I saw this on Seth Godin’s Blog and thought it was a scream of a marketing campaign. With clothes and accessories for pampered pets, High Maintenance Bitch takes it to a bawdy level with the generous use of the word for female dog and kitty cat.

Hugs, Wendy Maynard, your friendly marketing maven

P.S. Below is a picture of my glamour girl, Piper.

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Want to Submit Your Blog ALL over the Internet and get yourself about a bajillion readers? Go here: RSSTop55 - Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites

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Here is a link to an article in Business Week Online called Blogs Will Change Your Business. A quote from the article:

Go ahead and bellyache about blogs. But you cannot afford to close your eyes to them, because they’re simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself. And they’re going to shake up just about every business — including yours. It doesn’t matter whether you’re shipping paper clips, pork bellies, or videos of Britney in a bikini, blogs are a phenomenon that you cannot ignore, postpone, or delegate. Given the changes barreling down upon us, blogs are not a business elective. They’re a prerequisite. (And yes, that goes for us, too.)

According to statistics from Technorati, Inc., as of April 2005, there are almost 9 million blogs. According to a recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 7% of the 120 million U.S. adults using the Internet have created a blog and 27% of Internet users in the United States are reading them. This readership number represents a 58% growth in 2004, but 63% of online Americans do not know what a blog is.

What does all of this mean? Well, as far as I can tell, no one really knows yet. However, many major companies (including mainstream media, politicians, and universities) are scrambling to start a blog and figure out how to profit from it.

Is it time for you to jump on the bandwagon?

Hugs, Wendy Maynard, Your Friendly Marketing Maven

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I came across this website about the Wright Brothers. What fabulous, amazing individuals. Talk about careful planning and implementation.

Unfortunately, the Wright Brothers were the victims of a smear campaign orchestrated by jealous individuals in the aviation community. Read The Dark, Unhappy Ending for details. And so, a question that comes to mind is this: Prior to releasing the news of their invention and offering licensing rights to it, if the Wright Brothers had planned their marketing campaign as effectively as their Design and Test Strategy , would they have been more successful at establishing themselves as the undisputed Kings of the Air? Anyone’s guess now, but an interesting subject to ponder.

Hugs, Wendy Maynard, your friendly marketing maven

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Here are two ways to publicize your blog and let services know when you’ve updated it. Submit the URL to Pingomatic and Feed Shark. Both tools submit your blog or RSS feed to multiple sources.

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A bit off topic, but interesting nonetheless. Sometimes, I put “xo” before my name as an expression of affection. Today, a friend asked me, “so are X’s kisses and O’s hugs or is it the other way around?” Being the research junkie that I am, I decided to look up the history of the symbols. Here’s what I found on Wikipedia:

“Hugs and Kisses” is a term for a sequence of the letters X and O, e.g. XOXO, typically used by lovers to denote at the end of a written letter or email. X represents a kiss, O a hug.

“The use of xoxo goes back to the use of an “X” or cross, which was considered as good as a sworn oath in times before most people could write and therefore used the x in the same way a signature is used today. A mark of your word.

An x at the end of a letter or document was often kissed as a seal of honesty, in much the same way one would kiss a bible or kiss the fingers after making the sign of the cross, thus the x came to represent a kiss in modern times.

The origins of the “O” as a hug are not generally known, although it is speculated that it may represent the arms wrapped around someone being hugged. Another thought is that it came from Jewish immigrants who would sign with an “O” instead of an x because they did not wish to mark their word with the obviously non-Jewish cross the x represented.”

XOXOX, Wendy Maynard, your friendly marketing maven

NOTE: After receiving a comment from a reader, I decided to revisit Wikipedia and I found this updated entry:

It is debatable which letter represents which act. The less common interpretation assumes that X represents the four lips of a kiss and O the four arms of a hug. For example, the Oxford English Dictionary states that X is “used to represent a kiss, esp. in the subscription to a letter.”^[1] A more common interpretation assumes X as the crossed arms of a hug and O as the puckered lips of a kiss. Also, the order is normally spoken “Hugs and Kisses” which would correspond to the order that the X’s and O’s are written.

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Have you checked your website popularity? Here are a couple of fun tools to see where you rank:

Link Popularity

Link Popularity Check

Market Leap Tool

Here is what Market Leap says about link popularity:

“Link popularity check is one of the best ways to quantifiably and independently measure your website’s online awareness and overall visibility. Simply put, link popularity refers to the total number of links or “votes” that a search engine has found for your website. Marketleap has designed this link popularity tool to help website owners find out who is linking to their site, but also to give a useful benchmarking report to quickly show where you stand in comparison to competitors and other major online players.”

Enjoy!

Wendy Maynard, your friendly marketing maven

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In my business, I find clients often fall into the trap of wanting to express the features of their company instead of highlighting the benefits. Here’s a way to distinguish the two perspectives: Features are attributes of a business, service, or product. From your customers’ point of view, they are boring. In contrast, benefits answer the question, “What’s in it for me?” They provide a value to your customer and they are compelling.

Here are some examples of boring, feature-focused marketing:

• We provide excellent customer service.

• Our firm has been around for 25 years.

• We’re a full-service company.

• The XYZ product is the best of its kind.

Why is this boring marketing? Because there is nothing unique or remarkable about these statements. And, they are the exact same messages your competitor is using. Yes, these sentences may be true. However, they do nothing to set your business offerings apart. These phrases are not going to magnetize your customer.

Instead, you have to THINK like your customers. Meet their specific needs and solve their unique problems. In your marketing materials, tell them about the unique benefits your company provides. Make sure your business is memorable. If your customers can’t remember you, they can’t tell others about your services or products. Common benefits include: make more money, save time, lower stress, lose weight, more energy, work less and energy, and so on.

Examples of benefit-based statements to attract your customers:

• Sales Trainer: “We will take the fear out of selling.”

• Cosmetic Dentist: “A smile makeover can make you look years younger.”

• Mortgage Company: “We’ll find the right loan for you at the best price.”

These statements work because they are focused on what a customer will get. They solve a problem. And, they show an understanding of people’s challenges and plans for the future.

If you want to look at some more examples, here’s a few real-life ones:

• Gillette Razor: The closest shave, less irritation, superior comfort.

• Nutro Dog Food: Great taste, highest nutritional benefits, healthy skin & shiny coat

• H & R Block Tax Preparation: Maximum refund, Service year round, Convenience

Hugs, Wendy Maynard, your friendly marketing maven

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