As Halloween approaches, the sight of pumpkins adorning doorsteps and windowsills is a familiar one. These bright orange fruits have become a quintessential symbol of the spooky season, but have you ever wondered how and why pumpkins became associated with Halloween? In this article, we’ll explore the historical origins of the pumpkin in Halloween traditions and delve into the creative world of brand marketing, including the innovative idea of carving QR codes into pumpkins for an interactive Halloween experience. [Read more…]

Traackr Research: Consumers Will Drop Brands & Influencers If Values Conflict

In a groundbreaking move, Social Standards, renowned for its expertise in transforming intricate social data into actionable consumer insights, has unveiled its innovative solution, Brand Maps. Collaboratively developed with industry experts from consumer goods, private equity, and investment banking sectors, Brand Maps introduces a distinctive proposition for businesses seeking to identify and assess consumer brands. [Read more…]

IP.com, a leader in AI-powered solutions for intellectual property and innovation, has taken a monumental step forward with the introduction of its cutting-edge self-serve online storefront, now accessible at Storefront.IP.com. This groundbreaking initiative is poised to set a new standard in the industry, making cost-effective access to InnovationQ+ available to a broad spectrum of users, ranging from individual inventors to intellectual property professionals. [Read more…]

What exactly is Bill Hartzer disease, and how do you get it? Is it a real disease? That’s a good question, I’ve been asking myself this for well over 5 years now. Maybe longer than that. Several years ago, when I started searching for my own name, this keyword phrase (my name with the word ‘disease’ attached to it) showed up in the auto suggest. Auto Suggest is when you start typing in a search query and the search engine suggests other related keywords, or words that include the characters you are typing. [Read more…]

By Bill Hartzer, posted January 31, 2020 at 10:10am CST

Digital marketer Mark Rofe, sick and tired of using dating apps that weren’t working for him, purchased a billboard to promote himself. Mr. Rofe also set up a website, as well, DatingMark.co.uk that is promoted on the billboard. [Read more…]

An interesting thread on Reddit reveals data, and a graphic, about the world’s most valuable brands. [Read more…]

I had the incredible opportunity to be invited to speak at the Domain Name Association breakfast meeting held at the ICANN 53 Meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina this past week. While I didn’t attend the whole ICANN 53 meeting, I was able to attend the event on Monday and Tuesday for two full informative days. On Tuesday night I flew from Buenos Aires to Toronto, Canada, where I spoke at the ClickZ Live conference. Speaking at these two events during the same week gave me a unique perspective. I met with some amazing minds behind the New gTLD domain names and domains in general. And then met with a lot of marketers who are not directly involved in the domain name industry. What did I learn? [Read more…]

Darlene Quinn knows what it’s like to be loyal to a brand name.

Quinn, a former senior executive with the Bullocks Wilshire department store chain understands the inner workings of the fashion retail industry as well as she does consumer trends, and her conclusion based on what she’s seeing in the marketplace aren’t encouraging for some of America’s oldest brands. [Read more…]

Harley-Davidson, Nike, Playboy, Coca-Cola, VW, and Apple logos have been permanently etched into the skins of customers worldwide. Why do they do it? Why do these raving fans, or Brand Lovers, scorch their bodies with a company’s mark? And what can marketers and brand managers learn from them? [Read more…]

 

First, it was “America Online”. Then, in 2006, “America Online” changed its name to “AOL”. Now AOL will reportedly change its name, yet again, to TMZ. [Read more…]

According to the BusinessWeek/Interbrand annual ranking of the top 100 best global brands released today, Google, Zara, Apple, and Nintendo are among this year’s top gainers. Google ranks 20th in the list. Yahoo! ranks 55th in the list. [Read more…]