June 22, 2010
Volume I, Issue 1

Published every other Tuesday. You are on our list because you signed up for one of our programs or downloaded our resources. To change your subscription, see the link at end of email.

Note from Bea:
Happy Birthday to BE!

Upcoming Events:
Brand Development Workshops

Your Brand Excitement Exercise:
Examine Everything

Brand Boosters:
The RSS Blog Widget

Recommended Resources: Brand Strategy Session

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Join me in wishing a Happy Birthday to Brand Excitement! One year ago today, on June 22nd, I decided to turn my on-again, off-again freelance practice into a full-fledged business. The process was gradual, but has turned out to be a huge success!

Over the course of more than 10 years my business name has gone from BP Grafix (that’s so 90s) to True Visual (better, but not there yet) to BP Design House (I thought full service would be more lucrative) to finally Brand Excitement (exactly on target!).

It’s been through my own journey of serving small businesses over the years, watching the trends and watching the progressions, that allowed me to develop the steps that Brand Excitement uses to help small businesses boost their visibility, opportunities and profits!

PS: Be sure to pass this information to anyone business owners that need to boost their brand. Sharing is caring :-)

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Save the date for these upcoming events. Details will be released soon.

July 13th - Manhattan Millionaires Brand Development Workshop, NYC, 6:00 – 8:30pm

July 15 - Radio Show Interview with Loren Fogelman of Mindset For Marketing Success, 1:00-2:00pm

August - NJAWBO Summer Business Series: Marketing Your Business



Examine everything and you’ll gain visibility, opportunities and profits

Many businesses make the same mistake that I did several years ago, they start their business without a clear name, strategy or distinction to get them traction right away. They know they need to re-examine their business but don’t know what that will involve and therefore do nothing.

You can use Brand Excitement’s 7-Step process to get a brand foundation that will support your goals, build visibility and opportunities and result in more profits to do what you love.

1. Examine Everything From A to Z
Before you begin anything, ask yourself (and those you serve) a lot of questions such as “What brings the most exciting results to their lives?†and “What motivates them to spend money (the answers may surprise you)†Look at all your existing materials, your color scheme, marketing plan, and even accomplishments and see what’s working and what needs help.

2. Exclude Anything Generic
A brand is most successful when it actually excludes the people, places and ideas that it does not serve well. This goes beyond “niche†marketing to “pitch†marketing. The mistake most businesses make is that they describe themselves too broadly.

3. Express your message authentically
The essentials such as core brand values, character, tone of voice and visual identity are paramount to getting the right people to connect. When you can communicate your quirks and quality in a simple and transparent way, you become a magnet for others like you.

4. Experiment by testing, tracking and transforming
With the use of multiple polls, surveys and focus groups the leading brand ideas are tested for desirability, price and performance. There are many tools that you can use to test and track the activities you invest in. Make sure you’re measuring the activities that matter most. (We have many examples of this in the report from our website)

5. Execute with speed and integrity
Have you ever had an idea, let it settle and then watched someone else reap enormous profits from it? When it comes to profit success, speed is essential. Getting your ideas out there doesn’t take as much time or expense as you may think. Getting it done and delivered is more important than getting it perfect.

6. Exceed their expectations
To really stand out from the competition, a brand must exceed customer expectations in unexpected ways. There are ways to do this with very little effort and the payoff is enormous! One example I often refer to is TD Bank. One of my favorite things about them (and why they’re so successful) is that they have live customer service or an automated system. No other bank offer such an immediate customer engagement and in doing so, TD stands out big time.

7. Expand your profits by leveraging technology
The expansion plan is the roadmap to taking the brand beyond the next level by leveraging the ever changing resources we have through technology. If you take a look around other businesses in your industry it won’t be long before you recognize the opportunities to serve more people without getting into overwhelm. Your clients will thank you and your income will soar.

© 2010 Brand Excitement. All Rights Reserved.

This past week I helped one of my clients to save mo-ney and frustration by adding in a widget for her blog. Most RSS feeds allow your blog visitors to subscribe to your feed and have the information in their mail server, however this client wanted the ability to add a feed for her blog content without having to update it with each post.

The solution for this was a free online widget by OblinQ. It allows you to customize your background and font colors and even allows the first paragraph of the blog to be displayed so that users can get an introduction to the content. The code is easy to implement and the content will help boost your brand! See it here.



Are you getting the results you’d like in your business? Start the summer season off right with a comprehensive Brand Strategy Session. From it you’ll receive a complete brand scan, get assistance with your mission statement, learn the best way to execute a consistent image in print and online and discover the no-cost and low-cost resources that you can use to get you started.

In one hour we’ll fill the holes in your marketing and visibility and send you forth with immediate effective solutions. Book your Brand Strategy session by midnight Friday and save $50! Click here or by call us at 888-YOU-BRAND.


Beatrice Johnston is a marketing professional with over 15 years experience creating and supporting the brand experience. As the director of Brand Excitement she designs marketing materials, websites, blogs and social media messaging that helps them to express passion, excite people and expand profits.

As a brand developer she has unique experience as a Project Manager, Graphic Designer and Producer. Prior to starting Brand Excitement she worked for several financial brands including American Express and JP Morgan Chase, and as a model she’s worked for the top brands in the industry such as Revlon, Avon, Cosmopolitan and Essence. She has coupled this unique insight to help her clients build a profitable brand that is an authentic extension of their passion and expertise.

She has been featured in O, The Oprah Magazine, Fox News and many regional newspapers and radio shows. She has a special expertise in recognizing growing trends and opportunities in the marketplace and generously shares this knowledge and guidance with her clients and audience participants.

Beatrice currently serves as VP of Marketing For NJAWBO-Hudson County, as Publicity Director of Letip of Hoboken and is a member of The American Marketing Association. She has been a guest speaker for Monster, Inc; NYU and several business organizations on education, social media and branding. Her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Illinois and a Professional Certificate in Journalism from New York University further attest to her dedication and unique insight in serving this market.


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Brand Excitement
285 West Side Avenue
Jersey City, NJ 07305