iPad course created for Tony Sweet

Some of the latest projects that we’ve been working on are centered around the iPhone and iPad. One project was to create apps for a daily newspaper, as well as three weekly ones. Another was to create an iPad app for a photographer.

There are two ways to approach building apps like this – native and what are called web apps. Native uses Objective C programming and the other HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript. All of them were created as web apps, but the Recorder iPhone app has also been converted to a native app so that it can be launched in the Apple iTunes store.

The weekly apps are free, so if you’d like to see what they look like, you can download the Adirondack Express iPhone app or the Adirondack Express iPad app by clicking on this link. Just follow the instructions from that point on and you’ll be fine.

Available Now!

$5.00

How did I end up in the Adirondacks anyway? I love Texas – I’d been there almost 35 years. Why did I end up here? Those were just two of the questions I had when I first moved up into the Southern Adirondacks. It’s cold, they have six months of winter, what was I going to do?

Well, two and a half years later, and thousands of frames ‘processed’ on the computer, and the answer is clear to me – it’s about the images. The Adirondacks have to be one of the most beautiful and least photographed places in the United States.

The Adirondack Forest Preserve was established in 1885 by the New York State Legislature. Nine years later, the Adirondacks became the first and only wild land preserve in the United States to gain constitutional protection when New York’s voters approved the inclusion of Article VII, Section 7, the “forever wild” clause, into the state Constitution. Today, at 6 million acres and larger than Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Great Smoky, and Everglades National Parks combined, the Adirondack Park and Forest Preserve is the largest park in the nation outside of Alaska. It is a photographers paradise.

In this first volume of images, I’m going to take you through my first year of discovery – of a land and its changing seasons and just how beautiful one of America’s last remote areas can be.

David E. Warner, September 2011

Inside every great organization, event, or cultural activity—is a finely tuned marketing strategy.

A finely tuned marketing strategy is one that resonates with selling the right goods/services, to the right people, at the right price.  While this concept sounds straight forward enough, the practice of it requires research, focus and an iron clad plan.  An effective plan requires strategy decisions regarding differentiation, competitiveness, pricing model, defined market segments, target audience, and a road-map of how the plan will be rolled out. This map outlines all the branding, positioning, advertising, and public relations activities necessary to fill the pipeline and capture market share.

Embella’s founders have first-hand experience with product commercialization having launched software, advertising and publishing companies over the past twenty years, and using arts and culture to foster economic growth. While some basic assumptions hold true for all great strategies—one thing is for certain—plans need to be flexible, tailored to the company, event, city, venue and to current market conditions.

Embella offers experience, flexibility, and innovative thinking supported by research.  We don’t recommend strategic ideas for the sake of being clever or winning awards. If they don’t have the potential to drive revenue, we’re not interested.

Our strategies are designed to intentionally create measurable economic opportunities for our clients.  We utilize a broad array of in-house services to achieve successful outcomes including marketing, advertising, public relations, strategic planning, Web site design, photography, search engine optimization, blog development, maintenance and content, as well as the creation of podcasts and video informercials.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”

Marcel Proust

Isn’t it time for a new perspective?  Isn’t it time to look at your strategy for growth through “new eyes?” For more information about Embella, or to schedule a free consultation, contact us at 315-628-1214.

Have you been putting yourself on sale just to get the business lately? How many of you feel that twinge of guilt when you discuss fees with a new client? Feel as if you should apologize for your rate card?

In this economy, you’re probably not alone. There is a natural tendency to want to reduce fees in order to accommodate tight budgets. The truth is however, that when you dramatically reduce your rate (below 10-20%) you are diminishing your brand. You are teaching clients ‘bad tricks’ that they will use in future negotiations with you and setting yourself up for failure.

Pricing is always a tricky proposition. Customer psychology and market knowledge must be in balance in order for your pricing to work for you, instead of against you. Contrary to what you may believe, the lowest price is not always the most attractive to customers.

Some years ago, I owned a health newsletter company built solely on direct-mail marketing. We typically mailed 350,000 pieces each month. The postage cost then was nothing compared to what it is today, but nevertheless, when you’re dropping that many pieces every penny counts. Price was something we tested…and tested… and tested again, before we got it right. The experience taught me a lot about perceived value and pricing. I always assumed that if we lowered the price we would generate more response, after all…cheaper is better, right? What I learned was just the opposite. More times than not, the higher price lifted the response rate…and did so by a substantial percentage. I know you’re thinking this is crazy, but any marketer can tell you there are subtle nuances to getting the price right. And, perceived value is oftentimes greater with a higher price.

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”

Scott Adams

I was listening as Dave was editing one of his live shows the other evening and heard a question come up about how to define creativity. Creativity has always been something hard to nail down in my opinion. It’s subjective and too often a personal perspective, yet it is the key measurement by which all work is judged.

I’ve struggled with the concept of creativity and how to describe it for some time. As a fine art gallery owner for a number of years, finding pieces that had the ‘wow factor’ was always a challenge. I needed exceptional pieces in the gallery to keep the high-end collectors interested and the doors open. Selecting work for the gallery was more art than science. I always hated to turn down an artist or photographer because their work wasn’t creative enough. I toiled with how to let them down without hurting their feelings, only to realize that I was doing them a disservice to send them out without trying to explain why their work wasn’t measuring up.

I began watching collectors and studying their behavior in an effort to better define creativity. What I found was that no matter the genre, great work was like a magnetic drawing people in. It didn’t matter whether they collected photography, abstract paintings or bronze sculptures; a collector would glance around the room, spot a piece that ‘spoke to them’ and immediately move to get a closer view.

I remember a conversation I had with an abstract artist friend of ours in the early days of the gallery that influenced my thoughts about creativity more than anything else. I was finding it difficult to select abstract pieces to carry in the gallery. I hate to admit it, but so many of them looked alike to me. I couldn’t pick out a sellable piece to save my life. So I was like a sponge when it came to learning what was collectable and what was not. My friend shared with me that most work is ‘flat and soulless,’ from his perspective. It’s simply ordinary. ‘What you need to look for is something that speaks to you,’ he said.

Why is it that a Starbucks cup of coffee always tastes better than coffee at home? Or, that a 911 Porsche suits my personal style more than a KIA? Coffee is coffee, right? And, isn’t the point of a vehicle to get you from one place to another? Yeah, right!

Okay, what we are talking about here is the perception of value. Value and worth are not necessarily interchangeable. Value is actually a very emotional response to a product or service. Would I spend more on something unique, than something that I can get everywhere…absolutely! Electricity is a commodity. I really don’t care who sells it, I just want it at the lowest price. Gas for my car is another commodity. From one gas station to the next, they pretty much sell the same thing. Give it to me cheap and I’m a happy camper.

Products and services tend to become commodities in mature markets that are flooded with people selling the same thing. To a consumer, there is little difference between one provider and another. Once a product or service loses it’s uniqueness in the eyes of the consumer, price is the only differentiator.