If you’re launching a new company, changing your company name, or revamping your brand identity, selecting a new logo will be one of your most important marketing decisions. The logo is the most visible element of your brand identity and the foundation of a smart marketing strategy. A great logo gets attention, sets you apart from competitors, and solidifies your position in the marketplace. A poor logo makes a permanently bad impression on prospects and confuses people about what your brand stands for. Here’s a checklist of seven factors to consider when your creative team or marketing agency presents you with new logo design concepts.

Your brand is one of your most valuable assets. It conveys the highest value you deliver; serves as an emotional shortcut to what your organization stands for; sets you apart from everyone else in your marketplace; and forms the foundation of a smart marketing strategy.

How do you build a great brand? Here are 10 key steps.

My new Apple iPad is a technology dream, creating a web experience unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Like all Apple products, it’s driven by brilliant engineering and extraordinary user-friendliness. It’s also a case study in branding excellence. Here’s how Apple used its product packaging to deliver on its brand promise and support a smart marketing strategy, and four key branding lessons for marketers.

Got a tight marketing budget? Here are 13 easy ways to promote your product or business without spending a lot of money. Some have more impact than others, but all are marketing tactics nearly anyone can deploy in a small-budget, smart marketing strategy.

Is it true that the more you know, the more you Kohl’s? Is taking stock in the long term Vanguarding? And will you Bing it if you’re searching for something online?

Kohl’s Department Stores, Vanguard Investments, and Microsoft are the latest marketers to try to turn a company brand or product name into a verb. It’s an old marketing strategy, but it rarely works. Here’s why.

Your company’s logo is the most visible element of your brand identity. But if your logo is more than five years old – or if there’s been a significant change in your mission, core services, customer base, or marketing strategy since your logo was developed – your logo may be due for a tune-up. Here’s how to evaluate and update your company logo to support a smart branding strategy.

The state of Ohio missed an opportunity for effective branding by making a classic mistake on its new license plate design: Obscuring the name of the product. The plates were supposed to become the state’s official new design, but the recession forced officials to limit distribution — and that’s good branding news. Here’s why.

Marketing is the process of delivering messages to influence peoples’ perceptions and behavior as they relate to a specific product or service. It’s all the activity that drives a customer to interact with your business.
Successful marketing requires a strategy. But before you start writing your marketing plan, you need information and insight.
Here are five basic [...]

Welcome to Smart Marketing Strategy, a new resource to help you develop and execute more effective marketing plans and campaigns.
I’m Jean Gianfagna, president of Gianfagna Strategic Marketing in Cleveland, Ohio. I’ve spent more than 30 years developing marketing strategies and creative marketing campaigns for some of the nation’s top business and consumer marketers.
During that time, I’ve seen [...]