When Fake Becomes Real

March 30th, 2008 by John Herman, under branding, internet marketing, viral marketing. No Comments

Idiocracy … a great Mike Judge dark comedy marketing, commercialism, and cultural anti-intellectualism, has just spawned a real product. (I am still holding back my belief a bit.)

The fake energy drink from the movie appears to be a real product now with real campus tours. Here are some fun spots they created:

Next step … the Daily Show creating real candidates.

Business Builders Talk Radio is Here

January 15th, 2008 by John Herman, under Succeeding Steps, branding, marketing, operations, planning. No Comments

We have teamed up with Jennifer Gniadecki from Marketing Curve to create a great new Talk Radio Show on Blog Talk Radio.

We will be covering ways to Build your Business. Click here to check out our website for the show and listen to past episodes. We will be on and taking your calls every Sunday at 5 pm EST. Drop us a line if there is a topic you want us to cover.

The Twelve Pack and Some Friends Guide to Naming your Business

March 1st, 2007 by John Herman, under branding, business names, small business. No Comments

In a recent article at Vitamin, the steps to generating a good company name were laid out.

Amazingly enough, one of the steps was NOT “get a twelve pack and some friends”

There’s a good reason why, too.

People spend far too much time trying to figure out a new business name by thinking “wow, that sounds good” when they haven’t done any research on who is going to be reading the name.

Are you a niche business owner looking for a good name?

If you are, you have to realize it’s going to take time, a whole lotta work, and more than a little patience as well. From how many syllables, to ease of being understood by others, the effort you put into your business name may be the “make or break” for your company.

Just as you would never name your child “Lemonade”, you should consider a professional “Naming Team” to come up with your company name. It’s something far too important to just come up with on a cocktail napkin at three in the morning in between karaoke rounds. Sadly, I know someone who actually came up with a company name in just that scenario. Don’t worry, you’ve never heard of that company, because it tanked very quickly.

Naming your company is so important that large companies will spend millions of dollars to come up with a name that resonates with the community as well as making it memorable. You, as a small business owner, don’t have millions of dollars so you need to make every dollar count.

Sure, good help isn’t cheap, but don’t let your company’s new name be the biggest, costliest mistake you’ve ever made!

You Should Give a CRAP about Design

December 13th, 2006 by John Herman, under branding, design, small business. No Comments

Thinking about designing your own marketing materials? Don’t have any design experience. Well, that’s okay; you can still do a good job. Just make sure you have your CRAP together. Yep, I said CRAP. That’s the acronym designer Robin Williams coined in her book The Non-Designers Design Book. By following her guidelines, many novice designers are able to create some pretty decent marketing pieces.
Here’s the scoop on CRAP (no pun intended):

• C stands for Contrast
  Elements that aren’t the same should be very different so they stand out. Making them “slightly different” confuses the reader into seeing a relation that doesn’t exist. Strong contrast between page elements allows the user’s eye to flow from one to another down the page creating a dynamic and interesting piece.
• R stands for Repetition
  Repeat styles down the page for a cohesive feel. If you style related elements the same way in one area continue that trend for consistency in other areas.
• A stands for Alignment
  Everything on the page needs to be visually connected to something else, nothing should be out of place or distinct from the other design elements.
• P stands for Proximity
  Elements that are related should be grouped together and separate design elements should have enough space in between to communicate they are different.

There are other elements to be considered, but this CRAP will certainly get you started. Check out blogs for designers and visit your local library for more books and ideas on design. It doesn’t have to be expensive and it doesn’t have to be complicated. Even amateur designers can create some pretty impressive work by following a few basic steps and principles. Keep checking our blog for more information to help you succeed as you take steps to build your business. Also, for more information about CRAP check out http://www.thinkvitamin.com/features/design/how-crap-is-your-site-design.