Branding + Design | How To Marketing Tips

Web Site Design Stats Debunk the Myth About Keeping Content Above the Fold

2007-07-09T08:03:00.000-07:00

There is an excellent study posted on the ClickTale blog titled "Unfolding the Fold" that provides some hard stats about the fold and scrolling in general. These statistics demonstrate that the vast majority of web designers are designing pages with scrolling, that the majority of users do scroll and that a significant portion of them scroll all the way to the page bottom. Their conclusion is that there really is no reason to squeeze all of your content above the fold.

• 91% of the page-views had a scroll-bar
• 76% of the page-views with a scroll-bar, were scrolled to some extent
• 22% of the page-views with a scroll-bar, were scrolled all the way to the bottom

How to make a brand work online

2007-07-07T22:26:00.001-07:00

"and here is our style guide"... thump! A huge tome lands on the desk in front of you. When it is written entirely for print, how do you begin to turn it into something that will work on the web?

read more | digg story

Increase traffic to your web site with these tips

2007-07-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

I've posted the following blog article written by Ted Demopoulos, author of Blogging for Business. Simple tips that serve as a nice reminder that the Internet requires constant attention for you to achieve and maintain positive results.

Three Ways to Increase Traffic TODAY!

Traffic, readers, raving fans -- we all want more. Sure, traffic isn't everything. Small focused traffic is often better than large random traffic. Many successful businessful blogs don't have big traffic, but in general more traffic is much better than less traffic.

Here's three tips you can use to get more traffic today:

1) Leave five (or ten) intelligent comments on blogs in your niche today. Both smaller blogs and more popular blogs. I'll bet you get some visitors from the comments!

2) Fix your blogroll. Remove blogs that don't really belong there, and more importantly, add blogs to your blogroll. I'm sure there are lots of great SMALLER blogs in your niche you don't have on your blogroll. You've probably read them before, maybe read them regularly, and might even do some looking around using Technorati.com or by reading other people's blogrolls. Smaller bloggers, not the A-lister most popular bloggers, will notice. They'll visit. They might blogroll you too.

(Note: see my comments about Link Baiting and Link Building)

3) Write a post (or two or three) linking to another blogger's post you like, especially when you can add some information and value. Again, you'll probably see some traffic in return.

Notice some similarities between the three? They all involve being social. Interacting with other bloggers. You shouldn't be surprised!

Reach out to bloggers who are writing about your company

2007-07-05T11:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I published a story about paying bloggers to write about your company. But how to you manage all the others who are already writing about your products and services? The short answer is you can't. You can however, learn from what they have to say. You don't need a lot of software or equipment, just free tools that are there on the web.

Set up Google Alerts and Technorati Watchlists for your company, your products and your executives. These will notify you of any new online chatter about these subjects.

Become familiar with del.icio.us, the shared bookmarking site owned by Yahoo. Read teh tages and comments members are applying to your company's name. You may find the terms they use to describe you aren't what you expected. You'll also find fans and critics there.

Reach out to bloggers who are writing positively and negatively about your company. Ask what you can do better. Deputize them as an extension of your R&D operation.

Once you get comfortable listening to unvarnished feedback, leverage social media tools to ask for help. Set up a wiki, post your marketing collateral and invite business partners to comment. Offer a prize for the best ideas.

Engage a service like Communispace to create private communities where you can engage with partners and customers in an honest, ongooing dialogue. If your product ahs a computer component, consider opening up the code so customers can "hack" their own new ideas.

Search for Google Maps Mania to see incredible examples of how customers have extended Google's brand - adn its advertising business - by building hundreds of web services on top of its map service.

Your best product and marketing consultants may be out there right now, for free, waiting to help you. All you need to do is let them.

Get Paid to Blog and Write Product Reviews

2007-07-04T09:33:00.000-07:00

At my firm, J. Livingston Marketing Group, we recommend companies use blogging as a way to connect with your customers. It allows advertisers to monetize their web site traffic, generate viral marketing, link building, and get some much-needed feedback on how their products are faring in the marketplace.

Companies are seeing the value and are willing to pay for it. Companies like ReviewMe.com and PayPerPost are two examples paying anywhere from $5 to $1000 per review. Advertisers like Anthony Arrigo, president of Starry Night Lights has paid between $40 and $100 each for four separate reviews. They were generally favorable, but not 100%. "A couple of them had some good comments and all of them recommended some things on how I can enhance my business" After each review was posted, Arrigo said he noticed a "big spike" in his web site traffic.

These sites are not without their critics - namely other bloggers who question the sites' credibility. "In the current incarnation, they won't work for marketers - and can put bloggers in a difficult position and make them feel like they're selling out," said Scott Kirsner, a blogger and technology journalist.

Free Online Marketing Small Business Software

2007-07-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

Business IT Online, announced last week, MarketingOnline, a free online application that allows you to promote your products and services to thousands of our members and site visitors.

"We are very excited about building a thriving network of small businesses that will help our users to promote their business online in a way that has never been possible until now," says David Cruickshank, Director of Farrellsoft, the software company behind Business IT Online. "It is very difficult for small businesses to drive targeted traffic to their website and our new marketing module addresses this challenge," states Cruickshank.

The new marketing module offers many benefits for small businesses. Not least is the benefit of improving search engine visibility for one's own small business to enable businesses to be discovered more readily. In addition, businesses can also easily add their own distributable business profile to their blog or website.

Brand management begins with positive employee morale

2007-06-29T10:39:00.000-07:00

I ran across an article posted in BtoB magazine that I felt was worthy of exploring: Effective brand communications starts with a positive workplace. This means a company with individuals who believe in your mission and can communicate your brand effectively.

It may not be as easy as it sounds though. The article suggests the following. First, identify your core values. Then develop a vision/mission statement. Third, work to build the right team. Fourth, rely on experience and learning from the pas to mold the future. Then, communicate to educate: Every time you interact, you have an opportunity to reinforce your brand communications which may include your positive culture, compassionate work environment, respect, values and mission. Lastly evaluate to improve performance and incorporate specific dates and measures that allow you to review the state of your workforce culture.

One client I worked with on an internal cultural shift included using communication methods such as large wall art throughout both office locations, monthly greeting cards, email communications and the messages were even embedded in the corporate quarterly meetings and new hire process.

With a company's commitment, you'll begin to notice change. You'll soon be noticing the difference in your employee's customer interactions!

Extreme (Photoshop) Makeover

2007-06-22T20:16:00.000-07:00

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.. or the holder of Photoshop CS...

Google loses largest keyword ad buyer, eBay

2007-06-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

One of the search engine’s biggest advertising customers, eBay has announced they are cancelling their ad spend with Google. I was very interested when I heard the news and am still curious to see what will follow. The decision came after Google’s blatant plan to lure customers away from eBay by hosting a lavish Google Checkout promotional party coinciding with the annual eBay Live convention. Google Checkout competes with eBay’s Paypal service and is banned from eBay Web sites. Below are the specifics, taken from Financialtimes.com:

The stage for the confrontation was set at the start of this week when Google Checkout, an online pay service that rivals Ebay’s Paypal, advertised plans to hold a party in Boston on Wednesday night aimed at attracting Ebay’s customers. The party was scheduled to coincide with Ebay Live, an annual conference that has become its biggest customer event.

Addressed directly to Ebay’s sellers, the Google party invitation asked them to come to “a celebration of user choice” at the “same spot where revolutionaries launched the Boston tea party to celebrate freedom”.

By late on Wednesday, however, Ebay’s apparent implied threat to punish Google by pulling advertising had forced Google to change its stance. In a posting on one of the company’s blogs, Tom Oliveri, a Google product marketing manager, wrote: “We at Google agreed that it was better for us not to feature this event during the Ebay Live conference.”

Tips on How to Avoid Getting Penalized for Link Exchanges

2007-06-18T08:55:00.000-07:00

After posting my last story on link baiting Friday, I thought I would follow up by reprinting the following story posted on Unofficialseoblog.com.

Permanent Link to Google Discounting Reciprocal Link Exchanges

A website owner is often nagged by a confusion about how to most effectively increase the link-based popularity of their website. Google, on their official blog has clarified how search engines treat link spamming to increase a site´s popularity. This confusion is mainly caused by the common belief that there are two ways for optimizing the link-based popularity of your website. Firstly through the meritocratic and long-term option of developing natural links. Secondly through the risky and short-term option of non-earned backlinks via link spamming tactics such as buying links.

In recent times Google has tremendously refined its link-weighting algorithms. According to Google, nowadays, undermining the PageRank algorithm is likely to result in the loss of the ability of link-selling sites to pass on reputation via links to other sites. Discounting non-earned links by search engines opened a new and wide field of tactics to build link-based popularity. This conventionally involves optimizing your content so that thematically-related or trusted websites link to you by choice. A more recent method is link baiting, which typically takes advantage of Web 2.0 social content websites.
Google blog gives examples of new method of generating links. By submitting a handcrafted article to a service such as Digg. Another example is, to earn a reputation in a certain field by building an authority through services such as Y! Answers .
The focus of every website builder should be on the users and not on the search engines. The aim should be to create value for the users. One can direct natural backlinks by investing in sophistication of the content. This in turn will benefit the users and earn traffic for your site.

“To sum up, even though improved algorithms have promoted a transition away from paid or exchanged links towards earned organic links, there still seems to be some confusion within the market about what the most effective link strategy is" says Google. Google further asserts, “When taking advice from your SEO consultant, keep in mind that nowadays search engines reward sweat-of-the-brow work on content that bait natural links given by choice.”

Link Baiting to Drive Traffic and Link Building

2007-06-15T10:34:00.000-07:00

Not to long ago, you were told one way to improve your page rank with Google and Yahoo was to swap links. Then came the companies and software that promised thousands of sites would share links with yours - all in the name of organic search engine optimization. Google and Yahoo have gotten smart, have you?

Now Google and company frown on abusing link swapping (especially with random unrelated sites). Enter Link Baiting.

Jim Westergren, CEO of SEO Fusion., describes link baiting as "creating something that naturally attract backlinks for your web page by getting people to talk about it, discussing it on forums, blogging about it, posting it on del.icio.us/Furl/Digg/Shoutwire and linking to it from their sites. It also attracts a lot of visitors."

Link baiting is merely link building with a twist: Rather than hunting out links, you are bringing the links to you through unique and popular site content. The article is the bait, and the link is the catch. A properly created page can capture huge links on its own with little to no effort from you.

Jim also provides a great list of ideas to generate interest:
• Make a valuable resource (lists, special reports, history of, how to, etc.)
• Interview (e-mail/phone) prominent people and publish it.
• Build a useful tool
• Write an interesting article
• Run a newsworthy ‘event’ such as a contest
• Test something new that has not been done before
• Be the first in doing something on the internet
• Write something controversial
• Be the first to write the latest news in your niche
• Be the first to expose a scammer
• Disagree with an authority
• Write some funny humor
• Make an interesting picture
• Be the first to research and document something
• Make a theme, plugin or piece of software
• Make a tool that others can put on their sites but that links to you
• Make a joke about a known person
• Make a resource that is just in time for a major event
• Write an outrageous theory and back it up with logics
• Write useful comments on something that is happening
• Give something valuable for free
• Coin a new acronym in your niche and get people to talk about it
• Become an expert in your niche and write valuable information

Direct Marketing Mail Samples for Free from USPS

2007-06-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

I keep a pretty extensive library of marketing samples and as I was going through it today for a client, I ran across an "Inspiration Kit" I had received earlier this year from USPS. Here is the link for the free marketing direct mail samples.

Click on the “I don’t have an account” link and sign up to receive the kit. The inspiration kit is a file folder size plastic envelope. It has some nice samples.

I am always more than happy to share my experiences of what's worked (and didn't). Send me an email josiahs@jlivingstonmg.com. I'll also be posting samples from some of our client's campaigns (and their results) at
J. Livingston Marketing Group.

Search Engine Optimization SEO Tips and Tricks

2007-06-12T15:07:00.000-07:00

I spent a number of years working for a dot com. During this time, I learned a considerable bit about the complexity of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The following article, Attracting Search Engines: What Not To Do , has some nice tips for those of you looking to gain organic listings on Google and Yahoo.

Intentionally launching a Web site that could not be found in any of the major search engines would be a lot like opening a mail-order business and not publishing your phone number. On the Internet, the major search engines such as Yahoo, AltaVista, and Snap are the equivalent of the yellow pages. No matter how pretty and interactive your new Web site, if it can't be found in one or more of the major search engines, you're the proud owner of a billboard in the woods.

A good friend of mine, a professional copywriter, just launched a great-looking Web site -- AKBWriting.com. She spent months preparing the right words to describe her service offering. She solicited testimonials from her satisfied clients - I'm one of them. She sent out a broadcast e-mail to everyone whom she had ever come into contact with. There was just one problem. Her site is practically invisible to search engines. Because of the way it's designed, the Yahoos and AltaVistas of the virtual world -- not to mention potential customers -- will ignore it.

To give you a better understanding of search engines, we've done a little constructive criticism of AKBWriting.com, looking at how it uses graphics, frames, and keywords to attract search engines.

Site Assessment: AKBWriting.com

Problem 1: Content on main page is in a graphic

Copy on the main page is created as a graphic, not HTML text. The first page of the Web site describes the service offering and lists contact information. Unfortunately, the Web site designer chose a graphical representation of this message. Search engines cannot read text contained in graphics; they can only read HTML text. If the Web site design does not include text, the search engine has no content to index. The Web designer sought to overcome this problem by including copy in a NO FRAMES tag, a useful tactic, but not as valuable as making text readily available to feed to the search engines.

Problem 2: Frames are used

The remainder of AKBWriting.com uses frames, meaning the site is displayed in a split screen. Most sites use frames to keep important links, navigation, and contact information static on the left side of the screen as visitors scroll through. But search engines have problems with frames. First, only about half of the search engines can traverse split screens to index all of the site's real content displayed on the many pages on the right-side frame. Second, frames prevent people from setting a bookmark in their browser to a particular page within the site. For the same reason, major search engines are often unable to link to internal pages.

While several search engines now claim to support framed pages, most search engine positioning professionals tend to agree: "Don't use frames in your Web design unless you absolutely have to use them." If you insist on having a framed Web site, the NO FRAMES tag is your best hope for getting listed. For a lengthy discourse on how best to implement a NO FRAMES strategy, check out this article at Search Engine Watch.

Problem 3: Not trapping "404 Not Found" errors

Web pages change. People add pages to their Web site and remove pages they've changed. However, if an internal page of Web site attains a high ranking but is taken down at some later date, what happens to that ranking? Well, it remains, and anyone who visits that page from the search engine is served a "404 NOT FOUND" error. Sooner or later the search engine's automated agent revisits the page to see if it still exists. When it sees it doesn't, it instantly drops the page listing and ranking from its index. However, a little-known switch can be flipped on most servers that will cause the server to present a predetermined page instead of any 404 NOT FOUND error. For example, go to the following URL:

http://www.inc.com/badabingbadaboom

You get a message from inc.com that the page was not found. But inc.com navigation appears at the top, so there is still hope for finding the page you are looking for. However, try the same experiment on the AKB Writing site:

http://www.akbwriting.com/badabingbadaboom

A 404 NOT FOUND error is displayed -- a dead end in cyberspace.

Problem 4: Poor keyword selections in the keyword metatag and commas separating keywords in this tag.

The keyword metatag on AKBwriting.com is shown below:

meta name="keywords" content="copywriting, writing, content, marketing, communications, freelance copywriter, web copy, Alexandria Brown, Ali Brown, AKB, newsletters, brochures, e-newsletters"

The words included in the keyword metatag are good, but separating them with commas is not the best strategy. That makes search engines consider them individually, but most people do not search on single-word phrases anymore. (Just think of how many sites pop up when you search on "business," for example.) If the commas are left out of the keyword metatag, the search engine will consider several possible combinations of keywords. That could generate additional unanticipated traffic. So, AKBWriting.com would likely get more mileage out of the following:

meta name="keywords" content="copywriting writing content marketing communications freelance copywriter web copy Alexandria Brown Ali AKB newsletters brochures e-newsletters"

Brandweek/TippingSprung Brand Survey

2007-06-04T09:09:00.000-07:00

I received this in my email today and wanted to share...

Dear fellow branding and marketing enthusiast, TippingSprung, a branding consultancy based in New York City, in collaboration with Brandweek, the newsweekly of marketing, invites you to participate in our second survey to rank the latest crop of brand names. The survey will also help us to identify some of the current trends in brand naming.

We’re sending this confidential survey to you as a branding professional and thought leader. It should only take five or 10 minutes of your time to complete – if you do, we’ll send you a set of complete results, and include you in a drawing for some attractive promotional items from Brandweek.

Please respond by June 10, 2007.

Please click here to take the survey.

Branding Of America: Billboard Mapping Website

2007-06-01T16:07:00.000-07:00

Check out this website The Branding of America, put together by the Library of Congress. The following description was taken from their site:

Inventive and entrepreneurial Americans have left their indelible mark on American history through the hundreds of brand name products available on today's market shelves. What are these products? How did they get their start? Why have they endured over the course of history? Did their success have to do with the quality of the product or its recognition factor?

Some basic, simple design fundamentals agencies often ignore

2007-05-29T16:10:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon an article today about Direct Marketing and felt the following would be beneficial to my subscribers:

Many ad agencies, Cuno says, insist that the most important part of a direct marketing program is the creative presentation. If it's truly creative, they believe it will sell.

"Creativity is a very important tool and you can't bore people into buying," he explains. "But the fact is other tools shouldn't be ignored - like relevance, direct persuasiveness, clarity. Sometimes people get so bogged down in being creative, that the message gets obscured."

Here are some basic, simple fundamentals that Cuno says everybody should know but many ad agencies ignore:

• Using reverse type - white text on a black background - cuts the readership in half. "If you cut your readership in half... you cut your sales in half," he says. "Every now and then when I see an ad in reverse type I think, 'What are these people thinking?"

• Readers will read the headlines first. "Sometimes [headlines] are obscured, hard to read and hard to find," Cuno says. "When we talk to our layout artists, we tell them that the layout has to be logical. The eye has to know where to start and where to end up."

• The phone number and web address should be big and readable. Says Cuno: "I get all kinds of mail from companies where you have to be really committed to figure out how to contact them, because they obscure that information."

Search Engine Strategies 2007 Conference & Expo

2007-04-29T13:54:00.000-07:00

Search Engine Strategies (SES) is a four day, multi-track conference that specifically addresses search engine advertising (SEM/SEO). The event features presentations and panel discussions from highly acclaimed industry experts including representatives from the search engines themselves; interactive and in-depth sessions and workshops; and an exclusive look at the latest search trends and development for 2007. This year it is being held at the Hilton in New York on April 10-13.

Is the event worth attending? Absolutely! I had planned to bring you a day by day summary of the event however, due to a prior commitment, I won't be able to attend this year. I do recommend you follow the link to learn more: Search Engine Strategies

Whitepapers useful marketing strategy to communicate brand

2007-04-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

In an article posted in Inc.com, Wooing Customers, they cover LeanLogistics, a company that develops supply-chain management software. The company had realigned their marketing strategy to cut back on webinars and develop more whitepapers and focus on distributing via enewsletters.

LeanLogistics share their marketing spend (which is a small $500K). For those who like to compare your company's spend verses what others are doing, be sure to visit the article. Their budget seems to be defined as 4.5%-7% of revenue. A pretty typical range. I've worked with companies that assigned as much as 20% and as little as 1.5% to their marketing budget.

LeanLogistics 2007 Annual marketing budget at a glance:

Total marketing budget $550,000
Annual revenue $12 million
Budget as a % of revenue 4.6%

LEAD ACQUISITION
E-newsletters $70,000
Webinars $30,000
Trade shows $70,000
Google ads $12,000

WHITE PAPERS
Analyst fees $152,000
Hoovers fee $8,000

BRANDING/ADS/PR
Corporate Identity $60,000
PR Newswire $10,000
Ad & Sales support $25,000
PR agency retainer $74,000
Salesforce.com $7,000

SOFTWARE
VTrenz tracking $32,000

MySpace is Old, MySpace Marketing Isn't

2007-03-22T11:17:00.000-07:00

March 12, 2007 — 03:20 PM PST — by Pete Cashmore

60% of MySpace users are now 25 or older, according to Hitwise. The stats, which come via eMarketer today, show that in May/June 2005, 45.5% of MySpace users were over 25, while that number had risen to 60.3% by February 2006.

We’re always fairly skeptical of these stats, since it’s virtually impossible to measure the age of social networkers with a high degree of accuracy. MySpace users are likely getting older, but whether those older members are quite as addicted as the youth demographic isn’t so clear. eMarketer adds that social networking is less popular than email, search, business, shopping, entertainment and porn - so no surprises there.

Meanwhile, JupiterResearch reports today that 48 percent of brand marketers will use “social marketing” in the next year, compared to 38 percent last year. That means more branded MySpace profiles, more YouTube contests and more “pull” marketing that engages users, rather than forcing ads down their throats.

All Marketers Are Liars

2007-03-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

Seth Godin speaks at a Google summit. Enjoy

Internet ad revenue estimated at $16.8B

2007-03-15T10:55:00.000-07:00

The Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers released a report shoing that Internet advertising revenue for 2006 was estimated at $16.8 billion, a 34% increase from $12.5 billion in 2005. Fourth-quarter revenue totaled just under $4.8 billion, the highest quarter ever and a 32% increase from teh same eriod in 2005. The fourth-quarter and full-year figures were estimated by aggregatign data from the top 15 online ad sellers. PwC said the results were then extrapolated to calculate the total estimated industry revenue figures. Actual third and fourth quarter results will be reported in the final 2006 Internet Advertising Revenue Report, expected to be released in April.

Search, Video, Web 2.0 top online ad trends

2007-02-28T09:30:00.000-08:00

In an article featured in BtoB magazine, "Companies recognize power of online advertising spending", it highlights the online buzz around MySpace, YouTube, video banner ads, etc. that marketers are chasing. And why not? It's new, it's fun, it's glamorous.

I spent a number of years as a brand manager for an dot com where online was where a majority of our spend was allocated. Although the article focuses on paid advertising and the billions being spent, a majority of my readers don't have multi-million dollar budgets.

In the old days (in online terms that means the 90's), marketers would build buzz about their product/service by going to chat rooms and posting on forums. Today advertisers are setting up Myspace profiles and YouTube accounts - for free.

I recently got into a discussion with my good friend who happens to be a lawyer. He was thinking about posting fun video clips on YouTube to draw attention to his business. While we talked for nearly an hour about viral marketing and Web 2.0 (and my uttering the words "target marketing"), I think it's a great example of how today's online medium allows a opportunity for those who know how to take advantage of it.

Inside a Brand Makeover

2007-02-15T15:11:00.000-08:00

In the January edition of Inc. Magazine, they featured an article titled, Is Dave Insane? Inside a Brand Makeover. The article introduced Dave, the owner of a company that produced a popular hot sauce. Known as Insanity Sauce, it was his flagship product. Over the years his company had acquired a few smaller companies and before long, had a number of complimentary products.

Dave was approached by an ad agency and begin work on a rebranding strategy. Below I have inserted the different options the firm came up with. Their recommendation to the client was to go with the simple and elegant label, referred to as the "white label". The client (Dave) expresses concern, "It's hard. The question is, does that label connect with an Insanity buyer? The Insanity look has a ton of equity. It's a risk. Not that I'm so risk averse, but if it's a miscalculation, you lose a ton of equity."

Though Dave makes a good point, the agency explains their reasoning. "Yes, the packaging for Insanity is a recognizable beacon. But, if you're selling one bottle to your customers every couple of years, you can make the change - Let the trade know and his customers know that the guy who brought you the hottest sauce in the universe now brings you the most intense, most unique flavor. Not just: I'm wacky Dave. He can't keep doing that."

This brings me to my motivation for covering this article. Sometimes it's the agency's role to manage the client. Help them understand the progression, make them feel comfortable with the transformation. A third party can provide a fresh look and most importantly, an unbiased, emotion free look.

Not Your Ordinary Dave
"We thought that an unassuming guy with such an ordinary name coming up with that ridiculous hot sauce was cool. It's not like his name is Thor. So the idea here is to personify Dave and to evolve his current design architecture: the oval with the graphic and the color bar. This is pretty close to what he's already got--just better."

Superhero Dave
"This keeps with personifying Dave. Depicting him as a chef shows that he is all about the food, but then having fun with it. Food is supposed to be fun. He got into it because it was fun--to fight bland."

The Eisenhower Years
"Remember when food wasn't so hoity-toity? The green circle is a half-tone design element that's very pop art, like Warhol. Very '50s--'60s diner. On the hot sauce, we have a pepper wearing retro sunglasses, which refers to Dave's existing label. It's supposed to be kitschy and campy, nostalgic for a simpler time."

King Dave
"The ass kicker. What gourmet brand is talking like Muhammad Ali or Shaft? This one's evocative of tattoos, Harley-Davidson --the tough guy--while using elements of the original logo with the oval and lines. This says, 'If you're eating Ragu instead of Dave's, you're a sissy.'"

Renaissance Dave
"Whenever you see something like Sam Adams beer, there's the patriot from 17-whatever giving you this phony credibility. We wanted to turn that on its head. But at first glance, it doesn't look whacked; it looks like the fancy brand."

Below is the campaign "White Label" that was recommended by the agency:

Who knew ABC's John Stossel was a Graphic Design Expert?

2007-01-25T12:21:00.000-08:00

Humorous story on 20/20. My peers know my disdain for Comic Sans. Glad to see it show up in this important documentary...

Adobe Free Approach to Logo Design

2007-01-08T16:59:00.000-08:00

I recently stumbled across this video created by Chris Stones at Chris World. He shows a unique approach to designing a logo using a variety of open source tools, none of which start with the word Adobe or end with the letters CS...

My Blogroll

2006-12-31T10:04:00.000-08:00

Click Here To Join

As a Matter of Fact I Do!

2006-12-18T10:08:00.000-08:00

Often, when I give presentations or am asked to write an article, I get the question – "Is there a place where I can access archives?" ...or worse, "Do you have a blog?"

When I formed J. Livingston Marketing Group nearly a decade ago, I had a vision of becoming a "one-stop shop". Now I shun the word. Michael Jordan was a darn good basketball player – it did not however, mean he was also great at baseball. I approach marketing the same way. You are often better off at working with one firm that excels in design and another for your PR needs. Hence over the years, JLMG has narrowed our offerings, and instead made it our mantra to become darn good strategic branding experts.

So my intent for this blog is to share short stories of interest and perhaps stimulate conversation - and for heaven’s sake, finally have an answer for that embarrassing question: "A blog? As a matter of fact, I do!"

To learn more about J. Livingston Marketing Group,
visit http://www.jlivingstonmg.com/