Branding Articles For Entrepreneurs & Small Business OwnersBrand Naming 101This process should come with a warning…“Don’t try this by yourself!” Question: How many new businesses have the company or product name sorted out, before they have figured their route to market, their target customer or their USP (unique sales points)? Answer: Far too many! The managing director is always totally convinced by it, they [...] Does Your Small Business Need A Blog?For any modern company to thrive in the current market, numerous avenues of development need to be explored. From establishing a clear brand identity to promoting this image across various platforms, today’s businesses must be adept in numerous fields. One area which has been surrounded by a great deal of hype is that of social [...] Top 5 Brand Logos and AnalysisWith Microsoft recently unveiling the first revamp of its brand logo in 25 years, many are left asking the question, “What actually defines an effective brand logo?” Demonstrating a meaningful message, staying appropriate to context, and boasting distinct design choices – these are just a few elements of some of the greatest brand logos in [...] 5 Tips to Optimize Your Company’s Facebook PageWith more than 200 social networking websites, Facebook still reigns supreme. Facebook boasts 900+ million monthly active users and 488 million monthly mobile Facebook users. Facebook is even available in more than 70 languages. Needless to say, there is a ton of brand awareness that can be had on this social networking site. All companies [...] Subway, Dairy Queen, Wendy’s, Five Guys & Chick-fil-A are the Top BrandsSubway, Dairy Queen, Wendy’s, Five Guys, and Chick-fil-A are the top choices of over 20,000 people who participated in the Harris Poll EquiTrend Study for the most familiar and best quality quick-service brands. About 1,500 brands were included in the survey, according to QSR. Mary Bouchard of Harris Interactive says, “The more these restaurants have [...] Doing Business As … Does Your Business Need a DBA?The DBA (Doing Business As) protects consumers from unscrupulous business owners. A sole proprietorship, general partnership, corporation or LLC (limited liability company) may file a DBA. Nellie Akalp at SmallBizTrends.com discussed the salient points of the DBA – who needs to file, why it should be filed, and when to file it. Requirements for filing [...] Fundraising Ideas That You Can Also Use To Increase ExposureMost, if not all legitimate businesses can always use additional exposure. There’s no doubt about that. If you’re offering products or services, you’d want people to be aware of your business and its offerings. This is why a lot of these businesses, big and small, spend a lot of money in order to increase their [...] 7 Ways Your Business Can Benefit from Exhibiting at a Trade ShowTrade shows and exhibitions are a great way of getting your brand out there to the people you really want to notice it. But you need to know what you want before you go in order to get the most out of exhibiting. It’s an expensive business after all. You’ve got travel costs, the cost [...] LinkedIn: Some Thoughts From a Long-Time UserThis past weekend I read a book excerpt in Fortune magazine entitled, The real way to build a social network. Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, co-authored The Start-Up of You, the book from which the excerpt was taken. What got my attention in the first place was the opening: “Forget Dale Carnegie. He understood [...] Going ViralNot that long ago I was sitting in a meeting with a client (a local college) and he told me he had some great news. “We just started a new class at the college and we videotaped the first class. The professor is fascinating, the subject is fascinating. We want you to take this video, [...] What Should Hiring a PR Firm Cost?After you’ve made the decision to retain the services of a PR firm, the hard part starts. How do you find the right firm? How do you know they will provide what you want and need? And perhaps most important, can your budget handle their cost requirements? It is first important to understand the billing [...] The Real Crisis With Crisis PROne of the fastest growing areas of the public relations business is crisis management, or crisis communications, or crisis PR, or issues management, depending on what you want to call it. Simply put, crisis PR is the art, and I do mean art, of helping a corporations, organization or individual manage their image when a [...] Crisis Communications in a Transparent WorldThe public relations business can be categorized in two parts. Pre-internet and post-internet. While some may argue that there really is no difference between how PR was handled pre-internet and how it it handled now, it cannot be argued that journalism is the same. And, with journalism being at the crux of corporate and crisis [...] PR Starts with a PR PlanWhen embarking on a PR / marketing campaign, it is critical that you first start with a plan. Achieving goals and objectives is what PR is all about, and you need to clarify what your goals and objectives are so you have a way of measuring that the plan is working or what needs to [...] Non Profit PR – Marketing With a MissionIf you’re the executive director of a non-profit organization, you come to work each day with two things on your mind. First, how can your agency best fulfill its mission, and second, how will you get the funding you need to fulfill your mission. The two are intertwined, a Catch-22 if you will. While most [...] Public Relations Is Not Just For PR ProsIf a company hires a public relations firm and then sits back and expects the PR firm to work magic, the company will be terribly disappointed. Effective public relations is not a job — it is a process. It is not just writing news releases and doing special events. And, it is not the sole [...] How to Publicize a Start-Up BusinessMany people who start a new business sometimes have an inferiority complex. After all, if you are the new kid on the block with the new business, why should anybody trust that your product is any good, you know what you are doing, or that you will be around to stand behind your product? This [...] Finding the Right PR / Marketing FirmEngaging the right public relations, marketing and / or advertising agency is not always as simple a task as it appears. When companies venture out to find marketing representation, they often do what most people do when searching for a new business relationship — ask someone who has worked with a PR consultant for a recommendation. [...] Business to Business PREvery business owner knows that public relations is a subset of marketing and marketing is a subset of sales. The “bottom line”, to use an overused term, is what it’s all about. Whether a company is selling a product or service, making the sale is the goal. So it’s often fascinating when a company says, [...] Beware of Hidden Costs of Hiring a PR FirmPerhaps the most often asked question companies ask when hiring a public relations firm is, “what does it cost?” Interestingly, this is also a question many PR firms have difficulty answering. There are three basic ways that firms charge. First, and perhaps the most common, is the monthly fee. A PR firm will give thought [...] |
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