Let’s face it, change can be scary.

Especially when it comes to a company’s brand mark. It is the single most visible aspect of a brand. It appears on everything — stationery, signage, marketing collateral, packaging, websites and more.

One of the single biggest concerns about changing a brand mark is the impact the change will have on existing brand equity. Make no mistake about it, changing a company’s brand mark will most definitely have an impact on brand equity. But that’s the point really, because the motivation behind a well thought-out and expertly executed brand mark update or change is to build brand equity. 

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When creating a strategic marketing campaign to celebrate a brand’s milestone, the power of the anniversary’s meaning is what matters most. It shouldn’t be just a reason to celebrate.

What are the steps to developing a successful campaign?  Is it enough to add a “Celebrating 25 years” silver embossed label to everything distributed to customers during that 12-month time period? 

I say no. Well, yes, go ahead and make the logo, but don’t let it be your entire campaign strategy. Celebrating a meaningful milestone must start with a strategy that encompasses a brand’s external and internal audiences.

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First, a pop quiz for you: which of these events generated the most buzz?

a. The Macintosh iPhone launch

b. The Nintendo Wii Launch

c. The Windows Vista Launch

d. The final Sopranos episode

According to recent Nielsen BuzzMetrics, if you chose the iPhone launch, you are correct.

I’m interested in this factlet because I’ve lately been pondering a phrase oft heard these days: “Mobile marketing is the hot new way to communicate with your customers!”

What does that mean? Well, I know what mobile marketing is, but are consumers really ready for it? Are marketers ready to dive into uncharted waters? Or do they still need to be convinced of its relevancy to their brand? And, by the way, is mobile marketing really uncharted waters?

I am a member of the generation that learned to keyboard on a typewriter and didn’t necessarily have computers in high school, so I think technology is fascinating. I mean, MP3 players – that’s WAY better than carrying around a 10-pound “boom box” on my shoulder. (OK, I didn’t really do that, but I know a lot of people who did!).

So, when “they” started talking about mobile marketing, I wanted to find out more. I googled it, of course, and discovered that information is easy to find because people are talking about mobile marketing and, if they’re not already doing it, they really want to be doing it. In particular, I found a great paper by Jim Nichols on Brandchannel.com that sited this eMarketer poll:

I shouldn’t have been surprised. Social networking is a huge phenomenon and most American adults are doing more than talking on their cell phones, everything from texting and gaming to email and banking.

In fact, a survey of 35,000 people revealed that consumer interest in purchasing a cell phone with streaming video or MP3 capabilities doubled between 2006 and 2007. 

If you’re like me, you’re thinking that statistic represents a bunch of kids — only a teenager can figure out how to work the new phones and only a teenager truly embraces the new technologies. Lo and behold, research shows that isn’t the case.

Case in point: Jim Nichols sites a recent study from the Pew Internet and American Life Project illustrating that, while texting messaging demographics are skewed towards teenagers, there a significant number of 30 to 64-year-olds who are also using this service.

What does that have to do with mobile marketing? Well, it’s possible to deliver promotional messages and news via text messages, and even to gather valuable customer information.

But, you say, won’t that annoy my customers? Nielsen also reported recently that 23 percent of mobile users saw a mobile advertisement in March 2008, and that mobile users are willing to receive ads in exchange for lower phone rates … 

So, if businesses want to do it and consumers are ready to receive it –- what’s the hold up? Is it fear, caution, or simply that folks have yet to figure out how to leverage the technology?

The holiday season is on the horizon. I’ve already started a mental list of people I’ll be buying for this year, and once again, I’m racking my brain for “perfect gift” ideas.

Typically, I give gift cards as a last resort — I find it more exciting and gratifying to give and receive gifts that have been personally selected. A new survey from the National Research Network indicates that other people feel the same way: The perception that gift cards are impersonal is the top inhibitor for consumers purchasing gift cards, with nearly half of respondents citing it as a factor.

On a recent visit to Target.com, I realized that they now offer personalized gift cards, allowing users to upload photos or other images to their cards. Digging a little deeper, I found a few other retailers that are also offering this option (Wal-Mart, Toys “R” Us and Starbucks to name a few).

Brandweek noted that consumers spent nearly 18 percent of their 2006 total holiday merchandise gift expenditures on gift cards, up from 13 percent in 2005, per the International Council of Shopping Centers. Among other findings in the study:

• Discount stores such as Wal-Mart and Target were the most popular gift card benefactors, with 42 percent of respondents reporting purchasing a discount-store card in the past year. Restaurants came in second (26 percent), followed by clothing stores (21 percent);
• More females (60 percent) than males (44 percent) reported buying cards in the last year;
• The average number of gift cards consumers receive tends to correlate with household income. As household income increases, consumers tend to purchase more gift cards;
• Christmas and birthdays were cited as the top occasions for gift card giving;
• This holiday season, younger consumers are expected to buy gift cards, with 78 percent between the ages of 18-24;
• Fifteen percent of gift card recipients spend less than the total gift card amount.

Will customization add that personal touch that sometimes seems to be missing in gift cards?

Personally, I think this is a great new product feature for those of us who prefer to add an extra touch to our gifts.

I am often asked what makes a good password, and my answer is the same every time: The best passwords are the ones that neither a person nor a computer would ever be able to guess.

Good passwords are important here, as a breach could mean someone from the outside stealing trade secrets and intellectual property — even if it’s not the assets themselves but emails and calendar events that reference them. I’ve worked with a few vendors and agencies that are comfortable sharing their passwords, which allows us to exchange artwork for projects. Yet, by giving me their level of access, they are probably giving me too much access.  That doesn’t fly at Go East.

Secure passwords are just as important for employees that have limited access. If hackers gain privileges to a company directory or internal procedures, it could help them gain control of another account with higher access.

For many agencies, and small- to mid-sized organizations that don’t have large IT departments, this kind of organization-wide security is often overlooked, but when you’re working with Fortune 500 companies, your security needs to be just as good as their security.

I think one of the least secure aspects of online accounts is the use of “security questions” in addition to your password. Yesterday I was quoted by WCCO’s Jason DeRusha on his “Good Question” segment:

Aaron Landry, IT Manager for Go East in St. Paul, said “I argue that those ’security questions’ actually make accounts less secure. I mean, what’s the point of having a super secure password if all you need to know is someone’s birth date, the name of their dog and their mother’s maiden name?” 

He also suggests making up answers to those questions. 

Landry has several password tips he said he shares with his company’s employees.

“A good way to make passwords is to mix two separate things together. For example, use your spouse’s middle name spelled backwards with your zip code — or your child’s birth date mixed with the street you grew up on,” he suggested. 

Also, “Avoid using dictionary words — try swapping out some of the letters with numbers.” 

DeRusha interviews others with good advice as well.

One last bit of advice: The best passwords are completely random strings of letters and numbers, which most people are able to memorize in a couple days … oh yeah, and don’t tell anyone what your password is!

Here is an interesting overview of false advertising claims. It is specific to politics, but relevant for all kinds of advertising. Revolutionary!

It is illegal to make false claims in a TV or radio commercial unless you are running for political office. If you’re selling toothpaste, your claims must be vetted by legal and medical professionals. But not if you’re selling a candidate.

If you’re selling a candidate, not only can you lie about his or her record, but also and more to the point, you can lie about his opponent.

Read Jeffrey Zeldman’s full proposal.

It’s bad enough when your brother-in-law sends you an email in all capital letters with no punctuation and it reads as if he were having a conversation with himself during which he changed his mind a few times; but such an email in the office can cause a headache, not to mention a delayed response or, worse, no response at all.

It amazes me how many emails I receive in my day-to-day activities that don’t employ basic written communication strategies. I mean, don’t people realize that their  “to” list will respond more quickly if the email clearly states their needs (and we don’t have to scroll down through days and days of thread to figure it out)?

Loose-fingered emailers have been a frustration of mine for years. I mean, who thinks it’s a good idea to send out notes that ramble on and on with spelling errors and no sentence or paragraph breaks? Come on. Can I be the only frustrated recipient? I googled email etiquette and was not too surprised to discover that poor email communicators have been around since the dawn of email. Did you know that they can cause businesses to lose revenue?

Of course, there are the common tips for email: don’t use all capital letters, don’t overuse the CC or Reply All features, limit your use of emoticons and exclamation points, etc. But I don’t think they hit the basic communication strategies. Remedial communication training costs companies more than $3 billion per year! And here I am, offering you some simple advice for free!

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It seems that Amazon.com’s Kindle is not the flop that many predicted when the e-book reader debuted last year. Citibank’s Mark Mahaney has just doubled his forecast of Kindle sales for the year to 380,000. He figures that Amazon’s sales of Kindle hardware and software will hit $1 billion by 2010. Read more about this!