>Can your brand survive a crisis with a million YouTube hits
>
Is your business able to respond to this level of scrutity? Years of positive brand building gone in seconds.
From the New York Times:
Video Prank At Domino’s Taints Brand
>April Showers Bring More Than Flowers
>
April showers will bring May flowers, but they also bring a fantastic promotional marketing opportunity.
The following are just a few items that will help you brand your products and services to your customers and keep your name around for many years. Reach your target audience with a very affordable promotion.
What else can you do this time of year? Consider umbrella’s with your logo. Your clients will appreciate the extra touch.
>Advertising is looking up at you!
>
Ok just when you thought it was safe on the road we have another twist. Read this article:
No Logo: Kentucky Fried Pothole
Kentucky Fried Chicken is diversifying its business model – now moving in to privatized road repair.
Starting in Louisville, KY, KFC is filling city potholes. And then, of course, branding them with KFC logos.
According to the KFC press release:
The KFC Colonel and his professional road repair crew got started in their hometown of Louisville by filling up potholes and re-freshing roads around the city. KFC also issued an open offer to mayors of cities nationwide, asking them to describe their city streets’ state of disrepair. Four of these lucky cities, chosen at random, will receive KFC’s road re-“fresh”ment, promising citizens a smooth drive that is fit for a Colonel.
This just goes to show you that every cloud has silver lining and that that opportunities are out there.
Bruce
>It’s Time for Green and Health to Marry
>Here’s a great article from our friend, colleauge and resident green expert, Colette Chandler.
For those of you who know me or know what I’m most passionate about it’s the intersection between green and health. I feel this is the missing link, it’s the reason I speak about it regularly and created my newest speaking topic: Creating the green and health marketing balance©
It’s been a popular topic for all of my national speaking engagements including my keynotes. I would expect it will be as popular for international ones as well.
I really think it’s time for the green groups and the health groups to marry each other and combine their households.
Yet, I see few groups, organizations, companies who truly understand this marriage and that it is a match made in heaven. It only makes sense that the green side work with the health side of things. It all balances out in the end. Let me explain…
Everything we do that is moving toward being more environmentally friendly impacts our overall health and wellness. Our environment impacts the air we breathe, what we put into our bodies and so forth. Research has even shown that since 90% of our time is spent in buildings, green buildings could help companies reduce 58 billion in sick time. I heard that great statistic from L. Hunter Lovins.
Yes. I understand we are building more green buildings and many of the builders understand this. Why then aren’t more of the green business groups working with the health groups toward a common goal? Doesn’t it make sense?
I am on a mission to see that this happens. So if you know of a green business group and a health business group, please email me at cchandler@marketing-insider.com. I’m keeping a list of these and will start offering support to both sides to make sure they see what kind of impact this could have.
Helping You Understand and Profit from Consumer Health and Green Trends
Colette Chandler
To see the full HTML article, click here: http://www.keyboard-culture-green-marketing.com/2009/03/its_time_for_green_and_health_to_marry.html#more
>Make Direct Mail Part of Your Next Campaign
>
We’ve all had those days where we don’t even look at the junk mail and just toss it into the garbage. If you ask any consumer they will tell you they do the same, however they may not be telling the truth. Oftentimes people think they are “above” getting advertised to but in reality, we all love to be entertained and educated on the latest trends, products, etc.
So why this blog post on direct mail? Well, because frankly direct mail still works. We were thrilled to find out from our network that brothers, Rob and Bruce Felber, were featured in a postcard from the Cleveland Jewish News. The CJN sent postcards promoting their expanding business section to all their current and prospective advertisers. The image as you see here is a snapshot of Rob and Bruce’s article that ran in the March 21, 2008 issue featuring family businesses! The publicity we received from the article just doubled by showcasing us on the postcard. Good job CJN for using the power of direct mail, and thank you for selecting us as the leading image.
~ Michelle Hirsh, Felber & Felber Marketing
>MAGNET Incubation Roundtable
>
Letter from Wayne Zeman, Vice President, Venture Development, Magnet
Dear Roundtable members, NEOinc Incubator Clients, TechLift Clients, County Loan recipients, CSM participants and other invited guests,
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!!!
Bob Felber’s session last June was such a huge success that we’ve decided to bring him back again. He’ll revisit and expand upon his program: “How To Effectively Use Public Relations During The Early And Middle Stages Of Your Company’s Development.”
As you all know, a huge dilemma that all early stage companies face is how to promote themselves when they have little or no money available. It’s the old “chicken and egg” problem—how do you get people to buy your product or service so you can generate revenue when you don’t have revenue to reach out to potential customers in the first place.
Well here in northeast Ohio we’ve got a great resource in the form of Felber and Felber Marketing who can give you practical, easy to use pointers on how to address this problem. Rob’s session will be a highly interactive presentation/discussion with plenty of time for questions. In this workshop, participants will learn how to determine the newsworthiness of potential stories, identify ways to interact with reporters and editors, discover the do’s and don’ts of working with the media and explore ways to effectively coordinate marketing and public relations tactics.
The program is scheduled from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. including time for networking from 3:30 to 4:00 pm with refreshments. There is NO COST to attend but attendance is limited so get your reservation in soon!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
3:30 – 5:00 p.m.
Seminar Room
MAGNET Innovation Center
1768 East 25th Street
Cleveland, Ohio 44114
Please let Barbara know if you are planning to attend this inter-active session by Thursday, March 19
For more information or to confirm your attendance, please contact Barbara Paul at 216-432-5322, Barbara.paul@magnetwork.org.
Feel free to contact me if you have further questions at 216-432-4197, wayne.zeman@magnetwork.org.
>2009 Entrepreneurial Qualities Survey
>
David Crain, also of Magnet, writes for online blog on Entrepreneurship and Positive Leadership. If you are an entrepreneur, he needs your help. Take the 2009 Entrepreneurial Qualities Survey.
Thanks and best of luck David.
>The Social Media contest
>
Check out this cool contest from Jim Kukral, The BizWebCoach. Now this is putting your money where your blog is….good luck.
>Denied, by LinkedIn
>
Denied, almost
LinkedIn
So, you are now on LinkedIn and Facebook. Going a little wild with connections? I did too, until recently. LinkedIn informed me, somewhat politely, that I had gone overboard. See, some people told LinkedIn that they did not know me. (Yes, I guess there are a few folks still left).
Apparently, these ticked off folks tipped off LinkedIn with the “I Don’t Know” (this bloke Felber) button. Anyway, I had to agree to be more careful on invites. They sent me some nice tips as a result of my signing my life away (see below).
See, I was inviting interesting folks that I saw in groups we shared; mostly, it worked very well and I have met with people and made some great connections. Reminds me of the early days of email (anyone remember Cleveland FreeNet?). We sent everything to everyone; that was early spam, sans viruses.
But, be careful. I’ll be trying these tips so I do not get restricted from this great social media tool.
Dear Robert,
We thank you for agreeing to comply with our policies and know that together we can maintain an outstanding website for all of our members.
We would like to share some tips for the acceptance of your invitations:
1. Editing the body of your invitation to prompt a recollection. This can be done when you arrive to the “invite page”. At the bottom, you have the option to add a “personal note” which may be edited to reflect your personalized message.
2. Click on the “Get introduced through a connection” link if this person is connected to someone already in your network.
3. Add a photo of yourself so that members who may not recognize your name but would certainly remember what you look like.
The restriction has been lifted from your account. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact us.
http://www.linkedin.com/
The restriction has been lifted from your account. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact us.
http://www.linkedin.com/
>Say No to Tchotchkes and Yes to Promotional Products
>Our very own Bruce Felber was quoted in “Take Advantage of the Downturn” about why you should use promotional products during this poor economy. Check it out!