http://blog.talstone.com A blog written by employees of Talstone Group en-us IRSS Feeder ben@talstone.com (Ben Wilkins) ben@talstone.com (Ben Wilkins) http://blog.talstone.com/article.php?id=39 I've noticed recently that many TV shows and movies have changed their style of cinematography to make it look as if it was shot with a handheld camcorder. While I'm not denying that there is an art to pulling that stunt off, it seems as if the brilliance of cinematography is starting to fade. It started with TV shows (e.g. The Office) and has even faded into movies (e.g. Cloverfield). I think the reason for this is the high popularity of video sharing sites, such as YouTube and Vimeo. These sites glorify videos shot by average users with handheld camcorders. With easy to use video editing software, such as iMovie, and HD cameras that fit in the palm of your hand, a high school student with a little bit of creativity suddenly becomes a film producer with his work being viewed by millions all over the world. I'm gunna throw a disclaimer in here and say that I do actually enjoy YouTube and I think The Office is hilarious. That said, I think that YouTube is slowly killing the art of cinematography just like blogging has killed the art of journalism. For example, a sports column that I read yesterday in a magazine used the word "gunna" because bloggers like me (see the first sentence of this paragraph) use it all the time, thus it makes the sports column appeal those who read blogs. The same goes for film. TV shows and now even movies are attempting to appeal to those who Vlog (video blogging) or post videos on YouTube, but to be completely honest, I kind of miss the art and style that we had pre-YouTube. Is that so wrong? For some reason I don't mind it as much on TV shows, probably because they only last 30 minutes and I'm not paying $10 to go see them, but I certainly don't like the idea of spending my hard-earned money to go see a two and a half hour film that looks like it was shot by my next door neighbor who just got her driver's license. http://blog.talstone.com/article.php?id=37 Disclaimer: I am a huge fan of Macs, so don't be sending me hate mail, all you Mac users. Now that we've got that out of the way, I am rather bothered by the MacBook Air. In fact, I'm completely shocked that Apple released such a thing. Apple is known for design. Their computers look cooler than everybody else's, which is why they can charge more. The same principle applies for Tiffany's jewelry, Brooks Brothers clothing, or Louis Vuitton handbags. However, ask any good designer and they'll tell you the golden rule of design lies in the 3 F's: Form Follows Function. Up until now, Apple has been a textbook example of this. Now, however, Apple has sacrificed function to have a better form. By creating a notebook that is so thin that it doesn't have room for a CD or DVD drive, Apple has spit in the face of design's golden rule. Sure, they have attachments for an optical drive, or you can wirelessly use the optical drive of another computer on the network, but that is beyond inconvenient, which goes against the whole point of the MacBook Air anyway. I know, I know... The computer is super thin. Congratulations. But who cares? Thin isn't all that important any more. We're talking about less than an inch of difference. I can live with the thickness of the MacBook "Regular" so long as I can play a DVD or install software. How ironic is it that the MacBook Air comes with software restore discs but no drive to read them?! Why anyone would want to buy this computer over a MacBook "Regular" is beyond me. Let this be a lesson to all you aspiring designers, whether it be graphic design, product design, or whatever: FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION. ALWAYS. If you break that rule, you'll more than likely have some guy complaining about it, and nobody wants that. http://blog.talstone.com/article.php?id=38 While thinking back about 2007 and the trends that were set in the design industry, the one that I seem to notice the most is color. The other day I was in a car riding down Hillsboro Road and noticed that of all the banks in the Green Hills area, Regions Bank stuck out the most with its new green color palette. These colors were a perfect choice because no matter the weather or the time of day, these colors would easily be seen. Many people, when picking a color for a logo or a sign, pick the popular color of red. Regions, of course, cannot have that color because of the negative association of the color in their industry. I believe that green was a good choice for their new logo. Also, the color green has taken off due to the push to become more environmentally aware by "going green." This concept has taken off in several different industries. Having just googled "green design," I have seen that all types of groups have adopted this not-so-new concept of environmental awareness. I even remember one week this past fall when NBC spent a week on "going green." Not that green was the only hot color in 2007, but it was the one in my mind that won the most used in the design world. In late 2007, Pantone, Inc announced that Blue Iris would be the color of the year in 2008. When I saw the prediction, I really wasn't surprised because this color is used a lot in the political field and this is an election year. Maybe we haven't progressed too long into the year to notice the color popping up everywhere. Who knows how this color will influence the design industry. To all of you in the design community, take your nearest Pantone book and compare your shirt to a color and see what your personal color of the day is. As a designer, I know I do it. On a personal note, as a joke between me and my printing vendor, every time he visits we play "Guess the Pantone Color Name" game by seeing what color I am wearing that day. If you just like knowing what the Pantone color of the day is, then check that out on their site Link Text. To check out another group's feelings on color go to thier blog about color trends at Link Text. http://blog.talstone.com/article.php?id=36 The Super Bowl has become one of, if not THE biggest, television event of the year, which explains how a 30 second commercial spot could cost 2.7 million dollars. Is it risky to pay that much for a commercial spot in a sporting game? Absolutely. The companies that showcase their ads are desperately hoping for a good game given that a blowout could turn several viewers away. Their hopes came true this year. The game was fantastic and even had historic possibilities on the line. With such a great game and a historic match-up, one would think that the ads would be some of the best we've ever seen. Unfortunately, that was not the case. While some ads that succeeded in making the most out of their multi-million dollar spot, there were others that tanked harder than Brittney Spears' reputation. Speaking of the former pop star, it's worth a note that her former commercial spotlight with Pepsi was handed over to Justin Timberlake this year. And while we're on the subject of drinks, Bud Light, who is usually known for outstanding Super Bowl commercials, let all the viewers down this year with the "Now with super human powers" commercials. Budweiser, however, did redeem the A-B family with its spot that featured a Clydesdale being trained by a dalmatian in a Rocky themed ad. Of course, when ads as a whole are low, you can always count on celebrities to give the viewers a little humor. This year was no different with Will Ferrel's brilliance in a cross promotion ad that showcased both his new movie and Bud Light. Other ads of note include Audi, who announced a new model to their line of cars by depicting an epic scene from Godfather, and Bridgestone, who made us chuckle with screaming animals followed by a screaming Richard Simmons. The best ad of the night in my opinion went to Coca-Cola, who proved that you only need a good message in order to be successful in their giant parade balloon commercial. There were a few ads that split the audience: Tide's talking stain, Pepsi Max's head bobbers, and Planter's Nuts, who wants us to believe that eye-sore women can woo men simply by the smell of cashews. I personally count all of these ads as failures given the amount of money spent on the spot. Then there are the ads that almost everyone can agree were horrific. Career Builder, who was once a Super Bowl ad star, somehow allowed a commercial to air that showed the heart of a disgruntled female employee burst through her chest and tell her boss that she quits. E*Trade's talking baby was too creepy (and fake looking) to have any humor value to it at all. But the winner of the Worst-Ad-Of-The-Night award goes to.......... Doritos! The nacho chip giant was obviously mistaken in thinking that a sub-par sensitive singer-songwriter music video would appeal to fans watching smash-mouth gridiron football. That was not only the worst ad of the night, but could very well be the worst Super Bowl ad ever and brought the overall GPA of this year's commercials down. BEST OF THE NIGHT: WORST OF THE NIGHT: http://blog.talstone.com/article.php?id=35 Games are fun, aren't they? There's a secret recipe to games that make them so fun. Add about a tablespoon of mystery, 2 cups of suspense, a pound of strategy, a half stick of competitiveness and you've got a game that most everyone would agree is pretty tasty. However, similar to food, games also have the potential to rise above "pretty tasty." Outback Steakhouse's steaks are "pretty tasty", but they don't compare to Ruth's Chris. So what is that secret ingredient to make games extraordinary? Try adding a pinch of real life. At least that's what some marketers seem to believe. A new breed of game has been born, collectively referred to as Alternate Reality Games (ARG's). ARG's are games that blur the lines between fiction and real life. The playing field is the world around us as the games interact with the players' everyday lives. ARGs have been known to give clues in a scavenger hunt fashion through products, t-shirts, websites and just about anything else to try to solve some sort of riddle or mystery. They typically don't try to "push" their game on potential users, but rather "pull" users in by creating a game that is so intriguing that it sparks enough curiosity to make it hard to resist. Nine Inch Nails, a popular rock band, used an ARG to promote their album "Year Zero." The video game "Halo 2" launched the most successful ARG to date called "I Love Bees." These are only a couple of examples out of many successful marketing campaigns using ARGs. My point isn't that we, as marketers, should be trying to somehow incorporate ARGs into our next campaign. My point is that there are new, intriguing forms of marketing out there that are waiting to be explored and discovered. Thinking this far outside the box won't always create a big splash like the traditional media outlets do, but you can bet on it creating a large ripple effect that somewhere down the road will pay off. If you do want to learn more about ARGs, here's the Wikipedia article on it. http://blog.talstone.com/article.php?id=34 WIIFM - What’s In It For Me. Attend any marketing strategy conference and you’ll probably hear this acronym thrown out. It means the target audience is most interested in what your product/service can do for him or her. The key to using the WIIFM strategy is to really get down to the nuts and bolts of what your target wants – how does what you do improve their lives, give them time, make the rat race any easier? How do they benefit your product/service? WIIFM strategy gets bumpier when you get into the B2B arena. You might sell large, technological services to another company, or a financial product, or other concepts that aren’t easily translated into a 30-second sound bite. It’s even harder to take a step back and think about it from your targets’ point of view when you own the company, developed the software, and poured your heart into the product. That XYZ update that took six months to refine? They don’t care. And that hurts. But what they do care about is what that XYZ can DO for them. You know it speeds their processes up. Yes, that’s great. But dig deeper. What do you get when your work is done faster? More time. What’s the benefit of more time? Time to spend on things your target has a passion for – whether it be the family or the opportunity to throw a kayak in a raging river on a Saturday. Marketing guru Seth Godin has a great quote that illustrates this fact: “The things that fascinate you about your life are almost always banal to strangers. Strangers want to read about their lives, not yours. And guess what? The same thing is true about prospects and customers and just about anything you can imagine marketing.” So keep in mind that while customers might not care what you do, but they care deeply about what you can do for them. It makes all the difference. http://blog.talstone.com/article.php?id=33 Welcome, 2008! We've been waiting for you! And by "we" I mean the mobile web and marketing community. As we all know, the iPhone was born in the later half of 2007. This gives 2008 a fairly large advantage over its predecessor to take mobile web and marketing to a new level. I am predicting that in 2008, Steve Jobs and his handy dandy phone gadget will force other companies to produce phones that finally bring the US up to speed with the rest of the world in mobile technology. Phones like Verizon's new LG phone that look and operate exactly like an iPhone except it has a folding keyboard is not going to cut it. Instead, companies like LG, Nokia, Motorola, etc. are going to have to come up with truly original and mind blowing technology to even compete with Apple's iPhone. So what does this mean for the mobile community? Will we be able to stop having to make "mobile" versions of websites? Probably not. Those "m." sites do have their advantages after all. What it does mean is that mobile searching will be much larger. Currently, most people who use the internet on their phone don't go to Google. They know exactly what sites they're looking for and probably have them bookmarked. With the birth of the iPhone, users will now be searching via their phones. This opens up many more opportunities for mobile search advertising, giving way to a big jump in revenue. I also think that companies will take more of an advantage of SMS and text message advertising in 2008. If they're smart, they'll realize that phones aren't just for calls anymore, and texting isn't just for teens (despite what AT&T commercials say). So again, welcome, 2008. We're all looking forward to what changes you're going to bring us. http://blog.talstone.com/article.php?id=32 Yesterday, as I was perusing my daily feeds, I came across an interesting link on Steve Rubel's Lifestream: an Idea Generator from The Director's Bureau. It looks like all there is to the site is just a simple Flash application (if you can call it an application, since it does only one thing) that randomly compiles three words from a list. It reminds me somewhat of the game Catch Phrase. The site doesn't give any explanation at all as to what this is for or who made it. (I Googled "The Director's Bureau" and it seems there's a group of Hollywood directors who call themselves by that name, but I get the feeling this is not affiliated with them.) At any rate, it looks like an interesting tool to help people find jumping-off points for free association, so it can be useful in brainstorming sessions, much like Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies. http://blog.talstone.com/article.php?id=31 On my lunch break today I went to Borders, and the book cover for Falling Man caught my eye. Initially the design struck me - the way the image of clouds was bisected by two fine lines with "A NOVEL" turned sideways at the top, and the words "Falling" and "Man" on either side of the line, and the tiny blurb to the left of the lines. At first I thought, "How clever, 'A NOVEL' is falling up instead of down." The design did it's job and made me pick up the book to see what was on the back, where there is usually a blurb describing the book. I wasn't prepared for what I saw. Instead of a blurb, I saw more clouds. In the bottom left, rising just above the clouds, were two familiar towers -- The World Trade Center. Then it hit me: I remembered the man who on 9/11 jumped from the World Trade Center and fell to his death. The thin vertical lines and the type echoed the image we all saw at the periphery of the tragedy, perhaps more tragic than the larger disaster we saw that day. The novel is about the aftermath of 9/11 and fictional characters dealing with it, mixed in with real figures and historical fact. I think this is one of the best book covers I have ever seen because not only did the art do its job to make me pick up the book and turn it over, it did so by delivering a surprising one-two punch, telling me more than the jacket flap ever could. I didn't buy the book, but I plan on reading it at some point. The poignancy of the cover is arresting, and it makes me want to read it, not for the sake of trudging over the hurt from that event six years ago, but to better understand what happened, and if there really was a shift in the American psyche on 9/11. (Cover art taken from Amazon.com) http://blog.talstone.com/article.php?id=30 You may not see it on billboards or TV, or hear about it in magazines or on the radio, but there is a buzz going around about a new internet browser called Flock. Before you say "Great... just another browser to confuse me even more", I assure you that you haven't seen a browser quite like this before. Let's talk first, though, about its features that you have seen before. For example, Flock is built off of the Mozilla framework, just like FireFox or Safari. Flock also has a cool feature that lets you install downloaded extensions... sound familiar? Or how Flock implements tabbed browsing, which even Internet Explorer (it hurts to even type that name) has utilized in it's latest release. It has a built in search bar and a bookmarks toolbar which is no surprise to anyone. So what makes this browser so unique? Well, for starters, it has a purpose other than navigating to web sites. A browser finally has picked up on the fact that there is more to the internet than just data! There are relationships, person-to-person connections, memories, entertainment, etc., collectively referred to as Social Networking. Flock is a "Social networking internet browser" designed to let you easily access and update your social sites, such as blogs, Facebook, photo services, and YouTube. No other major browser has ever had this functionality built into its framework. There are a lot of cool things, as well as a couple annoying things, about Flock that I'd like to point out. PROS: Flock has these cool icons that let you pull up your Facebook friends, media streams, RSS feeds, and bookmarks (in Flock or from de.licio.us) in a side bar. It even has a couple icons that let you post to your blog or upload photos on the fly. Flock also starts up with this window that they call "My World". My World has everything all in one place. It shows you your latest RSS feeds, your most recently visited bookmarks, flickr images, etc. It also lets you know when a website has an installable search function. This allows you to search that site from the search bar built into Flock. Pretty cool if you ask me! The last cool thing I should mention is that it has a "web clipboard". This is really cool. It lets you drag anything- pictures, text, videos- from a website onto the clipboard to use or reference again later. It even lets you hold multiple "clips" at once! (I wonder why OS clipboards don't do the same?) CONS: There are a couple annoying things about Flock though. For starters, the search bar only has "suggested search" for Yahoo!, not Google. I prefer Google over Yahoo!, so it would be nice to have that as a feature. Also, there are only a handful of extensions out there for Flock. This is more than likely because it is relatively new, but still, I wish there were more out there. FireFox has boat loads of extensions for download. I've read that FireFox extensions work in Flock too, but I haven't tried this to know how difficult it is. So that's it in a nutshell. I give it a 3.5 out of 5 overall with a few cool points tacked on. It has some growing to do, but for you social networkers out there, welcome to your new browser. http://blog.talstone.com/article.php?id=29 While being a total dork by searching for "talstone" in Google just to see what came up, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that we have been added to CSSLeak.com. There is also a very long and boring computer game video from YouTube that comes up. That video is in no way related to Talstone Group, but funny nonetheless. The rest of the hits are from our website. (woo hoo!) CSSLeak is a website that showcases all sorts of "cool" websites and allows users to rate the designs on a scale of 1 to 5 (stars). At the time of this posting, our site had 4 votes with a rating of 3.5. Check out our site and other sites on CSSLeak, and be sure to rate our site! (But only if you give it a 5, of course!) http://blog.talstone.com/article.php?id=27 Canadian news reporter and Internet personality Amber MacArthur recently went under the digital knife. She helped demonstrate in a TV segment how models are dramatically changed via the magic of Photoshop. You can see step-by-step what happens as she goes from no makeup to "glam." This is a great complement to the Dove Evolution Campaign. As a designer I'm fascinated by this phenomenon. It's so easy to remove someone's moles using Photoshop, and whiten their teeth, and remove those sleepy bags under the eyes. Yet at the same time I realize that I have a responsibility to do it in a respectful manner, and not alter someone's appearance beyond reality unless that is the express purpose of the project, such as a surreal album cover for Bjork. Bjork album covers aside, I think this underscores an underlying problem in our culture, an unhealthy competitiveness that pervades what we do, eat, buy and wear. In women it manifests itself in trying to be thinner and more glamorous than the next woman, trying to look richer or poorer or somehow "better." For men, it tends to manifest itself in the collection of gadgets, stereo equipment, and automobiles. These aren't exclusive to one gender or another as there are plenty of men who are clotheshorses and plenty of women who drive Hummers, but the surface competition remains. The real problem may be a lack of soul, a lack of faith in one's core self. As designers and marketers we have a responsibility to not tear people down with negative imagery or by creating unnecessary desires. I think this goes beyond avoiding the use of unrealistically attractive people in our advertisements. It requires a fundamental change in how we view ourselves, and that will carry into what we do from day to day. If our motives are right, we will choose projects that coincide with what we believe in. (Photo from ambermac.com) http://blog.talstone.com/article.php?id=26 The year 2007 has brought us many trends, but one trend in particular has had an astonishing impact - color. Largely thanks to Al Gore and other various environmentalist groups, the trends of this past year have all been about the environment, and color is no exception. HOT colors of 2007: 5. Barely making the top five this year is the color yellow. I have seen yellow pop up in both fashion and design. Nike has used a lot of yellow this year. Coca-Cola also was using yellow as an accent color quite a bit at the beginning of the year, but then started to ease out of it sometime around June. Sprint/Nextel has been using yellow for a while, but has been pushing it even stronger this year. 4. Batting clean-up for the hot list is the color blue. No, I'm not just saying this because I'm a Kentucky Wildcats fanatic. In fact, Kentucky's blue isn't the blue that is popular. Instead, I'm talking about the blues from nature. The sky blue that is a little de-saturated, rich water blue, ocean blue, etc... those are the ones that are coming in strong. 3. Taking the bronze medal is silver. (How ironic?!) Ok, maybe this is carried over a little from last year. Still, silver hasn't gone away this year. What is the most popular color for automobiles? Silver. Apple recently dropped white and replaced it with... you guessed it... silver. Despite being a metal, there is something about silver that gives off a natural yet sophisticated vibe. 2. In second place is brown. There is a correlation between brown and earth, and with the strong environmental push, brown is on the rise. How convenient for UPS! 1. As sung by Kermit the Frog, it's not easy being green. Well actually... it is, which is why green tops my chart at number one. How sick are you of the phrase "going green"? Green is everywhere right now (including this Web site). Companies have created a new version of their logo that is all or mostly green to show they're environmentally friendly. Al Gore has made the environment almost as hot of a topic as Iraq, thus causing companies to show support by "going green." So what can we expect in 2008? I'll give you a hint... start looking now! Trends for the next year usually start showing up in the last month or two of the previous year. Orange has started to come on strong in the last month or so, and it's my guess that we'll see a little bit of deep purples in the next year, but that's just a guess based on absolutely nothing. http://blog.talstone.com/article.php?id=14 Growing up I remember taking vacations with my family. We stayed at different hotels, not having any particular loyalty for one or another. I do, however, remember seeing a familiar orange and yellow star that proudly flew over a distinctively reversed italic white font set over a green background. Those markings unmistakably belonged to the sign of a Holiday Inn hotel. In October InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) unveiled their $1 billion rebranding effort for the Holiday Inn brand family. The company predicts that all Holiday Inn hotels should have the new branding program fully implemented by 2010. The hotel chain is also improving its amenities, physical quality, and best-in-class customer service. While the hotel chain, founded in 1952, has undergone several brand reworkings over the years, the latest rebranding efforts significantly depart from the identity that many, such as myself, are familiar with. In their press release explaining the rebranding efforts IHG said, "This will give Holiday Inn a refreshed and contemporary brand image." IHG also expects the rebranding effort to boost profitability. But the real question is will it? Think of McDonald's, AT&T, Nike, Ford or Target and you instantly have a mental picture of and an emotional reaction to their branding efforts. A strong recollection of a brand is the golden goose that all of us in the advertising/marketing world hope to achieve for all of the brands we represent. Many businesses feel that by changing their brand identity they can change the future of their business - in profitability. While this may be true for some organizations, for others it could spell disaster. So when should a company consider changing its identity? No organization should enter any thought of changing their branding lightly. There are times when an organization has lost the confidence and trust of their target, which requires not only an internal analysis of their leadership but also an external look at any negative brand emotion. Likewise, more venerable organizations might want to demonstrate a freshness to their offerings by updating their "look." Sometimes new offerings, mergers or acquisitions require that new branding be considered to better demonstrate a significant change in the company. Again, these considerations should not be entered into lightly. Holiday Inn's new rebranding efforts, namely their new logo, seemingly demonstrates a company that is abandoning whatever brand equity that they may have in exchange for a fresh start. I feel that improving their hotels from within didn't warrant the drastic change in identity that is so ingrained in the minds of their target. Whether the move is a mint on their pillow or a nasty stain on their mattress only time will tell. http://blog.talstone.com/article.php?id=11 Ok- I'll admit that I was at the So You Think You Can Dance tour show last night. I was there because my wife dragged me there against my will, something that wives do best. But don't worry- I plan to pay her back when the college basketball season starts. I did realize something while I was there though: The tour is not at all about the show, but rather the show is about the tour. This show and American Idol both started out with the tour in mind. Yes, I know that more people watch the shows than attend the tour, but the tour is where the money is made. Tickets are around $45 a pop, they perform nearly every night for a month, and almost every show is sold out. When was the last time you heard of a dancing show (outside of this one) being sold out? How and why did this tour become so successful? Because the viewers are emotionally attached to the performers thanks to the TV show. I heard several pre-teen girls scream at the top of their lungs "I love you [insert male dancer]!!" They feel like they personally know these dancers. Which makes me think that the primary goal of show is not so much a competition to promote the careers of the dancers like most people think, but rather a casting call for the tour, which in effect promotes the careers of the dancers. Getting the audience emotionally involved with the performers is brilliant marketing. It's a guaranteed sell out. http://blog.talstone.com/article.php?id=10 Famed director Michel Gondry has recently directed a commercial (or minature film) for Motorola to advertise the new RAZR2 phone. It's very dreamlike and surreal, and lots of fun to watch, especially if you're into sci-fi/cyberpunk books and films. The commercial implies all the fun and interactivity you'll have if you own this phone. Found via Veer's The Skinny. http://blog.talstone.com/article.php?id=9 Recently, I was talking with a friend about how important signage is. The very point of signage is to create an emotional reaction that draws the visitor into your establishment. The establishment my friend and I were specifically talking about was Disney and how well they do in informing their guests through their signs. While riding the bus at Walt Disney World we noticed how all of the street signs were purple, red and yellow with some that had black Mickey ears. As we learned on our trip, Disney did research and found that of the colors used, red and purple were more dominant. You could see them from several feet away and they conveyed a look of playfulness in their design with that extra Disney touch. Disney's signage directly reflects the theme of the area. While at Epcot's Food and Wine Festival we noticed that they used images from Disney/Pixar's recent movie Ratatouille for temporary signage at the park. Where as some view temporary signage as something that should not invest in, Disney invests a lot of money in semi-permanent signage for this event and many others they have throughout the year. The signs are made of substantial materials that will not be affected by the elements. A good sign should make you want to explore what it is representing. Signs are more than just a tool to tell you where you are going or what you are about to see, they are the beginning of an emotional adventure that will guide you through to the attraction. Signage is very important and should be treated as such from the very beginning until the very end. http://blog.talstone.com/article.php?id=8 In a recent seminar I attended, the speaker proposed that all customers could be divided into two modes - they are either relational shoppers or transactional shoppers. Transactional shoppers think short-term, care only about today's transaction, considers himself/herself the expert, enjoys negotiating, hinge every transaction on price, and fears only paying more than he/she had to. They are always the quickest to respond to more predictable advertising along of lines of "Limited Time Offer" and "Deep Discounts." The more you advertise to transactional customers, the more they will take you for granted - always waiting for the next big sale. Relational shoppers think long-term, consider a transaction as one in a series of many, hope to find an expert they can trust, do not enjoy comparison shopping or negotiating, consider their time spent shopping to be part of the purchase price, and fear only making the wrong decision. They buy not just what you sell but who you are. Relational shoppers are your repeat customers. But do these modes apply beyond a retail environment to a B2B market? If you look closely at the clients you serve, you can probably see them. There are the ones whose objective is to squeeze as many services, concessions, and specials features out of you for the lowest possible price. And then there are those who walk in, explain their needs, and practically sag in the chair with relief when they realize you not only know what you are talking about, but also can run the show for them. Win them over with expertise and they'll be with you for life. Think about your client list. Can you tell who fits into which category? Your advertising and marketing materials say a lot about whom you are marketing to. http://blog.talstone.com/article.php?id=6 Every so often I find myself faced with outdoor photos where the sky looks washed out, a big, ominous, bleak, white or gray glare. There are ways to deal with this when shooting, but right now it's too late. Chances are, the photo was shot before you got the project, and it's after dark or it's cloudy and you're also facing a deadline, and you just can't go shoot that scene right now. Plus, it's two states away. If your photo has a sky that doesn't exactly look like the intro from "The Simpsons," it's time to correct it with a little Photoshop magic. Sometimes you can get away with making it more blue via an adjustment layer and a applying a mask over what you don't want to turn blue. But in this case, we want better clouds. What I do is I keep a folder named "clouds & skies" with several stock images of — you guessed it — some really nice skies. In Photoshop, I place the sky image over where I want the new sky to appear, and mask out the areas that don't need sky on top of it. Sometimes I'll reduce the opacity of the new sky layer, or play with the blending mode. It's a quick trick, but it works. Before you know it, all your outdoor photos will look like you shot them on the most beautiful of days. http://blog.talstone.com/article.php?id=5 In today's internet society, users are bombarded with a choice of internet browsers. There's Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape, Opera, Safari, and the list continues to grow. How is one supposed to know which one to choose when there are so many choices? How do I know which one is better or if there is even a difference? Because I'm going to tell you, that's how. Why should I be trusted? Because I'm a web developer that has used all of them and knows the pros and cons for each. Use Firefox. It's better. Ok, so maybe you need a little more convincing than that. Let's start with the other browsers. Internet Explorer is first on our list. On the good side, it comes free with Microsoft Windows. There is no downloading or installing required. It also is made by Microsoft, so you know that it's not going anywhere anytime soon. On the downside, it's made by Microsoft, so you know that it is always going to be a step behind the competition (Microsoft usually waits to see if something is successful before they try it themselves). For some reason, IE is the only browser that requires special programming by web developers (not including mobile browsers). For example, until IE7, it did not support PNG transparency. Nor does it read stylesheets the same as any other browser. As you can imagine, this is a HUGE problem for web developers. If Microsoft would conform to the ways that other browsers work, it would make things much easier. Safari is a great browser, but is mostly used on Macs. The good news is that they released a PC version and it's on the iPhone. The bad news is that it is essentially the same thing as Firefox but not as functional. Firefox is updated by a community. Anyone can create extensions for it to enhance it and customize it. My Firefox browser may be completely different from yours. Did I mention that Firefox is free? That's right - free. Not to mention that it's easy to install on both Macs AND PC's. In short, spread the word nationwide that Firefox is the superior browser.