Regardless of whether you’re a small business operating out of your basement or a multimillion-dollar franchise, your brand is the core of your business. It’s how your business is perceived by consumers – meaning, it’s what they think of when they think of you. I’ll explain.  Let’s play a game. I’ll give you a clue, and you tell me what first comes to mind: “Just Do It” Innovation that excites Always low prices. Always. “YOU get a car, and YOU get a car, and YOU get a car!” It comes in a little robin’s egg blue box with a white …

We live in a visual information world. If you doubt it, just take a look at Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. What does that mean for the communications professional? What does it mean for the business person? In both cases, telling a story will mean more than words. You will need to think about graphics, photography or video to make your content stickier. And that visual component needs to advance or illustrate the written word. Generally speaking, graphics are great for making numbers and statistics more approachable, video is perfect for showing how to do something or creating a mood …

July 21, 1969, was a big day for me. It was my 14th birthday, and 14 seemed so much cooler, so much older than 13. I was ready to leave the teen-age apprenticeship year behind and get on with it. I was also heading to Huntsville to play with the Fort Payne, Ala., Little League All-Star team in a regional baseball tournament. I was pumped about making the team, but even more so for the chance to go on a road trip with my buddies that would include a couple of nights in a motel. (It had a pool!) As …

In our sports and social media blog series, which Sandy Weaver kicked off a couple of weeks ago (here), Senior Account Executive Brandon Barca says preparation will help you “win the moment.” As did Weaver, Barca worked in sports prior to joining MP&F. He spent 18 years in college sports marketing and communications, most recently as a digital and social media strategist for the University of Oregon in the Pac-12 and before that at Vanderbilt University. Barca created nationally recognized all-access videos documenting Vanderbilt’s football and baseball programs, and developed innovative ways to unveil Oregon’s trend-setting uniforms to a global …

The Nashville sports scene has been buzzing this spring. From hosting the 2019 NFL Draft in front of a record 600,000 fans and the NHL’s Nashville Predators’ playing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs to welcoming a former NBA star player as the new head men’s basketball coach at Vanderbilt University, big sports moments are happening in Nashville. For sports programs, there is a challenge in taking these memorable moments and turning them into social media victories. Senior account executives Sandy Weaver and Brandon Barca each spent more than a decade specializing in sports marketing and communications before joining the MP&F …

It’s no secret that the right internship can be tremendously helpful for young people’s careers. Benefits of an internship can include experience, networking opportunities, class credit (if a school recognizes it) and a paycheck (assuming it’s a paid internship … for the record, MP&F’s interns are paid). Given all of these positives, it isn’t surprising that landing an internship becomes more competitive each year. While I make no claims to represent the thinking of all hiring managers, future intern candidates could benefit by paying attention to the following five things: 1.) Resume Quality and Length. There are plenty of resources …

Marketing a family of brands Every marketing challenge is different. Some are more complicated than others. And then there are the ones that really make you stretch. Those are the kinds we like. Early in 2018, a company with 40-plus retail health care centers in 10 states approached MP&F looking for greater brand awareness and help attracting new patients. But there was a catch – this wasn’t one brand. This was 40-plus brands. Every one of the centers. A quick case study offers some insight to approach. Need A corporation of 40-plus retail health care practices in 10 states wanted …