Restroom sign in Braille

While coming back from a trip this spring my wife and I stopped at the Tim Horton’s in Merrit BC. For those of you south of the 49th parallel, Tim Horton’s is the Dunkin Donuts of the north. They are in most, if not all, cities accross Canada. While IMHO, they will never win any awards for great coffee – they are clean, friendly, and you always know what you are getting.

While relaxing with my coffee, I spotted this sign – it is a perfect example of a good idea that wasn’t fully thought out. If you click on the image for a larger view you will see the word ‘RESTROOM’ (actually it says ‘RESROOM’) in Braille underneath the printing. For the visually impaired the bold black printing on a white background is great.

However, for a blind person, the sign doesn’t exist. You will never see a blind person running their hands up and down a wall to find a sign for the Restroom. They are going to ask someone.

At the Gel (”Good Experience Live”) Conference in 2006 Seth Godin gave a presentation on things that are broken. He devides signs and ideas in to categories. This sign falls into the ‘I am not a fish’ category. That is, things that are broken because the person who designed them failed to take the user into consideration. From signs that fail to inform to websites that are impossible to understand (see www.webpagesthatsuck.com we are being inundated with ideas and products that are broken.

Don’t let you website fall into one of Seth’s categories for ‘Things that are broken’ – have someone check your site. (Preferrably someone who hasn’t seen it before.) See how the navigate the site, see if they can find the information you want them to find, see if your site is broken.

Remember – It is not whether you think the site is broken — it is whether your customers think it is broken.

This new law barely resemble the previous laws, and these changes are relevant for owner or supervisor considering petitioning for receivership. You should have positive cash flow with a smaller core business. Tip 8 – Diversify your customer and seller base. You must produce an effort to say hello to every employee everyday and have conversations as well. You need to tell them that it is temporary change that is only effective until the predicament passes.

To get them the necessary experience, you'll need to put them into positions that they may initially find uncomfortable. This will keep you out of legal trouble. Within 7 weeks, the debt negotiator was able to lessen the debt by $278,766 (22 cents on the dollar!) This freed up enough money for the contractor to make payroll, keep workers and finish a project that saved his business. This should include amounts and the times the enterprise will pay all people you owe. When you find out this, you must confront the supervisor and you must align them to the plan quickly. With it, you haggle a reorganization plan with your lenders before petitioning with the court-of-law. Unfortunately for many struggling corporations in medium size cities like Atlanta Georgia, chapter eleven bankruptcy may seem like the only option. You must recognize your enterprise desires and research your choices. Your friends and relatives will have to return the available resources to the trustee. They are looking to you for this authority. Until your firm starts creating money on a monthly basis again, you will have a financing gap, every turnaround does.

This new law barely resemble the previous laws, and these changes are relevant for owner or supervisor considering petitioning for receivership. You should have positive cash flow with a smaller core business. Tip 8 – Diversify your customer and seller base. You must produce an effort to say hello to every employee everyday and have conversations as well. You need to tell them that it is temporary change that is only effective until the predicament passes.

To get them the necessary experience, you'll need to put them into positions that they may initially find uncomfortable. This will keep you out of legal trouble. Within 7 weeks, the debt negotiator was able to lessen the debt by $278,766 (22 cents on the dollar!) This freed up enough money for the contractor to make payroll, keep workers and finish a project that saved his business. This should include amounts and the times the enterprise will pay all people you owe. When you find out this, you must confront the supervisor and you must align them to the plan quickly. With it, you haggle a reorganization plan with your lenders before petitioning with the court-of-law. Unfortunately for many struggling corporations in medium size cities like Atlanta Georgia, chapter eleven bankruptcy may seem like the only option. You must recognize your enterprise desires and research your choices. Your friends and relatives will have to return the available resources to the trustee. They are looking to you for this authority. Until your firm starts creating money on a monthly basis again, you will have a financing gap, every turnaround does.

Govt may allow GAIL to charge marketing margin – Zee News
New Delhi: In a significant development, the government may allow state gas utility GAIL India to charge a marketing margin on sale of APM or subsidised natural gas. The government currently regulates the price at which the gas produced from fields

Swan Haus Media Production, Playboy Interns, Wins Integrated Marketing – DVD Creation
NEW YORK, Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ — Interns , Playboy's first mainstream online and mobile digital series, received min's 2009 Integrated Marketing Award for Print & Mobile at a ceremony held in New York last week. The min's Integrated Marketing

GM to wrap up its Calif. sales experiment on eBay today – Detroit Free Press
General Motors' experiment selling new cars and trucks in California online through eBay comes to an end today, GM said Tuesday. The termination comes less than a month after GM officials talked about the possibility of taking the program nationwide

Apple Rehires Michael Tchao, Developer of Newton PDA – eWeek
Apple has rehired Michael Tchao, formerly a developer of the Newton personal digital assistant in the 1990s. Although Apple will likely remain tight-lipped about Tchao's role, the hiring suggests that Apple could be gearing up to release its long

P Four Wins at the 2009 GALA Awards – PR Inside
LANHAM, MD — (Marketwire) — 09/30/09 — P Four, a comprehensive sales, marketing, and interior merchandising firm announced that the company was awarded five awards at the 2009 Great American Living Awards (GALA) held at the Ritz Carlton in McLean

Daily Variety Onboard with Social Media to Promote Films – HULIQ.com
The September 30th Daily Variety front-page article by Marc Graser trumpeted: “AUDS GET WIRED: Social networks driving pic choices.” The article begins: “If marketing mavens want to reach younger moviegoers when promoting their films, they need

By: Cheow Yu Yuan

Every business needs marketing to generate in-flow sales enquiry from their target prospects. It can also generate brand awareness in the market, thus allowing you to have a stronger foothold in your industry. So what is marketing? In simple words, marketing is to create association between your business and your target prospect, with call to action elements to entice them to either contact you or buy from you directly.

Marketing and branding plays a very big role in a success of a business. If your target prospects related well to your brand, they will most likely buy from you rather than your competitor even though the both of you are offering the same product or service with similar quality. To build up the brand of your business, one of the most effective ways is to make sure of corporate gifts to do it.

Corporate gift is a great marketing and branding tool for your business. With corporate gifts, you are giving them physical representation of your business, allowing them to touch and feel it. As a result, they will have a more lasting impression with your brand, prompting them to remember you first when they need your service or product in the near future.

Now allow me to share with you 3 simple tips to use corporate gifts to associate better with your customers:

1. Have your company’s logo, name, USP and colour embodied on the gifts. By giving out these gifts to your target prospects, they will remember who you are when they see the gifts that you have given them. One effective way to give away your corporate gifts is to use them as door gifts. Hold a company event that educate the public more about your products or services, and present your visitors with your gifts. In this way, your company will look very presentable, as well as creating the right and lasting impression in your visitors’ minds.

2. Choose gifts that are unique. By giving them unique gifts, you will stand a higher chance to make your prospects remember you. You can either choose something that is unique in shapes or colours, or beautify the gifts with your unique design. By having a creative design, you will be able to convey a strong message to your prospects

3. Choose quality corporate gifts. If you want to create a positive branding and marketing campaign, the quality of your presentation is very important. This means that you cannot afford to give out corporate gifts with inferior quality. They do not need to be extremely outstanding, but at least there must be a basic standard in the quality of the gifts.

Lastly, you can browse through the Internet to look for online corporate gifts suppliers. They usually offer more affordable prices, without jeopardizing on the quality of the gifts.

About the Author:
Cheow Yu Yuan is the co-founder of HomeBizGears.com, an online marketing and branding agency. Check out more about Online Marketing and Branding at www.homebizgears.com

Coconut oil: clever marketing of junk food? – San Francisco Examiner
Unless you've been way off the health and fitness grid and dietary fat wars, no doubt you have seen and heard all the hoopla about coconut oil. You may have even read that it would improve your blood lipid profile, or even help you to lose weight

Another executive resigns from Supervalu – Minneapolis Star Tribune
Supervalu Inc. announced another shake-up in its executive suite, as its executive vice president for merchandising and marketing, Duncan Mac Naughton, resigned effective immediately. No replacement was announced, and for now the Eden Prairie-based

Vitrolife: Swemed Sense™ approved for sales in Australia – PR Inside
Regulatory News. “Swemed Sense™, with its unique characteristics, is an important part of our existing product portfolio in Europe, and is now available even to our Australian customers, Says Vitrolife's Vice President of Marketing and Sales

WPCS adds contracts worth $9 million – Daily Local News
WPCS International Inc., a Uwchlan design-build engineering services company for communications infrastructure, announced that it received approximately $9 million in new contracts. The new contracts include projects to be completed for the U.S

Merck (NYSE: MRK) Reaches Six-Year Marketing Deal with CSL (NYSE: CSL – Transworld News
CSL Ltd. (NYSE: CSL) and its unit CSL Biotherapies on Monday said it reached a marketing and distribution deal with drug developer Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) for the seasonal flu vaccine Afluria. Wall Street Grand is a leading online financial

Nowspeed's David Reske to Speak at Inbound Marketing Summit in Boston – Consumer Electronics Net
WESTBOROUGH, MA — (Marketwire) — 09/29/09 — David Reske, Managing Director at Nowspeed, an Internet marketing agency in the Boston area, will be participating in a panel discussion led by Chris Brogan on "Innovative Marketing Programs Using New

Kids shouldn't be exposed to alcohol marketing at theater – News-Leader.com
In the September 18 "Our Voice" the News-Leader editorial board suggests the DWI Task Force is trying to solve a problem where none exists with regard to the sale of beer and martini's at Wehrenberg's family-oriented Campbell Cinema 16 Theatre. If I

Anchor to join marketing firm – Lexington Herald-Leader
Miranda Combs, co-anchor of the highly successful 10 p.m. news on Fox affiliate WDKY (Channel 56), is leaving next month to take a public relations job at Preston-Osborne. Combs has been at CBS affiliate WKYT (Channel 27), which produces the Fox news

Merck acquires rights to CSL flu vaccine – Philadelphia Daily News
Merck & Co. Inc. has acquired the U.S. rights to market and distribute a seasonal flu vaccine made by an Australian drug company. CSL Limited, which employs more than 1,000 people in King of Prussia, has partnered with Merck on vaccines for nearly 30

Another executive resigns from Supervalu – Minneapolis Star Tribune
Supervalu Inc. announced another shake-up in its executive suite, as its executive vice president for merchandising and marketing, Duncan Mac Naughton, resigned effective immediately. No replacement was announced, and for now the Eden Prairie-based

Search engine marketing firm names a worldwide sales exec – InternetRetailer.com
Search Engine Marketing firm Relevant Searches has named Geoffrey Price as senior vice president of worldwide sales. Price has more than 11 years experience in executive leadership and sales roles. "We`re pleased to welcome Geoff to our team where he

919 Marketing Honored as One of Triangle’s Best Places to Work – Carolina Newswire
Holly Springs, N.C. – David Chapman, Founder and CEO of 919 Marketing, a nationally recognized marketing, consulting and public relations agency located in the Triangle, has announced the firm was named by the Triangle Business Journal as one of

Ametek acquires 2 companies in India – CNBC
PAOLI, Pa. – Ametek Inc., a manufacturer of electric motor and aircraft monitoring equipment, said Monday it bought two privately owned sales and service businesses based in India. Terms of the deal for Unispec Marketing Pvt. Ltd. and Thelsha

By: Karen Scharf

I’ve recently suffered a computer crash, and one of the folders that wasn’t backed up was one that contained all my testimonials. So I’m now on a mad-scramble to try to acquire new testimonials to use in my future marketing.

Testimonials are an awesome way to boost your sales and grow your bottom line. There’s nothing like social proof for easing your prospects’ minds and encouraging them to buy. Testimonials should be used everywhere – in your sales letters, on your websites, on your direct mail postcards, in your email marketing.

But it’s true that some testimonials are more effective than others, and some just don’t do the job at all. So what can you do to ensure that your own customers provide you with award-winning, or shall I say sales-generating, testimonials? Just follow these 3 simple steps:

Ask the right customers. It’s a fact of life, you’re just going to resonate better with certain customers. You like them, they like you. You consider them your “perfect customer”. These are the customers you want to ask for testimonials. Not only are they more likely to say “Yes” but others just like them will relate to their testimonials. Then you’ll be on your way to generating even more of your perfect customer!

Ask specific questions. Maybe an artist likes a blank canvass, but the rest of us usually don’t. Ask a client “Can I have a testimonial?” and you’re likely to end up with “Your store is great.” Not very effective, is it? Help your customers provide specific (and effective) testimonials by asking specific questions. Try asking things like:

How has our product changed your day-to-day business activities?
How much time have you saved by using our XYZ service?
How has your bottom line been effected by becoming a client of our company?

Ask for permission. Always ask your customer for permission to use his testimonial and permission to include his name. Now, I minored in Psychology in college, so I’m going to let you in on the secret behind this tip. By asking your customer for permission to use his name, you are reminding him (subliminally, at least) that he is taking a social stand in favor of your product or business. Once he takes a social stand, he is very unlikely to back down from this position. Not only will his testimonial help generate new customers, but it will also cement your current customer’s loyalty to your business.

Once you’ve gathered your effective testimonials, start peppering them all over each of your marketing pieces – your website, your sales letters, your emails, etc. You’ll see your sales improving in no time at all!

Action Item

Spend at least 30 minutes brainstorming a list of your “favorite customers” who you would like to ask for testimonials. Once you have that list ready, spend another 30 minutes brainstorming a list of specific questions you can use to help your customers provide effective testimonials.

About the Author:
Karen Scharf is an Indianapolis marketing consultant who works with small business owners and entrepreneurs. She offers several whitepapers, free reports and checklists, including her FREE Can-Spam checklist and FREE email pre-flight checklist to ensure your emails get delivered, get opened and get read. Download your copies at www.ModernImage.com.

You will be able to right away solve some of your difficulties just by finding this information and reading it. WARNING: Do not send any money to the charge card company before you have a signed and correct agreement from them. Thus, other than your rebuilding consultant or coach, you must release all your consultants immediately. These consultants generally work with other professionals.

You should spread your marketing dollars around initially and identify effective procedures by having your customer service or salespeople ask a simple question like, How did you hear about us? When the financial resources of a company are less than $200,000, the court-of-law considers the enterprise to be a small business. This will be essential even if they contributed to the company's restructure. You will take Corporation bankruptcy if the credit card company doesn't work with you. Your company does not have to be ruined. Your employees might flee during the bankruptcy program. This lesson covers turnaround planning. When you file, be sure you comprehend the method and how it's going to affect you. This will be true even when you include the professional's fee. To achieve the business plan, the organization should carry out its action plan. To avert the tax on your settlement income, you request an Irs form 982 with your income tax return to show your receivership. When you do, they are going to report on this and scare away your customers, vendors, employees and financing sources.

At an Industry Event, a Sense That the Gloom Is Lifting – New York Times
HERE is a look back at some of the highlights, lowlights and sidelights of the sixth annual Advertising Week, which took place from Monday through Friday in New York. WEEK, NOT WEAK Despite the severity of the recession, and the gloom that has

Selecting a Robust Business Phone System Can Drive Performance – TMCnet
In traditional business markets, the larger competitors had access to the biggest and best in technology, packaging, placement and communications. In many situations, their sheer size would dwarf the smaller competition, making it difficult to

Screen Shots – Wall Street Journal
Stardom is calling. Product appearances in TV shows and movies are no longer exclusively for big companies with marketing budgets to match. Publicists and other promoters are actively going after small businesses for product-placement opportunities

Memorial preps for opening of 'one-of-a-kind' facility – Lufkin Daily News
Construction on Memorial Health System of East Texas' new facility will continue around-the-clock through the weekend in preparation of Tuesday's ribbon cutting. Up to 500 workers will toil continuously on the hospital's new "one-of-a-kind facility

A Hundred Monkeys sues firm for aping its name – San Francisco Chronicle
One specializes in public relations and the other helps clients come up with company names. Now, in a bit of gorilla warfare, they're wrangling over their own corporate names. In the lawsuit, A Hundred Monkeys Inc. is accusing 100 Monkeys Inc

European CHMP recommends marketing approval for Sanofi-aventis' Multaq – News-Medical.Net
Sanofi-aventis (EURONEXT: SAN and NYSE: SNY) announced today that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has adopted a positive opinion recommending to grant a marketing authorization in the

Retrial begins in woman's '02 murder – Connecticut Post
DANBURY — Seven years after Joan Loughman, of Danbury, was found beaten and stabbed in her father's Fort Pierce, Fla., condominium, jury selection has started in the retrial of the man who just a year ago was on death row for the murder. Last Monday

Professionals work to encourage young women at Golden Girls Group Home – Herald-Dispatch
HUNTINGTON — Young, professional women are talking to young and often neglected women in an effort to improve their lives. The women of the Huntington Young Professionals Committee (YPC) are volunteering with Golden Girls, a nonprofit group home

Trade Marketing Manager – Grocery – Retail Bulletin
This high performing supplier is searching for a Trade Marketing Manager to operate across all key grocery / convenience accounts for the business. This position will interact heavily with the sales team & in essence, the role will lead this cutting

Critics defeat new Reno-Tahoe marketing slogan – Reno Gazette
Reno-Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority board members rejected the proposed slogan for a new marketing campaign, after it was criticized harshly by Reno Mayor Bob Cashell and others Thursday morning. Although Cashell praised the RSCVA staff and

Elizabethtown Community Hospital hires new director of community – Adirondack Daily Enterprise
ELIZABETHTOWN- The Elizabethtown Community Hospital announces the appointment of Jane Hooper as director of community relations. The director of community relations is responsible for the hospital's marketing efforts, along with media relations

Bodybuilding.com has been in FDA's sights before – Idaho Statesman
Federal regulators raised questions of labeling, product claims and the safety of some items sold through Bodybuilding.com. The letters "related to the unlawful distribution of products," said Robert Blenkinsop, an investigator with the Food and Drug

Ad exec's suit claims his idea was stolen – Miami Herald
Three years after he sold a country music song to Kmart, a Broward advertising executive hoped to sell his latest "advertainment" concept, a reality TV show about pickup trucks, to Dodge. But now Jay Schorr says the automaker's New York advertising

Luxury-car brands shift marketing strategy – Miami Herald
DETROIT — Luxury auto brands like Cadillac, BMW and Bentley have long touted power, sexy styling and exclusivity to attract well-to-do consumers. But that's not enough these days. The depths of the recent recession, a backlash against conspicuous

Visitors bureau awarded for its marketing site – Pensacola News Journal
The Pensacola Bay Area Convention and Visitors Bureau received a Shining Example Award this month from the Southeast Tourism Society for Internet Excellence in tourism marketing practices. Representing more than 300 convention and visitors bureaus in

UGC – User Generated Content, recently took another big step forward when Etys, an online store front for hand made and vintage articles, turned to its clients for advertising ideas. They ran a contest for 30 second video promoting Etsy. The results, seen at http://tv.etsy.com/, not only capture the spirit of the company but are innovative and entertaining. As Bob Garfield puts it in Ad Age:

The results are positively remarkable. The 10 semi-finalists are as a group better thought-out and realized than any 10 random commercial running on TV anywhere in the world. And a whole lot more charming. As for the three finalists, each is a means of telling the Etsy story in the Etsy-ish of ways.

Contests are not something new for Esty. They have run a huge number of contests and give-aways featuring their "supplier’s" product. However, this contest is unusual in that it was for a small cash prize and the item being promoted was Etsy itself.

To get all the buzz generated by the contest, 10 outstanding video spots and a heads-up in Ad Age would normally come at a fairly steep price. $500,000+ would not be unreasonable. So, how much did Esty pay? Not knowing if the idea was generated internally, and not knowing how much they paid their judges – it is impossible to say. However, duplicating the idea could be done for well under $20,000.

But don’t rush to your web designer / web marketer with this idea just yet.

Esty has a very loyal following. The amount of time spent to on developing these videos is WAY out of proportion to the $3,250 prize. This was not a quick way to get noticed. It was part of an overall strategy of community building. Members of this community were able to capture the Esty spirit the way no ad agency could.

What this idea does show, is UGC can take many form. It is not limited to blog posts or tweets. Your customers are your most valuable asset – not just for the items they purchase – but also for what they can add to your site. It also shows the importance of setting corprate values, sometimes called branding, and using these value to create a community.