Introducing the sector-reviving, very green and uber-cool miniHome featuring a stand-alone, renewables-ready, hybrid propane-electric energy system.

It Stands Alone

This self-contained, off-grid recreational vehicle with up to 13 foot ceilings comes fully furnished and appointed with all appliances—even a microwave—for about USD $108k. Its designers boast, “You add the dishes, linens and the contents to the fridge and you’re ready to go.”

A Trailer?

The miniHome is a travel trailer fit for year-round living even in extreme climates. According to its website:

The miniHome RV is ideally suited to function as a ski chalet, cottage, vacation retreat, guest cabin, or luxurious, yet simple, home-away-from-home.

Slated to be featured on HGTV Canada later this month, the stylish miniHome is turning the stigma of living in a trailer on its head by creating value through smart design.

The Lesson Here?

Opportunities abound, even in a segment beleaguered with image baggage. Never count out a market, industry, or brand.

Is your brand a “green” miniHome or a vinyl-sided double wide?

Getting Through

Email is an effective and relatively inexpensive way to reach both current and prospective customers—if it gets delivered.

Don’t let incorrectly implemented authentication block your email communications. Authentication essentially identifies an email’s sender and holds them accountable for their email practices.

It’s Your Brand

Understanding and establishing the proper level of email authentication is critical to both delivery success and the ongoing reputation of your business in the marketplace. Authentication records should be considered an extension of your brand.

To learn more about the importance of email authentication—what’s involved and what’s at stake— read this article by David Baker of MediaPostPublications.

Are you authenticating?

It’s rudimentary, but when it comes to marketing your product or service, define the features, but sell the benefits.

Will it improve a business’ bottom line?
Will it enhance the user’s physical or emotional well-being?
Why should your customers care?

If you don’t know what your current or potential customers need or want, simply ask them. They’ll be more than happy to tell you.

To develop a successful marketing campaign, tailor your messaging to establish the benefit customers will derive from your product or service. Then take it to market.

Have a tailored campaign story to share?

After working with Deskey, a retail product branding consultancy for 18 months, Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank has released its new identity. Unfortunately, they traded in a readable, recognizable mark for a trendy, often parodied swoosh/horizon/.com logo (see before and after marks above).

Granted, the original mark with its 1980s Optima font was badly in need of an update, but it was easier to read, less detailed and better suited to meet today’s multi-channel media requirements.

Deskey has done some nice work over the years (Crest, Luvs, Downy), but here they’ve encumbered the graceful sweep of the “new horizon�? arc with a modified boxy 5/3 shield. To get the arc from one side to the other, they added more detail and ran a line around the shield. The result resembles a head-on lumbering albatross.

Logos 101

See the mall placard example at right as a visual reference point.

• For better readability, use upper and lowercase letters (Fifth Third at top) instead of a small cap treatment in a lightweight decorative font (bottom)
• Omit superfluous words like “Bank�? (see Chase or National City)
• Enhance, update and streamline a well-established mark, don’t add decoration or embellish to the point that individual elements compete with the whole of the mark (bottom)
• Keep overall proportions in mind and don’t entrap the logo with size-limiting top or bottom elements (bottom)

According to Inside Indiana Business, Fifth Third plans to infuse the new brand into every facet of their operation, from call center retraining to a revamped customer Bank Center experience. They get high marks for listening, research and action planning, but the new mark—the cornerstone symbol of all Fifth Third hopes to become—is pragmatically, aesthetically and thematically lacking. Its mishmash of colloquial, trendy and passé decorative elements doesn’t reflect their brand promise of working hard for tomorrow.

Fifth Third’s hard-earned and longstanding brand equity deserved a better effort.

Here’s a business marketing tip I learned while attending a lecture given by David Delk, president of Man In The Mirror, renowned author, speaker, theologian and mathematician.

At one point during his talk, Delk offered a man a copy of one of his books for assisting in a conceptual demonstration. However, instead of simply handing the man the book, he threw it to him, a distance of 20-25 feet.

Rank Amateurs

Walking back to the podium Delk paused, “Incidentally, anyone who tosses a book like this,” he mimicked a Frisbee^® throw, “…rank amateur,” he added, wryly.

Proper Technique

“The proper technique is to toss the book underhanded—spine first, like this,” grabbing a nearby book, he aped an underhanded horseshoe loft—spine pointed toward his target. His witticisms went on, espousing the aerodynamic benefits of his technique over launching a splayed and flapping sharp-cornered projectile into an audience.

Perfect

Delk threw two more books during the event. But his last toss was a true test. The recipient was a large, powerful man seated near the back of the auditorium. With a determined grin on his face the man stood, then took several steps—backward.

Without a word the man assumed the stance of a shortstop prepared to catch anything, baiting Delk to throw the large hardbound book at him. Everyone turned to Delk. A hushed silence swept over the crowd.

And then, he threw it.

The book stayed aloft for what seemed an impossibly long time, cruising over many a head with barely a flap of a page. Right on the numbers. A perfect throw, a perfect catch. The inspired crowd erupted. Clearly, they’d just witnessed a master book toss.

Afterward, I asked him where he learned to throw a book like that.

“Years of practice. Years of practice,” he quipped, moving on to more event-centric questions.