Branding Posts - Bill Hartzer

What is Bill Hartzer Disease?

Posted on July 20, 2020 Written by Bill Hartzer

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…]

Digital Marketer Uses Offline Marketing to Get a Date

Posted on January 31, 2020 Written by Bill Hartzer

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…]

List of the World’s Most Valuable Brands

Posted on June 9, 2017 Written by Bill Hartzer

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

Moving Your .COM to a .BRAND Domain? Google Says…

Posted on February 10, 2016 Written by Bill Hartzer

Brands that have purchased their own .BRAND TLD (Top Level Domain) shouldn’t worry about moving their websites. I recently asked Gary Illyes, the Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google, about the effect on search when you move your website from a .COM domain name to a domain on your own .BRAND TLD. [Read more…]

Many in Marketing Don’t Know About the New gTLDs and Domain Extensions

Posted on June 28, 2015 Written by Bill Hartzer

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…]

Intellectual Property Domain Name Scam Changes to Brand Registration Scam

Posted on November 26, 2012 Written by Bill Hartzer

A well-known intellectual property protection domain name scam that has been going on for at least 10 years has taken a new twist–the scammers are now calling this a “brand registration” rather than “intellectual property”. In any case, though, the scam is the same, really: [Read more…]

Microsoft Registers Outlook Domain Names: A Lesson In Protecting Your Brand

Posted on August 1, 2012 Written by Bill Hartzer

Microsoft recently launched Outlook.com as a new online email service, to rival Google’s Gmail. Hotmail.com will be replaced by Outlook.com. On the same day that Microsoft rebooted Outlook.com, they registered a whole slew of similar domain names–in a move that looks like it’s mainly to protect the Outlook brand. [Read more…]

Is The Era of Loyalty To Consumer Brands Over?

Posted on October 20, 2011 Written by Bill Hartzer

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…]

Why Do Customers Tattoo Themselves with the Brands They Love?

Posted on April 27, 2010 Written by Bill Hartzer

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…]

AOL to Change Name to TMZ

Posted on July 30, 2007 Written by Bill Hartzer

AOL TMZ

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…]

100 Best Global Brands; Google, Zara, Apple, and Nintendo Top Gainers

Posted on July 26, 2007 Written by Bill Hartzer

Businessweek Interbrand

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…]

Search Engine Marketing Helps Boost Your Brand

Posted on March 3, 2007 Written by Bill Hartzer

Success and failure of a particular business depends upon the kind of publicity done. This is true in the case of online and other businesses also. There are different methods that can be used for the promotion of any goods or services, but the key lies in identifying the one method which will be able to put your business to the top without too much of an effort. Advertising on the web is the most widely undertaken promotional methods about any product or service. The news about the existence of your business must reach out to a large number of audiences and only then will you be able to attract customers to do business with you. [Read more…]