This is a guest post by Alex Gavril.
We’re all familiar with brands – Pepsi, Apple, McDonald’s are some of the most familiar names in the world.
But what about your personal brand – how you come across to other people. Does it matter? Continue reading
This is a guest post by Martha Blue.
If you are starting your own business and are still pondering over what name to choose, you should spend some time on this important step. A catchy name can draw potential customers’ interest quicker than a ‘Free Beer’ sign outside a city centre bar on a Saturday night. Just as a poorly chosen brand name will ensure that your website or retail store never sees more than one visitor at a time, and that is usually you! Please have a read of this article if you need a little encouragement and advice regarding your new company’s name. Continue reading
This is a guest post written by Mathew Ronald.
When it comes to QR code marketing, one cannot place enough emphasis on the importance of location. Get it right and you will be able to draw in large number of people to scan your QR codes. However, get it wrong and you will find that people are not too keen on scanning your QR codes. Following are 4 locations where QR codes work best: Continue reading
Every company should have a USP. This is your Unique Selling Point and it’s what sets your services and products apart from everyone else. Even if you provide a great service but it is no different from anyone else’s , then it will be incredibly hard to market and incredibly hard to make yourself stand out – or even to be remembered for that matter. Continue reading
That phrase Dead Again comes from an article in the New York Times about the present status of printed books. As is mentioned, the same kind of language was being used 20 years ago. The latest news is that Amazon is selling more ebooks than printed books online in the UK so perhaps it is more serious this time around. Continue reading
This is a guest post by Nadine Ryan.
There is a lot in a name and choosing one is an important undertaking when you form a company. Some find it very easy to underestimate the power and effect of a name. They can be instrumental in the making or breaking of a company. The name may not alter your business model or how you work but it is still incredibly important. The name is the beginning of your brand image and it will be the first thing you say when telling others about your company. Continue reading
This is a guest post by Eliza Morgan.
Branding is a very precise process and is a very important aspect of marketing. It is also very difficult to perfect. Your company or product’s brand is critical to success. It is with this image and concept that your customers will recognize your product or service and judge whether it is right for them or not.
It is estimated that there are more than 6,000 wineries in the U.S., another 6,000 in Australia, and over 360 in Canada and each may produce 10 different wines or more. Add in Europe and South America and you clearly have a very, very crowded market-place. Even if you decide to purchase through your local wine store, the choice is formidable. The BC Liquor Stores Product Catalogue, for example, lists 3103 table wines. If you are one of those wineries, how can you try to ensure prospective customers hear about your wine.
Continue reading
Special needs children are associated with a large number of acronyms, both to describe their condition and to identify the different educational opportunities that are available.
One acronym you may not be familiar with is VTEA. That stands for Valley Therapeutic Equestrian Association. It provides therapeutic horseback riding or hippotherapy to children with special needs. Given the cost of such therapy, there is a constant search for additional funding so it is important that this charity be as visible as possible.
Those who are familiar with the work of VETA know well the extreme satisfaction that children with special needs have when involved in the VTEA program. In publicizing these programs, how can this ‘brand’ be best presented. Does the acronym work or is it better to spell out the full name, Valley Therapeutic Equestrian Association?
There are many examples of companies and organizations which have decided to downplay their full name and use an acronym in their marketing efforts. One of the most venerable is that for IBM, or International Business Machines as it was known even some fifty years ago. Having made the switch there has been no turning back and the acronym IBM is now the only company identification for many years.
IBM is not the only company that has ditched a longer name in place of a catchy acronym. Here are some others to test your acronym skills.
These are taken from a company acronym quiz, where you will find any answers you are not sure about. Why would so many companies go for acronyms?
Using an acronym provides much more marketing opportunity than just being a shorter way of identifying the company. Whereas a company name using words may suggest certain associations, the acronym is often almost a set of gibberish symbols. It brings with it no particular associations and the company can through time build up the associations that the acronym suggests to the average prospect or customer..
The other advantage of an acronym, is that it may well be possible to buy the associated domain. The traditional company name may present all kinds of problems in choosing which domain would be appropriate. In many cases the company name is so long that it would produce a very inconvenient domain name for visitors who wish to type in the URL address.
Perhaps the best example of this acronym approach is IKEA.
What does IKEA stand for? It is not an acronym derived from some long forgotten complex company name. In fact it stands for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd. Ingvar Kamprad was the IKEA founder and he was brought up on a small farm called Elmtaryd close to the small village of Agunnaryd in Sweden. As you might imagine, IKEA has the various domains associated with that name and this ensures anyone can find the website in any country very rapidly.
Over the years the company has developed a very clear image so that anyone seeing the acronym knows immediately what is on offer.
Valley Therapeutic Equestrian Association could well use the full name in its publicity, but the VTEA acronym is much more powerful since the associated domain, vtea.ca, does belong to the organization. The full name may not be clear to some people since it does not highlight that the service is designed largely for children with special needs.
The advantage of the acronym is that with a little effort it can become the simplest way that people refer to this therapeutic riding service. It can also appear relatively quickly as the top ranking in a search for its name. For that reason, you can expect to be seeing a lot more of the acronym VTEA in the months to come.
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It seems only yesterday that Alberta decided that it would no longer be Wild Rose Country. It has been touting the Alberta Advantage for almost 15 years.
The above web page as of today notes that Alberta has a Tax Advantage, being the first debt-free province in Canada. It also has a bundle of other advantages:
So why drop the Alberta Advantage slogan. It apparently has some negative connotations. Perhaps it is because advantages are often there to be exploited. Exploitation is certainly a word that has only negative vibes.
Trying to think up a brand for a province is not easy. After all, the ideal brand instantly conjures up in the mind of your prospect some promise, some ideal solution to needs they may have. For a whole province, that is a pretty tall order. Only a few provinces have attempted it.
As of today, Alberta has a new corporate message and ad campaign.
In a soft launch at the end of the annual spring convention of the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties in Edmonton, a video featured sweeping images of the Rockies and the Badlands, along with the new, corporate message.
They are certainly putting some Big bucks behind this new Alberta brand.
Out is the 15-year-old motto: “Alberta Advantage”. In is the more generic and blah: “Freedom to Create. Spirit to Achieve”. Municipal politicians on Wednesday got a sneak peek at Alberta’ new slogan and logo, which will cost the province $25-million over three years.
It is none too soon according to Don Braid: who suggests that the Branding iron is heating up in the nick of time. The hope is that the New brand will counteract the image of ‘dirty oil’.
The province will be working with industry, educational institutions and various organizations, including municipal politicians, to spread “the good news about Albertans.” The goal is to attract more tourism and more investment to the province.
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