Out of the Fog Marketing

Many startups ask us how to choose the best domain name for both SEO and branding. There are so many secured domains, finding a domain can often be daunting. Check out a blog post by the folks at Noble Samurai on choosing domain names.

We agree that one hyphen is OK and it's better to have a hyphen in your URL.com that one without a hyphen at a .net.

Labels: branding, identity, SEO, web domains

Check out this nteresting post by Andy Edmonds on using Google Analytics to monitor your brand. I tried it on a couple of accounts and found some pretty interesting results. You can set it up in 5 minutes per account.

Labels: branding, google analytics

Check out the great NY Times article about the debate over IKEA changing their font in their 2010 catalog. Design does matter. A logo designed for $200 more times than not looks cheap. Creating a professional, polished and modern identity for your company is well worth the time, money and effort.

Take the first step by completing our brand personality quiz. It only takes 5 minutes and is fun to boot. When you're ready to brand or re-brand your company, our graphic and identity experts are waiting.

Here are a couple of our recent logo designs:

Labels: better marketing presentations, branding, identity, quiz

Starbucks is remodeling 3 stores in Seattle attempting to rebrand itself to upscale clientele by offering not only coffee, but live music and alcohol. Read about it in Ad Age. About time...my local coffee shop in Oregon, My Coffee, already has wine tasting nights and live music on Friday. I think it's the first good move Starbucks has made in a long time. Now they just have to get themselves out of lower-end retail chains. It always amazed me they didn't use a different brand name in those lower-end locations.

Your thoughts?

Labels: ad age, branding, starbucks

If your an iPhone user and often find yourself brainstorming product or company names, check out Nomina. Available on the iTunes store for $14.99, Nomina checks domain availability and searches the U.S. Patent & Trademark office for pending or registered trademarks with the same wording. It also will conduct a common law search using The Library of Congress, Google, Thomas Guide and more.

We can't wait to try it in our next branding brainstorm.

Labels: branding, naming, nomina, outspring, trademarks

Are you a levelheaded literal or a "warm & fuzzy" evocative type? When engaging new clients we often had a hard time getting to the bottom of this question before launching into web designs, logo creation, or business art of any kind.
Our creative director, Cathy, came up with the great brand personality quiz which helps us to evaluate early on the preferences clients cannot articulate until they see the examples in this quiz.

Labels: brand marketing, brand personality, brand preferences, branding, google web design, logo design, web 2.0 design, website design

Here's the last part in our "Marketing Tips for Tech" series. Hope you enjoyed it - feel free to ask your own tips or ask us questions.

12) Consistent and pervasive branding. Your company’s logo and URL should be on all documents to make sure that your clients and prospective clients know who you are and with what company you are affiliated. Consider is putting a signature at the end of all emails including replies and forwards. Be careful not to embed too many graphics into the signature as it alerts some spam filters. And don’t forget to trademark and copyright appropriate materials. If you want to be really coordinated, have your marketing firm create a simple style guide which outlines how and when to use your corporate marks.

To find companies hitting your site you can use two free services --Google Analytics or StatCounter. While these services are free you do have to manually search which people looked at your website unless you create custom scripts. Nevertheless, it is a top choice for a free customer base service. Another service is LeadLander, Visitortrack by NetFactor or LoopFuse. They are more expensive choices, costing $1,900 to $4,800 per year; however they provide you with customizable automated detailed lead reports, ties into Jigsaw and LinkedIn databases, and customized email alerts.

Labels: analyzing leads, ann arbor michigan, branding, customer satisfaction, customer satisfaction tests, google analytics, leads, marketing tips, surveys, tech compnaies, technology marketing

Welcome back to our blog post series on marketing tips for technology firms. Here are tips #4 through #7.

4) Make sure your brand is clear. There is nothing more frustrating for prospects than trying to figure out what a brand is all about. Be precise in what you are selling and to whom.
And as a technology company, your branding should also align with your current and future product and services roadmaps.

5) Clearly articulate your technology products or services. In order for your clients and prospective clients to understand what you are truly selling, then you must be clear in your presentation. This is especially important for technical services.

We recommend answering the 6 questions in Harry Beckwith's Selling the Invisible.
a. Who are you? (Your company’s official name)
b. What business are you in?
c. For whom…what companies/users do you serve?
d. What need…what are the special needs of the company you serve?
e. Against whom…with whom are you competing?
f. What’s different…what makes you different than the competition?
g. Unique benefits…what are the unique benefits a client derives from your services?
These seven questions work equally well for products. By answering these questions, your customers and prospective customers should be able to get a better understanding of what you will provide for them.

Labels: branding, endorsements, Internet marketing, marketing technology, marketing tips, tech companies, technology products or services, testimonials, word of mouth marketing

I took some time off last week to check out our famed "Ann Arbor Art Fair". Among the literally hundreds of jewelry booths, one in particular stood out. This jewelry maker from Montana actually took the time to brand each one of her pieces with some great evocative names. There were necklaces named "Vixen " and earrings called "Calla Lily". When I told her I was in marketing and really thought naming was a great idea to differentiate her product, she retorted "Of course, I name them. I named my children after all."

And there you go. Some of the best marketing ideas don't have their roots in marketing. They just plain make sense.

Labels: ann arbor, art fair, brand marketing, branding