Posts from the ‘Blog’ Category
Sometimes it’s easy to focus on what’s not right. The problem with doing that (unless you’re a quality control person or a copy editor) is that there’s so much wrong out there that you’ll end up missing the main point.
Technology has done so much for us that we get frustrated when it’s not all working right. Example: I took this screen shot from a live streaming event (Big Omaha (http://www NULL.bigomaha NULL.com/)). Obviously the person speaking was not Michael. Some might have sent the technicians a message asking them to fix the problem.
I just laughed.
Many friends took my poll about which of these logos would be the new logo for Greener Grass Media. (As you may or may not know, we rebranded ourselves on May 8, 2012.)
In the end, we chose the logo you see at the top of this website. Paul, the designer of the six logos you see above, was just too close to the project to be objective. He called in an outside designer to advise him, and that designer came up with the final new logo. It’s challenging to see the best solution when a project is personal.
We changed to this new look from the hand-drawn illustration of a fence dividing a brown field and a green field. Even though the old look was only about a year old, we were ready for a change. Also, this new website is more versatile than the old, particularly in showcasing the examples of design we provide.
We hope you like this new look! We do.
Twenty-five cents can make a big difference in how your customer perceives you.
This Tazo tea bag was part of a recent hotel experience. If the hotel chain had provided a Lipton tea bag, my perception of the chain would have been lower. The total cost difference between the two bags might have been 25c. But that small expenditure more than made up for the cost, in terms of my feeling about the chain.
Similarly, your logo can make a huge difference in a potential customer’s first impression of how professional your business is. A week ago, I refined the logo for a client – and the difference was dramatic. For a small expenditure, this startup now has the ability to make a more professional impression on their growing client base.
In the life of a company, the expenditure on a great logo is relatively small. But it will pay off for years to come.
Don’t skimp on the things that people see first. If you do, they may leave after only visiting your home page – no matter how good your product or service is.
Walmart recently had a lot of poop to deal with. Their Mexico operations used bribery to gain more market share. Bribery is almost an expected part of doing business south of the border. But obviously that doesn’t make it right.
The worst thing about the situation was that Walmart covered up the investigation into the problem. They could have dug deeper, fixed the problem and then apologized profusely. No. They chose to sweep the problem under the carpet.
The obvious lesson is that it’s good to be truthful in all our business dealings, as dirty little secrets usually make their way to the surface. The more specific lesson is that when our mistake is uncovered, we should quickly and decisively deal with it. And then we should apologize.
Links: The Walmart Mexico bribery story was reported on very well by Gini Dietrich on her Spin Sucks blog (http://spinsucks NULL.com/communication/the-pr-nightmare-for-walmart/). And here’s the New York Times take on the story (http://www NULL.nytimes NULL.com/2012/04/25/business/wal-mart-says-it-is-tightening-internal-controls NULL.html). The Walmart photo is creative commons-licensed by matteson.norman (http://www NULL.flickr NULL.com/photos/59574125 null@null N05/5487448787/).
Finally, here’s an amazing video (http://www NULL.youtube NULL.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kk3q8QtiHt8) about how many Mexicans don’t want to put up with corruption.
Is the business card no longer a good tool for sharing your contact information? Yes – and no. Many people rely solely on their smart phone for keeping up with clients and vendors. But a significant number of your potential clients still rely on that old 2 x 3.5 inch piece of card stock. So it’s worth having a decent card.
Here are a few simple rules to follow:
1. Your name is the most important piece of information. People want to know who you are more than anything else.
2. Your company should be very visible. That’s the second most important bit of info. If you don’t have a company, put down what it is you offer, like “Project Management.”
3. If you have only three pieces of information, make your cell phone number easy to find. And then regularly check your cell phone for messages or keep it turned on and easily accessible.
4. Skip the tagline. How helpful is “Luxury Has an Address”?
5. Leave off your fax number, unless you are a mortgage broker.
6. Above everything else, spend the money to get a decent card! If your card looks cheap, it makes you look cheap.
7. If you can’t afford to hire a decent designer to do custom cards for you, several services provide cards for really low cost. Vistaprint (http://www NULL.vistaprint NULL.com/business-cards NULL.aspx) delivers your cards fast, and you will get a lot of cards for the money. Moo (http://us NULL.moo NULL.com/products/business-cards NULL.html) cards cost more but provide much nicer designs.
And if you’re curious what my card looks like, contact me and I’ll send you a PDF. Or if you’d like an actual card, I can use the ancient postal service.
Finally, here are five business cards from a recent car dealership exploratory expedition that demonstrate some of my points. They range from very good (VW) to horrible (Ford).
Time magazine made a mistake.
If you look at the bottom of this post, you will see a closeup of their mistake. The article is a book review comparing several Titanic books. The production artist forgot to remove the internal bar codes related to the images – and it went to press that way!
Since their publication is run by humans, I will happily forgive them. Whoever was in charge had too many things going on at once, so this mistake slipped through. It’s not a huge mistake, but it’s not up to the standards of an international magazine with such a high readership. At the very least, its seems like they made too many staff cutbacks.
The moral of the story? Take time to look at what you send out – before you send it! The small amount of time you spend giving your creation one more look can end up making you look so much more professional.
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