Digital Buzz at Stormfront Productions

Marketing a President

2008-10-30T21:14:58Z

I'm sure the average reader of The Digital Buzz has been confused and greatly saddened as of late due to our recent inactivity. In all honesty, I too, felt the effects of the waning attention on the blog and couldn't stand it anymore. So here we are back with a bang. Today, I'm writing you on a topic that isn't only receiving current media attention, but is the heart of the media itself.

The looming election, a phrase oft spouted when in dire economic or political straits (or both as may be the current case) has politicos worldwide debating yet again. The United States presidential election is important to the world economy as it represents much of the policy to be administered over the course of the following four years, and so it's almost as if it's an election for the world populace. People everywhere tune in to see what the latest breaking developments are in a race that has lasted nearly two full years.

The developments in recent months are those of attack campaigns. Rather than discussing issues of domestic or foreign policy or evaluating the economical crisis at length both Republican and Democratic parties have turned from their infighting to focus all that usual negative attention on one another. McCain's campaign and running mate have likened candidate Obama to be a Muslim and supporter of a terrorist while the Obama campaign has discussed McCain's political ties with Bush and oil and likened a McCain-Palin administration to the current one, which is currently holds one of the lowest approval ratings in the nation's history. ]]>
Even further, most every campaign runs dirty ads. One of the most notoriously vicious (and for that matter dramatic) campaigns in the United States' past was the election of 1896 which also had at its core a deep seeded interest in the economy. And just as now, massive amounts were spent by candidates (although at that time McKinley and the Republicans outspent the Democrats in much the same way as Obama and the Democrats are outspending the Republicans of today). This money went into creating an image, a brand, an identity to be held by the American voter as they entered the booth. The battlefield hasn't changed much although the medium has. Hopefully, in future debates, with all of that marketing money at their disposal, candidates will think of a creative way to actually interact and inform their possible constituency, rather than walking the path more traveled by. And I, I believe it will make all the difference.

The Cure to the Convoluted Internet: Brands

2008-10-10T15:04:08Z

Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, recently held a talk with various magazine executives as part of a broader event organized by the search giant for the execs. During his discussion, he spoke on such topics as Brand relevance in the clouded world of the internet, successful search engine marketing (which in his discussion is related to the first point) and the future of for-profit journalism.

Brand relevance was a major speaking point for Schmidt as he explained it to be the necessary cure to the unnecessary evil that is the majority of available sites on the web. By creating a strong brand readily recognized by the public, a company gains a great deal of wiggling room. They are more likely to be considered relevant and even during times of economic downturn a strong brand can survive or even prosper (just ask the Ritz cracker company which developed out the Great Depression in the early 20th century). ]]> blogs comprise the bulk of relevant information that appears in search results. Granted, there are millions of pages full of "content" also on the web, but the poor quality offered by so many is why Google and other search engines constantly work to better the relevant search queries input by users. Obviously the more relevant the searches the better and possibly more successful the results are the more likely a user is to continue using that engine.

One interesting thing mentioned by Schmidt to the execs was that Google "doesn't want you to succeed" in gaining rank in their engine. There is nothing malicious in that comment; it is merely a matter of wanting the best and most relevant search material available. If a company is able to trick the search engine into placing it higher in the natural search results than it should, then the person being cheated is the user. That being said, it is easy to see why such new methods of SEO are SMO and full brand development.

Search companies often offer full packages, and prefer that a client develop these campaigns from the beginning. Although we will take a client at any stage of their development and try to offer them the absolute best solutions for their SEO needs, developing a strong brand with their SEO package is essential to making a successful and relevant campaign. Just like Google told the magazine executives, building a strong brand is the key to pulling ahead and away from the "cesspool" that is the majority of internet content.

Microsoft Approves $40 Billion in Debt

2008-09-23T17:40:03Z

Microsoft recently approved President Steve Ballmer to take on up to $40 billion in debt for stock buybacks. The company plans on taking advantage of the fiscal difficulties currently being experienced by the market to boost its dividends and profits. The company's quarterly dividends are being raised from 11 cents to 13 cents, an 18 percent increase; they will be made payable on December 11 to stockholders on record as of November 20.

The board approved this loan in wake of percentage rates sitting at around 2 percent after receiving the two highest credit scores available from Standard and Poor's Rating Services and Moody's Investors Service Inc. Short term loans in the software and technology industry continue despite other market sectors feeling an economic pinch. This buyback plan is the second $40 billion buyback by Microsoft in the last 5 years. ]]>
Since the market is so topsy-turvy, it makes sense for a large corporation like Microsoft, with nearly $24 billion in the bank to make this type of move. They'll own more of their company while raising its value. The stockholders are happy, obviously they are happy and everyone wins. It will allow future leveraging for other such buyouts (both of stock and competitors), financing and expansion globally and at home. This isn't even to mention the enormous amount of marketing the company is doing right now to reengineer its brand recognition.

The "I'm a P.C."/"Life without walls" campaign has already kicked off. By the time their buyback has expired in 2013, the value of an individual stock should increase from the current $24.50 (which is already the result of increase). Microsoft in effect, has launched an all out television, viral and internet marketing campaign to keep growth alive, spending money during a time when its traditionally difficult to do so.

Yahoo Redesigns Homepage

2008-09-22T15:22:41Z

Remember the old yahoo? The red and white, overcrowded web page with more icons and links to search than you could possibly get to in a full day has been redesigned a few times since then, and will now be joined by a new design currently under development by the webmasters at Yahoo. At least this is the announcement the company made recently as they began offering the test design out to small groups of people.

The photo released for the new page shows a left-hand column which now links to popular Yahoo services shows a column allowing for user-picked, customizable applications, and the site also boasts the ability to check other email accounts such as G-mail and AOL. While the site itself is the first redesign in two years, as I've written recently in regards to Facebook, it is incredibly important not to upset your viewer base by radically uprooting their perception of your site. Facebook has been experiencing a mild backlash for their new roll out, and it may take some time and effort before that unrest goes away.

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The future of web development for Yahoo is similar to many other major sites (like Google and Facebook) that allow third party developers to design applications for users. The company intends to continually improve their site and inform their user about both their activity and that of others on the net.

The last redesign by the web mega-giant was rolled out over 6 months. This new design will probably take a similar amount of time to fully implement, although the company doesn't have any specific dates set in stone.

Google Announces New Phone

2008-09-19T16:57:54Z

On September 23, T-Mobile and Google will be announcing details about the new phone they have been developing. The phone is expected to rival competitors such as Palm, Research in Motion, Nokia and Apple's iPhone for browsing and general usability. Although the phone itself won't be released at least until next month, the pricing and plans are among the expected details to be discussed Tuesday.

The phone will be using Google's Android operating system software and manufactured by HTC. One major marketing factor offered in this new technology is the availability for designers to make applications. Google expects to develop their own set of applications, but have opened the door to thousands of app designers. The phone is said to be of a touch screen like the iPhone, but with a slide-out full keyboard as well. ]]> mobile marketing ads in the future. "We can make more money on mobile than we do on the desktop, eventually," said the chief executive of Google Eric Schmidt.

The internet friendly phone is a great strategy for the company. They can profit from the sale of this device on a number of levels. First of all, the sale of the phone itself, which will most likely be the least profitable aspect of the entire venture, should bring in extraordinary gains (if the phone is designed well and the software runs smoothly). As T-Mobile will be the first to sell the phone, and with Sprint said to be designing a Google based phone as well, Google already has two major carriers under its belt with obviously large market shares.

Second, the mobile marketing possibility offers a fair amount of growing room for both Google and the mobile marketing industry which as I've previously written seems to be in need of serious attention. Once the population of consumers who have the capability of being marketed to grows, I'm sure that segment will as well.

Finally, I see the current ad network Google already maintains as growing significantly with the ability to browse from the new generation of cell phones. Their software should be best complimented by their browser which is currently in beta form, and which I can only assume will be made into a web app as well. Using this software Google can lead more consumers to continuous access throughout the day on their network. Once factoring in issues of screen real estate, ads on the new phones will be highly profitable for all companies involved.

Microsoft Unleashes New Ad Campaign

2008-09-18T18:18:52Z

Microsoft, in a campaign intended to recover their brand from the damage it incurred via Apple's ads over the last couple of years, has released a series of teaser ads involving former CEO and founder Bill Gates with comedian Jerry Seinfeld. The commercials are a response to Apple's successful ad campaign which personified the PC as a slower, bumbling (although well intentioned) competitor to Apple's sleek and youth oriented Mac System.

The teaser ads are only a preliminary to the actual campaign, which is set to begin appearing in magazines and on commercials as early as tonight, and consumers can now access new content on Microsoft's microsite lifewithoutwalls.com. The campaign theme "life without walls" is meant to reflect the ability of a PC user to "remove the walls in [their] life, now and in the future." ]]>

These commercials are fairly interesting, though pretty weird. At one point early in the commercial I'm posting with this blog, Jerry says "there's gum in my roll" and his comment goes unanswered as the mother replies that they bought mustard with white wine in it "like the kind you get at a fancy restaurant" for Jerry and Bill who are apparently their trying to reconnect with the common man.

The ads do a good job of lightening the mystique around Bill Gates. However, I think they are geared toward a slightly older audience than the Mac commercials, and therefore are less of a rebuttal to the tarnishing image their smaller competitor has given them and more of a platform for ascent of their current agenda.

As the new commercials rollout we will see if they continue to entertain and reestablish the brand identity Microsoft desires. If they are as unique as their teasers, there is a good possibility they will be as well received and buzz around them will help bolster consumer perception.

Wall St. and your Small Business

2008-09-16T18:21:08Z

With Wall St. losing two of its major investment banks as Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection and Bank of America's buyout of Merrill Lynch, the United States is witnessing another economic downturn. Over the last couple years we as the consumer heard about our own financial woes, how the credit industry lent out too much money and many institutions were unable to sustain themselves because of these practices, resulting in an uneasy industry with less loans and higher interest rates for many.

So now that we're being told the same thing is happening to the major institutions of money trade, what does this mean for the small business? Well one important item to consider is what your company invests in. Do you currently have a 401k? Does the company leverage part of its profits into the market? If so, what can it do to remain stable?]]>
The answer for small business is to do exactly what Wall St. is preparing for themselves: tighter control over your money. Make smart decisions as to what you invest in. One such decision is to reinvest in your own business. Ensure your survival by streamlining your processes. If your business is losing retail customers then give the store a makeover. If you experience less traffic on your website, perhaps it's time for a new design. Losing customers to other places who offer similar products or services? Do some targeted advertising. It's all about making you be the best you can be.

Wall St. may be experiencing an economic downturn but that doesn't mean it has to affect your business. It is the evolution of economics. Eventually the weak will die out, but fortunately for the market we have a conscious control over many factors that determine our strength. Don't forget you have that power and you should reap some major benefits.

Raising Money to Raise Awareness

2008-09-15T18:36:28Z

Barack Obama raised a record $66 million this August for funds to help in an attempt to gain the U.S. Presidential Seat. His Republican counterpart John McCain also raised a personal best in that same month with $47 million dollars. Each candidate is relying on both new and old methods to raise money, which will in turn be spent to fuel their campaigns in the coming months as they try to increase awareness of their political platforms, and make the case as to why they should be president.

The newest method of campaign strategy revolves around the internet. Of course, the old world methods still exist and represent a substantial portion of the money spent for advertising and events organization (as well as all the buttons, bumper stickers and campaign ad posters you see everywhere). So what makes the internet so special? ]]> professional web design and development with some of the larger companies even relying on an in-house team to complete and maintain their design. This allows for a broader reader base and the potential to draw in different revenue streams from paid online memberships and targeted advertising. Of course, this all brings us to why the candidates would choose the internet as a method for delivering their messages.

A new study conducted by HCD Research found that 87% of over 250,000 people surveyed expected the use of the internet by the candidates in the upcoming election. Another 70% believed the candidates would use personal website and other high numbers were displayed in regards to web blogging, emails and podcasts. Not that this is very surprising, but it should speak to marketing and marketers everywhere.

It's very important to keep your name relevant to your customer base. Even if this isn't due to any type of advertising but word-of-mouth and guerilla marketing campaigns (unorthodox methods of marketing your brand), there is definitely a need for your business to meet.

Most companies in the world don't have the ability to spend $66 million dollars over the course of a few months in any effort to try and attract customers. But in effect that's all politics really are. They are asking for you to buy something from them: their political agenda. So when they go back to the same methods that we use to try and increase our visibility it should give you pause to know that perhaps you are headed in the right direction. And maybe one day your company will be able to raise $66 million on its own for quarterly ads.

Viral Marketing or Entertainment Branding?

2008-09-12T18:07:56Z

When major companies or networks release small teams into the public with a video or contests that generate enormous amounts of web traffic we call it "viral marketing". When the same major companies or networks release an incredibly well-funded series of videos (funded by the sponsored partners of the project) the name shifts over to "branded entertainment". The difference is that instead of getting someone to watch the same video over and over and pass it along to friends, the goal becomes to keep viewers watching a line of videos in succession that for the most part contain the same content as the singular video.

Obviously there are reasons to go with each of these types of advertising, the main one of course being cost. We also would look at the affective audience and the intended type of project for what best suits its nature. I mean, if you have a slick video with a new dance move that just happens to involve a product you're marketing, you're most likely not going to tie that in to a series about perfecting that dance. In that scenario, it would be far more appropriate to make a 4 minute video, possibly showing a couple of people trying the new dance and having a good time, preceded or followed by the correct way to do the dance, the product prominently featured.
]]> seven week show (already filmed) with clips that last from about five to seven minutes title "Engine Room". The series chronicles four teams of four living in a loft in Brooklyn who compete to design artwork on a host of Hewlett-Packard products. The winners receive a dream package of prizes including a night of control for the giant MTV digital board in Times Square.

MTV, the original reality series creator (with Real World followed by Road Rules), may be on to something. So far they have partnered in such branded entertainment ventures with the likes of Hewlett Packard, Ford Motor Company (who I just mentioned in another blog), General Electric, Microsoft and Yahoo. The latter of which was just the subject of a study which showed it to be atop the online news source pyramid (at least for August).

So the point of this episode is merely to underline the growing popularity of internet marketing. Be it through small viral campaigns (which can still cost a considerable amount of money... just ask Cartoon Network), or through wide scale series shorts broadcast over the web through large media partnerships. It is cropping up everywhere, advertising to us at all moments of our digital interaction. And it is always important to keep that in mind when you are devising your next campaign. Originality is very important when trying to take away audience share from major partnerships like MTV and Hewlett-Packard.

New Design Same Clients

2008-09-12T14:41:31Z

As many past marketers, entrepreneurs and CEO's have come to realize, making your product or service an indispensable part of the consumer's life is the best way to continually make money from whatever it is you do. This is evidenced in countless companies, through their products or services which the public begins to associate with their name (like when people want a tissue and inevitably ask for a Kleenex), and furthermore how their constituency reacts when they make changes in their brand, their product or their service.

Take for example the automobile as an old time example. Ford with the Model T car was the original auto company; they made a product that was relatively inexpensive to the growing American public at the turn of the century, and soon the entire country was driving. Although other companies were able to start up and compete, Ford is still kicking strong with new developments like a car that runs on hybrid diesel fuel and will only be sold in Europe, and still making money, because their name is still associated with this indispensable form of modern life (transportation). ]]> Facebook, the social networking site started by Mark Zuckerberg in Palo Alto, California just 4 1/2 years ago. Facebook has quickly grown its membership, which currently sits somewhere around 100 million. When you are dealing with such a large market, your consumers are obviously going to come from a wide cross section. This is very important when making a decision in how to operate your company.

Because Facebook is so large and was also experiencing a relative difficulty in maintaining a profitable web presence, they brought in help to their marketing team. Since then, the company has launched a new design and layout for their page as well as several plans for commercialization of their already popular web applications. By creating a new set of rules for the companies who could create applications, and by selling different types of ads directly on the site, Facebook has been working diligently on becoming a serious economic player.

Since we are a professional web design and development team at Stormfront, we have been particularly interested in the new design, and also how it has been received by the new users. With roughly 40 million people having tried the new design and 30 million not going back to the old one (which as of now the user can toggle between the two), it seems that Facebook has worked in a good amount of usability. Starting next week, the old design will no longer be available, and the real test begins.

Facebook dominates the social networking landscape, and as they've seen with the introduction of previous applications, a little change can be devastating to their patrons. Keeping this in mind, they allowed for the slow transition to the new layout which should definitely help ward off some of the negative feelings. In effect, I'm pretty sure that Facebook won't go under for changing their site short of trashing their site with intrusive ads and other such changes that destroy the functionality. They have successfully become part of the vocabulary of 100,000 million people and they're still growing. If you don't believe it just "Facebook me" and we can chat about it.

Customer Perception and Satisfaction

2008-09-10T15:20:58Z

It is safe to assume most everyone has seen the movie the wizard of Oz. In this movie the antagonist villain is a witch that has it out for the young protagonist Dorothy who wants only to go home from this magical and scary land 'Oz' after she is swept away by a tornado. Throughout her journey she encounters several distinct characters who have since been the subject of millions of analogies relating something or other to them. In this one, they will be lawyers.

As a matter of public opinion, the RIAA has had it out for the consumer since the advent of Napster, the first widespread peer-to-peer network where people could exchange the files on their hard drives. Originally, peer-to-peer and especially Napster spread like wild-fire, and only after the recording industry rejected the implementation of this new type of media did they decide to sue its creator and president for violating their property rights. They wanted royalties.]]>
After first attacking Napster with little success and moving on to members of the public who illegally uploaded material, the RIAA failed to properly bolster their image first. They used rock bands such as Metallica who were also demonized by the public for their efforts in suing what often appeared to be little old grandmothers whose grandchildren download a couple of dozen songs on their computer and were now about to lose their ability to afford heart medicine. In a nutshell, the RIAA didn't take the time to properly explain or put a good spin on their actions. They alienated their base by razing the infrastructure that had grown popular in a few short months, and precluded millions in business from utilizing rather than attacking the new technology. They destroyed their brand almost overnight.

Had the RIAA embraced peer-to-peer networks right away, and as in the mode of so many other online information companies, offered a lowered rate for membership and some set number of monthly downloads or individual piece payments (as later became the case) they could have avoided millions in litigation, and an almost damning public image. When you alienate your customer base they tend to go elsewhere to fill their needs. That is why restaurants offer to comp or discount a meal after there is a potentially experience shattering issue at one of their tables like paying for garlic bread put on the table when they sit down, rather than sue the table for believing the bread they received at the beginning of their meal was hospitality.

My point boils down to two things: embracing change and customer appreciation and satisfaction. If a company can't change with the times they operate in, they are doomed to fail. You don't see an abundance of people making their clothes at home, and if they do any sewing it is more than likely with a sewing machine, but you do see a lot of major clothing manufacturers who make designs, print them en masse and sell them to the public.

The second point is that if a customer doesn't know something is wrong or doesn't realize what damage their actions have it is hard to hold them liable in the court of public opinion. The Lion, Tin man and Scarecrow guided Dorothy out of the darkness of the forest and helped to get her home safely. Maybe if the Wicked Witch had an issue with boils on her feet and made it known to everyone that the ruby red slippers were the only known shoes to have Dr. Scholl's in the land, and had she offered Dorothy a viable alternative to her newly discovered ruby red feet adornments, she would have given up the shoes and acquiesced into the mode of transportation provided to her. In the end both the Wicked Witch and Dorothy could have been satisfied had they worked out the problem in the beginning stages before Dorothy got comfortable with what she knew, and resented the witch for her attacking her, ultimately leading to her demise.

If the RIAA doesn't figure out a way to revitalize their market and change public opinion, they make suffer the same fate. Maintaining a well-manicured and recognizable brand can keep your company out of some trouble if you have to resort to things people won't like.

Expanding Through a Dedicated Server

2008-09-09T16:47:28Z

Stormfront Productions is expanding our hosting capabilities. Due to the continually growing list of enterprise level websites utilizing our hosting packages, we've acquired a dedicated server to properly handle the load. Beginning this week we're starting the transfer process, bringing over accounts from our current space to the new space.

Stormfront has been providing quality web hosting for several years, but only recently have we decided to make the switch. Before, we shared a server with a smaller company who worked from a similar business model that emphasized the importance of our clients' websites. That company was bought out recently, and the new owners overcrowded their acquisition causing some outages in uptime and free space. This is a similar practice to mega hosting sites that use shared security certificates and server space; the shared server space clogs both bandwidth and the server's hard disk space.]]> enterprise level web clients, we are able to ensure that our server won't get bogged down with the crowded and unstable personal sites who don't use best practices on the web. Despite our upgrade we will keep our prices at their competitive levels and will continue to offer the same quality feature-packed packages our clients have come to rely upon.

Web hosting is a competitive market, and obviously all pages need to be hosted somewhere, so Stormfront strives to stay at the top of this market by continually offering services a step ahead of the competition. That's why 24/7 free e-support, and enterprise level only hosting as well as best business practices for how we conduct our servers keep us there. We don't spam or host spamming companies, all of our e-blasts follow the CAN-SPAM acts guidelines, and we protect our clients to offer the best over all performance with a standard 99.5% uptime.

Google's New Web Browser

2008-09-08T17:25:23Z

As September rolled in this year, Google rolled out its new web browser. Chrome, the moniker attached to the browser started out strong in turning quite a few heads. On its first day of availability it ranked 12th beating out some 2,500 odd competitors in Hitwise's "Computers and Internet - Software" category. Of course, 83% of its traffic came from Google owned internet real estate, so that makes sense.

According to Google, web browsers of today (the major four being IE, Mozilla, Safari, and Opera) are all products of the evolution of the internet. Because the internet used to be text based, and slowly developed into the multi-dimensional graphics and application based form that it currently takes, browsers are incapable of realizing the true potential of the web. Enter Google development team stage left. ]]> features that are pretty sweet, when we tested the beta in the office we encountered a few bugs. For one, some page layouts didn't load correctly in addition to a slow performance. But that didn't stop us from really checking it out and pushing the beta around a little bit.

"As of now the browser doesn't seem that much different from what's already out there" said Aaron VanSchyndel, which may be more of a compliment to the development team than anything else since they have just rolled out and are self-describing the final product as "far from done."

Certainly Google put quite a bit behind of planning into Chrome's debut. They have a comprehensive comic which is really just an alternative version of the several you-tube videos and blog which explain the new features and mentality behind it. The videos and write up, in my opinion, are more helpful and less daunting of a task to read. When I saw the word comic I was hoping for just a few short panels, not an extended book.

Only time and implemented improvements to the beta will tell us if it really does have superior usability for apps or if it's just another browser. Either way, I think it's a step in the right direction as how to perceive the internet goes.

Microsoft Sued for Click Fraud

2008-09-03T14:57:53Z

It seems that Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are always in the news for something. Sometimes the news is good, like when they post themselves in the black for any particular quarter, or other times their presence is neutral, like say when they appear somewhere by way of name or service (like in the movie Knocked Up when the little girl "Googled Murder"), and other times the news is bad, like say when they are appearing in court for antitrust violations (like Microsoft in the 90's and early 2000's) or Google and the several lawsuits brought over name and branding issues.

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Whether or not they are guilty of course is a matter for the courts to decide, but it is my speculation that the search giants did not engage in creating scripts or using other poor practices to drive up traffic to extract a higher profit out of their clients. I assume that although the reasons may be intricate and complicated, one cause may lie in people clicking on an ad they had no intention of buying, just to check out the site, or perhaps sometimes by accident. The issue with PPC is that a company pays per click on their ad, not for successful conversions or on the contrary for merely appearing on the page. So they can get the same amount of clicks in one hour as in a whole week if they appear on enough of the "right" sites where people feel like clicking that day.

I know I click on sites occasionally that have paid for placement, but usually my clicks stem from curiosity about the quality and design of their site versus the organically placed sites. Maybe curiosity did kill the cat, if people like myself are personified curiosity and the pockets of these types of companies are the said feline.

I have already written one article defining PPC in which I briefly mentioned the benefits of Internet Marketing through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) instead of this lackluster ad method. Perhaps in the near future I'll write another, more in depth article on the importance of using organic instead of paid search. That way I may be able to save companies potentially interested in PPC, the search engines offering the service, and state and federal courts eventually brought into the mix via lawsuits a little coinage by steering some people away from the service.

Branding: Still Relevant

2008-08-28T17:23:29Z

I remember when I first heard the term "branding" images of heated metal rods with farmers' initials on the end traipsed through my head. How many countless sheep and cows and pigs and the like were burned every day in the marketing world? Obviously I didn't think marketers actually branded animals with their corporate logos, but I did have a strong association with the word already in place, which is fitting because that is exactly what the term branding entails: Association.

Earlier today I noticed the tattoo on the ankle of a guy in the bank ahead of me in line. He was wearing the garb of a runner: nylon shorts, low top running shoes, a light colored t-shirt and had an i-pod or some other mp3 player hanging off of his pants with the headphones still in. His tattoo was of the Adidas logo. Those three ascending bars, colored gray, with a green background were on the outside of his ankle just above his anklet sock. ]]>
Now I can't say for certain, maybe I just happened to be standing behind a recently returned Olympian getting ready to cash a giant endorsement check for literally inking a deal with Adidas. But in all honesty I couldn't help but consider the ramifications of getting in with your brand of choice like that - to actually tattoo it on your body. Did he have to pay for copyrights? Could you imagine a five year old who loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches getting that giant Mr. Peanut guy tattooed on his back?

It takes a lot of work to make a corporate image that the public agrees with. So much PR, advertising, and customer satisfaction has to be undertaken that in order to become successful, all the right moves need to be made, and branding is a huge part of that image. People have to associate something with your company, so why not make your company synonymous with the product or service you offer?

At Stormfront, our corporate colors are yellow and baby blue. The yellow lightning bolt appears on all of our ads, our marketing messages, in several conspicuous places on the website, and on several affiliate pages. We often design using various shades of blue because of the clean, serene feeling they promote, and because they are associated with us. We describe ourselves simply as "Stormfront Productions, a full-service online media agency." We try to demonstrate qualities of professionalism and desirability to our target market which is also a professional market. By offering this image, we garner the respect of potential clients who realize we are not some company based out of our mother's basement. This is big since there is so much competition, good and often bad, in the web development world. The customer needs to understand what they are paying for.

All in all, it is important to keep brand recognition in mind when developing any portion of your company's profile. Make sure you are consistent and demonstrate desirable qualities when you advertise or interact with current or potential clients. If you do it right maybe one day you will have loyal customers ready to tattoo your brand on their ankle.