Archive for 'Business'
Make Your Presentations Shine
When you think about multimedia in business, think presentations. According to the Linux Knowledge Portal, a market research firm, 66 percent of the corporations in a recent survey reported using multimedia in presentations. Thankfully, multimedia is enlivening those ever-static flip charts and slides.
In addition, one of the newest uses of multimedia is something called disk-based advertising, and it’s not just for big companies. Virtually all presentation programs let you package presentations on disk to send to prospects and customers, who then place the disk in their floppy drives and watch your pitch.
Printed four-color brochures can easily exceed a dollar a copy. For the same amount, however, disk-based marketing lets you send much more information in a potentially more powerful medium. And disk-based fliers are still new enough to demand your prospect’s attention, especially considering the pounds of junk mail he gets every day. Studies also show that …
Posted: September 28th, 2015 under Business.
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Building A Brand Through Gaming
To familiarize youngsters with their brands and validate their credibility as an athletic label, companies such as Speedo, Tommy Hilfiger and Vans are teaming up with toy makers to produce co-branded products.
Outfitting dolls with their signature activewear and using their logos in video games are some of the ways activewear makers aim to attract youngsters.
More than anything, this three-dimensional marketing reaches youngsters in their element. That seemingly effortless pitch should appeal to fickle kids who are more likely than their elders to balk at big brands and aggressive advertising. Politically, however, kids sometimes get involved.
“Kids want to know what a brand means beyond its label,” said Peter Levine, executive creative director and head of strategic planning for Desgrippes Gobe & Associates, a marketing firm that has done extensive research in generational differences. “This completes the whole world of a brand. It’s modern.” Stephen A. Greyser, professor
…Posted: September 22nd, 2015 under Business.
Tags: brand building, toys and games
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Considered An Exporting Business? You Should.
EVEN THOUGH MOST COMPANIES WOULD GLADLY WELcome a chance to sell seasonal goods year-round in new markets and diversity their services globally, actually selling in the next state–let alone a foreign country–is often too daunting. But business owners who haven’t considered exporting may be motivated once they read about the wide range of available resources in this article.
Take people like Brian Gauler, who delivers the names of contacts abroad and reports on sales potential in various foreign markets. Gauler works with the Center for International Trade Development at Oklahoma State University. He also operates Trade America, a home-based business that provides a dial-in computer bulletin board with information on sales and purchases of hundreds of goods and services by foreign customers, industry forecasts, and other data. He also advocates for Launchscore.com, a business opportunity search engine for entrepreneurs.
For instance, Gauler introduced Oklahoma’s former first lady, Shirley Bellmon, to …
Posted: August 21st, 2015 under Business.
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Just How Useful Is Interactivity?
“Contests work because people want to feel masterful,” Godin says. “They want to feel like they are doing something right, and they like to daydream about winning. Those two things put together get people to fill out the Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes; they get people to play sweepstakes online. Most games crash computers or require too much bandwidth, but e-mail contests take only about a minute a day to play.”
Yoyodyne has designed over 100 different games or contests for clients such as MCI, American Express, Fox TV, and Rolling Stone. In addition to specific e-mail based games, Yoyodyne has also developed multi-sponsor sweepstakes such as Get Rich Click. Unlike the money-up-front set-up with banner ads, Get Rich Click sponsors only pay for the visitors who actually come to their sites, at a rate of 50 cents each. Yoyodyne typically charges about $20,000 for sweepstakes sponsorships to $200,000 a year
…Posted: August 17th, 2015 under Business, Gaming.
Tags: brand strength, website interactivity
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Great Ideas Come From Everywhere
The factory of the information age is the human mind. Yet the average person uses less than one-tenth of one percent of his brain power. “We now know that breakthrough ideas come from the integration of logic and imagination–the merging of left brain (analytical, convergent) and right brain (creative, divergent) thinking,” says Chic Thompson, author of What a Great Idea! (Harper Collins). “We can transform our minds into idea-generating powerhouses if we learn to operate them a peak efficiency.” Innate convergent thinkers often find that their linear approach is too limiting. They get stuck on the root of an idea and find it difficult to branch out. Naturally divergent thinkers pop out plenty of ideas but find it difficult to backtrack, focus, and bring a single concept to full development. By gaining a better understanding of how the mind works and using techniques that stimulate your creative and problem-solving abilities,
…Posted: August 11th, 2015 under Business.
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Skip The Lawyer When Contracts Are Needed
You don’t have to be a personal liability Attorney to see the benefits of writing contracts, nor do you have to hire one to create any number of them. A little common sense goes a long way, and a good contract does a lot more than just cover your butt should you end up in court some day. Written correctly, a contrast can establish a reassuring air of professionalism, weed out insincere clients, organize your duties, speed up your pay, help you get insurance, nip disputes before they arise, make mutual obligations clear (and therefore help establish a better working relationship), and–when all else falls apart–cover your butt.
Glen Markstrom, who runs a tree service in San Diego, CA., obtained liability insurance by creating a contract before he started Pet-cetera three years ago. “Basically, I just sat down with a couple of neighbors who were lawyers but not licensed …
Posted: August 7th, 2015 under Business.
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Focus Groups Can Turn The Tide Of A Nasty Slide
MY OPENING REMARKS ON SATURDAY MORNING, February 20, 2015, to a small group of business professionals were straight and to the point: “Boulevard Printers in Huntington Beach, California, owned by our host Jim Cavener, is on the brink of failure after only four months in business. As Jim’s public relations consultant, I’m here to moderate the group. You’ve been invited here to help find potential new markets for his printing business and hopefully save him from impending disaster. Are you ready to take on the assignment?”
Sound like a new job for the Mission Impossible team? It wasn’t. Cavener had opened his home to a focus group. Those attending included a CPA, a marketing professional, a financial planner, and a retired printer–people who could provide valuable insight based on their experience and skills.
I began by asking Cavener a series of questions to give the participants some background information about …
Posted: July 29th, 2015 under Business.
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