Marketing

March 28, 2016

How Do You Choose a Restaurant?

I’m good at picking restaurants. Long before Yelp I used my own method of choosing a restaurant based on its typography. My husband and I don’t like chains, even though you can be assured of consistency. In our travels, we’d rather throw the dice on a one-of-a-kind restaurant. When I find good typography on the outside, I always find good food on the inside. I’m sure that’s because the same attention to detail permeates the entire business.READ MORE

March 23, 2016

Why Use WordPress?

WordPress is the premier open-source content management system (CMS). WordPress allows web developers of any skill level to build a website with database functionality, making frequent updating, archiving, and blogging simple and easy. WordPress powers over 25% of all websites, including those of top companies like Time Magazine, Google, Facebook, CNN, and eBay.READ MORE

August 1, 2015

SEO 101

Everyone involved in creating a website should understand the basics of search engine optimization, including the designer. That being said, SEO is not some secret sauce you pour on your website that will make you rich. All it does is help people find you.

I like to work with organizations that are honest and truthful about what they offer. Turns out, that is the best start for good SEO. On the nascent internet of the turn of the century, you could game search engines by stuffing meta tags with repeating search terms. Those days are long gone, and search engines actually work very well now.READ MORE

May 25, 2015

The Law of Focus

I am revisiting a book I read called The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing. The law that I think is most important, and the one I keep emphasizing to my students, is the law of focus. The more narrowly you can define your audience, the more effective your marketing will be. If you can give your ideal customer a name and a story, you have started to personalize your marketing (thank you Anderson Wiese @2wav for introducing me to this process). Focus also applies to what your business offers.

“The essence of marketing is narrowing the focus. You become stronger when you reduce the scope of your operations. You can’t stand for something if you chase after everything.”

—Al Ries & Jack Trout, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

April 5, 2015

The Psychology of Color in Marketing and Branding

A friend sent me this link to the FastCo article about choosing color for logos. I am including the infographics here. The original article has an introduction and additional links.READ MORE

April 1, 2015

Creative Advertising Gets Results

Creative advertising gets more attention from consumers and fosters positive attitudes about the marketed product. Ask any marketing professional, and they’ll tell you that creative ads are more memorable, more cost-effective, and build your product’s fan base faster.READ MORE

February 18, 2015

Growing Opportunities for Design Consulting

John Rousseau of Creative Review makes the case for expanding opportunities for design consultancy—as long as a few challenges can be overcome.

Introducing design into existing companies is complex and expensive. For the best results, design thinking cannot be treated as a fad to be discarded for the next business fad that comes along.READ MORE

March 16, 2014

The Dictionary of Brand by Marty Neumeier

Wow, just found this beautiful little book (thanks Alfredo Muccino of Liquid Agency) presented on SlideShare. Simple and to the point. It explains branding concepts in the form of a dictionary, with lovely illustrations. I wish I could get this book in print.

March 5, 2014

Opportunities in Social Media Marketing

Social media has created an opportunity for companies to connect with their customers on a more personal level than ever before. Useful Social Media has compiled a series of articles identifying how businesses can best take advantage of social media trends to improve marketing strategies.

October 23, 2012

Generation C

From trendwatching.com

“The GENERATION C phenomenon captures the an avalanche of consumer generated ‘content’ that is building on the Web, adding tera-peta bytes of new text, images, audio and video on an ongoing basis.

“The two main drivers fueling this trend? (1) The creative urges each consumer undeniably possesses. We’re all artists, but until now we neither had the guts nor the means to go all out. (2) The manufacturers of content-creating tools, who relentlessly push us to unleash that creativity, using—of course—their ever cheaper, ever more powerful gadgets and gizmos. Instead of asking consumers to watch, to listen, to play, to passively consume, the race is on to get them to create, to produce, and to participate.READ MORE