Crain’s Branding Guest Blogger: Laura Sheridan Trend #1: Mobile is THE new ad vehicle Phones are replacing TV commercials, magazine ads, billboards, radio spots, and plenty of other ad vehicles. People are spending over 2 hours on their smartphones a day, and only 12 minutes of that time is spent using their handheld wonder as a phone. Trend #2: Content is king Bill Gates coined the phrase in 1996, and ever since then savvy marketers…
There are many catchphrases popular in marketing today. “Engagement”, “influencers”, and “relevance”, just to name a few. Brand Ambassador isn’t one of them, and it should be. Sure, it’s important to engage your customers, we all appreciate the power of influencers, and relevant content is key. But finding and creating Brand Ambassadors is one of the most important activities you can do to catapult your brand. What is a Brand Ambassador? There are many ways…
We all know that the most important part of any business is its customers. Without them, there wouldn’t be a business. So why do so many companies spend most of their marketing budget chasing new customers instead of nurturing the ones they already have? Customer retention, not acquisition, is the key to growing your business. You’ve seen the data. 5 to 1. That’s the cost of acquiring a new customer versus keeping an existing one….
As featured in the September 10, 2012 issue of Crain’s Cleveland Business: Take the Customer Retention Quiz We all know that the most important part of any business is its customers. Without them, there wouldn’t be a business. So why do so many companies spend most of their marketing budget chasing new customers instead of nurturing the ones they already have? Customer retention, not acquisition, is the key to growing your business. You’ve seen the…
Viva La Brand, the Cleveland, Ohio-based marketing strategy and ad agency search firm that is as passionate about its clients’ businesses as they are, announced the celebration of 5 record-breaking years in business. Large and small, national and local companies across a wide range of industries are realizing the benefit of leveraging outside marketing expertise. Now more than ever, companies are turning to Viva La Brand to provide expert brand and marketing resources for important…
The Olympics were a big winner for NBC and their viewers. There’s a lot to learn from their success. A sample of 50 random people provided these reasons for loving the ultimate contest between athletes. Reason #1: They were fresh. Nielsen reports a decline in overall TV viewing. Viewers are bored with reality TV, spin-offs of dramas, and 24-hour news shows, and are shifting their attention to the Internet. Enter the Olympics. Viewership records were…
It’s not hard and the benefits are enormous. Just think how we “smart” business people make lives miserable for our customers… Ever need to find a serial number for a broken printer and have to just about stand on your head to read the minuscule 10-digit code that’s under the printer? How about trying to read the recommended inflation level that’s oh so subtly etched on your tires? Or, my new favorite is about the…
That’s right. Why you? Why should anyone fork over their hard earned cash for what you have to offer when it’s pretty likely they can find a similar thing elsewhere for less. That’s the million dollar question savvy marketers answer early on in their business. A category of one. It’s all about creating a category of one. When you differentiate your brand in a manner that’s meaningful and relevant to your target audience, then you’re…
Most of us are familiar with the English proverb, “Measure twice, cut once,” which applied to double checking measurements before cutting something to prevent wasting material. Once you’ve cut a piece of wood and you find that it’s too short, it’s pretty hard to fix. The same principle applies to hiring marketing resources. In the past year, we’ve worked with three companies that have hired marketing resources that they later discovered were “professionals” incapable of…
CLEVELAND, OH – May 14, 2012 – Viva La Brand (www.vivalabrand.com), a Cleveland, Ohio-based brand strategy and ad agency search firm, was selected to lead a brand strategy effort for the business innovation firm, Nottingham Spirk (www.nottinghamspirk.com). Nottingham Spirk has developed hundreds of patented products that have generated tens of billions in sales for industry leading businesses and fast-growth entrepreneurial firms. However, many Fortune 500 companies have never heard of this leader in business innovation….
