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The Importance of a Good Graphic (and Vice Versa)

Tuesday, September 13, 2011 — 

 

I’m all for a good image or graphic. A good one can draw attention to pertinent data, make information easier to grasp, and/or add some fun and color. But I saw one the other day that reminded me we should all ask this very important question when combining data with an image: does this enhance the information I’m trying to share?

So here’s the image (you can click on it for a bigger version):

Here are the good things: pleasing to the eyes, easy to read, pop out colors to show the highest number in each data set, a simple font.

Here are the things I’m confused by:

  • What do the numbers mean (it doesn’t look like percentage or numbers of people)?
  • Why are most of the numbers so close to 100?
  • Why is the one image a female for something called “Unique U.S. Audience Composition Index to Social Networks and Blogs,” especially when females only “win” 103 to the males’ 96 … somethings.
  • Why is each piece of information pointing to a spot on the woman? (As a pal on Twitter so eloquently put it “The only thing I learned was that gender is all in your head and education comes from your pants.”)

Now, to be fair, I discovered a more “complete” graph in Nielson’s full report on page four:

So the image of a female makes a little more sense with this title. And sentences were added under each category like “She likely lives in New England” (I personally like this touch). But overall the graphic is still not doing much to enhance the information. And pointing to the woman’s random body parts is still nonsensical to me.

What do you think? Do you think the image adds to the information in any way simply because it’s not just text? What kinds of images do you do with your work?

Erica Gordon is a Marketing Associate at Clear Verve and also works part-time at a Milwaukee area nonprofit. Follow Erica on Twitter:  @erica_g.

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Can YOU bring good things to life?

Thursday, January 27, 2011 — 

 

I mean, I don’t doubt you.

We can all bring good things to life. But can you use the tagline “we bring good things to life” now that GE doesn’t use it anymore? Trademark rights do exist, but the gray area after trademarks expire is what is so interesting. This brings me to the point of this post: what happens once taglines are retired? (Disclaimer: This post has a lot of questions. But there are some answers!)

The term of a federal trademark can last indefinitely if whatever you are trademarking continues to get used. So, a tagline could be trademarked for its first ten year term and then renewed continually. Bringing it back to GE, the “we bring good things to life” line was used from 1972-2003 until they announced “Imagination at work.” (Sidebar: I LOVED those commercials, especially this one in 2005.) But GE let it be known that they were going in a different direction. So does that make it up for grabs? Or is it GE’s forever? I personally find it hard to believe that a company can own a phrase forever if they are not using it anymore.

Here are a few other examples of tagline “afterlives” that I’m curious about (thanks to this great Forbes link):

  • Don’t leave home without it. (American Express)
  • Think different (Apple)
  • It Takes a Lickin’, But Keeps on Tickin’ (Timex)
  • Tastes great, less filling (Miller) – Resurrected in 2008, but what if someone had used it in the meantime?
  • Like a Rock (Chevy)

So now for the multitude of questions: Where do these taglines now sit in the world? Can they ever be used again? If you had the opportunity, would you dare touch one? Or create one that is similar?

To find some answers I asked a Milwaukee attorney who has some experience in trademarks. She explained that in addition to the general rule for trademarks in the United States as stated above, there is also the concept of “residual goodwill.” Residual goodwill means that trademarks can retain their significance as a trademark if consumers will still recognize the mark as designating by a company even if the trademark is not in use. So, it’s kind of like having good sportsmanship in the creative world.

With all these rules and understandings in place, it seems like a company will probably never use another company’s famous tagline, even if decades have passed, but there’s always a chance. And I can’t help but wonder if someday a company will be adamant that THEIR company can bring good things to life in a different way than GE. (And sorry to keep picking on GE, but I’m most intrigued by this one since it recently went away.) Will GE be insulted? Flattered? Legally obligated to sue?

I guess the only way to find out is to keep watching.

But I want to end on another thing I DO know. The more I think about what happens when a company is done using a tagline, the more I see that a tagline really needs to be smart and creative to have true staying power. If a company can get people to know who they are from a tagline that’s they are not using anymore years down the line, well, I’d say they brought good things to life.

(Still interested? I also discovered there’s a blog solely dedicated to law and creativity. Check it out! http://www.duetsblog.com/)

Erica Gordon is a Marketing Associate at Clear Verve and works part-time at a Milwaukee area nonprofit. She recently received her Communication MA from Marquette University. Follow Erica on Twitter @erica_g.

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Survey Says!

Thursday, September 30, 2010 — 

 

Does hearing an unanswerable question over and over again make you want to find the answer? Well, it did in our case.

Professional service providers were coming to us for advice on social media use. But they wanted more than just the standard advice. They wanted to know how to deal with issues that are especially important in their industries. Issues like conflict of interest, confidentiality and providing general advice that could be misinterpreted in a specific situation.

So we collaborated with McGrath Marketing Associates to complete a survey and create an e-book: Social Media Habits of Accountants and Attorneys in Southeastern Wisconsin (and it’s free for anyone, by the way). We felt that providing professional service providers with the opportunity to learn from one anther would help everyone.

Here are some nuggets of information that we discovered:

  • Most professionals who don’t use social media prefer to use other methods of communication such as phone calls, texting or emails.
  • Some professionals have not begun using social media for work due to lack of formal training and understanding of how to use social media professionally.
  • Over 40 percent of participants said they did not use social media to communicate with any of their customers or business associates. However, participants were most likely to say they would use social media with those who they knew were users of the media.
  • An important goal of many firms is keeping employees’ personal communication separate from professional communication.
  • The relative equality in the number of people who use social media for personal and business communications indicates a strong need for social media policies at all firms.

Over 600 professionals between the ages of 21 and 60 participated in the survey, representing 144 different firms ranging in size from fewer than 50 employees to firms with over 1000 employees. The online study was conducted between April 26, 2010 and May 30, 2010.

The forward for the book was written by Todd Sattersten, former President of 800-CEO-READ and co-author of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time. Todd also reviewed the book.

We learned a great deal from the survey and hope you will too. You can download the book here.

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Waving Buh-Bye to the Wave: One POV Regarding the End of Google Wave

Monday, August 9, 2010 — 

 

People have options aplenty when connecting with people online. Email, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace (yes, it still exists), Skype, blogs, photo galleries, instant message applications and Google Wave, the impetus of this post. People who happen to use all of these tools tend to use each one for something different – besides the overall reason of communication.

In my experience, people like and need to have their worlds divided into multiple categories: work, family and social life. Within each of these divisions, there are more separations: book clubs, sports teams, children’s play dates, longtime friends, new friends, guy friends, girl friends, online acquaintances, mentors etc. The list is endless. But the point of the list is that it shows people are inherently dividing up parts of life. Google Wave was trying to bring everything together and, in my opinion, that might have made people uncomfortable.

As convenient as it might be to have multiple ways of communicating in one place, we already have that idea with computers or handheld smart phones. While it is a great idea for Google to recycle parts of Google Wave as they figure out how to redevelop their ideas, it was time for the official Google Wave to go. People have already personalized ways to pull their different worlds together without meshing them together. And, in most cases I’m guessing it’s without the use or creation of a high tech program. It might just consist of having a system or order of communication amongst the different groups.

Overall, I completely understand what Google Wave was trying to do and I am impressed by what it looked like. I just think that what they developed can work better in separate communities as an intranet of sorts for the time being. Pulling everyone’s online communities together might be a little too much too soon.  Your thoughts?

More on the end of Google Wave:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-on-google-wave.html

Erica Gordon is currently interning at Clear Verve and works part-time at a Milwaukee area nonprofit. She recently received her Communication MA from Marquette University.  Follow Erica on Twitter @erica_g.

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BizStarts Milwaukee – A Great Resource for Milwaukee Area Entrepreneurs

Friday, June 4, 2010 — 

 

Our firm has participated in many of the events since the inception of Biz Starts Milwaukee.  We have been impressed by the resources captured in one location for local entrepreneurs.

I recently learned about some amazing new businesses ideas and plans at the recent BizStarts Milwaukee/Mason Wells BizStarts Collegiate Business Plan Competition.  Many students at colleges and universities in the Milwaukee 7 region participated in this competition.

It was exciting to hear more about the plans and descriptions each of the five award winners provided.  Not to mention impressive to hear the two minute pitches each gave regarding their businesses.  I truly hope each of them is able to get their businesses up and running!  In a room full of people that wish to support entrepreneurs in the Milwaukee 7 region, I wish more could have been there to hear first hand about BizStarts, its resources, and ideas that come from this group so I thought I’d share this in this blog post.   Check out this site when you have a chance and you will see classes, resources for business planning, lending, legal advice, etc.

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