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Our first session in the series has been completed and the schedule has been released for the the next five. Please see information below (Click on to enlarge) and contact me for more information.
Bruce Felber
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You don’t! You let them fly solo on their first prime time interview. My daughter’s Elana & Zoe Felber represent Twinsburg, Ohio in Cleveland Magazine’s annual “rate the suburbs” issue June 2009.
See the online interview here: http://bit.ly/dKAPk
>Veteran Northeast Ohio entrepreneur Len Pagon was recognized by the Ohio Venture Association on June 12th, emerging from four strong nominees to win OVA’s Venture of the Year award.
At the age of 23, Pagon founded his web-development company in 1989 as New Media. It was later renamed Brulant, and in 2008 merged into New Jersey-based Rosetta, which calls itself the largest independent interactive agency in the U.S. But Pagon proudly noted that about 450 of the company’s 680 employees remain in Northeast Ohio. Through all those changes, challenges and turnarounds in 20 years, he joked that he belongs to the “Captain Ahab school of entrepreneurship.”
The other nominees included Bargmann Management, purchased recently by Invacare; Expensewire, a travel-expense company sold recently to Rearden Commerce; and NDI Medical, begun with a $220,000 investment and recently sold for more than $40 million to health care giant Medtronic.
Last year’s winner was Jim Hummer, founder & CEO of Whole Health Management.
>The first presentation of “Sales and Marketing: Your Way Out of the Economic Crisis” sponsored by the WIRE-Net Organization has been completed.
The session started of with an introduction by Mark Pinto, Manager of Manufacturing Sales for WIRE-Net. Mark outlined the six sessions that will be presented over the next six months and introduced the faculty presenters and the WIRE-NET staff. I was introduced by Mark and I set the stage for the sessions by using Felber & Felber’s recently created Manufacturer’s Anxiety Closet. All participants shook their heads to acknowledge what keeps us up at night.
I then handed off the session to Erica Root Cikanek of Strategic Marketing Initiatives, LLC. who spoke about understanding your Value Proposition and Brand Promise. Erica outlined the difference between the company and customer’s viewpoint and how to determine the customer’s pain points. Erica pointed out how important it is to analyze your competitor’s brand promise by reviewing their websites, brochures and product catalogs. This part of the session included examples that illustrated the difference between Company A and Company B and their value proposition/brand promise and why we should perform a Gap Analysis.
Erica turned the second half over to me where I spoke about the Lead Generation tools and techniques needed to communicate your brand.
I presented a quick summary of the following: (These will be expanded on in the upcoming sessions.
DIRECT MARKETING
Client Profile
Mailing List
Vehicle (Postcard, Dimensional, Brochure, Promotional, Trade Show,
e-Blast)
Message/Copy Points – Call to Action
Creative
Production
Delivery Method
ADVERTISING
Display Ads (Trade pubs, industry newsletters, business newspapers & directories)
Your Company Newsletters, Blog & Website
Banner Ads
Promotional Products (crosses all media)
PUBLIC RELATIONS
Press Releases
Lead Story
Industry & Client Publication Avenues
Industry Expert
Current Client Case Study
Wire Services
Special Events
SOCIAL MEDIA
Linked In
Face Book
Twitter
Flickr
You Tube
Ning Sites
Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Reddit
Blogs & RSS Feeds
During the session the presenters and participants engaged in Q&A and feedback. The entire group benefited from sharing situations and solutions.
Overall this presenter was thrilled with the outcome. I look forward to the next 5 sessions and will share comments, reactions and results.
Bruce Felber
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I am pleased to announce that all of our efforts over the last three months are ready for presentation. I have been working with the Wire-Net Organization to bring a new series to the manufacturers here in Northeast Ohio. Wire-Net’s mission:
WIRE-Net strengthens manufacturing to create healthy communities and fuel economic growth. We provide expertise that is responsive to manufacturing related businesses and their employees. WIRE-Net connects leaders to each other and engages them in their communities.
Please see the details of this nee Sales & Marketing Series:
WIRE-Net is bringing together some of the area’s leading experts in the field of sales and marketing to design and deliver a series of workshops geared especially for manufacturers. Our goal is to show you several different concepts and then assist you in applying them to your business to improve sales and profitability. We will help you strengthen relationships with current customers, approach prospective customers in your current market, and target new customers in new markets.
The series will cover six topics:
Beginning in June we will cover one topic per month. We will hold the same workshop twice each month at different locations around the greater
For more information, contact Jacki Adams at 216.588.1440 ext. 114. Seating is limited, so register early by calling Anne Schaum at 216.588.1440 ext 101.
WIRE-Net is pleased to be working with Bruce Felber (Creative Director – Felber & Felber Marketing), Damian Petrini, Erica Root Cikanek, Chris Stadler, and Carol A. Staiger on this important venture.
You may also call me at 330-963-3664 for more information.
Bruce Felber
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Play Ball this summer with a hot new promotional package. The Home Run Gift Box includes a promotional synthetic baseball, a 6″ baseball bat pen and a baseball key chain with a box of Cracker Jacks and a bag of David sunflower seeds in a gift box. Your logo/message printed on baseball key chain, baseball bat pen and baseball.
Perfect for company outings, behind the fence parties and promotional direct mail with a sports theme. Special pricing starts under $20.00. For more sports or leisure related themes contact Bruce Felber at brucefelber@felberandfelber.com.
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Ok the Cavs/Magic games are keeping my stress level up and my heart pumping. Is this good? Game one was tough as we shot ourselves in the foot too many times. Game two we adjusted much better and LeBron is the ultimate champion. Nice to see a game winning buzzer beater, but to win the series we need to play our second half with the same focus and energy as the first half. Don’t get me wrong I am happy we won, but would like it to be a bit more comfortable. Yes we are now playing with the big boys and we have the stuff to do it right. Just like in marketing you need a game plan, talent and the ability to run the play and make the right adjustments.
What does this teach us? Well never underestimate the competition or the market place. Look ahead, but stay on course. Like the Cavs we all want the win, so teamwork is the key. Hard work and true messaging will prevail.
Bruce Felber
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The second sweep by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the the playoffs elevate the marketing of two brands. It seems that the stage is being set for the ultimate match between the Cavs and the Lakers and the hype is helping push two brands. Nike and Gatorade are airing commercials pitting LeBron James and Kobe Bryant in head to head high spirited competition to bring brand awareness to their respective companies.
This is all in fun, but with very focused brand positioning and I for one love it. As a Cleveland fan in search for a champion this national attention is great. But remember that Cleveland is more than sports and has a rich manufacturing history with the hardest working people around. Support our local companies as we lift our spirits. Afterall it is “all for one and one for all” in these challenging times. Go Cavs, we are all behind you.
>Help the earth stay green with this very special earth-friendly promotional. Order before 4-24 and save an additional 10%.
Contact Bruce for more details.
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Misspellings in today’s world is inexcusable. I cringe when I see it in an advertisement or in a newspaper article. Yes, sometimes things happen and you can’t help it but really, with so many eyes on everything before its gets printed or produced, it should never happen.
So why this proofreading reminder? When I was watching ESPN yesterday, the story of the Nationals’ new uniform caught my attention. Thanks to this blog post, we have a visual of how “Nationals” was misspelled in front of millions of viewers.
From approving the design to physically producing them to the players wearing the uniform… many should have caught the error. So how did this mistake get this far? I’m sure yesterday and today will be spent trying to figure out where the process of proofreading failed.
So what can you do to prevent mistakes like this? Proofread, give it to someone else, sleep on it, then proof again. The more eyes the better. Read copy backwards. Read copy out loud, including punctuation. Look things up if you don’t know what something means. Call phone numbers in your ads to make sure you have the right one. Check zip codes. In our days of having everything at your fingertips, there is no excuse. Even text boxes in Mozilla Firefox has a spell check!
~ Michelle Hirsh, Felber & Felber Marketing
