TriVision's Coverage of Hillary Clinton Interview at Dept. of State

On Wednesday, February 23, 2011, TriVision Studios recorded an interview of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at the United States Department of State in Washington, DC, discussing the significant role social media played in the recent uprising of Egypt. The interview, which will be broadcast in Egypt as well as American media outlets, was conducted by Ahmad Ghanim of Masrawy.com, a popular online news and information portal in Egypt.

In the dialogue, Clinton also answered questions coming directly from Egyptian youth living in the United States and in Egypt. These questions were gathered from social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, as well as through video clips. The questions ranged on topics such as U.S.’s relationship with Egypt during the last 30 years, as well as U.S.'s involvement in the recent revolution.

Secretary Clinton went on to stress how proud she is from the Egyptian youth for what they have done and applauded the people of Egypt for their courage and nonviolent, peaceful protests. She ended the interview by addressing the Egyptians directly, “Your country needs you more than ever. And we will stand with you. We are inspired by you and we believe in you. And the United States is ready to assist in any way that would be appropriate.”

For a complete transcript of the interview please visit secretaryclinton.wordpress.com. To see a clip of the video, please click on the thumbnail on the left.

Building a Brand and Website for Flood Tech3

Flood Tech3 is a 24-hour flood restoration company located in Northern Virginia that offers a comprehensive range of professional damage management flood restoration and cleaning services for homeowners and commercial clients. Their services include extraction and pumping of water, decontamination and sanitization of all affected surfaces, sewage damage cleanup, mold remediation and more.

TriVision not only created the logo and brand identity for Flood Tech3, but also designed and developed its website, floodtech3.com. In addition, TriVision provided design and custom printing services for its business stationery and promotional items which included business cards, postcards, pens, mugs, gift bags, notepads, order forms and apparel. Professional truck signage and installation was also provided by TriVision.

Currently, TriVision is working on Flood Tech3’s online marketing incentives and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). By choosing targeted keyword phrases related to a site, and ensuring that the site places well when those keyword phrases are part of a Web search, these tactics will greatly increase the visibility and traffic to the website.

To learn how TriVision can help your company or product build its corporate image, as well as develop and improve its marketing strategies, please contact one of our TriVision representatives at 1.866.600.5528 or email design@trivision.tv.

Retail America Is Having a Big Sale -- but for How Long?

Deals, Dips, Discounts: Companies Risk Losing Customers Down the Road

Last year, 3 billion coupons were redeemed out of the hundreds of billions thatwere printed. But that's only the tip of the discount iceberg. Not only is Retail America awash in coupons, it's also awash in discounts, sales, door busters and loyalty programs.

Such esoteric ideas as strategies and slogans have all but disappeared in retail marketing as store after store across the country has focused its media guns on sales and more sales.

Like most marketing fads, the coupon craze is typical of the follow-the-leader thinking rampant in the marketing community -- if everybody is using coupons, then they must be an effective marketing tool.

And they are -- in the short term. It's easy for a company to check sales and redeemed coupons to decide if its couponing program is financially successful or not. But what happens in the long term? How many customers will a company lose tomorrow because they stocked up on sale products today?

The end of a bubble is often marked by a spectacular development and the coupon bubble reached a climax on Dec. 3, when news began to circulate that Groupon had rejected a $6 billion buyout bid from Google. A shade more than two years after its founding in November 2008, Groupon is worth in excess of $6 billion? Or maybe $15 billion, the figure quoted in a New York Times article about a planned Groupon initial public offering.

The Groupon concept is to give consumers the opportunity to buy coupons for something like 50% off regular prices. Then Groupon splits coupon sales 50-50 with local retailers. Sounds like a great deal for Groupon, a lesser deal for consumers and a road-to-ruin deal for local retailers.

But hope springs eternal, of course. Presumably, all those consumers who bought products and services for 50% off are going to be happy to return to their local retailers and return to buy those same products and services at full prices.

You see the same phenomenon happening across the retail spectrum. Macy's, Kohl's and most department stores seem to have ditched the idea of positioning their brands, instead relying on discounts, sales and coupons to keep consumers coming back into their stores.

In marketing, the advantage is being different. When everyone else is running sales, it's hard to be different by running a sale. Today, a chain can be different by not running a sale. The biggest beneficiary of the coupon craze is Walmart, which seldom runs sales or issues its own coupons.

Someday, some leading consumer-packaged-goods brand will run an anti-coupon campaign that could shakeup the industry. "No coupons. Never issued them. Never will."

One of the secrets of Zappos' success is the absence of deals; it stands out as a paradigm of price stability. Consumers don't have to worry that someone will buy the same shoes next week for 50% off.

As America becomes more monolithic, I think you'll see the value of sales and coupons inevitably decline.

In the past, discount devices like coupons were effective in broadening a brand's customer base, especially if a company could keep them out of the hands of its regular users. With the advent of social media, that's getting more difficult do. The word about deals can spread rapidly.

Look at a website called Coupon Sherpa, a source for online coupons, grocery coupons, printable coupons, restaurant coupons and coupon codes to over 5,000 stores. Slogan: "Never pay full price again!"

Story Courtesy of Adage.com

Modern Brands Need to Become Mega-Applications

One by one, the old disciplines of marketing and communications are being disrupted by the internet. Perhaps one of the saddest victims is "media." It is an old paradigm and an even older word that in theory means "channels and tools used for the storage and transmission of data or information." To deal with this irrelevance we invented "new media," which I guess means media plus interactivity, but is this really enough to mark the shift?

The basic mistake is the attempt to continue viewing "media" as a standalone category and vertical. It leads to such amusing terms as "social media." Right, he must be crazy. We're talking about the future of marketing, social media that is. Well, I suggest you travel back in time to the 1999 "Cluetrain Manifesto" and read it again. It's all there, but it's about us, the consumers, and not about channels, transmissions and definitions. Because the internet and the web are networks of connected nodes, mostly comprising people, therefore, the internet is inherently social, built into its very design.

We are using the term "social media" and its younger sibling, "earned media," probably because it is our way to hang on to our old ideas about traditional media. Social media is basically the ability to self-express and connect many to many -- something many of us did on BBS boards with 14.4k modems. But in marketing and communications we actually use "social media" to show that we still "reach" our consumers even when they're on the web, and sometimes, we don't even have to pay for it! At least not as much as we pay on TV.

This is very useful for our boardroom keynotes, showing how smart we are, as we spend less on marketing. Man, we're on social media and may even have a dashboard to show how we accumulate earned media. We must rely on the bleeding edge.

When looked upon from the consumer point of view, this is just another case of our industry trailing the consumers. For the consumer, the brand's presence on "social media" is obviously meaningless unless coupled with improved and tangible value. Moving your customer service to Twitter and making it much faster? We get it. Inviting 200 professional dietitians to your online lifestyle forums? Good. Just being there and collecting fans? Absolutely useless. Our consumers see no distinction between product, service, Facebook page, point of sale, webapps, packaging and even a TV ad. All are parts of one continuum called the brand experience. It means that "media" is now fused with "marketing" and certainly with "branding."

I also believe most of us will agree today that: B(e) = V+C x Wom. Brand equity equals the value the brand delivers (products, services, utilities etc.) plus the relevant content it offers multiplied by word-of-mouth (or mouse). What it means is that "media" could be everything, and everything could be "media." Think of the Daily iPad app. Is it media? Is it a product? A service? Content platform? Participation tool? Yes.

We could then conclude that modern brands need to become mega-applications, combining a seamless experience of all its activities (value, content, distribution, participation, pricing, design, "media" and so on and on). We already have quite a few of those; look at amazon.com for a very beautiful one. If we do insist on continuing calling a part of this construct "media," maybe its role is to be the brand's senses; conversing with consumers, collecting data and information, and constantly optimizing its offering.

If this metaphor is accurate, it calls for a very different way of managing brands -- both on the marketers' and agency sides. A new paradigm in which consumer-centricity becomes the core, or maybe the very definition of marketing, and a way of life for its practitioners.

Story Courtesy of Adage.com