May 2012
5 posts
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Philips improbable design-led turnaround
Anyone who blithely believes that the return on investment on design is self-evident needs to explain the decline of Philips. In the mid-Nineties, the electronics company boasted 650 designers on its books, more than Samsung at the time. Yet, since a high point in 2008, its stock value has halved. It was no surprise, then, when last year, on Sean Carney’s first day as Philips’s design chief,...
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Starbucks store rebranding
Located in the former vault of a historic bank on Rembrandtplein, the new shop will be a showcase for sustainable interior design and slow coffee brewing, with small-batch reserve coffees and Europe’s first-ever Clover, a high-end machine that brews one cup at a time. [[MORE]]But the most radical departure is in the aesthetic: the multilevel space is awash in recycled and local materials; walls...
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April 2012
7 posts
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From a dimly lit warehouse to $1 billion - The...
Past midnight, in a dimly lighted warehouse jutting into the San Francisco Bay, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger introduced something they had been working on for weeks: a photo-sharing iPhone application called Instagram. What happened next was crazier than they could have imagined. In a matter of hours, thousands downloaded it. The computer systems handling the photos kept crashing. Neither of...
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March 2012
5 posts
3 tags
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More traffic at Pinterest
Pinterest Drives More Traffic Than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn Combined
Pinterest, the darling digital pin board that’s turned the social media world upside down, is now a top traffic driver for brands. That’s a good sign marketers should get their strategies up to speed.
You’re probably not surprised that 87% of Pinterest users are women. However, you may not realize that the site has a...
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February 2012
6 posts
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Personal branding is important for small business
You’ve heard a million times that most small businesses fail after the first or second year. So what happens to an entrepreneur when their business is gone? The answer is that they are taken down with their company unless they’ve built their own brand simultaneously while operating their business. A personal brand can always be leveraged by an entrepreneur to regain momentum, capture attention and...
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Steve Jobs and his secret ad agency
The Media Arts Lab is an advertising agency like no other. Based at a discreet address, it is thought to employ more than 50 people but has only one client. However, finding information about MAL is not easy.
Go to its website and there is just a holding page, with no mention that this is even an ad agency. The only clue that this might be a business of some significance is that there are phone...
January 2012
6 posts
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Innovation lessons from the latest new brand
Sabi, a line of branded, ergonomic products for the aging.
1. Finding the right opportunity. Rather than intuiting some need out of the ether or working toward his big idea over a decade, Assaf Wand, founder of Sabi, applied a mix of analytics, hustle, and hard work to finding an overlooked business opportunity.
2. Finding the niche. He stumbled upon some astonishing factoids: People over...
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Be relentless in reinventing "You" as a brand
Instead of making yourself a slave to the concept of a career ladder, reinvent yourself on a semiregular basis. Start by writing your own mission statement, to guide you as CEO of Me Inc. What turns you on? Learning something new? Gaining recognition for your skills as a technical wizard? To have a long lasting success, you must see yourself as a successful brand and act like one.
Like my...
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Steve Jobs: 7 principles for success
1. Do what you love. Jobs once said, “People with passion can change the world for the better.” Asked about the advice he would offer would-be entrepreneurs, he said, “I’d get a job as a busboy or something until I figured out what I was really passionate about.” That’s how much it meant to him. Passion is everything.2. Put a dent in the universe. Jobs believed...
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Brand "You" and the real power
If you want to grow your brand, you’ve got to come to terms with power — your own. I’m talking about a different kind of power than we usually refer to. It’s not who’s-got-the-biggest-office-by-six-square-inches power or who’s-got-the-fanciest-title power. It’s influence power.
Like my facebook page to read more and get new updates. Design @ Metal is about design, business, technology,...
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How to market brand "You"?
No matter how beefy your set of skills, no matter how tasty you’ve made that feature-benefit proposition, you still have to relentlessly market your brand — to customers…
Like my facebook page to read more and get new updates. Design @ Metal is about design, business branding, technology, social media, inspiration. Metal is a strategic multidisciplined branding design firm in...
December 2011
9 posts
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A design driven branding machine - W Hotels
W brand—a style-driven brand that is inextricably linked to design. I always admire Ron Arad’s work and, to my delight, I came across this “WOW Bikes,” Ron Arad’s design for W Hotel. It’s a bespoke bicycle that reimagines the wheel using nothing but curved sprung steel. And anyone who stays at the hotel can ride it. It is beautiful and functional.
W was built...
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What differentiates "You" as a brand?
Start by identifying the qualities or characteristics that make you distinctive from your competitors — or your colleagues. What have you done lately — this week — to make yourself stand out? What would your colleagues or your customers say is your greatest and clearest strength? Your most noteworthy (as in, worthy of note) personal trait?
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As a brand, what makes YOU different?
Start right now: as of this moment you’re going to think of yourself differently! You’re not an “employee” of General Motors, you’re not a “staffer” at General Mills, you’re not a “worker” at General Electric or a “human resource” at General Dynamics (ooops, it’s gone!). Forget the Generals! You don’t...
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Branding "You"
Big companies understand the importance of brands. Today, in the Age of the Individual, you have to be your own brand. Here’s what it takes to be the CEO of Me Inc. It’s a new brand world. That cross-trainer you’re wearing — one look at the distinctive swoosh on the side tells everyone who’s got you branded. That coffee travel mug you’re carrying — ah,...
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How to build a good ecommerce blog
I have built various ecommerce websites this past year. So much to share. Let me start with the blog first. I will cover ecommerce hosting in future postings.
1. Good and relevant content Content. Content. Content. Content is king. Good and relevant content keeps people coming back. Provide highly engaging and relevant content.
2. Make it pretty Don’t kid yourself - your blog needs to be...
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Double revenue in four months? How?
Talked to a friend of mine the other day. She owns restaurants. What she shared with me was very interesting. Thought I passed it along to other small business owners. Her revenue doubled in four months hitting her five-year goal in less than a year.
Like my facebook page to read more and get new updates. Design @ Metal is about design, business, technology, social media, inspiration. Metal is a...
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How to create a good annual report
Photo: Bindview annual report. Check out our annual report design here
The annual report is, at its core, a tool of communication — not only to shareholders, investors, employees, but to the world. It would be logical that companies would defend the creative integrity of their annual report as much as they guard the numbers it contains. Yet few do. The annual report is rarely viewed as...
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13 rules for realizing your creative vision poster
There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
There is no editing stage.
Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.
Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a...
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What to do in a crowded market?
Find new ways to sell your product.
Forging new effective sales channels for your product can help diversify your brand and attract more customers.
Like my facebook page to read more and get new updates. Design @ Metal is about design, business, technology, social media, inspiration. Metal is a strategic multidisciplined design firm in beautiful San Francisco.
November 2011
20 posts
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102,000 Cupcakes Because Of A Groupon Deal
This bakery had to make 102,000 cupcakes because of a Groupon deal and lost a ton of money.
A London bakery recently experienced the worst-case scenario of offering a Groupon for a small business, and it cost the owner thousands (via NBC Chicago).
Need a Cake bakery owner Rachel Brown decided to put up a 75% discount on a dozen cupcakes on the site, which dropped the price down to $10 from...
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Why use linkedin for your small business?
If there’s one social media platform that perhaps doesn’t get the attention it deserves, it’s LinkedIn. Yes, most professionals and employees of Fortune 500 companies have put up their profiles and enjoy interacting with others within the site, but many people still remain skeptical about the value of LinkedIn. This is especially true when it comes to small business owners – most of them...
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Ever wonder how the Facebook "like" works?
With some understanding, it will help you know how to use Facebook to market your brand.
Like my facebook page to read more and get new updates. Design @ Metal is about design, business, technology, social media, inspiration. Metal is a strategic multidisciplined design firm in beautiful San Francisco. like | follow | connect | hire me
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Use Google Analytics to improve your business...
Analytics software is essential for any online business: it helps you understand ways to reach your audience and drive traffic to your site.
Google Analytics is one of the easiest ways to do this, and is especially helpful for the eternally busy small business owner or the on-the-go blogger.
Like my facebook page to read more and get new updates. Design @ Metal is about design, business,...
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Get bold. How to build a social business.
Ten years ago there was a significant shift in the way people interacted with each other: the web came to the workplace and became a serious business tool for organizations in industries of every kind.
Like my facebook page to read more and get new updates. Design @ Metal is about design, business, technology, social media, inspiration. Metal is a strategic multidisciplined design firm in...
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How to be perceived as expert
How To Ensure You Are Perceived As An Expert Being an expert though never being appreciated as such is possible. Being knowledgeable is not enough; one also needs to be recognized for that knowledge. This is a common problem and one you may be experiencing. You have done your 10,000 hours, made mistakes and learned your lessons. Nevertheless, your clients or boss fail to recognize the ...
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Many people claim to be experts, but only few...
Have you ever wanted to take a client by the collar, shake them around vigorously and demand that they take you seriously because you are the expert? If so, you are not alone. Whether you consider yourself an expert and want recognition or are looking to one day become one, you need to step back and ask why being perceived in that way is important.
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Generating leads on linkedin
While the early adopters flock to Google+ and our kids and moms become power-users on Facebook, LinkedIn is where business gets done. Execs from all Fortune 500 companies are there…
Like my facebook page to read more and get new updates. Design @ Metal is about design, business, technology, social media, inspiration. Metal is a strategic multidisciplined design firm in beautiful San...