One free Slogan

We know what’s it like to start a company. We are a relatively new company ourselves. So every few months we offer one small company a rare opportunity.
We will give you a free slogan with absolutely no strings attached. We will decide by November 15, 2009.

How do we choose the company?

Simple: You send us an email with a description of your company,  product AND YOU…and why you’d like to work with us. We’ll get back to you.

Please apply if and only if:

1. You’re serious.
2. You’re already up and running. (This means you’re already selling your product!)
3. You’re trying to expand your business to a regional or national level.

Special Note: If you’re not chosen, that doesn’t mean we don’t want to work with you. In fact we think we are quite reasonable when it comes to pricing, so we hope you’ll consider talking with us. We very much want to help companies succeed!!

Check out our site at: Vinyl Storys

Slogans. Music Branding. Podcasts. Product naming. And more.

Email us at: inquiries@vinylstorys.com

Thanks,

the Vinyl Storys team…….

Let us tell your story!

What is a Ghost Writer?

What is a Ghost Writer?

No, a Ghost Writer is not the supernatural superhero introduced by Marvel comics. You know the superhero butchered by Nicolas Cage in that fiery mess of a movie. That would be Ghost Rider.

No, a Ghost Writer is a writer who earns money by writing anonymously for companies, organizations, advertisers or famous people. The Ghost Writer gets no credit for the pieces they deliver. Thus the term “Ghost.”

Actors and athletes often hire Ghost Writers to pen their memoirs. Then the famous people take complete credit for the finished book. This doesn’t seem fair, but the trade off is often worth it for many writers trying to establish themselves. It means steady bread doing something they love to do. It’s also a way to build a testimonial base. Since writers can’t claim credit to the actual articles, they can ask clients to give them a quote they can use on their website or brochures.

A similar arrangement also happens in the music world. Well known “songsmiths” are hired to pen hits for singers. The singer then changes a lyric or melody note to get a songwriting credit for themselves. This certainly is not a bad arrangement for a songwriter. It pays very well and it can jump-start a career. But it’s hard to stomach sometimes from the writers point of view. No one wants to give up 50% of the writing credit to someone who actually did less than 1% of the work. Not to mention giving away future earnings. But the sacrifice is often worth it. If the song gets a lot of exposure, the songwriter may instantly become a hot commodity!

Our company, Vinyl Storys, does music Ghost Writing for singers, bands, advertisers, movies and TV.

When a job comes up that requires ad slogans, blog creation or web copy, we hire THE GUYS to do the work for us.

Contact us and let us give you a quote for your business or yourself.

Benefits of hiring a Ghost Writer

1. Articles will build help build brand and establish credibility and image in a competitive marketplace.

2. It  will allow you to focus your efforts on your product or service rather than putting together a package.

3. A unique slogan or logo can set your company apart from the competition.

4. A unique voice will also help your company stand out amongst the thousands of competitors.

Remember it’s all about perception and first impressions. Hire good writers and put your best self forward from the START!

The Vinyl Storys Team

Let us tell your story…….

Music Branding

What is Music Branding and why include music as part of your branding package?

Because…….

Music can mobilize and move us to action.
Music can stop time and help us create a memory.

Music can influence us to change.
Or remind of us what we love.

Music is fun and makes us feel good.
Music is powerful!
Music provides the backdrop. It creates the right mood so your target audience will associate that warm feeling with your company or product.

Check out some of our Music Catalog. The music is listed By Mood.

The Vinyl Storys Team

Your story is our business…..

A glimpse into our slogan writing process.

We were recently hired to come up with a slogan for a vintage bike shop. The shop was already doing fairly well with sales, but the owners wanted to have a clearer, more consistent message that would be used on their website and on the web in general.

So we followed our own Step-by-Step process and here’s what we came up with.

Come enter the minds of The Vinyl Storys Team!! A day by day account.

Intro: After gathering all the necessary information on the product and business, we then started to brainstorm and write.

Day 1: Our first four attempts at the slogan.

1. Be current, buy vintage

2. Buy vintage, be current

3. Vintage bikes, the current trend

4. Vintage bikes: Currently taking orders

You can see what we’re trying to convey. The idea that buying vintage bikes is in style. It’s hip. It’s current and trendy.

Day 2: So we kept going. We felt like we were close.

5. Vintage bikes, ride the trend

6. Vintage bikes, ride the current

7. Ride Vintage Bikes

8. Currently taking orders. Buy Vintage.

We liked incorporating the metaphor of riding the bike, or riding the current trend, but it still wasn’t right.

Day 3: Here’s one more.

9. Ride Vintage, follow the current

Not right yet. But then we realized that we liked the way our very first attempt sounded, so we decided to revisit that and BAM!!! We got it!

Still Day 3:

SLOGAN:  “Be current, ride vintage.”     Menotomy Vintage Bikes

We’d like to write for you.
Here’s what we can help you with:
-Slogan writing
-Blog for your company-write, maintain, advertise
-Log0
-Web design
-And of course, original music!

Contact us at:

inquiries@vinylstorys.com

(We don’t charge for our opinions, so don’t be shy. Sure we’d love your business, but we also like helping people out.  Remember, we’re business owners too and we know how difficult it can be to navigate the waters and come out ahead!)

Our website is: www.vinylstorys.com
Thanks,
The Vinyl Storys Team

Your story is our business..

Ten steps to writing a great slogan!

Are you trying to come up with a slogan for your product or company?  Do you keep shooting blanks? This is pretty common.

Coming up with a great slogan isn’t as easy as it seems. Sure it might just be three to ten words, but they have to be the right three to ten words!

If you’re a small or mid-sized company you may not have the advertising budget to hire a big time firm. So maybe you want to do it in house? Here are some steps to help you get there.

(Visit tomorrow as we take you through OUR process in coming up with a recent slogan for a vintage bike company.)

Our Ten Steps

1. Define and describe your product. OK, this  seems obvious. Let’s say you make scooters. What’s different about your product? What do you tell people when you describe it?  Do you have a special design? Is it made from anything unique? What extra features does it have? How is it different from the rest of the scooters out there? Or is it? Defining exactly what you’re selling, will help you narrow in on exactly WHAT is the selling point!

2. Who is your target audience? What age? What gender? What geographic area? Affluent or not? This is a huge factor when you’re coming up with a slogan, because the message should have your target audience in mind.

3. What type of media will you be using to convey your message? Print? TV? Radio? Social Networking? Etc.  This will obviously determine the message, because the Slogan needs to transfer to many different kinds of media.

4. Is it clever? Does this even matter? Well, yes and no. Obviously if you have a clever play on words, or clever use of words, it can make your message even stronger. However, if you sacrifice clarity just to be funny, well that’s not worth it. You’re not going for laughs, you’re going for sales!

5. Call to action. If the slogan can get people to actually get off their butt and purchase your product, that is ideal! The call to action could mean the slogan has movement in it. “American runs on Dunkin’ ” It’s not really instructing the audience to do anything, but subliminally you feel like you should run down to the local DD and buy some coffee. It also gives the sense that drinking DD coffee will enable you to keep running all day. Keep in mind that the slogan doesn’t instruct you to take action, it’s simply implied in the message. This is the mark of a great slogan.

6. Don’t waste words. You can’t afford to. Each word counts when it’s only three to ten words long.

7. Your writing counts! Use metaphors, similes, alliterations and word play. The order of words is huge as well.

8. Write a bunch of them. Just write down any that you can think of. Sometimes they are just variations on each other, but writing down whatever comes to your head will help you discover the right one much more easily.

9. Make it original. This is the hardest step. The words don’t have to be original, but the concept and message do. And of course if the words are original that certainly helps. But remember, the slogan is there to help you stand apart from the competition. It’s all about perception and your slogan plays  a huge part in creating the right perception for your product.

10. If these steps seem way too complicated and involved, just skip them and hire us. Vinyl Storys

Our Slogan: Your Story is our business…. Vinyl Storys

We want to get a chance to tell your story, so give us a shout and we’ll get your company on the map. Or at least headed in the right direction.

The Best Slogans

In our last post we gave a brief history of business branding.

Today we’d like to talk about slogans. As we mentioned before, a slogan usually contains a play on words, a suggestive message or a call to action. Sometimes it just conveys the most important attributes of a company.

A slogan can have a huge influence over an audience. In a few short words it lets people know what a company is all about. It might describe a product or service, or establish a vibe for the company. A company needs to be clear what message they’re trying to convey. Do they want to let people know they’re honest? Or maybe cheap? Or possibly hip? Being clear about the message and the target audience are two necessary prerequisites to coming up with a great slogan.

Here are some of our favorites(past and present):

Dunkin’ Donuts
“America runs on Dunkin”

Avis
“We try harder”

Coke
“It’s the real thing.”
“Have a coke and a smile”

Nike
“Just do it!”

Sprite
“Obey your  Thirst”

M & Ms
“It melts in your mouth, not in your hands”

Timex
“It takes a licking, but keeps on ticking.”

What would you add to the list? Please leave us a comment and we’ll include all of them in our next post.

Our Slogan:

Vinyl Storys
“Your Story is our business”

For Slogan writing or other branding strategies contact us. We also specialize in music branding.

Our Website: VinylStorys.com

Our Email: inquries@vinylstorys.com

We love working with small to mid-sized companies looking for a jump start!

What is Branding? (A Brief History)

Branding has become the catch phrase for almost every new advertising company out there.  Hire us!! We can give your business a new look and a new direction. Let us create your brand!

But, this is not news to anyone.

Yes, we’re a branding business, but we’re only piggybacking on a concept that’s been around since the beginning of trade and commerce.

Let’s look back two hundred years:

Each week, small business owners would bring their wares to a central meeting area in towns across the country and barter and trade the day away. The business owners with the best branding strategy would usually be the ones leaving with enough food to eat for the week.  (Translation: The sellers who could yell the loudest!) The losers would go home with a few pieces of bread and some old potatoes and they’d come back the next week trying a different strategy to win some new business. (Translation: They’d bring along their wives, who were more competent at selling and much better looking.)  Back then “going out of business” really meant retiring for good!! So business owners would either perfect their branding strategies or starve!

Today, an ineffective branding strategy may not have such dire consequences, but it could be the difference between growing a successful business or closing shop to work for your competitor at an entry level position!!

Back then perception was everything. The farmers that were able to give people the impression that their vegetables were the freshest and the best tasting usually traded the most food away and  ended up getting the most in return. It’s no different today. The ultimate goal is for a product to become part of the public lexicon, and actually become the name associated with the product. (Think Kleenex instead of tissues or Bandaids instead of adhesive bandages.)

So how does this happen?  It happens with a solid advertising campaign that starts with a great slogan.

The Vinyl Storys Team thinks this is the meat and potatoes of any branding campaign. Think of some of the best slogans out there and you’ll understand what we mean.

Usually they contain: a subtle play on words, a suggestion and a motive to take action.

Too many companies flounder with the wrong slogan and this handcuffs their entire advertising and marketing campaign.  Sure, this could be a product of a misaligned marketing strategy, or a host of other problems such as: the wrong target audience, the wrong message or the wrong advertising avenues. (Yes, the whole chicken and the egg argument!)

But either way, if it’s not working change it! Or if it’s kind of working, make it better! Sometimes a shake up or shake down is what a company needs to take it to the next level.

Our next post we’ll continue chatting about SLOGANS and why they work and don’t work.

Thanks so much.

The Vinyl Storys Team!

Your Story is our business….

Music branding.  Check out our artists. Or by mood.

The Infectious Laugh by The Guy’s Perspective

We created this Video for THE GUYS at:

www.theguysperspective.typepad.com (BLOG)

for website:

www.theguysperspective.com

Our Latest Creation

Our latest creation is a new website for THE GUYS. That is: www.theguysperspective.com
They create online dating profiles for women.
But we especially love their BLOG. That’s where they give their opinions on all things male including, women, dating, relationships, toys, sports and even a little politics.
Check it out: www.theguysperspective.typepad.com

From your Vinyl Storys Team.

Welcome!!!!

Hey everyone, welcome to the brand new Vinyl Storys blog! Here we’ll be updating you all with our latest news, pics and vids! Please check back very soon, and drop us a line with what you’d like to see here. Thanks!

-The VS Team