Tag: Visibility Marketing Inc.

We’re Serving It Up for Our 20th Anniversary
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Anybody Can Serve

April 17, 2000 we received Visibility Marketing Inc.’s Incorporation papers. For me, it was a dream come true for a ten-year-old girl who often followed her father around his chemical business in Puerto Rico.

Twenty years! I don’t have to tell you how difficult and delightful this journey has been. The statistics state that 20 percent of small businesses fail in the first year while 50 percent fail in its fifth.

We’re still here holding on during the COVID-19 crisis.

Because we’re grateful to have a 20th anniversary, we’re taking applications from businesses that need communications assistance – especially now. Whether it’s help with branding, publicity, publications, outreach, marketing research or coaching…let us know how we can be there for you.

One of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous quotes is about service.

Everyone can be great because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.

During this horrible pandemic, we have witnessed many “hearts full of grace” and “souls generated by love.” It is in this spirit that we celebrate our anniversary year by serving others.

If your organization can benefit from our expertise, please click here to apply for Visibility Marketing Inc.’s 20th Anniversary Anyone Can Serve Campaign.

City Branding Can Grow the Economy
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Blog5PhotoDay by day, cities are competing with each other to attract tourists, students, businesses, investors and new residents. Consequently, they are increasingly adopting marketing approaches resulting in what is commonly known as city marketing.

City marketing is one of the tools used by public and private institutions to improve the city’s competitiveness. It identifies the needs, a range of products and urban services, and the stimuli that encourages different customers to use what the city offers.

City marketing is essential to create the image of a city.

There are cities that leave their mark.  We remember them for its beauty, values and people. For example, think about Paris and its “White Night.” This cultural initiative consisted of making a free, overnight artistic journey where the city was illuminated.  Paris positioned the lights of its museums and galleries to light up the night. It’s great success has spread to other major cities throughout the world.

Other cities like London have used city marketing as an element of integration, making cultural diversity an asset, while other cities, like Dubai, created an economic center inviting luxury tourism.

The strategy behind “City branding” logos is another proof of the constant competition between cities. One of the most famous corresponds to New York with its, “I Love New York” slogan that emerged in 1977 after a campaign to promote tourism. After the attack of 9/11, I Love New York also was adapted to the city’s new reality: “I Love New York More Than Ever.”

These are a few examples of how marketing succeeds in giving cities greater value. Having a defined and developed city image can provide cultural significance, a greater identity for citizens, and a greater knowledge of urban supply that attracts business opportunities – investment, cultural and sporting events, tourism and new residents.

Strategic planning is necessary to develop a city marketing plan. It is crucial to align the different urban actors and citizens in a common direction.

At Visibility Marketing Inc., we understand that it is essential to have institutions with tools capable of correctly defining which city values are essential to promote and encourage citizens’ commitment and participation.

City Marketing and City Branding are especially important today, in a globalized world, where new technologies can bring us from thousands of miles to to any destination we choose, without leaving home.

Green Marketing: An Opportunity but Also a Responsibility
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picBy: Daniel Fumero Lázaro

Year after year, we see our environment increasingly deteriorating. A recent study produced by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) states that humans will need “two Earths” to support our lifestyles by 2030.  We are quickly draining the world’s resources. Therefore, the industrial and consumer goods sectors must therefore find ways to use energy and resources more efficiently, improve production processes, develop new technologies and continue to be innovative.

In recent years, the awareness towards preserving the environment has become part of society’s new values and trends. There are many sensitive consumers interested in the ecological value of products. It influences their purchasing decisions and consumer habits (buying recycled and organic items, recycling, etc).

As for marketing, this trend now represents an opportunity to gain advantages from the competition and get close to this market segment. Green marketing seeks to satisfy customer needs, and when corporate culture is based on environmental concerns, it is accepted by all company employees, regardless of their hierarchical level.

However, “green marketing” can be used irresponsibly by companies interested only in their image.

An example of this is found in cleaning and cosmetic products. Many companies may announce that they are “100 percent natural,” “energy efficient” or “organic” without a certificate or information that verifies what is stated on the label.  Also, major companies in the oil and gas industries rely on the use of symbols and environmental colors as a strategy to minimize what could be bad images of their activities. They may even promote Earth Day (April 22) to disseminate its supposedly ‘green efforts.´ These false examples are commonly known as “greenwash.”

For this reason, companies must act responsibly when taking the decision to adopt green marketing. It is not just propaganda. It must be a compromise that involves all staff. Green marketing must be part of the corporate culture, its values and objectives.

On the other hand, as responsible consumers, we must commit to support companies that are already identified with this social responsibility. In order to make buying decisions based on the characteristics the products actually have, we must demand rigorous and reliable information about the product’s origin and manufacturing, as well as the environmental improvements achieved.

Daniel Fumero Lázaro interns at Visibility Marketing Inc. He resides in the Canary Islands.

 

 

Interns Are Critical to Global Growth
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by Daniel Fumero Lázaro

canarias_hubWorking as an intern from the Canary Islands within the United States has allowed me to directly participate in global commerce. The Canary Islands, a Spanish Territory 60 miles off the coast of West Africa, serves as a strategic business hub between African and European nations. I am now assisting my host firm, Visibility Marketing Inc. in Cleveland, Ohio blaze new trails as a U.S. firm seeking to develop new business within the Canary Islands. Visibility Marketing Inc. participated in a renewable energy and water trade mission to the Canary Islands last November. As a result, my coming to the United States to work at Visibility Marketing Inc. was a welcome, yet unintended consequence.

Connecting business opportunities between companies within the United States (such as Visibility Marketing Inc.) and within the Canary Islands is an integral part of diplomatic relations between nations. Conveying economic benefits such as a four percent corporate tax rate within the Canary Islands is attractive to American companies. However, it is my cultural competency relative to the Canary Islands that assists Visibility Marketing Inc. in integrating the cultural nuances that enhance business value propositions to firms within Europe and Africa. Gaining insight to the American business landscape is also allowing me to properly advise my colleagues within the Canary Islands as to what resonates with American business audiences.

Visibility Marketing Inc. has embraced the fact that strategic partnerships with West African and European organizations are integral to sustaining American business growth. Benefits to leveraging the Canary Islands as a business hub to Europe and West Africa include:

    • It is a Spanish region, and therefore belongs to the Europe Union. So the quality of life and labor output meet European standards.
    • The financial stability of Euro as currency
    • An advanced telecommunications infrastructure that is ideal for health services, energy, education, and other technology-driven services
    • An advanced transportation and logistics infrastructure that includes high-capacity shipping ports and global airline connectivity

I am proud to have been selected by Proexca, a publicly-owned economic development agency of the Canary Islands as an international intern.  In addition to obtaining work experience within the United States, I am helping Visibility Marketing Inc. to establish a presence within the Canary Islands. As a result, I am contributing the attracting American investment to my home. The global economy is not an abstract concept. It is an intern, like me, making a difference.

Writing a Powerful Sustainability Story as a Key to Effective Marketing
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marketing sustainability as a story

Those of us who have more than one child know that to reach one may be quite different from how we reach the others. One size does not fit all. It’s the same way when communicating with your customers.

“Green” consumers can also be called “desirable” customers. They’re early adopters, 24 percent of the U.S. population, shop more frequently than most, are loyal to brands, and pay more for those brands. They also care about a company’s social and environmental story. How that story is told can turn them into customers.

Even if a company is sustainable, how they tell their story is what can make the difference for customers. The story needs to connect with their target audience. Distilling all sustainable practices into one main story will be one that aligns with the brand and taps into what their market cares about.

Speak about how your sustainability efforts contribute to the quality of your product. There will be a disconnect with the audience unless you craft the story to align with your brand’s market and corporate culture. When it does align, you’ll attract loyal, desirable customers.

At Visibility Marketing Inc., we help our customers close the gap. It’s not easy communicating to various audiences. We all have our filters. It’s our job to help you align your message, speak to your customers – not at them, and eventually turn them into loyal consumers.

Those consumers will spread their loyalty to those they touch. With social media, they can touch thousands.

Technology Solutions and Services – The Smart Approach to Customer Engagement
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Fotolia_51590279_XS(1)Converging social will, environmental stewardship, and financial responsibility – or the Triple Bottom Line – requires that smart water metering technology providers adapt and deliver 21st Century sustainable solutions.

We have seen successful smart water metering deployments where a vendor deploys a fixed network and ensures that hundreds of thousands of smart water meters communicate according to engineering specifications. The utility then quantifies field labor cost reductions, and identifies various opportunities to realize operational efficiencies. In the case of a progressive utility, additional success metrics relative to leak detection and a reduction in non-revenue water loss is also applied. Thus, tangible short-term and long-term benefits were realized.

While such success factors remain true, the water management landscape is increasingly becoming scrutinized within a broader landscape. This landscape includes municipal government entities leading regional conservation initiatives, and commercial and industrial customers routinely applying environmentally responsible solutions that reduce costs.  Residential customers, now more than ever, are able to link modifications in water consumption behavior to reducing their carbon footprint.  Solution delivery must now integrate environmental, economic, and social benefits.  The end customer and external stakeholders will only become more empowered.

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