The Starbucks Make-Over is Great for Publicity

Companies doing well tend not to change what is working. When logo changes are made, there is a lot of thought to it. The larger the company, the more money they are able to use in research and development of the new or changed logo. Smaller companies usually do not have enough capital to invest in much. The new trend with logo makeovers is to drop the letters or works. McDonald’s has many commercials and billboards where all they show is the arch. No hamburgers, no clowns, no mayors or thieves. Just the giant M. Starbucks has remade the logo without the words.

Starbucks coffee are the words that used to be inside the logo. Now, just the weird mermaid sits on your cup waiting for you to sip. The argument for them is that they are much more than coffee. You can eat breakfast there, listen to music, the Starbucks near me has a bookrack where you can take a book and leave a book on the honor system. The company wants to portrait that they are much more than coffee.  I have no idea what their real reason is for the change; perhaps it saves on printing costs. If you can find the fish, you can find their product. There is a large debate in the PR community about that. That debate has not hit mainstream yet.

When coke made a new formula (that sucked), it was news. When Sci-Fi channel changed to a strange name and new logo, the fans were enraged. They did not change it back like Coke did. It was great PR for a while. If you change your logo, get your back-story straight and tell it to the media. Why your logo has changed. What your new logo means, what your company is about. It’s better than a just-launched-my-business story because it gives the viewer a chance to see into the mind of the business owner. You will resonate with some and clash with others. It’s always ok to polarize people with your logo and message.  Your true customers will embrace it and others will walk away. This makes time for you to focus on real customers. As for Starbucks, I think they are betting on people being too sleepy before having coffee to notice the changes.

Improve Your Life Skills with London Acting Courses

Photo source: Acting In London

When you mention acting courses to someone, they will immediately think about Hollywood celebrities. Even though that maybe the top rung of the ladder that many actors wish to reach, in truth, many people take acting courses for various reasons. It is not all about learning how to act on the stage and film, there are a number of aspects associated with acting.  

The capital city of UK has a long history of stage and film production, and even these days, London acting courses offered by Method Acting are regarded as the best in the world. Not only do you learn many new life skills, it is likely that you will make many friends that will remain with you for years to come.

A course in acting is a great way to improve your future prospects in life. A number of these benefits are listed below.

Confidence Building – If you are of a shy nature or hate to stand up in front of people and talk, then acting classes are for you. Learning to act also means building up your own confidence, and this helps you in your professional and personal life. Over time, talking in front of others starts to become the norm. Of course, most people will always be anxious or nervous before giving a speech in front of others, but acting teaches how to control it, and having more confidence makes it more enjoyable.

Strengthen Weaknesses – Being involved in an acting course will help you learn what your own strengths are.  You will also discover many of your weaknesses, but as time goes by, you will learn how to improve yourself and in turn become a much better person. Everyone has some kind of weakness, and working to improve them also helps you to go through life feeling more in control.

Communication – We all need to communicate with other people in our lives, but for many it is becoming a lost art thanks to all of the technology that we use today. Acting allows you to communicate with people in many different scenarios. Also, by acting out a character, it allows you to see things from another person’s viewpoint.

Out Of The Box – These courses will help to you to think from outside of the box. You get to watch how actors interact with each other, and how roles evolve over time. By playing other people, it can open your eyes to things you would not normally see in normal life.

Teamwork – Many companies nowadays set aside times when team building takes place. This helps people to work together, and depend on each other, as they do in the armed forces. Acting in groups gets you used to working with other people without actually realizing that you are doing it. Then when you need to work as a team elsewhere, you will do so automatically, and may even be confident enough to take the leadership role.

Mayhem vs. Matos for Publicity

Insurance companies are working hard to get and keep customers. In the insurance game, everyone is engaged in the battle for the customer. The two current commercials that PR professionals are talking about are the Allstate Mayhem and Matos from State farm. In the Internet Matos is not popular. One blogger noted that you can get auto-fill insults for Matos when you type in his name in Google. The commercial tries to come off like he is friendly however, most people note that they do not like him. They don’t like the fake smile, they don’t like how he interrupts a female State Farm Agent and they think is hair is creepy. Someone has even put up a Facebook page for people who do not like Matos. State farm gets brownie points for polarizing people. You have to have the customers who cannot stand you. So that you are only engaging the customers that really love your products. The publicity comes in when you have a commercial so bad, that people are talking about it. It keeps State Farm on the table as an item of discussion and perhaps they are waiting for that to turn into customers.

Mayhem on the other hand tells you what’s about to happen to you. He says the things we are thinking and Allstate kept Denise Haysbert in the commercial. Haysbert is a big favorite and everyone is always glad to see him. Dean Winters plays Mayhem and we really have not seen him in a prominent role since OZ. Because Mayhem is much less scary that his character from Oz and Allstate can save us from Mayhem, it’s a win-win situation. By showing all the situations you could have happen, it causes everyone to rethink their coverage. This would result in new people getting covered by Allstate as well as current customers getting more coverage. The commercials have everyone buzzing and hoping for a Celebrity Death Match between Mayhem and Matos.

The lesson is if your ads can also bring you publicity, like the Old Spice Guy, your business can make money like their business did. Look! Get a horse!

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