Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Namaro Graphic Designs wishes everyone the best in 2009! Look out for a year of celebration. We are turning 20 in 09!!!!!!

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Figuring out Twitter

So I have a new twitter account: My name is "namaro". I have been reading a lot about how twitter can help businesses and non-profits connect and succeed at what they are trying to accomplish.

Here is what I have found out (for now):
1. Instant gratification
2. Instant solutions and answers to questions
3. Non-stop contact with clients (if they are unhappy they can tell you right away and you can fix it for them before they go somewhere else or word gets out. If they are happy word gets out.)
4. If you are a non-profit you can keep in contact with your supporters and direct them to your website constantly. (for ex: Conference / press releases / News Briefings)
5. Direct people to good causes
6. Check out what people are talking about
7. Tell your story
8. Send out promotions
9. Mobilize people
10. Instant survey
11. Build relationships

Figuring out TwitterSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Logos that didn't make it #2. Rate it. Buy it.

These logos were never picked by our clients. If you want to adopt one, they are available for a very reasonable fee and are adaptable to suit your business. Give us a call and give them a home ;)

Logos that didn't make it #2. Rate it. Buy it.SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Friday, December 5, 2008

Namaro's holiday card

Here's Namaro's greeting card. We NEVER have fun in our office ;) Click photo and turn up the sound.

Namaro's holiday cardSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Drinks To Kiss 2008 Goodbye

Mistletoe (Nadine's favorite)
Mix 1 oz. tequila, ½ oz. triple sec, ½ oz. pomegranate juice together. Fill glass with champagne. Kissing will begin shortly.

Pointsettia (Holiday party favorite)
Mix ½ oz. cointreau and 3 oz. cranberry juice together. Fill glass with champagne. Absolutely delicious. Plan for people to drink pitchers of this stuff.

Hot Chocolate with Brandy (Terri's favorite)
Heat 1 cup whole milk and ¼ cup cream. Whisk in either 3 oz. melted dark chocolate or 2T liquid chocolate into milk. Add 2T brandy when heated to desired temp. Kahlua also works nicely!

Killer Egg Nog (Molly's Favorite?)
Add pinch of nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice and clove to 1 cup eggnog base (Stewart’s brand is excellent). Mix in 1 oz. bourbon, 1 oz. rum and ½ oz. cognac. You will start to feel very warm and fuzzy halfway through your second mug.

Snowball (Your favorite?)
Mix 1-1/2 oz. good gin (bad gin is worse than rotgut), ½ oz. anise liqueur and ½ oz. cream in a shaker with ice. Strain out ice and serve in chilled glass. Watch out, these hit with a snowball-like intensity.

Spicy Martini (Justin's favorite?)
Mix 2 oz. good gin, 2 oz. apple cider, 3/4 oz. fresh orange
and a splash of maple syrup in a shaker with ice. Strain out ice and serve in chilled glass. Martini, martooni, martinni…

Drinks To Kiss 2008 GoodbyeSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Top 10 Company Party No-No’s:

1. Karaoke and alcohol do not mix.
2. Tabletop dancing stays in Vegas.
3. Discussing your 401K.
4. Kissing that cute co-worker passionately under the mistletoe.
5. Avoid low-cut dresses and plaid pants.
6. Only groove if you have the moves.
7. Bringing your Bluetooth headset.
8. Don’t drink then drive.
9. Don’t be a grump.
10. Don’t bitch about your job since you still have one.

Top 10 Company Party No-No’s:SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Highland Capital's Greeting Card

Check out a card we made for Highland Capital using Macromedia Flash.
Not too late to create yours. Contact us now at 845-233-0082! Cheers. Click photo.

Highland Capital's Greeting CardSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Namaro website

Yup. The Namaro web site is down. On purpose!

The day Obama is sworn in, we are revamping our site to reflect our "Get ready, Get set and GO" campaign that celebrates our 20th anniversary. 20 in 09 on 1/20/09.

Namaro websiteSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Sinterklaas Parade Volunteers

A side note to all my Northern Dutchess friends. I just spoke with Jeanne Fleming about the Parade. She is very concerned that they don’t have the 200+ people needed to assist with carrying the puppets. The parade, on December 6, will start at the Starr Library. Everyone needs to be there to be assigned a leg or some such “limb” of the gigantic puppets.

One of her assistants will be coordinating the committed puppet walkers. If people are interested AND can commit PLEASE email me (nrobbins@namaro.com) your name & email & how many people can help (first names for them would be helpful too). The details for parade walkers – we need to be at Starr Library no later than 4:30; parade line up is at 5:00 and the roads will be closed off at 5:00. Parking may be problematic, so if you can walk up to the library – all the better. Otherwise, there is parking down by the pool.

So send me your names if you know you can help out. There are many giant puppets waiting for people to help them join in the fun!!!!

Any questions … I’ll be happy to try and find the answers. You can also visit the Sinterklaas website, www.sinterklaasrhinebeck.com.

Sinterklaas Parade VolunteersSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Saturday, November 22, 2008

The power of the peace symbol: It's 50!

Take a peek at a logo that defined a generation and continues to be one of the most important symbols in our world today. It represents the power that a well designed symbol can have. Graphic design at it's best.

The peace symbol is 50. Can you believe it? Check out this great article from the Washington Post.

The power of the peace symbol: It's 50!SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Friday, November 14, 2008

Namaro Portfolio


LaBranche 75th anniversary brochure
The concept of this brochure was to highlight the significance of 75 years in business, and most importantly, to focus on the future of this firm during the internet boom. To develop this concept visually, we found a map of Wall Street and shots from the
New York Stock Exchange floor, both from 75 years ago.

The cover had the beautifully simple map with very small "future" images to tease the viewer. Once opened, the creative twist is revealed: The old trading floor shot is combined with a state of the art and modern stock board. There were several other spreads that had the same twist.

This project was successful for our clients because it secured their image as a leader today and not a dinosaur from yesterday.

Namaro PortfolioSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Logos that didn't make it. Rate it. Buy it.

With over 20 awards for logo development under our belt, Namaro has established itself as the place to go to get a logo designed. It's one of our favorite projects to work on.

So what happens to the logos that didn't make it? The ones the client didn't pick. They sit on our server hoping one day to be brought back out into the world. Inspired by these orphans' plight, we developed this new section to show creative logos to the world. You can rate them, adopt them, or just comment on them.

If you do want to adopt one, they are available for a very reasonable fee and are adaptable to suit your business. Give us a call and give them a home ;)

Logos that didn't make it. Rate it. Buy it.SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

The lighter side: The top 10 Thanksgiving disasters to avoid

These are actual stories. Share yours?

1. Don’t forget to take the giblets out before cooking the turkey.

2. Make sure the dogs are locked up and away from the turkey.

3. The turkey should be ‘fully” cooked to avoid giving botulism to everyone.

4. Don’t invite fans from opposing football teams.

5. Don’t forget to water down Grandma's Bourbon.

6. Don’t forget to spike Grandpa's.

7. Don’t eat too much unless you want to be a float in the Macy’s Day Parade.

8. Move the Turducken away from the house—it's a fire hazard like no other.

9. Keep the wine intake to a minimum unless you want to stick your thumb in the pie and pull out a plum and say holy shit am I high?

10. Make sure the apple cider doesn’t go hard or you will have a bunch of very happy children.

The lighter side: The top 10 Thanksgiving disasters to avoidSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Brand repositioning 101: Free outline

Recently I developed this outline to help someone better communicate how to go about repositioning a brand. I hope it's helpful to you and please pass it on. And hey, if you need a new brand, think of Namaro ;)

Simply, brand positioning creates a specific place in the market for your brand and product offerings. It reaches a certain type of consumer or customer and delivers benefits that meet the needs of key target groups. The brand positioning of a company seeks to further distance itself from competitors based on a host of items.

1—Determining the Current Status of the Brand:
• Understand the company and brand
• Explore key issues, opportunities, and challenges
• What differentiates your company and brand from the competition?
• What are the equity drivers of the company and brand?
• What are the historical ways to communicate the company and brand equity to consumers and customers alike?
• Who is the current target customer base?
• What is his/her profile?
• What are the reasons for being a customer?

2—What Does the Brand Stand for Today?
• Understand current consumer perceptions and needs of your brand.
• Determine how far to move your brand without alienating customers and loyalty base.
• Identify how to position your brand to attract new users and ultimately convert them into loyal customers.
• Direct-to-consumer interviews "Why do they select your brand?" and "What was the key decision-making element?"
• Identify needs, both unmet and met in industry, determine the delights and dissatisfiers of your brand.

3—Developing the Brand Position Platform: Where Can We Take It Tomorrow to Grow the Brand?
• How far to grow, expand, and stretch the brand?
• Who do we want our brand to be?
• What is its personality?
• How do we want consumers to think and feel about your brand?
• What benefits will it deliver to the consumer?
• How will we promote the brand?
• Carefully review brand to ensure that it maintains the core values and essence of your brand.
• The new brand positioning will be:

  1. Ownable: Unique to the brand
  2. Leverageable: Important and relevant to the target
  3. Sustainable: To other categories in the future
  4. Extendable: Partnership marketing and other marketing programs
• 2 components:
  1. Strategic: Developing the brand vision: Today, tomorrow and for the future
  2. Creative: Review consumer insights with the goal taking your brand where it should go
• Determine four to five key benefits and potential platforms that are agreed upon by the entire group.
• Go back to key consumers and customers with the purpose of checking back with them to validate the new brand positioning.

4—Refining The Brand Positioning and Management Presentation
• Review and refine the new brand positioning and communicate to all function departments in order to align efforts.
• Incorporate all feedback from consumers, customers, vendors and agencies, to ensure achievable positioning vs. aspirational positioning.
• Present new brand positioning to senior management.
• Endorse the new brand positioning.
• Create brand identity manual which provides a clear direction on the new brand positioning to anyone in the company.
• Bring the new brand positioning to life and apply to marketing, and communications.
• Ensure consistent communication of the brand equity across any medium and by any partner.

5 —Design and Deployment:
• Use four to five key benefits and brand position manual to develop concepts for logo creation.
• Engage senior management in concept development.
• Refine logo concepts to 3 choices and apply to sample marketing vehicles.
• Attain feedback from consumers.
• Present 3 logos and feedback to senior management.
• Refine logo concepts to 2 choices.
• Attain feedback from consumers.
• Present 2 logos and feedback to senior management.
• Refine one logo.
• Apply logo to sample marketing vehicles to present to senior management.
• Endorsement from senior management.
• Incorporate logo into brand identity manual.
• Create database of copywriting, photography, etc.
• Create templates for marketing vehicles.
• Layout, production and deployment of brand.

Brand repositioning 101: Free outlineSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Graphic Traffic: Why a new blog name?

Graphic Traffic better represents what our blog is and what it will be. The new name conveys the concept of information coming together at an intersection and the reader can read (go) wherever they want to.

At this moment in time, business is at a crossroads and stuck in traffic. Graphic Traffic intends on “green lighting” or “red lighting” roads (new information), get you around the jam (solutions) and on to your destination (results).

The next issue of our blog will further develop the concept. If you have an opinion about this, feel free to comment below. We would love to hear from you.

Graphic Traffic: Why a new blog name?SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Rapp on this: How long does a copyright last?

Paul Rapp, our resident copyright and trademark lawyer continues to write and we continue to pass the info along. So how long does a copyright last? A repeat article but well worth visiting. See what he has to say.

Rapp on this: How long does a copyright last?SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Friday, November 7, 2008

Great article: Design you can bank on

The American Institute of Graphic Arts always has great articles. This one in particular was interesting to us since we have worked for the financial industry since Namaro Graphic Designs was born in 1989.

In the past 100 years, the corporate identity of banks has changed.

Read, think and let us know your thoughts.

Design you can bank on by Angela Riechers
October 21, 2008

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/design-you-can-bank-on

Great article: Design you can bank onSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Targeted Advertising For Web Printouts: The 'PrinterStitial'

You know those ad pages that come up before you go to the expected content of a page, well they are called "Interstitial web pages". Whether you like them or not, they get a pretty good CTR, 14%.
Well now a company called Format Dynamics, can insert ads into printouts of a web page. It's called "PrinterStitial". For more on this go to: mediapost.com

Targeted Advertising For Web Printouts: The 'PrinterStitial'SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Who knew???

We are signed up for Google alerts so that anytime Namaro, or other subjects, comes up online it alerts us. So we just got an alert about Namaro. I eagerly open it up only to find out that there is a town in Mozambique named, your guessed it, Namaro. Who knew?

http://www.maplandia.com/mozambique/cabo-delgado/meluco/namaro/


And we thought we were original. What a small world.

Who knew???SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Monday, October 27, 2008

Fascinating Article about Nation Branding

Molly found this fascinating article about National Branding and how Columbia is improving its image. Thinking we should do this for America or at least the Hudson Valley. What do you think? Let us know. Enjoy.

Colombia Wants the World to Recognize Its Passion
Latin American Nation Trots Out a New Slogan, Seeking to Rehabilitate Its Brand After Years of Violence and Corruption

Fascinating Article about Nation BrandingSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Thursday, October 9, 2008

SHOP SHOP SHOP

So the Dow is at 8,500! Should have spent the money not saved it. Oh well. I have my health, a great husband, a wonderful son, a great company, good friends, great clients, and enthusiasm.

So what does this mean to your company? It's not going to be business as usual in 2009 but this downward spiral is a sign of change and change can be good. Clever ideas and innovative solutions will come out of this slower, belt tightening economy. You watch. It will be a renaissance that takes everything we have learned over the past 25 years of building an economy on a house of cards and reversing it for the better. Much better.

I started my business in 1989 after I had been laid off from a great job at Citibank due to the economy. Even though I knew it was going to be hard to get a business up and running, I did it anyway. I had $20,ooo and no clients. Through a friend, I got my first client who paid me $500 for a logo and I was grateful. The first year, I made no profit but I had no losses. The year after a little better. The 3rd year even better. It took time. I've seen good times and bad ones. If anything I have learned is that enthusiasm, commitment and perseverance wins out.

In 2009, Namaro Graphic Designs will turn 20. As part of our celebration, for the next year Namaro will commit to blogging on subjects that will inspire and help our readers during this uncertain time. So come back often to see what tips and info we gather for you that will help you do your job better, start a new business and get inspired.

For now, Molly, our design and production manager, said it well: If you still can, shop local, shop often, help a friend and let's get the economy going.

Personally, I'm going shopping for some some Vodka.

SHOP SHOP SHOPSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Dutchess Arts Council Book Launch/Fundraiser/Funny Event

From the drawing my mother framed when I was four to 38 years years later, my personal and professional lives have creatively overlapped. I am a graphic designer and portrait painter. My design career has taught me how to promote my paintings and my paintings have given inspiration for my designs. My design has taught me how to solve problems and be a leader and my paintings give my mind the ability to rest to deliver creative solutions. My design has taught me to work with the best people in order to soar and my paintings help me soar and give me the confidence to be my best.

Maybe this doesn't make sense to you, but what it boils down to is that my creative accomplishments, whether commercial or fine-art, would never happen with out creative people around me.

For the past 4 months several of my colleagues and I have been working on the inaugural Art Studio Views (artsnortherndutchess.org). It's going to happen on the 18-19 of this month and it would never have been possible without the help of amazing creative people, one of whom is Benjamin Krevolin from the Dutchess County Arts Council.

There are so many to thank and in the coming months, I will get to each of them. But today I want to thank Ben for his wealth of knowledge, guidance, help and humor in all my creative ventures. His dedication to the arts is invaluable to our area and Dutchess County just wouldn't be as great without his undying efforts. Supporting the Dutchess County Arts Council is essential for our kids, our economy, our sanity, and our community. So I encourage you to go to their really cool fundraiser happening Friday October 17th. Below you will find all the delightful details:

Some Delights of the Hudson Valley; An Anthology of Hudson Valley Humor
Compiled & Edited by Danny Shanahan

Friday, October 17th
6:30 Reception / 7:30 Show
Olin Hall
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson

Tickets are:
$35 for individual (includes 1 book)
$50 for a couple (includes 1 book)
PLEASE call the Arts Council to reserve tickets – 845-454-3222
Or go to website: http://www.artsmidhudson.org/

Readings (of their own work) by contributors – Denny Dillon from SNL, Mary-Louise Wilson from Grey Gardens, Robert Kelly, Mikhail Horowitz, Lou Trapani and many more; music by contributor and legend, Graham Parker; cartoon panel Q&A with New Yorker team Shanahan, Donnelly, Maslin, Crawford and more; reception, signings, food, door prize for tkts to The Daily Show, raffle for original cartoon art, hob-nobbing and MUCH, MUCH MORE!!

PLEASE PASS THIS INVITE ON!

(Epigraph Publishing ~ An Alternative Publishing Imprint of Monkfish Book Publishing Company)

Dutchess Arts Council Book Launch/Fundraiser/Funny EventSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Friday, October 3, 2008

"THE LIGHTER SIDE": Top ten reasons you need bailing out too

1. Who can balance a checkbook, anyway?
2. Your house is in a perpetual state of construction.
3. You’ll never get to retire, otherwise.
4. Because you can’t swim.
5. You don’t have a senator’s health care plan.
6. You have 3 college-age children.
7. You live in a flood zone.
8. Social Security sure won’t be around to help.
9. You’ve been spending your money on stuff like food and electricity instead of investing it in the market. Maybe you don’t need bailing out ;)
10. Your teenager has already crashed both of the family cars.

"THE LIGHTER SIDE": Top ten reasons you need bailing out tooSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Namaro portfolio: FREE "Panda" Logo & web site



The local television station in Northern Dutchess County, Panda TV 23, is a non-profit organization dedicated to facilitating local programming. After a shakeup in government and management, Panda wanted to reinvent their image and renew their dedication to the community. We donated our services to design a new logo and a small web site for them. The logo has distinctive ‘A-s’ and the station number centered in a TV-shaped screen. The Web site’s easy-to-use navigation, appealing colors and TV-shaped images have transformed the online experience for their viewers.

Namaro portfolio: FREE "Panda" Logo & web siteSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

More shameless self-promotion: Logos, logos and more logos












We are known in the industry for our logos. So we would like to brag to you that most of them have won awards and helped our clients reach new heights. As a design firm, if we had a choice for our preferred work, it would be logo design. It’s hard to design a logo that looks like it was easy to develop but when you get it right, the satisfaction is worth the effort.

More shameless self-promotion: Logos, logos and more logosSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

RAPP ON THIS: The fair use marass

As always, our friendly neighborhood intellectual property lawyer Paul Rapp has something to say in a smart and approachable way. Click here for an article he wrote trying to explain what "fair use" means. Happy reading!

RAPP ON THIS: The fair use marassSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

FREE shameless self-promotion







Like everyone else in the country, we’re looking at each other and wondering how our company will weather the growing financial crisis. The best way to handle this, we decided, is to be proactive. So we’re out campaigning for work!

What can we do for you?

• Develop creative ways to get your customers active again.

• Design a brand that people will remember with a logo that will last.

• Cut through the hype of internet marketing.

• Reduce printing costs by using multi-channel strategies.

• Work as an off-site extension of your company.

• Set up an e-mail campaign newsletter template.

• Create a template system for all your marketing needs and you can manage it yourself.

• Create a flash animation to jazz up your Web site or presentation.

• Update the look of your Web site not re-create it.

• Product and location photography.

• Help you review your marketing budget and make it more efficient, effective and last longer.

FREE shameless self-promotionSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

FREE marketing and business ideas

These days marketing should be more transparent and cross-promotional. In order for everyone to prosper, helping each other do business in new ways is essential. It’s where it’s at baby!

• Cross-promote with businesses that share the same client base.

• Write engaging press releases about your employees (e.g., the personal achievement of an employee like being the first in their family to graduate from college or climb Mt. Everest)

• Start a blog and engage only your clients. What do they want from you? What can you do better? Maybe they could post a picture of your product in use at their house? Answer their questions? Reward your clients when they offer a great idea? Satisfy them when they aren’t happy and let everyone see how you made them happy again?

• Help your clients get business. Be transparent, help them, they will help you.

• Read our blog ;)

• Don’t pay rent. Rent a van. Create a business model that’s on the road. Sell or distribute anything from the trunk. Make-up, clothing, vacations, anything that someone wouldn’t expect.

• The right place at the right time business. Your business moves from one location to another as the market demands and uses vacant storefronts for a month or 2 at a time.

• Put 2 businesses together that you wouldn’t expect. Maybe a bar and a wide screen TV in a department store so your husband can sit-down and have a drink while you're shopping. Think of it, he would be happy to come and you could shop through the Superbowl.

• Create a new business model that caters to the “convenient” factor. Like a ½ hour babysitter service when you have to make that quick run to the store or the bank.

FREE marketing and business ideasSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Links to FREE stuff online

Some stuff we endorse and we say so by adding a happy face. Others we don't know enough about. Users always beware when you see the word ‘free.’

Google offers lots of free online software that rivals popular alternatives including word processing, spreadsheets, image management, calendar, drawing, and translation. If you have staff working in more than one location, they can access and edit documents online without having to email or transfer via ftp.

Freeware software top 100: Need we say more?

Thelaw.com: Free legal advice and forms

VerticalResponse.com: If you’re a non-for-profit entity, go to VerticalResponse.com. Give them proof of your non-for-profit status and they’ll let you send up to 10,000 e-mails a month for free.

JustGive: is committed to helping nonprofits by offering them online donation tools to increase awareness and donations to their organizations. Their tools can directly help you increase your fund raising.

Planware.org: free software business plans, marketing plans, strategic plans, online planning tools, excel templates for financial forms

Free-press-release.com: Free Press Releases

Thefreesite-whitepapers.tradepub.com:
White papers and trade publications

Free-internet.name: Free Internet access

Dafont.com: Free fonts

Thefreemusicdirectory.com: Free music

Freeonlinegames.com: Just in case you need a little distraction during your day.

Freerice.com: For each answer you get right, we donate 20 grains of rice through the UN World Food Program to help end hunger.

Marketingprofs.com: Free trial offer for a wealth of marketing information and case studies.

Skype.com: Free phone calls.

Yousendit.com: Free ftp service to send your large files or photos via the web.

About.com: Free Graphic Design Basics tutorial

Paul-Rand.com: Free thoughts on design by Paul Rand, one of the best graphic designers ever.

Freestufftimes: A blog with links to more free stuff.


Links to FREE stuff onlineSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Design Ideas Guaranteed to Get People to Your Site

Marketing Sherpa posted an interesting piece listing the most effective things you can do to increase response ratings on your site. The number one thing was to include a photo of a person, the number two thing...read more.

Design Ideas Guaranteed to Get People to Your SiteSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Save the date: 2008 Art Studio Views

It's official. The maps are printed and everything is ready to go for the 2008 Inaugural Art Studio views of the Rhinebeck and Red Hook areas. Saturday 10-18 and Sunday 10-19 from 11-5 each day. Visit artsnortherndutchess.org for more information or download the map. Come and see our table across from the bandstand at Hardscrabble Day in Red Hook this Saturday 9/20. Send the link to your friends, art lovers and especially collectors ;)

Special thanks to our Art Studio View sponsors:
Rhinebeck Savings Bank
Rhinecliff Hotel
Keller Williams, Suzanne Stevens
Namaro Graphic Designs
Cross River Fine Art
Rising Tide Communications

Special thanks to everyone else. Now the hard work begins!!!

Diana Ayton-Shenker
Doris Cultraro
Nadine Robbins
Elizabeth Watt
Joel Weisbrod
Joanne Klein
Clive Jacobson
France Menk
All the Artists
Susie Linn
Dutchess County Arts Council
Rhinebeck Area Chamber of Commerce

Save the date: 2008 Art Studio ViewsSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Creating a brand helps create a plan: Suzanne Stevens, Keller Williams Realty

Suzanne Stevens, a real estate broker with Keller Williams Realty in Rhinebeck, NY was inspired by our June blog: Don’t slash the budget. Market smarter!

Smart she is! Suzanne decided to use her time constructively during the economic downturn. She hired Namaro to upgrade her corporate brand and create a master plan. Not only is she going to be more visible than the competition that is down scaling, but she’ll be ready when the market picks up with a plan that will save her money and time.

First, we developed a tagline that was simple, direct and friendly by using a phrase that is common and expanding on it. “Just Listed, Just Sold, Just Suzanne”.

Second, we reviewed all her advertising and developed a plan.

Third, we designed a corporate brand that was first “Suzanne Stevens” and second Keller Williams. The fonts, shapes and colors complimented both “brands” yet differentiated them.

Fourth, we designed and produced templates in Microsoft Publisher, PowerPoint and Word, so Suzanne could work with the templates on her own whenever she needed them. Her corporate communications brand won’t be compromised, and she’ll be able to easily handle the job in-house.

Fifth, we created an Excel file with calendar columns next to each of the templates. Suzanne can create a plan for each piece of her brand and when she needs it.

Things change constantly in the real estate market. New ads are required. A presentation is created for every new listing, open house, and sale. This brand is easy to use, update and will most definitely make “Suzanne Stevens” stand out now and in 2009-2010.

Creating a brand helps create a plan: Suzanne Stevens, Keller Williams RealtySocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

The lighter side: You know you're not organized when

1. You show up a day early to your any appointment.
2. You can’t see the surface of your desk.
3. You open the silverware drawer and find straws.
4. Your boss buys you an organizer.
5. Your filing system is a two-foot stack on the kitchen counter.
6. The electricity turns off.
7. You can’t find your to-do list.
8. You forget your anniversary.
9. You give your boss a blank stare.
10. You can’t read your own handwriting.

The lighter side: You know you're not organized whenSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

A check list of marketing tools

Creativity: If you don’t have it, then you can’t stand out from your competition.
Print/Web advertising: The right mix will help you succeed.
eNewsletters: Target a small subscribed list like your existing contacts and new ones from networking.
Publicity: Distribute a press release about anything happening at your company.
Word-of-mouth: Clients are the best leads for more work.
Viral marketing: If done right, it's one of the best ways to reach a huge audience.
Corporate blog: Sounds scary to lawyers, but if your CEO or sales people each have one, your customers feel personally connected.
Incentives, Discounts and Give-aways: Is a discount on what you're selling creating the right image to gain new customers? Incentives work better than giving it away and keep your bottom line up.
SEO: We can't stress it enough, if you're selling products.
Off-site, storefront and trade shows displays: Being creative will capture your audience quickly.
Networking and sponsorships: Getting out there is the best way to increase sales, lists, press, word-of-mouth, etc…
Hi-tech: youtube.com and secondlife.com come to mind.
Or create your own networking site: check out ning.com.

A check list of marketing toolsSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Answer these questions before you start your 2009-2010 marketing plan

• What are your company’s goals for 2009-2010?
• Did you do a SWOT analysis?
• What are your customer needs?
• What is the competition doing?
• What marketing tools proved effective/ineffective in the past?
• What are developing trends that may impact your company?
• What is your 2009-2010 budget?
• What economic/social/technical factors will affect your company in 2009-2010?
• Have you reviewed your vendor qualifications and can you do better?

Answer these questions before you start your 2009-2010 marketing planSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Stressed out? Don't forget to breath & get software

If you’re responsible for multiple projects and clients, consider buying a software package to keep track of everything. Create visual schedules of who’s responsible for what and when they’re supposed to do it. Your team enters hours worked and record milestones. Status reports are quickly created, alerting managers to potential problems. Schedules, estimates, budgets. You name it, these programs have got it. Breathe.

Microsoft Project, Apple Streamtime Job Bag Software and Filemaker are popular programs. There are cheaper versions out there like TwiddleBit’s Plan for Windows, too. Third-party companies sell templates customized for different industries and save you the headache of initial set-up. We use a program called Fast Track on our Macs.

Stressed out? Don't forget to breath & get softwareSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Get your free excel file!

Don't have specific software you can use? We created this quick start marketing plan guide in Excel for you to use. Start planning now by clicking here to download the file. It's safe. It was created on a mac. :)

Get your free excel file!SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Saturday, September 6, 2008

FREE

Keep an eye out for the next newsletter. It will have lots of Free information.

FREESocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Crowd Sourcing Turns Business On Its Head

What happens when a company lets consumers design and vote on their own products? In theory, at least, the firm's overhead goes down and profits go up.

The business model is based on so-called crowd sourcing, or community-based design. The success enjoyed by a T-shirt company called Threadless prompted other firms to explore how the model might work for them. Click here for the rest of the story!

Crowd Sourcing Turns Business On Its HeadSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Is Print Dead or Not? Is It Still Relevant?

The jury remains out on the issue; experts have lined up on both sides of the aisle. At Namaro, we believe print will have a place in the marketing world for the foreseeable future, but in order to be effective, it’s got to be a multichannel approach using print, digital media and the internet. People look to the internet for quick answers or background information. Typically, when they request a print brochure from a Web site, they’re ready to sit down and have a good look. That brochure needs to provide information that’s not on the company’s site, or you’ll lose the customer’s interest and, more importantly, the sale.

Here are a few sample multichannel campaign ideas to consider.

1. Use variable data to personalize a direct mail campaign (e.g., Hi Sam…big widget sale). Include a call to action that steers Sam to a campaign Web site (e.g., bigwidgetsale.com) so you can track how many Sams reacted positively to the post card.

2. Develop an eNewsletter that addresses the interests/needs of your customers. Include all kinds of irresistible information that may help them improve their business. Offer one idea per issue that links back to your company’s Web site (any more and you’ll scare them away). On that Web page, include a link to request a print brochure with detailed product/service information. eNewsletters are a great way to build your email database.

3. Create a free print-on-demand PDF catalog available on your Web site. Include links to other pages of your Web site as well as links to request print brochures with more detailed product/service information.

4. Advertise in a print publication such as a magazine, newspaper or trade publication with a call to visit a specific page on your Web site (e.g., abcompany.com/coolwidget). Provide general information on the site page with a link to download a more detailed PDF brochure.

5. Create an interactive version of a brochure, annual report or other piece you’ve traditionally printed and post as part of your Web site. Include helpful features such as a Search box, have detailed information/diagrams/price appear when a user rolls over different areas of the screen. Embed a video of your company’s president talking about exciting developments on the horizon.

Check out an example of an interactive presentation that we did for a meeting with a potential client.

Is Print Dead or Not? Is It Still Relevant?SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Top 10 reasons why paper will still be around in the future:

1. Spitballs. My son should have the same opportunity to get in trouble at school as I did!
2. Paper airplanes. What will I do when then boss isn’t around?
3. Toilet Paper. Need I say more!
4. Confetti. What else would you throw on New Year’s?
5. Magazines. You can’t lug a computer into the john.
6. Bedtime stories. Cuddling with your kid under the covers will always be in style.
7. Degree certificates. How else would you brag about where you went to college?
8. Comics. Life wouldn’t be the same without Captain Underpants.
9. Dollar bills. Bling isn’t a practical way to pay for groceries.
10. Rock, computer, scissors simply doesn’t work.

Top 10 reasons why paper will still be around in the future:SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

The Experts Weigh In On the Subject

"Closing a magazine is no more a sign of the death of the industry than the cancellation of a TV series means the shutdown of a network, or a haircut is a sign that you're going bald.”
Hachette President and CEO Jack Kliger

“No one is saying magazines will fade into complete oblivion even as they restructure and find new legs. In the words of Marie Claire editor Joanna Coles ‘As long as people take baths, there will always be a monthly magazine.’”
Dorian Benkoll and Dylan Stableford

“More and more people are turning to online media for their general information…even if it’s the website of that same newspaper.”
Danny Thompson, freelance copywriter

“If you talk to the group at Barnes & Noble, there are more kids’ books being sold than any time in history.”
David Granger, Esquire magazine

“My position is that if you look at Americans’ tastes, we never give up something for something else. We add something to the menu. There are people who said that television was going to get rid of radio. It didn’t do that, it just changed the way people listened to the radio.”
Alfred Edmond Jr., Black Enterprise Magazine

“Newspaper readers respond to ads in their newspapers. 56% of the target market either researched or purchased at least one product they saw in the newspaper in the last month.

Readers rely on the Internet to perform further research on products they see in the newspaper. 67% of readers who researched products they saw in the newspaper did research online, illustrating how newspaper drives web traffic.”
Google-commissioned Study

“Print is not dead, but I'm glad I'm not starting a career in the offset printing industry either.”
N. Reid, Reid Neubert + Friends

The Experts Weigh In On the SubjectSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

First Annual Arts Studio Views Pro Bono Work

You can see from the logo how much fun we had with this project! Namaro is proud to have donated the design of the logo and promo materials for the 1st Studio Views in Rhinebeck.

The inaugural Art Studio Views will present a self-guided, “not to be missed”, tour of 20 artist studios in the Rhinebeck & Red Hook area. Participating artists will collectively open their working studios to visitors and residents for the first time on October 18th and 19th, 2008. During those visits you will be able to meet and speak with the artist, see works in progress, purchase wonderful artwork or commission that special piece for yourself.

Participating artists feature acclaimed painters, photographers, illustrators, glass sculptors and stained glass artists, sculptors, textile, video and mixed-media artists, all making their home in the mid-Hudson Valley. However, their work and talent is nationwide in recognition - being found in public spaces, museums, and private collections. A user-friendly map and poster, beautifully designed by a local graphic arts firm, will guide visitors to the artist studios according to their own schedule and itinerary. Online links from the Art Studio Views website (currently under construction) will connect visitors with artist websites for a virtual preview of studios and introduction to artists’ work.

Spearheaded by local artists themselves, this initiative promises to put Rhinebeck & Red Hook on the map as a cultural destination in the region and reinforce the wealth of local talent that is in abundance in this area. As the Art Studio Views tour serves to showcase the cultural vibrancy of our creative community, it will also provide a new annual attraction for weekenders, tourists, and other visitors; and it will continue to help build a market of support for working artists and the Arts in Northern Dutchess.

Art Studio Views offers exceptional sponsorship opportunities to local businesses which will be featured prominently in promotional material to be publicized by the media and distributed to thousands of residents, tourists, visitors, customers, and prospective studio viewers. An opening private reception will be held on October 17th at the Rhinecliff Hotel to honor artists, sponsors, and VIP friends of the inaugural Art Studio Views event. Many thanks to James Chapman for sponsoring the reception. His restaurant will officially be opening up Labor day. I suggest you go and check it out. It sounds YUMMY and what a view. Go to www.therhinecliff.com for more info.

For further information, please contact Nadine Robbins, 845.876.3009 nrobbins@namaro.com

First Annual Arts Studio Views Pro Bono WorkSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Rapp on this: An introduction to copyright law

Our Guest blogger Paul Rapp continues to have a lot to say! This months article is an introduction to copyright law. See an excerpt below:

Every artist ought to have at least an elementary understanding of copyright law. Second only to an artwork's aesthetic qualities, it is copyright law that drives a work's value and integrity. This is so because copyright law establishes and defines what it is that the artist owns of his or her work, both while the artist possesses the work and after the work has been sold, or copied, displayed or performed. In future months, this column will hopefully shed some light on this deceptively complicated area of law, dispel common myths and misunderstandings, and discuss other legal areas that impact on the creative process as well as the business of art. Click here for full article.

Thanks Paul!

Rapp on this: An introduction to copyright lawSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Lots and lots of links

We look all over the web for great stuff to pass along and help you keep up with what's going on in the business of marketing, corporate communications and graphic design. Below are just some of the sites we use and review all the time. Happy clicking:

www.marketingprofs.com/ (general marketing articles. Pay for full access)

Wall Street Journal media and marketing (It's the Wall Street Journal!)

marketingvox.com (general marketing articles)

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ (interesting perspectives on marketing today)

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/# (general marketing articles)

www.ragan.com (corporate communications)

Also, I just found an nteresting article about the Olympics of Illustration!
Look for the newsletter next week!

Lots and lots of linksSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

3D printing by Shapeways

If you don't want a printed promo brochure or an interactive/web solution for your marketing effort, why not try 3-D printing! In its infancy but an interesting new way to communicate. See below

Shapeways. The Dutch venture, which is part of Philips' Lifestyle Incubator, lets users upload 3D designs and have them produced on one of Shapeway's 3D printers. Customers can currently choose from four different types of rigid and flexible plastic, and their object is shipped to them within 10 days of ordering. Costs depend on size and mass, but smallish items are priced around USD 50–150.



You'll need to log-in for more info http://www.shapeways.com/login

3D printing by ShapewaysSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Cuil (pronounced cool) a new search engine

Great news folks. There's a new search engine out there to rival Google. Here's a snippet and a link.

The Internet has grown exponentially in the last fifteen years but search engines have not kept up—until now. Cuil searches more pages on the Web than anyone else—three times as many as Google and ten times as many as Microsoft.

http://www.cuil.com/info/

Cuil (pronounced cool) a new search engineSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Friday, July 11, 2008

Need a Vacation? Popular East Coast Beaches


1. Outer Banks, North Carolina 2. Virginia Beach
3. Cumberland Island, Georgia
4. Cape Cod, Massachussetts
5. Kennebunkport, Maine
6. Cape May, New Jersey
7. Daytona Beach, Florida
8. Chincoteague Island, Virginia
9. Newport, Rhode Island
10. Ocean City, Maryland

Need a Vacation? Popular East Coast BeachesSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Everyone is a Kid at the Water Park


A few years ago, the Ahearn/Robinson family completely and totally the indoor water park at the Great Wolf Lodge in Virginia Beach. Might be the perfect winter weekend getaway. To prove that you can find a site for everything, waterparks.com will help you find the water park closest to you. (You can just make out the feet flying up in the rush of water at the bottom of the slide!)

Everyone is a Kid at the Water ParkSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Top 10 Worst Beach Behaviors

1. Wearing a thong when you’ve got jelly rolls.
2. Calling out “shark” to clear crowded waters.
3. Wearing a suit that matches your spouse’s.
4. Kicking sand on a sunbather.
5. Gawking.
6. Not digging your umbrella in deep enough.
7. Leaving cigarette butts behind.
8. Throwing your fishing line in amongst swimmers.
9. Pilfering eggs from protected turtle nests.
10. Losing your suit in a big wave.

Top 10 Worst Beach BehaviorsSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Quad: Elegant and Cost-Effective Alumni Magazine


Riverdale Country School in New York has entrusted us with designing their biannual alumni magazine for many years. Providing education to boys and girls through twelfth grade, Riverdale is known for its challenging curriculum as well as its emphasis on developing creativity, independence and moral integrity. The two-acre campus looks like a park and has been featured on many Quad covers. To keep costs manageable, the inside pages are two-color allowing us to show off our talent with black-and-white photographs. Action Graphics in New Jersey does a fine job with the printing.

Quad: Elegant and Cost-Effective Alumni MagazineSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Web 2.0: What is it and does it work

It's hard to define Web 2.0. But as someone who directly states the obvious and doesn't spin, Web 2.0 is not a tangible service or product to sell. It's the web as it's being used, today with services and communities interacting with each other like blogging and social sites and how to capitalize on them. Integrating this new way of communicating into marketing campaigns and actually help companies to make money is a challenge and the jury is still out.

We are sure some readers will disagree with this simple definition but it offers a "step" in the right direction in simply defining Web 2.0 for smaller companies.

We have found a few articles that clarify what 2.0 is and a case study that shows how it can work:

http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3625146


http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/the-trouble-with-web

http://humanvoice.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/monetizing-web-20/

Web 2.0: What is it and does it workSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Monday, July 7, 2008

More on Rand

According to graphic designer Louis Danziger: He almost singlehandedly convinced business that design was an effective tool. [. . .] Anyone designing in the 1950s and 1960s owed much to Rand, who largely made it possible for us to work. He more than anyone else made the profession reputable. We went from being commercial artists to being graphic designers largely on his merits

Make the unfamiliar, familiar!

Image:Eye-Bee-M-Poster.jpg

For more information on Paul Rand and his corporate communications career and theories go to Wikipedia.

More on RandSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Sunday, July 6, 2008

What is graphic design?

The best definition of graphic design by one of the most famous designers in the world:

Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions; there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated.

Paul Rand

What is graphic design?SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Cocktail recipes & other results from last Enewsletter

I thought that the results from our last Enewsletter campaign would be of interest:

1. Many of you enjoyed the cocktail recipes. So much so that is was the number one click to get to the blog over everything else. (I can see that your mind is on your work)

2. Most of you clicked the photos to get to the information you were looking for. (Pictures are the best!)

3. The text version of the newsletter is not being clicked by anyone. (This is not bad news.)

4. No one is subscribing to the RSS feed. (I think I'll do an article about this subject very soon)

5. Free lightbulbs are still available, click nrobbins@namaro.com to get yours.

Cocktail recipes & other results from last EnewsletterSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Namaro SEO standing

Search Engine Optimization is a slow and steady process. Painfully slow. However, if you continually work at it the results start coming in and hopefully some new business.

So after 4 months, Erica Darcy (our guest blogger and SEO expert/emhdarcy@gmail.com) looked over the webstats for our website www.namaro.com:

1. Search is currently driving about 50% of the referrals to the site this month, up from 15% in February. Good!

2. Gone up in positioning overall, so that is a good also.

3. Traffic overall has not been increasing. Not so good!

What can we do to drive traffic? Erica is suggesting some article syndication, both for the traffic boost, and the links. She believes that bringing the blog onto your domain will also help in that area, as will posting to the blog more frequently. She also wants us to play around with digg or other social media.

Yes, it gets confusing but this blog is about working through this SEO stuff to gain a better understanding for ourselves and for you the readers to take full advantage of the web.

The next post will cover some of the things we continue to do to increase the traffic.

Namaro SEO standingSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Friday, June 13, 2008

Get a free lightbulb!

Namaro’s corporate communication design campaign “Brighter ideas, more impact, less energy” is under way and we are sending out a free "energy smart" light bulbs to the first 100 to send us a request.

Don't forget to pass the blog along to someone who could use the information we post on the blog.

Get a free lightbulb!SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Northern Dutchess Arts Explosion

The Dutchess County Arts Council received a grant to create an arts and cultural guide for Northern Dutchess County. Always ready to help the arts community, Namaro offered to develop a brand that would effectively promote the arts in our area. Thanks to the Northern Dutchess Alliance team and the Dutchess Arts Council for getting this guide off the ground. Go to artsnortherndutchess.org for more information or to be listed.

Northern Dutchess Arts ExplosionSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Summer Cocktail Recipes

Looming recession, ridiculous gas prices getting you down? Need a vacation? A good summer drink can transform your backyard into paradise.

Sex on the Beach
1 oz. vodka
1 oz. peach schnapps
Juice from ¼ fresh orange
½ oz. melon liqueur
Fill tall glass with ice. Add vodka, then schnapps, then oj. Add melon liqueur last so it floats on top.














Frozen Margarita

2 oz. Tequila
½ oz. Triple Sec
Juice from ½ lime
1/2 cup ice
Blend all ingredients to slush, dip the edge of the glass in kosher salt and serve with lime garnish.

Frozen Daiquiri
2 oz. rum
Juice from 1/4 lime
1/2 cup ice
Blend all ingredients to slush and serve with lime garnish.














Frozen Piña Colada

2 oz. rum
2 oz. pineapple juice
1 oz. cream of coconut
1/2 cup ice
Blend all ingredients to slush and serve with pineapple garnish.

Mojito
2 oz. rum
Juice from half of a lime
3-4 spearmint leaves
Club soda
Add lime juice and 3 mint leaves to a tall glass. Stir to let flavor out of mint. Add ice to ¾ full. Add rum, top off with soda, stir well. Garnish with the extra mint leaf.

Mint Julep
4 mint leaves
2 oz. bourbon
2 teaspoons water
Drop 3 of the mint leaves in the bottom of a tall glass. Stir to let flavor out of mint. Fill with ice. Add bourbon and water. Garnish with the extra mint leaf.

Gin & Tonic
2 oz. gin
Tonic water
Fill tall glass with ice. Add gin, fill glass with tonic water. Squeeze lime around rim of glass. Garnish with a fresh lime slice.

Summer Cocktail RecipesSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Reduce your marketing budget

• In exchange for a year’s worth of work, many vendors will discount their services—especially during hard times.
• Partnering. Dovetail your interests (and your ad expense) with a compatible company.
• Review your corporate communications and combine print and internet marketing. It reduces print runs, reaches larger audiences and can easily be updated and refined.
• Press releases are free. Come up with creative story ideas to drive attention to your company’s products/services.
• Reduce or discontinue marketing vehicles that have failed to bring in business.
• Hire a consultant to assist you in creating a systematic marketing plan for the year.
• If you sell a product, put your money into search engine marketing first. It will pay off.
• Ask your best clients to refer your company to others.

Reduce your marketing budgetSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Use down time constructively

• Develop a new corporate identity design system for your company. It could be ready for launch when the business cycle turns around.
• Consider new markets to approach that prosper during a recession.
• Brush up on your skills. Take a class or two.
• Develop a corporate blog and/or E-Newsletter campaign that offers your customers free information or advice.
• Network with new groups related or different from your existing clients base. You can differ yourself from others and offer fresh solutions.
• Take advantage of downtime to spend time with family.
• Develop flex-time program with employees.

Use down time constructivelySocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Your competition isn’t advertising, so why aren't you

Don’t slash the budget. Market smarter!
It’s common knowledge that companies slash marketing budgets during a recession. To us this is like cutting off your nose to spite your face. It’s a quick fix. The lower numbers look good briefly but the damage can be significant and prolonged. A lack of presence—even a reduced presence—raises concerns about a company’s stability. Clients may lose confidence in your company further impacting your receivables. This is serious business.

Here are some tips for marketing during a recession:

• Your competition isn’t advertising, so why aren’t you?
• When the recession is over, you’re well positioned.
• Consider changing vendors for better deals.
• Advertising rates can be negotiated more than ever.
• Work out payment plans with vendors and don’t kill your cash flow.
• Create better content for your website. Online video is the hottest thing.
• Create videos of staff working and engage your customers at to how things happen inside your company.
• Be creative. Stand out quickly, memorably and often.

Your competition isn’t advertising, so why aren't youSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Checking the Pulse of Marketing Executives



In an attempt to brace our company for the impending economic downturn, we asked marketing and communications professionals to complete a survey about how they work and get information. About 20 people completed the survey. While the participation was bleak, the results are interesting.

A few of the questions we asked:

  • When the business cycle takes a turn for the worse, what steps do you take?
  • What new Web technologies are you interested in learning about?
  • What kind of information would help you do your job better?
Download a pdf or movie to review all of the survey results.

Checking the Pulse of Marketing ExecutivesSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Namaro: Brighter Ideas, Less Energy, More Impact

Solid market research is vital to successful marketing. When it was time for us to design a new campaign for ourselves, we began by conducting in-depth interviews with members of our target audience—marketing professionals. It became clear that they were looking to reach more people in less expensive ways. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

To us, it made perfect sense and fit right into what we’d been doing. The campaign slogan, “Brighter Ideas, Less Energy, More Impact,” says it all. Brighter Ideas because Namaro is known for creative solutions with a twist. Less Energy because we offer paperless internet solutions that save natural resources and cost less. More Impact because you can reach millions in an instant online. And, the slogan worked beautifully with our tagline—See your business like never before.

Namaro: Brighter Ideas, Less Energy, More ImpactSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

You Can’t Design in a Vacuum: Ten Steps to Follow when Planning a Marketing Campaign

1. Define your target audience and interview a few of its members.
2. Create a survey to reach a bigger slice of your target audience.
3. Analyze interview/survey data.
4. Focus on most important target audience need.
5. Create a campaign that speaks to this need and offers solutions.
6. Apply design to all marketing vehicles such as custom ad campaign, web site, video, giveaways, booths for tradeshows, online ad campaign, on-demand brochures, eNewsletters, blogs, etc.
7. Deploy campaign strategically, systematically, and consistently over a period of at least one year.
8. Stay on message over the phone, during presentations, and interviews and leave your potential clients excited about how you can fulfilling their needs and expectations.
9. Follow-up, answer questions, help out even if you don’t close a deal.
10. Ongoing adjustments and analysis of campaign.

You Can’t Design in a Vacuum: Ten Steps to Follow when Planning a Marketing CampaignSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Top ten social faux pas

1. You wear a “Vote for Obama” button at a Ted Nugent concert.
2. You show off your tattoos at a business breakfast.
3. You’ve got poppy seeds stuck in your teeth during a television interview.
4. Your cell phone goes off in the middle of a funeral.
5. You drink too much tequila and dance on a table or two. (Is this really socially unacceptable?)
6. You fart in church.
7. You wear your thong at the community pool.
8. You forget the party host's name!
9. You post vintage footage on YouTube of your college roommate competing in a chugging contest.
10. You accidentally send the email to the person you’re badmouthing.

Top ten social faux pasSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Don’t Choose the Wrong Online Survey Service

Before launching our new marketing campaign, we used SurveyMonkey.com to poll our target audience. We had all kinds of trouble.

  • Our survey time period kept closing despite repeated attempts to keep it open for a 3-month period.
  • Some users would complete the survey and be unable to submit their responses.
  • The data collected was not provided in a useful format.
  • We only heard about troubles from sympathetic users, so there could have been other problems we don’t even know about.
USER BEWARE!

Don’t Choose the Wrong Online Survey ServiceSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

“Rapp on this” Information on intellectual property law

Every artist ought to have at least an elementary understanding of copyright law. Second only to an artwork's aesthetic qualities, it is copyright law that drives a work's value and integrity. This is so because copyright law establishes and defines what it is that the artist owns of his or her work, both while the artist possesses the work and after the work has been sold, or copied, displayed or performed. In future months, this column will hopefully shed some light on this deceptively complicated area of law, dispel common myths and misunderstandings, and discuss other legal areas that impact on the creative process as well as the business of art. Click to read more.

The Law Office of Paul C. Rapp

348 Long Pond Road
Housatonic, Massachusetts 01236

Specializing in intellectual property law including copyright, trademark, Internet, and art and entertainment matters. Adjunct professor of copyright and art & entertainment law, Albany Law School

Licensed in New York and Massachusetts
MA: 413.553.3189
NY: 518.935.4568

“Rapp on this” Information on intellectual property lawSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Effective Website Design: Hammond Security

Everyone in the Hudson Valley knows the Hammond Logo/Sticker. You can see it on any building that has an alarm system from Hammond Security. It’s a powerful brand with great recognition. So when Namaro was hired to redesign Hammond’s site, we felt that the logo was a focal starting point.

We submitted several designs including one design with a large “H” shape as the whole background of the site.

Pleased with the design choices, the client picked the “H” design since we all agreed that it continued to reinforce their existing brand and retained the boldness and strength of it.

The site was designed by us, Namaro, and the back-end programming was provided by a partner of ours, Oxclove Workshop in Kingston.

If you need more informatiom about Hammond Security Systems or want your own system, contact Kim Sears, Security Consultant, (845) 471-3441.

Effective Website Design: Hammond SecuritySocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Friday, April 18, 2008

A second look at Virtual Worlds

Why don't more brand managers market in virtual worlds? Check out this link for some very interesting statistics.

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006166

A second look at Virtual WorldsSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Steps in creating the Rhinebeck Area Chamber of Commerce logo




























Creating a brand is hard work and demands dedication. It takes time to develop and finalize one custom logo design and apply it to the various corporate communications materials a business needs.


I wanted to share some of the steps that it took for us to get the Rhinebeck Area Chamber of Commerce brand launched in record time (less than 3 months):

1. A survey was made and sent out to members to get input. It’s important for outsiders to weigh-in since they almost always offer suggestions the design committee didn’t consider.

2. Many themes were explored. The final 3 were Rhinebeck’s History, tourism, and local business.

3. Visual concepts were developed such as the aerodrome, doors, keys, violets, open signs, paths, roads, hills, steps, door handles, crossroads, the chamber booth, briefcases, and windows. Although creative, most concepts became too specific and did not represent the chamber and its broader area as a whole.

4. The final logo needed to work for many years to come and appeal to various people—businesses, tourists, young and old.

5. We had several brainstorm sessions starting with visual sketches. We narrowed it down from 8 concepts to 2.

6. The last two logo treatments were finalized and applied to sample materials to aid in the final decision. We also sent them out to a small focus group to analyze their reactions.

7. The final logo has a variety of elements:
• It successfully brought together several concepts into one beautiful symbol.
• It’s elegant, conservative yet modern, integrates the letter R (Rhinebeck) and A (Area). The arrow represents movement, a larger area, and an upward/business icon.
• The font was explored indepth and the final choice complemented the icon but did not fight with it.
• Each element of the logo has its own level of importance.
• The second choice logo that did not make the final cut though it had a modern shield component everyone liked. It wasn't used because it was about the past. However, when the "R" of the other logo was put into the shield it became a powerful secondary brand graphic for member stickers, invitations, bus cards, napkins, weblinks, etc...

If you have any questions about the logo or would like a new corporate identity development system and logo of your own, give us a call for a free consultation or go to namaro.com.


Steps in creating the Rhinebeck Area Chamber of Commerce logoSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Top Ten signs you have spring fever

10. Your waistline is in a sad state.

9. Your skin glows in the dark its so white.

8. You may or may not look forward to bathing suit shopping.

7. You wear shorts even though its 50 degrees outside.

6. Everything looks good.

5. You look forward to cleaning the gutters and moving the lawn.

4. Your considering calling in sick once a week until June.

3. May flies, ticks, and bees are OK.

2. You don’t mid getting up at 6am.

1. You actually want to clean the house.

Top Ten signs you have spring feverSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Top 11 SEO mistakes

11. JavaScript Menus
Using JavaScript for navigation is not a big problem as long as you know that search engines do not read JavaScript well and site is built with that in mind. JavaScript is usually used for fly-out and mouse -overs in navigation. Many of the typical functionality of a JavaScript menu can be duplicated using CSS, which is search engine readable.

10. A Flash website without a HTML alternative
Flash is attractive but not to search engines and users. Most search engine spiders cannot read flash sites, and those that can read flash are not very good at it. If the search engines cannot read your site they cannot index it. If you absolutely must have a site in Flash and you want search engines to love it, provide an HTML version. This means double the updates and additional cost.

9. Ignoring the Title tag
Many, many sites leave the title tag of the site blank, or have duplicate titles. The title tag is a line in the HTML coding of a website and appears in the top bar of your web browser. This is an important place to have keywords, because not only does it help you in optimization but the text in your title tag shows in the search results as your page title.

8. Targeting too many or the wrong keywords
Sometimes people choose keywords that they think are descriptive of their website but average searcher just don't use. A good example of this is when a business has a term they use to describe a service that is generally used in another context ... like NHL for the New Hampshire Library. Choosing the right terms is key to having a successful SEO campaign.

7. Lack of Maintenance
One of the big misconceptions is that SEO is something you do once and then it is done forever. If you want to be successful, you need to constantly optimize your site, keep an eye on your competition and pay attention to the changes in the ranking algorithms of search engines.

6. Concentrating too much on meta tags
Another misconception people have about SEO is that it is all about getting your meta tags (meta keywords and meta description tags) just right. In fact, meta tags are becoming less important than in the past. Creating good, optimized meta keywords and descriptions tags is important but don't expect to rank well only because of this one thing.

5. Using only Images for Headings
Some think that an image looks better than text for headings and menus. It's true an image can make your site look more distinctive but in terms of SEO images for headings and menus are a big mistake because h2, h2, etc. tags and menu links are important SEO items. These can be modified using CSS to get a different look.

4. Ignoring URLs
Another item often overlooked is the site URL. Dynamic page names are still very frequent and no keywords in the URL is more a rule than an exception. It is possible to rank high even without keywords in the URL but all being equal, if you have keywords in the URL (the domain itself, or file names, which are part of the URL), this gives you additional advantage over your competitors.

3. Backlink spamming
All backlinks are not created equal. Backlinks are the sites that link to yours, and are used by the search engines to judge importance. Many people believe that the QUANTITY of backlinks to your site is what is important and because of this web masters resort to link farms, forum/newgroup spam, which ultimately could lead to getting their sites banned. What you need is QUALITY backlinks to your site. Personally, I'd take one link from the New York Times or CNN over a 100 poor quality links.

2. Lack of keywords in the content
Once you come up with your keywords you need to modify your content and put the keywords into your on page text in the right balance and in a way that makes sense. You wouldn't believe how many times I've had to ask clients to put keywords into the content of their site.

1. Lack of fresh content
Search engines like frequently updated content. What this means is like your SEO is never done, neither is your website. Plan for frequent additions or updates to your site, at the minimum a couple of times a year.

Many Thanks to Erica Darcy for this informative post. She can be reached at

emhdarcy@gmail.com

http://mhvtheater.blogspot.com
http://thefrequentbookworm.blogspot.com

Top 11 SEO mistakesSocialTwist Tell-a-Friend