modemedia resource

http://www.normann-copenhagen.com

http://www.flash-in-the-pan.org

Failure to follow any one of the following 10 rules makes it difficult to market a company successfully. Any company that violates one of these rules needs to spend more money on sales and marketing to compensate for poor branding choices.

1. Focus on Target MarketsThe first commandment of branding is that a brand has to work well in a company’s target markets. This rule is often ignored in favor of brands that confer status in locations where a company is based.
2. Don’t Covet Another’s BrandA brand should not borrow or approximate a brand name from a firm already known in a target market, regardless of whether service offerings are dissimilar. Violating this rule drives away clients that are afraid to depend on a company with a brand that is tenuous or shady. When an offshore company is infringing on an established brand name in a target market, nothing else is or should be relevant to potential clients.
3. Match Brands Exactly With Domain NamesA brand should be identical to its corresponding domain name. For example, a brand for news and services to protect against software vulnerabilities could be expressed as SoftwareVulnerabilities.com, not Software-Vulnerabilities.com or iSoftwareVulnerabilities.com. The dash can help in mirror sites put up for search engine optimization, but not for the primary brand. Unless streaming video is involved, only dot-com and dot-net names should be used for international and North American markets.
4. Don’t Use Silly PrefixesUnless a company has been in business for more than five years, its name should not contain the prefix ‘i’ or ‘e.’ eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) has built up immense brand equity. Other companies with other lowercase prefixes in their brands have not.
5. Escape the Background NoiseAvoid overused words such as “global,” “tech,” “soft,” “serve” or “solutions.” In the Indian state of Maharashtra, for example, it is estimated that more than 300 businesses use the word “global” in their brand names. A company seeking to distinguish itself from competitors is not going to escape from the background noise if it uses the word “global” in its brand.
6. Obey Rules of GrammarDo not violate rules of grammar, including the use of capital letters. When your company becomes bigger than eBay, then it can break this rule.
7. Avoid Negative ConnotationsBrands should not carry confusing or negative connotations for people in target markets. This extends to sexual and religious connotations.
8. Make Brands Memorable and Easy to SpellBrands should be memorable without being difficult to spell. It is easy to direct potential customers to visit a company’s Web site once, especially by spending money on advertising. It is harder to inspire customers to return on their own without a memorable brand that is easy to spell. If misspellings are possible, then common misspellings should be registered as domain names.
9. Obtain Internal Understanding and AcceptanceThe exact name of a company and its brands need to be accepted within and communicated throughout the company’s organization. At an Indian call center company and a software services firm in Pakistan that I’m working with now, there are disagreements and uncertainties among top managers at each firm about what their companies are called. This is not uncommon, especially at small Indian call centers that operate locally on a largely cash basis.
10. Test Prior to DeploymentTest several potential brand names among members of your target market before making a selection. Important IT project deliverables should experience rigorous quality assurance testing prior to delivery. Branding choices should be subjected to no less scrutiny.

Many firms attempt to enter international markets with brands that detract from their credibility. Don’t be one of them. Enable potential clients to remember you positively and to be attracted to your firm because of its brand identity, not in spite of it.

Rather than come in with a brand name that is not distinctive, or is overused or hard-to-spell, choose a brand that gives meaning to the firm and its founders.

Outsourcing of brand management is the safest option. Hire an international brand consultant in your target market — not where your company is based. The brand consultant can suggest brand options and screen out words with negative or restrictive connotations. A brand consultant can confirm that preferred brand names are not already claimed, test the names in target markets, and handle trademark and service mark registrations.

Brands represent the most important and often the most lasting investment that entrepreneurs can make. For companies such as Pan American World Airways in the U.S. and Dunlop India in that country, their brand names ultimately became their most valuable and durable asset.

Now, outsourcing is a buyer’s market, thanks to increased competition from emerging destinations and the commodification of numerous types of outsourcing services: remote computer system administration and ISP (Internet service provider) support services; collections and accounts receivable outsourcing; travel agency services; simple inbound call center services; medical claims billing; transcription; recruiting and other human resources management activities.

A buyer’s market is facilitated by clients moving away from strategic sourcing with a single prime vendor and toward more sophisticated vendor management practices with large numbers of specialized outsourcing contracts designed for cost competitiveness and adherence to performance metrics. Outsourcing version 1.0 is being replaced by outsourcing 2.0.

In outsourcing 2.0, clients are no longer combing the globe seeking competitive service agreements from providers that lack marketing and branding savvy. Now, outsourcing firms are attracting buyers through a combination of quality, value and brand image. Instead of clients being happy to go from US$82 per production hour for onshore technical support services to $18 offshore at a location with poor client relations skills, clients now seek to go from $18 offshore to $15 offshore — and expect to receive service and reliability improvements.

Within client communities, brands are increasingly serving as a distinguishing mechanism for associating positive qualities to offshore firms for which scant additional information may be available — at least during the initial stages of a procurement cycle. In the more competitive world of outsourcing 2.0, brand management has become a strategic imperative.

In the world of outsourcing 2.0, poor brand choices become marketing handicaps. A good, persuasive brand can provide competitive advantages, especially in a buyer’s market. A brand can and should encourage buyers to make positive associations with a vendor.

In its broadest sense, the definition of “brand” can extend beyond the name of a company or service or product line to include brands expressed as graphic logos, slogans and color schemes. Here we focus on brands as names of companies and product or service lines.

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While designing a web site, importance of color is always overlooked by many web designers. But, keep it in mind that you depend on your company and your company depends on your website and your website truly depends on its color. So, color must be one of your very first concerns at the time of web site design. It’s harder to read text on monitor as compare to paper and you will have to choose colors that are going to work best. Through color you can make your visitor feel comfortable, relaxed, trusting and also tempestuous.

Alas! Web browsers can only view 256 colors and even some browsers can see only 216 colors. If you want the color you chose for your website, should appear to everyone, exactly as designed by you then go ahead with 216 colors pallet. Always use web browser safe color.

Color combination is also very important aspect. Some color combinations are very unimpressive such as Yellow text on Blue Background. That’s why black text on white background is the easiest color combination to read. What can be the intention of any web designer? Obviously, to make an interactive web page and interactivity comes with the colors you choose for web page. Color affects our feelings, our perceptions and our interactions.

What do colors say?

white : White is the best background color on a web page. White color shows truthfulness, Purity, devotion etc. It’s the most refreshing and superlative color.

red : Red is the most emotionally vivid color and may cause a faster breathing. It symbolizes energy, action, confidence and passion.

orange: Orange is very hot color to the human eye. Orange demonstrates warmth, cheer, strength and ambition.

black: Black is the favorite color of web designers to display text but it effects very bad when used as background. It suggests excitement, speed and demands attraction.

blue: Blue is the second most popular color between web designers. It is associated with stability and depth. It represents wisdom, confidence and loyalty.

green: Green is the most compatible color with eyes and has a great healing power. It shows growth, harmony and fertility.

yellow: Yellow is the color which enhances concentration. It shows wisdom, joy and happiness.

pink: Pink is a quiet color and symbolizes sweetness, softness and innocence.

brown: Brown color provides you the feeling to mix up with the background. It represents politeness and richness.

Think about your primary audience like if you are designing a website for selling toys, then using pink and blue will be productive. Don’t use more than two or three colors on a single page. Use the same background color on each page. It should not be like that ‘Home Page’ has a White Background and ‘Contact Us’ has a Yellow Background. Avoid making larger parts of web site with very bright colors. If the company for which you are designing website has already an established Logo, then make it sure that the color of Logo on website must match with the real color. Maintain the consistency because it really works. Your visitor may be irritated with your stupid color choice.

Try to be color wise and color safe, you will be able to feel the color of success.

If you’re going to be a professional in any of the creative/artistic fields, you have to understand color. We’ve been dealing a bit with Color Theory on our site, but now we’re going to dive into something equally important - Color Psychology.

Colors affect our moods. Depending on where in the world we live, we bring with us perceptions of color based on our culture. Even within a single country alone, the “meaning” of colors have changed over time. Today, though, psychiatrists are able to pinpoint a few universal truths about color and its effect on our “psyche” (conventional psychology completely dismisses the idea that color can affect our moods).

Why is this so vitally important? Simple - if you’re creating a website that should bring ideas of nature, and all things natural you’re going to stay away from purple. Because purple appears so little in the natural world, it is often seen as “artificial”. However, if your site is about furnishings and opulent decoration, purple accents would be perfect - imparting ideas of royalty, luxury, wealth, and sophistication.

So you get the idea. Let’s get cooking.

Colors in Advertising

I’ve already mentioned the idea that colors can - and should - affect website layouts. There are actually many simple rules in choosing the right color combinations, and most of them relate to how the color affects the conscious mind of individuals.

For instance, if you are selling products on your website, you should understand the specific role of color psychology in online marketing. Red stimulates us into action, represents aggressiveness, excitement, and paired up with gray, it represents impulsiveness. Blue represents sensitivity in feeling, and loyalty. In an online business, shades of red, blue, and brown have been found to be the “safest”. While white is always seen as “professional” when viewed on a business site, it is color that makes the first impression.

History of Color Psychology

Johann Wolfgang Goethe was one of the first people to connect color and psychology, with his book “Theory of Colours”. In 1947, Max Luscher took Goethe’s theories one step further and actually created a color test for the use of psychiatrists, psychologists, physicians, and others involved with the “conscious and unconscious characteristics and motivations of others”. Despite the ease with which Luscher’s test can be administered, it is a very “deep” psychological test that can reveal a multitude of things about one’s personality.

Color Meanings

I had a lot of fun with this. You can actually print the following cards and save them for reference - I promise, not only will you “look” more professional with a set of these (might I suggest laminating them?) but you will be able to quickly and easily perform more professional work. Hey, we just love you guys, you think we would make something any less cool than this?

Color Psychology: The Cards

This is a good website to view to learn more about websites..(good Info)

www.webdesign.org

A usable site will: Help users achieve a goal, usually to find something, such as information, or obtain something, such as an article; Make it easy for them to achieve that goal; Make it possible to achieve the goal quickly; Make achieving that goal a pleasant experience.

Good Content is Critical - A site with good content, regardless of its subject, is one that provides products or information that is useful or beneficial to users. A good usable site will make it clear what information or content is available and at what price AND what is not available. A good usable site should define clearly all subscription packages offered.

Ease of Access to Information - Good navigation, precise location indicators, secondary navigation, clear linked text and a well-organized structure all contribute to making information easy to find for a wide range of different users. Bearing in mind that many users are inexperienced, it may be necessary to include explanations of things you consider self explanatory. For example, an inexperienced user may need an explanation of how to use a drop down menu. Remember, make it as easy as possible for people to use your website.

Quick Access to Information - This is the aim of the majority of web users. It can be broken into two important aspects: Speed of Page Loading and Speed of Access to Content.

Speed of Page Loading - This requires, in particular, attention to images to ensure they are properly optimized and do not excessively delay load time. It may also mean breaking up long articles and ensuring that important content is at the top of the page where it will load first.

Speed of Access to Content - This is where the 3-click rule comes in - no important content should be more than 3 clicks from the home page. Some standards even say that it should be no more than two clicks. One helpful way to speed access to content is to consider each type of user, select the content that they are most likely to be interested in and create links from the home page to one piece of content for each group. This will get them quickly to the appropriate part of the site.

Cleanly Designed Pages - Cleanly designed pages are pleasant to look at and easy to read. It is almost impossible to make a site with an image shown as a tiled background usable - the whole thing is too distracting and confusing. It takes no great design skills to create clean pages; it just requires thought and adherence to the principle that when it comes to design, less usually is more.

Download Status - Most paid membership websites are limited to online access and information download rather than selling products. There should be clear download instructions provided. Your website should also state the size of the file in kilobytes and the estimated time of download for a user having a 56K modem, DSL, Cable and so on.

Usability Problems - While for large commercial sites investment in full-scale usability studies may be essential, few small sites can afford such luxuries. However, identifying problems with usability for your site need be no more complicated than asking a few (honest) friends to act as guinea pigs on your site and, if possible, watching them silently as they do this.

Watching users try to find information at your site can be both instructive and quite surprising. Remember that if at any stage you feel the urge to intervene and explain, then you have identified a usability problem.

1. The site does not state its purpose clearly Java applets, huge images, banner ads or flashy elements slow down loading; 10 seconds is about as long as the average user will wait for a page.
2. The site requires specific software to be used. Have you ever actually changed browsers or downloaded a piece of software just to see a site?
3. Poor navigation, too little navigation, too much navigation and, not uncommonly, no navigation at all.
4. Bad design leading to poor readability.
5. Discomfort due to ugly design or inconsistent design. Almost always because a designer overestimated their skills.
6. Irrelevance of content - for example the business site that includes biographies and photos of each of the board members. Happy egos on the board = bored website visitors!
7. Complexity or excessive originality of design, which requires users to learn how it works in order to use it.
8. Inaccessibility because the site cannot be used by browsers for people with disabilities.

Bottom line: A site will be generally usable if:

1. The content is good and relevant;
2. The content is easy to find;
3. The content can be found quickly;
4. The page is pleasant to look at and cleanly designed.

Website design is perhaps the most important aspect of a website. A well designed website plays a key role in the growth of your business and boosts your online presence. To add on to the intricacies of your website design, you could make use of online website builder softwares that have good features and provides quality work without burning a hole in your pocket. Many essential factors go into creating an attractive website design, like:

• Choosing plain backgrounds to add professional look to your website.
• Having a smooth navigation tool.
• Restricting the excessive use of graphics
• Coordination of colors should with the overall theme and type of services and products offered by the website.

Slideshow Designer

To stand out from the crowd, it is very obvious that you would need something unique to catch the visitors’ attention in the quickest possible time. You could convert your images into Flash slideshows with background music and cool transitional to attract the users. People can’t resist watching a movement and it will be the best way for you to get them where you want. Slideshow software may come pretty expensive and be a rather complicated option for many people. But today, you have an option to use cost-effective slideshow designer tools that can help you to create a dazzling flash slideshow.

How to Create Attractive Slideshow

• To create a slideshow, first select a folder with the pictures to be included in the slideshow.
• Choose your flash slideshow templates as per your requirement.
• Add images, text and sound as per your needs to your slideshow.
• And finally, publish your flash slideshow

Banner Designer Professionals

There might not be a site that doesn’t come with a banner nowadays. Banners are a great marketing tool and in this age of internet marketing, there is nothing like it to create your online presence. Banner advertisements are very effective to increase your brand identity and building affiliate programs. But before you pay for an expensive graphic designer, to explore some free banner designer tools that help you create your own banner for free.

How to Create a Professional Looking Banner

• To design a new banner, first select a standard banner type and assign proper height and width to it
• You can add color and gradient effects to the banner background. Also, the banner can be completely filled with an image as well.
• Select a preloader and add this to the banner which will appear every time your banner loads.
• Incase you need the banner to loop continuously, select the Replay button to add the replay button to the banner, specify the Frame rate and most importantly add the destination link to the banner.
• Next select the File & Save option in the Menu bar
• Finally, publish the banner by clicking the publish button on the top right navigation bar.