Cleveland Marketing Consultant

Accounting and Tax Ramifications of Issuing Stock Options

 Click here to view Part 1 of our series and learn more about the stock option landscape.

To give you more perspective, first let us review the accounting treatment for the issuance of stock options (rest easy - this will not be too painful). When stock options are issued, an expense must be recorded based on the value of the option. A stock option’s value is derived from a variety of factors, two of which are the value of the stock as of the date of the option grant and the exercise price of the option (the price at which the option holder can purchase a share of stock). Determining the value of a company’s stock is not difficult when it is publicly traded, but privately-held companies do not have readily available market prices, which necessitates the services of a valuation expert. Unless the option is properly valued, a company cannot correctly record the associated compensation expense. If a company is unable to correctly record the results of its operations, it may find obtaining a clean audit opinion to be a difficult, if not impossible, task.

Now that I have warned you about the headaches that you may encounter on the “accounting” side of issuing stock options, let me further alarm you with the tax ramifications. If a company sets the stock option exercise price lower than the fair market value of its stock on the grant date, the stock option could be deemed to be deferred compensation according to Internal Revenue Code 409A. Under 409A, such deferred compensation would be immediately taxable to the employees receiving the grant and subject to regular income tax rates plus 1%. Perhaps even more distressing, a 20% penalty plus interest would also be triggered. In addition, employers would be responsible for withholding income taxes for employees on these types of option grants, which if not done, could result in additional tax penalties. The immediate taxability, penalty and withholding requirements do not apply when the stock option exercise price is equal to or greater than the fair market value of the company’s stock on the grant date. It is impossible to compare the exercise price of a stock option to the fair market value of a company’s stock unless a valuation of the company’s stock has been performed. In addition, when a valuation has been performed to establish the fair market value of a company’s stock, the burden of proof shifts to the IRS to disprove the appraised value. Therefore, unless there is documentation to support the fair market value of a company’s stock near the option grant date, there could be significant tax issues in addition to the accounting issues alluded to earlier.

The information in this article is not meant to represent legal or tax advice. Please consult with a Skoda Minotti business valuation professional or your tax/legal advisor regarding the applicability of these issues to your particular situation.

Visit us tomorrow for Part 3: What to Do?

In the meantime, visit our web site for more information on our business valuation services. Skoda Minotti is a CPA, business and financial advisory firm with offices in Cleveland and Akron.
 

2010 Real Estate and Construction Survey

Skoda Minotti is conducting our 3rd annual survey of the Northeast Ohio real estate and construction industries. Every participant who completes the questionnaire will receive a free copy of the survey results and analysis and have a chance to win a $50 gift card to Dick's Sporting Goods.

The goal of the survey is to provide professionals in the real estate and construction industries in Northeast Ohio with the invaluable insight into their industries.

As an added bonus, one out of every 20 survey participants will be randomly selected to receive a $50 gift card to Dick's Sporting Goods. Note that only the first 100 survey participants will be eligible for the gift cards, so act quickly.

Click here to complete the real estate or the construction survey.

Please feel free to contact Bob Goricki at bgoricki@skodaminotti.com or 440-449-6800 with any questions related to the survey.

Green Building & Green Leasing: What is it, and why should I care?

By Peter D. Brosse, Esq., Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis

Since the establishment of Earth Day, the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and issues brought to public light by the Oil Embargo in the early 1970's, Americans have become more sensitive to the environment and use of resources, including petroleum. However, we still continue to use many of the same chemicals, gasoline and other resources as we did before, subject, however, to regulation.  Recently, a revolution has begun with new attention to conserving energy and resources. This new "green revolution" is evident with the use of a new vernacular that has entered into our common language. Only a few years ago, such words as "green","sustainable," "renewable energy," "greenwashing," "LEED" and "Energy Star" were rarely, if ever, used.  Today, these are part of everyday speech. Nowhere has this "green revolution" been more evident than in the real estate industry.  Such words as "building green" and "green leasing" are commonly heard and many articles are written about the subject. When discussing green building and green leasing, the question that owners, developers and tenants typically ask is "What is it, and why should I care?"

Is there a difference between "green" and "sustainable?"

Yes, there is a significant difference.  When one considers green building or green leasing, it is really sustainability and not "green" that is the focus. "Green" generally means to be environmentally friendly. To be "sustainable" means more. When one refers to sustainability, it takes into consideration the life cycle of a product or a building. To say a product is sustainable, one needs to look at processes, procedures, materials, how the product is manufactured, and whether the product can be reused or ultimately finds its way to the landfill.

Click here for more of this article.

Residential Real Estate: Making Modifications Work
By Brian Bader

Lew Ranieri, often credited with creating the mortgage-backed securities industry when he was at Salomon Brothers in the early 1980s, has returned to try to save America from the worst effects of that accomplishment. In 2008, Ranieri established the Selene Residential Mortgage Opportunity Fund, raising money primarily from foundations and pension funds, to buy and restructure failed mortgages created to feed the securitization process. In doing so, he is showing how mortgage modifications can work - and why the federal home-owners modification program (HAMP) has done so poorly by comparison.

Click here for more of this article.

CMBS: Special Servicers
By John Tax

Special servicers are the firms trying to correct mortgage loans in the later stages of delinquency or in actual default. Their role has become increasingly important as a result of the tremendous number of troubled loans According to a report by Standard & Poor's (S&P), servicers have been training their staffs to address the unique aspects of these loans, packaged as commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS). Almost 50 percent of these unresolved assets are loans originated in 2006 and 2007. Many of the loans are more complex than older ones, which mean it takes longer to resolve them, either by a full workout, a discounted payoff or foreclosure sale. Because of the time period in which they originated, many of the newer loans lack some of the safeguards present in the commercial loans originated before 2004.

Click here for more of this article.

Securitization: Covered Bonds
By Anthony La Malfa

The use of covered bonds as a source of home-mortgage funds is being encouraged by the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) because they offer much greater certainty for the bondholders with respect to damages and rights.

Covered bonds contain a key element that is missing in many commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS), i.e., a double layer of protection for investors, with the asset being backstopped by the issuer of the securities. The key difference between CMBS and covered bonds is that the latter requires lenders to retain the default risk. On the other hand, covered bonds fail to provide a good option for private labels because they require a capital base to retain loans on balance sheets and do not provide the higher level of leverage that was available with CMBS.

Click here for more of this article.

Leases: Subordination Clause Could Harm Tenants
By David Tevlin

Commercial lease agreements often are long and complex, with clauses neither party may expect will ever be triggered by events. But sometimes they are. One such is the lease subordination clause, by which the tenant agrees the lease is subordinate to any present or future mortgage that the landlord may put on the property. Accordingly, foreclosure of a mortgage (depending on the law of the state involved) either will automatically terminate the lease or entitle the lender, at its option, to terminate the lease.

Click here for more of this article.

Legal View: Second Circuit Rejects Champerty Defense
By Alvin Arnold

Champerty is not a word often heard these days, even though it is a living doctrine in modern law and on occasion has real bite. In a recent case, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a trial court ruling that had dismissed a mortgage trust's suit for indemnification for loan losses from the originator. Trust for Certificate Holders of Merrill Lynch Mortgage Investors v. Love Funding Corp., 391 F.3d 116 (C.A.2, N.Y.). However, the reasoning of the decision leaves some room for the distressed debt markets to be concerned.

Click here for more of this article.

Migration: Major Shifts
By Andrew Dalecki

Every type of real estate - housing, business, retail, and office - is impacted by population movements across the U.S. and across its borders. In its most recent report, based on new Census numbers, the Brookings Institution says the past ten years saw the greatest migration slowdown since the end of World War II. Significant events were the housing bubble and the worst recession in more than half a century, as well as major storms and terrorist attacks.

Click here for more of this article.

Cleveland Market Overview

Signs are pointed towards recovery for commercial real estate in Cleveland.  The vacancy rate was down over the previous quarter, with net absorption totaling positive 293,238 square feet in the first quarter.  In fact, with the exception of the Southwest and Downtown's Financial and Warehouse submarkets; all markets posted a positive overall net absorption for the first quarter of 2010.  The Cleveland office market ended 1st Quarter with a slight decrease in the overall vacancy rate, 21.8%, as sublease space outperformed direct deals.  Another good sign; rental rates are stabilizing, ending the first quarter at $17.90 per square foot. 

Nationally, as job losses abate and turn into employment gains across various industries and geographies, more markets are moving towards recovery.  This includes Cleveland because we lacked the high stock of inventory that plagued more developed markets (Las Vegas, Phoenix, Florida).  Cleveland should be in a good position to rebound quicker than other markets and continue to see an increase in activity and deal flow.

More information on the real estate markets in North America is available courtesy of Jones Lang LaSalle .  For questions on this information, please contact Andrew Coleman or J.R. Fairman at (216) 861-7171.

Sports Sponsorships – Inside the Lines

With the economic downturn hitting the sports world just as hard as any other business – just ask the hometown Cleveland Indians – teams are looking to squeeze out any extra bit of possible revenue.

Walk into any professional sports stadium today and you’ll immediately be bombarded by advertising in a variety of different formats. In fact, it might seem that you see ads everywhere except for on the field. That is, unless you attend certain NFL training camps this summer.

The NFL now allows teams to sell sponsored space on their practice jerseys and many teams are taking advantage. Could game day jerseys be the next item up for bid?

While the idea of our major professional sports teams wearing sponsored jerseys may seem strange to American sports fans, European sports have been embracing this concept for quite some time and for great financial gain. Last season, jersey sponsorships across Europe’s top six soccer leagues accounted for 393.2 million euros ($561 million).

These types of revenue figures could sound more and more appealing to our major sports leagues in the near future. What are your thoughts on jersey sponsorship? Let us know with a comment below.

Looking for “out-of-the-box” thinking from your marketing efforts? Contact Skoda Minotti Marketing Services at 440-449-6800 for more information.

Topics: Akron Marketing Services, Cleveland Marketing Services

Shortly after being drafted, Lebron James signed a seven-year, $90 million endorsement deal with Nike. In 2006, Tiger Woods earned $20 million from Nike for promoting their golf division and that deal was just one small portion of their $1.7 billion advertising budget – that year, they spent $476 million on endorsements.  And, in 2009, Catherine Zeta-Jones will earn $20 million for encouraging us to undergo a mobile makeover with T-Mobile. 

Considering society’s fascination with celebrities, this doesn’t seem strange.  After all, when Michael Jackson passed away, Twitter, and even Google, temporarily crashed. People can’t get enough of their favorite celebrities. But do we care enough about them to buy what they tell us to?  According to a recent study, not really.
 
Only 8% of respondents said seeing a celebrity in an ad made them more likely to buy; conversely, 12% said seeing a celebrity made them less likely to buy.  Women and people in management positions are slightly more willing to make a purchase based on a celebrity endorsement, with only 11% saying a celebrity is a deterrent. The majority of other demographic groups, however, are less receptive to celebrity endorsements with respondents over 55 being least receptive with 24% saying that seeing a celebrity in an ad makes them less likely to buy.

So, don’t have the money to pay Lebron James to endorse your product? Fortunately, an endorsement from James down the street might be just as influential.

Have questions about your advertising strategy? Contact Skoda Minotti Marketing Services at 440-449-6800.

Topics covered: Cleveland Advertising Firms, Cleveland Marketing Consultant, Akron Marketing Services

Next time you’re out shopping, take notice of the amount of products claiming to be “environmentally friendly.” Do you believe these claims?

TerraChoice, an eco-consulting firm, took a closer look at the claims of almost 4,000 products claiming to be “natural and environmentally friendly.” The results were surprising – almost all of the claims were found to be “false or misleading.” Greenwashing, as it is known, means that consumers may find it harder than ever to know what claims to trust.

Wal-Mart, however, wants to change that. The retail giant announced earlier this month that it will require “all of its product suppliers to calculate the environmental costs of their products.” Wal-Mart will then calculate a “green rating” for the product and display it near the price tag. Suppliers that fail to comply will be banned from Wal-Mart shelves. The process is expected to take four years.

This is a major sign that companies will not longer be able to market their products as “green” without actually backing up the claim. In other words, it won’t be so easy being green.

Looking for a Cleveland Marketing Consultant? Contact Skoda Minotti at 440-449-6800.

"Pay-Per-Click," or PPC,” is a method of online advertising that's measurable, flexible and very fast. PPC ads are paid listings that appear above and to the right of the free listings on Google, Yahoo, and other search engines. To be listed in a search engine’s PPC’s results you pay/bid in an auction like manner. With PPC you only pay for the ads that are clicked on, so in addition to being able to quickly, measure the effectiveness of your ad, you can also track and justify your results and costs.
 

For example, in the illustration above, someone in need of financial services, presumably in the Cleveland area, searched on Google for “Cleveland financial planning services”. This screen shot shows the first four choices and links that are available from about 614,000 results. In looking at the PPC results on the right, the folks that own www.USdirectory.com, have the highest PPC position, probably paid the most to be there, and by virtue of top positioning are probably most likely to get clicked by the searcher. If someone does click on the ad, US Directory.com, will then pay what ever their cost per click bid was. If the searcher elected to click on the second sponsored link, “Cleveland Financial”, Skoda Minotti, (it’s our ad and we are not ashamed to pimp it) would pay.

The important difference to remember when looking at PPC vs. other kinds of paid advertising is that you don't pay until someone clicks. So while in a TV or radio campaign, you pay for all the eyes and ears (i.e., impressions) that could potentially see and/or hear your message. With PPC, you only pay for those that are actually interested in your company. The impressions, while still valuable from an awareness standpoint will cost you nothing.

Looking for a Cleveland Marketing Consultant? Contact Skoda Minotti Marketing Services at 440-449-6800.

Topics: Akron Marketing Services, Cleveland Marketing Consultant, Cleveland Marketing Services

Despite a difficult economy, you may want to think twice about cutting events from your marketing budget. Events are great way to not only attract prospective customers to your product or service, but they also present a chance for you to stay top of mind and potentially drum up business from your existing customers. 

Here are a few tips to lower your event budget:

Partner up to bring costs down: Rather than hosting an event solo, consider adding a partner to the event to help cover costs. In addition to splitting the costs with your partner company, you’ll also increase the size of your invite list and bring more fresh faces into the room for networking purposes.

Breakfast…It’s the most important meal of the day: Planning on feeding your attendees? You can reduce your food budget by a significant amount by holding your event at breakfast instead of lunch or dinner. Additionally, you should improve your attendance rate due to the fact that attendees are likely heading to your event first thing in the morning before they get caught up in other tasks at the office.

When in doubt…Webinar: Webinars are great for several reasons. First, they keep your costs to a minimum by eliminating the venue costs and the catering fees. Second, they are reusable. You can easily post a webinar to your company’s web site and visitors can download the audio or video file at any time. Finally, since attendees can watch your webinar from anywhere, this event can literally spread your message to laptops across the country.

As always, to maximize the value of any event, don’t forget to follow up after the event while it’s still fresh in people’s minds.

Looking for a Cleveland Marketing consultant? Contact Skoda Minotti Marketing Services at 440-449-6800.

Ever wondered why car manufacturers abandoned the descriptive car names of the good ole’ days such as Rabbit, Monte Carlo or Imperial in favor of the seemingly random assortment of letters and numbers such as the DTS, CLK or the G6-GXP?

According to this article, the trend originally began with luxury car manufacturers in the 1970s that found it easier and less expensive to advertise and build the name of one brand with various model numbers rather than multiple model names.

This naming strategy may be starting to rub consumers the wrong way, however. One example cited in the article is that owners of BMW’s 3-Series feel that they are looked at as a lower class than owners of the 5- or 7-Series.

This is a lesson to keep in mind when you are expanding or adding a new product line. A name says a lot about your product and can influence how consumers view your company and your brand.

The best way to be sure your name will positively enhance your brand is to do your research. Internal and external testing as well as focus groups and surveys can help to ensure that you are on the right track with your name.

Looking for help improving your brand image? Contact Skoda Minotti Marketing Services at 440-449-6800.

Topics: Akron Marketing Services, Cleveland Marketing Consultant, Cleveland Marketing Services.

If you’re like just about every other business professional these days, sales are down, new business efforts are up and it’s time for you to get out…and start networking.  I know what you’re thinking.  I hate networking.  I’m painfully uncomfortable talking to a bunch of people I don’t know.  I don’t know what events to attend …etc.  I get it.  For most of us networking is as unnatural as a palm tree on the shores of Lake Erie, but the reality of the times is this:  You have to start doing something to drive sales and networking, when done right, works.

Networking that builds business is not just circulating through a room exchanging business cards. Networking done right is creating a pool of contacts from which you can draw clients, referrals, resources, ideas, and information. To be successful, your business network can and should contain colleagues, competitors, a wide range of business people, and personal friends, as well as clients and prospects.

Meeting people at organized events is one of the easiest ways to build an extensive business network. The first key to effective networking is choosing the right kind of events to attend.  In Northeast Ohio, regardless of what industry you are in, there is no shortage of events to choose from.  A good source for learning what events are happening and when, are the event boards of the following web sites: Smart Business Magazine, Cleveland.com, Crain’s Cleveland Business, Cleveland Business Connects and/or Inside Business.  Clearly, there’s a lot to choose from, so when considering an event, try to make sure that the people attending are largely potential clients, and other professionals who may be able to refer business to you.

It is important to understand that successful networking does not always yield immediate results.  Think of it as planting seeds.  It may take some time before you efforts bear fruit.  Ultimately if you become known as a powerful resource for others, people will remember to turn to you with not only business referrals, but for suggestions, ideas, names of other people, etc. Networking keeps you visible to them.

Lastly, keep in mind, networking doesn’t end when the event is over.  Follow-up and ongoing contact is a key component to successful business development.  When you get back from an event, make sure you add any new clients to your contacts database and flag those contacts so that they can receive any future communications from your company (i.e., e-newsletters, e-blasts, holiday cards, etc.)  You should also consider forwarding these people relevant articles, events or web sites that you come across that you think may be of interest to them. 

The hardest part of networking is getting out the door and to the events. Set a goal for yourself to attend at least one networking function each month and before you know it, the faces in the crowd won’t seem quite so unfamiliar and you’ll be on your way to building your own business network.

Looking for a Cleveland or Akron marketing consultant to help you with your networking initiatives? Contact Skoda Minotti Marketing Services at 440-449-6800.

The dummy here is me.  Or was me up until just a couple weeks ago.  While Twitter has approximately 4-5 million users, about 70% of whom are estimated to be active users, the concept was still somewhat strange to me.  Twitter allows users to answer the question, “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less and, even though I can’t imagine why people would care that I am “Now contemplating marathon #3…” or was “In the middle of a nice little weekend =)” last Saturday, the site still grew 974% in 2008 and is now the 291st most popular website so it seems people are interested in that kind of information.

(Sidebar: If you do care, feel free to follow me on Twitter @JLB7700!)

Since Twitter’s popularity is pretty undeniable, setting up business accounts has become a popular marketing tool that allows you to provide clients and contacts with up-to-the-minute information on your company, direct traffic to your website or blog, discuss what’s going on in your industry, solicit feedback from clients, highlight promotions, let clients know about upcoming events, etc.  It’s important to be sensitive about your followers’ time, however, by not tweeting too often, being relevant and being clear.

If you’re ready to try it out, here are some Twitter basics to help you get started:

• Tweet: Your answer to the question, “What are you doing?,” a.k.a. Twitter updates, entered at the top of the Home page
• Following: People whose Twitter updates show up on your Home page
• Followers: People who see your Twitter updates on their Home page
• Finding followers: Click on “Find People” at the top of the page and select Find on Twitter to search by name, select Find on other networks to allow Twitter to access your email to look for contacts, select Invite by email to suggest your contacts sign up for Twitter or select Suggested Users to see some of the more popular Twitterers (that’s not official terminology, it just sounds fun)
• Re-tweet: Re-posting a tweet one of the people you follow posted; This is done by typing “RT@username” and then, their tweet in the box at the top of the Home page
• @Replies: A public message sent from one person to another, they’re distinguished from normal Twitter updates by the @username prefix and are visible to all users on the @username tab of your home page.  Adding an “@” before a username is also a way to make a username into a link that goes directly to a profile.
• Direct messages: A private message sent from one person to another, they can only be sent to you from one of your followers & are visible only to you on the Direct Message tab of your home page
• Getting started:
    - Go to Twitter and click on Get Started – Join!
    - Follow the instructions to get your account set up and maybe
      find some followers
    - Personalize your profile by clicking on Settings at the top of
      the page – be sure to add a website and a one line bio on the
      Account tab and a picture on the Picture tab
    - Follow @SkodaMinotti to link to recent blog posts, read our
      e-newsletter, hear what’s going on at the firm, etc.

 

If you’re familiar with Facebook, you’ve no doubt heard at least one of your Facebook friends complain about the popular social networking site’s new look. (If you’re not familiar with Facebook, stop reading this article and join the 175 million users around the world – after you’ve done so, come back, finish the article and learn how the new Facebook can be beneficial to your business).

 

What may have been lost in the shuffle amongst the discussion over the look of the personal profiles is the redesigned “Page” feature. Many businesses as well as actors, musicians and other public personas use the Page feature to share news, photos, videos and other items of interest with their “fans” (Facebook users who have voluntarily joined the Page).

 

Taking advantage of a Page to help market your business can be a great (and free!) way to keep you top of mind with your fans.

 

For a business, the new Pages have several benefits.

 

·          Status updates – Status updates are the manner in which a company adds new content to its page. Having a sale? – update your status. Adding a product? – update your status. Post a new blog? – update your status. The key here is that more (relevant) updates that your company has, the more often you’ll appear in front of your fans via their status updates.

·          Redesigned Wall – The Wall is now the focus of the page – very similar to personal Facebook pages. Here, fans and non-fans can see what your business has been up to lately via your status updates. With the Wall being the focus of the page, it will become more important to update content frequently to keep your page from appearing stale. Additionally, your wall gives your fans a chance to interact with you by commenting on your latest status updates.

 

·          Tabs – The “tabbed” look that personal pages have taken on also applies to the new business pages. This allows for a more organized look and allows you more customization over what your fans see.

 

 

As the Page feature is free (for now), it can’t hurt to try it out. To learn more, check out Facebook’s overview of the new Page feature.

 

Looking for a Cleveland Marketing consultant? Contact Skoda Minotti Marketing Services at 440-449-6800.

 

According to Nielsen, social networking has overtaken e-mail as the most popular Internet activity.  Nearly two-thirds of the world’s Internet users visited a social networking site like Facebook or MySpace in 2008 and almost 10% of all time spent on the Internet was spent on social media sites, with Facebook being the most popular of these.

This time isn’t just being spent posting pictures and SuperPoking people.  Businesses are creating fan pages and using them to market to and communicate with current and potential employees.  Facebook is even revamping these pages to make it easier for companies to sell their products. 

Concerned you won’t reach the right target audience?  Facebook’s greatest growth is among 35 – 49 year olds and more users aged 50 – 64 are signing up than those under 18.  Either way, setting up a fan page is free and easy. 

40.8% of users are still college-aged, 18-24 year olds, though, which is why we set up the Skoda Minotti Fan page to attract new employees.  In addition to providing overview information about the firm, we let potential employees see what our corporate culture is like through pictures from events and videos.  Every time someone becomes our fan, all of their friends are notified which puts our name in front of countless people.  Can’t argue with that kind of free exposure.

Looking for a Cleveland public relations consultant? Contact Skoda Minotti Marketing Services at 440-449-6800.

Sometimes we need a reminder to do our homework – especially when launching a national rebranding campaign of a popular product. Tropicana recently provided us with a text-book case study of why it pays to know your audience before you go to market.

Only months after introducing a new look for its Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice, the company is scrapping the new packaging to return to its classic look. The change came after Tropicana was flooded with letters, emails and blog postings complaining that the redesign was “ugly” and resembled a “generic bargain brand.”

Total cost of this branding debacle: $35 million. Not to mention, alienated customers across the country who were upset with the packaging change.

Tropicana eventually did the right thing (and avoided a complete public relations disaster) by listening to its audience and making the change back to the old packaging. Unfortunately for Tropicana, this situation was avoidable.

The lesson here is not to take your customers for granted. This entire problem could have been avoided if Tropicana had done a little more market research into its own customers. Had they done so, they would have most likely come to same conclusion that cost them millions of dollars: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

This case study underlines why a branding campaign cannot be conducted in a vacuum.  Market research, testing and knowing your audience, both internal and external, are critical components of any rebranding process. Not taking these elements into account can quickly result in disaster.

A logo is a vital identifier that customers/prospects use to associate an organization with its products or services. The professionalism and attractiveness of a logo will immediately create a perception for the customers/prospects regarding a company’s level of integrity, product quality, player status and overall brand identity. These perceptions, right or wrong, are the factors that many customers use to measure a product or service before making a choice. A “hokey” logo can cheapen the perception of the company or product.

A few things to keep in mind when evaluating yours:

·          Overall, a logo should have a connection and association with the business image of the company or product it is representing.

·          It should be simple, short, and able to be used in a wide variety of applications, easy to remember and appear unique in a crowd of many others.

·          When designing a logo it is vital to design something that can “stand the test of time” and not require constant revisions.

·          While complex multicolor logos can be “eye-catchers,” they are not very practical. Four-color process logos are more expensive to reproduce than spot color. And they do not transfer well in applications where production requirements need to be simplified (i.e., embroidered shirt, two-color / b & w collateral). This will hurt your brand image.

·          When considering size and color it is best to select a design that can be easily reproduced and read when printed and viewed off of a fax machine, printed on brochures, business cards, letterheads or on-line.

If you feel your logo doesn’t meet with any or all of these guidelines, contact us; we are experts at taking logos from good to great.

Looking for help with your logo from a Cleveland marketing consultant? Contact Skoda Minotti Marketing Services at 440-449-6800.

How many news stories have started with, “in these economic times” over the past several months?  Too many to count, in all likelihood – here’s another one: In these economic times, companies need to be more creative with how they communicate their marketing message to their target audience. 

One inexpensive way to ensure positive things are being said about your company is by keeping your employees happy. While they may not spend their Saturdays sharing the virtues of your company like this Hewlett Packard employee did, they will be more likely to promote your brand throughout every day interaction with clients, business contacts and even family and friends.

Although a client or business contact may come in contact with your brand in a number of ways – website, e-newsletter, voice mail message, email signature, advertisements, promotional items, etc. – the most powerful brand ambassadors you have are your employees.  Keep them happy and you will have a marketing tactic that everyone can appreciate…in these economic times.
 
Looking for a marketing consultant to help with your branding initiatives? Contact Skoda Minotti Marketing Services at 440-449-6800.
 

Have you ever finished reading a new product press re but by the end of the article still had no idea what the item did or why it was important? The most likely culprit? Jargon. We become so familiar with our jargon at work that, often times, we forget that not everyone uses TPS reports.

Dropping jargon into casual conversation with those outside your company might not cause too many problems, but jargon can be dangerous to a public relations campaign. A recently released survey of 1,214 American homeowners and investors suggested that 84 percent of consumers are more likely to trust a company that communicates in language that isn’t laced with jargon. 

What does this mean when you are marketing your business? It means that for next public relations campaign announcing your latest gadget, you should probably cut back on the technical details about the flux capacitor and give people a clearer idea of the benefits of the product. Especially if it’s capable of time travel.

Looking for a Cleveland Public Relations consultant? Contact Skoda Minotti Marketing Services at 440-449-6800.

www.skodaminotti.com/services/marketing.htmlFor someone who doesn’t like football, the best part of the Super Bowl is often the commercials.  For a Browns fan watching this year’s Super Bowl, they were the best part, but I digress… 

The cost of commercials in 2009 was $3 million for a 30-second spot – up 10% from $2.7 million in 2008 and up 17% from $2.5 million in 2007.  Companies like Pedigree, Castrol, Denny’s and 25 other advertisers spent this huge sum because they know that it serves them well to continue marketing in a down economy.  Plus, 97.5 million viewers watched last year’s Super Bowl, either on TV or online, and the same number of viewers was expected this year.  In fact, this year’s Super Bowl was the most-watched Super Bowl ever with 98.7 million viewers.  It was also the number two telecast of all time behind only the M*A*S*H series finale in 1983 which had 106 million viewers (and far less competition as there were far fewer channels at the time).

Add to that the fact that, even though we have the technology to fast forward through commercials, this is one show where people arguably look forward to the commercials as much as the game itself.  Actually, according to a 2005 survey in Advertising Age, “half of those who watch the Super Bowl in the United States tune in specifically for the adverts.”  This year’s commercials didn’t disappoint.  Nearly all of the commercials that tried to be funny were actually funny, in my opinion, so it was tough to pick a favorite.  An unreasonably small sampling of my family and friends found these ones to be the most popular (described in a similar way to how Friends episodes were named, they all started with “the one with”):

• Doritos – the one with the crystal ball and free Doritos.  This commercial was actually created by two unemployed brothers, not an ad agency.
• CareerBuilder.com – the one where a koala gets punched.
• Doritos – the one where Doritos gave an ordinary human superpowers…until he finished the bag.
• Bud Light – the one where a man was thrown out of a window for suggesting eliminating Bud Light from meetings as a way to cut costs.  Even though the first suggestion that was made was to cut back on marketing, this one was one of my favorites. 

1. Doritos – the one with the crystal ball and free Doritos.
2. Budweiser – the one with the horse romance.
3. Budweiser – the one where a horse fetches a tree.
4. Bridgestone – the one where Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head take a drive.
5. Doritos – the one where Doritos gave an ordinary human superpowers.

 
Click here to see who rounds out the top 10.

 To watch these commercials or any of the others, click here. 

Which one was your favorite?  Leave us a comment letting us know.

Looking for a marketing consultant? Contact Skoda Minotti Marketing Services at 440-449-6800.

Before I get to our first marketing blog entry, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. I’m Jonathan Ebenstein and I’ll be your author for the next ten or so paragraphs. I invite you to sit back, relax and open your mind.

If you’ve sifted at all through our Firm’s web site, you’d know that we are a CPA, Business and Financial Advisory firm.  We help our clients, mostly companies, grow their business through a myriad of professional services (i.e., Tax, Accounting & Auditing, IT, Financial Services, Litigation Advisory Services, Financial Staffing, etc.) Notice how well we just seamlessly cross sold our services.  Good stuff.  Keep reading.

What do I do?  Well up until January 31, 2009, I was in charge of the marketing department here at Skoda Minotti.  I’m the guy who with the help of my staff, re-branded the firm, wrote the marketing plan, handled all the public relations, negotiated, purchased and coordinated all the media, designed and wrote all the copy for our sales materials, website, advertising, blogs, e-newsletters, e-blasts and handled all the firm’s internal communications efforts. 

When we were done, as if you can ever be done marketing…BTW you can’t.  We looked around and thought, “Not too shabby. I bet we can help other companies do the same thing.”  And you know what? We can.  And we are going to.

On Feb 1, 2009 Skoda Minotti Marketing Services was launched (cue Chariots of Fire sound track).Wait a minute.  Hold on.  You’re going to launch a marketing service group during this economy?Yep.  And here’s why.

Down economies are actually the best time to ramp up your marketing efforts. It’s true. Recessions actually create unique marketing opportunities for companies that, if leveraged properly, can render your marketing efforts even more successful. Here’s why:

·          Since most people slash their budgets and pull back their marketing efforts during an economic slow down, there’s less “clutter” to compete against.

·          With less marketing messages for your target audience to sift through, the easier it is for them to see your message… and only your message.

·          Supply and demand.  With less demand for space and air time, media outlets will be more willing to make deals, such as decreased rates, increased placements, better placements and even category exclusivity.

·          Strengthen your brand.  Marketing during a down economy tells your customers and prospects that your company is confident in its staying power.

Then, when the economy pendulum swings back up, the companies, hopefully yours, that proactively marketed themselves during the downturn will have put themselves in a position to seize market share, reach new customers, and strengthen brand loyalties while their competitors are busy playing catch-up.

Looking for a Cleveland marketing consultant? Contact Skoda Minotti Marketing Services at 440-449-6800.