Creating a product is one thing, but getting people to buy it is another. That is why marketing and ad campaigns are so important. Think about all the stupid commercials you see on TV that sometimes leave you with thinking “They really couldn’t have come up with something better?” Well, HTC has launched a new ad campaign that has grabbed some attention. It is strictly for their brand of phones called One. They have only released three smart phones under this brand in order to fine tune their capabilities such as a better camera.
The ads show people using the phones in every day situations as well as some exciting activities like sky diving and underwater. The commercial (which you can watch above) focuses on the idea that no one person is exactly like everyone else and that each one of us has something special to offer. HTC is taking a smart approach by catering to the differences of individuals and stating that they are one company that actually listens. They want people to get involved by sharing their experiences and capturing them with their HTC phones.
The UK marketing team for HTC have some creative ideas as well. One example is to install a touchscreen in a movie theater lobby and ask customers to submit their recommendations that could then be featured in the trailers before the movie they are about to watch. They also want to put a wind tunnel in a central London location for people to try and capture it on their phone.
HTC is trying to bounce back and compete with the popular Apple which recently released its new iPhone 4S. I think their campaign is a pretty good one, but only time will tell if it can compete with the rest. Coming up with creative ideas for your marketing efforts can be tough, but if you are able to attract a lot of attention there is no telling what you can accomplish.
Staying focused at work can be difficult and sometimes we need a little something to get us motivated. The key thing is to set goals and constantly remind ourselves of the goals we wish to achieve. But how does that happen exactly? Here are a few tips that may help.
1.Notice what takes up most of your time and make a list of what you need to stop doing. For example, maybe you check your personal social media page five times throughout the workday, yet you only check your business page once. Notice the little things that add up throughout the day that you could try cutting down on or cut out completely.
2. Divide your time up carefully. Decide what areas your business needs to work on and start fixing them. If you are spending half the day checking e-mails, it may be time to allocate some of that time for more important things. Try to understand why it would take you so long to go through your e-mails and come up with a more efficient process.
3. Thank your customers. Your customers don’t need to be your best friend, but it is a plus to build a connection with them. Pick a few customers and reach out to them whether it be an e-mail, letter, or phone call. Taking the time to personally thank them for their business reflects that you care and will encourage them to stay loyal to your company. Just be careful not to go overboard.
4.Upload a company video once or twice a week. It only needs to be a few minutes or so just to talk with your community. You could film upcoming projects, new products, behind the scenes, or interesting information people don’t know about your company. You can upload the videos on your blog, social media pages, or a specific page on your website.
5.Reply to at least ten people a day. This can be an e-mail, letter, comment, tweet, anything like that. It should go without saying that important e-mails should be responded to immediately, but outside of that take time to talk with people that are trying to connect with your business. It can be overwhelming to respond to everyone on Twitter and Facebook, but if you reply to a handful each day, it will definitely help out your business
Now that you have made some goals for your business day, here are some tools you can use to keep track of them.
Here are a few websites that can help you make a digital list.
Listhings.com: This website uses digital sticky notes
Wunderlist.com: This allows you to lists tasks not only for yourself, but for others.
Evernote.com: This allows you to share ideas and will sync to your phone, tablet or computer.
Actionemethod.com: This helps you break down tasks into simpler steps.
All of these websites do similar things, so take a look at each one to see which one fits you best. If you want to read the original article, you can find it at Entrepreneur.com.
This video from Ted Talks discusses the restrictions put on content and how it limits creativity. Lessig starts off by telling three stories that centralize around a similar argument. One of the examples is about the invention of airplanes and how it posed the threat of “trespassers” on people’s property. The law that applies to land and personal property is that if an intruder sets foot on your property without permission, they are considered a trespasser. Lessig explained that common sense tells you it would be ludicrous to apply this law to planes. If we needed to get permission from each individual in order to fly over their land that would be quite ridiculous. It just doesn’t make sense.
The same idea applies to the Internet. Sometimes piracy laws and strict regulations begin to interfere with the creative process and just don’t seem to be rational. For example, if you go on YouTube there are many videos made by individuals who haven’t originally created the content, but have redone older videos. It may be seen as stealing, but common sense tells you it is merely recreating content, not stealing the exact idea and portraying it as their own. All these piracy laws may have good intentions, but it limits the creativeness this generation could have.
Lessig talks about the read/write culture and how years ago we lived in a write only culture. Early on, around the Renaissance era, new ideas were evolving rapidly. As time went on we became a read only culture and nothing new was being created. And now the Internet has the potential to restore the read/write culture with all the content that can be accessed with a click of a button. People are not only able to access tons of information quickly, but are also generating new ideas just as fast.
This article made me wonder what we could be doing as a business to attract more customers. Video can be a powerful tool and if a business recreates a popular video, it could be a great way to gain exposure. Have you seen any videos businesses have posted on YouTube or Facebook that have sparked your interest?
Google is a powerful company and most people use Google to search for anything and everything on the internet. So when I hear that France is having issues with Google and their new privacy policy enacted this year, that could lead to some problems. The France regulators are questioning whether or not Google’s privacy policy complies with the data protection laws of France. Google stands by their policy stating that it respects the French’s protection laws. But it is not only France who has issues with this policy, Brazil is now questioning how Google uses personal data. All of these conflicts may not be close to home, but they still make a difference and could affect business done in the United States.
Think about what these problems mean for us. If France and Brazil make enough of a stir, Google may be forced to change their policy. This policy will be in effect for all of the world, not just those particular countries. So what is the big uproar all about? Well, people are questioning what Google is doing with personal information and how it could be shared with others. So to understand what the policy entails, we have outlined the changes below.
1. Google now integrates your information from your profile, e-mail, and YouTube videos. That means if someone knows your e-mail address they may be able to see your picture or name from your profile. 2. Advertising is now centered around your preferences and tailored to each individual based on the information Google gathers about you. 3. Your information may be shared with Google’s advertisers or connected sites, but Google states that no personal information will be given out and it is all anonymous only used to analyze trends. 4. Your information will be stored in order to keep track of bugs and to further analyze user activity.
There are many ways you could interpret these changes, but the main thing to understand is that your privacy may be compromised. Most people don’t take the time to read over the privacy policies, but keep in mind that whatever you put on the internet is out there for the world to see. My advice would be to post wisely.
Small businesses may think that larger corporations have it all. They have enough money to spend on countless advertising campaigns, a well-known brand and experience to back it all up. Even though this may be true, big businesses may be able to learn a thing or two from these mom-and-pop shops. Just think about it, small business owners have less money to spend and therefore they use it carefully to make sure they get the best results for every dollar put out. Staying afloat may be harder for a small business than a larger one, but there are a few things they do that may prove to be more beneficial.
Grassroots Marketing
Small companies may not have clever TV commercials and huge billboards, but their marketing focuses more on face-to-face interaction. This may seem like a drawback at first, but it can be the very crucial thing that sets them apart. If people get to know you personally and hear your story, they will feel more connected to your brand. Bigger corporations probably don’t do this enough. Why would they take the time to go and meet people on an individual basis when they can just make a commercial and show it to everyone at once? Well, the problem is people don’t connect with these general marketing techniques the way they do with an actual person.
Going the Extra Mile
A personal touch really does go a long way. I’ve purchased from small companies many times before and on multiple occasions they include small gifts or a little extra something. When you buy a product from a big company, let’s say a t-shirt online from Old Navy, what you see is what you get. Many times I prefer to purchase from these smaller brands that go the extra mile to make their customers happy.
Social Media
Small businesses are also a little more personal on their social media pages. Large corporations are mainly focused on gaining more likes and followers and sometimes forget to connect with people on a personal level. Small companies want to have a lot of followers too, but most of their posts are written by the business owners themselves. They are more likely to care about what their business is doing than an employee hired by a large corporation.
The Vision Behind the Brand
Many people start their own business to pursue their passion and share it with the world. Once the business grows larger it sometimes loses its original focus and becomes a profit driven machine. But when small businesses stay small and tight knit, it is much easier to keep the passion alive. Customers love to see the passion that made you go into business in the first place is still alive and present. Money is an important thing, but it shouldn’t be our number one reason for doing business.
Corporations may be on top for the most part, but it is good to see that small businesses can still stand out. If you want to read more about this you can check out the Inc.com article.
Technology changes so fast it can sometimes be hard to keep up. The newest thing now is “touchless” technology. You may be familiar with the Kinect which is a game console where you don’t need a controller, instead a sensor tracks your body movements and you become the controller. Well, a similar idea is being used for smart phones and TVs. Instead of using a remote we may be able to change channels and increase volume by the swipe of our hand. This same interaction can then be used for computers and smart phones.
A recent article I read from physorg.com discusses realistic holograms. We have been able to create holograms before, but now new technology has been able to make these holograms in full color. There are still a few kinks that need to be taken out, but this new development is an amazing breakthrough.
Learning about new developments can give us insight into how business will change in the future. Marketing and the way we do business in general is always evolving. If these new holograms make their way into everyday life we could be using them to engage customers and uncover a whole new way to market. The same with touchless technology, any type of advancement will affect the way people live their lives which will then influence how we must reach out to them.
If you are interested in the details about how these full color holograms are created or more about the touchless technology you can read the full articles below.
Social Media may seem like a pretty straightforward thing, but there are many misconceptions about it.
1. Social Media is only for personal use and reconnecting with friends
Facebook is great for talking to friends and posting funny pictures, but it goes way beyond that. Businesses need to have a presence on Facebook as well as all other social media sites. The fact that people use these sites to socialize and share things with their friends is a great opportunity for businesses to step in. Commercials and Ads are starting to fade into the background so using social media is becoming a more effective form of advertisement. Posting on Facebook and Twitter makes it easier to connect with people and become more interactive than a TV advertisement would.
2. My business isn’t large enough for social media
It doesn’t matter how big or small your company is, you still need customers and you can find them through social media. In fact, smaller businesses can grow even larger once they take advantage of these social media outlets. Attend local events to market your company and spread the word about your Facebook and Twitter pages. Host a contest or a giveaway to lure people in and get them excited about your brand.
3. It takes too long to update
This can be true, but there are ways you can make it simpler. Come up with a routine that you follow each day. One thing you could do is to plan your content in advance. For example, you could plan a day that you write out a few days or even a week of content you will post in the future. Writing out ideas early can make the updating process run more smoothly.
4. No one really cares about what businesses post
This can be true if you only post sales pitches asking people to buy from you. Instead, add content that people will be interested in whether it’s relevant articles, pictures of your products, or anything you wish to share with your customers. Consider switching up the type of content you post to give people something new to see. If you posted a lot of pictures last week try finding some articles to post next. Having variety is what keeps people’s interest. The most important part is to always link it back to your business. Posting an article about watermelon when you own a grooming service may seem totally irrelevant, but if you have a new watermelon scented dog shampoo, you could definitely tie that in.
How have you used social media to connect with your audience? We’d love to hear some interesting ideas from you.
Apple is one of the most innovative companies today. It has become very well-known all over the world and businesses of all types are trying to recreate the success they have attained. There was a recent interview with Apple’s head designer, Johnathan Ive, explaining what principles he feels businesses should live by. He had some great points to offer which I’d like to expand upon.
The first principle was to do something well, not different. It is a simple idea, but a genius one. It is true that people are always looking for something different, but if you have a dozen unique products that don’t work, no one is going to want them. Another bad idea is to introduce products or services that have nothing to do with your business in order to branch out. There are many great examples of this including Harley Davidson perfume, Bic underwear, Frito-Lay lemonade, and Colgate kitchen entrees. All of those were actual products that failed since they were so disconnected to the brand. Take Colgate for example. They are a company known for selling toothpaste and one day decided to start making packaged meals. The public wasn’t interested in purchasing food from a toothpaste company, the two just don’t seem to mix too well together. Be sure to stay true to your brand, going outside of what your company stands for can be dangerous. Keep in mind that if you do not specialize in it, people are most likely not going to buy it.
In order to come up with ideas that people will want to buy into, you must be able to stay focused on your purpose. Don’t become too blinded by profits, your only goal should not be to strictly generate money. If people notice that all you care about is increasing your profit, they will easily become turned off by your brand. Aim to better your products, processes, customer assistance, marketing, and everything concerning your business and the profits will follow. Don’t try so hard to copy what other brands are doing, it may work for them, but if you want to be successful you must decide what is best for your specific business and target market.
Lastly, be patient and don’t rush creativity. Always remember that great things take time. If you take shortcuts and put in as little time as you can, it will show. It may be hard to slow things down, especially in such a fast-paced culture, but don’t hurry through the design process. If you pay close attention to details and plan things carefully to begin with, you can save money and prevent fatal mistakes.
If you’d like to read the entire interview you can check it out at inc.com.
I was walking through JCPenney’s one day and passed by the women’s department. There I saw a man sitting on the floor with his laptop while his wife was shopping for clothes. I had to laugh, but as funny as that was, it really does illustrate what this generation is becoming. Now you don’t see many people lugging their laptops into retail stores, but you do see a lot of people on their cell phones. And what are they all doing exactly? Well, anything from texting to playing games to surfing the internet. In fact, internet usage by way of mobile device has almost doubled in the last year, going from 4.3% to 8.5%. This may seem like old news, but it changes the way companies should do business. Think about how people hear about your product or service. If you have a website (and you definitely should if you own a business) you should make it a necessity to be sure your site is set up for mobile viewing.
Let’s say for instance you are out with your friends and someone mentions a great product they bought from a website. They then search for that website on their phone to show their friend. If that website isn’t compatible with mobile devices, that company would have missed an opportunity to gain a new customer. Don’t let that be your business. You may not sell products on your website, but no matter what type of business you have, it is crucial to make it accessible to everyone no matter what medium they use. You never know when someone will try to look you up or stumble across your website.
When it comes to mobile usage, people are using tons of apps to save time and organize their life. There seems to be an app for everything whether it be to organize your daily tasks or help you to lose weight. Businesses are even using them to simplify their work tasks. So if apps are so popular, why not create one for your business? People are going to be using their phones anyway, you might as well make it easier for them to do business with you. Now maybe you don’t know how to make one yourself, but hiring a programmer to create one for you may prove beneficial. If you think creating an app could help your business read this article from cbsnews about building an app.
Has your business gone mobile? If not, maybe it’s time to do so.
Designing your new package can be an exciting process, especially if you are a creative individual. There are endless possibilities when it comes to picking the colors, graphics and framework of the package. But sometimes this process isn’t totally up to you. That is what is happening now with tobacco companies and cigarettes. According to an article from MSNBC, the FDA requires tobacco companies to place warning labels on their packaging with very specific guidelines. They have also released gruesome pictures of body parts to be put onto cigarette boxes in order to show consumers what this product may do to you. Of course these companies are trying to fight back calling these pictures a violation of free speech and frightening to their customers.
This article brings up a great argument. It is important to be creative and strategic with your packaging design, but what happens when the government interferes with this process? This problem mainly arises with anything that will be ingested, like food products, medicine and vitamins, but it can affect any product that could potentially cause someone harm if used incorrectly. The FDA even regulates the packaging on something as simple as ice.
We have worked with many clients who sell food products and supplements. The client may tell us they want a clean simple look, but in the end we must always make sure to abide by any regulations that are in place. This can be a real hassle since you can never really create the full look of the package that you wish. In regards to the tobacco industry, putting a disgusting picture on cigarettes that covers 50% of the package not only hinders the creativity that goes into their packaging, but also prevents them from getting new customers. What if the government one day decided that all high-heeled shoes must have a tag attached to them with a picture of a misshapen foot explaining the dangers of wearing this type of shoe? These companies would probably not be too thrilled with that idea.
The main problem I see is that people pretty much already understand the consequences of smoking a cigarette or drinking too many beers, and adding a gross picture on the label is not going to stop these people from buying the products. What these regulations do end up doing is taking away the creative freedoms of the company and their rights to create their package the way they envision. I understand that the FDA is trying to protect the public with these mandatory warnings, but I feel that people are well aware of the risks given all the information we now have on the internet, magazines, health shows, and anti-drug commercials. It is always important to educate the public, but people must be able to make good choices for themselves and if they still decide to ruin their health, it is not anyone else’s fault but their own.
New regulations have recently been made for sunscreen labels. There are certain phrases, such as sweatproof, that are put onto sunscreen labels that are now being banned. Companies can no longer call their product “sunblock” as it will mislead consumers to overestimate the product’s effectiveness, it must now only be referred to as sunscreen. Companies are not allowed to claim SPF of more than 50 unless they can prove it provides more protection. The whole idea behind these rules is to ensure that people reapply their sunscreen periodically to prevent sunburn and cancer. If you want to read more about the sunscreen regulations, you can check out the full details here. This infographic from myhealthnewsdaily.com below summarizes the new guidelines.
Do you think the FDA should be able to regulate product packaging? How much is too much?
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