Pro global business

Some companies know the importance of building a brand identity. Volvo is and will always be the “safe” car company. They own it. Energizer will own “long lasting” in the battery market forever because of their commitment to their brand identity.

The Energizer Bunny is a branding icon. But for the right reasons. He means that his battery is more powerful than your battery. At least that’s how consumers initially perceive it. What does Duracell mean to you? Do you have to think about it?

Most icons fail because they don’t really mean anything. There has to be a clear, easy message that differentiates you. Energizer is the king of perception when it comes to long lasting. But IS their battery the longest lasting? That’s a story for another day.

Want to take a mental health day but are having trouble coming up with a good excuse? I scoured the web in search of the best excuses for not coming to work, and here are my top 30 finds. If by the end of this list you still need more inspiration, check out this site.

1. If it is all the same to you I won’t be coming in to work. The voices told me to clean all the guns today.
2. When I got up this morning I took two Ex-Lax in addition to my Prozac. I can’t get off the john, but I feel good about it.
3. I set half the clocks in my house ahead an hour and the other half back an hour Saturday and spent 18 hours in some kind of space-time continuum loop, reliving Sunday (right up until the explosion). I was able to exit the loop only by reversing the polarity of the power source exactly e * log(pi) clocks in the house while simultaneously rapping my dog on the snout with a rolled up Times. Accordingly, I will be in late, or early.
4. I can’t come in to work today because I’ll be stalking my previous boss, who fired me for not showing up for work. OK?
5. I have a rare case of 48-hour projectile leprosy, but I know we have that deadline to meet…
6. I am stuck in the blood pressure machine at Wal-Mart.
7. Yes, I seem to have contracted some attention-deficit disorder and, hey, how about them Skins, huh? So, I won’t be able to, yes, could I help you? No, no, I’ll be sticking with Sprint, but thank you for calling.
8. Constipation has made me a walking time bomb.
9. I just found out that I was switched at birth. Legally, I shouldn’t come to work knowing my employee records may now contain false information.
10. The psychiatrist said it was an excellent session. He even gave me this jaw restraint so I won’t bite things when I am startled.
11. The dog ate my car keys. We’re going to hitchhike to the vet.
12. I won’t be in today. My home is flooded and I’m currently standing on my dresser in my second story bedroom.
13. I have a bad case of diarrhea, gas, or food poisoning.
14. I am not coming in because I tried to dye my hair blond, but it came out green!
15. My dog is having puppies and I need to help her.
16. I won’t be able to make it to work today due to my Aunt flying in from ______________, you see, she has one arm and two pieces of luggage and really needs me to be there for her.
17. Don’t call, don’t write, don’t let anyone know what’s going on - take an extra week, or two. Then when you are ready to go back to work, just call up your boss and say…. ” Don’t pay the ransom - I escaped! “
18. I’m sorry I was late, I forgot to look at my watch!!!
19. I called in and told them my front door fell off my house!
20. I’m sorry that I’m late for work today boss. I stayed home to wait for the cable guy. Then I remembered that you don’t pay me enough for me to have cable. So here I am. 
21. Sorry I’m late, but I couldn’t get my car started. Boss: Why not? Employee: I was asleep.
22. Sorry….I over slept and I forgot to come in for the first day of work at my new job. Is it OK to come in tomorrow?
23. I’m sorry I am late, but it was foggy and I missed the building.
24. I can’t make it to work for the next couple of days , my leg’s in Kentucky. (He has an artificial leg)
25. I thought that I’d be more productive if I didn’t come in today.
26. I dropped my car keys in the snow and I’m waiting for the temperature to warm up so I can find them.
27. I can’t come to work today. My house is burning down and the fire engine’s blocking my driveway.
28. I won’t be in today….I’m calling in dead.
29. The blankets were too heavy for me to lift so I was stuck in bed all day.
30. I’m really just working from home for free!

Enjoy your day off!

Image credit: flickr user voicesbybrian

All our happy kahunas at BIG would like to wish you and your families a very happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy a day of over eating, football and debates with that special aunt.

A slight apology to everyone for leaving it so long since my last post How to Make Money with Keywords. I’ve been very busy putting together my little army of sites and blogs and it takes up all my time, which is ok as I’m building a small empire that will eventually make enough money [...]

Brand Identity Guru Wins Top Honors in Business Competition under Most Slacker Friendly Category

Boston, MA – 11-24-08 – Brand Identity Guru has been recognized by StartupNation as one of the top businesses in its annual Home Based 100 competition under the category of Most Slacker Friendly. 

Many of the StartupNation Home-Based 100 submissions revealed that business owners are bucking the current economic downturn and finding business success in these tight times. Historically some of today’s most well known businesses started in a downturn, including Microsoft and General Electric.

 

 

“The 2008 ranking shows that the home-based business is more relevant than ever. The current recession has spurred a new wave of home based businesses as a response to loss of jobs, the need for supplemental income and the sheer passion for blazing your own trail and running your own show,” said Rich Sloan, co-founder of StartupNation.com, one of the leading small business networking and advice websites. “Home based businesses are the biggest block of all businesses in existence and we expect numbers to grow ever greater as extra bedrooms, kitchen tables, basements and garages become host to the innovative thinking and pursuit of success by millions of Americans.”

 

 

Scott White, the BIG Kahuna of Brand Identity Guru, says “making the move to virtual offices for our kahunas in 2002 was the best decision he’s ever made”. Productivity, service and responsiveness have all skyrocketed.

 

 

The StartupNation Home-Based 100 highlights 10 top-ten lists making it not just your ordinary business ranking. From the wackiest, to the most innovative, to the best financial performers – this unique and diverse list highlights the home-based businesses that usually go unrecognized, but still play a vital role in the economy today. The ten categories for 2008 include:

·        Best Financial Performers

·        Most Innovative

·        Boomers Back in Business

·        Greenest

·        Yummiest

·        Wackiest

·        Grungiest

·        Recession Busters

·        Most Slacker-Friendly

·        Most Glamorous

 

In addition to StartupNation staff, judges for this year’s Home Based 100 ranking included Adam Lowry, co-founder of Method Products, Howard Behar, former President of Starbucks North America, John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing, Mel Robbins, host of Make It Happen radio show.

 

 

The full results of the Home-Based 100 ranking are available on StartupNation’s website:

 

http://www.startupnation.com/homebased100.

It is common among small businesses that employees learn to become expert jugglers who must successfully manage numerous, often unrelated positions and responsibilities. And as the current economic downturn continues to hinder sales and cut into profit margins, this trend is only getting stronger.

While combining positions may be a necessary step towards conserving capital and riding out the current economic climate, small businesses run the risk of employee burnout, high employee turnover, and a severe drop in productivity.

Thus, it goes without saying, that managing your employees when they must wear multiple hats demands care and caution.

So, here are a few ideas to keep in mind:

• Make sure the person’s responsibilities are clearly defined. Spell out exactly what your employee is expected to do, and make sure that each duty is fully understood by your employee.

• Create a mix of responsibilities that is doable. This may take a little fine tuning over time. You need to determine that the workload is not too high and that the positions go together.

• Try to make it fit the person. The additional responsibilities should be appropriate for the employee’s skills, talents, and personality. Don’t, for example, give an unorganized person a bunch of administrative tasks that demand organization.

• Be prepared to be flexible. Have in mind that this is a work in progress. You may need to reallocate or redefine your employees’ duties over time.

• Create an appropriate pay scale. Even though saving money is a priority, it is important that your employees do not feel that you are taking advantage of them by paying them too little. For tips on how to determine an appropriate salary, check out this article.

• Allow for and encourage feedback. Knowing how your employees are feeling is one of your best indicators of how well the new positions are working out. Make sure to check in with your employees continuously to see how they are managing.

• Make sure there is downtime. To avoid burnout, make sure that employees have ample break and vacation time.

With the right attitude your employees can stay happy and productive even if they will be working harder.

Image credit: flikr user: Party Pig

There were thousands upon thousands of entries says Rich Sloan of StartUpNation and Brand Identity Guru places 8th. Click over and check it out.

Business	Location	Rank
YachtPals	Richmond, CA	1
SuccessStream	Seattle, WA	2
NapSounds	Houston, TX	3
Salty Chix	St. Augustine Beach, FL	4
Where the Hell’s My Car?	San Francisco, CA	5
Jeff Fisher LogoMotives	Portland, OR	6
Ticket Assurance, LLC	Atlanta, GA	7
Brand Identity Guru	Boston, MA	8
Snoloha	Traverse City, MI	9
Film Sleepy Inc	Los Angeles, CA	10

We would like to thank all our kahuna ambassadors for clicking on that damn vote for us button for over 2 months. Your hard work paid off BIG time as it got us to #8 in the USA. You guys rock! I will be posting more on this as I receive more info from StartUpNation.

I spoke with Charlene Li, the author of Groundswell recently. She’s smart. And she’s got a brand new successful business up and running. I’m on her RSS feed. So I was shocked and actually saddened when someone as smart as Charlene did this:

I’ve had good success setting up my own business at Altimeter Group but one thing I never got around to doing was getting a logo done. Last summer, I was briefed crowdSPRING, which is a marketplace for creative projects. So I’ve decided to put my logo up as a project there, where designers can submit their ideas.

Why put my brand logo design in the hands of complete strangers? Well, I figured that anything is better than the simple font-based brand identity I have now! I also looked at some of the existing projects that are on the site, like the logo design for Zodiac Tea — which has 360 submissions as of this post.

All for a $400 fee. That’s not smart.

It’s really disappointing to see this stuff happen from professionals. And it shows her total lack of understanding when it comes to branding and brand identity. Having hundreds of people guess at the soul of her company by drawing “pretty pictures” is insulting not only to the designers for participating but to professional companies who design strategic logos for a living.

Here’s her first comment to her post:

I agree. This from a woman that charges tens of thousands of dollars a day to her clients. Maybe she should just work for free (or $400) and if her clients like what she does she’ll get paid. Sad, sad, sad.

What say you kahunas? You think she’ll get a logo that leverages her brand identity (whatever that is)?

Yuck is the professional term I use when I see golden opportunities blown. Check out the new company name and logo:

As you can see InBev clearly played to the old logo of Anheuser-Busch. The merger of the two names is at best poor. I think they missed a golden opportunity to rename the entire brand. Let’s hope InBev doesn’t buy another big company because their new name could soon be ABInBevCoors…

What do you think? ABInBev or new name? What about the new logo?

Hat tip to Brand New for the images.

Who are you? What do you want to be? How do you get there? Here are 3 proven methods for obtaining brand identity.

1. Dictate it. You have a vision, that vision is to be the “cheesiest pizza” in town (insert your vision here). Be it. Live it. Make it happen each and every time. Add more cheese and use the best tasting cheese. You own cheese damn it!

2. Brainstorm with outside help. Bring in a company like us and brainstorm it out. Come to your best educated guess at what your brand identity is. Then follow #1.

3. Brand Research. Hire a company like us to conduct real brand research within your target markets. Good unbiased research is a great way to tap into your target market. Then follow rule #1.

Sounds simple right? This is where most businesses fail.