going-solo conference
On May 15th, Eddie and I, along with Andre, we’ll be traveling north to Geneva for the one day Going-Solo conference – “focused on the new web” for freelancers and small business owners.
This will be the conference’s first year and is organized by Stephanie Booth, and promises to be a full day of meeting and interacting with interesting people like: Stowe Boyd, Laura (Pistachio), Nuno Barreto, Kevin Marks, and others.
If you’re planning to be there and like to connect, leave us a comment below. You can also connect with Eddie here and myself here.
See you there!
8 Green Marketing Ideas for Your Business
In the spirit of Earth day, we’re going to look at how small to med-size businesses can make a commitment to environment and create a competitive advantage in their market place.
Everywhere your turn, there’s talk about the environment and how businesses need to be socially responsible to minimize their impact on the environment. Finally, the earth we take so much from is going to be getting some payback.
So, can a business lower its negative impact, grow and think green all at once?
There’s plenty of skepticism, but there’s also proof that ‘Thinking Green’ in business is not only good for the environment, but for business as well. Here are some easy to implement green marketing ideas your business can embrace: Read more
8 Examples of “Coming Soon Pages”
We have several new projects under the hood here at Chama, and since each are in development mode, we decided to put our own “coming soon pages” for a few of them, instead of the standard default domain “holding” pages.
There are many advantages to having a proper “coming soon page”, the main reason is for their search engine friendliness. Since a domain’s age is one of the many factors Google uses in its algorithms, a coming soon page is a good way to mark your presence early on, while you’re working on your site behind the scene. It also looks better and more professional than the cookie cutter holding page. (And note we’re not referring to the dot com under construction holding pages)
A few other reasons to use “coming soon pages”:
* builds trust with almighty Google
* creates buzz … i.e. in the case of silverbackapp.com
* gets volunteers to help you beta test the site/app
* allows early birds to sign up for an email alert when the project goes live
So now your convinced and ready to see some great examples of “coming soon” pages, right? Well not so fast, we did some digging and sorry to say, there isn’t a much out there. This may in part, be due to the fact there’s no place to archive these pages, so all this “coming soon” inspiration may just be falling into a digital black hole. But alas, necessity is the mother of invention so we’ve put together this starter post, and created a public Flickr Group to serve as creative juice for all, and in hopes designers and creative types will share their best examples.
Kidzania Portugal - Future For Kids
When was the last time you asked a kid, “How’s School?” and gotten the answer, “Boring!” Although kids aren’t overly chatty at times, ask this question and one of two things will happen: either their eyes glaze over in a zombie like state, or they ramble on about how awful it is to sit in class listening to a teacher for hours on end.
I was a pre Xbox, facebook, ipod generation student, and can only imagine having those toys at home then having to sit in front of a mono toned teacher for what would seem like an eternity. I also feel for teachers, how can they possibly compete with all the interactive, high definition, multimedia, graphics and acoustics available today…seeesh! So how does a parent or teacher motivate a kid to think about their life and future in more creative ways?
Well one company, Kidzania seems to be on to something, by inspiring kids through old age “role pay”. But not just any old role play though, this kind of play provides kids with interactive “real life” jobs, money and everyday life scenarios. The project was originally started in Mexico city, by a group of young Mexican entrepreneurs, with a vision for a new kind of family entertainment. Kids receive their own currency the “KidZo” which they can spend, save in their “account”, or of course, work to earn more. The work environments stretch the gamut from hospitals to flipping burgers, and it all comes together and mode possible by brand promotion.
Marketing “Green” in the Algarve
Marketing “Green”: can businesses succeed by being environmental friendly? That was the big question on the minds of some attendees at AmbienDura’s environmental workshop in Algarve, Portugal.
[update] You might also find “8 Green Marketing Ideas for your Business” interesting.
Chama, had the opportunity to present the concept of “Green Marketing” and the advantages businesses and organizations can leverage from being “Green”.
We presented our case by looking at the Algarve and its tourism industry. Our Portuguese readers will know:
Algarve’s economy is largely based on ‘Tourism’, and although lucrative what is its future? How will the region compete with other holiday destinations in the future? What will set the Algarve apart? How will it be sustained and what other opportunities could spill over from tourism?
The Solution: Differentiation + Branding + Sustainability + Green Ideas
Top 6 Marketing Tips for Selling More Wine
With the vast selection of quality wines in Portugal, how can a small or lesser-known wine brand stand out from the pack, be visible and increase sales?
This was the “million” dollar question looming over the minds of the producers we met at the Lisbon Wine show in November. We’ve had these folks on our mind and thought we’d focus on a few key marketing points that could help this important industry.
The 6 Key Points:
First and foremost, two necessary ingredients must exist: You have to love what you do: making great wine. And second: You need to communicate and share the quality of your craft.
Since Portuguese wines have quality, uniqueness and diversity, they’re able to compete against many international brands, so quality is not the issue. Recognition however is another story, and this unfortunately comes down to lack of good marketing. So the real issue isn’t the product, but the right marketing and communication strategy for our new, highly informed and connected generation.
Once the first two ingredients are in place, here’s what’s next:
| 01: | Understanding your ideal customer |
| 02: | A creative name |
| 03: | Label design |
| 04: | Website |
| 05: | Blogging |
| 06: | Adegga.com |
Toronto’s Coffee Houses
In the battle of the coffee shops, we take a look at three unique coffee houses who are winning the hearts of coffee lovers in Toronto, Canada. Proof positive: small specialty retailers can standout, be successful & proudly counted next to giants like Starbucks.
I love coming to Toronto - on each trip, I spend a chunk of my time exploring new funky shops and boutiques in one of my favorite areas in the city, the ever growing and ultra hip Queen Street. Year after year, from East to West, this once downtrodden street blossoms with an increasing number of truly unique and super creative retail spaces - filled with the latest in urban design, art galleries, great eateries, bars and hundreds of specialty shops. The creative vibe here is so strong that its also impacting off-shooting streets connecting directly to it, and becoming a hive of activity and adrenaline for the creative geeks of every genera.
On my recent visit, I noticed a big increase in specialty coffee houses - with the hundreds of Starbucks, Timothy’s and Second Cup’s around - I began to wonder how these small independent coffee shops survived? So I made it my mission to discover what was brewing. It quickly became obvious, each was uniquely different from the other, not only in aesthetics but the way they communicated and delivered their coffee culture, and how these elements related to their brand.
Let’s look at three of my newest favorite coffee shops in Toronto:
Cherry Bomb Café
Address: 79 Roncesvalles Avenue
Map: view here
KEY DIFFERENTIATION POINTS
- Retro design
- Friendly human service
- Huge selection of Teas
- Best Hot Chocolate in the city!
- Wide variety of specialty roasts from fair trade to organic
- See the making, and devour delicious freshly baked goodies
For more info on Cherry Bomb Coffee House, visit their website.
Tinto Coffee House
Address: 89 Roncesvalles Avenue
Map: view here
KEY DIFFERENTIATION POINTS
- Friendly atmosphere
- Free WiFi for all customers
- Cozy and comfortable setting to read and work
- High quality coffee at a fraction of Starbucks prices
Visit Tinto Coffee House website for more info.
La Merceria
Address: 506 Adelaide Street west.
Map: View here
{photo courtesy: decor8}
KEY DIFFERENTIATION POINTS
- Simple Menu
- Niche clientele
- Great use of sensory branding
- Yummy things for the belly & beautiful things to take home*
At La Merceria there is wonderful coffee and treats but also beautiful things to indulge for gift giving and life. From quality crisp linens and fine ceramics to writing papers and fragrances, the founders have nailed the idea: fill the belly, fill the senses. La Merceria is clearly a labor of love for the founders and couple, who’ve made their dream a reality of serving coffee in a cozy and comfortable atmosphere and seducing customers with unique treats for your home … total self indulgence.
Holly from blog “decor8″ has written a great post on La Merceria. Be sure to check out her blog for a virtual store tour : )
Chama’s New Business Card
We kick off the new year, with our brand new Chama Business cards.
We finally got our new Chama business cards from the printing house - as the business card is one of our most important elements, our design goal was to:
| 01: | Express chama’s creativity to potential prospects (minimalist design, a card that stands out) |
| 02: | Ensure a consistent look with our web identity (black and white, with big typography) |
| 03: | Make a great first impression (clean, simple, different) |
Portugal’s Public Smoking Ban
Portugal remains one of the few European countries left that still allows public smoking, mostly do to the fear of lost business.
However, in May 2007, the Portuguese parliament approved a law banning smoking in all public places smaller than 100m2, by January 1st, 2008. So in a few days, Portugal will join other European countries in an attempt to cut down on tobacco-related deaths.
Speaking to some of our favorite restaurateurs here in Algarve, there seems to be a mixed feeling about the smoking ban.
There’s the group that fears the ban will crush their businesses. Then there’s those who show optimism “we might lose some guests who smoke, but we could gain non-smoking clients”. Voila!
It always fascinated me how a quarter of the Portuguese population who smoke seem to have a louder voice than 75% of the population who don’t. So there could actually be a new opportunity to capitalize on the non-smokers who are about to come out of hiding.
What remains to be seen is the after math of the restaurants and establishments, who didn’t heed the warning to make their establishments non-smoking friendly. Either way, an interesting strategy to differentiate could be on the horizon.
10 Questions with Adegga.com’s Founder
Through Algarvebuzz, we met André Ribeirinho – a Portuguese born Entrepreneur and founder of the social wine discovery website Adegga.com.
If you’re like me, you’ll probably find yourself doing some head scratching every time you’re faced with the seemingly endless rows of bottles at your local wine shop.
Living in Portugal, doesn’t make picking wines any easier, with so much choice it’s sometimes frustrating to pick just one…and lets not get into the considerations….what’s right for dinner, lunch, food, guests… on and on….ah, the stress.
Fortunately, Adegga takes out the guessing; and I now go to Adegga to check wines before heading out to the shop…its become my secret weapon in choosing my wines; so my “wine ego” remains in tack rather than in tatters. Next time you find yourself having to go “pick a wine” and sweating under the pressure to deliver something impressive…click on over to Adegga.com first and enjoy the results.
Adegga.com is currently on an invite bases; if you want an invite, please leave me a comment or email “moses[at]chamainc.com”, I’ll be happy to share some of my invitations.
I recently had the opportunity to interview Adegga’s founder Andre Ribeirinho and asked him the next 10 questions.
Founders: from left to right: Andre C., Andre R., Emidio
1.What does “Adegga” mean and how did you come up with the name?
Adegga is a play on the word adega (only one g) which means cellar in Portuguese. We wrote several potential names on a white board while trying to come up with a name for our service. Eventually the name Adegga won because it was both inspired by the (strong) Portuguese wine culture but also readable in several different languages. I think that good names need to tell a story and Adegga tells the story of a team of Portuguese internet entrepreneurs that want their social wine discovery service to be useful around world but never forgetting their Portuguese origin.
2.Why a “social wine discovery” and who do you think will benefit from using it?
Friends opinions are the ones we trust most. When a friend makes a recommendation there’s a bond of trust that makes us feel confident.
It’s our real social network that helps us make decisions. On the other hand wine is inherently social and totally prone to discovery (who doesn’t like to try new wine?). The combination of friends, wine and discovery is the basis for our service.
Interestingly, Adegga is useful from the moment you and another friend are using it. You can both share wines you buy, drink or wish. This helps you and your friends make smarter choices when choosing wine.
3.Who is Adegga.com for?
Adegga is for wine lovers who find it difficult to choose wine. By sharing their opinions with their friends Adegga makes it extremely useful for anyone (from wine newbie to wine expert) to share their passion with other people they trust. Any person can use Adegga to search for a wine, see what other people think about it and know where to buy it.
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This is the blog of Chama Inc. - a creative marketing and web solutions company, based in Algarve, Portugal. This blog is a way for us to share marketing ideas, stories, inspiration, opinions and rants.
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- going-solo conference
- 8 Green Marketing Ideas for Your Business
- 8 Examples of “Coming Soon Pages”
- Kidzania Portugal - Future For Kids
- Marketing “Green” in the Algarve
- Top 6 Marketing Tips for Selling More Wine
- Toronto’s Coffee Houses
- Chama’s New Business Card
- Portugal’s Public Smoking Ban
- 10 Questions with Adegga.com’s Founder
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