123 eGuides

Online Branding Course On Sale! $17 Through July 8

To celebrate our country's birth in 1776, the online branding course, Big Brand Strategies for Small Brands, will be on sale for just $17 through July 8, 2013. Simply click on the title of the course and when you sign up, enter the code july4 (lowercase, all one word) and you can take the course for $17 -- more than 50 percent off!

Regularly $39, this 6-lesson course can be taken online at any time. Start it now and you can finish it later!

Brand marketing expert Barry Silverstein presents specific strategies, tactics and techniques small brands can use to market their brands like the big brands. You'll get a comprehensive overview of everything from brand name and brand position to detailed information about how to build a brand marketing arsenal that includes public relations, social media, non-traditional marketing, and more.

Don't miss this opportunity to say "Happy Birthday America!" and take advantage of a fantastic discount on this excellent branding course. Just go to Big Brand Strategies for Small Brands and enter the code july4 to take this $39 course for just $17. This offer is good only through July 8.

1 Minute Advice: Non-traditional Marketing Makes an Impact

Procter and Gamble (P&G) has a portfolio of brands whose names you would recognize (Bounty, Crest, Gillette and Tide, to name a few). This is a company that has no problem investing heavily in all forms of media. In fact, leading marketers keep an eye on P&G's marketing strategy because it's almost always on the leading edge.

So it was more than a little bit interesting that, on a single day, the company used a live consumer event -- sometimes referred to as "non-traditional marketing" -- to pitch 25 of its branded products in a single city.  On June 19, P&G blitzed New York, widely regarded as the media capital of the world, with distribution of 40,000 free products, coupons, pedicab rides, character appearances, and more. It was all part of a major marketing campaign called "The Everyday Effect," designed to demonstrate the value of P&G's products in everyday life.

P&G may have concentrated on New York, but they got even more mileage out of the event by coordinating other events in cities around the world, as well as using their marketing muscle to spread the word via Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets on a global basis.

Of course, most marketers don't have the considerable budget or resources of P&G, but that doesn't mean you can't follow the company's example. Holding a special event is an effective way to target and saturate a particular town, city, or small geographic area and get a whole lot of breakthrough awareness very quickly.  You can then leverage the event, as did P&G, to extend it far beyond the area, making your marketing dollars work even harder.

Consider the impact non-traditional marketing could have on promoting your product or service.

Want to learn exactly how a small brand can use non-traditional marketing? Take brand marketing expert Barry Silverstein's online, on-demand course, Big Brand Strategies for Small Brands.  Learn more about it here.

1 Minute Advice: Is 3D Printing in Your Future?

Recently, both Adidas and Nike revealed that they are using 3D printing technology to create prototype versions of footwear products. As Barry Silverstein reported in Brandchannel.com:

Nike's Innovation Director Shane Kohatsu told FT [Financial Times], "Within six months we were able to go through twelve rounds of prototype iterations that we fully tested, and ultimately we were able to make super dramatic improvements to our products." There are no current plans to use the technology to mass produce shoes, but that could be down the road. "What's really intriguing for us is not the volumes that you can make," said Kohatsu. "It's really more how rapidly you can make changes."

Adidas has seen similar benefits, informing FT that 3D printers have cut the evaluation time for a new prototype to a few days from four to six weeks. While Adidas previously relied on prototypes handmade by twelve technicians, they can now produce prototypes with two people.

3D printing is still an emerging technology, but this particular application should be exciting to any company developing a new product. Product prototyping is essential in new product development, but it tends to be costly and time-consuming. 3D printing could significantly change the equation.

That's not all 3D printing could change. This technology is currently being tested in a wide variety of areas to manufacture all sorts of consumer and industrial products -- even food. Read more about all that 3D printing can do in the coverage by Mashable.

If you make or market products, there's a good chance 3D printing will be in your future.

Update: An article about 3D printing appeared in the June 19 edition of The New York Times.

 Barry Silverstein is the author of the eGuide, Product Launch 123: Launch a New Product or Service in 3 Proven Steps. He also teaches an online course, Big Brand Strategies for Small Brands.