submit_url = “http://www.shoestringbranding.com/2007/11/29/mybloglog-widget/”;

MyBlogLog is a popular social networking site for bloggers, owned by Yahoo!. MyBlogLog’s success is based on its “Recent Readers” widget, a blog sidebar widget that shows the pictures or avatars of other MyBlogLog members that have visited your site.
The widget can be personalized to blend with your site (you can […]

[Read more →]

G. Kofi Annan is a man on a mission. As a marketer and entrepreneur he is attempting the ultimate challenge: to change his target market’s perceptions through an elaborate exercise of re-branding. But wait, there’s more: what Kofi is trying to re-brand is not just a product but a continent: he is trying […]

[Read more →]

Web Surfing and Short Attention Spans

submit_url = “http://www.shoestringbranding.com/2007/11/24/optimizing-above-the-fold-content-five-tips-to-increase-your-blog%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%84%A2s-subscriber-numbers/”;

When visitors come to your site you have only a few seconds to engage them or lose them. This is especially true when they come from a search engine or from sites that encourage channel surfing, like Stumbleupon. This is why optimizing the above the fold portion […]

[Read more →]

Jeep® is one of America’s iconic brands, synonymous with adventure, ruggedness and the outdoors. Unfortunately, in the last few years, marketing fads and operational priorities have taken precedence over sound brand strategy and the brand seems to have lost its way.

Strike One: The Cherokee Goes Away
In 2001, Jeep discontinued the legendary Cherokee, after an unprecedented […]

[Read more →]

Creating your brand starts by defining the one thing you stand for in very few words. You need to create an elevator pitch that is shorthand for your brand’s value proposition. Your elevator pitch is your promise to deliver.
Coming up with an elevator pitch is not easy. It takes discipline and focus, and […]

[Read more →]

If you are an entrepreneur, freelancer or small business owner, you are probably an avid reader of books related to your field. You should start writing personal reviews of the books you read.
Writing book reviews has many advantages:

It forces you to take notes and articulate the most important takeaways.
It conditions you to think […]

[Read more →]

Adding a blog to your site will allow you to publish plenty of valuable, relevant content that attracts links and gives you search engine visibility. Blogs are also a great tool to engage your customers and build your reputation as an expert.
Following are three useful posting tips to maximize your readers’ exposure to your […]

[Read more →]

submit_url = “http://www.shoestringbranding.com/2007/11/06/customer-touch-points-online-how-to-manage-them-for-brand-consistency/”;

Customer touch points are the points of interaction between your customers and your brand. A sales call, a voice mail greeting, your business card, your website, your packaging, your in-store service, are all examples of touchpoints.

You can manage your customer touch points so that they are consistent with your brand. A […]

[Read more →]