Business 101/ Brand Marketing... An introduction to a new series to help us both with starting and maintaining a company. There are so many things to remember and consider, some more important than others. But first, we want to have fun with this... we aren't in school. And second, I'm not an export and am basically doing this for the first time... on a professional independent level that is. I have taken a few business courses while in high school and in college, but that wasn't my major or minor. The other experience and business knowledge I have comes from my experience with PCF and the Boston Globe/ New York Times and Wall Street Journal, CBS MaxPreps and NIKE/ Gatorade and Burger King, Underground Hip Hop.com, as well as Lax.com and a few other companies. Just simply working besides and with some of the best companies not only here in the United States, but also on an international level all around the world, has truly been a blessing. I've made many valuable connections, but more importantly, I try(d) to absorb as much as possible about how the businesses were operating individually, and together as partners.
This video ad is a great example of brand marketing using the new Lamborghini as it's "relentlessly fighting the forces of nature in a 3-minute special effect thunderstorm, shot in the Californian desert Coyote Dry Lakebed and directed by Ole Peters." A very cool video even if you aren't the biggest car fan.
Now before we go on lets define a few things~
Definitions from Wikipedia...
A Business (also known as enterprise or firm) is an organization designed to provide goods, services, or both to consumers.[1] Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, in which most of them are privately owned and formed to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also form not-for-profit or be state-owned. A business owned by multiple individuals may be referred to as a company, although that term also has a more precise meaning.
Marketing is "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large."[1] Marketing is a product or service selling related overall activities. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments.[2] It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves.[2]
A brand is the identity of a specific product, service, or business[1][page needed]
A brand can take many forms, including a name, sign, symbol, color combination or slogan. The word branding began simply as a way to tell one person's cattle from another by means of a hot iron stamp. A legally protected brand name is called a trademark. The word brand has continued to evolve to encompass identity - it affects the personality of a product, company or service.
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common. Advertising messages are usually paid for by sponsors and viewed via various media; including traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, outdoor or direct mail; or new media such as websites and text messages.
A brand can take many forms, including a name, sign, symbol, color combination or slogan. The word branding began simply as a way to tell one person's cattle from another by means of a hot iron stamp. A legally protected brand name is called a trademark. The word brand has continued to evolve to encompass identity - it affects the personality of a product, company or service.
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common. Advertising messages are usually paid for by sponsors and viewed via various media; including traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, outdoor or direct mail; or new media such as websites and text messages.
Now keep these words and their meanings in mind... very important!!
"A Pictures Worth A Million Words"... well sometimes a picture is worth a Million Dollars~
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Gustav Klimt sold for $135,000,000. Yea that's a lot of money for a painting... but clearly someone agreed that it was well worth it.
Now I'm not an economy major or anything like that, but I think this video is nice for giving you some ideas about how our economy works with business and marketing in mind. Personally I think the first 15 minutes is enough to really get you thinking outside of the box and looking at the bigger picture... although you can watch the entire video. Again, I'm not an export, and I certainly don't agree with EVERYTHING in this video, but I DO agree that it can help give you that basic knowledge that is important to know when planning or starting a new company or business.
So I'll label this post series 'Business 101' in the tag section if your interested in getting more advice and tips about business (marketing, advertising, promotions and etc...), blogs and websites. And again, I'm not an export, I'm just trying to apply what I've learned to my personal company... and why not bring y'all with me. I mean, if I could help you succeed by giving you a few pointers as to what has or hasn't worked for me, and why or how it didn't or did, than why not?! And if you've tried something I mention and maybe did it a little different, and you were successful with that approach, than let me know about it!!
"Nobody talks about entrepreneurship as survival, but that’s exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking. Running that first shop taught me business is not financial science; it’s about trading: buying and selling." – Anita Roddick
