Small Business Branding Techniques: The Business Card

This business card was printed on 16 pt UV Coated Gloss first side, Matt second side (so the associate can write a quote out easily). The card is thick, heavy and the slick glossy texture on the front side feels and looks like a fresh coat of real paint. Notice the logo of a silhouette of a painter painting the card. Clever design really, rarely do you see smaller businesses exercising inventive branding techniques of this level.

All Purpose Painting of Mesa, Arizona does exceptional indoor and outdoor paint work in and around the Phoenix metropolitan area. Whether it is accenting a fence, garage or re-decorating a room with stylish new colors - All Purpose Painting delivers with Service, Reliability and Professionalism.

Small Business Branding Techniques: The Design of Your Website

The design of a website is essential to projecting the capabilities and integrity of your small business. Check out these two sites for inspiration: 

Imagine Wellness Chiropractic Center is a new facility offering spinal correction for individuals seeking health, wellness and healing.  Dr. Roxane Zamora treats sees her patients from her North Phoenix offices addressing everything from migraines to neck and shoulder pain to sports injuries using state-of-the-art chiropractic techniques.

Metro Maintenance offers plumbing and electrician work throughout the entire Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area.  Owner / Operator Derman Brown has over 20 years experience with electrical and plumbing systems and works by the motto "prompt and effecient" service.  He offers a 24 hour emergency service. 

Death of the Music Industry

Today marks the 5th Anniversary of the death of the record label dominated music industry. Well not officially, but it seems like several years has passed since any major record label amounted to having any effect or presence in the industry it once ruled. The burden of promoting and marketing has been passed on to the artists. Distribution has lead way to all kinds of start-ups which are now gladly taking the reigns left by the labels and record stores.

Apple I-tunes is profiting like a medium sized country as they receive the compounding effect of artists joining their distribution chain and network. All this may seem obvious now, but let’s put this whole thing in context. What happened? What caused this?

The obvious catalyst was technology and the era of the mp3. Remember when bands like Metallica lobbied U.S. lawmakers and made public outcries to punish people that converted their songs to mp3s? You can’t fight a technological revolution. You can’t win against a format so portable so powerful so flexible it makes all other formats obsolete. There is no doubt the quality of vinyl records and CDs were better – but the portability factor was the same reason that tape killed its large shaped disc predecessor.

I like music now and I think it is better off today because of these changes. Not too long ago record companies would charge artists hundreds of thousands of dollars to record a record in minimal time. Now artists can spend as much time as they want recording on home studios which pump out broadcast quality music. Music is better for this. There is also more music to listen to. Yes lots of it is terrible I admit – scan myspace and the sh*t stacks high quickly, but there are some gems to be found and I find them everyday. It’s never been so good for music.  Death no, music has reincarnated.

 

Brand Personification

A brand has to have magnitude in order to be effective.  Therefore, it is no wonder so much personification is present in many brands' imagery and media today. Whether it be the talking Gecko of Geicko or the Doughboy of Pillsbury – applying human traits to inanimate objects and animals works magically in branding practice. Branding is so centered on creating a connection through a memorable experience that marketers have to create something so extraordinary something so un-believable - that it becomes an instant memory to the audience.

How to Reset PhotoShop Back to Its Factory Default Settings

If for some reason you have tweaked a setting in Photoshop and can’t remember for the life of you how to turn the setting back to default, there’s a fix. Yes, you can reset the settings in PhotoShop to factory default. Windows Users this is how it’s done:

Hold down the Ctrl+Alt+Shift buttons all at the same time.

While keeping the above buttons held, open Photoshop.



Once PhotoShop loads, a prompt will pop up which will ask you if you would like to “delete the PhotoShop Settings” – Click Yes!

Political Marketing or Marketing Political?

Political Marketing is an area of marketing which focuses on political parties, candidates, votes and ultimately positions of power. Political Marketing draws heavily upon core areas of Marketing which include: Research, Branding, Public Relations, Advertising and Selling.

The Research arm of Political Marketing is exercised vigorously through polling, focus groups and advising which comes courtesy of interviews with experts.

Branding in Political Marketing is integral because a brand is developed and re-developed to effectively deliver the messages of the candidate which often adapts with people, time and place.

Advertising is a vehicle to which the Political Brand and message is delivered.

Political Marketing also draws upon Public Relations, which is used to positively influence the public’s perception of the party or candidate and spin negative coverage of stories that are often brought to light by the media.

Selling is a important cornerstone for Political Marketers because strategic alliances both with and across the party line is necessary to draw up support. Selling is noticeably prevalent in speeches and interviews by the candidate. One-to-one selling and direct marketing is a strategy visible in and around election time which is usually implemented by team members and volunteers.

Political Marketing represents one of the most dynamic areas of marketing because it draws upon so many marketing skills simultaneously.

The Definition of Place Marketing

What is Place Marketing?

Place Marketing (aka Place Branding, Territorial Marketing) is the practice of applying marketing and branding strategies to regions, states, cities and nations. As place marketing teams (i.e. city councils, tourism departments) compete to attract residents, tourists, businesses and ultimately tax revenue – they have consulted branding tactics to turn their places into destinations.