it is an evolving culture and of the over 65 million Latinos in the United States today, over 25 million are U.S. born.

So how does an advertiser looking to hit the young U.S. Latino market reach them?

Well they first need to bring in an advertising and marketing agency that understands this demographic, like New Age Media Concepts, then develop creative that is geared towards the English speaking U.S. Latino market and put together a comprehensive marketing plan that will get their message to the intended audience.

Of course this would encompass various types of media and not just television, but AIM Tell-A-Vision is an example of an overlooked medium that should be embraced if an advertiser wants to tap into the massive buying power of the U.S. born Latino market.

Louis Victor
New Age Media Concepts
www.namct.com

Louis Victor is the Executive Vice President of New Age Media Concepts, a Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations Firm.