A wise man once said that your business does not truly exist until it exists virtually. In other words, your business is legitimized, nowadays, by having a website.  In terms of your overall marketing strategy, a website plays an integral role in your business’ branding, positioning, customer engagement and ecommerce activities.

It’s highly likely that you have a website for a reason. Hopefully, you know exactly WHY you have a website and HOW the website can help your business.

If that is the case, you then have a reason to have a website, and therefore should have some goals for your site. While the benefits of having a site are too numerous to discuss here, ALL websites can benefit from getting more traffic. Continue reading →

Advertisers have run into three problems related to the proliferation of choice and media: Human sensory adaptation, the proliferation of poor choices, the advancement speed of new media.

Human sensory adaptation

All living organisms encounter thousands of stimuli from internal processes and the external environment. These stimuli tell us what is going on. Our five senses account for the collection of a portion of the stimuli we encounter on a daily basis. In order to keep us from becoming pre-occupied biological multitaskers our bodies learn to ignore certain types of stimuli or make the reaction to some stimuli automatic. Our senses adapt in order to help us consciously focus on the important things like being thirsty, hungry, and sleepy. Continue reading →

Have you ever taken a “staycation?” It is when you take a vacation, but then just stay home. The worst part of a staycation is daytime television and the worst part about daytime television is the commercials. To me, these advertisements represent a part of what I call a de-evolution in marketing. A de-evolution and proliferation towards mindless and meaningless marketing.

Let me caveat that all not all advertising is mindless or meaningless. Let me caveat again that these principles are not my ideas, but the centerpieces of the marketing masterpiece, Meaningful Marketing by Doug Hall and Jeffery Stamp.

What is mindless marketing?

Mindless marketing uses gimmicks, tricks, novelty, and deception to cast a spell on the prospective costumer in order to get that prospect to buy based on a false sense of need, emotion, or pressure. Mindless marketing are tactics used by producers that do not have faith in the benefit of their own product. This type of marketing has short-term gains but long-term depreciation. Continue reading →

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November 22, 2009, SALT LAKE CITY — Badlands Golf Club in Las Vegas, Nevada has engaged Serfwerks to overhaul their marketing collateral. The overhaul will involve the creation of all new marketing collateral at all customer points of contact, from the web site to menus used in the clubhouse’s gille. Continue reading →

November 19, 2009, SALT LAKE CITY –  Par 3 Landscape and Maintenance has selected Serfwerks for its corporate branding campaign. The branding initiative will involve the creation of marketing collateral for all customer touch points including a new website.

Serfwerks co-founder, Nate Gibby said, “We are happy to be on board with Par 3. They are one of the premier landscape and maintenance companies in the western United States. ” Continue reading →

Now that we have made the distinction between branding and positioning abundantly clear – what are the best branded and positioned American companies in our opinion?

Keep in mind that magazines like Fortune, Business Week, and Forbes have scads of lists that tell you how good or successful businesses are at all kinds of things. This list is different in that it comes from the collective experience and perspective of marketing people. Who better to dissect a brand or position?

We chose companies that stand for something. Not the kind of stand for something that means they donate lots of money to charity (though several of these companies do a good job at that). We are talking about standing for something in the minds of their customers and prospects.

These businesses are worth looking at if you are looking for case studies about proper branding and positioning strategy.

Here is our 2009 List: Continue reading →

Do you know the difference between the branding and positioning? Perhaps you use them interchangeably. Perhaps you use them instead of the word marketing. Let me posit that the two words mean different things.

First of all, why does it seem like I care so much about semantics? It seems like I care because I do care. For this reason: where there is a lack of common language progress cannot be achieved. Continue reading →

Choosing an appropriate design, marketing or ad agency is important – more important than what drapes to hang in your living room and more important than many things that might keep you from putting in the proper amount of research and thought.

These days price is definitely a factor, however, the adage “you get what you pay for” most times applies. The standard has been to find an agency that either touts itself, has big clients, or has been given some fancy award – but there are some small boutique gems who really know their stuff. They offer big agency services and expertise at boutique shop rates. The point here is that picking an agency should be about picking the best agency for you, not just the best, biggest, or most decorated agency. Continue reading →

I can’t think of a better example of the total being greater than the sum of the parts than when sales and marketing are working together. Unfortunately, this isn’t the way it normally happens. In many companies it is “sales” and “marketing” and not “sales and marketing.” My point is not that sales and marketing don’t communicate.  I am referring to the lack of coordination and collaboration beginning with the first step and continuing through the company’s life.

In my experience, the shortcoming is rarely the result of people in either organization not wanting to work with the other. What I have typically seen is the opposite. Sales is looking for help from marketing and marketing would like a little assistance from the sales people in the field.  So, although they want to work together and may be talking, why isn’t there more collaboration going on? Continue reading →