Small Business Branding: What’s Your Budget? A small business branding budget can sometimes be difficult to identify, so there is a simple question that I typically ask when beginning client engagements: “What’s your budget?” It’s a question that helps me better understand where that business is at and what kind of resources are available to help it…
We’ve all seen the above sticker on the back of a pickup somewhere. The offending logo can be Chevy or Ford or some other random brand. Besides the blatant copyright violation of the beloved Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, the message is pretty clear: “I hate this brand. I hate it so much that I’m…
One of the fascinating brand battles being hashed out over the last few years is between the three major “shave clubs.” I am not here to debate the quality or value of each product — although I just wasted a good amount of time researching the build quality, source of manufacturing, and customer reviews for each…
I received this email in my inbox a while back. Somehow the email made it through my spam filters, probably because the sender sent it through Mailchimp and hasn’t been blacklisted (yet). I opened it because I’m a musician and an audio geek and was curious to see what exactly Wicked Audio does. Bad Email Marketing Strategy:…
I’m a big fan of a certain restaurant that shall remain nameless to protect the guilty. Over the years, I ended up on one of their email lists. For a while, their email outreach was the poster child for what not to do. They’d send generic messages, with no incentive, no call to action, no real purpose. Finally, I received an…
Remember that slogan, “Is it live or is it Memorex?” No? Check out this awesome commercial – complete with Ella Fitzgerald, Chuck Mangione and his “Feels So Good” flugelhorn. Priceless. It was this article about making music on the iPad that sent me spiraling off on the above tangent. The premise is that with the…