If what you know to be true today turns out not to be true tomorrow, when would you want to know about it?

For the world of big brands, this means that many strategies used in marketing and advertising that were effective in the past, are just not as valid anymore.

For the individual and the world of small business, this also means that many traditional business models that worked well in the past, are not the best means for capitalizing on new business opportunity today.

Chris Anderson’s “The Long Tail” is about abundance marketing and becoming a screaming business success in impossible places. There is a revolution afoot and “Brand You” can be a player – on your own terms – based on your own vision.

The faster you can harness the dynamic of exiting commerce and the emerging new world order - the faster you can get on track with your own business – and lifestyle – agenda. We’ll say it again, speed is the currency of business and success loves speed.

The “My Affiliate Store” business system has just opened it’s doors for sale today. They will only sell 1000 systems and 200 were sold pre launch. The system is being heavily marketed by some of the internets’ top affiliate marketers who have massive email lists. It may already be sold out!

We bought a system pre-launch.
Our new store is called; www.sandboxsports.com

We’ll be open for business in a month and we’ll let you watch how it progresses from here. We’ll reveal what we’re doing in terms of marketing, SEO, market research, content and copy etc.

Check it out! Could this be for you – or your business?
Coach speak: “suit up – your starting!” Well, you can at least get in the game!

The marketing buzz phrase du jour is “web 2.0″. What web 2.0 is exactly is open to some interpretation but for certain, it’s a concept that describes the use of multimedia video and audio on the web. Harmonizing your website with next generation web-sites such as wikipedia, MySpace, YouTube, Digg, Jumpcut, blogging and so on, makes for a richer, more interactive experience for your sites’ visitors.

For advertisers, it has become a means of generating more traffic and more publicity. This means more sales opportunity and increased brand identity. As a good example, it’s worth revisiting the recent, viral advertising initiative brought to the world of web 2.0 by Frito-Lay Inc.

During October/10 and December/04 of 2006, Frito-Lay sponsored an online competition for its’ Doritos brand of tortilla chips. The competition was billed as the Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl Contest”. Entrants were invited to create their own Doritos video commercial and submit it to a website to be judged. There were over 1000 Doritos commercials submitted.

This is from the contest site’s “How It Works” information:

Five Finalists will be chosen by our judges based on the following criteria: Originality and Creativity - 40%, Adherence to Assignment and Regulations - 30%, Overall Appeal - 30%. America will choose the grand prize winner.

Prizes: Five (5) Finalist prizes: $10,000 US each and a trip to Miami for a private Super Bowl XLI viewing party. The Grand Prize winner’s submission will be aired during the Super Bowl XLI broadcast.

From concept to execution, the Doritos campaign ties in with our recent posts concerning “The Long Tail” and “What’s The Big Idea”. It’s a terrific example where the world of big brand advertising partners with the little guy empowered through the mechanisms of web 2.0.

The following video is the creation of Five Point Productions - the winning entrant. Their video is titled: “Live the Flavour” and it aired during the Super Bowl XLI television broadcast. How would that look on your resume?

This was Five Point Productions take on winning the contest:

Obviously, this is a true Cinderella story for us… WE CAN’T THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

We’re hoping to break Super Bowl Ad records in the following ways:

-Smallest Budget (Total = $12.79)
-Smallest Crew (Cast/Crew = 5 people)
-Shortest Production Time (4 days… including concept development)
-Youngest Crew (age 22 and younger)

No pun intended but here’s some more (snack) food for thought;

Go ahead and watch all five finalist productions. To experience more of this campaigns’ creative interactivity go to snack strong productions. It may take a moment to load but it’s worth a peak.

To stimulate some fresh creativity for your own original productions check out this source of concept triggers from the thought provoking folks at AdCracker. Another interactive tool for Creative Directors, Copywriters, Art Directors - and all those who create, sell or teach persuasive communications. That should include you!

A high touch and consistent approach to sales management and training can significantly improve the selling skills and techniques needed by your organization’s sales professionals. A clear understanding of buyer/seller rapport, sales call planning, questioning and listening skills, presentation skills and closing strategies will drive the top line results for any business.

The goal is to achieve a solution driven sales approach to your customers most pressing needs. To find those pressing needs, go get some real marketing muscle.

To master the art of selling, the following three adverts are required viewing. They are brought to you by the very serious, big brand folks at IBM. Big Blue knows a thing or two about how to target the right customer. Watch each spot back to back - too funny. We all know a Bob Hooey or two in the real world of corporate sales. Did we mention that they’re too funny?

So, are you a farmer of a rancher? Now go sell something!

In case you were planning a test drive over the weekend, we thought we would post an excerpt direct from BMW promotional copy. Featured along side the copy, is a creative and interesting print advertisement.
The marketing copy and the print ad are both taken out of context but nonetheless, the brand messaging and the stated brand values are both part and parcel of BMW’s overall strategy for the positioning of their luxury brand identity.

Since its inception, the BMW brand has stood for one thing: sheer driving pleasure.

Sporting and dynamic performance combine with peerless design and exclusive quality, resulting in the unique appeal of BMW automobiles.

Experience the fascination of BMW.

What are BMW brand values?

The BMW brand is a blend of the company’s values, products, history, image and visions.
BMW brand values are:
• Joy
• Dynamic
• Cultured
• Challenging
They represent ’sheer driving pleasure’ in every model.
These are communicated to the customer through the end product.

With the print ad, we’re just wondering if BMW realizes that successful women like to own and drive upscale automobiles too. We doubt that this advert is the way win their business. A surprisingly bad taste ad!

The Ultimate Attraction

For an interesting analasis of another successful interactive marketing campaign from BMW marketing, check out Viral Marketing - Case Study - BMW Films

Our own informal marketing study has revealed that nine out of ten consumers surveyed, who are likely to own or lease a BMW are also likely to consume Lavazza Coffee

Now this is an advertising print campaign that caught our eye! The adverts are brought to the marketplace by the popular Lavazza Coffee brand of Italy. Interesting imagery but we’re not really sure about the correlation between naked bodies and coffee beans. Coffee is a stimulant and the images are stimulating too - OK maybe we’re reaching. The ad copy reads; “Italy’s Favourite Coffee”

The art direction and creative photography of the graphics were produced by renowned advertising photographer Eryk Fitkau. He is best recognised for his specialized methods of post-production which include unique techniques for double exposing images and hand colouring.

Too bad Lavazza beat us to it though because naked bodies and Caffeine Marketing – well that’s another story. Even if it is narcissistic, we think that these graphics are just the type of promotion that would better suit our own brand identity goals.

Nuf said, study the ads, critique the ads, debate the ads – we just hope you enjoy them over another cup of your daily marketing news.

No it’s not a new drink. More like a very “cool” exercise in advertising, publicity and branding. Microsoft officially launched the release of its new flagship Vista operating system and Office 2007 in Toronto, Canada on January/29/07 by building a “Digital Ice House” created from 270,000 pounds of ice.
The project required 500 man hours of production and 300 man hours of preparation to set up. The furnishings included actual tables, chairs, beds, decorations and even a toilet, sink and bathtub all sculpted from ice.
The various rooms of the house featured the potential uses of the Microsoft products that promise easy-to-use search and organization tools and a safer online experience. The built-in Windows Media Center and new mobility features give users more ways to enjoy their favourite digital entertainment at home or on the go.
For Windows Vista Ultimate, Microsoft recommends system requirements of 1 GHz 32-bit processor, 1 GB system memory and a 40 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space. Some critics warn that unless your system is well above these minimums, you run the risk of sending your computer into a deep freeze of it’s own with the new MS operating system.
You can watch the Digital Ice House tour right now:

The results of the Top brand survey by Brandchannel.com have not changed significantly from last year as far as first two slots are concerned. According to some 3,600 respondents (mostly students and branding specialist), Google tops the list of brands impacting our lives the most. Apple remains the second on the list while Google owned YouTube has been ranked three and Wikipedia is on the fourth position. � �

The debut of the newcomers like YouTube in third and Wikipedia in fourth, is being cited as an indication of the growing impact of online brands built on user-generated contents.Other winners include social network website MySpace which has reached the 15^th position globally, ahead of Aljazeera on 19^th. The asian results are however more in the favor of traditional brand with � Sony, Toyota, HSBC, Samsung and Honda respectively taking up the first five slots.

Full Details on Reuters

There are many available definitions ofÂ� ‘brand’. The Dictionary of Business and Management defines a brand as: “a name, sign or symbol used to identify items or services of the seller(s) and to differentiate them from goods of competitors.” Most of the available dictionary sources define brand as a packaged product only carrying a trade mark name. Some sources have even defined a brand as a manufactured product only.With the recent paradigm shift in marketing thinking, a few branding experts have defined a ‘brand’ as a corner of space in the minds of brand consumers. According to their definition, a brand is mental representation of their interaction with the brand.However, a ‘brand’ should be more suitably defined as a “sum total of all the experiences associated with a product/service or non-product/service entity”.

According to this short definition, a brand is not limited to the physical product or tangible service only. A brand is more than that and beyond. The experiences associated with the brand are not limited to the physical interaction with the product/service. By this definition, a brand can be a product/service entity like a detergent, an insurance company and also a non-product/service entity like a politician, a lawyer, an uncle and even a country.This definition is a better definition of a brand for the following reasons:
1) This definition makes it absolutely clear that a brand is beyond a product or service and may or may not include a tangible product/service.
2) A brand is a sum total of experiences that help consumers form a brand perception in their minds. The perception itself is not a brand but it’s just a mental representation of brand experiences and this nullifies many theories on brand definition.
3) This definition also clarifies that a brand is built not only through effective advertising but a brand is built through the total experience that it offers.

Effective communication is essential for building a strong brand. A good marketing campaign can literally sell anything and almost everything. A marketing text book even says that the real marketing is the ability to sell ice to Eskimos by making them realize that they actually needed to buy ice.

However, there’s one major limitation to the power of advertising. A marketer’s ability is limited to generating trial only – there are more factors also responsible for bringing the repeat purchase. Most importantly, the brand must deliver on the brand promise made by the marketer.

The role of advertising varies from brand to brand depending upon the nature of the product/service. The products with strong functional benefits will be less influenced by the power of communication and the products that bring emotional and non-functional benefits obviously will be more influenced by the effectiveness of advertising.

For commercial product/service brands, effective Brand building is instead a function of 4 P’s of marketing and importance of each P varies depending on the nature of the product/service being marketed.