123 eGuides

1 Minute Advice: Is Your Brand Name Protected?

Are you sure your brand name is protected? Here's an interesting story that demonstrates why it is so important to use an appropriate naming strategy for your brand and protect your brand name.

An Asheville, NC tiny company, GalloLea Pizza Kits, was just forced to change its name to BelloLea Artisan Kitchen because of legal action brought against it by the giant E. & J. Gallo Winery in California. GalloLea was named after two people, one of whom has the last name "Gallo." Even though the Asheville company trademarked its name in a line of business that was totally different from Gallo, the fact that the name was the same as Gallo's caused the winery, which is one of the largest in the world, to take legal action. Apparently, Gallo is very aggressive about protecting its trademarked name and has brought suit against other companies with similar names.

Rather than attempt to fight Gallo's lawyers, the owners of GalloLea, Tom Gallo and Susan Devitt, had to concede.  "You get to the point where you realize that this is just going to go on and on," said Devitt. "That's just part of business in the huge corporate world." Tom and Susan estimate their legal fees, new packaging, and marketing costs to change the company name will amount to $140,000 which, they say, is "devastating."

The moral of the story: Make a concerted effort to choose a brand name that cannot possibly be disputed by a much larger company. As this case proves, even if you trademark your name, you are not entirely protected, because it is the legal obligation of the owner to protect the trademark. Sad but true -- as you might expect, trademark law favors the companies with the most money available for legal fees.

Read the complete story here.

The new Second Edition of the eGuide, Branding 123, includes a section about naming a brand and trademarks, in addition to updated and expanded information about tactics small businesses can use to differentiate their brands. Branding 123 is available at the Amazon Kindle Store or in any e-book format (including PDF) at Smashwords.

Second Edition of Branding 123 Now Available

The new SECOND EDITION of the eGuide, Branding 123, is now available.

The Second Edition has been updated and expanded to include new material about specific strategies and tactics small brands can use to effectively market their brands at low cost. Included is new information about public relations, e-marketing, and personal touch marketing. New updated resources are also included.

Branding 123 is a great overview of the steps it takes to build a breakthrough brand -- and still priced at an extremely reasonable $2.99.  Get the brand new Second Edition now at the Amazon Kindle Store or in any e-book format (including PDF) at Smashwords.

1 Minute Advice: Content Key to Search Rankings

Achieving high organic search rankings still eludes many companies, according to recent research from Ascend2, a market research firm. Organic search occurs naturally rather than via paid listings, such as Google AdWords. "If you don't appear on page one of the search results, you don't exist," reports Ascend2.

According to Ascend2's survey of senior marketing and sales professionals at a range of companies, only 14 percent of companies rate their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts as "very successful" in meeting their marketing objectives, while 20 percent claim their efforts are "not successful."

Survey respondents indicate that creating quality content is the most effective SEO tactic used, followed by research and management of keywords used in creating content. While the majority (57 percent) of respondents think quality content is the top SEO tactic, almost half (47 percent) of respondents say it is the most difficult tactic to execute.

Company executives say the two most challenging obstacles to achieving SEO objectives are a limited budget for SEO and limited SEO skills in-house.  They think the most useful metrics for tracking and analyzing SEO performance are the effect of keywords on search rankings, and the impact of call-to-action on conversion reports.

From a Research Brief from he Center for Media Research (http://www.mediapost.com/)

1 Minute Advice: Skills You'll Need to be an Effective Marketer

It will come as no surprise to modern marketers that the skills you need to succeed are growing increasingly more sophisticated. New research from Econsultancy suggests essential broad skills that top the list for marketers are customer experience and data, while the most important vertical skills are mobile marketing and content marketing.

The research suggests that "soft skills" are becoming increasingly important. Among the top soft skills ranked by senior marketers are the following:

• Ability to embrace change
• Ability to spot opportunities and adapt strategies quickly
• Passionate and keen to learn

Check out this infographic for more.

1 Minute Advice: Putting Demographic Insights to Work

"Generations, like people, have personalities," says April Jeffries, president of Ipsos Understanding UnLtd., a division of global research firm Ipsos. Jeffries recently reported on three demographic slices of American society:

1. Millennials
   Millennials account for over 20 percent of total consumer spending in the U.S., but businesses don't always know how to press their hot buttons. Jeffries says that businesses must engage millennials with conversation, both online and offline. They want to feel individualistic and part of something bigger than themselves. They have a strong social conscience and believe in brands that are authentic and have a passion for a certain cause.
   
   
2. Moms
   Middle class moms have had a tough go of it, so they want reassurance.  Moms are sometimes disappointed with the way things are turning out, finding that conveniences are no longer affordable. They shop more carefully than ever, looking for the best deals. Businesses need to sell optimism, be experiential, and recognize a mom's creativity.  They can connect with moms in the home and by making everyday luxuries accessible.
   
   
3. New Retirees
   Globally, new retirees (those over 65) are growing faster than any other demographic. They have spending power, they're independent and wise, and they don't think of themselves as old. New retirees are breaking out of the mold of what retirement used to mean; for them it is retooling and rewiring.  Businesses can resonate with new retirees by emphasizing health benefits, making technology easy to adapt, and designing products that can facilitate movement in their later years.

Put these demographic insights to work in your marketing programs. Be sure to identify your unique audiences and appeal directly to "generational personalities."

1 Minute Advice: Where Social Media Marketing is Headed

A new social media marketing report, published by Social Media Examiner, the world's largest online media magazine, may hold some surprises for marketers. 

Social Media Examiner surveyed over 2,800 marketers about their use of social media and learned some intriguing things, among them:

• 92 percent of marketers believe social media is important for their business, but 88 percent of them want to know how to measure their ROI for social media activities
• 58 percent of marketers think original written content is most important for social media marketing
•  54 percent of marketers think Facebook is the most important social media network, but ony 34 percent think their Facebook efforts are effective. LinkedIn is considered the second most important social media network
• Google + is on an upswing. 54 percent of marketers use Google + and 61 percent plan on increasing their Google + activities in 2014
• Blogging is alive and well. 68 percent of marketers plan on increasing their use of blogging, making it the top marketing investment area for 2014
• Podcasting is growing. While only 6 percent currently use podcasting for marketing, 21 percent plan on increasing their podcasting activities in 2014.

This free report is packed with interesting information about the current and future state of social media marketing, including more than 70 charts.  Get your free copy of the report here.