No ones personal brand is more consistent and organic than the mellow Hawaiian singer, song writer, and film maker Jack Johnson. Jack Johnson’s brand is so organic that it comes with a USDA stamp right on it. Johnson’s smooth, mellow, laid back style is as even keeled as the sound of his acoustic guitar.

Johnson’s brand is very strong and his consistency of presentation is very high. Concertgoers and album buyers know exactly what to expect from Johnson and he always delivers right on point. Because of this his brand has flourished despite the waning market for musicians. But with all of this mellow predictability Johnson has been criticized for being to dependable and not exciting enough.

The solution Johnson has always been great at using his temperate persona in juxtaposition to other more flamboyant characters or diverse images. Johnson is very savvy at utilizing unique video content that plays perfectly with his mellow style. He paints his basic character against a colorful wall of creativity to create dynamic experiences.

Some perfect examples are Johnson’s video for Taylor Featuring comedian Ben Stiller. Stiller’s neurotic and fast paced character was perfectly infused with Johnson’s to create a memorable and exciting moment that was refreshing for Johnson’s brand.

In Johnson’s Sitting, Waiting, Wishing video he pitted him self as a static character immersed in a chaotic setting where the world was going backwards as he went forwards steadily just strumming his guitar as things burst into flames, food fly’s at him and he is thrown around the room. This creative video was the perfect way to spice up a predictable brand with out deviating from the essence of the brands message. You have the character or brand behaving predictably in an unpredictable environment.

Jack Johnson latest juxtaposed interactive branding effort will be sure to draw some excitement. In Johnson new interactive marketing campaign he pits him self against the rebel-rousing comedian Andy Samberg in the Andy Samberg vs. Jack Johnson “At or With Me” Teaser. The campaign is complete with a landing page pitting the two characters against each other and the whole thing is integrated with a Facebook ”like” function allowing users to vote on who they think will be victorious in the brawl.

This campaign works because of how unexpected it is. No one would ever expect the mellow Johnson to engage in a brawl so by pairing him with a comedian know for stirring things up think Samberg and Justin Timberlakes SNL skit “dick in a box” and you get a brand experience that is sure to infuse some excitement into even the most predictable brand.

This technique works with out diluting or degrading the brand because the application of juxtaposition is so unexpected that it is immediately recognized as humor, but it is not so predictable that viewers will over look the message in the “snow blind” way that static brand messages often are.

So if your brand feels to static and tired now might be the right time to use a little brand juxtaposition to breath some fresh air into your brand.

At first when you load the site you might be confused by all of the windows that quickly queue in the lower right corner causing your initial reaction to think you are getting hit by spam pop ups. However the site utilizes HTML5 embedded video to guide the user through the interactive experience that also includes very user friendly drawing board and post card creation interface.

Check out the video it is very exciting and hopeful an indicator of fresh new creative interactive media sites to come. You will need a Google Chrome Browser to view the video given that the HTML5 video is only embedded properly on this browser type and it does not feature cross browser capabilities.

It will be interesting to see HTML5 as it pushes to replace flash and with Google jumping on the HTML5 wagon along with Apple whose ipad and ipod devices do not support flash we should see more development utilizing HTML5 over flash.

So what has spawned my sudden enthusiasm for well…enthusiasm! Willy the owner and operator of a small hot dog shop in North Hollywood called Vicious Dogs. Willy has enough enthusiasm for all of us. He runs his small hot dog restaurant with passion and pride and he displays his enthusiasm at every turn.

From the moment you walk into Vicious Dogs your are quickly greeted by a jovial “hello how can I help you today!” Quickly with out the slightest prompting he will pitch you the dogs off of his menu quicker than the reverend can spout the gospel. His great chrism is followed by a trite story “this is the dog that built this restaurant” as he displays like he is a man passionate about hot dogs but he is no huckster he is just a enthusiastic friend sitting behind a counter ready to give you the best hot dog in the world.

Now the hot dog was amazing but I have a feeling that he could have served a basic ketchup and mustard hot dog on white bread and you would have left there satisfied.

The reason for this is he didn’t limit his enthusiasm to cooking the hot dog routinely he walks through the restaurant thanking his patrons for eating at his restaurant and immediately gathering feedback on their experience. He is truly invested in his customers happiness and effortlessly he builds customer loyalty. His enthusiastic business approach didn’t stop there. As soon as the line in his restaurant disappeared he quickly strolled out side and with in minutes his upbeat conversation had lured five new customers right into the shop ready to try out his energetic hot dog creations.

So what can we learn from this? It doesn’t matter who you are or what your business is people are drawn to enthusiasm. The simple act of being enthusiastic about his hot dogs was enough to entice people to take a shot on his restaurant.

As small business owners and entrepreneurs we are always up against the big guys in the industry but one way they can never compete with the hands-on business owner is in the area of passion. Your passion and enthusiasm for what you do is a competitive advantage that can not be easily duplicated or manufactured but it is quickly contagious, your employes and co-workers will be instantly struck by your enthusiasm allowing them to utilize their own internal enthusiasm.

Going forward don’t be afraid to let your patrons and co-workers see your passion let them share in your enthusiasm. Sharing enthusiasm is the perfect brand building platform. When we experience a brand with genuine enthusiasm it sticks with us and we feel like we where apart of a magic moment! Build loyalty with your customers and establish a strong competitive advantage using the power of “enthusiasm”

Be like Willy and let the enthusiasm fly!

Your business personality is important and often times for small business and solopreneurs the presence of the owners personality is a vital part of its success but therein lies the problem. In standard office and corporate environments people are reminded to leave their personal life, problems, worries etc.. at home but for the passionate entrepreneur this can be troubling how do you leave theses things at the door when their is little separation between your work life and home life. You constantly take your work home and your personal life to work.

So what happens when personal troubles seep into your business? Making your personal troubles and drama present in your enterprise can be shockingly detrimental to your business at times even crippling. It is important to remember that often times the professionals your business services or works with are not prepared to deal with your home life and they don’t want to.

Building that work life balance we often hear reference to is crucial to preserve the integrity of your organization even if you are a solopreneur. Bringing toxic negativity to your work is a simple way to destroy your brand and alienate your patrons. Your first rule should always be to never make your personal problems the problems of your associates, patrons or customers. Everyone has their own problems and although your transparency of character has served you well in business it will not do you justice to tarnish that with a infiltration of personal problems.

We have seen how the recent marital dramas of the Los Angeles Dodger owners the Mccourts has had a troubling effect on the organization as a whole steaming all the way down to the club house.

Just remember don’t be a toxicpreneur, keeping your positivity up even during the down times will server your organization right and lead to continued loyalty amongst customers and employees.

Your business is you but your business should always be the best face of you, just like any brand, consistency of character is key and if you show inconsistency and draw too much negative attention your brand will suffer.

Companies that created multiple listings would often find that their listing would be automatically merged by Google with their initial listing and than removed from the map as stated in the Google Quality Guidelines.

Finally Google has giving that option in the Google Local Business center dashboard for participating business members to state if they are a mobile service provider and they can even outline they cities they service specifically.

This changes the optimization and SEO factors for listings to a more traditionally relevancy model that Google uses for its natural organic search, the difference being that their are parameter set for local areas and zip code inclusion. It will be interesting to see of this new dynamic will affect search rankings for local businesses.

This is a great feature for consumers because now searches can see the best 10 businesses with the highest reviews that service their area rather than just the local businesses that are in their zip code. It also looks to be a great for small business people! As expected with all Goggle projects there will be some bugs but hopefully through crowd sourcing they will continue to evolve the local search beyond its current state.

If you have a local business listing be sure to adjust the local setting: Look for the Service area & Location Settings dialogue box. (see image to left) You can than

select if you provide services at your place of business or if you provide services at i.e. a plumber, roofer, & electrician.

A user can select to hide their address from search results. (this is a good option for business that work from home)

Users have the option to either choose a radius around their location, or you can choose specific cities that your business services.

The outlined service area will appear as the image below. Once you have covered your service area resubmit your listing and you are good to go.

With the rise of our current economic recession and massive layoff’s across most industries we are seeing a different bread of entrepreneurial thought. Rather than setting sail as a profiteer looking to take advantage of rising market trends and make some wonderful profits along the way, we are seeing the hungry entrepreneur taking flight out of necessity and a will to create a lifestyle that they are in control of.

With no job or a job that could be on its way out, an industry in shambles and this entrepreneur is in survival mode. Feed up with not being in control of ones own destiny and in search of a lifestyle not bourgeoning profits the entrepreneur sets out.

In recent months here at Zella Design we have seen a rapidly increasing amount of entrepreneurs who are taking the reigns and striving to launch new and interesting businesses.

“there comes a point when you say oh why not, I have nothing to loss its not like I have a job any more” declares a recent corporate world expat.

When entrepreneurship calls here is a basic guide to being a Spartan Entrepreneur cast off on the road against insurmountable odds but internally driven to hold your last bastion of the American dream.

Live humble:

Times are tight, capital resources are few and fleeting and start up capital is shallow. Being under capitalized can be a huge encumbrance on a start up business but they call it “bootstrapping” for a reason. In order to pull your self up from your bootstrap you need to live humble.

Avoid credit card debit – Debit is a sure fire way to sink your ship. If you must incur credit card debit as a form of start up capital keep it too a minimum and layout an aggressive payback plan. If you can slip by with just reinvesting profits from services render you will be much better off.

Limit your bills – you need to be able to take risk and be flexible, a heavy bill burden can hurt you. Know your expenditures and when you do your business plan decide what you can eliminate. The more freedom your cash has the better you will be situated to survive.

Keep your life simple – cars and houses are liabilities, in simplifying your life focus on assets that help your company move forward. If your capital is tied up in your mortgage, rent or car payment you will be severely limiting your ability to invest back into your company’s sustained growth.

If you are turning a profit – don’t race into expenditures, a little capital savings can be a vital assets during lean times, and these days there appears to be a lot of lean times.

Stay Nimble:

A young company needs to keep on their toes, you need to be able to pivot left and sprint when moments early you thought you where going right. Many successful start-ups stumbled upon their business model be taking an unexpected opportunity and driving towards it.

Be Adept at change - You wrote a business plan but a plan changes and you need to be able to adapt to change. Be solutions focused steer clear of over rationalizing and dwelling on problems. Focus on what is working and base your decisions on “bright spots”

Don’t get frustrated - You are performing research while you work, you don’t have time to research every possibility and analyze all factors. Many entrepreneurs perform their market research as they go along adapting their pitch, product, and service as they receive feedback from customers.

This was a very helpful tool for Zella design when we where starting out, it allowed us to trial test our product on consumers and get real feedback that helped us rapidly evolve our services to match the needs of our market.

Act Quickly! Have the ability to act quickly, in the corporate world there are layers and voids to be crossed in decision-making, but when you strike out on your own or with a small group decision-making can happen rapidly.

Don’t be afraid – to test new market trends or chase your passion. Larger companies will often wait to watch new markets develop that attempt to move into them once they show promise. If you can identify growth markets or developing markets and act quickly to capitalize on them you can position your company for success.

Lead don’t follow - Many small companies always look to copy and mimic what larger competitors are doing but the thing about being small, mobile and flexible is that you can take risk and act with a speed that will allow you to out flank larger competitors. Make the larger company chase you around, not the other way.

Discount your services - A great way to get your company going is to offer substantial discounts or even give a few products or services away. By doing this you entice customers to try you out and you also gain a portfolio. Consider it paid market research. If you satisfy your test run clients there will be more orders or referrals in your future.

Be hungry - Be willing to make tough decisions and gut out some down times while staying positive is a sure way to achieve success. Many soloperneurs and small start-ups fail because they lacked the guts to survive. You are at the bottom and you need to be willing to do what your competitors are not doing to survive.

Big established businesses become complacent and arrogant resulting in their diminished relevancy at the ground level. Stay hungry and you can stave off these problems.

As the founder you are the key to success, and you need to be willing to do what ever it takes. If you are willing to do what others are afraid to do you will drive your company forward. Make that extra phone call, follow up on every client, pound the pavement and scream the gospel of your product or service. Do not expect your employees to dig in the trenches for you if you are not right their side beside them.

As my professor Steve Abbott always said as a young entrepreneur you need to live a Spartan life; Live Humble, Stay Nimble

So how does Orange County fair in the world of Entrepreneurship? The bright minds over at California State University, Fullerton are posing that very question.

To help collect data I would like all my Orange County entrepreneurs out there to take the survey below so we can see just how entrepreneurial our county is!

Take the how entrepreneurial is Orange County Survey by California State University, Fullerton

Thank you

Twitter is often accused of being useless noise, it is estimated that roughly 40 percent of all  ”tweets” are just pointless ramblings. Twitter has shown some promise with its ability to disseminate information quickly to mass audiences. We have seen Twitter effectively utilized as a media and communication tool during disasters. The recent Haiti crisis further propelled Twitters legitimacy as a media tool as we saw everyday citizens share first hand news immediately.

So how can your small business utilize Twitter effectively in your marketing mix?

Web Site Integration: You can set up twitter to post your messages directly to a designated box or area on your companies web site. This can be a great feature allowing you to instantly post specials or news from wherever you area via phone or Internet with out requiring a CMS (content management system) on your web site. By publishing a quick special or offer you can effectively convert web site visitors to customers.

-See an example of how this site uses twitter to publish news and special offers to their home page

Networking: Twitter can be an effective networking tool if used properly. Twitter combines the direct personalization of a text message combined with the ability to mass send. Twitter can be a great way to communicate and network with people in and around your industry. The direct message feature is crucial in this process. You can also use twitter to update social networking statuses on Facebook and LinkedIn. If you are networking consider joining in on conversations and do not be afraid to have non-product related messages, showing that you are human can help you better connect.

Prospecting and Lead Generation: You can effectively search for and target users who could potentially be in the need of your services. By following users and using the direct message feature you can pitch your product or service. Inbound followers can also be a part of your lead generation strategy.

Brand Monitoring: Sign up for an account and listen for mentions of your name, product, service, competitors name, and words that relate to your space or business niche. Listening to what is being said in your industry, what consumers and users are saying and how your brand is being transmitted by its carriers is a vital process in ensuring proper brand communication and protecting the integrity of your name. Twitter also makes a great opinion gathering and polling platform that can be great for new product launches and idea gathering.

Information Dissemination: Twitter is one of the fastest ways to rapidly broadcast information, With twitter “retweet” features your message can circulate through numerous channels rapidly. If you have important news, information, articles, or blog posts twitter is a great way to attract readers to your message.

Emergency correspondence: In the instance of a disaster phone service generally gets temporarily blocked. Twitter is an effective tool to communicate during disasters. You can integrate twitter into your offices disaster and earthquake preparedness plan.

Trade Shows: For many small business trade shows represent a large portion if not nearly all of their marketing budget. Because of this reliance on trade shows for sales it is critical to maximize your time and activity at trade shows. Twitter can be effectivly used to track prospects and important clients activity and whereabouts so that you can connect with them or “tweetup”. You can also use Twitter to broadcast your activities and events to attract more visitors to your booth or demonstration.

All this being said there really is not a generic strategy for working Twitter into your marketing mix and business functions. By assessing your companies goals, positioning and brand while working with a social media marketing professional you can come up with effective ways to utilize this tool to help your small business grow.

Like all marketing activities it is important to monitor your activity and results. Here at Zella we utilize a free web based tool called HootSuite to manage all of our Twitter accounts. HootSuite helps us manage all of our Twitter accounts as well as clients Twitter accounts in one application. By managing multiple accounts on one dashboard we can effectively stream line Twitter use. Many of the built in applications can help businesses better mange their Twitter accounts. You can schedule tweets in advance, if you are reading an interesting article online you can immediately tweet it. If you blog you can set twitter to automatically tweet your blog posts.

The built in tracking feature allows you to monitor how many people have clicked on links contained in your tweets. HootSuite is also an effective tool for brand management all you need to do is set key terms you want to monitor in Twitter for example “Zella Design” and any time some one mentions your company it will show up on your dashboard. You can monitor positive and negative feedback and with a simple click you can get involved in brand conversations by directly messaging Twitter users.

This application also integrates with LinkedIn and Facebook so you can use it as a total business social media management tool.

Users are given the option of clicking the regular ad that directs the user to the advertisers web site or they can click the Yelp link that directs the user to the advertisers Yelp page. If the user clicks the Yelp link the advertisers is not charged for the click-through.

This is most likely a Google experiment that is close related to Googles current desire to acquire Yelp. Google has been pushing to develop their own local map feature with stronger ratings and information that rivals Yelps network. We will see if Google continues this practice and makes it a permanent feature in returned sponsored links.

Users currently don’t have any control over when or how their ad shows Yelp reviews or if they even show reviews at all. Google chooses at their own desecration to integrate Yelp reviews with ads on a semi random basis. From my observation Google will only show Yelp reviews in your advertisement if your business has a critical mass of 5 star ratings or ratings in general.

We will see if Google continues the practice encouraging more Google advertisers to build their Yelp reviews so that their Google Ads are more attractive. This will be an interesting new addition to advertising optimization on the Google ad network.

Google Search Showing Yelp Reviews in Sponsored Results

Not being familiar with the immediate area I decide to pull out my new Google Android phone and utilize the built in map search feature. I found the closest frozen yogurt shop on the map and traveled over there.

Later I found out that there was a Yogurtland shop 2 miles from my location I had driven 7 miles out of my way to visit the yogurt shop I found using the Google local map search. Yogurtlands failure to list their location on Google resulted in them missing out my sale.

The point is that in our search based society empowered by the blossoming of mobile technology it has become paramount to establish your business on local search maps. Small businesses cannot afford to forgo customers who are in their direct proximity as in the example of the yogurt shop.

Currently the Google Map reigns supreme and the listing process is relatively painless.

Go online today and see if your business is listed on the local search map in the appropriate category. If your business is present use the claim your listing feature to verify the listing and add additional information. If your business is not present follow the steps below to get your business location online.

- 1. Visit google.com/lbc Create a Google account if you don’t have one, or sign in with your account.

- 2. Enter information about your business, including address & phone, hours & more: You can even add photos of your business and coupons.

- 3. Verify that you own or run the business: Follow the instructions and enter a PIN code when you receive it, to complete the process.

- 4. Now you’re all set. You can log in daily to see how your business listing performs on Google, including how many times people found it, and what actions they took.

To get started today, visit the Local Business Center.