10 cheap ways to build your brand

Entrepreneur.com has 10 cheap ways to build your brand. Let's go through them:

1. Create an affiliate program. A good affiliate network allows you to grow your e-business efficiently and affordably, channeling additional traffic to your site without the expense of pay-per-click advertising. Provide your affiliates with links and ads that carry your branding message.

2. Start or contribute to a blog. Look for a highly trafficked and searched blog in your industry, then write and post relevant articles about your business. Let your personality shine through in the tone of your writing.

Our take: Obviously we love this one. Blogging is an integral part of Web 2.0 and you should be a part of it.

3. Print your logo on labels or stickers and place them on all communication with customers. Stickers appeal to our tactile nature and add interest to just about anything. They don't need to be fancy, but they should feature your logo and colors.

Our take: We're fans of adding your logo anywhere you can.

4. Attach your tagline to your e-mail signature. If you don't already have a tagline or motto that communicates a key difference between you and your competition, create one and consider trademarking it.

5. Print your logo on an inexpensive premium like a hat or golf ball. The more memorable the item, the better. Distribute your premium on every sales call, to customers, prospects and even suppliers. Buy in bulk to reduce costs.

Our take: Probably a good idea. But, get creative with what you are leaving behind. People have enough pens. Although, pens with lights are cool.

6. Start an e-mail newsletter for your customers and prospects. Include your own articles and link to other pieces related to your industry. This is a great way to keep your brand in front of customers and prospects regularly.

Our take: Ok, but you better have constant new and interesting content. Otherwise you are spamming people.

7. Offer your expertise to local or industry media publications that are read by your target customers. Make yourself available as a source for upcoming stories related to your business. Or, write an article and pitch it to target publications.

Our take: We love PR obviously. But, we aren't completely sold on writing your own article and trying to sell it to media outlets. It takes a lot of time, and if you don't know what you are doing (meaning, writing a broader article and not just a "my company is great" article), then you are wasting your time.

8. Visit your clients around holidays (or minor holidays like Groundhog's Day), leaving them a holiday-themed surprise with your logo on it. Use the stickers you print (see No. 3) to customize the treats you choose. This one takes some creativity, but a little candy can go a surprisingly long way.

Our take: We like the idea of giving things out on holidays that aren't Christmas. Mix it up a bit.

9. Follow up with customers to thank them for their business and get feedback on your product or service. Call, e-mail or visit current customers as often as time permits.

10. Ensure that all your promotional materials match one another graphically. At the very least, your business cards, stationery, signage, packaging, brochures and website should all feature your name, logo and tagline consistently.

Our take: This should be #1 on this list.

Wachovia Bank selects team of agencies

I just read this in my MediaPost newsletter:

"Wachovia selected a team of agencies led by Ogilvy Mather to handle its creative and media accounts, valued at $145 million. Maxus, Neo@Ogilvy and Soho Square are the other winning agencies."

Winning agencies? Wachovia went bankrupt over the weekend. These agencies might want to get their money upfront.

Here comes the Google phone

We wonder if Google could possibly market this phone as heavily as Apple marketed the iPhone. Since it's due out October 22, just in time for holiday shopping, we have a feeling that they might.

Google's new G1 phone is here to directly take on Apple's iPhone market share. And knowing these two companies, we think it could be a good fight.

HelpaReporterOut.com

We don't know why we didn't post this sooner as we love this service. HelpAReporterOut.com is a free service that emails you three times a day with reporters looking for help on stories. It's the best way to get PR leads and gives you a great opportunity to get involved with the media. Trust us, log on and get on the list. It's so easy and effective it's almost criminal.

FeverPitch quoted on Examiner.com

FeverPitch was recently quoted in an online story about applying for entry-level positions on Examiner.com.

So...we figured we'd post it.

PhotoLibrary Going for World's Largest Ad

Photolibrary.com is inviting creatives to join in and create the world's biggest ad.

Here is what they say:

"The viral element serves as a follow-up to a print campaign that positioned the company's royalty-free images as a hub of creativity. Translation: creative images and royalty-free images can be one and the same.

The viral campaign, created by TBWA/Tequila Singapore, encourages creatives to construct a small piece of an ever-expanding ad that will eventually be transformed into posters and used at trade shows and advertising festivals. A complete list of credits naming participants will be included with the display.

A custom-built Flash App resembling a simplified version of Photoshop allows designers to move, rotate, scale, reflect, blur, contrast and paint their ad to their liking. The canvas begins with a picture of a little person, waiting for a background and objects to accompany him. There are 10 backgrounds, ranging from a brick wall and fireball to a stage and beach. Sixty objects can be sized and repositioned into the ad, such as a school bus, knife, TV, a raw chicken, beer, a muscular man and the Statue of Liberty, among others.

Once your creation is submitted, an invitation can be passed to friends to create their own ads."

Google ads on Yahoo?!

That exclamation point is Yahoo!'s, not mine.

Yahoo! wants to be able to have Google ads on its pages in hopes of generating more income. But, the Association of National Advertisers doesn't like it.

The ANA filed a letter with the Justice Department to nix the deal.

The ANA says it will “diminish competition, increase concentration of market power, limit choices currently available and potentially raise prices to advertisers for high quality, affordable search advertising.”

I'm not quite sure how this is such a terrible thing considering Google doesn't set prices, it's a bid system. We'll see. Whether you or I like it or not, companies like this will just do what they want anyway, so why worry?

Environment can shape our thoughts

Great article in Scientific American that interviews U. Penn marketing professor Jonah Berger about how our surroundings can subconsciously shape our decisions. He first talks about voting environments:

"We build on behavioral priming research, which finds that cues or stimuli in the environment, such as the things we see, can activate related concepts in our mind that carry over to influence behavior, even outside our awareness. In a classic study, for example, participants exposed to elderly related words ended up walking more slowly leaving the experiment. The idea is that the words activated the elderly stereotype, which includes walking slowly, and such thoughts influenced behavior. Similarly, in the case of polling locations, seeing lockers, desks and other things associated with schools might activate norms (such as the urge to take care of children) or identities (that is, being a parent) that then shift people to vote to support school funding."

He goes on to discuss how after NASA landed the Pathfinder on the surface of Mars, the sale of Mars candy bars shot up. It's some neat stuff and a must read.