Renault has stirred up some bad PR for naming their new car “Zoe.”   I guess for many people, it’s getting outside the range of fair play to call a new product by a human name.

As a marketing person, I know how difficult it can be to come up with name suggestions that reflect the “personality” of the product, are able to be trademarked, and pass the likeability test with all the stakeholders.    

In fact, whenever someone mentions my name in reference to the car named Christine, I know I feel a little twinge of cringe inside. 

Are you naming a new product? What resources do you use when you’re doing the naming?

• Brainstorm- write down the adjectives and emotions you’d like to have your target audience feel about the new product
• Mind map – let the ideas flow, don’t eliminate during the process
• Research the trademark availablity -  after you’ve developed your short list – Although no replacement for a legal review, the USPTO search website can help help eliminate a registered name in the same category quickly.

As someone with the name of “Chris Brown“, I know how difficult it can be when your name is associated with a product much different than you. When I’m introduced to a group of young people, they often snicker and snort. “Punch anyone lately?” or a similar joke.

Reminds me of my father in law who when introduced to someone for the first time got the reply, “Oh yeah? And I’m Snoppy.” He claims he was going by Charlie long before the cartoon was created.

So, to all the Zoes out there: my advice is “Get used to it.”

Related Posts:

• Naming and Branding Your Product Just Got a Little Easier
• Finding Your Brand Name: Tips for Creating a GREAT Name
• Enhancing Creativity by taking Notes the way Your Mind Works

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Photo courtesy creative commons Flickr: bindermichi

Take a minute to cast your vote for the top marketer of 2009:

Wow. I read marketing blogs constantly, but I’m amazed how many people from this list of 100 I have never heard of!

And the flip side, some of the most influential marketers are on this list too:

Anita Campbell, Mack Collier, Seth Godin, Beth Kanter, Ben McConnell, Valeria Maltoni, Robert Scoble, Dauwd Miracle, Mitch Joel, Peter Kim, Liz Strauss, John Jantsch — among others.

You can only vote one and the polls close on Dec 13.

Yesterday I mused about my worries about Mobile Marketing.  Thanks to Vitaliy Levit  from Recess Mobile for setting me straight. What a great comment that explained so much!

Just like with any technology, there is a learning curve.  I suspect in one year, many more of us will become much more fluent in mobile marketing terms: SMS,  MMS, and WAP.  Right now I use all three, but didn’t even realize it.  SMS is sending text, MMS is sending photos/video and WAP is browsing the internet from your phone.

I decided to take Vitaliy up on the suggestion to ”research the industry more.”  So I do what I normally do.  Network and ask around.   I joined a LinkedIn Mobile Marketing group called Mobile Presence  that a friend of mine suggested and started reading some of the blogs that the members write.  I’m just trying to get more comfortable with this whole thing.

So why was I surprised when the subject came right back to branding?    In his post I Google People’s Names, Joe Cannatti, a software engineer at  iNomadics, explains his frustration about screen names, nicknames, Twitter names and the like. 

It’s not that I don’t appreciate a good nickname, but the Internet is now the main source of communication in the world and you want people to be able to find you. Anyone who only uses their first name and last initial on Facebook, or doesn’t put their name on their blog, or uses a nickname for any account on any site is defeating the purpose.

That’s right I said it. They are defeating the purpose of the Internet.

What do you think?  Agree or disagree?

Have you ever texted a word to a 5 digit number on your cell phone? Maybe to vote on American Idol or to give your opinion to a company?

This is just one way that a company gets access to mobile numbers and can begin building a relationship with customers.

Perhaps you heard that AdMob (largest mobile advertising network) was just bought by Google. Based on the projections by Forrester, mobile advertising really hasn’t taken off yet, but according to a white paper published by Admob, more than 10 billion requests for ads were made in October, 2009. See Metrics page 6 – Ad Requests by Geography – October 2009

Wow. 10 Billion. And increasing exponentially every day. From a marketing perspective, that is a media that should not be ignored. Being a marketer, I should be all over this, right?

But I find something is stopping me from taking that first step. No, I haven’t jumped in yet. Not as a marketer. But not even as a consumer. Why?

My mobile marketing fears identified:

1) Getting spammed by the advertiser
2) Not having a way to opt out later
3) Getting the phone number sold by the adverster and getting really really spammed
4) Texts on my phone now are from friends and family, no ads…
5) That first text cost “regular texts costs apply” 10 cents or free or big bucks — what’s that mean.
6) Voting, who cares.
7) Will the coupon I might get ever be worth the pandoras box I open?

It’s like the restaurant that asked for my email for their frequent diner program, and now I get an annoying email every other day. I know I can opt out and probably will in a few more emails.

But my phone seems more private. Even the home phone now only rings when someone wants to get a donation or make a political pitch. When someone reaches us, they call our cells.

I am probably being backward, but I just haven’t had enough reason to make the leap. Maybe it will take one of my favorite retailers to make an offer I can’t refuse. I am close. I’ve been studying it from a marketing perspective, but how can I recommend it if I haven’t used it from a consumer’s perspective?

How about you? Have you texted an advertiser yet? Have you tested a mobile marketing ad campaign yet?

Have you just spent quite a bit of time writing and editing your book or white paper to help you promote your business? And now you’re ready to promote it but not sure where to start?

If you’ve even considered promoting your book or white paper, you’ll enjoy today’s post, which was inspired by a very helpful comment posted by Teena Hughes of A Night in Paris in response to a post Branding & Marketing almost a year ago about: 7 Ways to Successfully Market Your Book Online.

I checked out her website and A Night in Paris looks like the ultimate guide to all things Paris and is really fun to read and expore. She’s putting the finishing touches on her book “A Silk Adventure“. Here are Teena’s suggestions:

I do a lot of social networking with social media, and there are many ways to leverage your book. All of the examples above are fantastic, but I’d do one step forward on your own book’s website.

• allow people to leave comments, and reply as soon as you can
• create a page for FAQs – what do people ask you most about your book? answer them on this page
• keep adding pages to your book’s website – don’t leave it at Home page and Contact page – search engines will NEVER find you
• write one or two info pages – per week – about different things in your book e.g. if it’s travel book, focus on one idea per page
• you’re not giving away the contents of the book, but the internet is based on free info, so build up a rapport with your visitors by offering great info for free on your site
• encourage people to sign up on each page of your site
• create a PDF of 5-10 pages of your book – a ‘taster’ – give that away for all subscribers
• post quizzes on your site about your topic to encourage interaction
• build your mailing list by offering great tips (or focus on a chapter heading) once or twice a month as a newsletter
• ask subscribers to tell you about their story (related to your book) and post them on your site

All of this creates additional content, and if you SEO your pages, the search engine robots will come by often to see what all the activity is about :-) Trust me, this one WORKS!

This may not be suitable for a book, but on one of my websites I give away a free gift each month, name drawn from the list of subscribers. The gift has a perceived value of $35, and because it’s free, friends tell friends tell
friends.

This could be juicy tips as a PDF which is ‘not in the book, not on the website, secret info only an insider would know” (for example).

Hope this helps someone, and thanks for all the great tips above!

Cheers, Teena!

Thanks Teena! These are great ideas!!!

Do you have a book that you’re promoting on line? Many authors find out that once the writing is done, the work has just begun. The great thing about promoting online is that you can do so much of the work yourself, but sometimes it is difficult to know where to start.

First step, create the marketing plan! Do you have a marketing program for your book? Check out these helpful links:

• Chris Brogan: Promoting your book online
• Wiley Publishing White Paper: Marketing Your Book
• Roger C. Parker: How to Promote Your Book on the Internet
• Laura Ramirez: Book Marketing: Five Tips for Successful Online Book Promotion
• Chris Brown (me!): Branding & Marketing: 7 Ways to Successfully Market Your Book Online

Flickr: Arturo de Albornoz

Take a minute to flip thru these links to view some of these creative 3-D billboards and the This is Nebraska Carhedge video on YouTube to inspire you to think outside the box for your visual marketing ideas.

• Business Pundit: 35 Brilliant Billboards, Signs and Outdoor Ads
• Crooked Brains: Interesting Billboards
• Huffington Post: 11 Awesomely Creative Billboards
• Branding & Marketing: Visual Fun with Crosswalk Ads, But Does It Brand?

Car Hedge: This is Nebraska: Carhedge video

How are you marketing your business on the internet?  Trying to get placement for keywords in Google? Creating a fan page in Facebook? Posting a video on YouTube? Or maybe you just have a website that needs “updating” and feel like it’s overwhelming just to get it into the 2000’s.

I guess it’s not a surprise that 10 of top 20 websites in the United States are Web2.0 sites that users can upload content. 

How many of the following websites includes posts, tweets, results or reviews from you or your company? Gotta admit, I had to check out Go.com, because I’m not familiar with it. The search is powered by Yahoo.

Take a look at the top sites in the United States as defined by Alexa.

So if you’re not blogging using blogger.com or wordpress.com, maybe you’re tweeting on Twitter?

What about the keywords your potential customers are using to try to find your business? Where does your site rank for them in Google, YouTube, Yahoo, Bing and Go? Do you have a company page in Facebook and Linked in? A Twitter account?

If you’re in the midst of creating or revising your strategic marketing program for 2010, you may want to consider the online “findability” factor for your company’s marketing. I don’t see the yellow pages or Thomas Register up there in the top 20. In fact, not even the top 100… however yes to Flickr, Typepad, Twitpic, and Yelp (At yelp.com the members share their favorite recommendations – everything from the latest restaurants and shops, to the best hair salons and spas, to doctors and yoga instructors. )

If your business is consumer focused, you better be all over the internet, but even if your customer is a business to business customer, getting found on the most popular websites when they are looking for you is imperative.

Make a list of the top 10 keyword phrases you think your potential customers search to find you. Now ask your best customers what phrases they would use. This could be interesting.

And yes, your customers will say, “I’d ask a friend, I wouldn’t google it.” But we know that they will want to find your site and check you out before they make a phone call or stop in, right?

Yesterday I got a Lands’ End catalog in the mail.  Today I got an ad in my Facebook account saying “become a fan of Lands’ End and get 25% off your order.”  Coincidence? I don’t think so!

Since I watched this quick 4 minute video about social media, I decided I it’d be a good idea to add our social media marketing links to the home page of our company website. Gee, I should have done this months ago!

• Follow me on Twitter 
• Linked In Company 
• Facebook Fan Page 
• Branding & Marketing Blog 
• Social Media Marketing Services

Watch this video and you may be motivated to advance your social media marketing too! Let me know!


Social media, the next wave of business
After watching this video, you may change something about the way you think about marketing, advertising and reaching out to customers!!
If so, here are a couple helpful resources to get started or on to the next level in Facebook:

• From the 11/12/09 New York Times: How to Market Your Business with Facebook including:
  • A Facebook guide for advertisers.
  • Advice on getting started from Mashable.
  • Strategies and a tutorial from All Facebook
• My 8/1/09 post with “how-to” screen caps:  How to Use Facebook for Marketing Your Business

It is Global Entrepreneurship Week November 16 through the 22nd.

I’m planning to see this new movie called TEN9EIGHT that looks at triumph and tragedy about an entrepreneurship program with inner city youth.

Gordon has been involved with them ever since, winning a social entrepreneurship award a couple years ago, and he majored in marketing at Montclair State University. His younger brothers weren’t so lucky. One was killed by a gang member; the other is in prison.

Read the whole article here about America’s Youngest Entrepreneurs in the movie TEN9EIGHT:  Shoot for the Moon featuring the work of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), a nonprofit that began in 1987.

I was involved in Kent State University’s Entrepreneurship Extravaganza on Friday and recently learned that Kent State has the only major in entrepreneurship in Northeast Ohio.

Don’t know about you, but I find these kinds of stories extremely motivating. Are you going to see this movie?

Tags: Cleveland, Akron, Start a Business

Over the next few days LinkedIn and Twitter will be bringing business status tweeting (or microblogging) into the next level as they work together.

It looks like you’ll be able to separate the important tweets about business from the more personal tweets about lunch, which has been one of the big negatives expressed about Twitter by business followers. The way to do that is add #in (hashtag or pound symbol with the letter “i” “n”) to your tweets on Twitter when you want them to appear on LinkedIn. You’ll have to go to LinkedIn and activate it.

In the same way, you can add #fb to the tweets you want to appear on your Facebook account and you’ll have to activate it on Facebook.

Likewise I would imagine that LinkedIn will have much more functionality in the here and now. They’ve always seemed a bit behind both Facebook and Twitter with their applications.

For instance, you can only post one profile photo on LinkedIn and a logo for your company. Where’s the video? Photo gallery?

View this video on LinkedIn.com’s blog for more info.

Read the article from the San Francisco Chronicle SFGate: LinkedIn and Twitter partner to spread tweets

When you are developing your positioning statement, do you maximize your competitive advantage over your competition?

Take a look at how Verizon with HTC’s Imagio & Google’s Droid Eris is attacking Apple’s iPhone with AT&T’s cell phone coverage.

How does this apply to marketing your brand?
Does your company have a big, bad competititor? What is it that your company does better that might let you capture a bigger portion of the market share? Perhaps you are more nimble? Better customer service? Will take on smaller clients? Better at delivering service?

Yesterday at the Entrepreneurship Extravaganza at Kent State, I talked with several of the student entrepreneurs who have started and are running businesses.  Funny, in this economy, you’d think starting a business would be almost impossible, but it sure seems these students are on the right track.

Michael Matousek has launched a business called “Flash Notes” that he describes as “like Amazon or Ebay, but for student notes” and is building his college base by expanding to additional colleges and universities beyond Kent State. 

One idea he’s considering for his marketing: heading down to Fort Lauderdale for a “spring break business trip” with his laptop to sign up students from othere colleges on his company’s Facebook group page.  What do you think of that!

Neil Jacobsen is gaining valuable “real world” business experience in helping to start and run “Flash Flix”, an on-campus DVD rental service with a large selection of new release and classic movies for the student population.  

As a senior business student with an IT computer background who is about to graduate,  he’s positioning himself well for the future by gaining real business-running experience under his belt before he’s even graduated!

His company got the initial capital to invest in the movie DVD’s and now offers this on campus service to students.  I’ll bet the students have experienced first hand the struggles of hiring, scheduling, forecasting demand, getting students to return movies, and all the other situations experienced in a “real business.”

Brand new this semester, Laundry in a Flash uses the wall of their Facebook Fan page to promote specials to their fans, like “bring a friend and save on your laundry.”

It is no surprise that laundry is still something that students don’t like to do!

While each of these businesses are still very new, from a marketing perspective, each business has a great advantage: understanding their target market. From a “customer needs” prospective and how the business is promoted to the customers, each company keeps the focus on their target market.

I think that’s one of the real keys to having a strong marketing program.

Does your company have a niche target market? Which marketing tactic do you use to reach out to your market?

Today’s post is written as a resource for the Kent State University Entrepreneur Extravaganza where I will be a presenter with Rob Felber of Felber & Felber Marketing. Click here to read his post.

As an entrepreneur, I’ve come to realize that knowing how to improve your networking will improve your ability to market and brand your business.

Why is networking so important to entrepreneurs?

1. Starting and running a business requires  many facets of talent and experience.
2.  Having friends and business acquaintances who can help you find the right answers and resources is powerful.
3. By networking you get connected to other people who can and will help.
4. When you know a lot of people, there are more answers at your fingertips
5. As an entrepreneur, you need resources to bring your idea to market

Step-by Step Networking:

Keep your business cards in your right pocket, with your left pocket free to put their business cards.  If there are name tags provided put it on the right side of our lapel (people look to the right  when they shake hands.)

Don’t have a plate of food in one hand and a drink in the other.  How can  you shake hands? Grasp a business card? Don’t be chewing when someone wants to introduce you to someone else.  Just because there is food there, doesn’t mean you have to eat it.

Depending on the event, on your way there think about some casual small talk subjects for some of the casual conversations: weather, sports or other general, non controversial topics.  Have some short good answers ready for the common opening questions: where are you from? how did you get involved in this organization (if the event is hosted by an organization) and the favorite: “what do you do?”

A good networker is always ready for the what to you do with their 30 second commercial/elevator speech.  I’ve found that just launching into the full 30 seconds is a real conversation killer, so be prepared to  have a more back and forth conversation.

The 30 second commercial works when you are seated in a room of business professionals and the person at the microphone says: let’s go around the room and introduce ourselves, where we are from and what we do.  When it’s your turn, you stand, take a breath and tell the group who you help, why it is helpful to them, the name of your company and your name.  Meanwhile, you’ll be listening to the others to figure out who else you’ll need to meet before the event is over.

After the event:
Follow up after an event makes all the difference.  Either enter the contacts into your database or use an online contact system like Linked In.  Send an email to the person you promised to supply information to. Write a handwritten note to someone you will want to stay in contact with.  Perhaps schedule a phone call or meet for coffee to get to know more about the person and their resources.

You’ll want to reach out and connect two people who could help each other. That is where networking really gets strong.  When you become the connector you become the resource.

Online Networking
Many of the same concepts apply on line.  Your 30 second commercial is incorporated into your summary statement on LinkedIn. Or much shorter on your 140 character profile on Twitter.  Some advantages of online networking: you can move at your own pace, on your own time. It is searchable to find who you want or what you need, even when you don’t remember or know their name. 

Networking on line or in person is a key for entrepreneurs.

Helpful Links to Improve Your Networking Results:

• How to Build Your Network
• Top 10 Professional Networks for Women in Finance
• 10 Online Networking Tips for Entrepreneurs
• Tips for Effective Business Networking
• Business Networking Advice: Interviews
• 50 Ideas for Using Twitter for Business

This is a guest post from Rob Felber of Felber & Felber Marketing.  Rob and I are co-presenters at the Kent State University Entrepreneur’s Extravanganza on Friday, November 6, 2009.  These are the notes from his presentation.

Networking is about knowing who is a good prospect. Are you looking for a job, new clients or potential investors? Friends and colleagues who know your target audience can also help with introductions and referrals. Referrals, networking and target marketing go hand in hand. So, first, determine your target audience. Reference this article:
Referrals: You Are Responsible for Painting the Picture – Part One

What to say.  Create and then practice a 10-20 second opening statement to answer the question of what you do (or what you might be looking for as a student). Keep your phrase positive, free of jargon and “outcome-based.”

Working the room. Networking is NOT running around the room handing out as many business cards as you can. Plan ahead of special events and target those you want to meet. Speak to event organizers and obtain the attendee list. Study the list, note centers of influence and arrive early to maximize your networking time. When the meeting is called to order, do not sit with friends or colleagues. Remember, an empty chair next to you reduces your networking time by 50%. 

Follow up. How can you set yourself apart and be the one people remember? Write follow up notes. Not an email or a text message, but a hand written note. Mention an interesting fact or comment about something you learned while actually listening to people during networking. Having a business card is key to obtaining their card. It is difficult to send a note if you do not have their card.

Where to network.  Just about anywhere, if you are prepared. Have your business cards with you at all times. Know your audience through preparation. Depending on your goals, networking at peer groups may not yield the same results as groups where your colleagues are not present.
 
Social media sites. We’ve been social beings a long time. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are just new tools for the same objective. Balance your profiles personally and professionally and by all means keep them clean. Learn the etiquette of each site and harness the nuances.

Reference:
COSE meeting is all atwitter over pros, cons of social media

Take your networking to the next level and help others network. Reference: The Culture and Ethics of Referral-Based Marketing Programs – Part Two

For those of you who emailed me and posted comments to my recent post “Help! My Website Identity Has Been Stolen!” about the company who used my website for more than inspiration, I have some good news.

Jacob Johnsen took the site down and emailed me back this morning:

Chris,
No problem, site closed for redesign. Didn’t think there was any harm done with so different businesses (location and industries), just liked the appearance of yours (pls. take this as a compliment).
Jacob

I’m delighted right now. Wish all my problems resolved so easily!

One of the main questions I’ve been asked is, “How did you know?” It’s because I check my stats on my site and our clients’ site once a week to look for unusual activity.