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Many people say that the key to succeeding in business is through constant improvement and innovation, the ability to keep up with the ever-changing trends in the industry. So if you ever notice why some of your competitors enjoy more attention and interest than you do, you better move fast and find out the answer before its too late. Complacency has certainly no room in the highly aggressive world of business.

In marketing and advertising, branding goes beyond just merely creating a strong company name, it should also ensure that people would be able to easily recall it and would stay in the periphery of the consumers minds for a long time. A powerful brand would be able to differentiate your companys products and services in a highly positive way. In effect, this will create a lingering effect on consumers, thus making them potential buyers of your products or future clients that will seek your services. The company logo is unquestionably one youre your major marketing tool to get across the message that you would want to send out.

So what makes an effective corporate branding logo design? Contrary to what others believe, a logo is not just an ordinary symbol that represents your business. Such assumption could potential render the conceptualization of company logo as ineffective. To be able to maximize it to its fullest potential, a corporate branding logo design should be treated as an important communication tool that you can use to interact with consumers. Use your company logo to convey your companys message, to project a competent and highly capable company and most importantly would efficiently educate the consumers what is the nature of your products or services.

So here are some useful tips that could help you in creating a powerful corporate branding logo design:

Direct and concise - a logo usually comes with a tag line. It would be ideal to create a short one that would easily be recalled even by children. Avoid using flowery or elaborate words, as this would only defeat its purpose and confuse your consumers.

Distinctive and bold - a strong corporate branding logo design should be visible easily be seen even from afar and should not be confused with any other establishments. Being distinctive does not it has to be really a complicated design, this will only alienate and confuse consumers.

Graphic Imagery - Needless to say, if you are using an image for your logo it should complement the companys name and the nature of the business. Consistency is the key here since you wouldnt want to send out mixed signals.

Suffice it to say that brand name and brand logo is the primary tool in reaching out to consumers and developing consumer awareness. Anyone who sees a distinctive crown logo would readily associate it with Hallmark. So in conceptualizing your very own logo design, make sure to incorporate all the marketing and advertising elements to make it more effective.

T J Madigan has been established in online business since 1998 and is director of a number of successful online projects one of which is http://www.articles.net.au your best source for FREE articles and information.

The business world is all about first impressions. If a customer likes what they see right away, they are likely to engage with your internet marketing efforts. That first impression is the essence of your brand message. It’s the promise of what a consumer will encounter when dealing with your company. Create a compelling message, and you will entice potential customers to dig deeper and explore what your company has to offer.

How to Develop a Strong Brand Message
Begin by identifying your target market. Your branding strategy will depend heavily on this factor. Obviously, you will choose different messages depending on whether you are marketing to wealthy, retired men or adolescent girls. Your brand message goes even deeper than that. Your brand message is, in essence, a promise to your audience. Your brand message is the entire experience a consumer has with your organization.

So how does this promise tie into brand development? The spending habits, interests, age, gender, education level, and many other factors will play into your branding plans. If a hefty portion of your potential customers read the New York Times, the promise of your brand will be an upscale, intellectual experience. If they are a more tech-savvy bunch, making your brand hip, fast, easy and one step ahead of everyone else will hit the mark there.

Once you know who you are trying to speak to, you have to figure out what you will say. Decide what makes your company unique. What distinguishes you from the other guys? What compels a customer to choose you instead of the competition? Developing those unique selling points (USPs) will help you put a face to your company. Choose those stand-out qualities and focus on them in the branding process.

Getting Your Brand Noticed
Your brand, the promise of your company experience, exists only in relation to your consumers. There are two primary ways to realize this relationship: the visual approach, and the verbal approach. The visual approach involves the “look,” a strong visual identity that will be recognized no matter what the context. This includes logos, colors, layouts, images, any graphic representation of your brand and its message. Remember: what the eyes see, the brain remembers. Whether it be an identifiable font or a memorable graphic, the visual side of branding has become increasingly important in our media-saturated culture.

The verbal aspect of branding is directly connected to the visual. It also needs to stand on its own; especially in the context of article marketing, where the visual aspect is largely absent. The verbal message of your brand becomes even more importance when separated from the visual.

Establishing a strong voice and style for your company is critical. Everything you write — whether articles, press releases, site content, emails to your affiliates — is written in the same voice and style. Once you’ve established a strong verbal identity, consumers will begin to intrinsically know that they are reading something from your company.

The verbal brand often includes trademark phrases, a standard lexicon for job titles and departments, and an overall tone in everything your company puts into words.

A tagline is another effective way to solidify your brand message. Think of Taco Bell’s recent tagline, “Think outside the bun.” A strong tagline presents a vivid summary of the USP of the company. Something clever or catchy will stick in the memories of customers the same way an attractive logo will.

Marketing With Confidence
A devotion to the promise of your brand displays a devotion to your customers. It also shows that you have confidence in your product. Consumers will perceive that confidence and subconsciously internalize a feeling of trust for your brand. That positive gut-reaction is the sign of a successful brand. A creative, confident brand is generally the face of a creative and confident company, and that is something any customer will appreciate!

Carol Palmatier is the brand manager at Article Marketer, a highly popular article distribution service. Take advantage of the power of article marketing to build your brand identity.
http://www.articlemarketer.com

It was the famous publicist PJ Barnum who said in 1855 “I do not care what people say about me but get my name right”.

In today’s international marketplace, getting names right is vital.

Marketers and brand managers are becoming more and more concerned that their newly created name will be inappropriate in their target markets.

We’ve all seen middle aged marketing executives embarrass themselves when trying to appear trendy to the youth market but things get even worse when attacking overseas markets.

What many people don’t realize is that innocuous English product names often do not travel well. So called, ‘bad’ names, names which embarrass, offend or are just plain unsuitable, are profligate.

Bad products names, bad brand names and even bad company titles, are continuously spawned and the headlong drive towards globalization has given unwelcome publicity to all of them. There are many instances of where things have gone awry, most of them too rude to mention in this article.

It’s not just names which need careful attention, straplines can go just as wrong. Take for example, Electrolux, the Swedish white goods company, who used the strapline “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux” to great effect when promoting a vacuum cleaner across Europe. Unfortunately, when they used the same line for the US launch they became a laughing stock as ’sucks’ means something is ‘very bad’ in America.

Bad translations on apparel can also convey the wrong message. Take the slogan “I saw the potato”, instead of the correct Spanish translation of “I saw the Pope,” used on promotional T-Shirts for the Pope’s visit to Miami.

The cost of such a damaging event cannot easily be counted. The very fact that a product might have to be hurriedly withdrawn, or quickly re-badged can have a catastrophic effect on the image, position and value of the brand and, of course its owner.

How can one put a value on that? The cost can be enormous, with the repercussions leaving careers in tatters. It seems almost ridiculous to many outside the marketing business that there are still organisations that undertake no due diligence and take a chance on it being ‘alright on the night’.

Most sensible people take out insurance to cover them for almost every event and occasion, yet when instances of such obvious potential devastation occur, it is always too late to do anything about it.

Traditional remedies such as expecting your advertising agency to provide such a service is, with some exceptions, a waste of time. It’s like asking your dentist to give you a diagnosis in respect of a pain in your toe.

You might expect your translation agency to offer this service but, unless they are very experienced and have regularly handled the needs and demands of checking words worldwide, again you could be wasting your money. Proper checking involves much more than whether the word means something contentious or just risible in a foreign language.

So, what can be done to reduce the risks of things going wrong? Fortunately, there are a few simple but highly effective precautions which can be taken:

1. Remember names change with speech

There’s a world of difference between the written and spoken word. Accents and dialects play havoc with the pronunciation of English words and vice versa.

Most of have had an experience of the way our own language is treated by foreigners. We sound similarly strange to foreigners when we try to speak in a language which isn’t our own. Before deciding on a name, simply ask a native speaker of the target language if it sounds OK to them.

2. Avoid names that can’t be pronounced easily, or at all

Although this sounds like another blatantly obvious point, it’s something which many people forget completely. Many languages have an alphabet and a way of speaking which makes the reading of English words difficult or, in some extreme cases, practically impossible.

For instance, all words in Japanese end in either a vowel or the letter ‘n’ so it makes sense to chose a name which follows this convention. By doing this, you can be confident that your Japanese customers will be able to pronounce it without difficulty or embarrassment.

3. Avoid names that confuse

A name may meet every other criteria but due to culture, product qualities or its position in the market place, it may still confuse its intended consumer. This fault will seriously endanger product positioning and so clarity must be established.

Many years ago the then President of the USA, John F Kennedy was making a speech close to the Berlin Wall. He finished off in an effort to try to identify himself with the long-suffering inhabitants by announcing to his audience “Ich bin ein Berliner”. Unfortunately, and unknown, to the President he was telling everyone that he was a doughnut; a Berliner being the popular name for a local pastry.

I am often amazed that companies spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars launching a product with a name which is so obviously wrong that it would have been flagged as inappropriate immediately had they undertaken proper checking.

The cost of checking is tiny compared to the damage caused by not doing so.

Peter Bennett is CEO of London Translations Limited which specializes in international name checking and linguistic assessment: Download his FREE report “International Brand Disasters and How To Avoid Them” from:
http://www.london-translations.co.uk/validata

If you sell a product or service, and want to be successful quickly, you must tell people about it through advertising and marketing.

TV, radio and newspaper are still considered the major media for effective marketing off-line.

However, a lot has changed with these top three marketing vehicles in the past 15 years.

In this article some critical changes are revealed that have occurred and how you can get the maximum impact for your advertising dollar.

Television is primarily an entertainment medium. Research shows the average person spends more time with television than with radio and newspaper combined. For many years, TV was considered the most powerful advertising choice because of the huge audience it provided. Even today, nearly everyone watches some TV every day.

There are three things you must consider before spending money on TV advertising - limited lifespan of your ad, audience fragmentation, and ad avoidance.

Keep in mind that once your ad has aired, it is gone for good. There is no way your potential customer can refer back to it. This fact makes it imperative that you run your ad many times to embed your message in the mind of the viewer. Frequency is important with any advertising, but especially broadcast.

Audience fragmentation is one of the major problems local broadcast television faces today.

At one time, a huge TV audience was split over only a few local channels. Community businesses could reach a large majority of their potential customers very quickly. Large national companies, such as Coke, only had to choose from the three major networks - ABC, CBS or NBC - to reach over 80% of the population.

Today, with cable and satellite TV, this same audience is now fragmented over 200 or more channels. The percentage of viewers on local TV has dropped dramatically. Yes you can run ads on cable and they will spread them out over ten or more channels. This shotgun advertising has not worked well for small businesses because many of these stations have only a half percent or less of the total viewers. And, what are the odds that they will be watching during the 15 or 30 seconds that your ad is presented?

Ad avoidance is also a very rapidly growing problem for TV today.

Because the public watches TV primarily for entertainment, they see advertising as an unwelcome interruption - not unlike the hated telemarketing. This was true 30 years ago but there was nothing a person could do about it except channel surf or leave the room. As you know this was, and still is, often done. Today, with TIVO, pay-per-view, public broadcast stations, and the multitude of satellite and cable channels, the public has shown a willingness to pay for reduced interruption from advertising.

Radio has similar problems. It is also primarily an entertainment medium. As such, advertising is also considered an interruption. Satellite radio is one of the fastest growing industries today primarily because people, again, are willing to pay to avoid commercials. In fact, most new cars have satellite radio built in.

Additionally, radio has evolved into an entertainment source for primarily driving, and background noise at work. If you buy any radio advertising, it should only be aired during drive time.

At home, radio use drops off. People can play CD’s or listen to satellite radio. This way they can choose exactly the music or programming they prefer without commercial interruption. The radio industry understands that folks do not want to be interrupted with advertising. Many times radio stations promote themselves by offering “more music, less commercials”.

Newspaperes have had their ups and downs, but have steadily maintained their local readership base and strength for local marketing. Even when radio, then TV, came on the scene, people still were loyal in reading their local newspaper.

Unlike TV and radio, advertising in a newspaper is not viewed as an interruption. In fact, one of the reasons people buy newspapers is for the advertisement content. Surveys have shown among 15% and 23% of those buying a newspaper do so primarily for the advertising.

You see, people do want to see and read advertisements. They do want to - and need to - buy products and services. They just want the ads on their terms.

TV’s best day of the year is Superbowl Sunday, delivering nearly 40% of U.S. households. In striking contrast, newspapers consistently deliver well over 50% of your community households. They do it every day, 365 days a year. Now that is some serious marketing power.

Another advantage over broadcast that only newspapers can deliver is engagement of the consumer at the moment they are making a buying decision. When a person is reading your ad, it is because they choose to. At that time you have their full and focused attention. And the working life of your newspaper ad is enormous because it is physical and static. Your potential customer can refer back to it anytime they wish, or even cut it out.

You may have heard on TV or radio that newspaper subscriptions and readership are dropping. This is true. But it is not to the degree they would like you to believe.

What they do not tell you is newspaper on line versions are growing much faster than the 7% or so losses in subscriptions. In fact, you will find newspaper web sites are usually the busiest web sites in any community. Be sure you take advantage of this.

Now you can see why today’s trend among business people who are in-the-know is away from broadcast and back into the old, reliable newspaper. Most all the major stores are getting back to the basics and finding the print advertising to be the best return on investment. So will you.

Newspapers, of course, should not be your only advertising medium, but it is the solid foundation on which you build an effective marketing plan in today’s environment

Mr James has owned The Cartridge Specialists (Melbourne, Australia) since 2004 selling ink & toner cartridges, fax rolls etc & regularly writes articles about his industry http://www.cartridgespecialists.com.au

We are all cluttered thinkers, our minds preoccupied with numerous thoughts, feelings, and unresolved information.

You can see that clearly as you walk down any city street.

Faces are contorted with angst, inner dialogues, and multilayered emotions. People even walk and move in an uncoordinated way.

Examine your own thinking, and you’ll see that hidden agendas, conflicts, and internal upsets constantly interfere with the clarity of your logic.

This is both an opportunity and an obstacle for salesmanship.

It is an opportunity because you can offer people something that they need to improve their lives, ease their pain, and end their confusion.

Your product may very well provide the relief that your customers need.

It may be a way for them to make more money following a specific technology.

It may be a way for them to develop will power and self confidence.

It may be something that makes their lives easier to organize, maintain, and evolve.

It may be a way for them to get rest, relief, and peace.

Or it may be a way for them to recuperate energy, health, and well-being.

Yet you also have an obstacle. They can’t see you, hear you, or even respond to you-again, because of their preoccupation.

As a psychologist this happens to me quite often.

People write to me about some difficulty they are having. I write back, proposing a simple, common-sense and highly-doable solution.

Then they write back repeating their complaint, completely ignoring the solution.

In other words, they weren’t even able to understand that they had been presented with a solution.

The way most marketers try to break through this preoccupation is to increase their marketing signal to break through the customer’s internal noise.

They amp up their marketing message-playing on the customer’s spectrum of desires with a hammer. It’s called hype.

In their desperation, customers often respond in the way that the marketer desired.

Encouraged, the marketer then rolls out the next pitch with the same tactics.

Eventually, however, even this does not work. The customer becomes numbed out, tone deaf, and utterly indifferent.

In addition, everybody else is assailing the customer’s sensibility, trying to attract their attention, with the same dramatic techniques.

A better approach is to tone down the customer’s inner noise, rather than raise your own marketing signal.

How do you do this?

You simplify and clarify your message at every point of contact.

Rather than hype things up, you present your information in an increasingly simple and direct way.

Whether you’re into internet marketing, network marketing, mail order or sales, you will always have a better response if you simplify your marketing message.

This is why USP’s, slogans, and other techniques are popular-they give a handle to the brand or product.

Sometimes even an unusual company, brand, or product name can awaken a whole train of familiar associations in the customer’s mind.

However, the principle is more important than the technique being used.

And the principle is keep it short and simple.

If your message is clear, it will be received and acted upon. Your sales will improve. And if you get really good at this, they will soar!

Saleem Rana would love to share his inspiring ideas with you. Hunting everywhere for a life worth living? Discover the life of your dreams. His book Never Ever Give Up tells you how. It is offered at no cost as a way to help YOU succeed. http://www.theempoweredsoul.com/enter.html

Do you struggle to attract and retain the right clients for you? Do you yearn to have word-of-mouth renown? In an increasingly challenging market flooded with talented therapists and extremely savvy consumers, discover 10 Keys to developing a brand full of integrity that will inspire you, attract loyal customers, and make promoting your practice effortless.

1. Identify your values: This is the most critical step and yet, the one most massage therapists overlook. Do some soul searching and get a crystal clear idea of what matters most to you as an individual first and then as a company. Your values form the base of your business and should influence every decision, from what kind of logo you print on your business cards to the business partners you seek.

2. Identify your mission: Once you clearly identify your values, take the time to write a mission statement. Ask, why does my practice exist? What do I aim to accomplish? Write in simple language that a 12-year old can understand using, ideally, 8 words or less. If you are stuck, do a search on the internet for “mission statements” and use the most compelling ones as templates. Your statement should energize and inspire you morning, noon, and night.

3. Identify your ideal client: Again, an incredibly critical step. Looking at your mission statement, ask, “Who do I love working with most? With whom do I have the most success?” Although you might be reluctant to narrow down the potential pool of clients, the biggest mistake you can make is trying to please everyone. This dilutes your service and identity so much that you fail to strike a nerve with anyone. Even though you will turn some people off, you will attract others who will bond with you for life. And the best part about identifying your ideal client is knowing where to find them.

4. Create an emotional connection: Every potential customer wants to know one thing, “What’s in it for me?” In order to compel someone to purchase a session with you vs. any other therapist, you need to connect with her in an emotional way. How can make her life better? What pain will your service potentially reduce or eliminate? What problems do your clients face? How will hiring you solve those problems? What will his life be like afterwards? Think in terms of the benefits your client will receive instead of the features of what you offer (see Key #5).

5. Identify the benefits vs. the features: Know your services and/or products inside and out. But instead of simply listing the features of the various methods you offer, describe your menu in terms of how the client will benefit. So instead of simply listing “shiatsu massage,” describe it as “a relaxing and soothing experience that will erase the knots and twinges of your stressful environment.” Remember, it’s all about creating that emotional connection with your ideal client and telling them how you can make their life better.

6. Create an experience: Why should your potential client hire you as opposed to any one of your competitors? What makes you unique? Successful companies understand that they are in the business of creating experiences that enrich lives. Starbucks does not just sell coffee. From the music they play (and sell) to the comfortable furniture and inviting d

Promoting your CD to radio takes a lot of organization and time management skills. Let me help organize your process. First you need to find radio stations that are willing to accept submissions from independent artists (Contact names, addresses, phone and email for radio stations across the globe are listed in “The Indie Guide To Music, Marketing and Money” ISBN 978-0-9746229-4-1 and The Indie Contact Guide - it’s companion book.).

You have to decide whether you are going to local and regional stations (which are a good recommendation if you don’t have a lot of money to work with and you aren’t worried about charting.), or if you are going after national stations, which is only a good idea if you are already established locally and are seeking national exposure and a chance to chart.

As with all submissions, always get permission ahead of time before you submit your music. There are two easy ways to find radio station information. The first is to log onto the internet and search the radio station databases available. This method is free, but will take some time. The best resources I have found are “MIT Radio Stations on the Web” and “BRS Radio.

Most sites list the stations by genre (style of music), state, etc. You should bookmark these sites in your Internet browser. You will find yourself going back to these sites often.

The major advantage the internet offers is the ability to download information into a spreadsheet or word processing document to make labels and save data for your follow-up files.

However, if you decide looking for information on the internet takes too much time, an alternative is to purchase books that already have all the information for radio stations listed in them.

When finding radio stations to submit to, it’s best to start with college radio first, especially if you are a new act without a track record. It will be easier for you to get added on college stations, which are usually “free format” and are more likely to air something new and exciting.

If you decide on the college route, make sure you have verified they have a format for your music. Most college stations have a variety of music styles and Music Directors.

Rock, Jazz, and Alternative Music tend to be the main stay for college stations. Country acts will have a more difficult time on college stations and there are many that have Folk Music programs. For Country acts you’ll have a better opportunity at stations that play Country Music specifically and/or those that play Americana.

Once you conquer the college charts, you will have a solid base and track record to promote yourself to the larger stations. It’s like a snowball that rolls down the mountain. The more it rolls, the larger it gets. Make sure when approaching larger stations that you ask specifically if they play independent artists.

If they tell you they occasionally give an independent artist an opportunity, and you have the extra resources, go ahead and submit your CD to them. You never know, they may play it.

But if you hear: ‘No. We only play major-label releases, or artists that are in the top 50 of the Billboard charts, but why don’t you go ahead and send it along anyway.’ Think long and hard about it before sending your CD. You’re better off to be patient, record the comment on your spreadsheet and wait until you chart before contacting that station again.

If the goal for your music is charting you will need to make sure that all of the radio stations you submit to, report to the same charts. This will help ensure that all of your “spins” count. (Spins are the amount of times a song is played.)

If the radio stations don’t report to any charts, or the charts they do report to are not consistent with those you already have, you may want to think about passing on them until you have more resources. It would be like sending an unsolicited press kit to a management firm that doesn’t accept them. It’s a waste of time, energy and press kits.

If you are only looking for exposure, then by all means send it to every radio station you get permission from as long as your budget allows. However, try to stay in one local/regional area so it’s saturated with your music. It will give you a much better chance at lining up a distributor as well as selling more CD’s.

It is easier to get added to a play list on stations that don’t report, than do. The competition is not as fierce. Remember: air time is an important commodity to a radio station. Each station only has so many hours and slots they can play songs. If you can get your song charted, you will have a better chance of getting into one of those precious slots. You have to decide which route you want to take.

Once you have found the radio stations you plan to submit to, and you have entered that information into a database, you are ready to send the press kit out (assuming your CD is ready).

At this time, make sure to call the radio stations again and verify that all the information you’ve gathered is still the same. The industry is very volatile. Stations get bought and sold very quickly, and there is an extremely high turnover rate for personnel. You don’t want to send your Heavy Metal CD to a station that is now a Smooth Jazz station. And you don’t want to send something out with the words “Material Requested” on it, to someone who no longer works there.

You’ll need a cover letter for your press kit, make sure to suggest the tracks you think radio personnel will like, and the ones you think are more commercial. Give them an opportunity to listen to several tracks, but don’t ask them to listen to the entire CD. It’s not professional. Radio promoters push one track at a time.

Pushing only one track will show them you know what you are doing and are respectful of their time. To push a track means to tell the radio personnel which track you are suggesting at this time for airplay. Tell them it’s the first release off your new CD.

In order to chart you must have a substantial amount of “spins”. Here’s another major reason to push only one spin: If you have a lot of tracks that are being played, but no stations are playing similar tracks, your chances of charting for a particular song are very slim. While you really don’t have a choice of what is played, you can help it along by constantly suggesting the same track.

Most Program Directors (PD’s) and Music Directors (MD’s) have specific call times, on specific days, every week. You can only call them on these days or they will not take your calls. Once you have sent your press kit out, wait approximately two weeks, then call and confirm that your CD has arrived safely.

If the CD has not arrived, wait one more week and call again. If at that point the CD has still not arrived, tell the PD or MD that you will send another package and then send it. Wait another week and then follow up again.

The life of one song is anywhere from 4 - 6 weeks. You can’t just assume that at the end of 6 weeks the radio station is going to automatically play another track from your CD. It’s up to you to suggest it.

At the end of your first 4 weeks of air time, continue to push the first track but also start suggesting the next track you plan to release. Start building a rapport with the PD’s and MD’s. Find out their likes, dislikes, and interests. You will get much farther if you are truly interested in who they are and what they do, than if you are only interested in what they can do for you.

Because Program and Music Directors have different call times and days, time management is essential. To help make your job a little easier, create a database to hold all your contact information and keep track of calls and call times. If you have succeeded in getting a station to add your music, here are some questions you should ask: