How to Choose a Brand Name

July 8, 2011 – 2:54 pm

So you’re starting a new company or developing a brand-new product. What should you name it?

If, like most companies, you can’t invest months of time and committees of people in developing and choosing an effective brand name, these tips can help you.

1. Remember your audience. If you’re selling high-end home furnishings, a down-home name like “Mama’s Furniture” probably won’t appeal to the average wealthy buyer, whereas “Haute Homeware” tells customers both what you do (sell home furnishings) and what you’re about (fashionable design.)

2. Choose a name that’s memorable. A memorable name can either a) clearly relate to the service you provide (“Closet Works“), or b) be completely unique (ahem, “xiik“.) As companies such as Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks have proven, either approach can work.

3. Don’t necessarily choose the first name that comes to mind. Sure, brilliance can strike from nowhere – once in awhile. But choosing your brand name based on things like available domain names, whether your friends and family like it, or because it’s fun to say doesn’t make sense in the grand scheme of marketing your business.

4. Do your due diligence. Check registered trademarks in your state and with the United States Patent and Trademark Office before you settle on a name. Seek legal counsel – especially if, like any successful businessperson, you’re investing considerable money and time in your efforts.

5. Contact xiik to help name your brand. If you need help branding your organization or product, get in touch with us – we’ve been through it before!

By xiik | Posted in branding, marketing | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment

Mutt Strut Site Design

July 1, 2011 – 12:37 pm

If every dog has its day, every good fundraising event should have a good website. Sure, you can set up an event and invite people to it on Facebook, send a press release to local media touting it, and design and print promotional posters at local businesses. But if you don’t have a dedicated website for your major fundraising event, you’re missing out on an opportunity to share important info with fans and potential attendees – and donors.

Mutt Strut, a dog walk around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, is the signature fundraising event for the Humane Society of Indianapolis (IndyHumane), bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars for the non-profit organization every year.

The 2011 IndyMuttStrut.org website

The 2011 IndyMuttStrut.org website

Several years ago, the event had only one section dedicated to it on IndyHumane’s website. For an event of this magnitude, this had to change. IndyHumane needed to raise more money at the event to support its services, and it needed to do that by sharing more info in better ways with its followers.

In 2009, IndyHumane chose xiik to design and develop Mutt Strut’s first dedicated website. In addition to giving Mutt Strut an enhanced brand experience for supporters, the site integrated the event registration system IndyHumane had successfully used in prior years. That year’s event broke previous fundraising and attendance records, attracting thousands of people and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In 2010, IndyHumane worked with xiik to redesign the site again, giving it a smoother interface, the ability to feature videos on the homepage, and a comprehensive FAQ section. The event broke its previous records again, in spite of a torrential day-long downpour.

This year, in addition to hiring xiik to develop the back-end of its newly redesigned website, IndyHumane again used xiik to redesign IndyMuttStrut.org, integrating design elements from the event’s new branding, photos from past events, and RSS feeds with updates on fundraising goals. The event raised more money than last year.

The success of the past several Mutt Struts have been due in part to IndyHumane’s ability to share the most pertinent information about such a big event in a simple yet effective way. How many times have you planned to go to a special event – a concert, fundraiser, fair, etc. – only to be frustrated by the lack of information online? A dedicated, easy-to- use website helps any event.

Whether you’re a for-profit business or a non-profit organization, you need a good web presence to promote your major efforts – it’s the easiest, fastest way to get the most important information out to the most valuable people.

Have you used a particularly great special-event website lately? Seen one in need of a touchup? Or do you know of a great event that doesn’t even have a web presence and is missing out on its potential? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

By xiik | Posted in indianapolis, interactive marketing, web design, web development | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment

Power in (Neighbor) Numbers: Closet Works

June 23, 2011 – 10:00 am

How do you create instant credibility for your business for people unfamiliar with your products and services? Idea: leverage your existing customer base in new ways.

Closet Works Customers Near You

Closet Works Customers Near You Map

Closet Works specializes in creating custom cabinetry, and with more than 22,000 customers in the Chicago area, they had a powerful client base but no way to use it to attract more customers. After all, custom cabinets aren’t something the typical homeowner purchases often.

Closet Works partnered with xiik to develop a customer map tool that shows potential customers just how much of an impact Closet Works has had in their area. The xiik-designed Customers Near You map enables site visitors to plug in their zip code and see how many of their neighbors within a 5-mile radius chose Closet Works for their custom cabinets.

Customer information and address are left anonymous to protect privacy, but individual branded placemarks identify the collective presence that Closet Works has within a neighborhood. With so many customers, the visual effect of the map is immediate and impressive.

Closet Works’ Customer Map is featured prominently on their homepage. But they know this application of technology isn’t a one-stop solution for growing their business, and they carefully consider all aspects of their brand online and in person. They specialize in good customer service, as their 4.5-star rating on the popular review site Yelp attests.

Closet Works has proven that it’s easy to leverage what you already have with new technology if you work with the right people. If you’re interested in learning how you can use new technology to grow an established customer base for your brand, contact xiik today.

By xiik | Posted in Chicago, customer service, interactive marketing, testimonials | Tagged , | Comments (1)

Website Design & CMS: Fostering Media Connections

June 17, 2011 – 5:08 pm

Last year Fostering Media Connections, an advocacy group for children in foster care, needed a more effective web presence: it had to be easy to update with fresh content, it had to be easy to use for visitors, and it had to narrate their campaign and mission in an emotionally compelling way.

FMC looked to xiik to design and develop their new site, which recently helped them attract and register participants for their campaign-building town hall events — critical social opportunities to spread their message. The events promoted on the site also helped them garner national media attention.

FosteringMediaConnections.org

In a featured article on the Huffington Post this week, FMC project director Daniel Heimpel writes about the education needs of children in foster care. He also describes their successful series of town hall events produced in May.

Driving attendance to FMC’s events was easier thanks to their website, where their content management system enabled them to incorporate a simple registration form alongside engaging program information — a vital interactive moment to compel people who are casually interested into confirmed event attendees. Additionally, the site’s ubiquitous social media integration allowed for attendees and community partners to share event content across their online networks, expanding FMC’s reach beyond their own resources.

The ease of use of FMC’s site is a tremendous benefit to them. And if you’re part of the typical non-profit — short on time, capital, and human resources — such a site could be immensely beneficial to your organization, too.

Unsatisfied with your current site’s capabilities to draw attention to your cause and loop people into your mission? Let us know in the comments section or contact us so we can help you reach your goals.

By xiik | Posted in public relations, web design, web development | Tagged , | Leave a Comment

Commercials that won’t depreciate

January 18, 2011 – 7:33 pm

There is plenty of saturation in the television ad industry. With so many viewers watching TV around the clock each day, it is impossible not to flip through channels and find an interesting or funny ad playing for your favorite toilet paper. Some are memorable. And some become memes, with a jingle or a punch line forever etched in our cultural lexicon. In other words, great marketing!

So, what makes for a great commercial that will boost a company until its brand eventually morphs or even outlive the brand or company itself? We geeks have compiled a list of our favorites from the last half-century. For five of them, we dive into what makes each piece effective and why it became a cultural phenomenon. Warning: this post may be extremely nostalgic.

1. Mac vs. PC (series)

The “Get a Mac” campaign has easily become one of the most recognizable series of television advertisements. Every episode follows the same template: two men, one introduces himself as a PC and the other as a MAC, in front of a completely white background who act out humorous scenarios in which the two computers are compared with each other. Simplicity and cleanliness are some of the most descriptive words to describe the Apple brand and these commercials have achieved just that, which has kept their image strong and consistent. It has stirred much debate whether Apple is going about advertising their brand in a mean way, forcing PC to respond with the less successful “I’m a PC” campaign. In my opinion, that is the point when you know as a company that you have intimidated the competitor past their comfort zone because they know you are doing something right. In this case, Apple has combined the essential pieces in making a series of highly successful promotions by using humor, the competitor’s weaknesses and a clean projection of the branding making any of these spots instantly recognizable and memorable.

2. Old Spice – The man your man could smell like

Last year, Old Spice launched the fastest growing online viral campaign ever. Starring in the series, Isaiah Mustafa, former NFL wide receiver and current actor has become an icon for the Old Spice brand as well as anyone online looking for a good laugh. This is another unbeatable combination that this company has taken advantage of. The dialog and persona of the campaign perfectly matches what a man’s cologne commercial needs to stand out in a highly competitive market. Among the many awards this has won, the combination of well-executed television marketing, social media campaign and YouTube takeover prove this spot to remain a part of popular culture for a long while.

3. Tootsie Pop

I don’t know about you, but the famous question “How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?” will forever be ingrained in my mind. This has to be one of the most well known unanswered questions in human history! The brand’s popularity has stayed strong since the commercial debuted in 1970. The animation is simple, not perfect and a style that proves itself impossible to forget.  Although one guy by the name of “The Lollipop” claimed it took him 1,327 licks to get to the yummy center, the question still stands unanswered. Maybe if some of us geeks get some downtime, we can hold our own experiment to find the answer! See, right away Tootsie has sold xiik at least a whole bag of Tootsie Pops just for making that dang commercial!

4. Wendy’s – “Where’s the beef?”

Starting off as a generic catch phrase in the US and Canada, “Where’s the beef?” originally translated to questioning the substance of an idea, event or product. But after Wendy’s creatively transformed the slogan into their own, promoting their big burger patties, several spin-offs and references forced their way to popular culture, which spread the word like wildfire. Commercials are short, concise and straight to the point. We can learn a lot by noticing how just three words said over and over can settle in someone’s mind and never let them forget where they can find “the beef.”  This may be one of the most popular commercials ever to come into existence featuring only three elderly ladies. Maybe sex doesn’t always sell.

5. “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke”

First aired only on the radio, the “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” commercial did not do so well. But, the agency was finally persuaded to film a commercial of the song to be performed on a hill top in Rome, Italy, where a large group of multicultural teenagers lip synced the song to promote a message of hope and love. Smart move on Coca-Cola’s part! For a company to show their support of the global community in a way like this is creative, moving and extremely affective. Also, whenever you’re able to get a popular song written about your brand, there is a good chance that brand will be remembered through the song. It is my prediction that more than half of everyone who watches this Coke commercial will quickly recognize the song again in the future. It’s true – you can’t beat the real thing.

While searching for commercials we thought to be the best, we also asked our Twitter and Facebook fans what their opinions were. Here is a list including several more equally awesome concepts that deserved to be shared!

McDonalds Larry Bird vs. Michael Jordan

Monster.com

Head On

1984 Apple Macintosh

Sheraton

Walmart

AT&T – Rethink Possible

Allstate Mayhem

ETrade Baby

What are the commercials you remember most? Let us know in the comments section!

By Josh Corken | Posted in advertising, marketing promotions | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment

The Great “Firewall” of China

January 7, 2011 – 7:38 pm

China World Expo

Recently, I had the pleasure of visiting Seoul, Korea for the 3rd SIGGRAPH Asiaconference on computer graphics. The rest of the xiik geeks celebrated once they heard news I would actually be gone for a full month on an extended trip through Asia. (Because they were happy for me. Yes, that’s why.) After the conference in South Korea, a few friends and I planned a journey to tackle the east side of China, traveling from Beijing to Shanghai to Hong Kong and lastly Macau.

Needless to say, it was an experience of a lifetime. I consistently ran into one difficulty, however, while in China: staying connected with everyone back home. My friends, family and co-workers depended on social networking sites or an email here and there to know that I hadn’t fallen off the Great Wall or gotten lost in the Forbidden City. Aside from Hong Kong and Macau, which have an entirely open Internet, while in mainland China (Beijing and Shanghai), we soon realized that contacting home through our normal websites – Facebook and Twitter mostly – was not going to be an option. Not convenient!

"Computer is doesn't work"

So, what’s behind China’s policies to block such popular social networking websites? Though China has always exerted more control over its media than Western-style democracies, the real straw that broke the camel’s back was when violent riotserupted in the western region of Xinjiang in July 2009, where authorities blamed the use of the web, specifically Facebook and Twitter, for its planning. The entire Xinjiang region lost access to the entire Internet for several months as a result.

As I began to make friends with locals in these cities with restricted access, I asked them what their opinion on the matter was. Most felt the violence wasn’t the major player. Instead, they felt the blame was on China’s domestic services like Weibo and Kaixin, the Twitter and Facebook of China, respectively. If China has the opportunity to completely cut off the majority of the population to these US-based sites, locals have no other option than to use what is second best. Can anyone say scarcity power? Here is a list of all currently blocked sites in China. (Unfortunately and ironically, for the mainland China readers out there, this link directs to Wikipedia – one of the very sites China blocks.)

For me, a dude who uses Facebook and Twitter multiple times per day, the inconvenience really required some adjusting that I didn’t have the time or inclination for on my travels. Each moment spent searching for a proxy server or way to navigate the text-based websites that magically let me in (such as getus.in) I knew I was wasting time I could easily be using to see more of that vast country! One wonders what kind of cumulative adverse effect on tourism this might have in the long run.

Of course, I am just one guy. I can theoretically survive without my Facebook fix for a couple of weeks. But what happened to all of those China-based companies that relied on Twitter and Facebook as free, essential marketing tools? Are they stuck using the more censored, domestic platforms for now until China eases up or will they try to use proxy servers to gain access? Does this force more of a national, rather than international, approach to their brand-building and business development? There are many questions and implications for a society that does not embrace the connectivity of an open, transparent online global community.

What would you do in their shoes? Could you adjust to life in China as it currently is? Do these policies affect your desire to travel to or do business with China?

Me on the Great Wall of China

All I know is that we were thrilled to reach Hong Kong at the end of our trip, where we could access the real Facebook layout and catch up with our friends back home. If you cannot live without some of these sites every day, visiting mainland China will be even more of a culture shock than you had imagined. Don’t let that stop you, though! For me, a status update can wait. Traveling the world is much more rewarding than getting a few likes or @ messages online.

If you’ve traveled to or conducted business with China in the last few years, we’d love to hear about your experiences with their media landscape.

By Josh Corken | Posted in about xiik, marketing promotions, social media | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment

Holidayize Your Website the Right Way

December 7, 2010 – 5:21 pm

This year we have added a new technical term to our xiik dictionary — holidayize. Yes, holidayize. To us, this is simply the act of taking a website from normal to new by integrating holiday flair into its design.  A winter landscape, Christmas trees or even hanging up some lights on a banner graphic is all it may take to keep your site fresh and boost holiday sales. Now the challenge is how to make your holiday decor stand out amongst the plethora of websites shifting gears during the winter season without sacrificing site functionality and brand.

Today, we are determining what makes a holidayized website successful by comparing a few of this season’s examples: ThinkGeek, CGSociety, and Target.

ThinkGeek.com

ThinkGeek, a website that sells cool products for technophiles, geeks and the occasional monkey, went all out this season with their holiday theme. And it really isn’t until you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the footer before you fully experience the unique landscape they have created. In the header, we find the hint of Christmas from the red bulb peeking from behind the logo and large snowflakes scattered horizontally. The blue gradient background with subtle white snow throughout the entire background really helps connect the footer design with the rest of the site.

But, the most effective feature from this entire design can be found in the footer where the monkey on the left and even small, colored mini rockets appear when you scroll down to the bottom as if they were taking off from the ground plane with the trees. Even the presents and railway emerge from the ground — an intriguing effect. This is by far one of the best implemented and unique holiday designs I have seen. The site does a great job of borrowing the language of the holiday in a way that still makes sense for its brand.

The effect is stronger brand impression of ThinkGeek. Win-win.

CGSociety.org

As one of the websites I visit more frequently, I was excited to see CGSociety implement such an elegant take to holiday design. The CGSociety is the most respected and accessible global organization for creative digital artists. As you would image, they have digital artists on staff to design the print-worthy illustrations we find in the header and to program its snowfall effect. Though it is strikingly similar to that of WordPress.com’s falling snow optionit is nonetheless a delightful attention grabber.

CGSociety has even amended its usual logo image to include a wreath and changed the colors of the title text to green, a bold move for the sake of branding! My only critique on the design would be that the treetops, at certain points, actually are tall enough to disappear behind functional elements like the user log-in input fields. It is a slight distraction, but fortunately is not something that ruins the design.

Target.com

When searching for the examples I wanted to use for this post, Target.comwas one site I never expected to drop into my “not so good” bucket this year. Right off the bat, I felt overwhelmed with the Target red, which already dominates their website, even without the help of the sidebar decorations. Don’t get me wrong: the way Target has used subtle holiday hints throughout the rest of the site within images, fonts and ad decor is very effective and does a very good job of hinting the holidays. The sidebars, however, are complete overkill.

My suggestion would be to somehow introduce a new color or find a new way to use the red along the border of the website. Unfortunately, once you navigate to any internal page of Target’s site, these already distracting decorations start to animate and spin around, making them even more distracting than they were before! It is a very well illustrated holiday graphic, but steals focus from the shopping experience.

The simple fact is that these holiday designs may not be the most important aspect of visual hierarchy and can even at times (like Target.com) be distracting to the real intentions of the website. We have two very good examples of holidayizing and one that is not all bad, but just isn’t as effective as is it should be. Moral of the story is to further engage your audience with your new designs rather than distracting them. A holiday can be a great excuse to enhance your branding and roll out new designs that help attract more viewers or at least keep them on your site longer.

This year at xiik, we started arranging ways to get our own clients ready for the holiday season. Our long time friends over at Stiglmeier Sausage Co. have received great responses since a snowstorm came rolling by their website, leaving just enough snow to show it came by. We would love to see other great examples of companies deciding to holidayize their websites! If you have any in mind or stumble across exceptional examples, don’t be shy. Go ahead and leave a comment with them, so we can check them out for ourselves!

By Josh Corken | Posted in advertising, web design | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment

Explore a more beautiful web (without Flash?)

November 18, 2010 – 9:55 pm

Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) was finally revealed to the public through an event named “Beauty of the Web.” Only available for BETA download to Windows 7 and Vista users (Sorry MAC and Linux fans!), IE9 introduces new features for customers as well as developers who want to take full advantage of their computing power while staying up-to-date with the most modern web standards.

To explore and discuss Microsoft’s new browser, I turned to our very own Steve Hering, Art Director and table tennis champion of the office, to hear his thoughts. My first impressions on IE9 were soon changed as we got away from the finer details of the browser and focused on the big picture of this [beta] release:

One of the quotes from Beauty of the Web claims “IE9 will change the web forever.” Do you agree?

No. One browser will not be able to affect the web forever. As the “browser wars” continue pushing the envelope, we will only see features and the languages behind those features being pushed as well.

Do you foresee the release of IE9 changing your day-to-day designing and developing?

I really don’t see this changing my day-to-day — at least not yet. When it comes down to it, the adoption rate of IE9 will determine those changes, just as different browser functionalities do now.

Will the introduction of these new technologies being utilized together (IE9, HTML5, CSS3, etc) kill off Flash?

People make the assumption that Flash won’t evolve, but the reality is that it will. I don’t know when that will be, but I don’t think Flash will ever be gone. I think there will always be a place for it. The experience that Flash can give you is one that we cannot quite replicate yet. Currently, there are some web browsing experiences we cannot implement effectively across all browsers, but that is definitely changing. Until we have a broad support for CSS3 and HTML5, however, Flash will continue to be used to get the same result across every browser.

What is your opinion on Microsoft’s decision to roll out IE9 in this fashion?

Here’s the part that annoys me. It will take years to adopt IE9 and right now, in order to run IE9 you have to install Windows 7 or Vista! That is Microsoft right there! They are playing catch up with the rest of the browsers. Finally! IE9 isn’t doing anything drastic compared to the efforts of Chrome or Firefox. I don’t see them doing anything groundbreaking here.

Steve raises some very important points to consider when judging the impact and relevance of new technologies introduced to us. Big picture questions should always be considered. It is very easy to get caught up in flashy features, animated intros and fancy notifications, but our focus should not simply be how to integrate these new technologies into the existing design landscape, but rather how to push all of these pieces forward in a synergistic way — one that ultimately results in a web experience unlike anything we’ve seen before. Microsoft’s move towards these newer technologies is important, given how big a player they are in the market. Let’s just hope, now that they’re catching up, that they can innovate at a pace alongside the rest of the market. They’ll never embrace a fully open-source philosophy, but we’d all benefit if all market players took in the big picture.

The questions about Flash’s future are particularly important to xiik — we have discussed and detailed our stance about it in a previous blog post. If you notice the comments below that article, it is obvious this is a heated topic of debate — as it rightfully should be. So, we discussed our thoughts in even more detail in a follow up blog, which could then be summed up as: “Flash is becoming more popular, but as an element, rather than the entire site.”

Do you think that’s true? We’re always open to shifting our stance on technologies if the facts on the ground have changed. What’s your take on the big picture? What immediate and long-term impacts will Microsoft’s IE9 have on Flash and the industry as a whole?

By Josh Corken | Posted in flash, usability, web development | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment

Five Tips for E-Newsletter Subject Lines

November 4, 2010 – 5:58 pm

Take our poll and let us know what you think! 

The answer that we’ve found through research and experience with our clients is surprising.

Studies have shown that a direct e-mail subject line, like “B” above (“November 2010 News”) will most likely get the highest open rate. Many people have become inundated with e-news and don’t have time to guess what its contents might be. This makes it critical to “get to the point” or expect the sting of that delete key.

Our Point: Throw “marketing speak” out the window and be direct.

Want some tips for improving your e-newsletter subject line? Here are a few ideas that we’ve found in our research for guiding you toward effective subject lines.

1. Think Twitter.
What Twitter posts inspire you to respond? Which ones get your attention? The posts that are relevant, short, and interesting!

2. Use the News.
Remember that rolled up piece of paper you used to find at your doorstep in the morning? Yeah, newspapers may be becoming a thing of the past, but one thing we can learn from them is how to save a buck by keeping word count small. Check out news headlines and see how journalists are experts at getting to the point quickly! Keep your subject line 40 characters or less.

3. Less Waste, More Space.
Your company name should be listed under the “From” line anyway, so why waste characters in your subject line on repeating your name? It wastes those precious characters, and is redundant.

4. No “Dirty Words.”
These words may not seem harmful to you, but they can get you caught in spam filters and many have been proven to negatively affect open rates. Avoid: FREE, Help, Reminder, Percent Off, Click Here… to name a few. Make sure your marketing agency is testing your email newsletters thoroughly for spam trigger words before sending.

5. What the #$%!!!?
Avoid the use—(“or overuse!!!”)—of punctuation marks and symbols. Some mail filters are getting pretty picky about the symbols in your subject lines. The top ones to avoid: quotation marks, dollar signs, percent signs, and exclamation points. While you’re at it: AVOID ALL CAPS!

We’d love to hear from you—what other tips do you have for writing good email subject lines?

By melissawz | Posted in advertising, marketing promotions, usability | Leave a Comment

Marketing is like…a bale of hay?

October 20, 2010 – 8:37 pm

A nine-year-old boy stood more than 20 feet in the air in a hayloft, stretching his hands out toward a rope swing. His friend below had just launched the long rope (which was strung from the very top peak of the barn) up toward the boy above. But just as the boy reached to grasp the rope and swing out across the barn, his friend accidentally pulled back on the rope to relaunch it and looked up to see the boy suddenly falling down—head first—toward the hard, wooden floor below…


Cliffhanger! What does this story have to do with anything and why is it related to xiik?

Marketing is all about telling stories. I was reminded of this yesterday while attending the MBO Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. Two of the sessions I went to were focused on content planning and strategy—very critical for successful marketing campaigns.

Don Schindler of AgencyND spoke about the successful elements of a story:

The Exposition—quickly setting the scene
Hook—revealing the problem
Rising Action—keep them hooked while building the story
Climax—everything builds to this moment
Resolution—finally giving the answer

Seventh grade English, right? I recall sitting at my desk in junior high, sketching that graph every English teacher wants you to learn. You know—the one that looks vaguely like a mountain range?

Plot Structure

So what does basic plot structure have to do with marketing? Everything!

Your target audience must be engaged with your message to gain their interest in your product/services/ideas. A compelling story will captivate your audience and draw them in so that you can lead them toward your goal.

Many folks in the marketing industry fall back on the easy route—using the same old marketing language: “our product can change your life” or “we will beat our competitor’s price.” In this way, we forget that effective marketing messages aren’t written for a company’s compliance office or CEO—they are written for everyday people who are captivated by real, compelling stories about mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure!

The young boy falling down from the hayloft in the story above was my father’s cousin and the boy standing below was my father. Miraculously, as his cousin was falling down, one of the hay bales in the stack below him just happened to be sticking out a bit from the others and managed to break his fall enough to flip him around so he could land feet first. Had those bales of hay been stacked squarely, he may not have survived that fall. My father recounted that story to my brothers and me when we were children as an example of how one tiny unexpected thing can change your life.

To me, successful marketing is like that bale of hay. A fascinating story that sticks out from the usual “marketing speak” can capture people’s attention and possibly even change the course of their life by influencing them to make a decision they wouldn’t have otherwise considered.

I know I am reenergized—how about you?

By melissawz | Posted in about xiik, customer service, interactive marketing, marketing promotions, testimonials | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment
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