Client: Bullistic Barriers, LLC., View Website On December 19th we got the call…. The call that would send us into a frenzy. A new business is going to launch its product line to the world and we were the team to make it happen. Launch dates and location were firm: March 4th Salt Lake City,…

Verve Marketing & Design is a boutique firm celebrating 30 years of helping businesses realize their vision and achieve growth. Recently, Diane E. Lemonides, President & Brand Strategist, completed an exercise she’s taken clients through many times: re-branding and re-focusing. Having worked with many clients across various industries over the years, Lemonides realized her consulting…

Each spring, the world’s foremost tastemakers and trendsetters in luxury living spaces descend upon New York City’s Pier 92 for the annual Architectural Digest Home and Design Show. The space—almost 600,000 sq. ft.—is transformed into a breathtaking showcase of the newest innovations, trends, and styles for inside and outside the home. Some 400 brands display…

At the age of 70, Lynn Estes Friess started writing children’s books and started her own publishing company. She was recently featured on The Balancing Act segment on the Today Show! Watch the segment below: What we did with this client: – Found an illustrator that was perfect for her story – Helped her set…

It’s a good time to stop and catch your breath.  Some of us are just coming out of winter and need to refill the gas tank.  It’s important for business people (especially small business owners) to take time to recharge.  It is good for you and your company. Here are some suggestions: 1)  Do Something…

In nature, this is the time of the season to prepare the soil and get ready to plant.  The same is true for Business. Before we plant our garden, we must clear the area.  For plans to succeed we need to pull out what’s old and withered or broken. This is a good time to…

Do you love your Clients? They keep you in business. Clients or customers are what sustain you and bring you inspiration. Without customers you have no business. They are your life blood. Why shouldn’t you love them? Do you love your staff? Your business runs because of them. How much would get done without them?…

Workforce.com says, “The only way to reduce the effect of lost leadership is through a strong succession planning program that identifies and fosters the next generation of leaders through mentoring, training and stretch assignments, so they are ready to take the helm when the time comes.” Research proves that there are very few companies who…

As I was packing my kid’s lunches in wax paper bags, I was feeling good that the contents of all the “bags” in the lunch boxes were healthy, home-cooked food. Okay, except for the granola bar. (I do make my own power bars but they fly out of the kitchen so fast it’s hard to…

Holiday Retail Sales Up 3.0 Percent to $579.8 Billion NEW YORK, January 15, 2013 – Solid consumer spending in the month of December helped retailers finish the year with a healthy holiday shopping season, however economic uncertainties sent a cautious consumer to the stores. According to the National Retail Federation, the world’s largest retail trade…

Rough lux is not rough at all; it’s all in the positioning. This trend spans from clothing, travel, packaging, and home goods to dining. It’s the food we eat and how we shop! Some well known brands leaders are Toms, Seeds of Change to Anthropologie, which has done a perfect job of embracing rough lux…

It’s just human nature. When everyone else is doing it, we tend to follow. Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday, No Shipping Thursday . . . where to next? People become caught up in groupthink, and like the fabled lemmings, will jump off a cliff if everyone else does it. We must…

Often, when companies hire a consultant, they think it will be a panacea, the fairy dust they need to end the sleepless nights. Soon after, the truth sets in. This either gives them an “aha” moment or it punches them in the gut. The wake up message is that You, the business owner, has to…

Maybe you have that feeling, you’ve heard the voice. You know it’s time to expand your business. Before you do, though, take the time to go beyond just making payroll or increasing your bottom line. Stop, take a breath and ask yourself why you are looking to grow your business — Do you want to…

Target Marketing is about discovering who your “best” customer is.  When you know that, you can focus your marketing on the people who are most likely to buy from you. It is an essential part of any marketing strategy, along with your product or service, distribution channels, price and promotion. All your marketing efforts are…

Jay Leno on Happiness This is purported to be written by Jay Leno in 2008. Imagine if you could shift your focus to positive from negative, on what you have vs. what you perceive you lack, on releasing your inner strength to get what you want by being a high performer.  As Eleanor Roosevelt wrote,…

Facebook friend-ing. Twitter following. LinkedIn connecting. Blog postings. YouTube perusing. E-commerce purchasing. These social networking and integrated media tools have become a part of everyday life for people all over the world, both in their personal and professional lives. Although popular, one has to ponder whether we are really being social with this form of…

Women serve many roles in our society – businesswoman, wife, mother, daughter, entrepreneur, sister, friend, teacher, aunt, expert (the list goes on and on) – and women make 80% of all consumer purchases on top of their other achievements. To exemplify the power of women in relation to economic stimuli, women spend on average $100…

Our homes are as unique and varied as our personalities. Bringing life to an inanimate dwelling requires style, attitude and interior design to make the home space inviting and a form of personal expression. Whether you refer to your home as an abode, diggings or habitat, they all have something in common: the need for…

In a presentation to the Luxury Marketing Council of Philadelphia, author Lewis Schiff properly introduced members and guests to the market segment know as The Middle-Class Millionaire. A rising number of millionaires fit into this middle-class category, in fact, “…8.4 million households” (Prince, Schiff 8) in America make up this segment. This class of millionaire…

True luxury heightens the senses – seeing the Aurora Borealis with swishes of hazy color in the night sky, feeling 1,000 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets, smelling vintage Bordeaux as it swirls in a crystal-stemmed goblet, hearing The Marriage of Figaro live from your balcony seat, tasting red caviar as it melts on your tongue.…

We’ve all heard it before: the customer is always right. And part of that entitlement comes from expecting exceptional service when purchasing luxury products, experiences and services. Let’s face it: luxury is all about service. Sure, luxury products are finely crafted, the experiences are unique and exotic, the services are lavish and custom, but where…

The President’s proposed stimulus package is intended to reduce our nation’s debt by half and get the economy and the work force back on track. Every market segment has been affected over the past year, including the robust luxury and aspirational markets, which were not immune to products and services being hit hard. Now it…

I love Chinese food – the smell, taste and texture – and I am a pro with chopsticks! Pretty impressive for someone who is not of Asian descent, huh? And since I frequent Chinatown, I must know how the Asian market consumes media, right? It sounds absurd, but when businesses don’t pay attention to their…

In January 2009, a new chapter of the Luxury Marketing Council will make waves in our region and unite the most influential, intellectual and savvy minds in the luxury marketing arena today. Since its inception in 1994, The Luxury Marketing Council has developed chapters throughout the world and is considered the global thought leader in…

From the time your woke up this morning to the moment you sat in your cushy desk chair at work, think of all the advertising messages that filled your AM – morning radio commercials, charity outreach on your cereal box, sale ads in the morning newspaper, banner ads on CNN.com, electronic billboards featuring luxury automobiles,…

To say we are living in uncertain times may be an understatement. With the economy, trends and ever fluctuating business models, what we as individuals dislike the most is what may, in fact, keep us afloat: change. We need to ask ourselves, will we develop new solutions to overcome existing obstacles or will we resort…

July 2008 – Verve Marketing & Design™ is teaming up with Heifer International over the next six months to produce three new children’s books by Page McBrier and one coffee table book that will feature the works of notable mural artist Betty LaDuke. For over twenty years, Verve has helped clients target and reach the…

In a nation that has, over the years, adopted a throw away culture mentality, designer clothing, gourmet, disposable coffee cups, luxury automobiles, empty Cristal bottles and Beluga caviar tins are among the discarded items that cover the landfills of the US. So no matter how much the price tag reads on a high-end item, inevitably,…

Merriam-Webster defines luxury as “something adding to pleasure or comfort but not absolutely necessary.” In a time of great uncertainty in this country, in terms of the state of the economy and that groundbreaking Presidential election looming, Americans are searching for luxury space in every day life to rekindle comfort and hope. On the bright…

Are we headed for a recession? Maybe yes, maybe no. But history has shown that just the mention of “recession” can wreak havoc on the psyche — and unfortunately, on the economy. But regardless of the dollar’s buying power, life goes on. There will be appliances to replace, vacations to take, achievements to note, and…

Well, it’s about that time of year – for boxes with bows, tangled twinkle lights, indulging in sweet treats and racking up the airline miles on your credit card. It’s inevitable that time, dollars and sometimes common sense get away from us around the holidays. However, as you are keeping the retail world in the…

For some luxury buyers, a high-end BMW would be sufficient unto itself. Custom-built for the buyer, German-engineered for excellence, the Beemer is a sweet little sports car. But BMW understands that for a certain group of discriminating buyers, an automobile remains just an automobile. It’s a way to get from point A to point B.…

Enter the word “luxury” on Amazon.com and 186,975 entries materialize. Over 186 thousand books on “activity that gives great pleasure,” “an item that is desirable but not essential,” and “expensive high quality surroundings.” The staggering amount of reading material points to the fact that luxury is on the minds of many Americans; not just the…

I found my Birkenstocks from college recently. I took them out of the closet and stared at them a while. Then I got to thinking about footsteps, and eventually, footprints, and how a few years ago, a carbon footprint was something you might have thought was a fun thing to do at the beach. Now,…

With the postage rate increate effective May 14, 2007, a first-class stamp will be jumping from $.39 to $.41. This may not seem like a significant increase; however, for businesses direct mailing mass quantities, why waste postage on undeliverable direct mail? Solution: clean up your mailing list! Whether you are targeting customers each month or…

For all of our needs there are a million and one different options. We may never be able to pin point exactly what makes a loyal customer, but no one has ever told me that they shop somewhere routinely for luxury items despite bad customer service. We’re not talking poor customer service, here — that…