The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce has just informed us that we are one of the three finalists in their Small Business of the Year, Business Award Program. For those of you keeping track of Brand Iron news, this is the second year in a row we’ve been up for this honor.

We are very excited to be a finalist as three are many great small businesses in downtown Denver. We would like to thank all our clients and partners in helping us achieve a great 2009.

The announcement will be made at The Business Awards luncheon on Thursday, April 22nd at the Hyatt - Colorado Convention Center from 11:30 am - 1:30 am. Stay Tuned.

- The Brand Iron Team

I saw nothing short of a miracle the other day when I went with one of my clients to experience one of their assessments. My client is Infinite Health & Wellness, their President & CEO is Christine Bartel, she has a special gift when it comes to understanding the messed up health care system, understanding the people that can’t fight for themselves and how to help those who need healthcare help the most, the elderly.

We went and visited with a mother who was around 90 years old, and her daughter of about 60. The daughter suffers from Cerebral Palsy and is deaf and the mom had a stroke in the past, leaving the left side of her body paralyzed and restricting the use her left hand, causing her terrible pain to the point where she was crying on the day we visited. They both need help to live their daily lives; they need 24 hour care. Christine talked with her nurse who said that they had finished treatment on the mother’s hand. Our question was, if they were done treating her, why was this mom still in so much pain still?

Christine asked to talk with someone regarding the treatment of this elderly mom and her disabled daughter, the charge nurse at the nursing home didn’t want to talk with Christine because of legal issues, which I understand, but even after the mom and her daughter gave them authority to chat with Christine, the lead nurse was indignant and started to question why Christine was there and commented that she should mind her own business. She didn’t want Christine to get involved because the mom and her daughter weren’t getting taking care of properly.

Unfortunately this kind of treatment isn’t that uncommon for the elderly, if fact not only do they not get properly taken care of, they get taken advantage of. Take the mom and her daughter for example, they have been taken advantage of repeatedly, one healthcare worker stole from their bank account, another stole their credit cards and racked up a bunch of unauthorized charges, another one claimed to love the daughter just to get close enough so he could steal money from them and yet another took thousands of dollars and a car to help with his “non-profit” organization.

It is appalling what happens to our elderly, they are the great forgotten class who can’t speak up for themselves and they need a need a champion to fight for their rights. That champion is Christine Bartel and her company Infinite Health and Wellness, they fight for healthcare reform and are fighting to make sure the elderly don’t get taken advantage of anymore.

Christine is currently waste deep in trying to get this elderly mom and her disabled daughter properly taken care of, I’ll keep you posted as to the progress she is making. In the mean time you can find out information about Infinite Health and Wellness at: www.Infinitehealthandwellness.net

Look for updates on: Infinite Advocacy for the Elderly and the forgotten generation
at brandiron.net/blog

Till next time,

Michael

The biggest challenge small businesses face today continues to be operating in a sluggish economy. As a small business ourselves, and despite economic conditions, Brand Iron continues to thrive. Last year was a record year for the company. We attribute our success partly to our willingness to face this challenge head on. Rather than cut back on sales and marketing efforts to save cash, we recognize that now is the best opportunity to market our business. It is a chance to separate ourselves from others, so we continue to be aggressive in its business development and marketing.

Brand Iron’s management philosophy centers around a team-oriented approach made up of individuals who understand and embrace an entrepreneurial spirit. Our firm is made up of individuals who subscribe to this approach. Inherently, this type of spirit produces strong accountability, team work, creative thinking, problem solving and a win-win attitude. This approach ultimately leads to producing outstanding results for our clients.

Exemplary customer service is another essential piece of the foundation for any successful business operation. It may sound obvious, but Brand Iron is committed to demonstrating outstanding customer service from the outset of every client relationship. You would be surprised at the number of businesses out there who don’t put much emphasis on customer service…they operate as though it is a given. Unless you focus on it, the concept gradually slips away. From our initial “Brandstorming” session with every client, we map out clearly defined goals and objectives, detailed time lines and create accountability methods (for both the agency and the client) to ensure success. The final step of our 7-Step Process — “Running the Ranch” – ensures that we monitor progress in all client relationships and demonstrate goal-oriented success. Internally, our Client Services team meets regularly to ensure client relationships stay strong and that we deliver a solid ROI.

-Jim Miller, Public Relations

Chances are your New Year’s resolutions this year might be similar to those of last year. And chances are also pretty high that they are the same as most of your friends and family as well. The reason for this is that they are simply hard to keep and each year we vow to be better, more dedicated, and more determined to succeed. The top 10 New Year’s resolutions are as follows:
• 1. Stop smoking
• 2. Get Fit
• 3. Lose Weight
• 4. Enjoy Life More
• 5. Quit Drinking
• 6. Get Organized
• 7. Learn Something New
• 8. Get Out of Debt
• 9. Spend more time with the Family
• 10. Help Others

While over 30% of people never even make it out of the gate with their New Year’s resolutions there is reason to be more optimistic this year – the iPhone. I guess they were right, there truly is an Iphone app for everything. Not only do they keep us entertained, give us directions, and answer questions, but now they are helping us stay on track with our goals for 2010. Here are some Apps that may help you keep your resolutions this year

• 1. Stop smoking - My Quitline, a free application that links users to the National Cancer Institute’s quitline where you can speak to a live coach.
• 2. Get Fit – iFitness, has over 230 different individual exercises to choose from. For each exercise you’ll see a picture, a description, and, for most, a video as well
• 3. Lose Weight – Daily Burn, enter your current weight and goal weight, and it’ll tell you how many calories you should eat a day and show your progress
• 4. Enjoy Life More – the iPhone has thousands of apps for fun and games for every age. Try Flick Fishing, it lets you virtually cast and reel in some really big fish using iPhone
• 5. Quit Drinking – 12 steps AA Companion, the perfect tool for all members of Alcoholics Anonymous
• 6. Get Organized – 43 things.com, you can keep track of up to 43 “things” that you’d like to accomplish, write notes about each goal, and indicate what percentage of the way you are towards finishing it
• 7. Learn Something New – want to learn a new language? Try Human Japanese or Basic Spanish for Dummies
• 8. Get Out of Debt – Mint.com, somehow makes budgeting fun (or as close to fun as possible) with it’s slick interface and color coded graphs and charts
• 9. Spend more time with the Family –Kidtivities, scroll through 40 great activity ideas you can enjoy with kids two to six years old almost anywhere
• 10. Help Others – A Real Tree, plants a real tree in one of twelve countries facing deforestation by letting you easily donate money to this organization
Go to Apple.com for more iPhone Apps

- Kaitlyn Anderson, Marketing Trailblazer

Hi, my name is Chris.
I am the newest member of the Brand Iron team, joining the firm as Art Director earlier this year. I started my graphic art and web design career in 2004 in Southern California in the booming Action Sports industry. My first position was at Surf Ride Board Shops, a large retailer of surf boards and apparel. In 2007, I became the Senior Designer at Adio Footwear in San Diego. From 2006-2008 I also was a co-owner of Dagrander Studios, a marketing, advertising, branding and web development company.

In 2008 my wife Kelsay and I moved to Colorado in 2008 and accepted a Senior Designer position at Crocs Footwear. At Crocs, I was charged with advertising campaign development and implementation, unique product promotion, retail space marketing and product line development.

In my new position at Brand Iron, I will manage the company’s creative department with responsibility for the visual development of printed and web materials with emphasis on design implementation of branding strategy.

Away from the office I enjoy snowboarding, hiking, and pretty much anything to do with the mountains.

If you want to see a neglected website full of some old work of mine, check out http://www.paperastronaut.com.

-Chris Schindler, Design Bandit

With all the negativity around terrible TV show content such as MTV’s “Jersey Shore” or the publicity around the poor moral choices celebrities such as Tiger Woods make, it’s pretty obvious that even if it’s negative, attention is attention. In the advertising world, getting attention is the name of the game. I’m all about clever advertising. After working with some great mentors in my life with more experience than I’ve been alive, I consider myself pretty seasoned and receptive to TV spots or ads that get noticed.

So after reading the latest Dockers “soft khakis” ad, I won’t lie…I wanted to jump up and scream “AMEN!” But after reading an article with opinions that followed, it was disheartening as a woman to read between the lines. Ok, don’t get me wrong, I get it, but at the same time, I feel very strange about the line “the world decided it no longer needed men.” Really? And after dissecting some of the other lines, I wondered “does anyone else feel uncomfortable about this?”

I think the correlation of men needing to “wear the pants” and selling pants is clever, I just think this opens such a huge can of controversy. Even though controversy after all, IS what gets our attention.

http://tinyurl.com/yf336lh

-Rebecca Watry, BrandIron Account Manager

Thanks to our partners and friends who made it out to our annual Holiday Partner Event at the Reserve List in Denver last week. There was wine tasting, food, and great conversation. Check out the shots below to see photographic evidence of the good times had by all.

You can view the rest of the photos on our Facebook page:
http://tinyurl.com/ybu3k2f
Thank you to the Reserve List for the amazing space and fabulous selection of wine. And thank you as always to our partners and friends. See you all in 2010!

Last week, when Comcast announced that it was taking majority ownership of NBC Universal (purchasing 51 percent of storied TV network for around $14 billion), many wondered if the foundations of “free TV” were starting to crumble. If nothing else, it is a clear indication that the shift in how people get their news and entertainment has changed forever.

Here are some things on the plus-side: More TV choices, more often…even on your mobile device; the ability to watch TV whenever and wherever; faster access to movies: movies from Universal Pictures will arrive on cable sooner; more programs on phones and online.

And while Comcast claims the move is “pro-consumer,” there will surely be some down-side: Higher cable bills for one thing. It may also mean that we see Comcast withhold channels from competitors (therefore consumers) like Dish Network or DirecTV. Don’t be surprised if someday soon we will all pay an on-demand fee for premium material (read: Super Bowl and the Olympics to name a few).

We’ve seen these “content” and “distribution” mergers before: Time Warner and AOL tied the knot 1986, Disney and ABC did so in 1995. Ironically, just as Philadelphia-based Comcast and NBC announce their engagement, Time Warner and AOL just announced plans for divorce.

Regulatory approval is still needed to close the deal but provided it happens, the TV landscape will continue to reshape itself. Will it ultimately be for better or worse? As they used to say back in the day: Stay tuned

- Jim Miller, Public Relations

Twitter Co-founder Biz Stone stated the other day “Twitter isn’t for sale. Although an IPO may be an option in the future, who knows.” He then went on to say that “we need to create value for our users/customers before we can create value for ourselves.”

Reading this article it struck me that not only do I love this guys name, I also love his view on creating brand value. He understands that if you create value and loyalty among your customers, you are creating company and brand value. I also respect Mr. Stone’s view because he understands this business value has to generate actual dollars sooner or later.

Beyond understanding what product or service we are selling, we all need to understand how we can create real customer value and actual/tangible results. We also need to grasp how we tie in the brand recognition with the revenue generation that is going to create leads, which will turn into real dollars and value that our companies are going to benefit from.

- Michael Doyle, President and CEO