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A SYMPHONIC MASTERPIECE:
Learn to profit from the synchronicity of brand harmony and rhythm within your organization.

Managing Your Online Reputation
Managing your online reputation is an important component of online public relations. Because image is everything, a business or individual needs to monitor and manage their reputation. These tips should help you take control of your brand identity.

A New Marketing Communications Firm Launches in the Washington D.C. Area That Focuses on the Small Business and Non-Profit Sectors
Conversion Pipeline, a strategic marketing communications company was created to help small business and non-profits utilize modern sales, marketing and communication strategies such as pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization, public relations, business consulting, social media and other strategies to raise brand awareness in their respective marketplace.

Why a business card should matter to you
If I meet you for the first time, chances are, I will forget your name and whom you work for within a short time frame. The one thing I will most likely keep will be your business card. When you hand me your business card, it tells me not only who you are and what you do but it also tells me whether or not you are worthy of my business.

7 Essential Homepage Tips To Ensure That Your Site Converts Traffic Into Sales
On average, you have roughly seven seconds to get your message across before the end user abandons your website for one of your competitors' sites. We have created simple guidelines for what should and, more important, should not be featured on your homepage, so that you can convert regular traffic into revenue.

Tell Me Again Why I Should Use Social Media Marketing?

In order to be successful in branding, you first need to understand the needs and wants of your target market. Like anything else in life, there can be a huge difference between what message is intended to be communicated and the perception of that message. The reality is the perception - the intention is not. How can a company know what the consumers' perception is? That is where social media marketing comes into play. The world has changed. Let's face it folks.

Branding and the Smaller Business
You all know that the big guys invest big bucks in marketing their brands. Whether itâ€™s Pepsi, GM or FedEx, everything they do goes toward making their brand irresistible to their target market. Without deep pockets, whatâ€™s a smaller business to do?

3 Lessons Microsoft Taught Us About Branding
How many years has Apple been dictating how the public perceives "the PC" with its ongoing dialog between our two stars in the "I'm a Mac. I'm a PC." commercials? Is there a lesson we can learn from this. After all, if Microsoft can make mistakes, lose market share and waste marketing dollars, isn't there some takeaway that we can learn from the sidelines in watching this rivalry?

ANOTHER BRAND BITES THE DUST
Why high-potential brands may never make it to ‘GREAT’! By Suzanne Tulien, Principal & Co-Founder

IT’S 2010 – Do You Know Where Your Brand Is Going?
5 Strategies to Prepare Your Brand for Sustainable Elevation By Suzanne Tulien, Principal & Co-Founder

HyperRealism As a Motivating Factor In Web Video
If there is one thing every Web business executive can agree on, it's that websites need to motivate people to act. That action can be to place an order, send an email, pick-up the phone, or maybe just join a mailing list, but whatever the intended response, your website must cause a reaction. It's a case of simple cause and effect.

Successful People Build Their Brand on Integrity

Successful people create positive personal impact. Creating and nurturing your unique personal brand should be your first step in creating positive personal impact. Regardless of how you choose to brand yourself, you should build your brand on integrity. This means saying what you think. The video, "Ouch! Your Silence Hurts," suggests that you should become a "pro-active ally" instead of a "silent colluder" or "passive bystander" when you encounter a situation that doesn't fit with your values. This video is a wakeup call. It tells us that we shouldn't let words and actions that conflict with our values go unchallenged.

In the Weeds - Learning From Tiger's Publicity Nightmare
Only time will tell if Tiger can regain his "golden boy" status - but in the meantime, here's a few reputation management tips you can garner to improve your own game.

Standing Room Only - Should You Steer Clear of Crowded Niches?
The key to surviving in a crowded niche is focus. You need to focus on a particular portion of the niche. Maybe there is an area where your competitors are lacking. Focus on identifying the weaknesses in your competition, and make them your strengths.

Tagline, You're It
Your tagline is another facet of your brand. It is you - just as much as your logo, color scheme, and mission statement are.

Profit Building Strategies - Burn Your Brand Into Their Consciousness
Aside from the obvious competition in the marketplace, as marketers, we have to contend with consumers who TiVo through commercials, listen to advertisement-free satellite radio, and block ads with their browsers. If you are lucky enough to garner a few precious moments of visibility, you better make them count. What can you do to get consumers to remember you?

Standing Out in Your Field - Focus On the Business Card
Few small businesses have the luxury of multi-million dollar ad budgets, or a staff of marketers to spin their brand on a daily basis. So how do you stand out in your field?

Clark Kent & Super Branding
It seems as if lately we've seen a huge resurgence in the popularity of the comic book superhero. It could be attributed to many things, I suppose...

Are You Water Cooler Worthy?
As consumers, we're bombarded with ad imagery on a daily basis. And while one might think that would automatically make us all experts on what makes for a great ad -- that simply isn't the case.

Online Marketing Of Your Website

Online marketing and advertising are moving in opposite directions. Rich media ads and other graphical animated advertising appear more frequently on sites and in email. Much online image-based advertising is primarily used to communicate branding and educational messages first, then to drive traffic to the advertiser's site. As average consumer bandwidth increases, so do the use of animated, audio, video, and large-format image ads. Ad agencies and marketing departments are set to communicate branding objectives online as they do offline.

2010 Global Brand Trends Letter
In his yearly overview, Stanley Moss considers international branding, emerging economies, the luxury category, innovation and co-creation, new vocabularies, cultural trends, new vocabularies and the cult of celebrity. The letter ends with a group of interdisciplinary professionals answering the question, "What is a brand?"

10 Unique Ways To Brand Your Small Business
If you want to truly succeed and skyrocket your biz to the top, then you need to create a powerful and memorable brand that your prospects believe in.

What benefits can advertising in major sports events bring?
Advertising in a major world sports events can build serious customer momentum towards a brand.

Consistent Branding for Social Media Marketing
Most companies and business owners strike out into the great unknown of the online frontier without a social media marketing branding plan. It might seem unnecessary to most business owners; however, the creation of an online branding strategy is one of the most vital steps to social media marketing success.

Seven Deadly Video Marketing Sins
So you want to develop a Web video campaign to put on your website and add to YouTube and all the other Web video directories. Maybe you even want to create a new video micro site to promote that hot new product or service you're about to launch. You want it done right, professional, slick, and you want it to be effective. Well of course you do.

How to Brand Yourself Effectively
Your brand is essentially how you want the market perceive you. What you want to be â€œknownâ€ for. Your brand is about who you are, what you do and why you do it. This is a declaration of your values in business and what you are all about. Your brand will help you attract people who are on the same wave. You want to cooperate with people who are with harmony with what you do.

Where Has All the Trust Gone?
Americans, we the people, have become a distrustful lot of late, hardly surprising news given our Recessionary new world order that is rammed home daily in headlines detailing the failures, cover-ups, and worse, of corporate America and its leaders.

Look Big, Win Big: The 5 Cardinal Rules of Logo Design

Your logo appears on everything from your letterhead to your website, reaching customers, prospects, suppliers and the press. In other words, your logo reaches everyone and is the first impression someone will have of your company, therefore your logo needs to create a favorable introduction. Present yourself clearly and dynamically, and youâ€™ll look like a pro, even if your office is your basement.

Promotional Giveaways are Smart Business
Whether you want to amaze people with upscale corporate gifts, or utilize the most cost effective branded giveaways you can find, promotional products can really make a big impact when used correctly. If you do the proper research ahead of time and focus on your target audience, your promotional endeavors should be a sure success.

The Science of Logos
Your companyâ€™s logo will go a long way toward defining your brand, so the process to create it should not be entered into lightly. Whether you choose to work with a design team, or use resources available to produce your logo yourself, you must be aware of how varying images, shapes, typefaces and colors will showcase your company.

Social Networking: You Are Your Brand
How you portray yourself on the world wide web is a major contributing factor in your personal brand. For the small business owner, their personal brand is also their company's brand.

A hard working brand or just another pretty face

Many of us received our brand training through a practice of visual identity. In other wards, we created ad campaigns and other tactical applications to provide brand distinction. Yet, I know everyone reading this has heard numerous times and from multiple sources that a brand is not a logo or a tagline or a color palette. And still, not everyone realizes the difference between branding and brand development – or, visual identity vs. strategic identity. Brand development is the discovery of a brand’s unique (strategic) distinction and branding is the tactical (visual) application of that distinction.

Aligning your brand with a charity, more than just PR

Let's face it, people like to associate themselves with businesses and brands that support causes. When embarking on a charity initiative, consider the sort of giving that you'd like to be involved in and why you're doing it. If corporate charity is undertaken as an obligation or as a means of self-promotion, this will show through in your efforts, and no matter how great your giving, it will be seen as less than sincere.

Branding: Death Cigarettes
How can you create a powerful brand? Follow the advice of UK entrepreneur BJ Cunningham. This is so good. BJ created a company called The Enlightened Tobacco Company in 1991, selling a cigarette called “Death Cigarettes”. It was presented in a black package emblazoned with a white skull-and-crossbones logo. Just imagine how this might appeal to the rebels.

Five Steps to Build a Personal Brand Like Harry Houdini
Harry Houdini died in 1926. Yet he is still remembered as the greatest escape artist of all time. Even David Copperfield doesn't come close in terms of brand and name recognition. That is the power of personal branding. Build a solid personal brand and it catapults you to success.

How to cure WhirlyBrand!
Is your brand in a whirl? Many a CEO have ignored the signs and are afraid to contact their brand doctors. Some fear the embarrassment of having admit that they have long ignored the obvious and suffer from denial. Many simply have no idea why they are suffering and are just confused and anxious.

How To Make Your CEO Brand A Leader.

What exactly is a CEO anyway? According to best selling author Warren Bennis in his book, "On Becoming A Leader," he sums it up this way: "All leaders have four essential competencies. First, they are able to engage others by creating shared meaning. Second, all authentic leaders have a distinctive voice.The third quality is that all true leaders have integrity. But the one competence that I now realize is absolutely essential for leaders - the key competence- is adaptive capacity."

Check Your Brand Positioning in 5 Minutes

Understanding brand positioning is very important if you want to correct misconceptions and off-brand opinions of your brand. You may have every intention of analyzing your brand to make sure that it is in a position of strength by participating in scientific research to that end. But first as a litmus test, you might find it useful to do a little under the radar analysis to get a quick feel of your stake holder's opinions regarding your brand positioning. We are going to casually ask them.

Top Value Brands (Part 2 of 2)
The communication of value is where the real trick lies. After all, Target didn't get to be known for designer quality on a budget by getting lucky or stumbling upon something that worked. Effective communication of value is a product of three things: positioning, implicit communication and audience touch points.

Branding: 7 Important Questions and the Straight Answers
Consider these important questions about branding and the brutally honest answers that could help you sell more and save you lots of money that is typically wasted on branding. If you sell yourself as a branding expert - you might not like these answers. These are frank answers that demystify branding.

Brand Names Can Help You Build Your Own Brand
There are thousands of promotional products available at virtually every price point imaginable. So where do you start? How about leaning on somebody else's brand to help build your own brand awareness. Utilize trusted brands such as 3M, Camelbak, Swiss Army, Fossil and M&Ms to help you promote your own organization.

How You Walk Your Talk Directly Affects The Money You Make
Tips and strategies to help you walk your talk in an authentic and profitable manner.

Web Marketing Ideas You Can Actually Use
If you're like me, always trying to improve, learn, and grow your business, then you've probably been frustrated in your search for truly useful information that you can actually use to improve your marketing, branding and sales efforts.

Branding on Purpose

Branding is an often missed and yet vital part of any healthy marketing strategy. In fact, studies show that businesses that brand themselves well will be 500 times more successful in their marketing efforts than those that brand themselves poorly. At the end of this ebook there is a form to help you formulate ideas on a logo so that you can pass it on to a graphics designer and/or marketing professional.

Leading the Way through Personal Branding
Not long after you enter the world of online business, you may discover an unsettling fact: there is a ton of competition out there. No matter how obscure you may think your service or product might be, you will most likely have a close competitor. The key is setting yourself apart from the field by mastering the art of personal branding.

Finding Your Essential Message is Crucial to a Strong Branding

Essential Message is a well-developed process that I realized was a perfect fit for Rapport to use with our clients. I decided to become an Essential Message Consoachant and discovered that most people don’t dig very deep when asked to describe their ‘differentiator’. Essential Message taught me how to uncover our clients core value and their ‘specialness’. I’ve had great results using some of the exercises from the program and excited to see how the results will inspire our creative team.

Colors: A Primer for Color Psychology
Art and advertising share a great deal of common ground. There are the psychological impacts of colors, how the eye is drawn from one place to another, and the emotions of the shapes. This is a highly simplified explanation of how to use these design elements in web design. With these simple concepts, you can increase the recognition of you website.

How To Make Money On The Web

Before I decided on the title for this article I wrote down a list of options: how to engage an audience, how to affect change, and how to alter perceptions and change attitudes. All of which are valid, and all of which are important to you as a business owner or marketing manager. The trouble is, most busy, results-oriented business owners and managers want quick, simple answers to complex marketing questions that involve psychological and sociological issues. Buying a mobile phone, makeup, or a car is more complicated than which option provides the most features at the cheapest cost.

Assembling Your Web Video Marketing Assets

Now that just about everybody is a believer in Web video, it's time to figure out just how to use it effectively as a marketing communication tool. Oh sure, there are a few diehard holdouts filling their sites with thousands of words of densely congealed text in a vain attempt to attract 'Mr. GoodSearch;' and let's all encourage them to continue, especially our competitors, because as they stick to yesterday's marketing tactics, we can capture market share by communicating using techniques that actually lead to more audience engagement, more memory retention, and more sales leads.

P is for Personality
I almost called this article P is for People because I really do believe that people buy people and the more your potential customers get to know you, the more likely they are to buy from you. But then, after giving this a bit more thought, I realised that it goes far deeper than this. People buy not just from getting to know you, but also how they feel about your business.

Integrating Social Media into Website Strategy - Part I

At what time should a company develop their website strategy? When participating in social media or does an updated/new site lead to social media participation? In this article I outline still important, ‘back to basic marketing’ questions; website strategy for web 3.0; tips on how to integrate social media into your site; and ideas on how to include social media in the overall marketing plan.

Integrating Social Media into Website Strategy - Part II
Should website strategy be driven by social media? In Integrating Social Media Part I, the answer was no. Read Part II to find out why the answer has changed.

BRAND=EXPERIENCE…WHAT’S YOUR BRAND?
How do you defind your brand? This artilce first appeared in Healthcare Marekting report in 2007.

Personal Branding Tips
A great deal of time and energy are expended to create memorable brands that add value to company marketing strategies and (in the case of public companies) pique the interest of the investment community. While company brand equity is certainly important, the significance of personal branding should not be overlooked as a key to success.

Advertising and Branding

Branding is an important aspect of building a business. Every aspect of a business must contribute to the branding aspect in order to give a unified approach where all energies are focused on putting out a single image. Advertising is one of the most important aspects of branding. Advertising puts a face on what the brand does and how it functions to the general public, especially potential customers.

Branding Concepts
Branding is one of the most important aspects of a business. It is the identity of the company and as such needs a great deal of respect and work put forth for every aspect of a company. This identity is transferred to each product or service a company puts forth, creating a strong image or brand.

The Convergence of Personal Branding and Corporate Image – or Not?
In today's new world of technology and Internet marketing, do companies have a right to censor their employee's use of social media in promoting their own personal brand?

If Operating Rooms Were Run Like a Small Business...
What do operating rooms and small businesses have in common? Not much from my current perspective having spent the last few days and nights at a major NYC hospital. However, operating rooms, more specifically the surgeons in the operating rooms, can learn plenty from small business best practices.

Branding For Small Businesses - Part 1

You don’t need to be a large corporation or franchise to incorporate branding into your business marketing. Many small businesses make the mistake of allowing others to determine the branding of their businesses resulting in mixed message for consumers. If you determine your brand at the start, your marketing communications will be more focused and obtain better results. Here are some branding tips to consider when starting your business.

Does Brand Imitation Work?
To Copy or Not to Copy, This is the Question.vWe all know that it’s tempting to copy the competition. There is safety in conformity – a certain “comfort factor” in being similar. After all, the other company knows what it’s doing, right? Not always.

What's Your Brand Image ROI?

If you’re like millions of other small businesses, creating a professional visual image is key to your success. After all, your image - as seen on your business cards, marketing materials, packaging and website - is the first and sometimes only chance you have to introduce your company to potential customers. If your customers like what they see, you’re one big step closer to getting their business.

Don't Market In The Dark Any Longer
Understanding ROI and your target audience doesn't have to be rocket science. But without it you're marketing in the dark.

Occam’s Razor Solves Marketing Misinformation

The implications of Occam's Razor are a seemingly simple insight into decision-making and are quite significant for marketing executives: features are out; emotional and psychological benefits are in. Ah, but what emotional benefit, there's the rub. I will assume that if you are reading this you are interested in improving your business and that you are open to new ways of doing things, and that starts with new ways of thinking about things.

What’s Hot in B2B Marketing?
Marketing budgets are expected to grow by 9.2% over the next year including and increase in spending on brand building.

The Secret Behind Successful Branding (and No, It's Not About a Logo)
Branding and positioning are extremely powerful. Used correctly, you will magically attract your ideal clients to you. Used incorrectly, and that same power can destroy your business. Read on to learn more about how to use branding the right way.

Branding In Spite of Yourself
For any of us who are playing with the notion of branding ourselves and our businesses, David Vinjamuri, a former brand manager a J&J, and Coca-Cola, now teacher of marketing at NYU and founder/president of Third Way Brand Trainers, has provided some interesting examples in his book, Accidental Branding, How Extraordinary People Build Extraordinary Brands.

Why Did You Buy That?
This article examines how people make purchasing decisions according to branding and how you can position your company's brand to mimic large retailers.

How Branding Can Lead to a Business's Success...or Failure
For better or worse, every business out there has a brand. Now you may not like what the marketplace says about your brand, but it's up to you to change it. Below are some ways to get you started.

Get the Most Attention from Your Publicity
What Are You Doing With Your Great Publicity? If an article is printed in a newspaper or blog and no one reads it, does it make any noise? Yes, that is a hypothetical question based on the age-old line of “If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it…” but there is a lot of similarity between the two ideas.

Marketing Tips: Look at Your Website Like You Are Visiting a Foreign Country
Your website prospects are like tourists in a foreign country. They don’t know you. They don’t trust you. They have many other vendors to choose from. They want to buy something like yours from someone like you. It could be you if you do the right things. It won’t be you if you don’t. Here are five keys to improving your website so you connect with your prospects.

Is Old Media Relevant?
Is Old Media still relevant in today’s social media world in terms of getting publicity that helps you make sales? You bet. While it is great to get mentioned on blogs and social media sites, Old Media or Mainstream Media is still the place to be to get results. Here are 5 reasons to include Old Media in your publicity and marketing campaigns:

Building Your Unique Brand Identity

For small businesses and entrepreneurs to get clients today, your brand must stand out and be unique. How many times have you heard that message? Probably too many times. Yet, it is true. But most people don’t know how to be unique. Here are a few tips on how to brand yourself properly. Legendary speaker Joe Calloway wrote a book called "Becoming a Category of One." I like that positioning! What he is saying is that when people think of a solution provider, only one name comes to mind. You want that name to be you. Adopt the “category of one” mindset that you and only you can accomplish this task.

Social Media Outsourcing Guide - How to Choose the Right Social Media Consultant for Your Business
5 Questions You Must Ask to avoid the mistake of hiring the wrong social media consultant or company...

How To Deliver A Marketing Message On Your Website
If you want to be the market leader you have to control the conversation and you do that with the language you use. If you can control the words you can dominate the market. The words you use make a difference. Use the right words in the right way, and you’ll own the conversation, and put your competitors at a distinct disadvantage.

Top 4 Reasons to Brand your Business
Business branding is an imperative part of creating and growing a successful business. Understanding how to brand your business effectively is just as important as providing top quality client service or pricing your products and services appropriately. Below is a list of the Top 4 Reasons to Brand Your Business.

Brand Your Small Business Through Your Twitter Background
If you want to stand apart from your competition (as any small business owner does), then you’ll undoubtedly want to create a unique and customized Twitter background.

Brand Your Small Business Through Your Twitter
If you want to stand apart from your competition (as any small business owner does), then you’ll undoubtedly want to create a unique and customized Twitter background.

Everything You Do
There's a lot more to a brand than a "swoosh".

Keeping Printability in Mind with Your Logo
When designing your company logo, printability of your logo is incredibly important. Here are five keys for developing a logo that will print well with all applications.

Professional Presence: Brand Me!
What do you want people to think when your name is mentioned? When you walk into a meeting how do you want to be perceived? Are you new? Improved? Fast-acting? What is your brand?

Kinetic Typography: A Killer Web Video Marketing Technique

Kinetic Typography penetrates the consciousness because the dynamically presented spoken and written words act as mnemonic devices reinforcing each other. Don’t be fooled into thinking that the visuals alone will make up for any deficit in the script. Your words create a language framework that defines your brand; it creates the context within which you can communicate with your audience; and it allows you to take ownership of those words thereby limiting your competitions’ ability to feed off your marketing efforts. In short, words have meaning, words can move you, move you to action, and isn’t that what marketing is all about?

You Are the Message: Package Your Personal Brand
You are the most important package you will ever wrap!

Branding Your Business
Discussion with CEO Roundtable Group on Branding Your Business

PR is Painless Branding
Creation of a brand is the most powerful tool for a company. How can public relations help you build a brand?

Continuity: Creating Your Greatest Image
The strategy and process of coordinating all the elements of a marketing message to achieve a consistent, memorable, overall look and feel for a company, service, or product.

MediaAgility Maturity Model : Assess Where Your Business Stands
The advent of New Paradigm technologies, such as cloud computing, social technologies and myriads of web-supporting devices, including smartphones and tablets, have together changed how marketers approach their prospects. A must-read for marketers seeking out new ways to add new energy to their marketing drive.

Building An Online Brand

Big companies care about brands, small companies don’t, and that is a shame because any company that has aspirations of ever getting big, better figure out how to build and manage their brand. You can get sucked into all the hype about the latest social networking fad and waste all your time and money following this week’s Internet wunderkind or you can get your head out of your digital butt and build a business from the brand up.

20 pitfalls to avoid when using facebook for branding
Everyone wants to leverage on Facebook for Marketing but very few know how to do it tastefully so as not to hurt their brand. Andrew Chow, the professional speaker and trainer on social media in Singapore will share to you 20 pitfalls to avoid while using Facebook for marketing.

Is Your Brand Strategy Helping Your Brand Image? 6 Ways to Tell

There's nothing wrong in being optimistic about your company's health, but skepticism can be a good thing as well. When it comes to the wellbeing of your business image, maintaining a realistic and workable brand strategy should be first and foremost on your list of things to do. If it's not, then you may be in trouble, and it may be time to examine whether your marketing efforts are reinforcing your brand's strengths.

Small Business Growth Quiz – 7 Market Focused Questions You Must Ask To Help You Grow
Stop thinking like a small business owner... here are 7 Questions to think about and respond to when planning for Business Growth

Working Harder, Making Less
Thinking of expanding your business? You may want to learn from the mistakes made by two retail giants.

Is Your Brand ‘APP’-licable?
The evolution of brand engagement is mobile! How can your brand reach your customers 24/7? How can your brand engage your customers beyond their belief? This article exposes the creativity of how some brands are leveraging mobile apps to keep top-of-mind with their customers, enlist them, and engage them in powerful ways.

What Is Price?
I must admit that I was taken aback by this question. Was I able to recover and offer a useful answer? Read on.

The Discount Economy and It's Implications for the Future
What is the discount economy? How did we get here? More importantly, how do we get out?

BRAND LEADERSHIP COACHING
Tips for Brand Leadership to ensure sustainable and successful business

Start Building Your Brand

Your brand is not just your company name or logo. It is what your clients and customers experience of your business and service and is what the brand menas to them. This article provides a list of unique experience contact points where the outside world comes in contact with your brand. Ask yourself how you’d score each item out of 10, and if it gets less than 8/10, then your brand needs some work in that area.

Newtonian Laws and Marketing 2.0 – An Intriguing Intersection
The change in marketing paradigm after the advent of the social media and smartphones is something that makes the application of Physics in Marketing somewhat more gripping. Let’s kick off with the use of Newton’s Laws of Motion in what can be referred to as Marketing 2.0.

A Brand Fit for a Princess
Brands are created and brought to life by people.

Effective Branding for Increased Success

Business branding isn't a complicated process, but the success of your business branding relies on the relevance, quality and consistency of its design. Most business owners fall short when branding their business because they try to overcomplicate the process. However, if you follow the basics of business branding and resist the temptation to lose the focus of the message, you should be well on your way towards creating an effective brand.

4 Important Reasons to Brand Your Business
Business branding is an imperative part of creating and growing a successful business. Understanding how to brand your business effectively is just as important as providing top quality client service or pricing your products and services appropriately. Let's review the Top 4 Reasons to Brand Your Business.

2011 Global Brand Trends Letter
In this year's letter, brand guru SMoss addresses emerging economies, monetization of internet-based news, social media, celebrity, the luxury category, cognitive fluency, the ramifications of gaming, nation branding. The letter concludes with new terminology and a section which answers the question, "What is a brand?" A must-read for all brand professionals.

Legal Marketing: Create a Label for you firm
Creating a "label" for you firm, or recognized brand, for your firm will increase your credibility and clientele base.

5 Branding Tips for Creating a Bold Small Business Promise
Learn 5 branding tips and how important branding is to your business.

Case Study For Award Winning Video Micro Site

CallLimiter is a small software developer in Australia that has developed some cool little apps that it sells. They came to us to develop a video micro site for their mobile phone product that can be used to control how long you stay on the phone. This is something most everybody can relate to. The phone companies have managed to get many people to abandon their fixed cost landlines and use their cost-per-call mobile phones almost exclusively, thereby increasing almost everyone’s monthly phone bill. It’s a high price to pay for convenience and not everyplace in the world has discount pricing plans, opening up the market for CallLimiter’s product.

Hey Attorneys! Let Your Funky Side Fly!
We all know that attorneys don’t always have the best reputation, dare I say branding, in the market. But I argue that attorneys are some of the most creative people around, so embrace your inner right-brained self and let your funky side fly!

Why Your Brand is Your Fortune

You may think Nike sells shoes and Apple sells Macs and iPhones, but you’re wrong. They sell their brand. Developing a powerful brand can spell the difference between struggling to make ends meet and achieving real success. Why is developing a successful brand so important? Take a Nike shoe or an iPhone and replace the known brand name with a generic label: you’ve just demonetized both products. Both are as functional as they were before, but neither is as valuable. A brand is an experience and a label or logo is what symbolizes that experience. It in essence becomes the experience.

Make Your Brand Cool

Is your brand cool? Cool is the ultimate compliment your company or product can receive from it’s buying public. To be cool is to be special, superior, and of higher value than the competition, which is why coolness is such a sought-after marketing objective. And before you reject the idea that your business, product, or brand doesn’t have to be cool, think again. To be cool is to be desired and to be desired is exactly the goal of all marketing communication. Sure you want sales but first you got to be cool.

The Small Business Marketing Success Secret

The biggest problem that most small business owners have with PR is that they don’t fully understand the process or how it can help build their business or establish their brand. Most think that public relations is only for large corporations or those in the entertainment world and that it has to do with stunts and smoke and mirrors. None of those perceptions are correct. Why should entrepreneurs and small business owners use PR? Because it can build a business and establish a company’s brand. Because it works!

The PR How-to Bible

Synopsis: It’s said that you can’t find the right answers until you ask the right questions. So with that in mind if you are thinking of hiring a public relations firm or of launching a media relations campaign for yourself, the following is a list of how to points to ask yourself before moving forward. Done correctly a PR campaign can establish your brand and build your business and establish you as an expert in your field. It’s the most powerful marketing tool out there, so give it a shot, but first do your homework and review the checklist.

The Need For Proper Positioning

Sigmund Freud did state that a cigar is a cigar, unless you attach alternate meanings to that ‘fire-stick’. However, in today’s context a watch is not exactly a watch: it is a brand! A brand has a name, and consumers identify with it in an emotional and intellectual way. The way a watch is positioned, dictates its pricing and audience. A product or service can be mainstream, high-end, or for a niche.

Leadership Branding (Redux)
Since you began your small business, franchisee, or investment how focused have you been on your unique brand of leadership – be it, direct or indirect approaches? To lead others around you is to express and assert your influence. Influence is about applying your ability to persuade via facts or education.

How To Develop An Iconic Web Brand

Marketing requires you to take the long-view; it’s an approach that demands a company to stake out a position and build a personality that customers can rely on to be consistent and ethical both in offering and in execution. Marketing is about building a legend, an iconic brand that explains who you are, what you do, and why anyone should care. Marketing is about psychological persuasion in order to improve the wellbeing of your audience. Marketing is about transformation, it communicates a brand story that acts as a metaphor that defines your identity, which in turn helps customers define and express themselves.

One Sentence Value Statement: Branding Your Business

One Sentence Value? Is it possible to capture and communicate anything of value about your brand and what you offer using just a one sentence value? With only 20 to 60 seconds to catch a site visitor's, or possible client's, attention, you can draw them into your site content and set the tone in your content. Think about what your blog looks like when someone comes to visit. What would your one sentence value say to them? Think about it...

Why You Might Not be Ready for Publicity

Often clients come to me because they truly want to get the recognition they deserve in the form of publicity both online and in the media. They’re looking for a starting point to get the word out so they have a general understanding of press releases and strategies. This is an important step in building your brand awareness and increasing credibility. At the same time there are often key foundational pieces missing. Pieces that need to be in place before you really start creating publicity buzz. And, I’m always upfront about that.

The Recessionary Job Search
James Dicks examines the job search challenge in today's recessionary economic environment.

Lessons for Law Firms: Don’t be Summer’s Eve!
Before creating any marketing message, material or tactic, you should ALWAYS think about your audience first. Just because something informs – or amuses – you, doesn’t mean your audience will embrace it.

How to Tell if Your Employees 'Get' Your Brand
These eight questions help determine if your people are a differentiator for your organization.

Social Marketing Techniques For Powerful Personal Branding

It takes some time, consistency and genuine effort to develop a powerful brand. You need to be patient through your personal brand-building experience, but it is definitely worth the time and effort. And, using social media works extremely well these days. People are social, and your continual presence will all add up to a strong and uniquely branded you. This article will provide you with some great tips to help you get the job done.

ASAP Brand Test: What Word Describes Your Brand?
I created the ASAP Brand Test to help businesses develop a brand or design a company logo quickly and efficiently. The test includes four simple steps, and when these steps are tackled strategically and specifically, a business can feel confident that they have the necessary foundation to develop a successful brand.

9 Easy Ways to Get Your Brand Recognized
To get clients, you either reach out to them directly, or have them find you. Here are a few ways to help clients find you.

Is Your Brand Worth Professional Treatment?

Web video production must be viewed as an investment not a cost. Doing it right means hiring the right company who knows how to develop a presentation that enhances your image and attracts attention. Homemade or semi-pro efforts may seem like a bargain at the time but they will ultimately turn out to be a costly waste of resources that can do more damage than good; then again if you sew your suits, act as your own doctor, and grow your own food, perhaps you don’t need a professional.

Creating Your Facebook Page
While many people are comfortable with using Facebook for personal reasons, its uses doesn't stop at keeping in contact with family and friends. Through the creation of a company Facebook profile page, you can market your business, product, or organization.

What’s in a name? Brand Naming is Just the First Step
In the world of business, marketing, and advertising we pay a great deal of attention and money to how companies, products and services are named. Brand names are important. Brand names help us remember and help us associate a good or bad experience with a product, service, or company

3 Ideas To Ick-Proof Your Brand

Do you ever feel like your brand is out of alignment with your values system? If you said "yes", I'm curious: why is your brand icky? Your brand is made up of the look, the feel and the experience of doing business with you. Does it look like a mess? Is your design all over the place? Have you outgrown them and become more sophisticated and evolved? Does it feel pushy or sleazy? Are you using tactics that you think you need to use to make sales? Do you find that when you market, you wind up feeling like a slimeball? In any case, an icky brand is no fun. It's gross and uncomfortable, for both you and your clients. Join me in stamping out ickiness in branding.

Your Brand is More than a Logo or a Tagline

Many people in business believe their logo and slogan make up their corporate brand. And while they are integral to a company’s image, there is so much more to what a brand really encompasses.Your company's brand is its evidence of distinction. Your company's brand strategy is the adoption of that brand by everyone in the company and the process by which the promise of that brand is delivered to your customers.

Invite vs. Incite: What’s Wrong With Most Marketing Today
Pretend your business is a party and ask your clients to come be your guest and enjoy themselves. Make sure everyone feels welcome and comfortable, and that you’re being charming and engaging. Talk “with” them instead of “at” them. You’ll see the energy turn around and I’d be willing to bet that you’ll all start having more fun in the process.

3 Easy Steps To Stop Spinning Your Wheels With Your Brand And Start Making Sales

The first step in creating a brand that converts is to get clear. Without clarity, your brand is going to be confusing and too complex for your ideal clients to really understand what you offer. And, without clarity, your marketing and promotion – and, even just telling other people what you do - will be way too hard. What does brand clarity mean? Getting clear about your brand means that you know exactly how to simply, succinctly and snappily talk about who you are in your business, what you do, and what makes you different from everyone else out there.

What I learned about branding on my summer vacation
I went on a road trip with a friend recently, and even though I was “on vacation”, branding lessons kept jumping out at me. Here are the 3 most valuable lessons we learned about branding on our summer vacation:

Harness the Depth of Power In Your Brand
There’s a common misconception in the small business world that looks like this: Brand = Logo That’s simply not the case–a brand is so much more! If you think your brand is the same thing as your logo, then you’re missing out on your chance to harness most of your brand’s power.

How To Name Your Business, Website and/or Brand
Struggling with choosing a name for your service business? Too many small businesses try to start by choosing a name without really thinking about what their business is going to be all about.

5 Steps to Designing a Strategic Brand

When you think about designing – or redesigning – your business’s identity, you think about finding a designer and hiring them to design a logo, right? That’s where many small businesses go wrong. There’s a 5-step process to designing your small business’s brand image. And actually designing it is the very last step. If you want to create a profitable, pretty and powerful brand, then you’ve got to begin at the beginning. If you begin with the first 4 steps here, then you’ll be able to design a brand that’s stronger, has a more solid base and that will be an investment that gets results instead of an expensive, creative guess!

Does Brand Strategy Take The Freedom Out Of Running Your Business?
Entrepreneurs are really concerned whether this whole “brand strategy” thing will take away their freedom to run their business the way they want to, to have the life they want to have – or to react to what’s going on in the world and make changes.

The Brand Profitability Cycle: How Your Brand Can Help You Make More Money and So Much More!

When I say “profit”, do you think about money? Most people do! Entrepreneurs are no different, and one of the most common ways to measure business success is by financial profitability… how much did you make last year versus how much you spent. When you’re looking at profitability in your business, you look at the return on investment. But what do you do when you’re measuring the profitability of a piece of your business that doesn’t just lead directly to money… like your brand?

The Personality In Pacing Your Brand

The pacing of your brand can show different personality traits for your business as well. Here’s what I mean: You know how some people are speed-along, action-oriented, getting-it-done people? And others are more thoughtful, methodical, and take their time with things? You can show which type you are in a couple of ways in your brand. Here are the opportunities you have to show your pace in your brand:

The Pitfalls of Professionalism In Small Business Branding
I always ask the entrepreneurs I’m working with to give me 5 adjectives that they would like their clients to use when describing their businesses. 90% of the time, one of the adjectives I get back is “Professional”. Wanting to be seen as professional in your small business is a bit of a trap – and an easy one to get caught in.

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall… Will My Brand Help Me Rise Or Fall?

Is your brand an accurate reflection of what it’s like to do business with you? Does it help your business rise to the top? Or, does it trip you up, miss the mark with your clients and make you fall flat? Your brand has to reflect you – in some ways. When you’re the driving force behind a small, service-based business, it naturally follows that your brand will share some common ground with your personality. After all, your business is based on your mission, your talents and your desire to make a positive impact with your clients.

Is Your Brand Effective, Or Just Pretty To Look At?

Do you want your brand to be a work of art? If so, stop right there. This is where small business owners get mixed up in the branding process. They mistake brand design for art. It’s an easy mistake – you’re paying someone to draw things for you, right? That’s art… right? Better yet, it’s commissioned art – and there’s a decent chance that this is the very first time that you’ve commissioned anyone to create art for you.

7 Rules For Designing A Strong, Substantial and Successful Brand
If you want a brand that goes beyond being “just pretty” into having some real substance and strength so that it can be successful for your business, just follow these 7 rules:

What Does Brand Clarity Feel Like?

When you help your potential clients get out of confusion, they come back to the nice, calm, lovely place where they understand exactly what you’re talking about… and can immediately tell whether they need to work with you (or if they know someone who does). And that’s a lovely, cozy place to be. What makes this place so lovely and cozy? The place where there’s complete clarity and understanding between you and your clients is so lovely and cozy because you’ve finally found an invaluable way to communicate your passion to the people you’re passionate about serving. Once you’re there, you’ll know it. You’ll see and feel the difference becaus

The 7 Secrets To Creating A Fashionable Brand!
If you’ve ever been confused about branding your small business, here’s a simple way to think about it: Branding Is Your Business’s Fashion Statement. Here’s how branding is like fashion:

Are You Hiding In A Schlumpy Brand?
Are you using a brand that doesn’t look stunning as a way to hide your true genius? I know that this sounds kind of silly, but there are lots of small businesses out there using brands that don’t reflect them.

Keeping Your Best Clients In The Loop When You Launch a New Brand

You’ve decided that you need to rebrand your business. You draw up a launch plan, design your logo, marketing pieces and website, write your copy, and get all of your business paperwork filed. You work on it in secret for months, so that you can roll everything out at once and make a big splash.Finally, it’s launch day! You send out some emails and start forwarding your old website to the new one. And then the emails and phone calls start coming in… but not all of them are congratulatory…

Is Your Brand Representative Of Who You Really Are?

Does your brand show your clients an authentic picture of your business’s personality? Does it shine with your style? Does it feel like it fits you perfectly? If your answer to any of the above is “no”, and your brand doesn’t truly represent you, then you’re setting your clients up with unrealistic expectations. Clients expect that your brand will be an accurate reflection of what you’re all about. If they look at your brand and see an energetic, enthusiastic image, but then working with you is serious and hard, then you’re creating a gap between their expectation and your delivery. And that’s a path to an unhappy client relationship.

How Important Is Traditional PR In The Age Of Social Media?

Although we’re in the age of blogging and social media, being featured in the traditional media (TV, print and radio) is still tremendously important. In many ways it’s even more important than it was a decade ago. The recognition factor that traditional media offers is immense. Most consumers will be able to recognize and identify popular newspapers, magazines or TV station much more readily than then will the most popular blogs. The traditional media have built credible brands that carry weight, influence and credibility.

The Three-Part Harmony in Your Logo
Just as a harmonized song is made up of a set of three notes, every small business's logo should be made up of three pieces of art: the icon, the font, and the color palette. These three pieces all work together, singing the same basic song, to tell your business's story. In your logo, each of them gives you an opportunity to build in meaning and symbolism.

The 6 Jobs of Your Logo's Icon

Many entrepreneurs think that the icon for their logo should be a picture that appeals to them personally. They go into the logo design process looking to create an icon with personal symbolic meaning, because they think that the icon's job is to appeal to them personally as well as to look interesting. This is a case of the icon's job description not being well written. In a perfect world, entrepreneurs love their logo icons-and personally identify with their meaning. But, that's the logo icon's last, and least important, job. First, it must do several more important jobs for your company.

The 4 Jobs of Your Logo Font
Many entrepreneurs think that the font for their business name is like a trophy wife-just there to look pretty, all perfect hair and manicure. So, they try to find a font that looks cool, often without looking at any of the features of the font itself. But, the font in your logo is a busy little element. It works 4 jobs!

The 5 Jobs of your Logo's Color Palette
Picking colors for your logo can be difficult. Just how do you go about choosing appropriate colors? Everyone has favorite colors, and many people also have colors they hate. But, whether or not you personally like a color actually has little to do with its appropriateness for your business's brand. You should make your choices based on the colors that will best perform the color palette's jobs.

Keep Your Logo Simple

The job of your logo is to communicate what your business is all about in an instant. But if you try to say too much in that instant, it's more likely that your clients and prospects will either not get the message at all or that they'll get the wrong message-and wind up pulling the wrong information out of an overcomplicated logo. The way to avoid confusing your clients with your logo is simple: to just keep it simple. Just like the KISS principle.

A Brand Is Much More Than Just A Logo

Logo design is a part of brand design. But, a brand is not just a logo design. When does a logo become part of a brand? To answer this question, let's first define what a logo is and what a brand is: What is a logo? A logo is a unique, meaningful design that's paired with your company name in an interesting and cohesive way. The logo also has a color palette assigned to it. It must be scalable, able to be reproduced consistently in all of your marketing, and timeless - so that it doesn't get stale or look old too soon. What is a brand? A brand is "The collection of perceptions that your customer has about your business". Note that the brand lives in your customer's mind - and the ideas that they have about your business.

Logo Design Questions: Answered!
This time, I wanted to send over an interview that I did with Computer Arts magazine in the UK. The interviewer, Tom Dennis, asked a lot of really thought-provoking questions, and I thought that maybe wanted to share the results with you.

9 Keys to an Effective Logo
The right logo, with the right characteristics, will boost your visibility, credibility and memorablity – which means more business for you! These characteristics include:

When To Use A Text-Only Logo
A text logo (also sometimes called a logotype or word mark) is a logo largely made up of the text of the company's name. This type of logo can have some graphic elements-lines, boxes, borders-that interact with, surround, or even form the letters. However, the graphic elements should be used as an accent to the text, not as a major or equally-weighted part of the logo.

When To Use A Symbol Logo
A symbol logo is the opposite extreme in design from a text logo. This type of logo includes neither words nor letters-only symbols, images and shapes.

Why Combination Logos Are So Popular
A logo that in some manner combines both a symbol and the company name. The symbol and text can be integrated together, side by side, or with one located above the other.

Is Your Business Ready For A Logo?
You're just starting your business. Opening a bank account, getting a business license, and setting up your office are top priorities. And, of course, the question of stationery and marketing comes up. If you're starting a business, you need business cards. And probably stationery. And a website. All this means you need to design a logo immediately, right?

What Your Logo Designer Needs to Know About Your Business
If someone asks me to design a logo based on a tiny bit of information, then I have to make just as many assumptions about the personality of the business, its customers, and the owner's personal taste as I do in creating my hypothetical dinner. And the logo I design winds up being more about me and my preferences than about my client's business.

How to Get the Logo You Want
Are you having a hard time getting the logo you want? If you're working with a designer and looking for "just the right" logo but getting sketches that cause nothing but frustration, don't despair. I've worked with many clients on difficult projects and come reasonably close to reading their minds without having ESP. Here are some tips to help you get your logo done right:

A Logo Without Your Name... Can Be A Big Branding Pain!
I often get asked to develop a small business's logo as a symbol-only logo. But for many small businesses, this isn't the right choice for a couple of reasons:

No Logo? Launching a Business Without a Logo Can Sabotage You

Many entrepreneurs choose to design their own marketing materials when they launch their businesses, especially by creating their first business card. Or sometimes they will have an amateur designer, friend, or relative create the design. There are several reasons why this is not the best idea. An amateur logo design and business card can make your business more likely to fail for a number of reason.

Time to "Get Over" the Rainbow (in your logo, that is)
Rainbows are wonderful, but if you try to bring that natural beauty into your logo with tons of color, you'll be setting yourself up for unnatural disasters.

Why Entrepreneurs Divorce Their Logos (And Why It's A Bad Idea)

Remember how excited you were when you first designed your logo? How beautiful you thought it was, and how you couldn't wait to get your first batch of business cards printed so you could show it off? How you excitedly described its meaning and subtleties to your mom (and your clients?) And the rush to the trademark office to get your new love "made official"-what excitement when the papers finally arrived!

The Domino Effect of Changing Your Logo
What does redesigning really mean? Think back to the first time you designed your logo-the work, time, expense, and thought you had to put into the project. Just because this is a redesign doesn't mean that it will be any easier than the first time around. In fact, it may be more difficult since you're more invested in your business and brand than you were when you first launched it.

Signs It's Time To Redesign Your Company's Brand
When you first start a small business, you create your brand based on your hopes and plans for the future of the company. Sometimes this is based on experience, but more often than not it's based on a guess. Then once you actually start doing business, you may find that your business isn't following the same path you set out on.

Rebranding Is an Excuse to Party in Your Business
Once the redesign is done, many small businesses launch it silently. They change their logos, business cards, and websites one day-sometimes without so much as an announcement or a "By the way... " to their customers. Not only are they potentially confusing and alienating them, but they're also missing out on a great excuse to party!

A Logo Isn\'t A Tattoo! Why Your Personal Tastes Have Nothing To Do With Your Logo

I designed her first round of the logo to reflect the brand that she'd been setting up for herself. But, when she got the initial designs, I got an almost immediate call back - she hated them! We talked a bit about her brand, her clients and their tastes, and all of the things that I take into consideration when designing a brand. And we talked about how the sketches reflected those considerations. But then the real problem came out - she actually had a bigger vision for her logo.

Logo Files Versions of your logo that you should own.
Your logo is the most important graphic element in which you will invest for your business. You should own the logo in many file formats. Having a library of logo files will enable you to send vendors the types of files they need (for example, other designers, printers, or other service providers).

2 Traits To Create Relationship Through Your Brand - With People You've Never Met
Are you "marketing at" your precious potential clients or connecting with them? In other words, do your marketing efforts feel more like you're shouting at them with a megaphone, or like you're having a two-way conversation? In this article, you'll learn how to create connection and conversation with your prospects, by cultivating two traits: Curiosity and Generosity.

The Illusion of Authentic Leadership: Where Did the Morals and Trust Go?
This article focus on Authentic Leadership, the role values, ethics, morals, and trust play in leading others. A must read for those who are seeking a deeper understanding of what it means to "Lead with Purpose" in an authentic and trustworthy way. How to separate yourself as a leader from the pack.

SELL SMARTER; NOT HARDER
Winning BIG in Sales & Marketing: Don't Oversimplify/Overestimate Branding Efforts: Branding is hard and costly -- BUT IT HAS VALUE

SELL SMARTER; NOT HARDER
Winning BIG in Sales & Marketing: Don't Oversimplify/Overestimate Branding Efforts: Branding is hard and costly -- BUT IT HAS VALUE

SELL SMARTER; NOT HARDER
Winning BIG in Sales & Marketing: Don't Oversimplify/Overestimate Branding Efforts: Branding is hard and costly -- BUT IT HAS VALUE

SELL SMARTER; NOT HARDER
Winning BIG in Sales & Marketing: Don't Oversimplify/Overestimate Branding Efforts: Branding is hard and costly -- BUT IT HAS VALUE

Marketing By Method Versus Vision

The companies that make a real impact in the marketplace are not the ones that produce what people think they want, but rather the ones that produce what people will want but don’t know it. The ability to know what people will want before they know it exists is not a result of intensive market research, focus groups, or telemarketing surveys. Knowing what people want is based on understanding the human condition: the motivating factors that move people from disinterest to action. Steve Jobs was unrelenting in this philosophy and it resulted in changing the computer, music, movie, and telecommunication industries and more significantly how people live, work, communicate, relax, and in some ways, think.

PR Strategy: Now’s the Time to Write Year-in-Review Press Releases
As the end of the year approaches, some people think of holidays, gifts and shopping. I think of year-in-review press releases and articles or opinion pieces. The year-in-review press release is a great way to get increased exposure and position yourself as an expert. This article will show you how to write a year-in-review press release and will also show you many ways you can benefit from it.

PR Strategy: Are You Sabotaging Your Publicity Campaign?
Many small businesses aren’t getting publicity for the oddest reason: They talk themselves out of it! Here are 10 common problems I’ve seen with entrepreneurs who want publicity.

PR Tactics: What Are the Best Days to Send Press Releases?
“What is the best day to send a press release?” is a question I get every time I talk to a new client. It’s a fair question. All things being equal, why not send the press release to reporters when they are most likely to read it and when prospects are most likely to want to be looking for information?

Lessons About Warming Up Your Brand . . . From Parties
Warmth in your brand can make it seem more alive, open, and passionate, and can make or break your client relationships. This article outlines tips for getting that “warm and fuzzy” feeling in your brand.

Copy or Design, Which is More Important?
Copy and design must work together in perfect harmony to create a great marketing campaign.

Fresh Ideas For Your Brand (That Won't Freak Your Clients Out)
Why are new ideas so tricky? As a business owner, it’s crucial to keep things fresh and interesting. However, it’s just as important to introduce new ideas carefully and thoughtfully. This article explains how to use a special mix of ingenuity, bravery, and finesse for successful new ideas in your brand.

That Beast - Google Search

Potential employers are no longer settling for the pristine resume, stellar references and sharp business suits (although these do play an integral role in the hiring process). In a recent report conducted by Microsoft, in 2010, they found that 79% of hiring managers vigilantly screened the online reputations of potential employees looking for a job; and of those 79%, 70% rejected job applicants based on the results populated mainly through Google search.

Is Branding Enough?

For the past decade, the premier marketing term has been "branding." Every company and organization believed that it had to "brand" itself to achieve successful marketing results. Branding has its place, but in today's rapidly changing world, where buying power is shifting to the consumer, is good branding enough? Further, does "branding" even mean today what it meant just a few years ago? Let's take a look.

What is a Personal Brand?
Have you heard the term "personal brand" before? What is it? And more importantly, why should you care about it. This article will provide some insight into personal branding on the what and why dimensions.

Generate Web Traffic With Yahoo! Answers
One function of marketing is to establish yourself as an authority in your field and one way to do it, and generate web traffic at the same time, is through Yahoo! Answers. This is good for Internet Marketers and business people of all varieties.

Best Tips For Writing How To Articles
Article Marketing is a popular method of business promotion, but entrepreneurs who truly want to demonstrate their expertise and build their brand should consider writing How To articles. Here are a few recommended tips for writing articles of this type.

How To Brand Your Home Business Online
Since marketers know that branding yourself as an expert in your field or marketing niche is important, here are a few ideas on how to brand your home business online. Branding is a natural process of business development and there are some good ways to use Social Networking to make it more personal.

Let's Talk About Designing Your Very First Inviting Brand
Many first-time entrepreneurs consider designing their brand a “first order of business” - they think that before they launch, they’ve got to design their logo, business cards and their website. Learn why that's oh-so-wrong, and what to do instead.

The Entrepreneur and the Valley of Death
By Catherine Kaputa, Fournder of SelfBrand LLC and Author of Breakthrough Branding: How Smart Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs Transform a Small Idea Into a Big Brand

The Paradox: Small Ideas Are Big
By Catherine Kaputa, Fournder of SelfBrand LLC and Author of Breakthrough Branding: How Smart Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs Transform a Small Idea Into a Big Brand

Find a Different Idea for Your Business
By Catherine Kaputa, Fournder of SelfBrand LLC and Author of Breakthrough Branding: How Smart Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs Transform a Small Idea Into a Big Brand

Build Your Business on Authenticity
By Catherine Kaputa, Fournder of SelfBrand LLC and Author of Breakthrough Branding: How Smart Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs Transform a Small Idea Into a Big Brand

7 Proven Strategies For Going Viral
I surprised myself last month when my new free gift went viral. Since I’m filled with curiosity, I wanted to know why… so I deconstructed the experience, looking for the lessons. Here is what I learned.

The Entrepreneur’s Marketing Dilemma
Communication is a complex subject, and each new form of oral, visual, or digital dialogue has its own set of criteria that make it effective; as well as its own snake pit of hazards that can make it downright dangerous. Let’s put the current Macarena’s of marketing, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, aside for one moment and speak about another hot trend in marketing communication – video.

The Quick Connection
Maybe you’re a veteran of the networking arena and agree you could be more effective. Or, perhaps, you’re just getting started and would like to better understand how to network productively. “The Quick Connection” is a reference tool to help you effectively impact others and increase your success.

Branding Your Company Using PR
PR and media relations are not only effective ways to garner coverage in print, TV or radio. Innovative companies and entrepreneurs are utilizing the basic PR methodology to build their brands. A company builds a successful brand by making a deep powerful connection with its market. Branding is about communicating on a basic human level, which is what PR is all about.

Internet Users Hbk - Chapter 12a. What Is Spam and IT’S Impact On Doing Business?

Chapter 12a. What Is Spam and IT’S Impact On Doing Business? 12.1 What Is Spam and it’s Impact on Doing Business? 12.2 Blog: What has Happened to Social Networking? 12.3 How About Social Etiquette or Respect? 12.4 Examples Spam: Lack of Social Etiquette or Respect? 12.5 Popular SWOM’s Open University Question: Have we Forgotten? What We are Marketing and Who? Sorry but your reputation is hanging out there!! 12.6 More Spam - Let us continue 12.7 How to Avoid the Spam Filters

Starting A Movement With Your Business, Gimmick or Genuis?
Business is no longer just about selling stuff. Customers want to have meaning behind the brand. Starting a movement with your business isn’t a side thing you do to draw attention, it’s a complete shift in how you interact with your customers and what you give back to your industry & community.

How to Become a Respected Name in Your Industry

If you’re like most consultants, the biggest problem you have when talking to new clients is to answer the question, “Why should I hire you instead of Katherine?” And if you are like most consultants, you’ll point to your college degrees and rattle off the names of your clients. The trouble is, most consultants can match you stride for stride, name for name. So what can make you stand out? The Media.

Building Trust with Your Prospects by Using Case Studies

Nearly every public relations campaign can be improved by using a case study. A case study is a publicity tactic that shows how one or more of your clients have used your product or service and benefited from it. Prospects love to be convinced by reading case studies because people love to read stories. A case study is simply a business story. This article by publicity expert Dan Janal will show you how to create great case studies that you can use on your web site, sales kit or media kit.

Free Publicity Tips for Pitching Reporters
Reporters need ideas from you to write their stories. But there is a right way and a wrong way to pitch your story. Here are a few tips from publicity consultant Dan Janal on what not to do. Don’t even think of breaking these rules if you want to get published.

Essential Web Video Concepts: Make’em Feel

Business is ultimately not about how good your product is or isn’t, it’s about how well your organization communicates a meaningful, memorable message to an appropriate audience. The better you communicate, the more successful your business will be, therefore it is important to learn how various techniques and technologies effect how your message is received, interpreted, and understood. The Web, like every technologically based communication innovation that preceded it, requires a special skill set in order to maximize impact especially for companies restricted by limited budgets. Smaller businesses can’t employ the same tactics as major corporations who have the budgets to experiment with every new marketing gimmick that comes along. Few SMEs have the wherewithal to supplement these fads with the print,

How to Measure the Effect of Press Releases
Here are two sets of metrics you can use to see if you are getting a good response on your publicity campaign.

The Business of Branding
Good branding is vital to the long-term success and growth of your company, however, branding concepts are often poorly understood. For this reason Immere have put together a few simple ideas for consideration when branding is on your company agenda.

Marketing Means Networking
Branding is always about YOU. Yes, branding your company name is helpful, and branding your goods and services is a nice idea. But the more people who know and appreciate you, the more business you'll do. In the end, marketing is about networking.

Book Review: Branding Only Works On Cattle
In Jonathan Salem Baskin’s book, Branding Only Works On Cattle, he takes firm aim at the practice of the marketing practice of branding. He defines branding as building consumer awareness with the goal of influencing their future behavior. Simply put, he believes that branding is useless.

Is Personal Branding Really Effective?
Personal branding is a hot topic these days. An entire industry has grown up around it seemingly overnight. Personal branding gurus claim that branding yourself is the key to success in this new economy. And yet, there's something often repulsive about personal branding that can make it backfire if you're not careful.

Is There a Brand in Your Stand?
Watch out for the branding gurus. Beware of the branding police who focus only on images of brand. Fire the branding consultants who feel qualified to tell you what your brand should be. Ignore the branding zealots who proclaim "brand or die".

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