What Does McDonald's Food Consist Of? New Transparency Campaign

Last week, fast food giant, McDonald's, launched a new campaign that centers around the brand being honest and transparent about their practices. The campaign is being launched in the U.S. and will be called, "Our Food. Your questions."

This is not the first transparency rodeo for McDonald's, as they have run similar campaigns in Australia and Canada in the past. They plan to answer questions like, "What is a McNugget?" "Is pink slime really in burgers?" etc.

The drive for the campaign is to improve the perception of their food quality and combat depressing sales with Millennials against chains like Chipotle and trendier burger joints like 5 Guys, as well as others.

The videos explaining everything will be featured on a dedicated part of the company's website as well as social media- Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. As a Chicago marketing agency, we hear a lot of what McDonald's does since they are just down the road and we think this is a mighty fine idea.

In one video, the question is asked, "Is the beef in McDonald's burgers real?" And in response, the host, Grand Imahara (formerly of Mythbusters) visits a beef supplier for the chain and witnesses the grinding and inspection process for the beef that goes into a McDonald's burger.

The chain is also handling questions with their social media marketing efforts, encouraging consumers to ask questions, where they give prompt, real responses (not automated) that contain a link to the videos.

This could prove to be a smart branding move for the chain, let's see if it pays off or if it… flops (lame joke?)

Have any questions about marketing or about our services? Then contact Integraphix! We'd love to help you navigate the complex world of marketing. Talk with one of our specialists today.  

5 Easy Ways to Have Better Content Marketing

The concept of content marketing is that if it used the way it should be, it is a great and wonderful to make your business more memorable. The operative phrase there being, "used the way it should be." You cannot create content that is broad and generic content, or duplicated content (yikes!), and expect it to be a useful tool for your business.

We have 5 ways to make sure your marketing efforts are working for you! Sit back and read while enjoying a Coke.

1. Write case studies. These are wonderful tools because they show that you have true, real, wonderful, proven knowledge and efforts in your industry that others can capitalize on. When you show your target audience that you can do what you say you do, it gives them confidence; it encourages them to think that you can reproduce the positive results with them. Stories create powerful messages that you can leverage with prospects. Use details. 
2. Remember repetition. Keep in touch with people and be memorable. We hardly remember the stranger that we met the one time at the place and we did that thing. Using emails, blogs, videos, posts on social media, etc. to keep in touch. We also emphasize the need for consistent and quality posts on your blogs, articles, newsletters, and any other print marketing efforts you use. If you have one post in January and don't do another until August, that's not good for business. 
3. Be descriptive. We as humans like to have details; we like to be able to picture things that are said in words. If I described a cat to you, would you prefer, "A small tiger looking thing. 4 legs. A tail. 2 ears" OR  "An animal that is a foot long, 10 inches tall. It has white fur with black brown stripes and a long, curly tail. It has eyes that are intense and give purposeful stares. Its 4 paws are soft and gentle. And don't ever, ever put it near water"? 
4. Use imagination. This includes using description but it also means using creativity. Content marketing means being able to tap into your well of imaginative words, descriptions, images, etc. Successful execution of this enables consumes to remember you on a deeper level and see how you can meet their needs. 
5. Use your voice. Write the way you speak while still being appropriate for your audience. If you cuss a lot, maybe it is best to avoid that but the point is to sound like a person, not a robot. No one likes reading something that sounds like it was automated. Ultimately, it does not matter if it was or not but we like to know that we deal with real people and something was hand-crafted. 

The best content marketing is done with a motivation to be remembered and talked about, not just gain eyes on your words. Don't let your business suffer from another subpar post or newsletter, contact Integraphix about your marketing. We have a team of dedicated professional copywriters who can help you or even handle the work entirely. 

What to Know About Naming a Business

The process of naming a business is sometimes one of the hardest decisions one can make. Your business's name is supposed to be something people will remember, describe your business, and let you stand out.

There are many challenges to naming your business; aside from the creative necessity, one may find that getting a name for a business requires patience and a knowledge of legal matters. So what are the various hurdles?

• Trademark law. This is one of the hardest things to overcome when you are thinking of a business name. You have to find a business name that has not been trademarked yet. The American trademark laws are not so lenient, either. As a business owner, there are two things to consider: confusion and dilution.
• Confusion is the chance that your business name will be confused with another brand. This is not only a worry about confusing consumers but could be a legal issue. One example I, even as a Chicago marketing company creative, is "Belvita" and Velveeta". Belvita makes energizing morning bars & Velveeta makes cheese. 
• Dilution is when your name/branding attempts to mooch or steal another company's, even if your names have no confusion. So, if your company name is "Ricky's Auto Shop" but your trademark is styled after the legendary "Carl's Auto Garage" by mirroring script, etc. then that's no good. 
• The penalties. If your business name violates a law, then the business could face some serious penalties. 
• No longer being able to use the name
• Being forced to recall products with the name on it
• Frozen inventory/seized inventory
• Monetary compensation
• What will your URL be like? Having a long but cute name might be good and dandy for your business but what if your site's URL is now going to be really long? That will make your internet presence hard and any search engine optimization will be a bit more difficult. At the very least, consumers will have some trouble remembering your site. 
• The realization that good products make great brand names. Sometimes we go into the idea of naming a business with the idea that we will be the next Apple or Nike; the reality is that they had to make great products before their names became great. 
• You have to love it. No good business name was created because the person thought, "Yeah, I guess it'll do." You have to think of a name that excites you; even better, it can excite those you ask for advice. 

As a marketing agency in Chicago of over 25 years, we have lots of experience with branding and naming a business. Is your business in need of marketing assistance? Then contact Integraphix! 

How to Effectively Use Images for Online Marketing

Having a great content marketing strategy means having great text, obviously, but it also means having great images to go along with that text.

Having good images with your text adds a lot of value! It will add a lot of good SEO value to your posts via captions, meta descriptions, alt tags, etc. and it will also make your post much more appealing to the human reader. Images get noticed. According to research, content that has an image has a 94% better chance of being read than image-less content. If you do social media marketing, then posts/tweets with images are much more likely to get liked, retweeted, favorited, and shared than posts/tweets without images.

Depending on what your strategy is, then there are different images to suit you. What types of images are best to include in your strategy?

• Blogs. When doing a blog, an image is a must. Look at this blog, we have an image. They are used to wrap up the core message of the content and be helpful visuals for social media shares. 
• Products. When you have an e-commerce site, then images are an even bigger must. You can't have a successful e-commerce site without images. "The description says, "Awesome gray shirt" so I'll just take its word for it." Make sure the images are high-resolution. 
• Even if your site is non-ecommerce, using images helps your appeal. 
• Infographics. These can be huge for content. These are fantastic for social media, people love infographics because they share well and are often full of information people like to know. 

A main thing to remember is that you need to optimize your images! For proper optimization tips, contact Integraphix about search engine optimization and other marketing assistance. 

Top 10 Marketing Slogans in History

We have all heard and seen marketing slogans all over the place. They are what companies use to identify themselves in the world. A slogan or tagline says what they company believes in, their goals, their mindset, etc. all in one sentence, phrase, or word. So what are the top 10 in history? Our brilliant minds put themselves to work and created this list: 

10. What happens here stays here. -- Las Vegas

What is great about this one is that it gave the impression that going to Vegas was like going to an exclusive, incredible party. The party is so great that you not only will not have the ability to describe what occurred but you're not allowed to. 

9. The best a man can get. -- Gillette

Men are tough and require tools for hygiene and personal care that can deliver. A man can use a razor that is going to break and/or give a poor quality shave. 

8. Melts in your mouth, not in your hand. -- M&Ms

One thing that is sad about chocolate is that it melts in your hand if you hold it for more than a second or two. However, M&Ms are special, they have the candy coating to prevent them from melting in your hand (the coating will still melt a bit, but the chocolate is intact). 

7. When it absolutely, positively, has to be there overnight. -- FedEx

When you send packages, you don't want them to take a month to arrive! You want them there the ASAP! Sometimes, timeliness is more than a luxury, it's a necessity. 

6. A diamond is forever. -- De Beers Diamond Company

You can get your love a bouquet of roses but they will die in a short amount of time. You can buy her some chocolates but those will be gone in minutes, hours, or a few days at the outside (What? Chocolate doesn't survive long in my home. Regardless of who it's given too.)

5. Great taste. Less filling. -- Miller Lite

When Miller introduced the light beer, it was a struggle for guys to catch on. Fewer calories? That's more of a feminine thing but beer is a manly drink. However, once they mentioned how it is just as great tasting as full beer but you won't get a beer belly, guys were okay with it. Until craft beer became a trend.  

4.Got milk? -- California Milk Processor Board

The California Milk Processor Board created this ad campaign to get people to drink more milk. It is healthy for us and tastes great. A simple question. Effective. 

3. We try harder. -- Avis Rent-a-Car

Anyone can say that they try hard but what does that mean? What's the definition of trying hard? 

2. Just do it. -- Nike

Whatever you're going to do in terms of physical, athletic, etc. decisions, don't hesitate or worry, be confident and just go for it. Thinking about running that 5K? Just do it. Thinking about draining the game winning three next game? Just do it. 

1. Where's the beef? -- Wendy's

We all know the classic TV ad with the old women and the one stares at the tiny patty and says, "Where's the beef?" This made people realize that other burger joints used small patties. Wendy's was paving the way for consumers to get a REAL burger. 

A good advertising slogan can be tough to create. The thing is, you don't create slogans and taglines to be iconic, they become iconic. When it comes to creating a slogan or tagline that is effective, you have to find a great marketing firm. For that, contact Integraphix. 

5 Brief Reasons Your Business Must Advertise

Social media marketing is free, publicity is free, emails are free (unless you utilize a service for email marketing), cold-calls are free, referrals are free and often effective, however, advertising costs money. Why would you do advertising when you have all these free marketing efforts available?

Advertising is one of the marketing tactics that comes with a nice price tag. You have to pay money to run ads and send direct mail and sometimes you have to wait until you see any ROI. However, there is great strategy in advertising and it will be one of the best marketing decisions one could make… if they do it right.

In order to get good ROI from advertising, you have to:

• Be focused on a target market
• Have an effective call to action
• Pay attention to any leads and conversion rates

So why would you advertise? 

• It is a medium that you have control over. When it comes to advertising, you can say exactly what you want the ads to say, how they look, where they should go, etc. Nothing is left up to chance, except for their reception by the consumer, technically. 
• You say who is targeted. Knowing how your target market interacts with the world enables you to know how to publish an ad so only they get appealed to. A personal message aimed at one market is not going to be effective when it is carelessly put out there. 
• It helps create awareness for content. If you have content to share, say like blogs, books, catalogs, guides, etc. then you can use advertising to talk about it. 
• It helps with credibility. People believe that business must be going well when a business is running ads. Now, if the ad is for a "Going out of business sale" then clearly, things are not going well. However, this is generally the case. People pay attention to you and what you have to say because your knowledge has [allegedly] paid off before. 
• It amplifies your other efforts. Advertising helps consumers take notice of other marketing efforts that you are doing. 

When you advertise, journalists find you, referral consumers remember you, you develop fans and brand loyalty, and develop a sense of pride for employees. 

If your business needs to advertise, then hire a Chicago marketing company. As a marketing firm in Chicago, Integraphix has over 25 years of advertising and marketing experience. 

5 B2B Marketing Trends for 2015

Here we are in the 9th month of 2014; we are officially 3/4s of the way done with the year. If this was a football or basketball game, we'd be in the 4th quarter. That being said, we in the corporate world are looking at 2015 and wondering what is on the horizon for our industries. When you are in the creative industry, like marketing, then each year brings something different.

So what is in store for 2015 for the marketing and advertising industry?

1. Micro-targeting. Well this one has been on some radar's for a year or so already. It is now time to really get to know your customers and clients. We need to move past the plans and strategies that are one-size fits all and really get into making custom ideas and plans that fit people uniquely. These strategies will find the small, likely profitable, subsets of our target markets. Why go for these consumers? Well, doing so will allow you to capture more market without doing something you shouldn't already be doing. It will require data parsing to make the one on one conversations that we need for micro-targeting. 
1. Get into buyer persona development and learn how the people think, live, and what motivates them. We do this with major target markets but it's time to give that love to subsets. 
2. Paid placement is here for the long-haul. Social networks, as well as some large publishers, are moving away from earned media and towards paid media. This means that great marketing teams will have to spend more money and especially time on paid placement in order to get noticed by consumers. We have all see an increase in promoted Tweets, sponsored Instagram posts, and how few of our posts on Facebook reach nearly the amount they used to (a 44% decline). 
3. Mobile. Mobile. Mobile. Mobile users are rampant now with the incredible access to smart phones and tablets… now even phablets. We are consumers 24/7 now, no matter what time of day or where we are, we are able to buy, view, and talk about anything. The challenge this coming year will be to create amazing digital experiences that will fit with the lifestyles of our target markets. The time has come for mobile-optimized elements and activities as well as dynamic content that offers an incredible, personalized experience in digital form. Mobile marketing is a fantastic place for engagement with consumers and even in real-time. 
4. Marketing automation that changes the game. In the past, marketing was about responding to things that happened; nowadays, we have tools that allow us to stay a move ahead. The term "real-time marketing" is more real than ever. we have tools like CRM, email marketing, content management, search engine optimization, analytics, lead generation tools, etc. that all help us boost our ability to give quality content and in great time. 
5. Quality content. We have seen the shift to content marketing and a more explosive use of tools such as blogging, articles, and social media to get more words out there. We like to connect with consumers and give them stories to enjoy while the brand loyalty gets stronger. This means that the need for professional writers will be put at the forefront instead of just a luxury. 

Getting the right marketing trends and knowing what will happen before it happens can be tricky. This is why so many businesses hire a marketing firm rather than try to devote non-existing time to it. Hire an agency that can help your business stay current and grow. Contact Integraphix.