Principles and Practice of Advertising - The Law Of Feeling Tone
It is generally true that associations accompanied by pleasantness tend to be reinforced and more permanent, certain, and strong. Associations accompanied by disagreeableness tend on the other hand to be weakened and inhibited, and to disappear more quickly. Thus I teach a dog to beg by saying "Beg, Rover" repeatedly. Sometimes, by mere accident, he will rise upon his hind legs at the moment in which I say these words. At once I reward him by giving him a piece of meat, an apple, or a caress. The agreeableness caused by the reward reinforces this association between hearing the words " Beg, Rover," and the act of begging or standing on the hind legs.Connections not acting at that moment are not thus reinforced. So it comes about that in time this association is made stronger than all others, and the dog has then learned the trick - the stimulus always calls out the response.In much the same way the advertiser proceeds. He puts his advertisement on a useful novelty, such as a calendar, a pencil, a soap dish, a memorandum book, and then presents the novelty to the prospective buyer, in the form of a gift. He trusts that the gift will be agreeable and that this pleasure or feeling-tone will reinforce the association of his name with some moment of need. The success of this device will obviously depend on the amount of agreeableness really produced and on the relevance of the novelty to the need in question.But, in a still more conspicuous way, should the advertiser utilize the law of feeling-tone when he prepares his advertising copy. In this connection another law is also important : the Law of Fusion.

Realistic Goals...How To Set Them and Why
So many people want to start a business today and be rich tomorrow. Sorry, people it doesn't happen that way.  If it did, everyone would do it. There is no free lunch...it takes hard work, determination and realistic goal setting. Think about the businesses you have worked at, look at the businesses in your community.  I mean really look. When you go to the dry cleaners, how many other people are there also. Think about what it takes for that dry cleaner to open every day. How many people he needs to come in with their dry cleaning in order to make a profit. OK, dry cleaning doesn't excite you.  How about that specialty shop you want to open! You want to open a retail store that caters to people that buy Hummels, knick knacs, bric-a-brac. Will you only handle certain types? How many will you order of each type? What are the best sellers? How many will you have to sell to make money for yourself, and to also keep that shop open, or will you sell them by mail order only from your home? Want to do business on the web? The same principles apply. How many visitors to your web site do you need to make a sale? How do you get them to visit? How do you get them to stay? You get the idea. You need goals in order to measure any progress in your business. Realistic goals come from a well thought out mission statement, which leads to a very good business plan, which leads to a well thought out marketing strategy.  You should have short and long term goals. The short term goals will cover the upcoming 6 months to 2 years. Your long term goals will go further out, let's say  over the next five years.  Remember, you need to give a business at least two years in order to give it a real chance. Not all businesses make a gigantic profit immediately. Let's say you want to start a house cleaning business.  Your initial plan is to work it yourself, and add independent contractors as needed. You decide on your mission statement, you make up your business plan. You want to make $500 per week, working six days per week, 10 hour days. Your marketing will include advertising in your local paper, flyers, and mailers.  You can clean 3 houses/apartments per day at $25-$50. You also have to decide your price points, what will you charge for a 1 bedroom,

Franchise For Sale
In today’s world, more and more people are turning toward self-employment as a way to earn their living. Being your own boss, making your own hours and having complete control over normal business operations are just a few of the benefits that many entrepreneurs enjoy. But, what about operating a new business that has the ability to gain instant recognition through the use of a trademark name? Sound good? Thought so!You can find a franchise for sale opportunity by visiting the company’s website and searching for franchise information. There, you will be prompted for your contact information and will soon be contacted by a franchise specialist, who handles the process of speaking with potential entrepreneurs and explaining the process by which a franchise can be acquired. If you do find a franchise for sale, there are franchise fees that must be paid upfront, which can be anywhere from $10,000.00 to $100,000.00. In addition, there are investments that must be made by the entrepreneur in the original startup of the business. This amount is predetermined by the franchiser (the company) and is required before an agreement can be finalized.In limited circumstances, the current operator of a franchise business may be looking to sell their establishment. If you learn about a particular franchise for sale, you may want to contact the establishment and inquire about simply taking over the business. Because the franchise is already built and established, there may be lesser fees involved in taking over the business. However, that would only be determined between the franchiser (the company) and the new franchisee (that’s you). Each company has it’s own qualification requirements that each franchise operator must possess, which would include a substantial amount of cash in order to pay employee wages, training, marketing and other business related expenses.If you do find a franchise for sale, you will either have to be able to pay cash for the franchise or have it financed through a private lender or the Small Business Administration. The best place to locate a franchise for sale is through local classified ads, bulletin boards or through the company itself. If you would rather open your own franchise, you will need to deal directly

Joint Ventures Revealed
A joint venture is when two or more businesses join together to work on a project for a set period of time. Doing joint ventures with other businesses can increase your chances of beating your competition, increase your sales and increase your profits quickly. Plus:-you can save money when businesses share operating costs-you can get referrals from other businesses-you can save valuable time when businesses share the workload-you can offer your customers new products and services-you can gain new business associates-you can save money by sharing advertising and marketing costs-you can get free advice and important information from other businessesYou can find businesses to joint venture with online or offline. I try to find businesses that have the same target audience, but are not direct competition with my business. Here are a few ways to find joint ventures online:-subscribe and participate in e-mail discussion groups, online forums and newsgroups that deal with your target audience-subscribe to e-zines that deal with your targeted audience-note on your Web site or e-zine that you are interested in doing joint ventures-search in your favorite web directories and search engines to find businesses to joint venture with onlineOnce you find a business simply e-mail them your proposal. Tell the business owner the benefits of the joint venture. Explain to him or her why it would be a win/win situation for both of your businesses. Give them a lot of compliments about their business, Web site, products and services. Using all three methods above will greater your chance of constructing a profitable joint venture. Good Luck!

New Start Careers
Are you tired of the corporate rat race, the office politics, and kissing up to superiors that don’t have half your talent? You don’t have to live like this. You are entitled to make a new start where you can dictate the terms and conditions under which you work. You are entitled to be in charge of your own destiny. You are entitled to be in control of your own work environment. You are entitled to be the boss.How many times have you been passed over for a raise and or a promotion that you knew you were entitled to? How many times have your superiors failed to give you the recognition you deserve? When was the last time your Christmas bonus lived up to your expectations? How long are you going to wait to be properly compensated for your efforts before you decide to start your own business?You don’t have to be frustrated any more. You can start your own business right from the comfort of your home. You can develop your own potential. The opportunity is yours for the taking.Let’s put together a list of what your talents and prospects are by answering the following questions:1. What do I like to do?2. What am I good at?3. What has my business background taught me?4. What can I do better than the Company I work for?5. Do I want to stay in the same field?6. Do I want to do something different?7. Am I willing to work hard for myself?8. Am I prepared to make the effort?9. Can I wait six months to start making a good living?10. Do I have the working capital I will need to start my business?Don’t be discouraged if you can’t answer all the questions on this list positively especially if your problems are financial. Maybe your family and friends would like to help you and invest in your new business idea. Some people have even started businesses by tapping their credit cards although this is a high cost way to start. Maybe you might want to start an online Internet business, which can be done using very little capital except for the cost of your time and effort.Starting your own online business can be done by building your own Web site, having one designed for you (more expensive), or getting an affiliate Web site for free and promoting the sale of other people’s

Banks Slogans are Not Bank Brands
Differentiating products and services through advertising is common for many industries. Financial services marketers seem to be having a particularly tough time.In preparation for my role on a branding panel at the recent Washington Bankers Association marketing conference, I hired a clip service to capture Western Washington bank print advertisements for two months. The panelists also collected their personal financial direct mail for the same period. The result was thousands of ads from scores of banks and credit unions. The junk mail must have weighed 30 pounds.Consumers are being inundated with financial ads, direct mail, and telemarketing. With direct mail, much of the effort attempts to persuade consumers to open envelopes with fake checks, fake government documents, and fake come-ons that offer incredibly low interest rates that aren’t that low when one looks at the fine print. Everyone at the conference agreed that this tactic is expected from loan brokers, yet seemed surprised to see this tactic from quality institutions like Bank of America. Still, we are seeing more of it. Precious little direct mail demonstrated why each bank was the right choice. Much of the advertising is not much better.Carrie Williams, president of BrandLab (www.brandlab.com), agreed to sort through the marketing messages and create brand maps to demonstrate how banks appear to consumers and how banks compete against each other. Carrie has a lot of experience doing this for industries such as healthcare, fashion, and the airlines and is skilled at getting to the essence of what she calls the brand soul. As she says, brand soul is a reflection of what is core to an organization. It encompasses its values, personality, its style of doing business, and how it gives back to the community. The good news is that any bank that wants to stand out through exceptional advertising has almost an open field. The bad news is that the financial industry is rapidly moving to commodity status by educating consumers that all they should consider is the best deal. With the exception of a handful of financial institutions, none of the ads contained any brand attributes at all, per Carrie. In essence, most financial institutions are not talking to consumers in w