LaBarge+Partners

Facebook Timeline: What Does It Mean for Your Brand?

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

A lot.

Facebook recently changed its appearance (again), this time adding the highly buzzed-about Timeline.

What does this mean for brand pages, though? Timeline not only changes the way the page looks, but also how a viewer looks at the page.

A web-camera tracked eye movements of Facebook users for a Mashable study, and found that the cover photo is the new Facebook wall – at least in terms of how long viewers looked at it.

This photo compares eye movement on the old Facebook (left) to the new Facebook with the Timeline feature (right). As you can see, eye movement is concentrated on the cover photo, and less on the actual wall posts.

The cover photo, a picture not found on the old Facebook pages, attracts most viewers’ attention, and the top of the page in general is much more attention-getting than it used to be. In the study, 100 percent of the viewers say they saw the cover photo.

100 percent.

In fact, the cover photo replaced the wall as the page element viewers notice first.

The good news? You can control what you put as your cover photo – perhaps even more than you could control what was posted on your wall.

Tags: Facebook, Social Media
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The Rise of the Mommy Bloggers

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012

Look around. Fourteen percent of all American moms blog. Fourteen percent.

And if you think 14 percent is high, imagine the number you’d see if we measured the reach of those 14 percent to other mothers – more precisely, other buyers.

Research shows that American women make most household decisions – and, by default, household purchases. So, what’s the importance of the mommy bloggers?

Their brand suggestions, their experiences, their advice is key to a brand. So, with the help of the mommy bloggers, brands that resonate with mommy bloggers have a leg up on brands that pay them no attention.

They’ve already made it to the White House. Brands are taking notice – are you?

Tags: bloggers, consumers, influence
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Who Exactly are the Millennials?

Thursday, April 26th, 2012

The Baby Boomers are pretty well-known. They’re the large amount of babies born after World War II ended.

But after that, it gets sort of fuzzy. Who’s included in Generation X? And what about Generation Y?

Those who make up Generation Y are sometimes referred to as the Millennials – but also Generation Next, Net Generation and the Echo Boomers. Whatever they’re called, they were born sometime between the mid-1970s and the early 2000s – and one thing’s for sure: they’re crucial to today’s market.

To clear things up, this infographic depicts the demographics of the Millennials, as well as the breakdown of how Millennials receive technology. Shocker: Millennials still prefer television to the Internet when getting their news.

Tags: consumers, research, shopper marketing
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The Mass Market

Friday, April 20th, 2012

Tags: influence, market
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Retailers vs. Showrooming

Friday, April 13th, 2012

Showrooming: Shoppers look at products in stores, but buy online at lower prices

The problem? Retailers can’t keep up with online stores, primarily Amazon.com, which offer lower prices on the same products, coupled with cheaper and faster shipping than an online counterpart of a big box store can offer.

Because of its low labor costs and fees it charges others to sell on its website, Amazon.com is able to offer lower prices than traditional big box stores selling the same products – and consumers have caught on.

Showrooming has escalated with smart phone apps specifically designed to scan a product and compare with competitors’ prices, such as RedLaser, Google Shopper and even Amazon’s very own Amazon Price Check.

In an effort to compete with online stores, big box store Best Buy is shutting down stores and making future stores smaller, as a way to offer fewer products in-store and compete with the online stores on their own stomping grounds.

Target has asked its suppliers to offer “special products” that aren’t available online, setting it apart from competitors and shielding it from the price comparisons of showroomers.

The rise of e-commerse has contributed to the fall of brick and mortar stores, giving them little option but to lower prices to try to compete with online prices. Retailer-specific models may be the current answer to retailers’ problems, but what’s the next step?

Fewer stores? Less competition? No choices? Regardless of who’s got the cheaper price today, this retail war does not bode well for the consumer.

Tags: consumers, products, retail, shopper marketing
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Letter vs. Letter

Friday, March 30th, 2012

Dueling letters. Extravagant fonts. Consumer engagement.

What’s not to love?

Thetypefight.com is an online project that allows visitors to the site to vote on which letter of the week (today, it’s Q) is better-looking.

Some days it’s an easy choice, some days it’s not. But every day showcases a different artist and tells the story of the font up for debate.

The most recent font (a fight between W’s) was decided with only 3 votes.

Like fonts? Love graphics? This site’s for you. It’s sure to be entertaining, and you may just learn something, too.

Tags: Creative, Design, Graphic Design, typography
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A New Take on Pantone

Friday, March 23rd, 2012

Can’t get enough of Pantone colors? Neither can we.

That’s why we were blown away with French food and style blogger Emily Griottes’ new take on Pantone color swatches: she merged style and food to make edible Pantone swatches.

Talk about integrating the digital world with the real one: these colorful and mouth-watering tarts are making us drool over Pantone colors all over again.

Tags: Creative
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“Creativity is just connecting things.”

Wednesday, March 14th, 2012

(via thisisnthappiness.com)

Tags: Creative, Steve Jobs
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A Look Back at 29madness

Monday, March 5th, 2012

Leap Day. A “free” day that has been associated with traditions and folk-lore for as long as we can remember. But, this Leap Day, we wanted to do something different.

If you’ve been following our Twitter account, you’d know that Leap Day was a very important day for us here at LaBarge+Partners.

What’d we do with 24 hours we don’t usually have? We gave them away.

We had a “mad” idea: Donating our services to a local non-profit in need of advertising.

We embarked on a marketing lockdown with a team of creatives on Leap Day to provide the Association for the Blind with a fully integrated marketing plan, including logo design, website, public relations strategy, media plan, stationary package and social media programs.

No sleeping. No breaking. No coffee (just kidding). For 29 straight hours. A crazy endeavor we lovingly called 29madness.

We offered this service free of charge, and thought of it as a chance to give back to a nonprofit that supports the Charleston community.

And, boy, was it a success!

We began our work at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday morning and, by 9:01 a.m. Thursday, we were presenting our complete marketing plan to board members and staff of the Association for the Blind.

We think they liked it. But, we’re sure we liked giving back to the community with time that wasn’t ours to begin with.

Here’s to a successful Leap Year and hopes for many more in 2016, 2020 and beyond!

Tags: 29madness, advertising, Charleston, LaBarge Partners, non-profit
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