Just read a report on best practices in online registration by Janrain that contained some interesting material. We already knew that people do not like contact and registration forms on websites. Well, check out this data from the report: 86% of people have admitted to leaving a site when asked to register with a form, and 88% admit to giving false or incomplete information!
You want people who are interested to actually contact you, right? That is why I always advise clients that it is best to give site visitors the choice of emailing, calling, or filling out a brief form in order to contact them. And, when a form is used, keep it absolutely as short and simple as possible, and provide a clear privacy policy. …Read More
My wife brought home a bag of grapes from the supermarket last week with the Welch’s brand on it. I have seen bananas with a Chiquita sticker on them, pineapples with a Dole hangtag, and such, but that was the first time I have seen branded grapes.
We all grew up knowing Welch’s grape juice, of course, so it is not a stretch to see Welch’s grapes as well. But is it a good idea?
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Shopping for a computer is a pain in the you-know-what. And it shouldn’t be.
I was in the hi-tech industry for years, so I had an advantage. I was up on the latest technology. On the side I wrote a technology column for non-technical readers. Today, however, I’m more like my former readers in that I don’t follow technology outside of what is in the business news.
And I’m due for an upgrade, since I notice my computer bogging down more often with the multitasking I need it to do. While I may still know a little more than the average computer shopper, I’m not up on the latest and greatest. I just know I need a computer that has a lot more horsepower.
So, wide-eyed and innocent, I visited the Dell and HP websites to see that I could get. What did I find? UTTER CONFUSION! …Read More
Product marketing and service marketing seem to be very different animals. After all, products are tangible items (with the exception of things like loans that financial institutions refer to as “products) while services are not.”
Fundamentally, however, the marketing for them is the same. That is because marketing has the same functions and and the same goals in both cases. It is about building brand awareness, building product or service awareness and familiarity, and creating engagement with and desire for what is being offered. …Read More
In an interview in the May 21, 2012 issue of Fortune, Fred Smith, founder and CEO of Fedex, talks about “reputational intelligence.” It is a concept they use in running the company because “…at the end of the day, we’re essentially selling trust,” he says. Amen to that!
I found more in an article entitled, “The Reputational Intelligence Reward,” written by William G. Margaritis, senior vice president of global communications and investor relations at FedEx, published April 28, 2010 on chiefexecutive.net. Great stuff, and the quotations below are excerpts from that article.
Brand vs. Reputation
At first, I was somewhat perturbed that they think of their reputation as separate from their brand. But then, Margaritis explained that in the research they had done, they found that people tend to view brand as what a company sells and reputation as what a company stands for. …Read More