1. Royalty Free
2. Rights Managed

Both types could be easily found on archives such as  GettyImages.com.  GettyImages offers some definitions on these two.  For example, Royalty Free photos depicts more everyday subjects while Rights Managed ones may be more conceptual.  Both could be perfect depending on your creative needs.  However, it isn’t that simple.  The names of these two types of pictures say it all.  GettyImages also says the following for these images:

• Simple, affordable pricing. The cost of Royalty Free content is based on image size – just select the resolution you need and go.
• Exclusive rights. Rights Managed content is priced and licensed based on usage, and some is available with exclusive rights – so your image doesn’t end up on a competitor’s billboard.

Allow me to translate:  Royalty Free pictures are cheaper.  However, you don’t get exclusive use of this picture.  That means your competitors can use this same picture, at the same time!  How embarrassing!  Check out the examples below from American Society of Media Photographers.  Dell and Gateway ended up using the same model on their homepage during the same Back-to-School push! 

How did that happen?  Well, every advertisers are looking for the best and cheapest option.  Royalty Free photos are cheap (comparatively speaking).  So, it may be a go-to option for many advertisers.  Even so, everyone is looking for the best, and while the best is subjective, there is still a good chance that particular model / that particular photographer / that particular photoshoot was just that good!  Multiple advertisers may find the same picture to be the best.

Rights Managed photos are more expensive, because you’re more or less renting that photo exclusively.  You buy out the rights for that photo for certain usage in certain market for a certain time period.  So, you lock your competitors out.  Perfect for some local tactics.  However, you do pay for that privilege.  So, if you want exclusive use for a long time period all over the place, the price tag for that privilege can get quite high.  If that’s your goal, you may be better off doing your own photoshoot. 

For a giggle:  “Alicia” from a particular photoshoot was so widely used that if you followed her ads, you could create “an unsolicited commercial love story”. 

This made me think about if other brands can do the same…

I took Kansas, my residence, as an example to start a discussion on LinkedIn.  After a month-long lively discussion, I concluded that branding a geography is probably harder than one may think.  First of all, no geography is homogenous.  This presents a unique challenge to branding, as it’s a discipline that is based almost entirely on consistency.  For example:  New York City – some brand it as the capital of glamour while others brand it as the capital of grime.

So, how could one brand leveraging geography?  By the product that geography produces.  Florida oranges.  Kansas beef.  Detroit automobiles.

“Imported From Detroit” is a trademark of Chrysler Group LLC.

I have always been a fan of thinking through the non-users.  Negative reactions are necessary evil to a strong brand that stand for something unique and special.  If you achieve that, you are bound to have someone who’s not on that particular bandwagon.

The recent Miracle Whip “Love or Hate” campaign probably is one of the strongest campaigns I’ve seen that takes advantage of non-users. What do you think of this campaign? And what role in general should non-users play in building a brand?

Related articles

• Miracle Whip on YouTube: Haters Gonna Hate (clickz.com)
• Kraft’s ‘love-it-or-hate-it’ campaign whips up buzz about Miracle Whip (canada.com)
• Miracle Whip ads: Love them or hate them? (adweek.blogs.com)
• Someone has to hate your brand (drewsmarketingminute.com)

One final thought on personal branding is to know what you can execute and what you cannot.  The best advice is useless if you cannot execute it.  For example, how familiar are you with the following personal branding must-do list?  Get your domain.  Register yourself on Facebook.  Register yourself on LinkedIn.  Build a blog.  And the list goes on and on.

The idea behind a list like this is you want to be found.  Employers nowadays will search online for information about a prospective job candidate.  So, the idea is that you should be everywhere, so they can find information about you.  What this idea fail to communicate is that it is better not be found than to be found in a poor light. 

If you’re not committed to updating your LinkedIn profile and building your LinkedIn network, you may be better off not be on LinkedIn at all.  It’s frustrating to find someone who’s on LinkedIn, but clearly hasn’t updated the profile ever since they signed up.  The tell tale signs are lack of a network and a job listing that’s virtually blank.  This shows a lack of effort.  If you’re not found at all and there is no visual evidence against you, people may actually give you the benefit of the doubt. 

Same goes for Facebook.  I have discussed previously the fault of small businesses falling in love with Facebook, put the URL everywhere, only to have visitors go to a Facebook page that has had no activities for months.  Same goes for blogs.  Same goes for domains.  It’s far better to not to launch into these tactics at all, than to start and then shows visibly “I know I should do this, but I haven’t bothered with finishing it.”  That’s the wrong message to send. 

Starting is a good.  Finishing is significantly better.

Photo credit: Kate

As I think about what’s important in personal branding this week, I can’t help but resort to my classic branding lessons.

The most important part about a brand is a brand name.  To this end, you may have heard different tactics such as owning your domain name.  However, I find that sometimes even more obvious choices have not been made:  Email.

No, I’m not going into the idea of picking a professional email address.  Of course you’re not going to pick sirsexalot@gmail.com as your email address unless you’re in the sex industry.  This is something your college advisor has already warned you about.  However, as we mature, we actually run into another email problem that few ever discusses.

I hate getting emails from “John and Jane Smith”.

Now, I don’t mind this so much if I have a personal relationship with both John and Jane Smith.  However, in a recent communication, Jane reached out to me inquiring about a job opportunity via LinkedIn.  (Great use of LinkedIn.)  However, in subsequent communications, I started getting emails from “John and Jane Smith”.  At first, I thought it was junk mail, because I didn’t know this couple.  Then, I realized that it was Jane, sending an email from a joint email account.

In my opinion, unless you’re in business together and truly have a need to communicate as a single entity, get separate email addresses.  Communicate as your own person and develop your own brand identity.  While joint email addresses may be okay for personal use, any professional use should come from a single person. Email addresses are free these days.  There is no reason not to secure a professional email address.

Photo credit: Keith Ramsey

Kate is getting married!  Correction, Catherine is getting married.

The future wife of the popular and loved Prince William is more commonly known as Kate.  However, her station as the future Princess demanded a more formal name.  However, efforts in rebranding her into Catherine can hardly be called successful.  Of course, like any branding efforts, time can change everything.

However, this interesting branding effort has inspired me in thinking more about personal branding.  Personal branding has a wide range of implications, from public acceptance, to professional development, to business development.  Personal branding can also greatly tie to the success of a small business where the owner is the brand.

I recently talked about using business cards differently for non-profits.  However, as I think about personal branding, the same idea can be applied to individuals as well. 

Here is how I propose turning your business card into one of your most powerful marketing tool:

Front:  Basic name and contact information.  If you have a preferred name, put in parentheses.  Catherine (Kate) Middleton, for example.   Think carefully if you want your nickname on your business cards.  If you want to be professional, it may be best to leave your nick name out of the business setting and off of business cards. As an added bonus for the front, add a head shot if you have it.  This is particularly helpful for those who are bad at names…

Back: This is where valuable real estate is sometimes wasted.  Use this space to show off your work!  If you’re a baker, show pictures of your goodies.  If you’re a florist, show pictures of your art.  If you’re a digital media strategist, show every social media platform you participate in.  If you’re a realtor, show the most expensive house you’ve sold.  If you’re a writer, display an original rhythm.  If you’re a musician, show a picture of the biggest crowd you’ve played to.  Success in almost every profession can be shown visually.  Use this space to show this.  At the very least, it makes for great conversation at networking events!

What other business card tricks have you employed?  How have they worked?

Drawing on my previous experience with non-profit marketing, I found that the single most useful piece of marketing communication is a business card.  However, I also see so many business cards done wrong.  Why?  Because they model it off of a corporate business cards, and that doesn’t really do justice to what business cards can do. 

Why do corporations use business cards?  Corporations don’t use business cards to market themselves.  (Granted, everything does reinforce a brand.  So, a natural company better have business cards printed on recycled paper.)  At the core, corporations use business cards as a simple communication tool.  They contain only the vital information.  Rarely do you see more than name and contact information.  Sometimes, you may even see a corporate motto, but that’s pretty much the end of it.

However, for non-profits, you don’t have the luxury to use a business card so simply.  You have to make every piece work doubly hard for you.  I would recommend the following layout:

Front:  Basic logo, name, and contact information.  This is the typical business card, including information like website addresses for your organization.

Back:  Give one piece of trivia that would really get people excited, and the next time they could get involved.  This gives them the reminder to follow up when they get home.  Following up on the Complete Streets example gave earlier this week, one could easily put a trivia “Did you know” on the back.  In addition, perhaps they meet on a monthly basis every Thursday.  Use this business card as an invite.  Or, if you print business cards locally in a simple printer (on-demand printing vs. printing by the thousands), I would suggest putting upcoming events.  Use the business cards as an invitation to the events.  You’d always have business cards with you, and this may be your most powerful marketing tool for your non-profit.

This worked well for me in the past.  What do you think?  Would it work for you?

Photo credit: Jim Larson

While some of the challenges he highlighted are systematic, others have simple solutions.  The private sector has one thing over the public sector:  $$$$$ at their disposal.  So, the private sector can buy creative talents, buy space, buy media even.  However, there is one thing the public sector has in abundance:  Passion.

Here are a few simple thoughts:

Ad:  Think like a big advertiser.  Know what message you want to deliver.  Create your marketing materials accordingly.  Note message is singular, not plural.  In an ad, you have limited time to get their attention.  So, hit them with the most intrigue message, and let them seek you out to find the rest.  (Yes, include a website or some way for them to follow up with you.)

Space:  Pound the pavement.  Create an awesome flyer and distribute in the neighborhood.  Get what space you can.

Media:  Do you know how often news articles are simply reprint of carefully crafted press releases?  You can do the same.  You can write press releases, keep in mind what are the important messages.  Send it to your local newspaper and there is a chance you would get printed.  Local newspaper is struggling to find a voice in this age where people read their news online.  Localization is what’s going to save newspapers.   With that in mind, don’t forget digital media.  Digital media give everyone access to a national audience.  You own website can host a variety of information.  Just make sure the information is organized so it’s easily found.  Yes, this is the website that should go on the ad / flyer.

That’s what the pros call integrated marketing campaign.  You may not have $$.  But you have talents from volunteers that can yield results far better than money can buy.

So, on Saturday, I volunteered for Lawrence Complete Streets at the Valet Bike Booth during our Earth Day celebration.  First of all, a little introduction on what this is:  Complete streets are designed and operated to enable safe access for all users.  Pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and public transportation users of all ages and abilities are able to safely move along and across a complete street.  Complete Streets policies direct transportation planners and engineers to consistently design with all users in mind including drivers, public transportation vehicles and riders, pedestrians, and bicyclists as well as older people, children, and people with disabilities.

Now, this is a totally cool initiative.  For Lawrence, it’s particularly important because it’s a bedroom community.  What does that mean?  That mean it’s a community for of young families and retirees.  Kids and old people are probably the biggest beneficiaries of Complete Streets.  I was assigned the task of Public Educator, which was to promote Complete Streets to Earth Day spectators.  I was given the task to either solicit email addresses or to give out informational cards.

Despite this being a cool initiative, I had the hardest time with this task!  Because until I came home after my volunteering, I was not that educated about Complete Streets.  This made me very uncomfortable in soliciting email addresses.  The information cards was nicely done with various web and social media addresses for people to find out more information about Complete Streets.  (I used that card after my volunteering to learn more.)  However, I still didn’t feel confident handing them out because it felt like junk mail to me. 

So, what lessons lies here?

1)  Sell to yourselves first

2)  Think like an advertiser to sell to others. 

SELL TO YOURSELVES FIRST

What do I mean?  Ultimately, I wasn’t sold on the initiative.  To be fair, the event organizers gave us all a nice speech on the initiative.  However, it was long winded and unfocused.  That was the reason why I wasn’t confident in selling it to others.  I didn’t know what I was selling.  (I got much more excited about it afterwards when I started studying the website at home.)  Companies first sell internally, before they sell externally.  That’s why employees are given free or discount products.  You try it, you like it, you work hard at selling more of it.  It is impossible to be good at selling something that you don’t personally like.  Your indifference in the product will show through.  (Think political campaigns.  Politicians first sell to their own party before they sell externally.)  So, first start with educating and selling internally first.  Select only those whose are most passionate to sell externally. 

THINK LIKE AN ADVERTISER TO SELL TO OTHERS

Advertisers have 30 seconds (or in these days 140 characters).  Don’t think you have more.  That’s why advertisers are very disciplined in their efforts.  So, in essence, the organizer’s long winded speech was of absolutely no use.  Instead, think like a marketer and think through these two very important question: 

• What is the desired action from your audience?
• Why should they take that action?

Oh, and if all else fails, marketers know they can always rely on “the children” and the American patriotism.  (No one argue against them.)  Using some interesting facts on the national Complete Streets website, I would have empowered my ambassadors with the following 30 second speech:

“Did you know that raising medians and designing better intersections and sidewalks can reduce pedestrian risks by 28%, making the streets safer for our children?  Learn more about how you can get involve on these websites.”

“Did you know that if we have more bike paths and as a nation make just 0.5% more trips using bikes, we could save 462 million gallons of gas, lowering US dependency on foreign oil?  Learn more about how you can get involved on these websites.”

Photo credit:  Complete Streets

• Posts 80 characters or less in length have 27% higher engagement rates
• Engagement rates are 3 times higher for posts that used a full-length URL
• Brands that post outside of business hours had 20% higher engagement rates
• While industry plays a role, overall, engagement rates on Thursday and Friday are 18% higher than other days of the week
• Posts that end with a  question have a 15% higher engagement rate

This report reinforced some of the data we looked at from Dan Zarrella earlier this week.  Post when your audience have time to engage will likely increase the success of your post.

Another interesting data from this report was around what to post to increase engagement.  Questions are always good conversation starters.  However, many brands also leverage Facebook to promote their offers.  In these cases, this report suggests that soft sell is the way to go.  Words like “event” and “winner” are well received by fans.  On the other hand, words like “coupon”, “exclusive”, even “free” are not the best words to use on Facebook.

Social media marketing and Facebook marketing remains to be a world of growth and opportunities.  As more marketers are becoming active in this space, we will sure gain more insights into how to best leverage these new tools.