Business

How to Freshen Up Your Brand Identity (Without Starting Over)

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Unexpected and sometimes bad things happen to every business. For example, negative comments leading to a bad online reputation. Or, sometimes your business changes with time and your brand doesn’t properly represent the “new you”.

The good news is you don’t have to necessarily start over by getting a new name, logo, website design, marketing materials, and so on. Those costs could eventually add up to be quite significant. The truth is you have a very real chance of changing your brand’s perception without a huge expense.

Here are a couple red flags that it’s time to refresh your brand identity:

Your Branding is Outdated – Like LG, you want your brand name to reflect the current state of your business. Luck and Goldstar sounds like a casino or cigarette brand, but LG gives an impression of quality electronic devices (not to mention it’s much easier to remember). If it’s been several years since you’ve evaluated your brand name and image, it’s time to give it a look and see if updating could help.

You’re Prepping to Grow – If you’re deliberately planning significant growth, then consider freshening up your brand. Check out your colors and the products and services you offer and determine whether your brand identity logically represents them. If your current brand name can’t be easily changed, you can always add a more descriptive tagline to your logo to help your customers better understand your updated service offering.

Your Target Market has Shifted – If you initially started serving 35-year-old men 10 years ago, and now they’re in their mid-40s, they probably won’t respond as well to the same messaging. Consider your current market as well as new prospects and give your brand’s messaging a refresh to attract more interest.

Brand Refresh Action Items

Of course we’re not going to leave you without any advice you can use to begin refreshing your brand. Here are some ideas of what you could do if you’ve decided a brand refresh is appropriate:

Research Your Market First

What does your market really want to hear and see?

Do simple things like sending out a survey to your e-mail newsletter list, offering brief phone surveys, or engaging in dialogue with clients you see in person. You may not have a massive research budget, but if you make time you can learn a lot about your market and fine-tune your message and identity through these simple methods.

Consider Implementing a New Marketing Tactic

Your business may or may not benefit from gamification, but a new marketing tactic could attract significant attention. Gamification is when you make participating in your business similar to a video game (customers get points for buying certain products, for example).

You don’t have to gamify if you don’t think it’s appropriate, but don’t be afraid to try something new and innovative to change the perception of the identity of your brand.

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Patent Applications

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Patent applications is given an application number and a submission date. After 6-8 months, the application is scrutinized, and the Patent Office sends out a statement in which the idea of ​​the invention is assessed against novelty, inventive step and industrial applicability. Applicants are given a deadline to respond to the statement. If the inventive idea is patentable, the application is approved for notification as a patent. The application then enters an objection period of 9 months where others can protest that a patent was granted. Objections to a patent are processed by the Patent Office.

Both patent applications and approved patents are kept alive by paying an annual fee to the Patent Office. If one stops paying, the right lapses. The owner of the patent right has the exclusive right to market and manufacture the product that is patent protected. It is best to hire professional help for your invention to avoid any mistakes.

Patent applications abroad

All countries follow an international convention which states that a national patent application can be followed up with an application in other countries within ONE YEAR after the national application was registered.

All countries in the world have a patent system, in which it is possible to file a patent application. Filing a patent application in each country after 12 months involves large costs if there are many countries in question. Therefore, there is an opportunity to obtain protection in several countries by means of only a single patent application, a so-called PCT application. PCT means Patent Cooperation Treaty.

PCT APPLICATION is an international patent system, where with the help of just a single application you can obtain an option for over 100 important industrialized countries around the world, by ticking a list of possible countries. A PCT application can be kept alive for 2.5 years before you have to convert the PCT application to one or more of the checked countries (can be expensive), or you can interrupt the process. A PCT application is processed in the usual way by examining a novelty, and a letter is sent out concluding on the patentability of the invention. That is, the answer is YES or NO to whether all (or parts of) the invention satisfy the requirement for NEW, INVENTION HEIGHT and INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY.

Then the patent applicant must decide which countries (or none) the application will be converted to. The application processing in the PCT system should ideally mean that the later national application processing becomes simpler and cheaper. This is because the statements from the PCT authority will follow the application into the national phases, and the result from there will affect the processing as you can read from https://azbigmedia.com/business/why-new-inventors-turn-to-inventhelp-for-support/.

There is also a European patent convention, EPC , which gives a patent applicant the opportunity to cover 19 countries in Europe in a single patent application. EP applications are processed at the EPO in Munich, and scrutiny is carried out and patentability assessments are issued, which the applicant must answer.

Finally, the EP application is approved (or rejected) as a patent, after which the applicant must state which of the 16 countries he wants the patent to apply to (one or more). Then the definition of the invention in the patent claims will apply to all of the countries which the applicant selects from among the 16.

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Engage with Celebrities on Social Media

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What famous personality are you dying to chat with? If not in person, I assume an online interactive discussion would satisfy that craving. Maybe they are a movie star, a news anchor, a top chef, a sitcom darling – whomever you hope to kibitz with, the advances in online media and the popularity of key social platforms can make that happen. Get ready to say something smart and witty! Or, if you prefer, get ready to be impressed by another side of these celebrities that you never knew! The online discussion formats available today give everyday people sites or outlets to interact with celebrities who appear every day on their television, in the newspaper, on the radio, or on stage. These folks are well known, and now they are accessible, too!

However not all celebrities know how to handle their social presence. There are some topics that are too sensitive and can actually hurt more that do good. Politics is one of those topics and celebrities who engage in politics have to really be careful about their opinions as they could backfire hard. A good example of a celebrity social channel not doing quite good and having a lot of backfire is Abigail – Ben Shapiro Sister and her YouTube channel. You can learn More About Ben Shapiro Sister on this article.

Social media has handed even the less tech-savvy a channel for interactive engagement. Used for entertainment and marketing, the social platforms serve numerous purposes. Positive side-effects may include keeping celebrities more closely connected to their audiences than they have ever been able to be before. More recently, companies have been using this improved connectivity to really engage with their customers and address problems with the product, or conduct targeted marketing based upon interaction with customers and their feedback.

Aside from “business as usual,” what is even cooler about these outlets is the opportunity for real-time commentary from one person to the next. It is not just promoting new films, albums or projects, but interacting like human beings at the local virtual caffe – real daily life stuff. The open nature of the social platforms truly enables better interaction, more effective collaboration and a general connection of interesting people who comprise a wide audience around the globe.

Getting celebrities involved in your cause is a topic of interest on the internet. Nationally recognized non-profits seem to be relatively successful in convincing celebrities to support their cause. One of the barriers for the lesser-known non-profits is just that: they are lesser-known. Just as lesser-known celebrities fall into the shadows of their more media-covered counterparts, local non-profits are less likely to be recognized than nationally known ones. This is especially true when considering the high-profile stuff that celebrities typically get exposed to. One way to really make an impression is to join or start open forums about your cause. You may be surprised about the range of passionate people who join these sites or outlets, including celebrities! Having an interactive discussion with a celebrity about a cause that they are personally interested in is going to be one of the best ways to gain recognition, trust, and potential celebrity support.

Will we ever get social media fatigue and tire of it? Not as long as we’ve got celebrities to talk to and through whom we can live vicariously! We’re all social creatures, as it is a human characteristic. Social media gives us that satisfying instant visibility and connectivity that we crave. So sign up for a social discussion, sign in for some real-time commentary, and interact!

Real Estate

Real Estate Online Marketing and Ad Trends

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One of the most remarkable things about the growth of online real estate websites is that the majority of the visitors represent an ideal demographic. They earn more money with average median income of $60,000+, and they have homes with a value of at least $200,000. This represents a fantastic opportunity for real estate websites and capturing these visitors has become a major source of ad spending.

Online real estate ad spending will reach 1.8 billion this year alone, which equals approximately 15% of the projected 11.7 billion in total real estate ad spending. More interestingly however, is the speculation that these figures should more than double. As more attention is paid to online demographics, much of the money that will flow into real estate advertising will be shifted away from traditional outlets such as newspaper classified advertising and into online avenues.

However, in order for your ads campaigns to be successful the design of your real estate site has to be responsive and organized. There are a lot of WordPress real estate templates and plugins such as iHomefinder and IDX Broker which will help you make a professional looking website and your ROI will get much higher. If you want to learn more about iHomefinder vs IDX Broker definitely check out this IDX review.

Online ads offer much more investment opportunity then traditional formats. A single online ad can be tracked through to the single click of a single user, thus making tracking both effective and efficient. The end result is the ability to tailor an advertising campaign to a market that can be authored based on substantial real world information. The online ad medium offers real estate websites an opportunity to effectively track their ROI by pricing their traffic and by actual leads and not only distribution. This is a very efficient way to monitor how successful a particular ad campaign is.

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Guidelines for Routine HIV Testing

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The guidelines for when to test for HIV are pretty straightforward. In short, the CDC recommends that all sexually active adolescents and adults take an HIV test at least once a year. Annual HIV testing can be performed quickly and conveniently along with At Home STD Test Kits. In fact, some HIV tests only take 20 minutes for results so HIV testing has never been easier.

While everyone should have an annual HIV test administered, certain high risk sub-groups should be screened more often. When to test for HIV varies based on one’s specific behavior, but high risk demographics should test about every three to six months.

These groups include the following:

  • Men who have sex with other men
  • Anyone who has sex for money
  • Those engaging in high-risk, sexual behaviors
  • Anyone who may have been exposed to HIV
  • Drug users

Those wondering when to test for HIV after a potential exposure must wait enough time for antibodies to develop. Experts recommend waiting three months after an exposure for the most accurate results. If you are testing with a PCR test, accurate results can be obtained as early as 10 days post-exposure.

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The Vegan Food Pyramid to Get the Best Nutrition from a Vegetarian Meal Diet

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A vegan food pyramid is useful to plan an optimal vegetarian meal plan as it gives a good idea about the quantity of foods, as well as the kinds of food that are required to uphold the nutrient levels in your body. The base of the pyramid represents greatest requirement, decreasing as the food groups approach the apex of the pyramid. Let’s have a deeper look into it:

Whole grains: They include bread, cereals, pasta, brown rice, millet, barley, oats, etc. and form the base of the food pyramid

Vegetables: They include greens, which are rich in folate and fiber, as well as vegetables that are rich in calcium. It is best to include them raw and fresh, and consume them as salads or juice. They occupy the level next to the whole grains in the vegan food pyramid.

Fruits: You should include a variety of fruits as they supply plenty of vitamin C. You can eat strawberries, mangoes, papaya, citrus fruits, etc. so that a good variety is contained in your diet. Fruits occupy the level above the vegetables in the pyramid.

Legumes: They include beans, peas, etc. and supply the essential minerals and protein for your body. Soymilk and tofu are also important. Legumes occupy the position above fruits in the food pyramid chart.

Dairy products: They consist of milk, cheese, curds, etc. and occupy the place above legumes in your food pyramid.

Fatty acids and other vitamins: They include omega3s and vitamins B12 and D. You can take supplements or alternatives, such as plant based meat to obtain them. You can take canola oil, flax oil, walnuts and supplements. This category of food occupies the position above the dairy products in the food pyramid.

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Famous Inventions – How Did We Live Without Them

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It is common knowledge that inventions are designed to make a positive difference to our lives. Talking about differences, some famous inventions have been able to change the way we live and communicate forever.

Imagine the utility value and convenience of an answering machine. When there is nobody at home, this inanimate object called the telephone diligently takes all the messages and plays it back for you, so that you are always in touch, and never miss a call. Hasn’t this made our lives more comfortable? If you have an idea like this there are companies that will provide help for your invention and guide you in the process.

According to history, a Danish telephone engineer called Valdemar Poulsen(1869-1942), patented an apparatus, which he called a telegraphone in 1898. This wondrous gadget was the first magnetic sound recording and reproduction instrument. It not only recorded telephone conversations on a wire by the varying magnetic fields produced by sound, the wire could also play back the sound. This triggered Willy Muller, to invent the first automatic answering machine in 1935.

This was a machine which was three feet tall and used by Orthodox Jews, who were not allowed to answer the phone on the Sabbath. The first answering machine sold commercially in the US was the Ansafone, invented by Dr. Kazuo Hashimoto for Phonetel. This was early 1960. There have been numerous improvements and remodeling and today we have the most modern answering machines in our homes.

Another famous invention which has become part of our daily lives is the invention of the voice mail. Credit for this goes to Gordon Matthews, who patented it in 1979. Known as the ‘father of voice mail’, Gordon Matthews was the founder of the VMX Company in Dallas and sold the first voice mail system to 3M.

There are many famous inventions which are attributed to more than one inventor. This is the case with the invention of the Automatic Teller Machines (ATM). While Don Wetzel invented the first successful and modern ATM in the USA, he was not the first inventor of the ATM. In 1939, an inventor named Luther George Simjian, started patenting a rather unsuccessful version of the ATM

Any modern shopping mall or supermarket would be paralyzed without this next famous invention. Can you guess what it could be? It is the bar code. This is a method for automatic identification and subsequent data collection, used not only by malls and markets, but giant industries as well. The first patent for a bar code type product was issued in 1952, to inventors Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver. The original Bernard and Silver bar code was like a ‘bull’s eye’ made up of a number of concentric circles. You can get help for your invention from patenging agencies like InventHelp as you can read from this InventHelp review.

First commercially used in 1966, the bar code lacked any industry standard. By 1970, a company called Logicon Inc., wrote the Grocery Products Identification Code or UGPIC, which later evolved into the U.P.C symbol set or the Universal Product Code, which is still used in the United States. The credit for the invention of the U.P.C. in 1973 goes to George J. Laurer.

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Do You Need Help With Your Invention

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Every inventor, at one point or another, has at least fleeting thoughts of hitting the mother lode with their invention idea. I have met and spoken with countless inventors over the years and they all thought the world just didn’t get it.

Maybe that’s true, but if you want to be a successful and profitable inventor than you have to have invention ideas that the world either wants or needs. In order for your invention to be worth millions, it has to be something that people will pay for. Be honest, what is unique about your invention and will people give you money for it?

Bringing a new invention idea to market costs money. Some new inventors are able to bootstrap their inventions and pay for them out of their pocket. Most new inventors seek invention capital to develop a prototype, complete testing, or market and sell their invention idea. Agencies like InventHelp can help you in the process.

Getting money from the wrong sources can be the kiss of death for your dreams. The wrong money can be very costly in both financial and personal terms. Look before you leap and find out the pros and cons before you sign.

The common mistake that most new inventors make is not understanding where to go for invention help. There are many firms and services such as InventHelp that will help new inventor.

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Emergency Plumber Sydney

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Plumbers in Sydney are available for 24 hour emergency plumbing services to any residential, commercial or industrial property.

When do you need an emergency plumber Sydney?

A blocked toilet, blocked drain, broken water pipe or storm water drainage problem is when you should consider calling in emergency plumbers Sydney.

Leaving an emergency plumber job for the next day could end up costing you much more in the long run.

However, sometimes people call an emergency plumber when they actually needed an electrician.

Flooding caused by a faulty electrical switch may look like it’s a plumbing problem but is in fact an electrical problem.

Some emergency plumbers in Sydney have a restricted electrical licence which allows them to make minor electrical repairs, but in most cases you will need to call an electrician.

It is important to analyse the problem carefully before calling an emergency plumber in Sydney.

That way you can clearly explain the problem over the phone and the emergency plumber may give you a solution over the phone and avoid a call out to your property.

If you are concerned about the cost of calling out an emergency plumber Sydney you should request the plumber’s fees before he drives to your premises.

There are many emergency plumbers Sydney and their fees vary.

Some emergency plumbers in Sydney will charge a call out fee just to arrive at the site and if they do nothing this call out fee will still be payable.

Other emergency plumbers don’t charge a call out fee and will only charge for the work done to repair the problem.

Most emergency plumbers in Sydney are understanding of different people’s situations and will usually accommodate this.

You should always use the services of a fully licenced emergency plumber Sydney.

Never do it yourself or use a home handyman.

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Do You Want to Get a Nice iPhone Cheap?

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If you are looking for good savings on consumer electronics, then refurbished goods can be the best solution for you. Read on to know more about them. Have you ever seen a website that offers a cheap iPhone? While this sounds too good to be true, there are many retailers that offer the latest branded models with very heavy discounts.

How is this possible? These are gadgets that have undergone something called refurbishment, which is a kind of makeover and sometimes fall into the same category. Refurbishing is servicing a product that has been rejected on certain grounds so that it looks and works like brand new. In fact, there really is no distinction between a refurbished gadget and one that is brand new one. The difference can be spotted in the product description that comes with the gadget.

So whats the big deal about used iPhones and other refurbished electronics? They are just as good as new ones but don’t cost you as much. A fancier way to explain refurbished goods is the management of goods that have reached the end of their product life. The difference with refurbished goods is that they have been tested by certified servicing agents to ensure that they are completely free from defects. This is the guarantee that you will not get with used products.

There are many dealers from which you can buy refurbished iPhones Canada and other refurbished goods such as laptops, computers, home appliances, smartphones and accessories. A lot of electrical appliances become obsolete before they complete half of their lifetime, this is mostly because technology moves at a very fast pace.

Another reason why refurbished goods is because there are a number of people that cannot afford that very best that technology has to offer owing to the cost factor. Marketers have managed to bridge this gap by selling refurbished products to consumers after they have been put through various stress tests, authentication, certification and finally the addition of warranty. This entire package is sold at a much lower cost those goods that are refurbished cannot be sold as brand new.