Blog/Articles

I read an article tonight on HBR’s website that went into some fantastic detail about Groupon’s financial stability. (Read: Groupon Doomed…) Or the lack of.  I have had some feelings about Groupon for some months now, and as much as I hate to admit it, as much as I would like for Groupon to be a good idea. It isn’t.

I reached a point (very quickly) where I could no longer pose Groupon as a viable part of any strategy to ‘get the word out’ for my clients. The metrics of how Groupon works does not make sense for any business hoping to make a profit. MAYBE as a ‘Hail Mary’ pass, last ditch effort, or any other relative cliché. Maybe. It could be the ‘final nail in the coffin’ – OK, I promise, I’ll try to make that the last one… I will try not to digress any further.

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COSE’s Social Media Leaps resource asked me to put together a webinar discussing Location Based Marketing.

This is a basic introduction to Location Based Marketing services such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp!, etc.  A general overview that helps communicate the some how-to, and  the importance of your local business participating in this social media arena. more »

The Foursquare (FSQ) phenomenon is here. Matter of fact, I was recently asked to put together a webinar based on the phenomenon, that unfortunately – no one showed up for. Yes, embarrassing, but not altogether surprising.

First, it’s important to advertise such an event as much as you can. Second, some are underestimating the power of the check-in. more »

It’s hard not to notice the popularity of Facebook, Twitter and other social media gathering spots. In each and every one of those places, brands are being discussed, passionately. Love or hate, real people are talking about recent experiences with brands large and small.

It could be how much they love a product they purchased, how great (or not so great) a recent meal was at a restaurant they went to with their friends. If they had a bad customer service experience, or how much they loved their waiter/waitress.

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Messaging plays a very important role, it’s the the glue that holds your brand together. This is where you state your benefits, claims, promises, and your mission. Sure your visual brand convinces them (hopefully!) that you are a quality brand that they want to partner with, but your messaging tells them if you are providing the services they need. This is where they find out if you are a good fit.

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When you think about one of your favorite brands, you almost instantly get a mental picture (and that gut feeling we talked about here) of that brand. With the big hitters it’s easy; Target, Starbucks, WalMart have spent countless dollars on making sure that when you see a communication vehicle with their name on it – you know instantly who is trying to get your attention. more »

Branding, you may know what it is. Even scarier, you might think you know what it is, and you are wrong.

According to The Brand Gap, which I highly recommend reading, your brand is the gut feeling your customers have when they think about you. It’s not (only) your logo, corporate color scheme, the photography and copy you use in your brochures and website. Your logo (or mark), and other assets are very important pieces of the puzzle when it comes to your branding strategy, but we will get into that more another time.
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