Look No Further, Deal Garden is HERE.

Ladies and gentleman,
The CEDAR VALLEY will no longer be ignored!  You've been exposed to sites like LivingSocial and Groupon, but look no further DealGarden has turned their attention to the Cedar Valley.  Usually the bigger metropolitan areas get all of the attention focused around local businesses, but DealGarden has taken a new approach to a shopping website that offers daily deals on the best local products, services, and events. 

Let me tell you a little about my experience with how I became aware of DealGarden's offerings.  I first saw DealGarden on Twitter and became instantly interested.  I started following them on Twitter and took a look at their website to see what deals they had going.  I was then contacted by Mitch Treu to talk a little bit more about what DealGarden's goals were and a little background about their startup.  So, #unidigadv this whole creating a personal brand thing really works! 

DealGarden is extremely similar to these other larger social shopping websites, but they have a very different approach.  DealGarden's niche is smaller markets.  This means, they have little to no competition with these bigger establishments who have much higher subscriber and customer aquisition costs.  Here, take a look for yourself.



Mitch Treu, one of the partners in the company is very excited about the Cedar Valley market and is spending countless hours trying to get the best deals for residents in the area.  DealGarden is active on Twitter and Facebook as well.

This is a very cool and creative startup, with a very young and intelligent crew.  Keep your eyes open for the great deals they promote day in and day out. 

Here are a couple more articles highlighting DealGarden and everything they have to offer -- 
http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2011/06/27/small-market-deals-a-talk-with-deal-gardens-pat-lazure/
http://www.dailydealmedia.com/778deal-garden-smaller-midwest-markets-prove-successful/

Branding in a New Age

This past Friday 12 others and myself attended the 4th Annual AMA UW-Whitewate Regional Conference.  I was surrounded with Packer Fans, cheese, and branding for almost 48 hours straight.  The theme for the conference was "Branding in a New Age."  Some of the speakers included Michelle Palubicki, marketing manager for the Green Bay Packers, Erick Soderstrom, VP of Brand Management and Advertising for AT&T, and Matt Ebert from Apple.

The most interesting speaker had to be the Matt Ebert from Apple.  He talked about how part of their marketing strategy is to keep everything hush-hush, therefore their competitors are always on their feet and wondering what the next great creation from Apple will be.  He also mentioned how this gives Apple a large amount of free publicity and hype from new products they may or may not be launching soon.  Matt also talked about the downfall of Apple in the 90's.  It was news to me that Jobs, yes Steve Jobs one of the founders, was let go of the company.  Matt described the culture of the company and how without Jobs, the company had little direction and focus.  The one thing Matt wanted us to take away from his presentation was that Apple's brand strategy is all about one thing: INNOVATION. Here are a few of Apple's most recent retail outlets that Matt shared with us.  These are beyond amazing, creative, and classic Apple for ya. 

Did you know??? -- ALL Apple stores are composed of only 3 materials: stainless steel, glass, and wood.