TopStax - Marketing | Branding | Design

LoopFuse for the Masses

2010-06-30T14:21:00.000-07:00

Very pleased to see that Marketing Automation Service provider, LoopFuse, is now offering their services for free to small and medium business owners. As anyone who has tried to start a business can tell you, lead generation is hugely important.

LoopFuse zaps the cost barrier, while allowing full use of the service up to 2500 prospects. Great idea - form a partnership with a growing organization, and when they get to having a positive revenue stream, they will likely keep ya.

http://www.loopfuse.com/pricing.php

How to destroy a brand to save a few pennies - NBC

2010-01-12T14:24:00.001-08:00

I have been following the troubles with NBC's "experiment" with having Jay Leno at 10PM M-Thu nights. When it was first announced, I thought "this is a bad idea", because they were essentially throwing in the towel for 10PM scripted entertainment. Also, for the record, I personally don't think Jay Leno is funny, and think that David Letterman should have taken over for Johnny Carson.

At the time, NBC was trumpeting how much money they would be able to make, as it is far less money to produce a one hour talk show than it is to produce a scripted drama.

Of course, a scripted drama, particularly those with large ensemble casts like "ER" and "24" cost money to produce. But they also produce what can be called "appointment viewing". If you miss an hour of a long-form story arc, it is like missing a chapter in a book. But if you miss Jay's lame topical jokes about the weather and his typical sycophantic interviews - big whoop - you don't feel like you've missed a thing the next time you tune in.

So, with low ratings, and the NBC affiliates lamenting the poor lead in to their 11PM newscasts, NBC said on Sunday that they wanted to move Jay back to 11:30, thus pushing the Conan O'Brien hosted "Tonight Show" to 12:05AM. Conan, rightly, has called "bull" on that notion. The "Tonight Show" has been at 11:30 since before I was born, and it is a key part of the NBC brand. To toss that away due to a mistake is foolish on NBC's part, and Mr. O'Brien is quite correct to stand his ground. The mistake wasn't his, and he, nor his fans should have to adjust - Leno or not.

Television programs get canceled due to bad ratings - it happens. The fact that Leno didn't work at 10PM isn't O'Brien's fault. It is the fault of NBC for not thinking this through. They should have the intestinal fortitude to tell Leno, "Sorry it didn't work", and pay him whatever out clause is in his contract and be done with it. But to tarnish the "Tonight Show" is another bone-headed move.

Way to trash the brand, NBC.

Social Media meets Google Relevance

2009-12-30T08:17:00.000-08:00

One of the issues naysayers used to cling to when talking about the "business value" of social media was that it was difficult to track the effectiveness of a campaign. Time for the naysayers to become "yaysayers", as Google has introduced real-time search with pulls live updates from social sites like Twitter and Facebook and places them next to traditional search results.

This will go a long way towards legitimizing the need for social media as a part of your marketing mix. Yes, we said "part of" your mix. You're can't dump your blogs, PR, and advertising, but leveraging social media as a component of your efforts will "biggie-size" those efforts. With Twitter, as an example, you're limited to 140 characters, so you're not going to be able to convey the depth that you can in a blog post or in a press release.

However, you can Tweet and link to a blog or a release, and gain traction that way.

Social Media isn't a panacea, but to ignore it is to ignore a crucial messaging platform. If you need help to develop the best strategies to leverage these new functions, or have other marketing needs, TopStax is here to help.

Communications matter

2009-12-28T09:00:00.000-08:00

A little while ago we received an email that read, "sir.i.am.interest.your.projects.thunks". That was it. No mention of what kind of project, no way to contact the sender directly, and it came from a Hotmail account.

Sure, it was probably spam, but it reminds us that clear, effective, communications are losing out to cryptic "textisms" like "ROTFLMAO" or "LOL" and the like. While we'll not attempt to stop people from sending texts like that, we will suggest that if you are using a computer to communicate that you take the time to send a clear message.

That means full words, proper punctuation, and what the heck, if you want someone to get back in touch with you, perhaps some contact information!

The point is this - if your first exposure to someone is a poorly worded, typographically challenged email, you may be inclined to skip that and move on to another opportunity. It absolutely impacts how your personal brand is perceived, and if you're communicating on behalf of a company, that impact the company's brand as well.

Why messaging matters

2009-09-21T11:58:00.000-07:00

So I was checking to see if certain URLs were open, and I came across this on the home page of what I assume is a well-intentioned organization's website.

The Development in any context is empowerment and enrichment. The empowerment is making the people to realize their full capacities, estimating their potentials and putting up their bargain with service providers for just and equitable distribution of resource, wealth and needy services, The vision of the Priyadarsini Service Organization is service provide and the target communities are brought to the transaction stage.

I have no idea what they do - but I assume their hearts are in the right place.

Still, a clearer message that better describes what they do would likely generate additional interest and fund raising as people learned what it is that they actually do.

Your brand is impacted as much by communications as any other brand element. If you can't communicate effectively with your target and partners, find someone who can. Invest in real marketing professionals either internally or via a vendor - but don't wing it and think it won't hurt your brand.

Hey Microsoft - Can you be any more confusing?

2009-07-31T12:14:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has clearly learned no lesson in terms of making its Windows 7 upgrade strategy clear to users of its operating systems. Just like with the launch of Vista, there are various flavors of Windows and various prices based upon what version you are upgrading from, and where you want to end up.

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/07/31/windows-anytime-upgrade-and-family-pack-pricing.aspx

So, let's say you buy a new machine with the "Starter" version installed, but you want to move up to "Home Premium" - that will set you back about $80. If you want to move from "Home Premium" to "Window 7 Professional", tack on another $90. You want to go from "Home Premium" to the "Ultimate" edition? That's $140.

But, what if you want to go from Starter to Ultimate in one move? Shake that magic 8-ball again - "Answer Unclear".

Another item of seemingly decent good news is that they will offer a "Windows 7 Family Pack" which is "Windows 7 Home Premium" that you can install on three PCs in your home. That goes for $150, which seems like a decent deal if you have three machines. But I sense a dark cloud with this silver lining:

Today, most homes have more than one PC in them. When you run Windows 7 on more than one PC on a home network, you can do more with features like HomeGroup. HomeGroup allows people to connect to PCs on their network and share files, music and photos with the whole family – easily. The Windows 7 Family Pack is an easy and affordable way to get all your PCs in your household running Windows 7 through licensing to install Windows 7 Home Premium on up to 3 PCs.

The Windows 7 Family Pack will be available starting on October 22nd until supplies last here in the US and other select markets. In the US, the price for the Windows 7 Family Pack will be $149.99 for 3 Windows 7 Home Premium licenses. That’s a savings of more than $200 for three licenses. This is a great value and we’re excited to be able to offer it to customers.

While supplies last? Uh, what? Isn't it possible to, I dunno, MAKE MORE WHEN SUPPLIES DWINDLE?

This isn't rocket science, Microsoft - make your intentions clear and easy to comprehend to the layman, and you'll be okay. But all of these skus, options, limitations and the like strike me as a brilliant way to diminish your brand.

This would be like McDonalds saying "Our French Fries are $1.00. If you want to upgrade to cooked fries, that will be an extra $.49. If you want salted fries, that will be another $.19. However, we're offing value pack of cooked, salted fries to be shared by three people for $1.99. But only until Tuesday."

You know why they don't do that? Because they know that would be too confusing, it would annoy their customers and in the end, it would diminish their brand. You'd think Microsoft would have figured this out by now.

My worst client... is staring at me from the mirror...

2009-07-27T15:28:00.000-07:00

They say that those who choose to represent themselves in a court of law end up having a fool for a client. While don't want to go too far with that metaphor, I have found that I always put TopStax marketing needs at the bottom of the list after working on client needs, doing research, business development and, well, I can have a fairly long list by the time I'm done...

So, with no pressing client work facing me these past two weeks, I finally made myself focus on the topstax.com web site and facebook page.

I had grown weary of the slow-to-load flash animation which had been on my home page, and needed a refresh. I wanted to be able to quickly highlight what I can do, but I also wanted to tie it into my brand, which is essentially "Marketing Rocket Science". I had comped a number of different concepts, but nothing was really hitting the mark. And then, history struck!

The 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission gave me the creative spark I needed to focus on what should have been an obvious solution. But, like any business owner, sometimes you're too close to the problem to see the solution.

So, take a gander at the home page, www.topstax.com, and let me know what you think. Also you may want to look at my updated page of The Biggest Branding Mistakes - What to Avoid to help you side step some common issues that can trip up a company. I hope that you gain some value there.

Branding Matters

2009-06-23T07:05:00.000-07:00

An interesting read in today's Atlanta Journal and Constitution. Henry Unger, a business columnist, talked with Turner Entertainment Network's Steve Koonin about branding TNT and TBS. No matter what your business, it is worth a read - call it "Branding 101!"

Got No Idea?

2009-06-17T16:02:00.000-07:00

This is a bit of a vent, but as a marketing professional I grow very weary of those who essentially take someone's idea and use it for their own. I know, I know, it takes money and effort to develop marketing concepts, but that is no excuse to steal another person's concept.

The gist of this is, if your marketing campaign is all about using a variation on "Got ______?", you're only making people think about the original "Got Milk" campaign. You're not helping your business or stating any value proposition other than to say, "I have no ideas, and now you know that too."

To their credit, the "Got Milk" people have taken this in stride, and haven't sued anyone - after all, it doesn't negatively impact their campaign, but it smacks of plagiarism and a lack of originality, just the same.

Branding Baseball

2009-03-24T10:59:00.001-07:00

I love what the Atlanta Braves have done with this year's season ticket design. Clearly the concept is simple, but in execution, it is a thing of beauty. Given the down economy, it would have been easy for the team to rationalize a lesser look at a lesser cost (you know the Topps company had to get paid for their creative). Instead, they went for a nostalgic look which takes me back to my baseball card collecting days in elementary school. A very nice job by the Braves to brand the experience before the games have begun.