Brand Building - Good News/Bad News

I read a news item today published by a manufacturing industry trade journal announcing that a supplier hired an agency to handle their PR and marketing needs. The first surprise, and there were a couple, is that the release was covered by a web site for the manufacturers industry.

Kudos to the agency for remembering to include that site in their media list. Most agencies would have restricted the distribution of this type of release to the media centric - advertising/PR/marketing - publications, not those where their client needs coverage.

That's the good news.

At the end of the release was the usual close, the contact information for the agency. What is remarkable about this is the e-mail address, it's an AOL account. Now I don't know about you, but using a branded (read that domain specific) e-mail is one of the key factors in building the recognition for you, your company and your products.

That's the bad news. Shame on this agency for forgetting a basic fundamental of brand marketing.


Marketing is more than PR or advertising, it's about building a perception about your reality in the eyes of your buying public. Using a branded e-mail address is part of the process.

Keeping it all together

Digital Nomads has struck again.

Jay White's recent post about 'Tools of the Trade" struck a chord for me. Managing documents, bookmarks and other user specific information when out of the office is a real pain for most of us. Dealing with these issues has us trying to sync various settings on desktops and laptops.

Jay's post offers a number of solutions to make our traveling easier and productive without the headaches.