Let me introduce you to EXPOSE — the world’s first all-glass multi-touch kiosk with 25″ full-HD digital signage display and built-in surround sound system. Designed and manufactured by BrandTouch Europe, its less than one inch thick body integrates hundreds of hardware modules and software applications for your bank, boutique, hotel, trade show, event or residence.

With its ultimate HD multimedia, intelligent analytics, mobile CRM, hundreds of connectivity and application options, EXPOSE is the perfect ambassador for every brand, striving for top visibility and excellence.

Check www.brand-touch.eu for more info.

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3. Brand Integrity Management 2010 Every third import in the united European market is suspicious...

Top Brands

Every third import in the united European market is suspicious counterfeiting with infringed brand or design rights. The global loss is $30-50m just for one brand and billions per year for the top 5 cosmetic brands, mostly in less developed markets. Seems when your brand is 120 years old and you sell in 210 countries, you have an attractive critical mass to be attacked by counterfeiters, even if your licensee produces the goods in the same Chinese factory where the fake products come from.

What would you do? You develop a brand integrity strategy, you invent optical quality packaging, laser-focused quality control, nanocoatings, sophisticated visible/ invisible color shifting labels, individual 2D barcode tagging, transparent packaging, licensed factories and exclusive authorized distributors. You constantly secure, enhance, deter, partner and do brand ID trainings of law attorneys, National Customs Agency officers, The Border Police, NSCOC (National Service for Combating Organized Crime) agents.

Thanks to Turcu & Turcu law office, we had a chance to meet dozens of brand integrity managers and government, police and customs agents, monitoring and protecting global brands such as Sara Lee, Timberland, Samsung, Epson, Eli Lilly, Nokia, Estee Lauder, Coty Prestige, L’oreal, Lacoste, Chanel, General Motors, Levi Strauss, Puma, Daimler, Adidas, Bvlgari, Harley-Davidson and many others.

Sofia is a part of a worldwide network of administrative and brand integrity investigators and I was happy to see so many fake website knock-downs, seizes, raids and litigation programs. With more than 75 000 annual counterfeiting cases for Europe only, you can be sure that buying a fake Estee Lauder perfume, full of sulfur, ammonia, phosphorus, potassium, titanium and horse/dogs urine as a binder to keep the alcohol and oils, will not be the best bargain to make you girlfriend happy, especially if you don’t wanna see her face and skin burned tomorrow. It’s not only a brand protection or tax/unemployment protection issue; it’s your own health and consciousness.

Keep brandmoving. See ya at the top!

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Outer Inner World

“We have to assume we’ll never meet again. This is the only unique opportunity!” John Kehoe is a mesmerizing inspirational Canadian guru with 33 years of experience, his books are bestsellers in Bulgaria, the only Wikipedia article is in Bulgarian, his website has a rank beyond 6 million, but is translated in Bulgarian?!. Today 970 Bulgarian idolaters were genetically and neurologically wired for success and discovered their potential to the whole of humanity.

Something very powerful is happening to me this weekend! I had 8 hours of repeating positive energy vibrations, met a lot of old friends, the gentlemen lavatory was full of gorgeous women waiting in a queue, my chair mystically disappeared after the seafood lunch and we prayed to every religion and teacher with the same CR (curing rate, not conversion rate)  in a way appropriate to us. It was a nice “Pray to whom it may concern” on a rainy sabbatical listening to Navajo “holy-holy-matrix-song” Saturday. Still not feeling blessed with grace and synchronicity? Still don’t know how to escape the 9-to-5 rat-race? Any dysfunction or limitations of your inner-to-outer-world energy sources? Still not sure where confidence, luck, fate, happiness and success are living? Who are you, where are you going and why are you going there? What was consciousness before the Big Bang?

Well, at least we have a free unused Sunday left. Let go all beliefs that no more serve you. Meditate on that Let’s set an intention in our positive thoughts and vibrate with the universe, which is here to give you exactly what you want. Our power comes in the minute we realize that we are “not limited to reality”, everything in the universe is governed by laws, and yes – you are the cause of everything that happens to you. It’s not the economy, or the virus, or the “jerks”. This is the “greatest news that you have ever been given!” Sure, the only greatest exception is that I didn’t pay €150 (thanks Tonny!) to hear this great positive news. Our mind knows our great fears and vulnerable spots, but I will still try something new and go somewhere else. Once we’re out from Hall 3 of the National Palace of Culture, we begin to control our mind, relationships and communication with the universe in the most incredible way – we’ll cut all negative thoughts, observe and label them and counteract with the exact opposite. I’m sending and receiving powerful thoughts, attracting similar matches, I’m inserting anything I want in my mind. It happens when you realize that you are the artists. You have to go deep and creative way beyond books, education, etc. From mind power to Zen Buddhism – we must be “realistic”. Thanks, I’m not interested.  “If a farmer wants cucumbers, he seeds cucumber seeds“. There’s a nice Bulgarian saying: Глупости на търкалета (cucumbers on bicycles) . There’s another Bulgarian saying: На краставичар краставици ще продаваш ( Selling cucumbers to a cucumber grower)

Blessed are the believers. Let’s have some real-world stuff like our jam at DaDa last night, Dimmy’s exhibition opening tonight and a feeling for a creative spring Sunday!

Something Velly powerful is happening to me this weekend! Is it happening to you too?

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You can hear it here:Wild Ride

or in the Bulgarian National Radio Land Adventure’s interview (in Bulgarian)

Shadows on the walking path
stalled me for a minute
reminds of good ol’ friends
who burned fast still young
Sunny weeks on wide wild roads,
indian summers never ending
hours of speedy rides
and fairy clouds ‘n sky

Ch. (aborigines jabber)

I’m a rider to a world I can see
got a rhythm and a magic sound
the source of energy
I’m a rider and what you’ll want I’ll be
I’m a sophisticated exception
to your “stable” theory

Shall we strip the rusty wings
and look in our future
let’s believe in impossible things
and skip the possible pasts.
Abandon all your freakin’ doubts
career and bloody greed, babe
Trading the warmth of youth
for a drink at the bar

Ch.

Get back your freedom now
the calmness of your soul
stop gambling with your life
feel the wild wind calling
Sunny weeks on wide wild roads
indian summers never ending
hours of speedy rides
fairy clouds ‘n’ sky.

© 2010, Velly Petrov
lyrics & music

8CVQQSUW87A9

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The Third Lane

There’s a huge traffic flow these days. Billions of people worldwide take their lane, every day. We can see three kinds of driving behavior:
The first enjoy the rat race – from the kindergarten’s square sandbox, trough the cube-shaped university and cubicle career to the weighty top management position. In the System they see a secured “happy smile of success”, someday, somehow, somewhere – after 40 years of work FOR somebody. There’s lot of isolation from your own values, family and life here.

The second type of guys manage to establish and work IN their own companies, 12-14 hours a day, until they grow, sell or quit the business. Kind of ambitious, brave, creative, innovative and “suicidal“.

The third kind enjoy an automated passive income (web service, IPOs, commissions, etc.) on the third lane, while working ON themselves, globetrotting the world in a search of the perfect mate, life, value, etc. Kind of adventurous, speedy and peaceful at the same time.

Recently, I found (by investigation) that in this high density region:

1. We often pass each other from the inner lane
2. The traffic flow in the low density region of the outer lane is enhanced and kind of “reserved” for a strange, extra-ordinary, out-of-the-box type of people
3. There is a benefit if you stick to your lane and don’t change it unnecessary.

I used to stick to the first lane for an year, switched to the second for 10 more years and now, after I tried the third one (and it seems to be my type), I’m ready to keep the pace there and enjoy the freedom of doing what you love at the time and speed you prefer with the ones you love (their smile, creative time, etc).

Whichever your lane is, I wish you a safe and twister/ tsunami-free drive!

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I decided on a TabletPC because I didn’t want to be chained to my desk at the office/home when you can design and sketch digitally everywhere – on the plane, on the beach, in the mountains, in the café –  sketching your ideas, stories and the life that surrounds you….only a TabletPC can give you that freedom and experience. This devices are the perfect match for creative professionals – a digital sketchbook where you can do everything we used to do in our studio + much more – getting notes and digitizing content, sketching logos and websites, painting with thousands of brushes and canvas types, sculpting and rendering 3D models with endless choice of materials and lights, designing business presentations, CNC toolpath, SWOT/ web analytics/ SEO reports for customers  and of course the casuals – web surfing, video conferences and Skype calls,  music, emails, eBook reading, office apps  - all of this on the move, out of the office, on the fly – wherever you want to go. Once I grabbed a tablet PC, I never looked back (currently spending less than 3 hours per week at the office). Designers love to use simple things like stylus (pen one end, eraser on the other) or fingertips in 90% of the cases, using a PC as natural as possible.

The first major UMPC improvement came last year with Dell Latitude XT2 and HP TouchSmart tx2, packing a 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo behind a 12.1” multitouch screen, 4GB of DDR3 memory, a 320GB disk, secured with a fingerprint scanner, which I enjoy every day. The only drawback is that the 256 pressure-sensitivity works only in a couple of applications, while  Wacom Intuos4 has 2048 pixel-level pressure sensitivity, with several different brushes  and even detects at which angle you hold the stylus to the surface.

After Apple joined the “tablet” party with it’s iPad this month (a pen coming soon), the slate PC market will grow exponentially, but the creative professionals are (almost) forgotten. The NetTabs are only larger media-focused readers/ phones, so I have to use my old convertible C300. After Acer discontinued all their tablet PC recently, I’m still searching for the ultimate tool for creative professionals:

• Large Screen – 12.1” SXGA  is my favorite and it really does matter. The larger the device, the more useful it is, as far as you can carry it in a standard office bag.
• Wi-Fi, 3G/UMTS – I can leave with a Wi-Fi + Bluetooth connectivity , a tablet is not a second phone plus you can always speak in speakerphone mode. Data plans will come down when 4G is spread in 2013
• Rigid design and Battery Life – you can choose from 2 to 10 hours. Just cut in half what the vendor says or get a second battery to secure your new customer while making your great presentation.
• eBook Reading – while electronic paper is still the best display type for reading if you read a lot, but  we need a devices that work well for both books and multimedia, artists don’t think in black and white.
• Win 7/ i7 applications – content is critical, applications are critical. We need a working tool to make us $$$ per hour, not a plastic toy. Multitasking? Intel does, iPad doesn’t. Games, TV and videos are different story for other devices.
• Pens, Brushes, Rugged, Waterproof… – sometimes a feature makes the device. If you want to use it outdoors, in the rain or charge it in the car?  Get a Motion computing tablet
• Price? $500 to $5000. My first generation Acer was very expensive, this year we’ll have a convertible for less than $500!

Toshiba Portégé M750 and Fujitsu Lifebook T4310 are nice office tablets,  Motion J3400 and Duros 8404 are great rugged tablets with the best outdoor display on the market, iPad and Pegatron are nice entertainment media tablets, but I can’t see the ultimate device for creative professionals. Rather than buying a dust-collector, I will wait until the end of the year, hoping to see the best tablet PC. Lenovo U1 Hybrid is really close to the perfect one!

What’s your tablet PC experience?

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SEO

“Излиза на първа позиция”, защото
a) Вече сте посещавали този URL (>3 пъти)
b) Google счита сайта ви за най релевантния за квартала (понякога район с радиус от 250м)
c) Сайтът ви е оптимизиран и таргетиран за конкретната фраза, търсачка, език, държава и настройки на браузъра
d) 1001 други причини…

Позициите и трафикът нямат никакво значение, ако сайтът не превръща уеб трафика в Клиенти, дори да е един клиент от 10000 посещения на месец и 9999 отказали се посетители.
Моля запазете спокойствие и се фокусирайте върху конверсията и резултатите.

Не се занимавам със SEO теория, в Google ще намерите 44 милиона SEO страници, при това на български.

Честит празник!

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За да бъде още по-резултатно развитието на бизнеса (чрез естествен растеж и преструктуриране на разходите), тази година добавих в нашия CRM освен RFM Стойност на Клиентите (Jim Novo е любим авторитет от студентските години), и Рейтинг на клиента. Нещата са прости:

• А Клиент, който знае какво иска и знае каква инвестиция е нужна;
• B Клиент, който знае какво иска, но не знае колко струва;
• C Клиент, който не знае какво иска и не знае колко струва.

Още в първия месец на годината новата функция намери перфектно приложение за нови клиенти – трите водещи доставчика на складово оборудване в България. Още отсега знам какво ще се случи. Компанията с рейтинг А ще ни е клиент дълги години, защото инвестицията в мощен и топ позициониран уебсайт ще им носи CAGR от над 40%, втората компания ще е доволна, че има солиден уебсайт, а третата ще възприема уебсайта си като разход за луксозна брошура, задоволила нуждите на шефа, с 15% отстъпка в цената и 98% отказ на потенциални клиенти още от началната страница.

През 2010 над 80% от европейците отново ще намират търсените продукти и услуги в първите резултати на търсачки и web 2.0 сайтове. Ако не знаем накъде отиваме, няма значение коя посока ще изберем.
Каква е вашата система за рейтинг на Клиенти?
А вашата стратегия за развитие на бизнеса през 2010?

___

Summary in English:
This post is in Bulgarian, since the brand new year started (un)accidentally with projects for the top three storage system suppliers in Bulgaria. This gave me a great chance to update the rating and valuation system of customer accounts in our CRM plus the chance to monitor three top Google ranking projects in the same industry. The customer RFM value was implemented back in 2003, but we needed a simple Customer Rating (A: Customers, who know what they want and know how much it will cost, B: Customers, who know what they want but they don’t know how much it will cost to reach it and C: Customers, who don’t know what they want and don’t know how much it will cost to reach it).  The account is given a rating, which multiplied by the RFM value determines the general standing of the account. According to Cambridge, “Marketing is the management process which identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer needs, profitably”, but still, no one in Bulgaria has defined the key metric – CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate), maybe that’s why most of the marketing activities down here have negative ROI, like the last century’s 80’s in the States.

What’s your Customer rating system?
What about your web strategy for 2010?

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the perfect One

Many philosophers have thought there is no universal, ultimate perfection – the perfect One is different because everyone has different wishes. Other argued that the perfect One is flexible enough to be able to meet the wishes of anyone or at least the wishes determined by the majorities. Evolution theories, fairy tales, magazines and movies propagate ultimate beauty as essential for well-being and survival. I have to admit, there are some “beautiful” features, which are fundamental signs of health, growth and evolution, beauty as certified quality – attractive attributes, that positively correlate to quality, healthiness and fertility (no, not the hour glass 0.7 waist to hip ratio or the ultimate celebrity features):

Wise & Intelligent – mature, insightful, trying to go beyond your exact search, seeking to get a sense of what you’re looking for and pull up the best, based on understanding, experience, trends and hot topics.

Organic & Natural – with a good sense of humor and ear for music, optimistic, attuned, deleting all things against us (like grudges, past, etc.)

Warmhearted & Broadminded – talkative, sincere, funny, patient but passionate, caring but sensual, outgoing but easy-going.

Intuitive & Creative – energetic, one who makes us feel like we’re the best one in the world and one who can complete us, encouraging to change for the better.

Diverse & Flexible – one with multicultural heritage, self-confident and inspiring, trust-worthy and surprising, mission-critical and adaptive

Beautiful & Humane - curvy and asymmetrical, kind and polite, with a sense for the most relevant actions to current challenges and problems, especially in extreme situations, where coolly observation is required.

Focused & Suggestive on the best traits and strengths, outsourcing the rest to third parties, helping to find the best way to the desired topic.

Communicative & Sharing knowledge, experience and solutions, supporting your common world of interests, goals and everything, which contribute to higher soul/body/ lifestyle levels.

Now finding the perfect and successful one is easier than ever. We can search, create, enjoy, present to the right friends and audience and archive, if necessary. She has a great voice, keeps us well organized and comprehensive, increases the assets and reduces the maintenance costs – an outstanding solution for us, our SMB or even our brand. She is multifunctional, solving problems in minutes, with a wide supporting community of friends and contributors. She offers intuitive management, fast and easy to use, without advanced knowledge, attended by detailed life-books/ manuals?…

HolyMoly - who is she: a perfect Woman, Muse, Content Management System, Search Engine, musical Composition or all of the above?

Never mind, she is always on the road to perfection. See ya at the top!

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December was full of rebranding projects. We helped 10 brands – most of which with over a decade of history – to start the New Year with rebranded identity and websites (links and case studies coming soon).
After thousands of answered question concerning their brand strategy, web architecture, site structure, layout, design, content, ranking, long-tail keyword clusters, tags and gadgets…in the end of the day the formula of industry perfection, profit explosion and business optimization is brilliantly simple and repeatable:

   80% quality traffic share
+ 80% customer’s mindshare
= 80% marketshare

Not only to survive, but to grow and thrive the highly challenging “downturn” economy, we need a systematic approach and focus to identify the current values and capitalize on new opportunities, far ahead of the competition.

So, what will work for 2010 is absolutely the same top 10 trends, which worked perfectly in the last 3 years:

Brand strategy – a clear and solid foundation for your sales. Leverage all channels and maximize your current resources and business growth activities with measurable, brand performance metrics.

Innovation – creative thinking, mindmapping, drawing, playing music – one hour a day, away from the stressfull  office meetings and negotiations.

World-class design. Good design means clarity, clearly differentiated value proposition, performance, function and service, sales and trust. Quality in products, customer experience and content is the king. Brand reputation through word-of-mouth – the queen. Satisfied customers – the key to repeat business.

Budget & time to cut operating costs – everything which helps to cut costs and improve performance. Focus on what you do best and outsource the rest. The core fundamentals – strategy, KPI’s and most profitable customers. Outsource areas that are not your business’ core competencies. Let the experts do the work. They are better, faster and more cost-effective.

Digital media as the main channel for reaching your customers. Web & mobile are now mainstream, faster, cheaper and easier to target your perfect customers with immediate, real-time and measurable results.  Forget print and postage delays and fees. Go wireless, invest in digital and grow organic.

Reach the top of the Search. 1.3 Billions of indviduals are searching for a specific need every day. If you are not found by your target audience on the first page of Google, you don’t exist. Being on the top leads to serious sales. Digital users research and digg before they buy. Leverage Web 2.0 tools to allow the customers to engage, share, follow and become fans of the brand. Get the best brand awareness, market research and real-time knowledge about your customers for free! Local or global – search engine optimization and top ranking are sophisticated, time consuming and change on an hourly basis, so better outsource them to an expert.

Build the Brand. Top companies make absolutely certain that brand is a central management principle, the platform on which your customers make their buying decision. Any time  they touch the brand via any channel, it must consistently and credibly communicate its promise and value.

Move to the SaaS cloud, digg the CRM Database. Make sure your have a detailed platform, deeply integrated with all brand channels and Web 2.0 interfaces.The new world of permanently online, social & knowledge hunting communities provides you with endless opportunities.

Leverage the good old analytics – we define and measure progress toward critical organizational goals,  offline and online metrics, established in the strategy. Try and improve – new layouts, design, titles, copy, meta… Only  results matter.

Wherever you are, enjoy your holidays! Cheers for a great 2010!

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