Who owns your website, logo, brochure, software…?
This is a really important realization for many clients and indeed agencies. Having designed countless websites, logos, brands and custom software it is important to know what exactly you are buying.
The following is an exert we obtained from one of the South’s leading law firms who specialise in these matters…
“If you have paid someone to design your website, logo, or brochure or create software for you, it is not unreasonable to assume that the copyright in the end product belongs to you. However, this will not be the case unless you obtained the designer’s express agreement to this when you commissioned the work.
If you haven’t obtained the designer’s agreement to the copyright passing to you, all you have is a licence to use the website, logo, brochure or software.
This may be all that you need, but it might become a problem if you want to sell the business or authorise someone else to use your “property” or get someone else to develop or change what you already have. The original designer can stop you unless you have his agreement, which will normally comes at a price.
Action Points
It is essential to ensure that you get the designer to agree that you will own the copyright at the time you negotiate the terms of the engagement.”
Add this to the T&C’s of an agency and you can easily become confused as to who owns what and where you stand. Reading the T&C’s of any supplier is essential however this is often overlooked as business is regularly done on trust. However lack of understanding from a client or the reluctance of an agency to explain exactly what is being bought and sold is not a valid excuse.
Website source code also remains the copyright of the agency unless written agreement has been agreed. Also this licence to use the source code like any goods remain the sellers property until full payment has been received as is the same with any designed product from a logo to a brochure.
So please be careful that you are aware of what you are purchasing when commissioning a design agency to build you logo, website and materials, that if you require more than a licence and wish to own the copyright then make sure you have the agreement and costing outlined at stage one.
As the South’s leading branding agency we are committed to helping consumers understand what they are buying from agencies and not only to be aware of this but work in partnership with them to build brands with value, success and integrity.
Read MoreRT CMS says: Hallo, Hello, Bonjour, Привет, 餵, Hola
Hi
This is Alex, from the WebDev lair, I have an update for everybody.
Our previous and current projects give us ideas how to upgrade and modify our CMS. So what did we do? We revised the whole code, and made necessary tweaks, we fine tuned databases and slightly changed the interfaces. Thus, our clients are able to run multi-language versions of websites. Supported modules are: News, Addresses, Articles, Testimonials and of course: WebPages – all of what you need 
If you have ever dreamed of reaching your customers around the world, even people speaking different languages – now you can do it. Armed with our CMS!
Read MoreThe top 10 brand tagline trends for 2009
After reading a study of more than 150 taglines that debuted in 2009 this morning from an agency who solely focus on the development of taglines I felt I should share some of the insights found. What we can learn and what I think.
According to Eric Swartz, president of Tagline Guru, “The goal of the survey was to discover the most frequently used words in this year’s taglines, and whether they reveal how companies are strategically recasting their brand message to forge a closer connection with their customers.”
The most commonly used words or concepts (alphabetically):
1. believe
2. far/further
3. future
4. imagine/see
5. innovate/innovation
6. more
7. new
8. save/savings
9. together
10. you
Are these 10 words that matter most to consumers?
“Whereas one tagline offers telling insights into a company’s brand strategy, a whole bushel of taglines reveals a brand lexicon that speaks volumes about what’s important in the minds of consumers,” says Swartz.
“This year’s tagline harvest is all about working harder and smarter, communicating greater value, and creating lasting brand affinity, which, in today’s tough economy, is crucial for cementing relationships and building customer loyalty,” Swartz notes.
Some of the taglines that echo this include:
- Airbus New standards. Together.
- Baker & Taylor The future delivered.
- Buick The new class of world class.
- Chrysler Come and see what we are building.
- Dentsu Good innovation.
- Home Depot More saving. More doing.
- NBC More colorful.
- Sony Make. Believe.
- Syfy Imagine greater.
- Wells Fargo Together, we’ll go far.
- Yahoo It’s you!
Although the impact of “innovation” has been diminished from overuse, and words like “new” and “more” are typical sales jargon, concepts such as “together,” “you,” “imagine,” and “future” paint a picture that is decidedly more intimate, inclusive, and optimistic.
“Money is tight, consumers are worried, and corporations aren’t content to rest on their laurels,” says Swartz. “The overall message is that we’re all in this together so we need to set the bar higher, do more, and deliver greater value.”
Swartz continues: “Essentially, this tagline-generated brand lexicon tells us that big business wants to be perceived as a neighborly partner that is industrious, accountable, and forward-thinking. Consumers are tired of being talked at and misled. They’re looking for better ideas, better results, and, ultimately, a better relationship.”
Knowing this is really important as it indicates shifts in the market, and highlights what to avoid. To me these examples show not just a shift in the market but how easy it is to get lost and diluted in the nose as we follow like sheep: for example,
- Target’s “Expect More. Pay Less.”
- Wal-Mart’s “Save Money. Live Better”
- Home Depot’s “More Saving. More Doing.”
Sure, consumers are looking for ways to save, but what in these taglines truly drives differentiation? And is that important? I think it is. I think this lack of distinctiveness show lack of creativity and becomes background noise.
Read MoreMaximizing the deliverability of your email marketing
Getting the highest percentage of your messages to your subscribers’ Inbox is one of the primary goals from an email marketing perspective. At the same time, it is also the main hurdle to overcome. Innumerable little things can effect whether or not your communications end up in the inbox, or in the junk mail folder of your recipients. The job is made even more difficult as different Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and email clients have very different rules, filters, procedures and policies on bulk email.
The success of any campaign is influenced by all areas of the process, requiring the close co-operation of everyone from the IT/Server guys to the designers and database handlers.
One of the main contributing factors to the failure of a campaign can be the number of hard bounces and complaint rates. AOL, one of the world’s largest ISPs, recommends maintaining a <0.1% complaint rate. That’s a threshold of 1 in every 1,000 emails that you send out. That may sound harsh, but by adhering to some rules it’s entirely possible.
Even if you beat the spam filter there is no guarantee that your mail will ever be read. Finicky recipients who are unhappy at having received your mail may just click that “Report as spam” button. On local email clients the effect is minimal, but on web-based services like Hotmail or Google Mail, this can have a serious knock on effect for other recipients on the same service as these are tracked, recorded and taken into consideration in future (as if you didn’t have enough to worry about already).
Over the next few weeks I will cover some of the specific problems that the aspiring email marketer would encounter during the course of a campaign, from set up through to the post-send fallout. For this first part we will look at where it all begins: your server and domain.
Read MoreTo-do: write a blog post
To-do lists are an essential daily tool!
Not only do they organise our day, but they cross over and affect other people’s tasks as we interact and help each other out. They may not bring joy to those who are constantly nagged by electronic reminders, but they do serve the purpose.
Once a goal or task becomes part of a to-do list, it can feel more concrete/critical/real/important – take your pick. It can be invaluable to break down seemingly insurmountable undertakings, into bite-sized chunks of effort. For instance, my little daily to-do list often blossoms into the semblance of a fully fledged project and with the combined effort of the RT Team becomes reality!
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