Reblogged from Digital Brand Marketing Education & Interactives:

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PREMISE FOR THIS PRIMER

I have been conducting an intense and extensive research project on how businesses are solving the facebook timelines for business page cover challenge. At first, I suppose, it was curiosity. It has now become a full-fledged obsession and an analysis that will result in statistical evidence.

For now, so that I do not scare away any of my readers, I decided to keep it VERY basic.

Read more… 1,402 more words

The Facebook 2012 Fan Page Checklist by Mari Smith © Mari Smith

The changes that facebook is about to make permanent to its ‘fan’ pages (business not personal profiles) is fast approaching. March 30th is the deadline. So if you don’t make plans to make the changes, in a sense, they will be made for you.

In an attempt to ease the pain, I am including a March 14, 2012 post from social media speaker and author, Mari Smith, explaining the changes to come and how to deal with them. At the end of the post, the reader can download the free pdf, Facebook 2012 Fan Page Checklist and view her video about the topic.

The cover of the eBook. You can buy it through a link in the interview. It costs $2.99!

The interview begins, “You have likely heard the buzz about Google+ for some time. Perhaps you’re wondering why so many marketing professionals are focusing heavily on the new social network.

In this article, I sit down with Guy Kawasaki, the original Macintosh evangelist. You’ll discover why 99% of his efforts are now focused on Google+.

Guy reveals his Google+ strategy and talks about his new book, What the Plus! Google+ for the Rest of Us. And it’s very different than his other books. It revealsextensive details about how to benefit from Google+.”

Why Major Marketers Are Moving to Google Plus, An Interview with Guy Kawasaki

The Social Media Summit 2012: The summit stars 27 social media pros teaching business owners and marketings how to master social media marketing (brought to you by Social Media Examiner).

Be sure to attend the Social Media Summit 2012. Click on the above image to sign up and learn more.

Reblogged from TechCrunch:

This is big.

A new study by online sharing tool Shareaholic has found that Pinterest now drives more referral traffic than Twitter. Again, when it comes to referral traffic, Pinterest > Twitter.

The data is based on analytics from 200,000 publishers which reach approximately 270 million unique visitors a month.

Now, it was big news back in February when Pinterest surpassed Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn…

Read more… 69 more words

COMMENTS AND REPLIES
Here are the comments that were made to the original post and links to my replies:

Comment and Reply area on a WordPress blog post @Digital Brand Marketing Blog

From, smsharif:
“Interesting play of words, this Inbound Marketing. no matter what you call it, in layman’s terms it is just MARKETING.”
My reply:

From Leon De Silva:
“Offer value, get amplification without (further) incentivisation”.
My reply:

From Jason Flaugh:
“great article. I am with Smsharif. Rather than call it inbound, consider marketing as an evolving concept.”
My reply:

From mandyf:
“The terminology is a bit dressed up, but this rings to basic marketing. It’s good information and presented well.”
My reply:

LIKES
I also want to thank the two individuals who ‘liked’ this blog. They are Erik Van Erne of ‘wolframpublications’ and Steve SchraderBachar of ‘IowaHomeLoans’.

What 'Likes' look like on a wordpress blog post @ digital brand marketing blog

DEFINING MOMENT FOR INBOUND MARKETING
After reading these comments and replying to them, I got to thinking more about this concept, Inbound Marketing. This art and science  is described in a variety of ways that are infathomable to most consumers and at times, to us marketing pros, as well. But for our purposes, here is an all inclusive set of explanations that I hope will provide some clarification:

#1. marketing, advertising and promotion (MAP)- the activity by and for products vendors  and service providers to stimulate consumption

#2. consumption-the activity of purchasing, buying and consuming products and services

#3. Inbound Marketing-#1 will continue to become less annoying as it becomes more seamlessly integrated and an attractive rather than intrusive process towards achieving #2.

#4. The organic result-as the evolving technology continues to shift from ‘traditional to digital’ means and ‘the digital technology improve’ using #3 (or whatever name is used), the process of #1 and #2 will naturally merge or become symbiotic.

CONCLUSION
What do you think? Your comments and my ability to reply to them are part of the process of developing more ideas, a larger perspective and new theories. This are very important to me both as a writer and someone who seeks to be a thought leader. Thank you all. The comment box is below the list of ‘Sources and Related Articles’.

SOURCES AND RELATED ARTICLES

When Consumers Revolt Against Traditional Marketing What Should You Do?

Lead Generation Is The New (Old) Inbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing by Brain Halligan and Dharmesh Shah

INBOUND MARKETING: How to Get Customers Without Really Trying

digitalbrandmarketing.com

Erik Van Erne

Steve SchraderBachar

There are so many parts and facets of social media. Just attempting to keep up with them can put one into a dizzying tail spin. So what I thought might be fun, every once in a while, is to present a particular slice of the social media pie as its own post topic.

The Social Media Pie @ Culturewav.es

Today I am in the mood for videos. How about you? YouTube ranks second only to Google in the number of searches that are done on it. YouTube can be a great way to learn, be entertained and have interesting background noise while working on something else on your computer.

I have one Channel on YouTube, MarketingBytesBiz. There are a wide variety of videos on my channel. Some are educational, some are entertaining, and I am still working on some that are not your everyday topic.

In doing my research about videos, I have noticed that I have a tolerance for varied lengths of videos depending upon my mood, my other activities, the attention span, and how much time I am willing to invest in a particular topic.

I have a tremendous admiration for people who can say things very concisely. I also appreciate a longer video if it holds my attention. There are topics that require only a minute or less, particularly the fantastic series about social media by Basil Puglisi, founder of Digital Brand Marketing Education, a multi author blog that I write for.

Other stories and presentations can last the 18 minute TED.com designated length. They often leave me wanting to hear more. Then there are the film length and longer videos that have to be segmented to qualify for YouTube viewing such as the Ian Xel Lungold Series about the Mayan Calendar @ Ian Xel Lungold. It previews before the actual video show here.

LET ‘ER ROLL

I would like to combine some of my own video with that of other people and projects to present some of my favorites and some that I feel have particular value. First is my favorite, from a summer vacation two years ago. It seems to be a favorite of other people, as well. It is called, Have You Ever Been Kissed by a Giraffe? I loved every minute of the experience and hope you will enjoy watching it as much as I did starring in it @ Phil Jacobs.

A FEW EDUCATIONAL TID BITS

Next is an example of a very short series of educational videos that I think work extremely well. They are amazingly concise and really hit the nail on the head about social media and testimonials @ Basil Puglisi.

A post without an example from the TED.com series would be incomplete. The presentations are extraordinary and are about the most up-to-date things that man is doing, creating and experiencing. In my opinion, I would rather than watch these than almost any TV show on. Here is one of my favorites, Thomas Heatherwick Building the Seed Cathedral @ TED Talks:

THE END

Movie Snacks Anyone? @ GiftBasketJewels.com

Well, I hope you remembered to bring your popcorn, your favorite candy and soft drinks. Going to the ‘videos’ can be fun and entertaining. It can be educational and promotional. It can be a breathtakingly amazing experience, too. Did you enjoy your time with me today? Let me know what you think of these videos as well as the ideas of presenting slices of the social media pie as topics.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Is Curation as a Value Finally Here?

Writers, Here’s the Recipe for Grandma’s Old-Fashioned Social Media Pie

YouTube

The Charrette delivery van @ The Charrette Corporation

How It Began

What began as a simple story, one article as the NY Graphic Design Examiner, evolved into a series of articles, about six in total, that spanned a year’s time to complete. Although the time to compile all the materials, do the research, interview primary sources and so on did not take a full year, a new assignment as an author for The Digital Brand Marketing Blog took me away from the project for sometime during that year. In fact, this multi-author blog has made it to the semi-finals of the Social Media Examiner’s Top Ten Blogs 2012 competition.

But it was overdue to be completed. It was like a long ‘good bye’ that no one wants to make when dear friends must part. But it had to be done. Essentially, I knew what the final article would be about, the store designed by architect, David Paul Helpern, a fellow student of Charrette Corporation founders, Lionel Spiro and Blair Brown, who all attended the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The store, located on Manhattan’s East side on Lexington Avenue in the East 30’s, was the Crowning Jewel of the Charrette NY retail side.

Although the commercial accounts handled by a sales force that covered much of the East Coast and into the Midwest were much larger than the retail side sales, the retail side was the face of the corporation. This gave Charrette the opportunity to show the world the ‘stuff it was made of’. As the tip of the iceberg, it glistened in the sun and shone like a well-polished gem. The flagship store was the ultimate representation of the Charrette brand.

It was a company whose name was synonymous with quality. The tools and supplies manufactured for and sold by Charrette had to be of the highest quality. The pedigree that resulted from employment at the company practically guaranteed future employment anywhere when the time came for someone to move on.

The Charrette corporate culture, philosophy and brand development was such that it is possible that other retail corporations fashioned their stores after Charrette. They were clean looking with simple straight lines, well designed, displaying everyday items as if they were high end designer merchandise.

The Announcement for the Charrette NY Crowning Jewel © Illustration: Johanna Bohoy for Charrette Corp.

What Happened

One article led to another as one primary resource introduced me to the next. Both founders eventually became available and many memorable hours were spent on the phone reminiscing about their beloved company. Suppplies, catalogs, photos and other memorabilia were supplied to accompany the memories. One by one, staff, customers and HGSD alumni were located and interviewed.

The generosity of everyone was as real as the quality of the Charrette inventory. The Charrette culture had affected everyone who came in touch with it. The writing of this story took on a life of its own, a life that also had to be written in a way that gave credence to this corporate culture and all its glorious history.

So I wrote and wrote and wrote. When would it end? How would it end? Numerous months’ hiatus from the writing became awkward and the pressure to finish overcame the same lingering feeling of not wanting to say good-bye. But at the same time, it was clear that the final tribute had to be made and how to do it.

That is where The Charrette NY Crowning Jewel came into the picture. It was a store that was written up in two nationally respected professional magazines, Interiors (February 1982) and Visual Merchandising (June 1982), had a grand, grand opening and one that was built to design specifications. It was glorious. Everything about it and in it was a designer’s dream. In addition, the place, their products, and award winning packaging designs were featured in two nationally renowned design magazines, Communication Arts (March/April 1982) and Print (May/June 1982).

And then, in spite of the attempts to keep up with the times of transition from analog to digital design, it was time to let go. No more founders, some staff stayed, some staff went. The era that was the original Charrette was gone. The company was bought by a succession of other companies. It even became known by different names. But the culture and the philosophy could not be packaged, bought and sold.

Gone but Never Forgotten, A Charrette Trailer @ 2011 Christine Miller, former Charrette employee

How It Ended

So it was time to say good-bye, for all of us, the founders, the staff, the customers and even this author of a series of articles that became the Charrette NY Chronicle that took a year to write. It is all over. But much will live on in the minds and memories of those whose lives were touched by the experience of their involvement.

There is a Charrette Alumni Group on Linkedin. I am the only civilian to have the honor of belonging. There is also an Internet photo archive on flickr. Finally and in some small way, it is my sincere hope that the Charrette Chronicle will be part of this legacy. It is dedicated to all the wonderful people who let me into their lives and shared their stories so that I could write a series in honor of them and their Charrette experience.

Thank you all and good-bye.

Related Articles

Gone But Never Forgotten: An Invitation to a Graphic Memoir

The Baby Was Born In a Harvard Closet

Charrette Meets ‘Big Apple’ Graphic Standards

The Charrette NY Creative Culture

Paul Rand: the NYC born and educated graphic designer, Part One

Part Two: Paul Rand, the NYC born graphic designer

The Charrette NY Chronicle Completed

I have not been posting here as often as I’d like because my writing energies have been going to a multi-author blog that I am a contributing writer for, DigitalBrandMarketing.com. I have been contributing for several months now and have watched myself progress as I hone my skills as an online ‘journalist’. In fact, that reminds me of some recent posts of mine about an Oregon  Supreme Court case dealing with blogging versus journalism. You can read them on DBME.

Mari Smith comments on Joy Lynskey's DBME blog post @ facebook

Digital Brand Marketing Education
Let me just tell you a little bit about DBME. It is a nonprofit started by Basil Puglisi, a very bright, high-energy young man who is really going places in the social media world. In the short time that the blog has been in existence, we have reached the semi-finals in the Social Media Examiner’s 2012 Top Ten Blog contest. From an original nominated group of 570, 20 blogs have been selected as semi-finalists.

DigitalBrandMarketing.com has made it this far. We are all thrilled and keeping our fingers crossed as we watch the number of comments increase and more visitors swimming around our word-pool.

This publicity has drawn a good deal of attention to the blog. This is wonderful for everyone. Our blog deals with social media issues, things related to digital issues, branding, marketing and business. As writers, we are part of the ‘read, write and share’ tradition. As we become better researchers and writers, we are better able to educate and inform our audience about  the issues at hand.

This has been a phenomenal experience for me. I look forward to many opportunities to come both as a writer for DBME and the perks that come from being part of a community of such esteemed social media professionals.

Social Media Examiner Blog Post Announcing the semi-finalists in their Top 10 Blogs Contest 2012 @Social Media Examiner

Sources

Digital Brand Marketing Education

Social Media Examiner Top Ten Blog Semi-Finalist for 2012

Mari Smith Comment about Digital Brand Marketing Education Blog Post

NO VIDEO
Often there was a chilling warning, taunting me in written in bold letters across the rectangular black void, as if I had committed the terrible sin because my Flash player was out of date. The feeling of commencing a treacherous journey, one I had taken before, began to overshadow me. The difference from other times was that this time I was surrounded by nothing but black, rectangular mine fields. Friends would say to me, “Oh did you see that video I sent you?” and I would have to answer in the negative, confessing that I had not.

TECHNICALLY INFERIOR
It had become quite embarrassing, almost humiliating. I was functioning at a technical level lower than and inferior to just about everyone. How did it happen? And literally over night, too? I went from being a Steve Job’s products devotee to being an Apple flunky. The was my biggest humiliation. Most of the people who questioned me were ardent PC users, not even MAC loyalists. And I, the great proponent of Apple superiority, was having to admit that I could NOT even view videos. The black rectangle loomed larger and larger like a scarlet letter.

OUTDATED FLASH PLAYER
It got to the point where I could not take it any more. Every time I attempted to open a video, I got the message that the Flash Player I was using was out of date and that I needed to download a higher version. No biggie to them, the messengers inside my computer. But for me, it was mortifying. It was as if I was being told to run as fast everyone else but I had a broken leg. “I am going as fast as I can”, I found myself shouting back at the Flash message every time it appeared. It got to the point where I had to admit, even to myself, ‘I can’t do this anymore. I have gone as fast and as far as I can with my Leopard. It is outdated and I can not use the higher level of Flash. I surrender. The black triangle has won’.

MY LEOPARD HAD FAILED ME
The Leopard, that had been my faithful digital companion for over five years, finally had failed me. I had no choice but to go to the Lions. Somehow though, the pain I had already suffered made this transition, as treacherous as I knew it would be, less daunting since I had experienced similar trips in the past.

GONE FOREVER
The address books, the years of methodical bookmarking and endless organizational hours would all have to go down the drain. “Wait a minute”, one might say. “Can’t you ‘migrate’ these things from your Leopard to your new Lion?” Once again, the blushing humiliation set it. “No, you can not”, the MAC salesman confessed. My 10.4.11 Leopard was just too old to do any of the necessary tricks to make the leap to a 10.7.2 Lion. Nothing less than a complete start over would suffice.

IN CONCLUSION
So here I am, three days after purchase, in the midst of my safari. Yes, perhaps one might consider me brave or perhaps a fool. But I am still porting from Leopard to Lion.

POST SCRIRT
By the way, if you  have been through this nightmare and have any suggestions, tips or similar stories, please let me know. Just contact me through the comments section at the end of this story.

SOURCES:

Apple - OS X Lion – The world’s most advanced OS.

Upgrade Mac OS X to Leopard

Flash Player Version

Steve Jobs © Yahoo!

“Steve Jobs, known for his aggressive and sometimes prickly personality, didn’t hold back when he met President Obama in 2010: The Apple CEO warned Obama he wasn’t going to win re-election.

‘You’re headed for a one-term presidency,’ Jobs said during a meeting with the president that took place a year prior to Jobs’ death related to pancreatic cancer, according to his upcoming biography as reported by the Huffington Post.”

THE YAHOO ARTICLE
Read the entire Yahoo! article at the following link:
Steve Jobs predicted Obama would be a one-term president

Yahoo! Logo © Yahoo!

What amazed me about this article was not the contents of the article itself but the reaction my post on facebook got from my friends. The post has been up more than twenty four hours and I am still getting reactions to it.

To me it is immaterial if my friends’ comments are for or against the issue but that there is still a buzz about this post. The power of social media and that fact that it is relatively simple to get a reaction from people about how they feel if it is something they care about deeply can not be under estimated or overlooked. We have already seen this with twitter. I love it!

MY FACEBOOK COMMENT
You can see the reaction as it grows on my facebook page’s comments titled, Alison read an article on Yahoo! Some of the comments are not listed there but are sent as notices to me on a continuing basis indicating people like that I have posted the article about Steve Jobs’ prediction.

Alison's facebook comment © facebook and Yahoo!

IRONIC CONCLUSION
Ironically, Jobs had planned to design political ads for President Obama’s 2012 campaign despite Jobs’ one-term presidency prediction for Obama. But Steve passed away before he was able to make good on his offer to support Obama’s 2012 bid for a second term or to see the outcome of the upcoming presidential election next year.

SOURCES
Steve Jobs predicted Obama would be a one-term President
Jobs’ death related to pancreatic cancer
Jobs upcoming biography as reported by the Huffington Post
More Buzz About Steve Jobs’ Biography from the Huff Post Social News
Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs’ Biographer on Wikipedia

So began my love affair with old furniture and furnishings, transforming them from trash into treasures. It lasted for several years, became a business and a system for the (re)use and (re)decoration of wood, metal and other materials.

Sidewalk finds, hand-me-downs, client commissions, were all considered trash that could be turned into treasures. Furniture that was neglected, considered ugly and worthless was saved from the garbage dump.

Dark mahogany wood, once in fashion, painted pea soup green when out of style, was transformed into colorful collectibles. The 5 Step Decorative Painting System was born out of transforming these orphans into debutantes. The results would often bring tears to the eyes of the recipient of each make over.

Household furnishings made of wood, metal and glass, unearthed from thrift stores throughout the area, became ‘Recycled with Love’ Collectables. Designs and patterns with names like Buttercup, Deco Style, African Violets, Crazy Pot, etc. covered aluminum, steel, and copper pots, wooden bread boxes, napkin holders, paper towel holders, glasses, vases, and all sorts of bric-a-brac.

The results of my love affair with furniture and the system I developed were shown in magazines, House and Distinction, in newspapers, Newsday and the Herald Community News chain as well as on television, on Lifetime’s Our Home Show.

It was an exquisite time for me. I am still kept company by some of these treasures. Many homes are filled with them as well. Hundreds of transformations are documented. They are either slides, before and after photos, and YouTube videos. Copies of the print materials are safely filed away.

A myriad of paintbrushes still decorate a shelf in colorful containers. The paints are long gone. They have less of a shelf life than the brushes. Once in a while, I will eye a piece of furniture, check its lines, its construction, the quality and condition of the wood. Pieces speak to me. That is why I painted them and not blank canvases.

I still check dresser drawers to see if their joinery is dovetailed or just glued and nailed together. I no longer have a business doing decorative painting but the love of it runs through my veins. On occasion, my heart leaps when I see a particular piece or a well executed design.

It all lives on as part of Alison*s Heirloom Projects. There it is stored and saved, to be brought from the past into the present for future safekeeping.

DBME Masthead © dbmei.com

As some of you may know, I am one of five contributing writers to Basil Puglisi’s, Digital Brand Marketing Education Blog. My most recent post, A Casual Glance at Social Media, can be reached at the title link . Please let me know what you think by rating and commenting either here or on the DBME blog itself.

Publisher and Contributing Writers© dbmei.com

Life can be just 'ducky' © Phil Jacobs

Greetings to my Blog fans. I write in a vacuum until I receive a comment or criticism. But I write because I have to. I need to. It is like breathing. And yet, I hardly seem to get time to breathe, breathe deep and nurture my soul.

If my writing touches someone else, all the better but I do it because I have to. Why is it that something that is so essential to me usually ends up at the bottom of the list or the back of my ‘To Do’ book?

In fact, I have pages upon pages of ideas for blog posts. There is an entire file drawer filled with stories I have written and started to write. None has yet reached the light of the publishing day.

Alison*s office © Phil Jacobs

My office is filled with the seeds, sprouts and sometimes flowers of the work I have done over the last 30 or so years in areas seemingly unrelated except for the fact that I had to do them. They were like breathing, like feeding and nurturing my soul.

What is next? I never know what is next. I only know what is now. And what are now is photojournalism, stories about people, projects, ideas, history, transition, design, technology and anything else that moves me.

Abandoned gas station © Phil Jacobs

It is like breathing. I have to do it. Even during my morning and evening strolls, I will stop to photograph an image that I must preserve. I will even spend an hour interviewing a complete stranger about something that I see or sense that fascinates me. I leave no stone unturned. Each situation is an opportunity that only come around once.

Happiness is a pink polka dot lunch bag and cherry sneakers © Phil Jacobs

I leave the house for an assumed brief period of time to get a breath of air. I am breathing. I am walking. I have to do it. And then I notice that the air I breathe, the walk I take and the time I spend exploring the day and everyone as well as everything I encounter all transform me.

My soul is nurtured, my heart is fed, and my spirit sings. I have ‘stopped to smell the flowers’, been reborn and am filled with inspiration for my next project.

What will it be? I do not know. I only know what I do now.

Rip Van Winkle © Wikipedia

TV REMOTE CONTROL
In 1992, when my grandmother was 94 years old, she received her first remote control TV. It was a family gift but one that baffled her for the two remaining years of her life.

There are many things that are no longer just the way they were. Similar to the story of Rip Van Winkle, someone who had simply fallen asleep or gone underground for a few decades and returned to the present would find his present to be very much in the past. There would be many technological changes that might baffle him. This blog post, Technologically Speaking, illustrates a few of these.

Remote Controls © Wikipedia

When I came to visit her, I would inevitably find the remote control device, designed to do everything she used to have to get up from her chair to do, wrapped in a napkin. It was her way of dealing or not dealing with a technology that was foreign, too complicated and unnecessary to her.

Is it a pay phone kiosk? No it's an iPhone kiosk.

Classic TV © Copper Creek Inn

Today, no red blooded American would dream of having to move from the comfort of a ‘Lazy Boy’ chair or ‘Number Bed’ to turn on or off, raise or lower the sound, or change the channel of their TV. But to my grandmother, born in 1896, getting up to make these adjustments was just part of the experience of watching TV.

This is a donate meter but it looks like a parking meter.

PHONE BOOTHS & KIOSKS
There are no longer phone booths. They are long gone. In addition to that, there are no longer even pay phone kiosks. Well, the frameworks still stand but the telephone and all the working guts have been removed. The kiosks stand useless, merely a symbol of their past. Who needs pay phones, now anyway? No one does. Everyone has a cell phone or mobile device. Or do we?

WHAT TIME IS IT?
In fact, have you ever noticed what people below a certain age do when you ask them what time it is? They do not look at a watch; they take out their cell phone to check the time.

PARKING METERS
One of the more intriguing changes in technology is the parking meter. They still exist in places. I even hear that one town takes pennies. But I have no idea what haven that happens in. Maybe someone can Google it and let me know.

How I miss an ordinary old parking meter.

Now a days, parking meters in upscale areas require credit cards rather than change. One can even add money by phone. Some ‘parking meters’ are used to collect donations rather than pay for parking. There are even parking payment centers that cover many spaces with one machine. They require quite a bit of proficiency to master.

A WORD ABOUT NOSTALGIA
There is no question that technologically speaking our lives have changed for the better. But once in a while it would be fun to find something done ‘the good old fashioned way’.

How about the example below for a bit of nostalgia? Technologically speaking, it is best to leave some of the things from the past in the past. I’ll take a modern toilet any day.

No more out houses. But yes we still have portable toilets.

Sources:
The Copper Creek Inn
Slow Design and the History of the Parking Meter
History of the Pay Phone
History of TV Remote Controls
Porcelain God: A Social History of the Toilet
Rip Van Winkle

Marketing Bytes is the MerchantCircle Mayor of Rockville Centre, NY

Here’s a real quick blog post note for my readers. I have just written a post on my MerchantCircle Directory listing. Please check it out. Here’s the link.

While you are there, you may want to browse around my MerchantCircle listing. There are some things there that you might find of interest.

The History of Tartans
In the 1500′s, woven woolen cloth, known as tartans, are believed to be derived from the French word ‘tiretaine’. They identified the geographic area from which a person came. Later, these fabric patterns became affiliated with families or clans, which is how we primarily know them today. Tartans are attributed to Scotland but also existed and still exist in Britain, Ireland, North America and in numerous other countries around the world. Some tartans were even created as late as the 20th Century. Societies, institutions, philanthropists and organizations inspired these.

Livestock Branding
The original intent of livestock branding was to identify ownership, to be ‘a visible and permanent mark’ to distinguish between what was yours and what was mine. It was a clear-cut way to prevent theft as well as a simple way to identify and return lost livestock to its proper owner. Branding of cattle is still used in the same way today.

Branding and Marketing in the Food Industry: Three Phases
Over time, branding has evolved into an indispensable marketing and advertising tool applied to a great extent, but not exclusively, to the food industry. As such, it has existed since the late 1800′s, a mere sliver of the total time line pie in branding history.

I Want It and I Want It Now!
Present day branding has brought the science of marketing and the art of branding full circle. A brand with the proper marketing can now be known for instant product recognition. The goal of this immediate recognition is the advent of instantaneous acquisition and consumption.

The Seamless Digital Retail Experience
The purpose of the type of branding that identifies livestock is called, ‘what’s mine is mine’. But in retail, it is now ‘what’s yours is mine’ and ‘make it mine now’. This is becoming imperative and possible. Recognition through branding and acquisition through digital technology and online marketing make this process closer to seamless on a daily basis.

With the evolving technologies of near field communication, local mobile fusion, radio frequency identification, QR code generation and identification, retailers are becoming able to make us offers we can no longer refuse. There is almost no time to reconsider offers as they become digitally seamless and irresistible.

In Conclusion
When done well using the art of marketing and science of branding, the result of immediate recognition is now approaching ’0′ time between recognizing, purchasing and consuming. With the continually growing addition of new technology, this process is getting even faster and the gap is lessening to the point where our wishes will be the digital genie’s immediate command. I want it; you have it; I see it; I got it. Just like that!

A Short Video Visit to One of the Best Examples of Branding Today
I consider Dunkin’ Donuts (Dunkin’ not Duncan and yes there is a Duncan tartan has no relation to the retailer’s brand or history), to be one of the best examples of branding and marketing in the US today. Watch this short video and let me know what you think. Future articles will continue to explore the fascinating topics of digital, brands and marketing.

Sources:
World Tartans by Iain Zaczek (Image #1)
A Brief History of Cattle Brands (Image #2)
Culinary Ephemera, An Illustrated History (Image #3)
Food Marketing (Image #4)
A Brief History of Branding
A Visual History of Cookery