Avid Locals is one of the best new places to add a listing if you are a local business or professional in the United States. Even though the site is new, there are already over 10,000 listings. Professionals include real estate agents, insurance agents, and attorneys. Since each listing is designated to a local city or metro, small businesses have the same opportunity to compete with larger busi...

Love him or hate him, President Obama is a marketing genius. I saw my first 2012 Barack Obama campaign banner ad today - it was a simple ad from the First Lady asking you to sign his birthday card. Nothing big, no commitment, just fill out a simple form. Branding genius. Why? Because it's a subtle reminder that he's back on the campaign trail and when he starts asking for donations and m...

The award-winning "Book of Mormon" Broadway musical hits New York. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints takes advantage of the increased interest and issues their own campaign. The campaign has run in a number of cities with significant success. However, the national acclaim brought by the musical provides significant free marketing opportunity. The church was quick to capit...

Microsoft has just unveiled its Windows 8 OS. It is different than what we're used to for a desktop. It feels like a device OS. It feels like a wise shift for them as the OS market competition becomes more fierce. Watch and see what you think

According to Reuters: "Apple has overtaken Google as the world's most valuable brand, ending a four-year reign by the Internet search leader, according to a new study by global brands agency Millward Brown." Apple's extreme success in brand managment has pushed it to the top of the pile. It has finally overtaken Google as the brand to covet. The brand is worth $153 billion repr...

McDonalds is trying to morph into a more upscale establishment. Ronald McDonald is likely to get pushed into the background. The company will be changing the overall branding concept entirely trying to attract an audience similar to Starbucks. "Amid intensifying concern over surging obesity rates, the chain has distanced itself from its fast-food origins, adding cafe-friendly items such as...

The market in Dubai is much more conservative than western culture. Photo Shop to the rescue! "Gisele's bare skin has been judged too scandalous for H&M's Dubai market of modest dressers...the Brazilian-born, sun-kissed supermodel's shoulders and cleavage in order to reflect the Middle Eastern city's traditional dress code..." Yahoo! The long standing debate on good...

Pepsi drops to number 3 after many years following Coke as the number 1 soft drink beverage. Coca-Cola company now owns 1 and 2 spots in a fierce competition. So who's the new number 2? Diet Coke. Coke and Diet Coke are the 2 most popular soft drinks dealing a blow to the Pepsi brand. According to the Wall Street Journal: U.S. sales of Diet Coke overtook those of Pepsi-Cola for the first time in...

There has been a lot of hype recently about social media marketing, specifically in regards to Facebook. Companies and personalities all over are jumping on the band wagon and creating their Facebook page. In fact, its rare anymore that I go a day without seeing the Facebook logo with some company asking me to be their friend or fan. We wanted to see if Facebook lived up to its hype, and I'm hap...

Most modern search engines look at two separate things when determining how relevant your page is to a particular search query. The first thing is the text and structure of the html on the page, and the second thing is what links point to and from your page. This article focuses on the links side of the equation. If you think of each link as a vote, it's easy to see that the page with the most l...