Design the Planet

Planetary Thoughts

View these thoughts in our Design the Planet blog!

12 | 11 | 08    -   It’s Snowing in New Orleans!

As I’m sure this will be the subject of many New Orleanian bloggers today, it is in fact, snowing in New Orleans!

 

But, this will not be a post about the snow in New Orleans; rather a craving I had for coffee while watching the snow fall. When my roommate woke me about the little white fluffies falling from the sky, I first rolled over in my bed in disbelief, but then upon seeing the white scene… wanted some Starbucks coffee… right then. I imagined myself getting all bundled up (scarf and all) and driving to Starbucks on the way to work, waiting in line with all the other pretend coffee consumers, and ordering a Grande Mocha. Maybe their brand has gone to my head, but what a great way to structure a company!

 

In the end, I did refrain from the Starbucks. Instead, I saved 5 bucks, went to work and pulled a fantastic shot of espresso from River Road Coffees which hit the spot just as well!

- RColgin

12 | 5 | 08    -   Selling the Brand, not the Product

I walked in the living room last night and my wife was watching the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show on TV. In true Victoria's Secret fashion, the models were gorgeous, the background was beautiful and the production was perfect, but one thing stood out to me very quickly and continued throughout the program, they were not selling their product. Victoria's Secret is the best-known lingerie company in the world and they were hosting an multi-million dollar extravaganza on prime time television and they covered up most of the lingerie with extravagant props, decorations and artful clothing. Many people would never notice this lack of attention on the lingerie because they were having a good time watching the models, musicians and the exciting program. Some may chastise Victoria's Secret from doing such a stupid thing, but in the eyes of their marketer, it was brilliant. Victoria's Secret was not selling bras and panties that night; they were selling the Victoria's Secret brand. A brand that is fun, exciting, high-end, and glamorous. They achieved this with out a doubt in an hour-long fashion show with celebrities lining the catwalk like they would a movie premier or professional sporting event. This was the event of the year!

- Planetary Perryn

11 | 28 | 08    -   Your Relationship with Your Toothpaste

Many times when I talk to an audience about branding, I tell them they have a relationship with their toothpaste. After getting a few chuckles, I proceed to convince them about this metaphor and about brand loyalty.

 

Every time you go to the store, you make a conscious effort of what you buy and in particular what brand you buy. (They don’t call it brand marketing for nothing.) When you need toothpaste, you probably go to your favorite store (first brand) and go to the health and beauty section. There you stand amongst 20-100 brands all screaming at you to, “BUY ME”. (They don’t literally scream, but the packaging is sometimes really convincing.) Each time you go, you find your toothpaste that you’ve used for years and continue on with your shopping adventure. Now, lets think about that moment. Did you consider using a toothpaste from another company? Probably not because you’ve used Crest, Colgate or some other brand most of your life. You are part of that brand community and brushing your teeth would not be the same with any other toothpaste, right? I told you that you had a relationship with your toothpaste as you probably do with your shampoo, coffee, cereal, and the vehicle you drive. The goal for you is to figure out why your clients are a part of your brand community and how to attract others to be a part of your community. Let’s take another step back, we all like being part of a community, but we all hate being sold to. Did anyone ever really sell your toothpaste to you? Probably not, you can probably blame your parents for making that decision for you when you were a kid and you never switched.

 

People blow off brand marketing as hog wash until they cry about their local stores closing like here in New Orleans with the loss of K&B Drug, Schewagman’s Grocery Store, McKenzie’s Bakery, Maison Blanche Department Store and other brands that were a part of your life. Now do you believe me that branding is just stupid marketing fluff?

- Planetary Perryn

11 | 24 | 08    -   It’s All About the Relationships

We talk many times in branding and networking that it is more about the relationship than service, quality, delivery and even price. All those pieces make up the larger picture, the relationship. Clients and customers that have a relationship with your brand and not a transaction with your company will pay more, wait longer, put up with more mistakes, and tell more friends all about your brand.

 

This was perfectly shown to me by a prospective client just the other day. I was talking to them about the company’s history, services, people and differentiation. I asked a simple questions that usually goes one of two ways, “What’s the biggest problem your company has?” or “How can I make your life easier?” With a good relationship, your company will not be the problem or the solution. This question helps my client know that I am on their team and I want to help with the bigger picture. Getting back to the example though, this prospective client said his IT needs some help. He has been currently using a company for a few years and is just not impressed. He believes they just take him for granted and do not proactively better his business. If his IT company had a better relationship with him, he would have never had said this. They would have known their was a problem and a person who he had only known for about an hour would not be able to take his business away from them with a simple suggestion. He never complained about price in talking about them, merely the lack of understanding of what his company does and needs as the problem. In other words, the lack of a relationship with his company is the problem.

- Planetary Perryn

11 | 20 | 08    -   Web Content Redoux

It’s that time of year! The Holidays are quickly approaching, and businesses need to get their customers’ attention in the most efficient way. So, smart entrepreneurs are refreshing their web content!

 

PUSH THE REFRESH BUTTON!! Quick!! Do it before the “window” closes!

 

Really, you can’t miss the end-of-the-year update event. Why you ask? Because, right now your customers and clients are pondering the year that’s past. They are considering their end-of-the-year purchases, and they have time in between gobbling turkey and sipping port with relatives to surf the web to see who’s been naughty and who’s been nice.

 

Whether you’re a B-2-B computer consultant or a B-2-C purveyor retail products, right now is the time for web site updating and content redoux. We are very busy with this kind of web work right now, and the reason for it is obvious. So, push your refresh button before Mardi Gras comes to town!

- Robert Folse, Executive Dir. of Brand Marketing

11 | 4 | 08    -   New Blog Focus

You will actually notice that we are changing a few things here on our blog. The articles are shorter, added more frequently and have a less institutional feel to them. We realized we got carried away before and wrote more article-like blog posts instead of writing real blog posts. In looking back we made a better determination of where we’re headed with our company’s blog. Our posts will talk more about what goes on in our daily lives, our observances and thoughts on the world around us, and educate you with much shorter, easier to read posts instead of the academic articles we were writing before. We hope you like the new blog style and in case you want to read the older posts, they still here, just buried under all this new content.

- Planetary Perryn

10 | 27 | 08    -   During Tough Times, Brand Community Matters

Wow! Can the economic news out there get any more depressing? The bad news has become so oppressive and so prevailing that even businesses that are somewhat shielded from the macro-economic landscape have become concerned for their well-being in the near future. So, what is a hardworking marketing-focused business team to do during times like these? Dig out your toolbox and COMMUNICATE!!

 

During good economic times, well-run customer centric businesses can build remarkably powerful goodwill with their customers, prospective customers, employees, suppliers, distribution team, and raving fans. This group, collectively, is what we call the Brand Community. A Brand Community is built when people become associated with the Brand for reasons of their own choosing, but Community members are sustained when the Brand makes an effort to reciprocate interest in those Commmunity members. So, who is it that is most likely to support the Brand’s well-being during hard times…the Community! Of, course!

 

Here’s an example: Joe the Plumber is well known for his value-added customer service, his reliability, and his professionalism. By doing what he does best, his customers begin to refer his services to their friends, family, and associates. This continues until Joe can no longer provide his preferred level of service to the prospective customers who want his service. So, Joe recruits, hires, trains, and equips a team of new “Joes” to provide the level of service he has become known for providing. Now, Joe has a complex operation and a good deal more overhead to cover, so he brings on a scheduling and administration team. All the while this business growth is taking place, he is keeping his Brand Community informed and engaged through his e-announcements, newsletters and web site updates, and through personal discussions with his raving fans. These raving fans tell their connections about Joe’s success story when the opportunity to discuss their favorite plumber arises. Then, the economic winds change direction. Unexpectedly, renovation and home-addition projects dry up. Money is tight, and consumers begin cutting back by looking for less expensive solutions to their problems (like clogged toilets). What is a guy like Joe to do? He just expanded his operations, and added lots of new (and expensive) resources so he could continue to deliver what his Brand Community has come to expect from him. Oh NO! Poor Joe! The cost! The concern!

 

This is where Brand Marketing pays off. Brand Marketing happens when times are good, but pays ROI when times are hard. How you ask? By keeping the lines of communication open to your Brand Community, a company can often learn what the community needs from it when things change. In Joe’s case, his Brand Community may tell him to focus more on maintenance and upgrades rather than renovations and expansions. Just because times get tough, doesn’t mean a business’s products/services are no longer needed. They may just be needed in a different way than before. But, how will it know if it isn’t plugged into it’s Brand Community?

 

So…get plugged in!! NOW!! There are a lot of very effective ways to create 2-way conversations with your Brand’s Community. And, the methods you choose to use do not have to cost you an arm-and-a-leg. Obviously, the web is a great tool. By properly utilizing your web site as the central communications hub for your business, you can send out information, and request information in return. Start a conversation, by explaining your situation to your Community. Newsletters, printed or digital, help keep your Community engaged in what the business is doing from time-to-time. You get to share your work as well as your “good work” in the community at large. Don’t you want to know everything you can about the people who do business with you. Well, they want to know why they should do business with you, too!

 

Training your Brand Ambassadors to create 2-way communications is also a powerfully-effective yet inexpensive Brand Marketing initiative. Ambassadors can be paid or un-paid, and can often be the MOST EFFECTIVE form of communication and advertising your business will engage in.

 

Oh…yeah, advertising. How does this 3-headed monster fit into the equation? Well, don’t get branded by an ad agency! Why? Because they get paid to sell you advertising, not solutions to your branding challenges. Advertising, by itself, can be very effective in driving “short-term” traffic to your business (say, during the Holidays). However, unless you engage these advertising-driven new customers by cultivating their interest in your Brand, they most likely will view you as a commodity rather than as an unique and remarkable lifestyle partner. We all know by now that it is a heck-of-a-lot harder (and expensive) to get new customers in the door rather than to get repeat customers to buy from you and refer you to others. That said, Ad Agencies don’t like helping you build Brand Communities, because it cuts into their renewable cash flow. If they can keep you advertising for new customers, than they keep themselves on your payroll. When you build an engaged Brand Community, the Community sustains your sales and provides a referral base from which you can grow your sales if you so desire.

 

Advertising should support, but not replace your Brand Marketing efforts. Your web site should connect you to your Brand Community not disengage your team from its responsibilities to that Community. All the other tools you choose to make available to your Brand Community should work cohesively and for the Community’s benefit. If this is done well and with the same passion you put into growing the business in the first place, your Brand Community will be there to support you when you need it the most. Like right now!

- Robert Folse, Executive Dir. of Brand Marketing

8 | 28 | 08    -   If You Build “It” - “They” Will Come

We have spoken to clients over the years who have a great idea for a web site. I look them in the eye and say “Great! we can make it happen for you - Now lets discuss how we will market the site long term.” There is normally a pause on their part while that thought sinks in. I then continue into the various ways Design the Planet, or the client, can market their site.

So many people think that “if we build it” then it will market itself and “they will come” - that people will come to the site simply because it exists online. We can load the site with meta data and have all of the key words in the right places and have the best CSS programming and the most optimized graphics, but that only gets you so far. The truth is, some sites can market themselves, especially in the short term, but you need a long-range plan to market a site ongoing.

When we design and code sites they are optimized for search engines like Yahoo! and Google and most of our new sites do very well in Search Engine ranking in the first few weeks, but if there are no ongoing updates, web marketing, viral marketing, traditional marketing (like outdoor media, radio or print campaign), blogging or key word bidding that bring activity to the site it will soon only be found in the nether world of search engines.

We put a lot of effort into getting to know the people we work for, and because of this, we often take accomplishing their goals personally. So, we go to great lengths to make sure they don’t throw their brand marketing dollars at fancy stuff that doesn’t work for them. So I like to say that “If we build it - they will come…however you have to show it lots of love and attention if you want it to help you make more money and reach your brand community.”

- Planetary Perryn

8 | 5 | 08    -   There are No Blobs on Myface.

If you're laughing, no I'm not kidding; I've been asked about this more than once. If you are scratching your head about what I'm talking about; just keep reading and we'll discuss if you need a blog and how you can use the new web for your business.

 

The web is an ever-evolving medium and it is impossible to keep up with everything. Jeffrey Veen with Google Analytics discussed information overload at a great conference in New Orleans, An Event Apart. He said every minute on YouTube, 10 hours of video are uploaded. (There goes my life ambition to watch every video on YouTube in one year.)

 

Let's start with Blogs (not blobs). The word "Blog" is short for "Web Log". Wordpress & Blogspot are the primary websites where you can get a blog and find other blogs. Maybe you're thinking to yourself, “Hey, I don’t blogs, those things are just for kids.” Well, you're reading a blog right now. Gotcha!

 

Blogs started about six years ago as an online, public diary & forum. People would write about what they thought about the world around them, a certain subject or just update family & friends about their life. A blogger (blog writer) becomes an expert on the field they are writing on, such as marketing, web design or even Smurfs. Where else could you find an expert about Smurfs, but on the web?

 

Now, do you need a blog for your business? Does being an expert in your field help? If you are looking for a house in New Orleans and you need a mortgage, whom do you turn to? You ask your friends & co-workers. You look online and ask some more friends. You may even look in the phone book, but how do you decide? You look for an expert in New Orleans mortgages. If a mortgage lender had a blog where he discussed different options, terminology and benefits; wouldn't you think he was an expert, especially when you compare him to the other guy who has nothing. I do not know about you, but I'm going for the expert.

 

About Myface now. Let's start with getting the name right; or rather – names. MySpace is a social networking website where people have profiles about themselves. These profiles contain information about that person, pictures, favorite songs, list of friends and a wall where friends can post messages. Facebook is a similar website, but a much cleaner system. While MySpace allows you to "design" your profile, Facebook only allows you to "customize" your profile. Facebook started with college graduates as a way to stay connected with college buddies & long lost friends. It quickly spread to high schools, corporations and then the general public. MySpace has always been open to the public, at least ages 13-99. (Sorry great-grandpa.) Traditionally, MySpace was more blue-collar and Facebook was white-collar and college educated, but both of these stereotypes are blurring today.

 

Now that you have a brief history about MyFace (just kidding), how can you use this in your business? You can add a profile on MySpace & Facebook and connect with others. We live in a word-of-mouth marketing society and this can be powerful (especially in New Orleans). If you are over 50 years old, maybe even 35, you will find it a lonely place at times. Both websites are full of profiles of people under age 30. So, now what? If you want to connect to friends & stay in touch with family, I'd try Facebook. If you want to promote yourself & network your business, check out LinkedIn (learn more) & Pulse by Plaxo. Both are great ways to connect with professionals, business resources & find contacts through friends and friends of friends.

 

If you have a social business, non-profit or are a politician, both MySpace & Facebook can be a great tool. A cool example of how to use social media is what we’re doing with the Original Dungeon. The Dungeon is a New Orleans bar near Bourbon Street that attract locals & is a tourist must see. We are setting up the Dungeon on MySpace, Facebook & Flickr connecting them with locals that are part of the brand community. Also, with each tourist that posts pictures from their trip to the Dungeon on their Facebook profile or Flickr account, the Dungeon is inadvertently being advertised as a must see bar in New Orleans. Customers can share photos of their Halloween parties, past Tattoo Contests and just every day life at the Dungeon — a unique place on any night.

 

When asking yourself if you should do something like the Dungeon, ask yourself if you have a fan club. New Orleans Jazz Fest has a fan club; your mortgage company does not. Having these accounts for merely business will not be profitable for the time you spend on them because you must hard sell customers. The Dungeon however would probably not do well with a blog.

 

If you are still undecided on what to do or are ready to get started, give us a call. It's easy to get started & can be a powerful way to market your business. If you don't agree, stop reading this blog.

- Planetary Perryn

5 | 15 | 08    -   The 3-Lettered Monster

ABC - what does it mean? I don't know. What about another one; MLO? Another clueless answer. CVS? Strike three.

 

Why do companies name themselves three lettered acronyms? Maybe they do this to make graphic designers’ job harder or maybe it is to confuse consumers. Unless you have a brand that is a household name like IBM, don't name your company after three letters, any three letters! If you must, try adding something descriptive like CVS Pharmacy. This help consumers understand your brand, your products, and services; you are a pharmacy. The more descriptive the name, the better name it is for others. A descriptive name helps your brand, your consumers and even your search engine rankings. "Logo Designers" would be a great name and everyone would know what that company does – logo design.

 

What if your company already has an established three-letter name? Shoot your CEO. (Bad joke, I know.) CBO would be better. Ever hear of a Chief Branding Officer? Yes, it is a real position just like CFO, CEO and COO. Confused yet? Now you get my point. If your company is established with a three-letter name, try developing a tagline or slogan that illustrates your service or products. Like BOB, your friendly brand marketing business.

 

In conclusion, give your customers a chance to know what you do before they get to know you and stay away from the acronyms. Your potential customers should not have to make a connection with you just to know what you do, that is putting the cart before the horse. Don't even get me started on the 7-letter acronyms.

- Planetary Perryn

5 | 8 | 08    -   Make My Brand Bigger

You know it’s easier to just rip off the band-aid with a quick swipe so I’ll start with a statement that may hurt a bit – you’re logo is not your brand and you do not build your brand by making you logo bigger.

 

Maybe you have heard of brand marketing and know the importance of developing your brand. Until one dives into branding, it is easy to think that your “brand” is just another word for your “logo”. Your logo is just the beginning. Your brand is the experience your customers, clients and potential buyers get from you and their relationship with you, not the other way around. Brand marketing is about developing that relationship with consumers and embracing their experiences with you.

 

What is the difference between Wal-mart and Target? Many would agree that Wal-mart has the best prices, but Target has a better experience. Target’s stores are cleaner, products a bit nicer and Target has cooler television ads. Is this true or is it just what people experience? What do your customers think about your company? Good, bad, indifferent?

 

So, what makes up a brand? Your logo is part of it as well as each communication piece to the consumer otherwise known as client “touch”. This includes your website, brochures, stationery, press releases, signage, store/office interior, advertising (including radio, television, print, outdoor) and sponsorships. All these items are your brand as well as how you answer the phones, treat customers, and what others say about you are all apart of your brand. Ouch, that’s a lot. This is where advertising, marketing, design, public relations, and research companies come in for the larger companies. For the smaller businesses, some of this comes down to your instincts as an owner and just keeping a grip on why you are in business. Most likely, you are in business because you have a product or service that no one does as well as you. Your brand starts with that– the reason why you are in business and continues to grow with why your business is different from your competitors. (Fancy term – brand differentiation.) Those two items are the foundation of your brand and what your customers experience. The other areas, like advertising and marketing, are the avenues that disperse your brand; public relations manages your brand.

 

What is the best way to build your brand? How do you maintain your brand? You need to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Doing this will help you experience what your customers experience with your brand. If you like the experience, how can you make it stronger? If you disliked or absolutely hated the experience, what are you going to do about improving that experience? In a recent article about Target in Fortune, the Taret brand is built around the CEO and his executive team walking the sales floor as an employee and as a customer. They simply look around, without blinders, noticing what experiences engage them and tie them to the brand. Can you walk in your customer’s shoes?

 

All the advertising in the world is just wasted money if the experience when using your product, shopping your store or utilizing your service does not meet the expectations. Remember how you felt when you were mislead by an advertisement when the experience did not meet your expectations? Have you had an experience that far exceeded your expectations? Which would you rather your customer have with your company and with your brand?

 

Now, that was not so bad. Remember your brand is more than just that logo.

- Planetary Perryn

 

4 | 16 | 08    -   WEB 2.0

Web 2.0 is the next generation of the web that allows users to dictate content. Traditionally, the newspaper editor spick the headlines and Hollywood executives tell you what movies to watch. With this next generation of websites, you and your friends, along with everyone else on the internet, will be able to pick what you want to see. The internet is giving power to the people- like voting in a political election. Viva la revolucion!

 

Here are a few websites that you may have heard of, but may not really know what they do.

MySpace brought this generation of websites to the public eye, but they were not the first website of their kind - Live Journal & Friendster actually kicked things off. MySpace is essentially personal websites linked together through friends. It gives you a voice to share your thoughts, feelings and interests online and your friends can share theirs with you.

 

MySpace allows you to find old friends that you have not kept up with .. You can see where they work, pictures of their kids and hear songs from their favorite bands. Don't worry, you can restrict the stalkers, or anyone else from seeing your page with privacy controls. Privacy is a huge part of the web now and for many of these websites, you can block everything or just some things until you establish/ or approve a friendship with the other person. Websites like Facebook even allow you to create limited profiles so you can be friends with your best friends "cool" dad, but he can't see the pictures of you on Bourbon Street from last weekend.

 

This is making its way into the human resources department of many businesses, too. Before hiring an applicant, many companies "google" the applicant's name and might check their profiles on MySpace or Facebook.. Without strict privacy settings, future employers can find out a lot about an applicant and how likely they are to call in "sick" to work.

Facebook started as a web tool to stay connected with college friends after graduation. Now it has snowballed to encompass almost every college and university in the country, as well as high schools, large companies, and most recently the general public. Facebook shares many of the basic concepts of MySpace; it allows users to share interests and connect with each other, but it has gone a step further. Facebook's "News Feed" feature allows you to quickly stay current with friends each time you login. For example, I saw a friend had changed his relationship status to engaged and within one week nearly 100 friends congratulated him on his engagement.

 

Imagine calling each of those people to tell them that news. (That is so five years ago.) Also, instead of waiting for Aunt Martha to send you pictures of her precious grandkids in the Christmas card, you can see get a notice from your cousin Erin that she just posted 5 pictures of her son at Easter. Pretty cool!

 

Also, many non-profits, businesses and politicians have developed groups and fan pages to build their own online communities. In doing so they've built an army of supporters, making it easier to "rally the troops."

LinkedIn is the business networking cousinto MySpace or Facebook. Here, you can create a business profile (similar to a resume) and find connections. You can recommend friends, colleagues or vendors so your network can find similar services and products. If you are looking for a new CPA, you can search your connections and find a friend of a friend that is recommended. Wouldn't you rather find a CPA through a friend than through the phonebook or web search? If you know what BNI is, then you will easily umderstand LinkedIn, it's the web version of BNI's word of the mouth marketing.

Wikipedia is every curious person's favorite new website. If you don't know something, you do now. This website is a user generated encyclopedia. Whether you have a term paper on New Orleans' Jackson Square or you're curious about the origin of an old wives' tale, it's all on Wikipedia. You need to be a bit discerning, however, because its content is user generated, but by being user policed, it is fairly accurate. Controversial issues tend to be a bit opinionated depending on who last updated that item. The accuracy and depth of each item is amazing, considering anyone can update the text. Do not try to add false information because most items are corrected weekly if not daily.

 

Digg is the newspaper for internet users, but the headlines are dynamic. Users read articles on different websites and if they like it or find it informative, they click the link saying they "Digg It". Each digg counts as a vote and the news article with the most diggs is the headline for the website. Each headline follows in that order. You may look at CNN or the New York Times and see an article about the 2008 presidential debate while Digg has an article about a cool new video on what you can do with magnets. Digg.com displays what is what is most important to it's users that week. You may think of it as a joke of a news website, but as the presidential race nears (not 2 years out), it will be the headlining article. This shows the validity of user edited content.

StumbleUpon is similar to Digg in that users suggest websites and articles to other users, but that is where the similarities end. When you find a website you like, click your StumbleUpon link and add it to the list. When you have some free time or want to check out some cool websites in a certain area, you just click your StumbleUpon button and there you go. It's a cool way to find great websites or even to promote your own website.

del.icio.us is essentially a social bookmark manager. Just as you add websites to your favorites menu, del.icio.us allows you to share your favorite bookmarked websites. This is also a great way to keep track your favorite websites when you use different computers at home, work, and at a friends place.

 

Flickr is a photo website. Instead of just showing your photos to friends and family, Flicker uses tags to find related images. If you search "New Orleans" you will find over a half million photos taken by people like you and me. How can this be useful? Imagine planning a vacation to St. Louis, you can see what other people are taking pictures of and where you should go. This is also a great way to stay in touch with family & friends. As they update pictures of themselves, their kids, and their vacations or hobbies, you can see waht they've been up to. Like Facebook and MySpace, users add groups and can adjust their privacy settings to limit who can see their pictures.

YouTube is best known to the non-web savvy from the headline, "Google To Acquire YouTube for $1.65 Billion in Stock". For the web savvy, YouTube is a place to view amateur videos (stop it! you're dirty), clips of your favorite comedian or actor and a place that, most recently, schools are tapping into nationwide. Yes, schools are adding tutorials to help their students with homework.

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Many other websites build communities with funny articles, games, pictures and videos found on the web. Try Ebaums World when you have some time to kill. If you find a video you like, click the Facebook button and seamlessly add it to your Facebook profile or message your Facebook friends with it.

 

Yes, we are connected more than ever especially as cell phones become internet enabled mobile devices.

Each of these websites use user generated content. Remember writing the text for your website? It is hard, I feel for you, but imagine updating your website daily or hourly. Ouch! With users updating the text, you no longer have to. These developers gave tools and the power to the people to dictate what is news and self regulate themselves. Thomas Jefferson would be proud!

 

Also, all of these websites are free to their users. You might wonder how they can make millions of dollars or be bought for billions - simply by selling ad space. The internet is the new form of media that targets the 13-30 crowd. Just like the radio, TV and newspaper, advertising makes it all possible.

 

One great part about advertising through many of these websites is the targeted component. If you open a new dress shop here in New Orleans, you can advertise, on Facebook, directly to females in their twenties who are members of the New Orleans network. This actually benefits the user, because the web is giving them ads they can benefit from. That same demographic probably doesn't care about watching the Final Four at a bar in Mississippi, so your money isn't wasted on the wrong demographic. Try getting your radio station or newspaper to target a market like that!

 

On another note, many Web 2.0 innovators and developers do not call this a movement, because they have learned from the 90s dot com bubble & bust. They don't want to repeat history. They see the web evolving, but not in the phases as the media does. The new internet companies of today know why companies did not succeed during the bust - they didn't have a plan. Many internet companies had a semi-unique idea and would grab as many investors as possible and form a company with no idea how to make money. Many innovators and investors saw companies like Amazon making millions of dollars and the internet as the next gold rush, so they jumped in without slowing down to think about the future. A bank does not give you a business loan without a clear, distinct business plan, but in the 1990s investors were so desperately trying to find the next diamond in the rough that they ignored good judgment. The best survived and left us with Amazon, Ebay, Yahoo, and the enormous king of the internet - Google.

 

On the political front, candidates are vying for the younger generations and engaging them using the 2.0 programs previously mentioned. This literally gives voters a voice directly to the candidates (or at least their staff). Imagine being able to tell your Governor how you feel about upcoming legislation or encouraging a candidate to pick your side of an issue. It's all doable and easier than ever with the new web. Just take a quick look at Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal's website bobbyjindal.com or Presidential Candidate Barack Obama's website barackobama.com to see how they're utilizing Web 2.0 applications.

 

Call it "Web 2.0" or not, but we ARE witnessing the evolution of the internet. With the web's dynamic nature, it will constantly evolve. The only question is "how soon and how far will the web be integrated into our daily lives?" Only the future will tell.

 

If you would like to know more about these and the other hundreds of Web 2.0/user-generated websites, check out Wikipedia or let me know.

- Planetary Perryn

4 | 1 | 08    -    What to do? Oh, what to do?

We get asked all the time, "What one form of advertising should I do?" Our usual answer is, "More than one." In many cases, any combination of multiple mediums of advertising will help expose your brand and bring customers through your doors. No single form of advertising will be a catchall way to reach your potential customers. That would be nice, but who ever said life was full of easy choices?

To help you better understand your choices, below are your traditional and not-so-traditional forms of advertising along with their pros and cons and threats.

 

Magazines ' One of the greatest strengths for magazines is the ability to target your potential customers. If you have a niche market, one ad in the right magazine will bring in more business than a $3 million Super Bowl commercial. Magazine advertising allows your product to be visually displayed to a person wanting to know more about a certain topic or while entertaining themselves with a good article. Advertorials (advertising editorials) build credibility and a solid perception, and many publishers have a variety of similar magazines that allow you to cluster your ads in a similar market with a small discount.

Some of the downsides to magazines: Too many magazine titles fractionalize larger audiences, many magazines are thumbed through and not read diligently by all readers, and magazines are known for long lead times for artwork. A threat to magazine advertising is the increased costs of postage and our new green philosophies of living with less clutter and paper waste. Today's Americans are also busier than ever before so magazines tend to pile up. I'm sure you have a pile of "When I have time, I'll read them" magazines in the corner. If you don't, I hate you.

 

Outdoor (Billboard, bus shelter, etc.) - Outdoor is visible. You can't turn it off, mute it, or block it with a pop-up blocker. Billboards are visible every time you leave your house. Outdoor advertising is a great way to build your brand recognition to the masses for a low cost. Their size, color, and placement make billboards ideal for providing directions. Newer printing techniques have made production faster and cheaper. Today, it is easy for billboard companies to move your vinyl ad from location to location. Something they couldn't do when they pasted paper onto the billboard not so many years ago. New digital billboards are eye-catching and can be remotely updated daily with a new message.

The downers: Limited time of exposure (gotta' keep it short & sweet), lack of measuring effectiveness, and sometimes limited availability of locations for targeted market. Also, for smaller companies, it is sometimes hard to compete with the national companies that have extended contracts that tie up the best locations for years. Threats to the outdoor advertising include sound barriers covering key locations and communities limiting locations and height.

 

Internet ads - We're talking about more than those annoying pop-up ads. Internet ads include banner and tile ads on the sides of news articles, sports scores, and search engines. Many times, the Internet is a great way to get in front of potential buyers looking and researching for your product/service. The Internet is not quite a commodity yet and not in every home like television, which means the web's audience is more affluent than television and radio audiences. The Internet is extremely trackable and gives you a forum for your potential customer to interact with you, your products, and your current clientele. The Internet is not a passing fad and is growing in speed and popularity each year. More people today turn to the web to search for products and services before opening the phone book or newspaper.

The negative part of the Internet: It's always changing style is a double-edged sword. The change keeps audiences interested, but can keep advertisers on their toes. Also, there are billions of websites out there, so how can you stand out? (Ask us, and we'll tell you.) It's hard to advertise anything but a dotcom web address and the dotcom addresses are sometimes hard to come by. Don't forget a big weakness - spam filters, pop-up blockers, and frustrated users block the good and the bad. The web is for more than information gathering like it was in the beginning; the web is for entertainment and connectivity to friends and family. Many times, users do not want to see advertisements when talking with friends or playing online games.

 

Direct Mail - Direct mail is a great way to touch customers and to cross-market your products and services. Building a database of client details can be a powerful tool and newer technologies have increased the power of direct mail. Mailings can now be printed with individual's names, special deals, and a custom call to action. Also, you can send coupons with custom UPC codes that can track customers' usage so you can offer them other related coupons.

One main drawback to direct mail is that it is lumped into the junk mail category and has a low response rate, especially with potential customers. Direct mail is best utilized with current and past clients.

 

Phone Book - An advertising powerhouse with potential customers looking for you. (Well, they're looking at your competitors too, but we'll ignore that for now.) The phone book builds credibility and many times is your first exposure to customers. For many, especially in older generations, the phone book is "old reliable" and a great place to store phone numbers. Who would have thought?

On the downside, the phone book is becoming obsolete. People use the Internet more and more and phone books are used for doorstops and foot rests, especially in younger generations. Also, the phone book is inconvenient to store and to use because of its size, and you usually need to place your ad six months to a year out because of the long printing and distribution times. Not to mention, you're doomed if there is a typo in your phone number. (No, they will not reprint the entire book for you.)

 

Basic TV - Where else could you reach 95+% of the population? Most homes have more televisions than people. Nowadays, the television is not limited to the family room and bedrooms. TVs fill kitchens, bathrooms and even the refrigerator door. Many people watch more than 20 hours of television a week, and television has the unique ability to bring in motion and sound. HDTV has reinvigorated television watchers.

For many, cost is the largest obstacle in doing television. Television can be much cheaper and targeted on cable channels, but that's the next paragraph. A $3 million commercial is scary, especially to small business owners. Luckily, most of the time, you can get a spot for a few hundred dollars depending on the program. With the rise of cable and satellite in recent years, the audience is being fractionalized and the internet is drawing viewers to websites like YouTube and MySpace.

 

Cable/Satellite TV - Cable & satellite TV maintains the power of television advertising, bringing motion and sound together, but is much cheaper and more targeted. Would a company that installs granite countertops benefit from a $3 million spot during the Super Bowl? Yes. Would that same granite countertop installer benefit from a $150 spot on a show on HGTV (Home & Garden Television)? Yes; probably more. Cable/satellite TV can be highly targeted, with channels for education, children, music, sports, and much more. Also, as I alluded to before, cable television can be much cheaper, with spots starting at $20. The number of viewers is lower than broadcast television, but the price and targeted audience can be an advantage to marketers.

Like magazines, cable television has fragmented the television audience. Also, some television channels clutter their programs with up to 28 ads per hour. Sometimes coordinating television advertising can be difficult with cable providers, satellite vendors, and independent studios. Many television advertisers have sister channels and other providers they work with many times. Another problem with television is the growing popularity of DVR (Digital Video Recorder) that allow viewers to skip commercials.

 

Radio - Radio, the old staple of advertising, can be fairly cheap to build frequency and brand recognition. Radio can reach consumers closer to buying situations with access to radio in vehicles, at work, and on the streets. Many stations offer remote promotions onsite to bring listeners to your store for a special sale or event. Many DJs have a loyal following that will listen to promotions by them and follow them to different venues.

Some drawbacks to radio are that it has a smaller reach than television and newspaper and it is easy for listeners to change stations when the ads come on. Radio has two audiences: listeners actively listening and listeners with the radio on in the background as ambient noise. Also, the volatility of formats on radio stations can make it difficult to keep loyal users of your service/product. Large conglomerates have edged out many of the independent stations and many airwaves are full of national companies. Satellite radio has made the radio market more fragmented (much like cable and satellite television). The popularity of cell phones, especially while driving, has removed many listeners from the radio.

 

Newspaper - The newspaper is one of the oldest and most respected media sources. Remember the old saying, "It was in the newspaper, so it must be true." We only jokingly say that about the Internet's credibility. Newspaper allows you to reach the masses with minimal exposure ' large newspapers are read by more than 60% of the population. Exposure in a newspaper can be extensive and detailed; it's hard to miss a 2-page advertisement. Also, with coupons, it is fairly easy to track it effectiveness; something that is nearly impossible with radio and television. Promotional tie-ins are also available with newspaper and you can target your audience with different sections of the newspaper.

Newspaper's largest drawback is the price, especially if you are not advertising to the masses. Also, a newspaper reader's retention is poor because of the volume of new information. The decline of coupon usage and rising costs of paper and distribution are making newspaper a hard choice for small companies. Many times readers looking for your product are comparing price. If you are not the cheapest, it can be hard to sway readers toward your brand without compelling reasons.

The biggest scare with newspaper advertising is the future. Television and cable have been battling the newspaper for decades, trying to capture the audiences' attention, and now the Internet is making a powerful impact. More and more readers actually read the newspaper on the web. (Don't be so surprised, you're reading this on the web.) The benefit of the Internet is that news is still around for weeks before being archived while a newspaper that is a day old is "yesterday's news" and seen as trash.

 

Email - First off, we're not talking about spam. I do not understand how spam is profitable because everyone I know hates it and spam can easily tarnish your brand. That aside, email marketing is powerful with current clients and customers, much like direct mail. A monthly newsletter or period announcement about your company's new products and services is a great way to stay top-of-mind with your audience and build brand loyalty. Offering sales and coupons can make the results apparent and email is one of the most trackable advertising mediums. If you like statistics or Excel, you'll love email marketing. With each email blast, you can track the number of emails opened, the people who clicked on your website, and who forwarded your email to a friend.

The downside of email marketing is the casual nature and ease of deleting emails. Some people do not check email regularly (hard to imagine), and some users view their email on their Blackberry and never get to see your real email.

 

Moving Billboards - This is a medium that is overlooked many times. Moving billboards can be powerful at conventions and conferences with a highly targeted audience. Also, festivals with large crowds can be a great place for a moving billboard. Imagine a billboard rolling down the parade route during Mardi Gras.

The downside is the opportunity to use a moving billboard. The small audience reach is limiting. Surprisingly, with fuel costs, the price is still fairly low, but the moving billboard is not environmentally friendly because of the unneeded gas usage.

 

Sponsorships - Sponsorships are a great way to build goodwill and credibility at a low cost. Many buyers want to buy from local businesses and companies that participate in the community. Also, a $500 sponsorship at a school fair that puts your logo on 500 t-shirts that are worn around town is cheap way to build brand awareness. Talk to your CPA about possible deductions for sponsorships.

The downside can be the small reach and the sheer number of sponsorships available. You can sponsor your child's school, the local playground, a charity event, your trade's association, a scout group, your church and many more. I would suggest choosing with your heart more than your head. Sponsorships can be a great feel-good advertising medium and money should not be what it is all about in the end.

 

Web 2.0 - What is the world is Web 2.0??? Web 2.0 is the next generation of the web. In the 90's when the Internet went mainstream, the web was about talking to new people across the world and for companies to post brochure and entertainment websites. The Web 2.0 movement is about the interactivity of websites. You can now comment on a company's website, giving a consumer-driven voice to the web opposed to the corporate voice of before. Giving the consumer a voice is giving them control, which is scary. Imagine, your clients and customers can write comments and provide information about your products and services. (Really scary now! Not really. As a consumer, who better to tell you about a product than another consumer?) For companies, this gives you a connection with your customers that you've never had before.

The drawback to the Web 2.0 movement for your company is that you are never done. Allowing customers to comment on your website is a valuable tool, but it can be dangerous if left alone. You need to monitor spam and inappropriate language and react to problems. Do not delete poor reviews, but respond to that person. This is not a mud slinging competition, but a chance to make an unhappy customer happy again.

Don't worry, we'll talk about this more in future articles, including why the movers and shakers of the 2.0 movement do not use the term, Web 2.0. Odd, but for good reasons.

 

Social Networking - Not a new concept, but social networking has taken a new form with the Internet with websites like MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube. Each website has uniquely different advertising possibilities and has their individual pros and cons. For young, hip brands that target the twenties & thirties crowd, this is a great venue. Many politicians are going to the web trying to reach younger audiences. For them, one vote is one vote and reaching the younger generations is harder and harder without "plugging in" to the interest. Bands have found MySpace to be a great avenue to build a community and some have made it mainstream and signed record deals from their internet exposure.

Skeptism and credibility is the hardest part with social networking. You cannot just put up a MySpace page and expect your phone to ring off the hook. Also, this type of marketing is not for all companies and for all products.

 

Word-of-Mouth - This is hands down the best form of advertising and also the most volatile and hardest to achieve. Think about it, aren't your best clients and customers actually referrals from other happy customers and clients. Don't you just love these referrals? Building in a referral program or at least a nice thank you card can go a long way in extending your word-of-mouth marketing.

The downside of word-of-mouth marketing is negative word-of-mouth marketing. An old business saying is paraphrased as "If a customer is upset, he will tell 10 friends. If a customer is happy, he may tell 1." Check this problem with superior products and service and always try to fix the customer's complaint. Many times, giving away a 10¢ soft drink to a customer waiting in a long drive thru line can save your company thousands in advertising costs.

The Internet has also taken word-of-mouth marketing to a new high. Now friends can brag and gripe about any encounter they have with your company through chat rooms, e-mails, message boards, product reviews and more. This can go both ways - good and bad - so keep an eye out. It wouldn't hurt to Google your company once and awhile to see what pops up. How else do you plan on finding out about that website called www.ihateYOURCOMPANY.com or www.antiYOURCOMPANY.com?

 

Guerilla Marketing - Guerrilla marketing is a great way to kick-start and continue a grass roots marketing plan. Guerilla marketing can be anything from standing in busy places passing out flyers, to plastering bumper stickers around town and flooding bulletin boards with flyers. Guerrilla marketing is a more aggressive form of word-of-mouth marketing and is extremely cost efficient. It works great with non-profits that use free volunteers who deeply believe in the organization. With knowledgeable marketers, the potential customer can interact with the company and become more attached than through other mediums.

The biggest downside to guerilla marketing is manpower. If you do not have volunteers, sometimes getting the right people that are passionate about your brand can make it hard to spread your message. Also, this medium has limited exposure based on the reach of the flyers and the marketers.

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Like I said in the beginning, there is no one advertising medium that is best. We recommend multiple mediums to reach the maximum number of potential customers and for the maximum amount of exposure. Wouldn't it be nice for your dream client to be sitting outside reading the newspaper with your ad in it when they hear your radio ad on their headphones and look up and see your company vehicle pass by your billboard? The power is in the multiplicity. It builds retention, credibility and brand recognition. Do you remember saying to yourself, "I'm not sure about using this company, I've never heard of them."

 

- Planetary Perryn

3 | 12 | 08    -    I told you it is red!

Just the other night, my wife was watching the recap of The Oscars? and the hosts were commenting on Katherine Hiegel's fire engine red dress. The next day, the newspaper spotlighted Katherine Hiegel's candy apple red dress. What! Which is it, fire engine red or candy apple red? Well, it's both.

 

How is this atrocity possible? Simply put, color is relative from person to person. If my wife tells me to paint our living room green, what color green is it? I need her to be more specific so I do not have to paint it again.

 

In our design world, we do not have fancy names like pumpkin bread and midnight blue like the paint stores. Instead we have an elaborate numbering system. Yes, your logo might use colors 3435 and 541. Surprising, huh? Yes, this is your logo's green and blue colors. These are very important numbers when maintaining your brand integrity and consistency. Have you ever noticed that the Coca Cola red and the Gap blue is always the same? That is because each designer, printer, and specialty item company should be using the Pantone Color Matching system. PMS for short. No, that is not a joke, it really is PMS. The color does change some with different papers, materials and printing methods, but that should be taken in consideration when developing your identity.

 

So, what color was the dress? Maybe 186. Next time I see her, I'll ask.

 

- Planetary Perryn

2 | 15 | 08    -    What the Favicon?

Don't feel bad if you've never heard of it; "favicon" is a bit technical for most and it is a small item that is easily overlooked. You have probably seen hundreds of favicons in the past few years and never knew it or at least did not know what it was called. Favicon is short for "favorites icon" (also known as a website icon, page icon or urlicon) - meaning the small graphic next to a website listing in your favorites menu. The favicon enhances a user's experience and adds to the overall branding experience. Most newer web browsers support favicons and show them in the address bar and in the user's favorites menu.

 

 

It is a fairly easy task for a web designer to create a favicon; it just takes a little know how. More recently, a favicon is created with a flexible system using two linked elements in the header of the HTML code. The two elements are generally 16 x 16 pixels and each is placed in the root directory. The two files are a favicon.ico file and a gif or png image. Some designers have learned to animate the favicons (like our Design the Planet website's favicon).

 

 

In the past, favicons annoyed many server administrators because they created extra log entries and unnecessary use of bandwidth. Before Internet Explorer 6.0, some IT professionals had privacy concerns that the bookmarked image gave marketers a log of what websites visitors viewed. Since the arrival of Internet Explorer 6.0, the privacy concerns have been eliminated and with faster internet speeds, bandwidth is not an issue for the minute file size. Another benefit of the newer web browsers is that the favicon is no longer removed when a user clears his browser?s cache.

 

So next time you are surfing the internet, take a look at the address bar for a cool favicon. Who knows, your favorites menu may have a few favicons in it already.

 

- Planetary Perryn

2 | 13 | 08    -    Keepin' It Real.

Why a logo redesign? Simply, things change. Times change. Fashion changes. Hopefully, your business has changed. Are things really the same now as they were when your business opened its doors? Doubtful, even if you have only been in business for a year or two. Think about it, twenty years ago you didn't have email. Fifteen years ago, you had never heard of Google. Ten years ago, you probably did not know what a Blackberry was, and just five years ago, you probably thought YouTube was something for your plumber to worry about. Amazing how time flies!

 

Realistically, how often should a company change their logo? Depending on your business and market, possibly every 10 or 20 years. If your company makes a few poor decisions and your business model makes a complete 180, may be sooner rather than later might be a wise decision. Another question to ask yourself is, "How well is my logo known?" We all know the dated IBM logo. Why haven't they changed? Well, because we all know what it looks like.

 

In case you forgot what it looked like...

 

 

Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the "Guerrilla Marketing" books, says you should plan on getting twenty years out of your logo. Look for the extended warranty (just kidding). A drastic change can wipe out your brand?s equity that took years and lots of money to build. Many times you can make small updates to a logo without jeopardizing the entire brand. Notice the evolution of the Design the Planet logo below. The logo started out representing a start-up, female freelance designer working out of her home. The first update shows a young company of a few employees making strides in the market and venturing outside of the home. The newest logo captures a company evolving into a larger corporate climate with a more refined business model and clear visions from the past and of the future.

 

 

With each update, Design the Planet keeps the brand intact and evolves the identity to match the current and near future of the company. Also, being a design and brand marketing company, Design the Planet should constantly strive to capture the mind share of its target market while maintaining a strong brand that "speaks" to that market.

 

A few notes to think about when considering an update or redesign of your company's logo:

• Does the current identity match the business model? Your company's products/services? The future of the company?
• What should the identity say about the company?
• Is the identity trendy or dated? What does the trend say about the company? Does this trend work?
• Is the logo a cliché? Are you a lawyer with the cliché scales or an IT professional with clipart of a computer on your business card? How does the company differentiate from others in the field and/or market? (Note: Conventional symbols are okay and can be tastefully added or freshened up without hitting your clients over the head with the symbol.)

Let's look at an international brand that recently updated their logo. Earlier this year, Xerox released their new corporate identity. Xerox had not made a change in their identity since 1961, when they dropped the name "Habloid" from the logo. After nearly 50 years of usage, Xerox updated their well-recognized brand for what Richard Wergan, vice president of advertising, calls "a brand identity that reflects the Xerox of today."

 

 

After years of market research, internal strategizing and client surveys, the new logo retains some of the elements of the original logo. The research showed that consumers associate the color red with Xerox and for their overseas markets, the red color represents good luck, prosperity and good will. (Something else to consider when thinking about redeveloping your company's identity: what do other markets that you serve think about your identity? When your company started, did you think your market would include Japan or Germany or if you are only stateside, Boston and Denver?)

 

 

Xerox stated why they made the change, "We are a very different company today than we were when our current brand architecture was developed," says Richard Wergan, director of worldwide brand at Xerox. "The new logo is meant to disrupt the mental model of Xerox as just a copier company."

 

Like all updates, they are across the board whether you are an international company like Xerox or a slightly smaller company like Design the Planet. The new corporate logo is your face to your clients, vendors, competitors, and potential clients. The corporate makeover needs to extend to each facet of your company, including business cards, packaging, signage, vehicles, website, phonebook listing, down to your company's invoices. It takes time to update everything and can take a lot of money. When updating your brand, make a list of what needs to be updated and a timeline with the highest priority items changing first (suggestion ? website & business card first). The last thing you want is to have a hodgepodge of logos from various updates. This array of identities gives the illusion that your company is disorganized and multiple brand identities in the public's eye create competition with yourself.

 

- Planetary Perryn

2 | 11 | 08    -    The Web Authority. (or ... Is Your Website the Prom Queen?)

So, why is your website not number one? I'm talking about the coveted number one spot in Google and Yahoo for all of the keywords and key phrases that pertain to your business. For starters, you are not the only one that wants that top spot. Being on top of the mountain for a few key phrases can accelerate a company's growth; likewise, losing the top spot can put a company in a downward spiral. This is why many large companies and web-based companies spend so much money and time on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

 

You may have heard that search engines use a mathematical formula to rank their websites? and you would be correct. But, do you know what that formula is? Google and Yahoo are not known for sharing this information. Even if they did, it wouldn't matter because the formulas change monthly. Sometimes the changes are slight and sometimes they are massive changes. Why change so often? To answer that question, we need to take a step back and ask ourselves how a search engine thinks. A search engine wants to give its users the most accurate response for each search. In plain English, if you search "New Orleans web design" you would want to see listings like Design the Planet, not Alaskan Crab Fishing.

 

Now, knowing this, what can we gather about the lengthy and complicated algorithms that search engines use? The good news is that there is a method to their madness and the items that weigh heaviest in the algorithm are content and links to your website. I call this the high school popularity method ? the best known and most liked website wins prom queen. When ranking each website, the search engine evaluates the text on your website and the number of links to your website from other websites.

 

The text on your website matters; all of it matters. Search engines evaluate the title of your pages, your headlines and each sentence - giving more weight to the headlines and sentences at the top of the page. For a search engine, it is better to title your page "Contact Design the Planet" than "Contact Us". When in doubt as to how much text, remember one thing, CONTENT IS KING! When it comes to search engines, the more text, the better. Instead of having a few pages about your company and your products/services, you should have a book. This sounds like a lot, but search engines are looking for the authority for each keyword and key phrase. To provide the best search results to their users, search engines look for the master of each word, so providing more text presents you as the leader in your field. We all want to do work and buy products from the leader.

 

The other element of the algorithm that matters most is links. Not links on your website, but links to your website. Also, the more popular the website linking to your website, the better. In SEO talk, it is better to have links from websites with high PageRankings (we'll discuss more later). It is important to take time to find non-competitor websites that will link to your website, especially if they are of a similar theme. For Design the Planet, a website of Louisiana web design firms or a web hosting company linking to our website is much better than a massive list of random websites. Also, when a website links to you, it is better to be descriptive saying "New Orleans Web Design Firm" instead of "cool link."

 

How does a search engine like Google and Yahoo know what text is on your website or what websites link to your website? Simple, they use spiders. Yes, I'm serious. Search engines sends small robots (or bots) called spiders to crawl the web in order to gain this information. The spiders feed information about your website to a massive database and then the database ranks each website according to the previously mentioned algorithm. This ranking of websites is called PageRank. Google's PageRank is number one of course. The search engine's database then breaks down these rankings per keyword and key phrase. When it comes to links, Google considers each link to your website as a vote for your website and the better the PageRank, the more powerful the vote. Mostly democratic.

 

Surprisingly, traffic has little to do with your web rankings; partly because the search engines cannot determine traffic easily. They can, however, determine how much traffic you receive using the PageRanks of the websites linked to you and how long a user stays on your website after finding it through their search engine. If a user clicks on a website after searching a keyword and then quickly clicks back to the search engine, the search engine thinks that website was not the authority the user was looking for and eventually lowers the ranking of that website.

 

Now you have a few broad ideas of why your website is number one (or not number one) in the search engines. In later postings, we will discuss more specific methods of building your popularity and other things you can do to rank higher. We will even give you a few things not to do that will get you blacklisted from Google and Yahoo completely. Imagine what that will do for your web presence?

 

- Planetary Perryn

1 | 13 | 08    -    Understanding the Terminology.

The design process uses an entirely different lexicon than many other fields, which can cause confusion if you aren't familiar with the common terminology of our industry. To help you attain a general understanding of the terms used in the design industry, we have created this glossary to introduce you to some common words and phrases.

 

- The Design the Planet Team

1 | 11 | 08    -    Why Change a Good Brand?

Leading up to the re-brand of our company this year, several people told me that they liked the old identity and they loved the old web site, so why would I want to change something that was successful? I shared my reasons for updating the Design the Planet brand with them, and I'd like to share those reasons with you now.

 

Reason #1 - It was old. The day that I look down at my card and think "this looks old" is when I know an identity needs a makeover. Quite honestly, the brand update should have happened a few years ago, around the time Katrina hit. Going into Katrina I had already reached that conclusion, but post-Katrina, we didn't have the time or manpower to dedicate to building our own new brand. There were other people who needed our help, so we chose to reprioritize at the time.

 

Reason number 2 - The font. The old Design the Planet font was adapted from a Handwriting font that I found stylish and new, yet old. After using the logo for around five years, what was once a novel font that differentiated us so well had become overused. I see it everywhere and with that, our logo loses impact and becomes common. Or, more common then I would like.

 

Reason number 3 - The market. As a company, our market has shifted over the past several years, not dramatically, but it has changed. The old logo was well suited for the company years ago, but now seems not to match our company focus and brand.

 

Reason number 4 - Our web site needed a facelift. Our old web site didn't have all of the bells and whistles it needed to be an essential tool. Specifically?

 

- Adrienne of the Planet