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Do you pay close attention to the brand name items that you see in the store, on television or in magazine ads? Chances are you probably do not but if you were shown a company logo without the name you could readily identify it. Subliminal advertising is heavily at work at that moment. You see an ad and a naturally drawn to that particular product because your brain has associated it with something good. It is not just commercials either. Subliminals have been used for decades as training tools and ways to get the public or military to respond in a certain way. It goes much farther than the “Eat Popcorn” or “Drink Coke” ad that you have heard being placed in movies to entice people to the refreshment stand. This article will cover many of the ways subliminals have been used over the past few decades. Some myths will be confirmed and some will be busted.

How are subliminals used?

Subliminals are often thought to be found in recordings and in videos. The idea of the subliminal message in a recording, usually a song, was that the message was put into it and you could only hear it by playing the music backwards. There were many religious organizations in the 70’s and 80’s that believed satanic messages were embedded in the era’s heavy metal music. The idea that a subliminal message was implanted in a video or a movie came about because of a rumor that movie theaters were putting in messages to drink a particular soda or visit the refreshment counter for snacks. The rumors were false or at least that is what the movie industry claimed. But subliminal programming has also been used for great things. But subliminal usage is all around. There are people who can readily identify a product just from the advertising symbol. This is subliminal messaging at its best.

What instruments have been used for subliminals?

The most common instrument, or rather medium, used for subliminals has been through video or film. It is far easier to insert a brief flash of a message into a movie or commercial than it is to put it on a music track. The reason is because it is a visual identifier. The idea is to flash a certain message at periodic intervals quickly. The brain processes these flashes even though the viewer is unaware of what they have seen. There have been many cases where this was used in movies and television shows just make fun of the idea of subliminal advertising.

Have subliminals been used effectively in hard rock music?

Courtesy of James Vicary’s experiment many religious groups began to think that subliminals were used during backmasking of songs. Backmasking is a technique where a sound is recorded backwards into a song and the brain processes it even though the words sound like gibberish when listened to. Many religious organizations claimed that heavy metal or hard rock music bands were using this subliminal trick to influence kids to party and even worship the devil. However it has never been proven to be true. Most of the bands that were targets laughed it off or even used it to their advantage to sell more records. So perhaps it was effective but not in the way that the religious and moral leaders thought.

Can subliminal programming actually work in some instances?

Believe it or not but subliminals can actually work in some cases. The tachistoscope is often used in the military to train soldiers to recognize enemy targets. This started back in World War II. It can also be used to help people increase their reading speed and their sight. And there is evidence that in self-help tapes subliminal messages can be used to help influence a certain behavior. By listening to a track over and over while asleep the listener absorbs the content of the message and then is influenced in a certain way.

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Touting your products and services by promotions is important to business success. Developing a business is easier when more people know of what you are doing. 

With the option of television or radio out of the reach of the majority of small businesses, they have to live within their means. 

The alternatives are local; press, bill boards perhaps, on site signage, word of mouth, car magnets and having relevance to the community. It means working to the needs of local people at the local scale.

This maintains market relevance as the small businesses endeavour to cater for a local market. Vehicles for most small business people are required for both business and private use. It’s why car magnets are first-class as they are so easy to install and then remove as your life ebbs and flows. They make your vehicle a multi-purpose machine.

At low expense, they get your business offer on car – as a moving advertisement. It transforms your car in seconds into a mobile billboard. And in the same time, revert back again to your private after work life.

If you follow this procedure, caring for your car magnets is necessary, to ensure your magnets look as good as new in five years, as they did when you first received them. Briefly, it means keeping them dirt free front and back, peeling them on and off the vehicle and avoiding long term, day after day usage.

Crucially when car magnets are off the car, you have to protect them. With a new, special protect-a-mag pocket your days of worrying protecting your car magnets will be a thing of the past. 

These vehicle magnets give you a flexibility unavailable in any other form of “on-vehicle” signage. A magnet on the car will raise your profile within your community and that’s good for your business success. 

One of the things that all businesses need is leads and customers.  Without it all businesses will go dead.So a lot of businesses are always searching for ways to attain more leads.One of the ways that is quite obvious is with advertising.

In this piece, I am going to share a couple of ways to advertise that aren’t the usual way to advertise.  Although it isn’t your usual type of advertising it is effective.Those methods are through using electronic billboards and mobile billboards. Both of these methods go into the category of advertising called outdoor media.  This is coming from a perspective I have gotten running my mobile billboards San Diego business.

A lot of people in general are going to be knowledgeable regarding what outdoor media is.  They are most familiar with billboards.But these ways of advertising are very effective because they can get your prospect’s attention and keep it.  That has been the case with my electronic billboards Tijuana.  By not just being a static sign but a beautiful vibrant ad it grabs their attention.  It is a proven fact that it gets people’s attention.  That is why some cities ban it because driver’s get distracted by it.

Or if you use mobile billboards or what I use in my truck advertising San Diego business.Which is the use of trucks to be your mobile billboard.  This grabs people’s attention because the ad is right there with them on the streets.It is right there right in traffic with them.So a well designed full color ad will definitely capture your prospect’s attention.

As you can plainly see both of the advertising methods aren’t your typical ways.But they are effective for that reason of their unconventionalness.With your prospects attention span not being very long you have to do things a different way.This is not what they typically see so it can get your ad seen and read.  And as a an advertiser, that is your ultimate goal.  This will accomplish more leads and more customers.

Designing surveys is easy; or is it? The reality is that writing surveys is easy but writing surveys that will be effective is a little bit more difficult. The following are twenty tips that if followed will help you with your survey questionnaire design and help you write effective surveys.

1. What is the survey’s purpose?

Surveys are conducted for many reasons. By correctly phrasing the questions and structuring the answers surveys can be used in a multitude of ways and for a variety of reasons. When designing a survey do not lose sight of its purpose.

2. Give the survey a good title

The survey title is key and an opportunity to instantly summarise a survey’s objective and grab the attention of invited respondents. Respondents are going to invest time in completing the survey so make them feel that their investment is worthwhile.

3. Don’t make the survey any longer than it needs to be

Every question that is asked should be asked for a reason. Concentrate on the ‘need to know’ questions and minimise ‘nice to know’ information.

4. Use plain English, maintain consistency, avoid jargon and acronyms and don’t ask questions that may result in ambiguous answers

Be careful when wording the question. If a question can be interpreted in more ways than one then there is a risk that any analysis of the survey results will be worthless or at the very least suspect.

5. Avoid long questions

Use succinct sentences wherever possible. Long questions tend to cause respondents discomfort and can lead to a higher level of incidents where respondents abandon a survey.

6. Ask one question at a time

Avoid confusing the respondent with a question like ‘Do you like tennis and golf?’

7. Avoid influencing the answer

Avoid loading the question. ‘Should irresponsible shop keepers who sell tobacco to minors be prosecuted?’ is likely to have no value.

8. Ensure that the answer format used allows the respondent to answer the question being asked

Ensure that the respondent is able to answer how they really feel or they may abandon the survey. As a last resort consider the benefit of including a “Can’t say”, “Don’t know” or similar response option.

9. At the same time that you compile the survey consider, when the survey is complete, how the compiled data is going be analysed

If a question is asked that allows a free text open ended response appreciate that such information is likely to be difficult to score and/or summarised. Consider grouping answers. For example “Indicate your length of service?” - ‘less than 3 year’, ‘between 3 and 8 years’ and ‘more than 8′.

10. Ensure that the questionnaire flows

Group the questions into clear categories as this makes the task of completing the survey easier for the participants.

11. Target your respondents

You may want to target a specific group, in others a cross section. If you can’t easily control the respondents consider including questions/answers that will allow you to filter out respondents that don’t match your target profile.

12. Allow the respondent to expand or make comments

By allowing respondents to make additional comments you will increase their satisfaction level and the comments will also give valuable feedback on the specific questions and/or the survey as a whole. Remember that for large sample collections that free text open ended responses may be difficult to analyse.

13. If you are conducting a confidential survey ensure that your pledge for confidentiality is upheld

If you have guaranteed the respondents that the survey is confidential ensure that the individual data is not to be shared with anyone and the information is not going to be used for any other purpose. Confidentiality must be maintained and any identifying information deleted after the survey is complete.

14. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of allowing respondents to be anonymous or identifiable

If your respondents are to be anonymous then appreciate that you will be unable to follow up or match “pre” or “post” surveys. There are advantages to allowing people to remain anonymous for example it would allow people to respond without possible peer pressure.

15. Consideration carefully the best response format

Being consistent with the format used for responses is good practice. When creating your survey keep in mind that when analysing the data radio buttons are easier to analyse than check boxes that offer the respondent multiple responses. If a radio response can be used do not use a check box.

16. Give the respondent an estimate as to how much time the survey will take

Respondent drop out can occur if the survey appears to be a stream of never ending questions. It is good practice to give an indication as to how long the survey is likely to take so the respondents can choose the best time to complete the survey.

17. Inform the respondents of the survey end date

Encourage your invited respondents to complete the survey as soon as possible but advise the respondents of the survey’s end date so that they have the opportunity to schedule the necessary time.

18. Trial the survey

Before publishing a live survey publish a small pilot survey to check for questions that are ambiguous or confusing and to ensure that the survey is aesthetically pleasing.

19. Before publishing the survey check the survey several times

Check more than once that the survey is grammatically correct and makes sense. If possible get someone else to proof read the survey before you publish, if you are unable to do this then take a break before checking again.

20. Thank your respondents

To complete surveys respondents have to devote their time and should be thanked at the end of completing the survey or in a follow up letter. You may even want to consider incentives such as a reward of some sort.

Getting started is easy and there are many survey software websites to choose from.

Firstly, it is much cheaper to use a virtual office as compared to a physical one. By reducing normal variable and fixed costs, you will have much more capital to channel into other more important aspects of your business. Whether you have a warehouse to maintain, a kitchen or distribution point to upkeep, you do not have to worry about renting out an office to house your employees and stress yourself out on the many different rising costs that may exist. The amount of money that employers are spending on their offices is not a joke, especially for those SMEs who only realise later that their office is actually more of a liability. At the end of the day, you will be the best judge on whether or not you can shift your operations partially or completely virtual. For some businesses, the ideal arrangement is to virtualise only part of their operations in order to exploit the cost savings and increase their profits. Whatever the use, cost is a major factor in why a virtual office is a viable business solution. Another benefit is that they offer a one-stop service solution for your operations, which means less of hassle setting up telephony, email, fax and internet. Sure, they charge you a premium, but when compared to the amount you will save paying monthly bills, it is a far better solution.They also provide receptionist and even physical spaces to conduct meetings; on top of a premium business address you can use on all your carriers.The flip side of this is that virtual offices can be seen a mile away, which means that it can either be seen as an innovative and cost cutting method, or a cheap solution to keep the business running. Some customers prefer to have a dedicated headquarters where they can visit and talk to the employees. Personal contact is still important in the business world, and the virtual office, with its trimmings of interactivity cannot provide that for nowEven renting out the physical locations are based on availability. Also, one of the complaints commonly received by people who have virtual office is the quality of the receptionist. Often they are placed in charge of more than one company and this makes it a diluted service experience for the client. They are unable to answer the more specific questions and sometimes are at a loss, which is bad for business. But these are the risks that you have to take. You cannot expect to get a cheap solution to your office problem without some drawbacks. It is how you choose the virtual office and control the dynamics of its operation that will ensure the success of your business. Though there are pros and cons of utilizing a virtual office, it is still a practical business solution for those looking to start cheap.