Notes from Notchcode

providing graphic design, branding, photography and marketing expertise to denver and the world

Quote of the Week:

All solitary dreamers know that they hear differently when they close their eyes.

-Gaston Bachelard

blog

Notes from Notchcode

8.03.2009

Bad UX, bad pose.

I like guys who can pull off a bow tie. My grandfather is one of them. But not this dude, an internet marketer from the UK:

The worst thing about his site on "Internet Marketing" is the horrible form he makes someone fill out in order to simply generate leads:

TEN form fields, just to get an e-mail address? I can't imagine the attrition rate this guy has. Make it a simple e-mail address and a Submit button, and he'd probably increase his lead generation by about 50 percent. And this is a form created by a guy who is SELLING HIS EXPERTISE ON MARKETING USING THE INTERNET. Gah.
Labels: advice, marketing

posted at 7:16 AM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

6.24.2009

Nearly one in 5 of you Denverites are on Facebook

...scary numbers, but I suppose not unreasonable.

There are 2,357,404 people in the Denver Metro Area, according to the all-knowing oracle at Wikipedia. And there are 468,902 people in the Denver, CO network on Facebook. Granted that some in the network aren't living in Denver, it's still a big number (19.8906 percent).

As a marketing person, however, I want to stress that this means there are at least four out of every five people in the Denver area that don't use Facebook. And don't see social media campaigns being played out there.

So stick to traditional media, in addition to social. It's still sorta important.

Labels: advice, marketing, social networking

posted at 10:40 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

4.21.2009

Sarah Wu: Hire Her Before Your Competition Does

Ach! I thought my friends would all escape the recession unscathed. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Sarah Wu, recently married, is also now recently laid-off. Don't let her talents go to waste!

From Sarah:

The dot com and post-911 bubble bursts didn't get me, but I couldn't outrun the recession of '09! As the most productive product strategist you'll meet with success at the fastest-growing technology companies in Colorado, I'm ready for a new Product Management or Product Marketing challenge. But are you ready for me? On Twitter, DM @sarney or find me on LinkedIn.

You better hire her before your competition does.
Labels: advice, marketing, productivity, social networking, software, work

posted at 4:02 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

4.13.2009

Twitter enables the self-assembling group

From a nice summary of how Twitter is more than a tool for inanity:

"Twitter reverses the notion of the group," said Paul Saffo, the Silicon Valley futurist. "Instead of creating the group you want, you send it and the group self-assembles."

I have used Twitter recently to help me brainstorm concepts, get feedback on ideas, and see where a client's market (or competition) is heading. Before you dismiss it as just seeing what your friends had for breakfast this morning, see what it can do for you as a business.
Labels: creativity, marketing, small business, social networking, twitter

posted at 1:27 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

3.10.2009

Three marketing in a recession posts from the recent past

This caught my eye, courtesy of Sandra Sims, and it made me want to package up three of my most recent posts on marketing in a recession for those of you who doubt it's a great time to pay close attention to how you market yourself, and what you can do to get ahead of the curve right now:

Keeping your clients in a recession with the amuse-bouche

Remembering the basics, like excellent customer service

and finally, Six marketing ideas for use in a recession

Also, as promised, more from my image-bank, as well, while I grind down my stack of work for the week:

Labels: advice, marketing, nonprofits, ROI

posted at 12:53 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

3.05.2009

Web design vs. Print Design: What delivers better value?

A lot of marketers deride print marketing as a holdover from the 20th century, a time when horse-driven buggies ruled the roads and you could still see cigarette ads on television. Of course, print still has its place in the marketing pantheon, despite those who drank the web-2.0 kool-aid and won't listen to another, more moderated, point of view.

As Anne Holland says:
Print materials used to be the first outreach step for many companies. You would do a mailer to raise interest. Nowadays, especially with the new US postage hike, print is sometimes too expensive for pure prospecting.

The Web has become more of a prospecting tool, and print is what you send to those candidates who have leapt through the first qualification hoop. If you view your print campaigns that way, what does it mean to the type of voice and materials included?

The model still works the other way: if your audience is less on the net than others say, you've built up a large postal address database, but have only started collecting e-mail addresses over the last couple of years), print can still drive people to your online points of contact. To tie into Holland's point above, it's more important to be more picky with who you mail to, since expenses are higher.

One strategy that comes to mind is sending out a regular mailing (different pieces every few weeks) to those who haven't signed up for e-mail updates; drive them to sign up. This brings your future cost of contact down for that segment. For those who are on your e-mail list, send out special pieces, less frequently, that include an incentive to buy online. I did a version of this at an earlier company, and it paid big dividends with new customers and how they responded to later, more targeted, campaigns.

And it goes without saying that each audience and each campaign should have its own landing page, so you can more easily measure your conversion rates for each piece and each audience segment. After all, the only difference between a real marketing effort and throwing money into a black hole is measurement of results!

Make it as easy as possible for the consumer to self-select into a segment, so you can be more efficient in your marketing. Once you get them into the silo they want to be in, you can direct your efforts very precisely, both in print and online. That saves you money on the marketing side, and increases your customer's loyalty to the segment they're in.
Labels: advertising, marketing, print

posted at 12:18 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

2.02.2009

Apparently, the Online Ticket Sales provider for the Denver Zoo Site Sucks

Shame on you, whomever built and tested and approved the registration component of the Zoo site for wasting my morning. Even more of a shame that you've subjected one of your clients to bad service. Especially one that has such high visibility. Here's the story:

We decided to take a few minutes this morning to register our kids for a summer camp at the Denver Zoo. Well, this process, which should take no more than 15 minutes or so, took TWO HOURS. TWO HOURS.

Let me say that again: it took two hours to sign up two kids for summer camp. Using the time-saving miracle of internet technology, which was so wonderfully leveraged for effective customer experiences by Whomever built and tested and approved the registration component of the Zoo site (hey, not Malenke Barnhart, as noted by the Zoo's Marketing Director, and others at the zoo. Thanks for the correction. For the record, they did build the rest of the site).

The summer camp, by all accounts, is lovely. What isn't lovely is the fact that:
you can only sign up online. No phone calls or walk-up registrations.

Each time we tried to register, you only have 15 minutes to complete the process. This wouldn't be an issue, unless

the online ticket sales vendor takes so long to process the credit card information that the order times out, and

you have to start all over again. and again and again. Because the system doesn't save ANY of your information.

Other notes on how craptacular this user experience was:

Not very Safari-friendly. We did have better luck with Firefox, but you'd think that a whomever built and tested and approved the registration component of the Zoo site would oh, say, PLATFORM TEST THEIR SITES FOR USABILITY. Especially when the only way you're allowed to experience a client's program or service is via the web (like, say, when you HAVE to order online to get into a class/program/event). I would note to whomever built and tested and approved the registration component of the Zoo site's programming and QA staff that Safari browser share is above 8%. It's not exactly Internet Explorer in terms of numbers, but if you told your client you were going to give the finger to over eight percent of their audience (and I'm guessing Zoo visitors are even a little more in the Safari category than others), that client would either fire you or tell you to rethink that decision.

There is no distinction between a billing and a shipping address on the website.This might be an issue if you are signing up your grandkids for a class, so the parent contact info might be different than the billing info you need to pay for it. More than half the Family Zoo Memberships my extended family and friends have are gifted from others.

The error page presented by the site (when your purchase inevitably fails) doesn't tell you what went wrong. If, for example, we ham-fistedly mis-entered the credit card info, or failed to enter in a required field, we'd have no idea, because the site doesn't notify us. Bad feedback, site! Bad!

Now, I know that sometimes glitches can happen. I understand that. But as an interface guy who has also integrated merchant account transaction processing into client websites, I know that it's possible to build a site that works, provides feedback to the user if something goes wrong, and allows for testing beforehand to ensure smooth operation. None of that was done here. Well, the testing happened, but it was the users doing the testing, when the site was live, and we weren't being allowed to give the zoo money.

If I were the Zoo, that's the thing that would have me worried: this user experience was so bad, that it was preventing us from actually giving hundreds of dollars to them. What sort of customer service experience is that?

I'd love to submit an invoice to the Zoo, or whomever built and tested and approved the registration component of the Zoo site or to Vantix Systems (the online ticket sales vendor selected for the backend processing). The invoice would cover the two hours we spent trying to do this, including lost revenue, etc.

But I'm sure, that if the experience we had with the Denver Zoo's order process was any indication, all we'd get would be another error page. And no real explanation.

Note: Revised to account for the fact that Malenke Barnhart, acording to the Marketing Director at the Zoo, DIDN'T build the backend of the Zoo site. Read the comments for why we thought they did, and why this post is still relevant to the discussion of providing a good user experience to build brands and effectively promote organizations.
Labels: advice, agencies, customer service, marketing, nonprofits, usability, web design

posted at 11:40 AM Leave your comments here: 1 comments

1.16.2009

It always feels good, even when it's soft

By which I mean launching a website.

I'm putting the finishing touches on a nonprofit site this afternoon, in preparation for a soft launch--that is to day, launching the site without telling anyone. So, of course, I can't tell you who it's for.

Yet.

Stay tuned. It's a nice site, for a great cause.

Labels: marketing, web design

posted at 3:38 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

1.09.2009

Where do you go to complain?

As we all know, it's no fun having to spend extra time tracking down someone to complain to when you've already spent time using a broken product or process and have been trying to make it work.

My wife, Robyn, used to do a lot of high-end hand-holding for clients of a software company. She acted as the liason between the client and the software engineer assigned to them. She was there to basically translate engineer-ese and make sure the client's concerns were being heard by the engineer. It was also a really good P.R. tool to have someone there just for them. It made the client feel special.

We all want to feel special (at least a little), and especially when we have an issue that we feel needs to be addressed. We want to be heard, and have our feedback acknowledged.

Different organizations have different ways of dealing with feedback like this. Some have a phone number and an e-mail address that you contact when you have a question or concern. What happens once that call is taken or message is received varies widely, ranging from indifference to a complete commitment on the part of the organization to make sure you're listened to and taken care of. Just depends on the culture and community that the organization wants to build around its stakeholders.

I was talking with an old friend this week about strategies for getting good feedback from your audience. "Your audience", of course, can mean many things:

people you are marketing your product to,

website visitors,

software users,

restaurant patrons,

internal stakeholders in your business,

and so on.

The company he works for has a hand-built trouble ticket system for handling user complaints. But it's getting to be more trouble than it's worth to maintain. And I suspect they aren't into paying for a big-name system like Siebel's etc. So, they are shopping around for another feedback tool that will allow them to take care of their stakeholders (users of their product). He mentioned a number of ways to get users engaged with their customer support team, including social media (twitter, Facebook) and services like Get Satisfaction.

This last service has been intriguing me lately, as it isn't industry-specific: it's not, for example, just a place for software companies to host support networks. You could set up a Get Satisfaction page for, well, yourself. Imagine a page where people could complain about (or praise you for) the tip you left them at their restaurant the other night. Or offer suggestions on how to better shake hands?

Say you're a non profit organization looking to get feedback on your outreach, or engage in outreach via creating a dialogue with your stakeholders. Set up a Get Satisfaction page and drive people to it via mentions in your other outreach materials: e-mail blasts, direct mail, postcards, webpage plugs, and plain old conversations with people. Once there, the stakeholder can leave feedback, ask questions, and even rant. You as an organization provide one or two voices there to answer concerns, offer suggestions, and just LISTEN.

Here, however, is the problem that my friend posited with the Get Satisfaction (or similar) route: You have to create a new username and password to use the service. If an organization has an existing feedback loop on-site, or on another system, having their stakeholders create another account on another system to leave --what is in their minds-- the same feedback they used to leave somewhere else is a little aggravating for the stakeholder.

Hence the image at the top of the post. I ran across this in the Men's room of a coffee shop the other day. Notice the soap dispensers; there are two. One installed to the right of the faucet in the sink, and another installed on the wall. The user of the sink, wanting soap, has a choice to make: which soap dispenser to use? Either one should provide a similar soap experience, but which one should be used? The one conveniently embedded in the sink? Or was the one in the wall installed because there was some problem with the in-sink dispenser?

This is a perfect metaphor for the CRM solution dilemma my friend finds himself in. If you have two places for people to go to for customer support, which one is the RIGHT one for their needs? And how will they know?

And even more importantly, will they both be staffed and managed effectively? Both the soap dispensers in the Men's room were out of soap.

Here's the bottom line: you should use whatever customer relationship tool works best for both your company and your stakeholders. And make sure that once you decide on a solution, you commit enough resources to it to make it effective for both your customers, and for you.
Labels: advice, customer service, marketing, social networking

posted at 4:36 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

1.06.2009

Why working on spec and logo design contests and "tournaments" are bad...for designers AND clients

Saw this little ad on Facebook today:

"Excellent Results for only $250", the ad states. Hmmm. Let's explore the reasons why the client who engages in a logo design competition or tournament will not get excellent results. According to the AIGA, there are several reasons why such contests are bad business for companies looking for a brand. In its letter to a foundation that was soliciting design submissions for a logo competition, the Cleveland chapter of the AIGA asserted that:
AIGA strongly discourages the practice of requesting that design work be produced and submitted on a speculative basis in order to be considered for acceptance on a project.

AIGA cites many reasons for this position:
To assure the client receives the most appropriate and responsive work...

...Capable and professional designers do not work for free.

...Requesting work for free demonstrates a lack of understanding and respect.

The letter goes on:
There are few professions where all possible candidates are asked to do the work first, allowing the buyer to choose which one to pay. Just consider the response if you were to ask a dozen lawyers to write a brief for you, and you would then choose which one to use and which to pay. We realize that there are some creative professions with a different set of standards, such as advertising and architecture, where billings are substantial and continuous after you select a firm of record. In these cases, you are not receiving the final outcome (the advertising campaign or the building) for free up front as you would be in receiving a communication design solution.

There is an appropriate way to explore the work of various designers.
A more effective and ethical approach to requesting work is to ask designers to submit examples of their work from previous assignments as well as a statement of how they would approach your project. You can then judge the quality of the designer's previous work and way of crafting solutions. When you select a designer, they can begin to work on your project by designing strategic solutions to your criteria while under contract.

The authors of the article have a good point: where else would you expect a professional to do the work first, then decide whether or not they would be paid?

But this is just the ecomonic issue. The more important issue for the business asking for the logo is this: Asking people to submit logos that you select a "winner" from won't allow you to get the most effective result. Here's what you will most likely get:

a logo that uses a color or typeface the boss likes

a logo that looks a lot like the other logos in your industry

a logo that doesn't take into account the unique attributes of your organization

a logo that is, in short, "safe"

It's not just small companies or nonprofits that can get burned by taking what they think is the easier, better way out: the Goverment of Spain had the exact same problem. Their logo contest winner's entry was amazingly similar to the German government's logo. I wish I was making this up. Check it out:

The German government's identity:

And the Spanish government's "winner":

The AIGA's position of spec work can be found here. As they say:
AIGA believes that doing speculative work seriously compromises the quality of work that clients are entitled to and also violates a tacit, long-standing ethical standard in the communication design profession worldwide. AIGA strongly discourages the practice of requesting that design work be produced and submitted on a speculative basis in order to be considered for acceptance on a project.
Labels: advice, aiga, branding, design, logo, marketing, nonprofits, work for hire

posted at 8:00 AM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

12.10.2008

Six marketing ideas for a recession

Now that the recession is "official", why not use it as an excuse to tighten things up?

Not tighten your belt, necessarily, but tighten up the way you use your marketing? What serves you well in a recession will serve you well when times are good, too. So, to that end, I bring you:

Six marketing ideas for use in a recession (and when things bounce back):

The amuse-bouche.

Give your clients a little something extra, that you enjoy doing and also benefits them.

Nontraditional uses of traditional marketing pathways

Forget about the coupon in direct mail. What about a "secret word" that brings your customers a discount or access to special services...that only "select" people receive via your permission-based email blasts...or getting your clients involved in an online dialog that benefits all of them (on your site, of course)...none of these suggestions are groundbreaking, but think about how much they cost, compared to traditional direct mail, etc....

Redefine what "essential" is, in relation to marketing and brand expressions

What's more important: meeting someone face-to-face, or sending ten people a direct mail piece talking about your services? Getting new clients, or strengthening ties with existing ones? Or both? Having that nice rounded die-cut corner on your letterhead, or spending that extra $250 on overhead for an informational seminar for your clients?

Now is the time to think hard about what you really need, and why you are using the marketing strategy you currently employ.

Less is more, and now's your chance to prove it

Do you really need a fax machine? Need a fax number on your business card? When was the last time you actually sent a fax versus an e-mail? Use cost-trimming as an excuse to streamline your communication pathways, clearing out the chaff of old technology and ways of thinking and replacing them with methods and channels that are relevant to your audience.

An opportunity to enter new markets or new marketing channels

How about an iPhone app that pushes relevant info to your target market? Outdoor advertising to get someone's attention focused on your issue? Permission-based e-mail campaigns to build brand impressions? If you haven't thought about these options, now is a good time to do so. Why? Because approaching people from another angle allows you to catch them off guard, and hopefully even give them information or motivation that they really need in order to get your company in their life.

Redefine your brand

Why not? If things are really going down the tubes, take a hard look at your existing brand. Is it reflective of your organization, your product, and your culture? Does it address the relationship between your organization and the public at this moment? What about in five years? Time and money spent refining your brand right now, when things are down, will get paid back in spades down the road, as other organizations play catch-up.

What are some ideas you have? Let's hear about them in the comments!

photo by jtloweryphotography
Labels: advertising, advice, b2b, b2c, branding, clients, creativity, design, graphic design, marketing, nonprofits, process, productivity, small business, web design

posted at 11:27 AM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

12.09.2008

From the Archives: Design Versus Style

From January 2006, on this very blog:

For something to be well-designed, it must meet the functional needs and expectations of the user. For it to be styled well, it must live up to the aesthetic needs and expectations of the user. An important difference. Often, design and style influence each other, and good style often is just as important to a successful marketing effort, or branding effort, or architectural effort, as design. But a fun style doesn't always lead to a beneficial experience, at least in the funcitonal sense.

Check out the whole post on design versus style here.
Labels: advice, branding, design, marketing, visual information

posted at 5:33 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

Good customer service: Don't let it go in the middle of a recession

I had a good printer friend bid on a project recently. It was too small for them, and he recommended a small, family-run shop out on the west side of Denver for me to try. They've been in business for over 20 years, and according to him and others, do a good job.

So I took my friend up on his advice, and sent over to this new printer a small project, with a relatively tight turnaround (about 7 working days...about three less than I usually give for a printer to deliver a project).

From almost the very start, there were issues with communication. The estimate came back, and seemed fine. I submitted the project, with the specifications identical to the quoted estimate. After a day of no communication, I call. "We got it, and we'll let you know if we have questions", they said. Another day later: "Oh, we need to know what sort of paper you want to use; we've been waiting to order the paper for a couple of days..." I told them the stock was the same as was quoted to me and was typed onto the specifications that accompanied the job files, I told him. "And what about ink color?" he asks. The same as I specified on the job ticket, I told him. By now, we're getting pretty close to deadline: less than three full days. Still doable, but close.

The deadline comes, and goes, with no word from the printer. I call the next day. They tell me the film was just completed the night before, and they were going to go pick it up. At this point, if the job doesn't deliver that morning, my client can't use it.

After conferring with my client, I call the printer back, and get voicemail. I tell them to cancel the project; the client can't use the materials at this late date. The printer had held up the project for over three days, without communicating any needs or questions to me about the job. Every time I called, I was asked a question that could have been answered by looking at the job ticket. Very unprofessional.

I call twice more within an hour; I finally get someone on the other end. Yes, they got my message. The printer will call me back in 15 minutes to talk it over. Yes, we won't print the project.

That was almost a week ago. No call from them.

The sad thing is that I could really use another smaller printer, especially so close to west Denver, to handle smaller projects like business cards, letterhead, and short-run point of sale and direct mail pieces. And if the printer had actually called back, I might have been able to figure out what went wrong and give them another chance, on a project that wasn't so time-sensitive. But without hearing from them, I'll never know what happened, other than that they apparently ignored my spec sheet, even though they had to read it in order to get the job file which they processed and sent me proofs from.

The bottom line: They are a small, family-run shop. We're in a recession. I have business for them. Why won't they stay on top of their customer service?
Labels: customer service, marketing, printing

posted at 1:30 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

12.08.2008

Great Graphic Design makes everything better

One thing I remind people about all the time: everything anyone has ever made has been designed by someone. Great graphic design makes products, companies, and ideas more accessible by more people. Bad graphic design just makes products, companies, and ideas more opaque.

What differentiates the good from the bad? Lots of things. Focus. Brand integration. Accessibility. Grokability.

Paying someone $150, or $400, to design a logo will almost always result in bad design. Does that mean the designer who made it is not a good designer? Not necessarily. What it does mean is they aren't taking the time to find out what the essence of that brand should be. The same thing goes for paying a similar amount to design a website. Or a brochure. Even if you think about that money in terms of an hourly rate, rather than the value the design has for you (which is really how you should look at it), what does $150 translate to, in hours? I'll tell you: very, very little.

Would you trust a lawyer to draft the articles of incorporation for your business for $50? Would you let a $400 doctor operate on your heart?
Labels: advertising, advice, aiga, b2b, b2c, branding, graphic design, illustration, information graphics, interface, licensing, logo, marketing, nonprofits, packaging, process, ROI, seo, typography, visual information, web design, work

posted at 9:48 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

11.30.2008

I hope it's a graphic designer they're hiring

Noticed this teeny-tiny "people wanted" ad on the front page of nytimes.com today....an ad for the CIA. Have a look at the nasty dithering in the background gradient! Nothing says "we're a government agency that's ten years behind the times" than a static GIF for an ad. For that matter, the "www" at the beginning of published URLs is also becoming quickly obsolete. If it is a compound word, or an acronym, and has a dot after it, followed by two or three other letters, (like, you know, .com or .tv) people get the fact that it's a URL:
Labels: graphic design, marketing, web design

posted at 4:38 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

11.13.2008

New York Times: Not a Bad Time for Small Businesses to Raise Prices

Paul B. Brown writes that recessions are the EXACT time you should spend more on marketing:

ZIG WHEN THEY ZAG “If your competition is busy nursing their recessionary wounds, then you should become aggressive in marketing yourself and your products,” argues Morebusiness.com, a Web site that describes itself as a “one-stop resource Web site for entrepreneurs.”

By increasing spending when your competitors are cutting back on theirs, you will have a chance to increase market share and be much better positioned to be profitable when the downturn ends.

This isn't something that's necessarily intuitive, but it's true. Your competition is cutting back, and the first place most organizations look to is the "cost centers". I can't tell you how many times I've heard employees of a company tell me that management sees marketing as a cost center--something that doesn't directly generate revenue--and so therefore is always under the gun to do more with less.

That sort of thinking doesn't work too often. Unless you are Coca Cola, you need to market yourself, aggressively, every time you open your collective mouth. Why? Well, if you are in a market where more than one organization is competing for consumer/grant/government/business dollars, you need to separate yourself from your competition. If you don't, you let both your competition and your market define you. If you aren't in control of your marketing message, you're in trouble. And if your bottom line is already suffering because of market forces or other circumstances out of your control, take control of what you can, and promote your vision of your organization while everyone else runs for cover. Your marketing footprint per dollar will be larger than it would be during the good times, since your competition is spending less to get their message out to your market.
Labels: marketing

posted at 9:00 AM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

10.27.2008

How you know your brand awareness is really good

I designed the branding and marketing for a national conference (going on as I type this--my hotel room looks like a design shop and kinkos got together and had a love child in it), and it's great to see how integrated the branding is here: the website, programs, website, t-shirts, lanyards, signage, maps, agendas, handouts, CDs--they all have a consistent visual identity and language. It's making for a richer, more comprehensive experience for all the attendees here.

The thing that struck me, though, was when i pulled into the parking lot on Saturday, to see the conference's logo drawn into the dust on the rear window of an attendee's car:
Labels: branding, marketing

posted at 11:04 AM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

9.08.2008

Stop thinking about your marketing as a binary activity

Innovators work their magic in two ways: either they come up with a product/idea/process that should have been realized years ago, and make it real; or they turn something that already exists on its ear. Here's one literal example:

Three outlets in the space that used to accommodate just two. This is an excellent example of looking at a problem creatively, without letting the bounds of convention define your project. Innovative solutions don't take up any more space (in this case physical, in other cases mental/conceptual/strategic) than other approaches, while giving you and your audience a much more effective way of sharing information .

image via BoingBoing.

Labels: branding, creativity, graphic design, marketing, process

posted at 9:59 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

9.04.2008

It's all about context

Sometimes the most familiar visual symbols create confusion. How? Bad context. This is just a humorous example, but think about it: has your brand, or marketing message, been in this position?

image via Jalopnik.
Labels: branding, marketing

posted at 8:06 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

5.03.2008

You want me to bug all my friends into loading your crappy Facebook application before you let me use it?

Yeah, it sounds pretty stupid, from a marketing standpoint. Basically, a lot of the newer apps posted over on Facebook take you through the activity involved in the application, then before they let you see the result of the activity, they make you select 8 or more friends in your network to spam about the application. Only then can you see the results.

Hmm. Well, I see how it results in increasing the speed at which your viral application spreads, but at what cost? At some point people will decide their friends are worth _not_ spamming with a new app every day or two. Hopefully, at that point, the viral software distribution model will adjust to make it more, well, friendly. Which is kinda the point of a SOCIAL NETWORK, right?
Labels: marketing, social networking, software

posted at 10:48 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments