» But what a fickle lot we are. With the attention span of no more than a nanosecond, it seems, we are a nation riding on the coattails of the latest craze, intoxicated by a momentary infatuation with the newest whim, usually a product of the media circus. At this very moment, we are all caught up in the LeBron James decision, the BP oil spill, the obesity epidemic and the global recession, in that order. But give it a couple of days and we’ll be on to a whole new spectrum of more current issues generated by the buzz of that day’s spin.

As a result, competition is pretty stiff for all those aspiring to achieve marketing superiority. Complicated by the many ways we have to market which include a predominance of those that are visually driven, I reintroduce the topic of this article: the importance of graphic design.

What exactly is graphic design? It is both art and science. It is the ability to package a visual presentation in the trappings of intellectual brilliance, psychological influence and cosmetic glitz. Using style and content to elicit the optimal viewer reaction, successful graphic design controls the entire experience of message delivery, one where the reception is strong, convincing and permanently memorable.

Walk down the aisle in any supermarket, take a drive down any major thoroughfare or spend some time browsing the Internet or flipping through the channels and you will be bombarded with an endless array of visual stimuli. Color, shape, size, and composition - these are the variables that define our options. Do we respond to big, bold and rich, or delicate, subtle and pale? Modern or classic? Plain or embellished? Simple or busy? Smart or dumb? Ridiculous or sublime? The alternatives are endless. Effective graphic design grabs us by the throat and forces us to react impulsively based on our innate sense of taste and preference. Without a moment’s hesitation, we either like it or dislike it. Buy into it or dismiss it entirely.

This can be quite the gamble for the marketing team, betting the farm on a single concept which utilizes a particular mode of graphic design. We in sales all know you can’t please everyone all the time. But tell that to the overbearing client who expects the moon on a silver platter.

What works better: the tried and true, or the revolutionary and innovative? Do people feel safer with the same old thing or crave the excitement of something new and different? It really depends on which market you are appealing to. With the tools of graphic design to work with, some marketers scheme to enthrall the gullible masses with their favorite tricks of the trade which usually consist of miraculous claims of suspicious origin. Then there are those who take an alternate route, resorting to sophisticated overtures to dupe a trusting segment of the market into swallowing their pitch - hook, line and sinker. My octogenarian parents used to fall into this group: suckers for a letter telling them they had proven themselves worthy of belonging to some distinguished group who recognized that higher prices indicated true quality. Oh, the tactics that give this profession a bad name! Few and far between are the reliable vendors who take the high road, representing their goods fairly and unequivocally, in a manner that emulates the utmost in excellence.

This puts an enormous onus on the graphic designer who must be able to fulfill the role of expert marketer, client liaison, creative director, copy editor and visual conceptualizer, not to mention duplicitous prevaricator and deceptive exploiter, in some cases. And in more than a few small businesses, that role is accomplished by a single person.

While traditional Madison Avenue advertising boutiques may have utilized a group of specialists in the heyday of the industry, the outcome of that type of collaborated effort was often a watered-down rendition because of too many compromises brought on by egocentric goals. When a single artist is given free rein, the end result can be an astonishing departure from the norm. Art by committee rarely is. Of course, that assumes that the graphic designer be of the genius variety with the ability to comprehend what is needed and how to make it happen. Too often, either because of lack of experience and/or lack of talent, graphic design can easily fall short of its goal, sometimes confusing the issue beyond recognition - even stifling its appeal with a total lack of aesthetics!

Since graphic design is a component of so many varieties of communications including ads, mailers, banners, publications, reports, letters, invitations, trademarks, websites, greeting cards, signs, displays, programs, film titles, packaging, posters, dust jackets and more, to name a few examples, its applications are universal and its impact indispensable. Next time you are faced with a quandary which involves making a decision about which product to buy, just ask yourself: “Am I getting this because I believe it is the best choice, or rejecting it because it costs too much?” Whichever you are doing, it is highly probable that its graphic design has influenced you in one way or another!

Click above to see the animated award-winning artwork

On March 17, 2010, Mid-Hudson Marketing, one of New York’s most prolific advertising agencies, was honored with the prestigious “Design of the Week” award from QuarkXPress, the benchmark in sophisticated professional design software. The Mid-Hudson Marketing artwork was chosen by a panel of international judges from thousands of entries by the world’s most famous designers who show their work at ILoveDesign.com, Quark’s new website.

Mid-Hudson Marketing’s winning entry entitled “Attract Some Attention,” features “dazzling animated graphic art representing a selection of ambitious projects done over three decades for a diverse group of excellent clients,” said company president Marilyn Bontempo, who created the work.

Recognized previously for work involving excellence in marketing, design, photography and website creation, Mid-Hudson Marketing lists 19 other individual awards on its website, two others on an international scale.

With a 35-year history of developing the image of success in business, the company describes its clients as members of the legal community, as well as the engineering, real estate, roofing, healthcare, financial, home improvement, manufacturing, luxury auto accessories and international scientific industries. For more information, visit MidHudsonMarketing.com or call 845-493-0070.

Setting up a Twitter account is actually quite an involved process. First, you need to choose a username by which you will be known to all who use Twitter. It must be a unique name, never used by anyone else in the world of Twitter. This name is limited in length to a finite number of characters which makes this process quite the challenge.

Once accomplished, you need to add a “bio” or description of yourself, or your business, which captures the essence of your raison d’etre on Twitter. Since this blurb (as we call it in the industry) will be the most frequently read piece of info you present – your definition, in essence – it should be carefully crafted to represent both what you wish to communicate as well as how you wish to be perceived. (A true marketing assignment!)

» Next, although you may be anxious to begin tweeting immediately, your Twitter persona will first need both a photo and a page background. Although Twitter graciously provides you with a choice of generic photo icons and backgrounds to select from, saving you the tedium of coming up with your own creative solutions to these further representations of your uniqueness, those who value individuality will cherish this opportunity. First, your photo need not be a photo at all. It can be any type of graphic, text, logo or iconic statement to render you the one-of-a-kind person or business that you are. Second, your background can be something you get from the endless array of Twitter backgrounds one can find searching Google or something you dream up and create yourself, depending on your level of expertise.

However, nothing is quite as simple as it sounds, not that we meant to imply that either task was simple. In fact, both tasks present difficulties above and beyond creativity. First, the photo appears in thumbnail size which means that any nuances, subtleties, tiny details or general clutter will probably not be terribly effective. In fact, the busier the photo, the more apt it will be to blend into obscurity. The background, which wraps around a fixed area where tweets and other Twitter-related info appears, can become easily compromised in effectiveness based on a user’s browser window width. Getting too technical for you? Perhaps the generic Twitter background is more your cup of tea.

Moving right along, perhaps it is time to get down to the actual business of tweeting, a challenge to all who may find themselves unable to express the crux of the matter within 140 characters, which isn’t much room. But if millions of people spend half their life on Twitter, it must be something that comes with practice. So, what to say?

If you are appearing on Twitter under the auspices of your business, it is best to keep your tweets pertinent to business, without any problematic comments or content which could come back to haunt you in some Google search, embarrassing you ten years from now. Can anyone remember what the world was like before Google, where everyone and everything that has any content on the Internet will now live on into perpetuity, regardless of how ridiculous, insignificant, inappropriate or undesirable it may be.

But I digress! Back to the reason for this article…to identify the Value of Social Media in Business… within a medium where millions of people argue the latest gossip ad infinitum, perhaps even ad nauseum. The value of tweeting about your business is that Google picks up such content (particularly if it includes a link to your business website or your business blog) and adds it to the behemoth database of searchable content on the Internet. This means that if you are in the business of creating green widgets, and your tweets mention that fact, should someone out in cyberspace search for green widgets, your website may just pop up atop the search results if you are among only a few green widget creators worldwide. Unless you know how difficult it is to come up on page one of Google search results, you cannot appreciate what a phenomenal accomplishment this is! Why? Because it is rare for anyone to look beyond page one in search results because of impatience or time constraints in this Internet age we live in.

Of course, certainly one tweet may not prove this true. Maybe even 100 tweets may fail to produce such results. But, from personal experience, I have seen participation on Twitter produce website visits, ecommerce sales, and best of all, advancement to the top of search results for many of my clients. How do I know this? Well, that will be the subject for another blog entry.

“According to a 2008 survey by Technorati, which runs a search engine for blogs, only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. That translates to 95 percent of blogs being essentially abandoned…”  as a result of failure to attract traffic.

But not all abandoned blogs die from lack of reader interest. Some bloggers find themselves too busy! And therein lies the rub!

» Let’s see…my last post was on the 4th of January at which time we all thought the end of the world had arrived. So, what have I been doing all this time? Ironically, working, working, working! And in fact, I am the ghost writer/producer for a client’s blog so I’ve been extremely busy with his blog, leaving the shoemaker with holes in her shoes! Or in her head, maybe, for biting off more than she can chew with her own blog.

But I digress. To answer the question in the headline: In a nutshell…We in business have blogs so we can attract the search engines to our ever-changing, ever-updated array of blog entries which in turn brings traffic to our websites! Too bad we tend to get so busy in between entries!

Everyone wants to know. What’s going to happen to business in 2009? How can we maintain or even increase market share? What is the right thing to do to build business going forward?

I must admit that after having read countless blogs by national experts on the subject, I cannot say for sure I know the answer because I cannot predict the future. And I’m supposed to be one of the experts myself.  

While one blog/book title I came across made me laugh (All Marketers are Liars) by Seth Godin, called “the Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age” by Business Week, I’d be lying myself if I said I’ve known exactly what to do for the past 34 years in business. I haven’t. But I do have instincts and I have been fortunate to have been right about general principles of marketing for an entire career. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here.

» But I digress. My purpose is to share marketing strategies for a bad economy recently touted by some of the marketing leaders of our country. Here they are:

1. Add a Chief Conversation Officer: an idea from John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing. 

Founded on the idea that in marketing, talk is cheap and silence is fatal, a chief conversation officer’s duties would be to engage in dialogue members of the business and social community to deliver your company message. For example, this could include presentations at chambers of commerce, arranging seminars, social networking (in person and on the Internet), submissions to the press, blog development, etc. 

My viewpoint: If you have the resources to hire a person for this function or are inclined to be socially motivated yourself, then more power to you. As a long-term strategy, this could prove valuable.  

2. Focus on your Existing Customers: from Karen Scharf, an Indianapolis marketing consultant 

Her reasoning: Current customers are easier to market to and sell to, since they already know, like and trust you. Rather than cutting back on your marketing activities, now is a great time to maintain or even increase your marketing. Many of your competitors are reducing their advertising and marketing, making it much easier for you to stand out.

My viewpoint: Knowing my own clientele with whom I have close ties, I would not find it a wise strategy to pressure them with spending suggestions at this very difficult time. For 34 years, they’ve called me when they’ve needed me. However, if your customer base is large and is not one of personal relationships, providing them with cost-saving buying opportunities may be a worthwhile activity. 

3. Don’t Cut Prices! An idea by Dim Bulb Author and advertising critic Jonathan Salem Baskin, whose advertising blog was selected as one of the 50 Best in 2008.

His reasoning: People will still buy.  We just have to come to terms with finding better ways to sell.  And cutting prices isn’t one of them.

My viewpoint: Having experimented with price reduction for clients many years ago, I know for a fact that it doesn’t work. However, sales (discounting prices for a special period) are used universally as a technique to move merchandise but can erode intrinsic value as promoted through branding.

4. Focus on more Direct Forms of Revenue (i.e., coupons!): an idea from Louie Bernstein, a computer expert since 1976.

His reasoning: Reduce “image advertising.” It’s time to show good, measureable results. Coupon redemption programs and the use of promo codes can be very effective. When the economy is down everyone is looking for bargains. With coupons and promo codes you also get to track what’s working and what isn’t.

My viewpoint: Ironically, this idea contradicts idea number 3 above. However, I know from personal experience that coupons do work in the right industry and application. 

5. Diversify: An idea from Sonia Simone, Copyblogger, selected as one of the 50 Best Marketing Blogs of 2008.

Her reasoning: Try something new this year. Get outside your comfort zone. Move beyond what you’ve always done. This is the best possible time to create something remarkable and new.

My viewpoint: I wholeheartedly agree with this suggestion. For example, if you have a manageable customer base, use direct mail to reach them in an unexpected way.

6. Know Thy Customer: An idea from Bob Rentsch, Vista Consulting

His reasoning: How well do you know your customers? AND…How well do your customers know you? The business world is full of stories of customers who didn’t make a purchase because they didn’t know that the company they already had a relationship with offered a product or service they needed. Regular communication with customers and prospects is one way to help make sure that doesn’t happen to you – and email marketing makes it cost-effective. If you don’t have a regular newsletter, create one … NOW. But, a word of caution, make sure that you are committed to keep up the effort in future months.

My viewpoint: While I am a little squeamish about over-emailing my precious clientele with a one-size-fits-all communication as opposed to my usual very personal emails, I recognize that when Amazon emails me their specials, I tend to check them out because I’ve bought from them before.

7. Increase Marketing Activity! An idea from David Poulos, Granite Partners

His reasoning: Those companies that are so bold as to increase marketing activity stand a greater chance of taking market share from their less aggressive competitors and can rule the category if the downturn lasts long enough. The smart money here is being used to take market share from your more timid competitors, by increasing presence and exposure, and cutting other less-than-mission-critical expenditures for a short period to accomplish it.

My Viewpoint: Proceed with Caution. Make sure you target market and utilize guerilla marketing techniques (i.e., things you can do yourself at no cost) to preserve your capital.

Back in the sixties, Crosby Stills and Nash sang, “We have all been here before…” on their album Deja Vu… but this time, this is new to all of us. We’ve never been here before. How can we plan for return on investment when no one has any money left? Rich, poor, middle class…we’ve all been hit, hard.

» With the luxury of having a diversified perspective from the standpoint of many different industries, it is interesting to see how this economy is affecting various segments of the market. Real estate clients were the first to experience major trauma in their business back in 2005, with activity declining dramatically through the next two years. More recently regional automotive clients have begun to feel the repercussions of the problems on the national front. International service companies based here also began feeling the squeeze back in October when the stock market crashed because of the inability of their worldwide clients to continue to afford their services, as well as pay what they already owed. A vicious cycle, to say the least.

Perhaps a source of envy for many businesses, the legal sector has not shown signs of slowing. In fact, one accident injury client is signing cases at an unprecedented rate. And, after 25 years, he only signs cases that are a sure thing. Is this a coincidence, or is the public getting more litigious in its present state of economic shock?

Certainly, products and services are still needed but the marketing environment will be highly competitive to gain a worthwhile market share. How fortunate that in today’s world, most businesses have websites to serve as a portal for communication with customers and clients. Can we predict what industries will fall to the wayside as a result?

I enjoy all kinds of music. From the music I grew up with to what is popular today, I can appreciate all styles and formats. I have a degree in music and have taught music in the public school system. I have performed music in classical concert venues and have been the keyboardist and backup singer in a rock and roll band. I have perfect pitch and can identify most popular music by a mere snippet of its introduction. Give me soulful rhythm and every part of me will be moving to the beat. In fact, I’ve been playing music by ear since I was four years old. When it comes to music, I am pretty open-minded.

Except when it comes to websites. Whether it’s the tinny quality from my computer speakers or the fact that I have been rattled out of my silent concentration by some unexpected sound, I can’t turn it off fast enough.

» Don’t misunderstand me. Music has been an essential part of marketing on radio and TV for years and for the most part, it is used quite effectively. It’s understood that if we don’t like what we are listening to, we can change the station, or turn it off. Furthermore, we’ve all gotten fairly good at tuning out what we don’t like, even if we still hear it. Somehow, for me, music on a website seems like a violation of the intimate (and quiet) relationship I have with my computer.

Recently, American Express introduced a snippet of music to their welcome page where I access my account online, similar in impact to the abbreviated melody/chime that plays every time you open Internet Explorer. Just a couple of innocent notes. Yet, every time I hear it, I find myself in a state of extreme irritation. Thankfully it stops playing before I have to do anything about it. Maybe it’s because it startles me; maybe it’s too loud. Maybe it’s just something I’m not familiar with. Perhaps if it were a tune I recognized, I’d probably spend the rest of the day with the song stuck in my head, which can also be annoying.

I must say that there are exceptions to the rule. A beautiful website I came upon for a chain of local restaurants had several choices of background music which were probably created in Apple’s Garage Band. Rocking back and forth between a couple of bluesy chords, punctuated by a tasteful drumbeat, every one of the choices was different and each distinctively appealing. Funny how you either like something or you don’t.

That tells me that the use of music on a website is risky business unless you give the visitor complete control. The sound of silence may be all that’s required. Or desired!

Mid-Hudson Marketing has created a Virtual Internship program to offer students with marketing interests an opportunity to develop their talents under the guidance of a mentor with more than 35 years of experience in real world marketing. Allowing interns the option to formulate their own program with the approval of their school advisor and a Mid-Hudson Marketing professional, this virtual internship encourages excellence in writing, graphics, photography, research, sales and other innovative talents which can contribute to successful marketing in the challenging years ahead.

» Interns will be able to work from their own homes, classrooms, or other places of their choosing with all communications, reviews, guidance and approvals provided digitally. As a totally virtual program, it will also require that interns be able to represent themselves successfully via the written word, fulfilling obligations and meeting deadlines just as is done in the real business world. The work will be innovative, interesting, challenging and rewarding but will not provide the typical office or “field” experience that most traditional internships offer. These unpaid positions will be filled according to eligibility and pending school approvals beginning immediately.

Program Details

While we invite students to suggest exactly how they would like to concentrate their efforts, we can also propose areas of application if that is preferred. These options can include work with websites, blogs, e-commerce, email marketing, press releases, and other traditional marketing applications. Such options may also involve participation in concept or strategy development, community outreach, or polling when appropriate. It will be the student’s responsibility to introduce this opportunity to their school advisors and determine how many hours and how many credits will be appropriate for work accomplished.

This virtual intern program has been created as a venue for fresh thinking, new perspectives, and innovative skills to further success in marketing in an environment which will demand a new standard of excellence. By writing, designing, photographing, or researching contemporary issues which will have a profound effect on business marketing in the future, we hope to give interns the opportunity to shape marketing initiatives to meet tomorrow’s brave new world.

All work approved and produced within the virtual internship program will be digitally published as part of Mid-Hudson Marketing’s website as proof of participation and real-world experience.

Eligibility

We hope to encourage student participants with a wide range of abilities, backgrounds, and talents, but a special emphasis on:

• Communication skills including proper grammar, spelling and sentence structure. While the use of the new abbreviated language of the Internet is becoming more prevalent, marketing demands that every member of every market understand what is being communicated.

• A commitment to excellence whether textual, visual or conceptual

• Creativity and self-discipline

• A mature, responsible attitude about fulfilling self-initiated projects and collaborating with others

To apply for a Virtual Marketing Internship, please complete our application for internship.To inquire about this program further, please contactinternships@midhudsonmarketing.com or leave a reply below.

» Why didn’t I pursue the issue further with him? Trust me, some clients get intimidated by anything they are not familiar with and assume it is for the purpose of charging more. Of course, it wasn’t but you get my drift. Of course, I have other clients who allow me free rein and assume I know what I am doing, which thankfully, I do, judging from the great rankings I’ve been getting my clients. But when I read text on websites now, I have to admit I am suspicious of the content as not truly speaking to me but rather speaking to Google and leaving me scratching my head in befuddlement. At least when I write text online, I try to accomplish both the task of communicating with the reader while at the same time satisfying the parameters for best search ranking. What I find ironic now is when I am writing advertising copy for a newspaper ad, I am suddenly free to write exactly what I mean to say without the encumbrance of considering what ramifications there will be with the almighty search engine. Yes, after a whole career in this business, things have changed and I’d better get used to it…unless the search engines get wise to us webmasters and dream up a whole new algorithm to throw us a curveball! You know, it wouldn’t be the first time.