If you run a small business and you have a community following of sorts you have to be careful not to dilute your message by over marketing peripheral services. Yet at the same time if your existing customers desire a similar service, which you can offer and make a good profit at well then you might be considered a fool for not offering it right? Assuming of course you have the employees to do it and can manage it without too much additional upfront capital or training costs.
Now then let us consider the similar service businesses of Auto Detailing, Car Washing and Mobile Oil Changes for Corporate clientele at office buildings. You see it is difficult to establish these businesses in the first place and building a solid steady route is not easy either. However, having been in the sector for 27-years and having franchised in 23-states, it can be done. Also getting into the larger companies is not difficult, if you get in first with car wash weekly service and detailing and once they trust you pitch oil changes.
I have always found that works better in fact our oil change business grew out of customer demand for oil changes, hence; Lube on Demand. Did you know there is actually a company named; Lube on Demand. No it is not my company, but the name is brilliant and perfectly well branded you see.
Customers Demand oil changes and lube auto services. I mean you get it right? You understand how all this works, obviously by the name of that company, the owner understands too. Like “Fax on Demand” = Oil and Lube on demand = “Oil on Demand.” Consumers demand it and Entrepreneurs produce it.
If the name is set up correctly like this, then it is only a matter of adding; Auto Detailing on Demand, Car Washing on Demand or any thing on demand without diluting the brand. Get it now?
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“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/ |
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Your corporate identity is a graphic expression of who you are as an organization. It plays a major role in what sells your company and its products. Everything that identifies your business, including your logo, color scheme, and tagline, work together to create an image that your customers remember. Building a corporate identity that bolsters your business objectives is a subtle, yet important part of achieving business success.
How do you want your business to be recognized? What image do you want to call forth in people’s minds? You may choose an identity that is fun and wacky if you run a family fun center, or calm and serious if you operate a funeral home. The mistake many businesses make is to not think about it at all. Your company has a corporate identity whether you intentionally developed one or not. It can be difficult to turn an unplanned image around. And chances are, it doesn’t convey the image you need to boost sales.
The best identity plan is one that is strategically designed to answer the following questions: What is the essence of your company? What message are you trying to send to your key audiences? What kind of name represents your desired image? What is the look and feel of your logo? Will the color and texture of the paper you print your business cards and brochure underscore the image you want to convey? How about the voice you use to do radio advertising? Everything must work together consistently to reinforce your image again and again and again.
There are dozens of ways that you can carefully develop your identity and project your businesses’ personality. Specific, intentional creative choices will deliver a desired impact. A professional designer can help take your corporate identity to the next level. He or she can also help you develop marketing materials to reflect your image. Here are some elements to consider:
1. Business Name: Your company name should reflect your business personality. It should also be concise, memorable, unique, and appropriate to your product or service.
2. Logo: An effective logo is visually simple and easily recognizable. It symbolizes the essence of your business. The shape of your logo expresses different meanings. For example, curves can signify an organization that offers supportive services. Straight, sharp lines can represent a company with a technological focus.
3. Typographic Identity: The font that you use should complement your logo. There are thousands of fonts to select from, choose carefully since each offers subtle visual elements that can reinforce, or detract from, your business image.
4. Corporate colors: Different colors elicit different emotional responses and further serve to enhance your identity. For instance, deep blues represent trust, while oranges and yellows are fun and playful.
5. Tagline: What is the most important message you want to deliver about your business? A tagline describes your business in a short phrase that can be included on your letterhead, business cards, brochures, and so on.
If you are just starting your business, carefully think through all of the identity materials you use to promote your company. And, if you have been in business for a while and your identity doesn’t represent your level of professionalism, consider revamping it. Remember, you only get one chance to make a first impression. What does your identity say about you?
Wendy Maynard, your friendly marketing maven, is the owner of Kinesis. Kinesis specializes in marketing, graphic and website design, and business writing. Visit http://www.kinesisinc.com for more articles and free marketing wisdom.
Want to harness the power of kinetic marketing? Sign up for Kinesis Quickies, a free bi-monthly marketing e-newsletter: http://www.news.kinesisinc.com
The Nokia company is a world-wide communications corporation, focused on the vital booming spheres of wired & wireless telecommunications. Nokia is, at present, the earth’s biggest constructor of mobile telephones, with a worldwide mobile handset market share of almost 38%. Nokia assembles mobile phones for each big market section and protocol. The firm furthermore assembles coms network gadgets for applications, for instance, mobile and fixed line voice telephony, ISDN, broadband access, voice over internet protocol and wireless LAN.
Nokia has an unusually big part in the economy of Finland. Nokia is beyond question the biggest Finnish company, accounting for about a third of the market capitalisation of the Helsinki Stock; an uncommon status in a first-world country. It’s an important employer in Finland and some off-shoot firms have mushroomed into big companies as Nokia’s subcontractors.
The people of Finland have named Nokia (many times) as the most important Finnish brand and employer. Nokia is listed as the fifth most valuable brand on earth in BusinessWeek’s Best Global Brands compendium of the twenty most revered businesses world wide in Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies.
Nokia’s mobile phones sector supplies people with mobile voice and data products around a huge variety of mobile devices. The sector strives to target above all high-volume sales of mobile phones and devices, with people being the most important customer segment.
Nokia believes that price, design, brand, and ease of use are mainstream mobiles’ most crucial contemplations for customers. Nokia’s product portfolio includes digital camera mobile phones with great features, e.g., mega-pixel cameras and MP3 players which temp the mass market.
During the first quarter of ‘07 Nokia moved in excess of 15 million MP3 capable mobile phones, which means Nokia is not only the planet’s forefront manufacturer of cellular phones and digi cameras (as the best part of Nokia’s cellular sets have digital cameras, it is also thought that Nokia has lately improved on Kodak in camera manufacturing, making it the largest in the world), Nokia is presently also the forefront manufacturer of digital audio. Nokia wishes to sell 80000000 music phones by the end of 2007, surpassing sales of devices such as the iPod from Apple.
Branding your comapny should be the first thing a company does. You have to convince potential customers to buy from you. Very few people have a monopoly like Microsoft or Ebay, Everyone else need to steer business to their company or product. When people think about your company, what is their impression. For my company, Solutions Ink, I wanted to portray a fresh, professional, ease of use type of company whoose product meets their quality needs while helping their business. I wanted to portray Solutions Ink as always on the fore front of the printing and promotional product industry’s.
To achieve this I needed to tell potential customers of new and innovative products for the printing industry. Variable data, large format digital printing, digital printing with pantone colors, label and form combinations, magnet and form combinations and e-commerce ordering systems. How best to show customers then actually devise a campaign where the product you are trying to educate your customers about is sent out to them to give them ideas how to use this product to help their businesses. One campaign I organised was to compile a list of fashion retailers whoose logo’s were specific pantone colors that are not reproduced well in 4 color process printing. Today with 6,8 and 10 color presses you can print in 4 color process and 2 pantone colors quite easily. This keeps the integrity of the company’s logo intact in their big marketing or flyer campaigns. This is OK for large run printing jobs. The problem is that even for large chains, you tend to have regional sales in a small amount of stores. In store displays usually are done in small numbers and are printed digitally. Today there are certain digital presses that can insert pantone colors on top of the 4 color process printing. After devising a mock up campaign and targetting by variable data the buyers of these retail fashion chains, I was able to secure 2 large accounts for present and future business.
This technique can be applied to any industry. The key is to really now your product and the strengths of your company. The next step is to educate your customers on your company’s merits. Then you must reinforce your image constantly to stay in your existing customers mind, as well as peak the curiousity of potential new customers.
Once you have achieved this, giving out promotional products is a useful way of staying on their minds. The trick is to find a great promotional product, that fits you budget, is useful to the end user and doesn’t shout your name too boldly. Humour is a great way to have your customers keep your stuff. The items seen most times for an office person are calendars and coffee mugs. To be different in the Montreal Promotional Product market, Solutions Ink sent out to all existing customers a 14 ounze special mug which was imprinted with thermochromic ink. The ink is heat sensitive and evaporates on heat and returns on cold. With this you can print something underneath the thermochromic ink which is revealed when cold. On the outside we simply put the word STRESS in red over a black background. Most people who work know about stress. The humour side was that when you poured your hot coffee the message turned into stress free at Solutions Ink. A simple inexpensive idea that our customers really enjoyed and every time I stop at one of their offices I readily spot our mugs. On top of this I received 4 orders from these customers for these mugs with a different message for their customers.
Another great way for your company to be branded positively is to become associated with a worth while charity. Today we must give back to those less fortunate. Sponsering an event gives your company great exposure but the real treat is in knowing that you’ve helped others. Money is not the end all, all the time. A funny thing, helping others usually rewards yourself if not immediately some time in the future.
The trick is to plan out your actions. Research the market, research your company’s attributes and brand your company’s image positively and constantly. Following these steps should help your company stand out from the competition and make yourself more successful Best of luck. If you need help you can contact me at 514-337-2238 or visit us on the webb at www.solutionsink4u.com
Steven Schneidman
Steven Schneidman has a B.A. in Psychology and an MBA from Canadian Universities. He also served as a professor at a Montreal University and worked for the secong largest Canadian bank. I have owned 2 very successful printing and promotional product companies. My greatest achievement is my wife and 3 kids.
One of the most important marketing tools is an effective logo. It provides an easily recognizable identity for your business or organization. It not only communicates who you are but what you are. Therefore, every business or organization contemplating adopting a logo should know the criteria that make for an effective logo.
The first characteristic of an effective logo is that it has immediate impact. Your logo should catch the viewer’s eye and hold the viewer’s attention. Consider the logo of Apple Computers; the graphic apple with a stylized bite taken out of it has immediate product and corporate identification with consumers. An effective logo “grabs” attention.
In addition to impact, a good logo must be good to look at. An effective logo should have the look and feel of “art”, if a logo is not appealing to the eye it will defeat its purpose - attracting attention and providing effective identification.
Closely related to these first two characteristics of a good logo, is distinctiveness. A good logo must stand out from the crowd. A logo that is too similar to other logos is not only confusing but it could be embarrassing or even costly. In 2003, the Chicago Bears sued another professional football team over a logo that was too similar to the Bears’ logo!
This brings us to the next characteristic of an effective logo the logo must create or evoke a positive image. “Branding” is a common marketing principle based on product identification growing out of identifying a product with a positive image and a sense of goodwill.
Another characteristic of a good logo is that it accurately represents the organization or business. If a company or organization wants to project a serious, professional image, the logo must look professional. A humorous or whimsical logo would be counterproductive to projecting professionalism.
A good logo must also be straightforward. It has to be free from ambiguity. If the meaning of the logo is vague, if it creates doubt, or if it is indistinct, it cannot be effective.
An effective logo is also comprehensible. A logo must be legible and immediately recognizable from a distance. The meaning of a logo is so tied to its distinct visual form that recognition, a principle function of the logo, would be lost if it were not comprehensible.
The best logos are the most memorable logos. The Apple Computer “Apple” logo and the McDonald’s Hamburgers “golden arches” are great logos because they are memorable to the point of being iconic.
A logo must also be flexible enough to give the same impression yesterday, today, and tomorrow so the logo design survives changing fashion. Originally, Apple designed its logo as a monochrome apple with a bite taken out of it to symbolize the acquisition of knowledge. With the advent of the Apple II and its advantage of displaying color, however, Apple added multi-colored bands to its logo.
A good logo must also copy well. In any business or organization, the use of a logo becomes ubiquitous - it is ever-present on buildings, letterhead, signs, products, promotional items, etc. A good logo will be as effective on a business card as it is on a billboard - small scale and large scale uses. Will the logo still be recognizable printed on the barrel of a ballpoint pen?
A logo identifies a business or organization so it would be counterproductive to change it because it did not wear well over time. Do you remember what we said about “branding” earlier in this article? Companies that have invested vast amounts of money, time, and effort to establish their “brand” do not change it frequently for a reason. Make sure your logo will be “timeless” for the same reason.
Finally, the last criteria for a good logo it is a logo you will be proud to use it. If your logo meets all the criteria listed above, it will be an effective logo and one that you and your organization will be proud to use.
Vukan Karadzic is the main logo designer at E Logo Design. See the best logos they did.
Personal branding is important to stand out from the crowd. Essentially branding is a function of public relations. And public relations is “relationships” with your “public”. So here’s some tips on how to Brand You … to Stand out and Shine.
* Do a personal audit to determine your values and vision, your future goals and strengths for you and your company. Defining who you are aligns with your deepest passions. A clue to discovering the feeling or emotion of who you are is to identify where you are and what you are doing that makes you truly happy. For me it’s swimming in the ocean, feeling the warmth of the sun, the colours of sunset and sunrise over the ocean, those feelings and colours help me to shine.
* What do people say about you, how do they perceive you? Pay attention to how others describe you when they introduce you and how they treat you. Are you described as fun loving, compassionate, professional or creative? Do these descriptions align with your values and what you stand for?
* What sets you apart from the crowd, what is your unique “shining” point? What achievements and accomplishments, dreams or desires reveal the emotional, inner side of you and how do you promote that side of you. Customers and clients want to feel they know and trust you enough to do business with you.
* Take a look at some of the outside factors that represent your personal brand, such as the company you work for or the company you keep. Who are your friends, alliances and partners? What networking groups do you belong to?
* Your business tools also say a lot: find one look or message that describes your business and stick with it. Use the same colour scheme, fonts and design throughout your marketing materials, business cards, letterhead and website. Pay attention to your email messages and voice mail messages.
* Your dress and appearance plays an important part in how others see you. Develop a picture file of looks you like that reflects your emotional side and uniqueness. Start to build a wardrobe showing your style but also appropriate for the work you do and image you’d like to project. Buy the best quality you can afford and make sure your clothing fits well.
* Little things like quality accessories also play a part in your personal packaging. Note quality leather shoes, bags, watch, jewellery and pen. Take care of personal appearance including grooming and appropriate hairstyle.
* Personal manner also plays a part in how others perceive you. Be aware of plus and minus personality traits such as self confidence level, your way of talking, manners and social skills.
* Your surroundings and environment project who you are also. You want your business to leave the right impression on your clients, customers, employees and all visitors. Does your desk, signage and place of business reflect an image of efficiency, quality, professionalism and hospitality? Does Brand You say your business is the best?
Sue Currie is a professional speaker and the director of Shine Communications Consultancy an executive development company. Sue’s strategies help boost your public profile and increase profits by enhancing your professional image and building brand visibility. Through her speaking and training programs on image and media, she helps you to grow your company’s major asset – You. Sue enjoys helping others to bring out their personal best and Shine. To learn more visit http://www.shinecomms.com.au
Deciding to move forward on a design and marketing project can be a big deal, but it doesn’t have to be. Beyond the emotional benefits of feeling more confident when promoting your business and looking more professional in front of prospects, brand recognition and a myriad of other benefits, let’s just take a look at the numbers.
For all of you number crunching, “Just bottom line it” business people out there, this bulletin will take a logical, methodical approach in helping you to decide whether to “Not go” or “go” on your next design project.
Step 1: Investments, Not Expenses
Smart business owners view design and marketing as opportunities to grow their business rather than drains that they just pour money down. Expenses, by nature are costs that you no longer expect to receive any benefit from. You should expect, not hope that your design and marketing project will yield a personal and a financial benefit to your company.
Quick Note: Now if you’ve had design and marketing projects created before and felt they weren’t worth the cost, I’d offer that the poor investment wasn’t in WHAT you did, rather WHO you invested in. Designers that aren’t experts in marketing, advertising and learning about your business are typically bad investments. To get the most out of your time and investment, you want to only work with business savvy designers who understand your business, goals, clients and competition.
Let’s assume you’re working with a terrific designer, and you’re interested in having a tri-fold brochure designed. Ask yourself, “What do I need to make back on this investment to break-even on my investment?”
Step 2: Let’s look at this example:
You will have design and printing costs = $1000
You will receive 800 units of marketing collateral at your disposal
From that marketing collateral you would expect at least 25 people to take action and buy from me (that’s just over 3%). As a business owner, you have to ask yourself, “How likely is it for me to achieve just a 3% response on my project?” “Am I likely to get just 3%?” If the answer is yes, let’s move on. If the answer is no, don’t do the project!
Let’s say your average sale is going to be $150.
Now do a few quick math calculations: Your breakeven point will be 7 people. ($1000 / 25 people)
Your Estimated Gross Revenue = Minimum # of people you expect to buy (just 3%) X Amount of average Sale
25 people X $150 average sale = $3750 Estimated gross revenue
Net Revenue is Gross - Expenses = $3750 - $1000 = $2750 Net Revenue (this is how much you made)
Your ROI, Return on Your Investment = 275%
You increased your money by 275%; was this a good project to invest in, you bet!
Step 3: The Odds and Ends You Want to Get Clear On
Beyond the ROI example, there are a few other questions you want to run through in deciding to “Go” or “Not go” on a project. These are quick, terrific tools that will help you be more decisive and more confident in those decisions.
If I do this design project, what’s the likelihood I will be able to attract more customers? What will these customers mean in terms of dollars and cents?
What will happen if I don’t do anything? Will I expect sales to go up or down if I don’t do anything?
What might it cost me in sales if I don’t do anything? Am I happy with the rate this company is growing? Do I need to take steps in order to make it grow? What do I plan to do that’s going to make something happen?
Do I feel like I am losing out in sales and market share because I am getting lost in a crowd of competitors?
If I had a strong brand and professional marketing collateral, would that allow me to not compete so fiercely on price? Would that allow me to actually charge what my products and services are worth?
Granted, I’ve oversimplified the decision here in the interest of time, but the decision to “go” or “not go” isn’t nearly as difficult as business people make it. What’s the likelihood that you’ll make back your investment? And what will happen to your company if you decide to do nothing? If you decide to ignore all of the intangible benefits from your project and just look at the ROI, you’ll be able to make quicker and more decisive decisions about your projects in the future. Let me know if this has been helpful, email me and let me know what you think.
About Jeremy:
I help small businesses build more confidence and credibility into their business brand. Through marketing and design initiatives; I help you feel better about your company. Making you feel good about your business gives you more confidence and less anxiety when you are networking, promoting or selling your business. If your business needs the reliability and talent of an in-house marketing and design department but doesn’t want additional employees, salaries and benefits, give me a call at 480.391.0704 - I have a new approach for you.
If you are looking for more free insight and inspiration, you’ll want to get in on the “Can-Do Confidence Builder”. Emailed weekly, the Confidence Builder provides you with essential marketing and design insights that help you get the most out of your investment and help you to stay one step ahead of the competition. Email me at comments@candographics.com and asked to be added to our list or visit http://www.candographics.com.
Remember That Brand? Well It’s Back! One would have to travel to the back woods of the Appalachians or perhaps to the cave dwellings in the Southwestern canyons to find anyone who has not heard of Viagra. Viagra, the market-leader of male erectile dysfunction prescription drugs, continues to occupy valuable space in the mind of the male consumer. What is so enchanting about an erectile dysfunction pill? How does Viagra have such appeal when it is the focus of late night comedy and radio morning shows? As consumers we seldom question a successful product. (Or maybe we just would rather not have to address or explain male erectile disorder more than we have to).
The consumer is exposed to a pill with a split personality. Viagra lives a double life:
one of in-your-face comedy and one of universal solution. Despite the advertising
that continually tests our comfort elasticity, Viagra’s brand works harder than any
other “miracle drug” to be accepted by the tempestuously self-conscious male
population. Viagra’s branding adheres and accommodates to the male population as
a whole, not only to males with sexual difficulties. Viagra evaluates precepts
regarding acceptance and community before considering the shock thresholds of
consumers in general.
No one was prepared for the introduction of male erectile dysfunction pills into the
mass market. No one anticipated the chain-reaction commercials of multiple
brands, all of which utilizing paradoxical humor to attract attention. Even
consumers desensitized to long lists of side-effects had to turn their heads at the
possibility of a “four hour erection.” That kind of threat stops the music and eye
contact among the group of people in the room is avoided like the plague until the
“funny guy” severs the tension by making a crass comment about a baseball bat.
The Viagra brand applauds him.
Viagra, the pioneer pill for erectile dysfunction, assumed an initially subtle
brandface of advice, information, and medical concern. This initial brand messaging
tossed Viagra into the big black cauldron with Claritin, Lipitor, and other drugs. The
brand was not reaching out to the male population effectively and subsequently had
to consider how men think, feel, and most importantly, what they believe to be true.
What do advertising agencies and mass media companies do best? Raise the stakes
and provide entertainment, which are characteristically male standards. Viagra had
to exude coolness. Viagra had to force the brand into the public eye, and the best
solution was laughter. Consequently, Viagra’s logo was slapped onto the hood of
Mark Martin’s number six car, spokesman Bob Dole’s stiff posture took on a whole
new meaning, and professional baseball star Rapheal Palmero of the Baltimore
Orioles assured men that it was okay to be batting a little below average. With
slogans like “Remember that guy? Well, he’s back!” Viagra took the market by storm
and made erectile dysfunction look as “hip” as possible. In turn, Viagra became the
laughing stock of the drug market. Afflicted males enthusiastically bought into the
brand, embarrassed as ever.
Cialis, Levitra, and a few others surfaced, invading the market with imitations. Cialis
and Levitra soon became the Miller and Coors of male erectile dysfunction,
producing the same, if not more over-the-top messages in order to compete.
Levitra featured Mike Ditka coaching affected men to “stay in the game to come out
champions.” Levitra also launched an attack from the female perspective. During
halftime the consumer would see a highly attractive woman on the screen reveal
how her man can last longer than the Energizer Bunny. Levitra pulled out all the
stops to compete with Viagra, and they were not alone. Cialis, the brand that
suggests, “He will never know when a moment will become the right moment,” took
up arms. After all a man never knows when his soldier will be called to duty.
Viagra is consistently in the consumers considered set for prescription drugs, and
more importantly, Viagra has secured a positive space as “the solution” in the minds
of all men. The male ego does not allow men to admit disability to anyone,
including himself. Viagra’s brand targets precepts of acceptance and community in
a seemingly unorthodox manner, making jokes, providing endless comedic material.
Viagra breaks consumers with its initial shock value and quickly proves to be a
catalyst, lowering the anxiety of men wanting help.
A man is more likely to go into a physician’s office and request a prescription for
Viagra than he is to ask for a solution for his erectile dysfunction. He is also more
likely to ask for Viagra than to seek information for himself on the Internet or in a
magazine. Perhaps Viagra provides security in the way that it labels the solution as
opposed to describing the problem. Men with erectile dysfunction want to feel as
though they are suffering from something ordinary like arthritis. Everyone has it.
Everyone accepts it. Everyone gets help for it. The importance of “everyone,” even if
everyone is laughing at Viagra, is significant enough to raise the consumer
temperature.
Viagra’s commercials drops jaws, and erectile dysfunction is still taboo in our sex-
crazed society, but Viagra will go down in history as one of the most influential
drugs of all time because the brand succeeded in dropping anchor in the mind of
the male consumer. The acceptance of Viagra confirms that the precepts prevail as
miracle drugs for products of even the most self-conscious nature. The consumer
may gaze at the screen contemplating how much money Viagra pays its spokesmen,
but at least he knows that everyone is watching.
Molly Sunderdick
Brand Strategist
Stealing Share, Inc
Large corporations spend lavish amounts seeking names for
their products that grab a consumer, or convey positive
feelings. Book authors do the same. As do magazine writers.
So, say you are planning something that needs a name: your
new company, a speech, an article, your website, your email
address.
STOP! Stop, and think.
Don’t go with the first thing that hits you. Think about the
aim of this endeavor. What are you trying to convey to those
who will see or hear it?
Joe Black, for example, has been selling life insurance for
years, is now planning to incorporate, and needs a name for
his new company. He likes the ring of Consolidated Advisors
& Financial Associates Inc.—CAFAI for short.
Whoa, Joe!
What’s the aim of the name? Is it to impress people with a
long, unwieldy, impersonal, remote-sounding phrase? Or is it
to convey the same reliable, personal service that Joe Black
is already known for?
The answer is obvious, Joe. Incorporate under your own name.
Joe Black, Inc. has the benefits of continuity, credibility,
recognition, reliability, and stability—none of which
attach to CAFAI.
A speech is different. Speeches, and articles, need names
that grab people. Unless you’re a famous person, or talking
about a famous person, enterprise, or event, you need some
other way to attract their attention.
And all you’ve got to work with is the title. So look over
what you’ve written, and write down all the different titles
you can think of for your work.
As you look at each of them over, ask yourself if you’d go
to a talk with that title. If not, cross it out. Now try to
shorten the ones that are left. The fewer words the better.
Do any of them have a bit of mystery, or wit, or maybe an
interesting play on words?
Need some stimulus? Go to the library. Fiction. Mysteries.
Look over the titles. Which ones stir you to pull them out,
and scan a few pages? Why?
Can you see anything in their titles that you might use in
your speech or article title?
A speech or article is a transitory thing, so needn’t take
too much of your time. But you’ll be stuck with the name of
your company for quite a while, so devote much more time to
getting it right.
Your website, and email address are in between. Not as
temporary as a speech or article, but probably not as long-
lived as your corporation.
The aim of these names is to reinforce your company’s image,
and remind people of your business identity.
So Joe Black’s web site could be named joeblack.com, or, if
he wanted something wittier, BlackInk.com, and his email
address could be joe@blackink.com.
Joe, like most of us, has other interests than his business.
He’s a birdwatcher, and is planning an online newsletter and
website for others with this hobby who already know him.
A good name for his ezine could be Black Birds, and for his
website www.blackbirds.com, then his e-address for it could
be joe@blackbirds.com.
Sometimes you can’t make such an apt connection. For example,
when my ezine, which focuses on the marketing of financial
services, was created it needed a name. I liked the acronym
“TIP”. But what could name I expand it into?
Here’s a few that came to mind:
* The Insurance Practitioner * The Intelligent Planner * The Insightful Provider * The Interested Ponderer * The Insurance Professional * The Incorporated Practice, etc.
To say nothing of all the variations that can be rung by
switching the adjectives around.
See what I finally decided on at: http://www.eTIP.ca/
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Copyright 2005, Donald F. Pooley, Inc.
Don Pooley has shared his marketing know-how with audiences
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