The Promo Direct Blog

Stories are gripping. If told in an interesting way, they create a new world for you. They create a world of possibilities and that of dreams too. The role models in the story are the characters, who have performed commendable feats, or have accomplished a simple task with commendable precision.  Now convert all this into the world of business, and the hero’s become business tycoons and the stories that they play in, become their successful businesses, their new business ventures, the difficulties they grapple with and the new ways in which they conquered them.

Stories work a long way in establishing a brand identity for a product. They change the mundane world of numbers and names into interesting ones. They talk of the company and the struggles that it has undertaken and emerged successfully later. Instead of filling your website with brazen descriptions then, it would be a great business tips to convert them into stories?

“The Google Story” by David A. Vise is a fantastic example of the way in which the struggles of a business, its achievements and trials become a story and helps the firm establish itself as a special brand name and carve an identity for itself.

However, if you think that only famous people can write their stores or have them written, that is not true.  A mass media platform like a website is effective enough to narrate your tale. For instance, if your business deals in promotional products you could weave a beautiful and a realistic tale of how promotional items and business gifts became your own means to grow your own business.

Stories capture audiences. And they are rarely tapped as a potential medium for advertizing and branding.  This idea is sure to generate interest in your business and ensure a better sale for you. Here in fact is an idea- email your business story at susans@promodirect.com and you stand a chance to get your story posted on our esteemed Promo Direct Blog and Facebook page.

Interbrand has come up with the BEST GLOBAL BRANDS 2010. The initiative has been successfully handled by Interbrand and they offer us 2010 year’s top 100 brands. Let’s have a sneak peak at the top 10:

Coca-Cola -Its brand promise of fun, freedom, spirit and refreshment resonates the world over and it excels at keeping the brand fresh and always evolving – all this, while also maintaining the nostalgia that reinforces customers’ deep connection to the brand. It has adapted quickly to social media, with 11 million fans on Facebook and 96,385 followers on Twitter as of August 2010.Coca-Cola does everything right!

IBM - IBM made 108 strategic acquisitions over the past nine years to strengthen its portfolio and continue its seamless evolution from hardware to service to knowledge economy to innovation. Today, IBM helps clients achieve flexibility and competitive advantage to succeed in the networked economy. This year, IBM displayed its innovation through a host of social media initiatives, which you can read more about in our brand strength component section on page

Microsoft -Microsoft maintains its position as the number one operating system on the market. This year, it proved it is still capable of innovation with the introduction of its Xbox Kinect, which uses original technology. With the global recession, Microsoft saw its first drop in annual revenue – a three percent decrease from US $60.4 billion in fiscal 2008 to US $58.4 billion in fiscal 2009.

Google- As Google continues its upward path, it increasingly finds it difficult to reconcile its brand promise, “Don’t be evil,” with the realities of a powerful global brand. Google’s reach and record for innovation is undisputed. Expect the brand to continue to diversify and expand, even as it experiences increasing backlash.

GE -GE continues its two-year decline in brand value. Whereas last year it was the ongoing problems at its consumer finance division that plagued the brand, this year it is GE’s lack of focus as it moves from eco imagination to its healthy imagination initiative.

McDonald’s-McDonald’s remains globally versatile, approachable, value-driven and reliable in a year when Burger King fell off the table. Already a strong brand with deep roots, the recession reminded people once again of its great value. McDonald’s seized the opportunity to capture a new audience and drive sales even further by upgrading its coffee to make it more premium and introducing healthier menu options – a move that should help it in the long-term.

Intel - Intel stayed the course, committing billions of dollars to new and updated manufacturing facilities, which accelerated the rollout of new processors. The brand itself has been on a kick, simplifying things to help consumers navigate, but now must balance the strength of its heritage as a PC-centric firm with the clear need to become a brand for the future of computing, where branding products like i-phones, TVs, cars and everything else are themselves smart.

Nokia -Nokia has been perceived as a company that is committed to enhancing of communications by offering affordable, accessible, functional and creative mobile phone devices and applications. The brand was late in coming to market with a compelling product and it is in this new category that growth, relevance and emotional connection with the brand is built.

Disney -Disney again leveraged its history of quality, family-fun experiences through clean, well-managed parks and kid-oriented movies and merchandise. This year, the youth-oriented brand continued to cultivate a strong social media presence, and announced that it would be rebranding its stores to make them more theme-park-like and multisensory.

Hewlett-Packard -HP continues to expand its product portfolio since the acquisition of EDS in 2008 expanded the HP brand into the services category. The company is working to unify all businesses under one HP brand platform: “Let’s Do Amazing.” The recent launch of the brand campaign aims to highlight the breadth of the portfolio and infuse consistency across segments.

To view a large  variety of promotional products for your brand promotion and to enjoy low price and discounts please visit our website at www.promodirect.com

We all know that Word-Of-Mouth marketing is the most effective branding strategy. And the best and easiest way to establish your brand as a trustworthy one is by publishing client testimonials on your website. Publishing effective client testimonials on company websites is an extremely easy and cost-effective small business strategy.

However, in order to ensure that you achieve positive results and not negative results from publishing testimonials, you need to ensure the following:

Don’t write fake testimonials: Never underestimate your clients. People can usually tell when they’re reading a fake testimonial. Even if you don’t get caught, why risk it when you can easily get genuine testimonials from satisfied customers? If customers feel like you’re publishing fake testimonials, they will automatically lose trust in your brand. Sure, it’s much easier to write a fake testimonial yourself than to ask a client and wait for your client’s response but knowing your clients are truly satisfied with your work will be worth being patient for.

Ask at the right time: Don’t wait for weeks or months after you’ve met a client’s order to get a testimonial from him/her. Chances are your client may have forgotten just how great your service was or may not remember your customer rep’s name! It’s best to ask clients for testimonials right after you’ve completed their work. If they are truly pleased with your products and services, this will come across effectively in their testimonials. If your clients aren’t too enthusiastic about writing testimonials, you can ensure them that having their details on your website will increase their brand visibility and may lead to increased business for them too.

Make them visible: Now that you’ve gathered positive testimonials from your customers, you need to ensure that you benefit from their encouraging words. To do this, you need to position client testimonials on your website home page. Many websites have a separate page for testimonials but there’s a high chance that the entire testimonial page may get skipped by your website visitors. The best way to guarantee visibility is to place testimonials with the body of your content or in a sidebar on all your website pages.

With most of your current and potential business contacts already on the site, the LinkedIn  Share button can prove to be a blessing for your brand promotion and can direct your brand positioning. Here’s how and why…

Share information

Any new developments in your business, new products introduced or discounts offered. All you have to do is share it using the LinkedIn Share button and the news gets zapped into the LinkedIn sphere that hosts all your business contacts. Brand promotion – instantly achieved!

Strengthen contacts

It works like the FB ‘likes’ and the Twitter ‘follow’ or ‘retweet’! In addition to your information, share information you sourced from your contacts’ blog or website too, using LinkedIn Share. The business camaraderie generated will be good for your business and will be reciprocated too. Brand promotion – gradually … but achieved nonetheless!

Save time

Information dissemination – to business contacts at LinkedIn who make up your business destination – at the click of a button! Brand promotion – won’t take more than a few seconds!

Linked in also recently introduced LinkedIn Company pages where companies can ‘build their brand through network-aware recommendations, giving members rich, credible insights into how any given product (or service) is perceived by their fellow professionals’ – (that’s how LinkedIn blog described it!) It works pretty much like the Facebook ‘like’ concept wherein clients can visit the company pages and ‘recommend’ your company and go a step further in your brand promotion.