Getting Brighter was approached by one of our clients to help them to brand and market a new service they were offering their clients.   The service involved using technology to allow training students to participate in a class remotely without loosing the interaction that they gain by being in a class and in front of an instructor.

Getting Brighter presented a number of branding options - and once we agreed on one, Getting Brighter suggested that we create a video to introduce the concept.

Vid...
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If you walk into just about any bar these days you'll notice a small fridge sitting on top the other coolers/fridges where they keep their cold drinks.  It's squarish, with a glass front and it's only for Red Bull.   


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What a beautiful day on Saturday!  We took the opportunity to walk around our neighbourhood and take in the shops, art galleries and restaurants (great fish and chips in our case) in Leslieville and Riverside.

When I go on these walks I love seeing the ways that the various shops attempt to get their customers attention through signs in the windows and sandwich boards on the sidewalk.  Some are successful, some are not.  On Sandwich Board Saturday I check out a few and give you my take.  Compl...
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As a business owner and entrepreneur, you are constantly looking for ways to provide better and more valuable services or products for your clients.  If you are in a competitive industry (and who isn't)  then finding an effective way to communicate what you're doing so that you stand out in that marketplace is both difficult and extremely important. 

There are lots of things to take into account, and every situation has its own challenges, but here are four things to consider:

Photo taken July ...
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Getting Brighter recently created a video presentation to help donors understand an initiative that Boost Child Abuse Prevention and Intervention is implementing in partnership with a number of other community agencies. 

What they are creating is one of the most ambitious projects of its kind in Canada.  The challenge they faced was how to clearly communicate the value of the initiative to their donors.

I could spend a few paragraphs to tell you about it but instead - take a look at the video.


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If you're consistently communicating a message to clients or other stakeholders about your brand or an initiative within your organization, you may have a standard slide presentation that you use to frame that discussion.  You may be able to accelerate your client discussions by transitioning your presentations to a video format. 

There are lots of advantages to presenting your message through video, here are a few:

1.  Consistent delivery - have you ever given a presentation when you were havi...
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A couple of quick stories here that may help you re-think how you look at your brand(s) and the ways that you present them to your target market.

They both focus on one brand family, the S.C. Johnson wax company.

Back in the late 90's I was out with an executive from S.C. Johnson and he was recalling a visit with one of the S.C. Johnson family (yep...it really is a family company) to their Canadian operations.  During their visit, he discussed getting his start in the family business.  He had a...
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Over the last few years I've been heavily involved in International recruitment of students to Universities and Colleges.  Many of the discussions I've had with schools has been around differentiating themselves from other institutions to attract a higher quality of student and increase enrolment.  A recent post on a linked in discussion forum (you may need to join the linkedin group for higher education management to view this post) started a discussion on the credit hour and how the concept...
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For a lot of businesses there is a huge question mark associated with social media, and rightly so.  Even if a business is using social media as part of their marketing strategy, it sometimes seems that the focus was not on the strategy aspect of the question.  Many businesses have entered social media because "we can't afford not to".    By not carefully planning your involvement in social media, it can seem that social media offers very little reward for a large amount of effort.

So what i...
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One of Getting Brighter's clients, a Business to Consumer focussed website in Toronto with clients across Canada, had built a solid business and robust marketplace in the consumer space but was now entering the Business to Business space. They realized that they needed to present their business in an entirely new way to this clientèle, and they sought out the services of Getting Brighter to help them.
 
Expected outcomes:

Analysis of the clients that would likely buy their new services
Refreshed...
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Being focussed in your business can't be underestimated.  Some businesses are successful in spite of a lack of focus, but most successful businesses are very clear about what they do, for who, and why.

This is important because it affects everything from your sales to how you service your clients.

In order to sell, you need to be clear about the specific value you provide to a prospective client.  Without being able to clearly articulate your value proposition, you will be hard pressed to convi...
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If you ask me, the true rock stars of business are the risk takers.  The entrepreneur who has a vision for their business in spite of the naysayers, pundits, or what their friends say.  Microsoft, Google, MySpace, Apple,Volkswagon and countless other companies like them (regardless of how successful or competitive they are now..) all have been innovative often to the point of being blatantly ridiculed or at least misunderstood by the mainstream. 

But you don't have to look at big companies t...

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For most companies there is a tendency to think that more is better when it comes to communicating what products or services they offer but consider this - recent studies in the restaurant industry have shown that providing more than five or six options on a menu actually starts to make it more difficult for patrons to choose the option they would prefer.   

This is a phenomenon that has direct implications in other businesses and may be slowing your sales cycle.

For every business it is critic...
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When I was in elementary school, my grade 6 teacher was talking about careers and he was walking around the class asking people what they wanted to be when they grew up.  I'm sure that there were the usual policeman, ballerina, astronaut and fireman responses, but the one that I remember was when a kid said that he wanted to be a bricklayer. 

I seem to remember that there was some laughter from the kids in the class - probably because a kids only exposure to bricklayers were the gruff cartoo...
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Imagine that you have a book store - a successful one.  It's because books are your passion.  You have great books from all through time, and you take pride in providing a carefully curated list of books that people can trust will be exceptional literature.  You spend a great deal of time reading each book that you stock, and because of that you have established a trusted name in your niche.

Now imagine that someone came into your store and told you that starting tomorrow, you would al...
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