What’s your Brand?

Everyone has a brand.  Companies strive to build a brand image that represents how they want to be perceived by consumers.   Each individual has their own brand as well,  a personal brand.  Celebrities have learned to profit from it and the everyday person uses it to market themselves for new jobs, status at existing jobs, meeting new people, etc.

I struggle with my personal brand.  I’m learning so much new information at school that is so different from my everyday world in the office, I have to stop and think which way am I headed? Who am I? Who do I want to be?  I’m on the home stretch of my 4^th semester with 2 more to go…provided the right classes are offered at the right time.  It’s overwhelming at times but I’m going on faith.  Faith going back to school is the right decision and when all the stresses are over of projects, exams, balancing schedules and finances, I’ll end up in the right place.  And when I do, I’ll have created my new personal brand that I’m proud of.  Not that I’m not proud of my existing personal brand, but I just have that gut feel that – it’s supposed to be something different.  So that’s where I’m headed.

Now here’s a company that has worked hard on their brand and brand image. So much so, they built their corporate headquarters to match their distinguishing product…baskets.  With it being Easter Sunday the Easter Baskets have already been filled with the eggs hidden in the back yard from the Easter Bunny, the perfect company to share representing brand image is the Longaberger Company’s corporate headquarters in Newark Ohio.

Happy Easter everyone!

-B

Mid Week Post

In case you just need a smile to get you through the rest of your week...Good Day Sunshine!  The song talks about Sunshine – perfect for the first day of Spring…even though it doesn’t look like Spring.

Staring the Pups from Service Dog Project that I’ve come to “know” and love.

It cracks me up how the Chuppies can’t get through the gate fast enough!

-B

Recharging into a New Perspective

Last week was spring break.  As a 40+ year old that works full time and goes to school on the side, spring break has a whole different meaning compared to the spring breaks from high school and my undergrad.  How did I spend my week?  Well I felt the need to do something for myself so I took 3 days off from work.  To kick off my 40+ yr old break, I had a total play date!  It included lunch, spa and several glasses of wine at a near-by restaurant with my good friend Julie.   Then the rest of the time was filled with…wait for it and brace yourself for the excitement…sleeping, chores and homework. 

I seriously think I slept for half of my time off!  I just needed that time to re-charge.  Even last night I was determined to finish putting up the laundry so I could start off the week with a completely clean and put together house.  For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been getting dressed in the kitchen every morning because that is where all my clothes are.  I take them out of the dryer, fold them and place them in piles on the kitchen table.  Assuming I’ll put them up when all the laundry is done.  I’m one person and the laundry is never done??  Point is, last night at the end of the night,  I still had so much I wanted to get done.   I was simply out of time.  I didn’t even get my Sunday evening post out.

Even though this morning I was energized that I now felt back to my old self and had the “I’m going to attack the day” mindset to get everything done, I was still a bit frustrated.  I had five, yes five days off and what did I have to show for it? 

Thanks to the Today show and Natalie Morales I got a good kick in the butt of  “perspective.”  There was a segment on a woman, Julie Weiss.  Yesterday she ran her last marathon of her 52-marathons-in-52-weeks goal.  She set her goal to honor her father who lost his life to pancreatic cancer, as well as raise hope, money and awareness for those that have been affected by the disease.

She works a full time job and has 2 children. Most Fridays she would leave her job and family to get on a plane for some destination in the US or Canada.  She’d run her 26.2 miles on Sunday, then fly home and start the work week again on Monday. 

About the time that segment came on, I was just thinking about my own race coming up this Sunday, a half marathon.  I was disappointed that my training had gotten away from me.  I was on track to get a personal best but the stress from school and work got the better of me over the past 4 weeks. 

I’m no longer frustrated with the loss of what could have been a great race and just happy that I’ll be running and finishing my race number 5 out of my goal for 13 races in 2013.  (My races can be any length – so a 5K counts the same as a half marathon…whew!)  I’m also not as frustrated with what is left on my to-do list and just happy for what I did get done and organizing my week so I can keep on track.

So thank you Julie, for a very clear and timely message this morning and Congratulations on meeting your goal.  From every Finish picture I saw – you were smiling; it was very inspiring!

If interested in finding out more about Julie’s marathon of marathons or how you can support her cause – go to Marathon Goddess.  

Have a great week!

-B

Mid Week Break

Well I was planning on taking the week off for Spring Break – just wanted some regroup time.  But just saw this and had to share!  I love my ipad…but paper does have it’s place.  iPad vs Paper

Enjoy the rest of your week – I’m off to lunch and spa time with Julie.  🙂

-B

Mid Week Break…or Warning

Brace yourselves – looks like Facebook is about to make a design change to the news feed.  It will officially be announced tomorrow but looks like there will be multiple news feeds (separate ones for photos and music friends are listening to) and larger photos.

It also sounds like New Zealand was a test market for a new profile page layout but who knows if that is what we’ll see here in the States.  Differences are:

• New toolbar – redesigned timeline changes.
• Moving the tiles for friends, photos, maps and likes to be lower left side of  the page
• Timeline navigation moved to the top right of the page, with ads below it.
• “ About” will have a new look.

Even though we always complain about change until we get used to it, remember – change is good.  After all – that’s how inTuitionat40 got started.  I’m not going back to school for the fun of it.  Speaking of, back to studying for mid-terms.  After tomorrow this 40+ year old in Spring Break!!!  Have a good week!

-B

 

Power of the Second Screen

Lately you may have noticed some TV shows are pushing viewers to interact with the show online through Facebook, their website or Twitter.  It’s usually on shows like the Super Bowl, the Oscars, or finales like The Voice. 

Statistics show the majority of people watching TV have a laptop, smart phone or tablet in front of them, “the second screen.”  We now live in a multitasking world; TV viewers are reading email, surfing the net, catching up with friends through social media or shopping.  So why not try to get the viewers to spend that multi-tasking energy with the show they are watching?

This interaction on the “second screen” is going to happen whether the programmed show or the paid advertisements want it to or not.  So to try to gain the control of the viewer they used to have, they have started getting viewers to interact with them through different platforms and they are bringing it together on a centralized space to help build their brand by integrating content from actual viewers, in real time with their own content.

TV shows are not just using social media during the broadcast but they are using it to build a “buzz” about the show at other times.  HBO initiated a pre-show campaign using social media for their series The Game of Thrones to address the concerns the loyal fan base of the books would not like the series or those that had not read the books would not watch the show if they weren’t fans of fantasy genre.  So what did they do? 

1. They launched teasers to the audiences on HBO.com and YouTube to draw interest.
2. As the premiere approached they increased their presence on Facebook and YouTube by creating a series of challenges for people to follow or posting pictures of fans with a replica of the Iron Thrown in select cities.  
3.  Then during the first season they launched The Battle of the Iron Throne Facebook game. 

One could say –“Well done HBO” as the Game of Thrones is one of the more popular series HBO has.  BUT they haven’t stopped there.  As the anticipation for Season 3 increases – here’s a picture of the Feb 25^th edition of the New York Times.   Now that is well played!!

Thanks goodness Explore.org doesn’t have a live webcam on the dragon babies…(reference to Chronicles of my Online Dog-watching Obsession)

-B