LEGAL ISSUES IN ADVERTISING, by Henry J. Fasthoff, IV

Houston Business Show legal commentator Hank Fasthoff, of Stumpf Craddock Massey & Farrimond, provides weekly information on our show about business law issues. He can be reached at 713.871.0919.

When your company launches a new advertising campaign, you know your target demographic will be listening and watching, but so might your competitor and private and public regulatory agencies (Federal Trade Commission ("FTC"), Better Business Bureau, etc.). To help ensure that you don’t find yourself in hot water with the FTC or consumer groups, follow this general checklist and consult an attorney familiar with advertising legal issues:

• Make sure your advertisement is truthful – use your common sense; this one requires you to access that part of your brain that stores the “fair play” principle that you learned in Kindergarten.

• Be able to verify the facts you proclaim in your advertisement – if you claim 4 out of 5 dentists recommend your brand of chewing gum, you need to have some verifiable research to support your claim.

• Are your advertised prices accurate? - don’t say “sale” unless you can show that you’ve recently been listing or selling the same goods/services at a higher price.

• Be careful when comparing yourself to your competitors – using a competitors name or product in your advertisement can be acceptable, but if you slam them too hard you could find yourself on the expensive end of a lawsuit.

• Have you secured the appropriate rights to use the graphics, music, etc.?. If you don’t own or have a proper license for the copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights in all of the material in your advertisement or marketing campaign, you could be violating the rights of others.

To reduce risk of future problems, have your new advertising campaign reviewed and cleared by and attorney with experience in the media and marketing arena.

HOUSTON BUSINESS BRIEFS

This section of the Houston Business Review is dedicated to companies who have sent a business-focused story or article to us at submit.story@houstonbusiness.com, or other Houston area business stories that are important to our readers. The Houston Business Review and HoustonBusiness.com™ are unique in their commitment to providing information about and for small and micro businesses. If your story is not getting heard, stop complaining and send it to us at submit.story@houstonbusiness.com.

Houston Technology Center Unveils New Website. Houston Technology Center (HTC) has unveiled a new, enhanced Web site designed by Schipul - The Web Marketing Company. The redesigned site – www.houstontech.org – features greater functionality and easier navigation that will improve the online experience for visitors.

HTC accelerates the growth of Houston-based emerging technology companies in the energy, information technology, life sciences, nanotechnology and NASA-related technology sectors. Its website is an important tool to boost the visibility of these emerging companies and to communicate with Houston’s technology community. Additionally, event registration has been streamlined to help Houston’s active technology community members quickly learn about upcoming activities and easily register to attend.

“This new Web site reflects HTC's role as a central resource for technology entrepreneurs and the technology community in Houston,” said Aruna Viswanathan, HTC Operations Director. “Its expanded capabilities allow us to provide a more interactive experience for users, as well as allow us to better promote Houston's vibrant technology sector.”

In addition to improving navigation and making it easier to keep the site up-to-the-minute, HTC uses Schipul’s proprietary Tendenci™ membership organization software to simplify online registration for its numerous events. The site also highlights HTC’s client companies.

“We understand the value of having an organization such as HTC going to bat for Houston technology companies everyday,” said Ed Schipul, founder and CEO of Schipul – The Web Marketing Company. “It is great to know that by playing a role in HTC’s success we will be helping countless other technology companies succeed as well.”

A non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation, HTC helps Houston-based entrepreneurs grow their businesses by providing them with in-depth business guidance and access to capital and professional services. More than 300 corporations and organizations, as well as Houston’s leading academic institutions, the Greater Houston Partnership, the Texas Medical Center, NASA/Johnson Space Center, and the City of Houston, support HTC.

Schipul – The Web Marketing Company developed and builds on the Tendenci™ relationship marketing application software. Schipul is based in Houston, and provides marketing services on the Internet to a variety of service industries in local, national and international markets. Schipul’s clients include Clear Channel Exhibits, National Pharmaceutical Technicians Association, The Children's Fund, Wolff Companies, and DPK Public Relations.

Everyone's Internet Wins Top Award. Everyone's Internet, has won the top spot in the Houston Business Journal's 2004 Small Business 100 Awards. The annual program recognizes entrepreneurial success among Houston-based companies with up to 500 employees. Judges called EV1's rapid growth "a David and Goliath story of creativity, innovation and vision."

Everyone’s Internet has also been selected as an Enterprise Champion for its positive impact on the Houston community. The company, its management and its staff are active supporters of local charities through financial contributions and volunteer projects.

Founded in 1998, Everyone’s Internet today serves 400,000 dialup access users in 42 states. The company's EV1Servers division manages 20,000 Windows and Linux dedicated servers that power over 1 million websites. Its two state of the art data centers offer over 100,000 square feet of web hosting space and account for over 1.5% of all US Internet traffic. The company serves an additional 120,000 users through its domain registration and SSL certificates offerings.

According to Robert Marsh, CEO and Head Surfer, EV1's success results from its combination of affordable prices, high quality service, and lasting relationships with its user base. "Our customers are a part of the EV1 family," says Marsh, "earning their long term support has been key to our growth."

For more information on the Small Business 100 and Enterprise Champion Awards, please visit Houston Business Journal's website. For more information on EV1 visit www.ev1.net.

Pearland Chamber of Commerce. On Wednesday, June 16th a luncheon will be held at the Pearland Chamber of Commerce to discuss the proposed changes to FM 518. Attendees will include Larry Heckathorne, Texas Department of Transportation, Jerry Bobo, Houston-Galveston Area Council, and Alan Mueller, City of Pearland. Your participation in deciding the future of FM 518 is vital to maintaining the business health in Pearland. For more information call the Chamber at 281.485.3634.

HP May Add New Jobs. Hewlett Packard, which had large layoffs following its merger with Compaq Computer, and the adjustments that came with that is now looking to rehire. According to the Houston Business Journal, HP is likely going to hire as many as 1,400 new employees immediately and as many as 5,000 in the next few years. This news lends to the prevailing belief that the economic recovery is continuing and the formerly displaced employees will be the chief beneficiaries of it.

Have a story you want covered by the Houston Business Review? Send us an email to submit.story@houstonbusiness.com.

HOUSTONBUSINESS.COM PRESS RELEASE SERVICE

HoustonBusiness.com now offers a free press release service. To submit your release to us just send us an email with the completed, ready-to-publish press release at press.releases@houstonbusiness.com. If it meets our editorial guidelines (no sexually-oriented businesses) we'll post your release to our site in the Media Room section of our site. You can put a link on your site back to your press release on ours and increase your presence, credibility, and, most importantly, get your message out to the public.


GET IT FIXED RIGHT THE FIRST TIME

Take your car to Metro Auto Repair at 14743 SH 249 and tell them that Kevin Price sent you. This excellent repair shop has two decades experience of working on domestics and imports. It also handles state inspections, making it the perfect place for all your repairs. Call Arun Desai at 281.444.1176 for more information.

A paid endorsement.


UNDERSTANDING INTERNET BANNER ADVERTISING, by Henry J. Fasthoff, IV

Banner advertising is an effective way of getting your advertising message seen on the Internet. Banner ads should not be your only online form of advertising, but they are an essential part of your online advertising mix.

Many (perhaps most) people reading this article know what a banner ad is. For those who don’t, if you’ve even set foot in cyberspace you know what they are even if you’re not familiar with the lingo. As the adage says, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This is what a banner ad looks like:



So you know what a banner ad is, but do you know how they work, and how you can derive benefit from them? Let’s define a few terms before answering these questions.

1. “Page views” or “page impressions.” These terms are interchangeable and they refer to the number of times that a page within a website has been displayed on a website.

2. “Banner view.” Like a page view, a banner view is the number of times that a banner has been displayed on website.

3. “Click through.” A click through is the number of times a website visitor has “clicked” on a particular banner ad and was transferred to the website of the banner advertiser.

4. “CTR.” CTR is the acronym for “click through rate,” which is the ratio of the number of banner view versus the number of times visitors have “clicked through” to your website. CTR is expressed as a percentage, so a click through rate of 1% means that for every 1,000 banner views, 10 visitors have clicked through to your site.

5. “CPM.” CPM is an acronym for “cost per M,” where “M” is the ancient Roman numeral for 1,000. Translation: CPM is the price your business will pay to have its banner advertisement displayed 1,000 times on a website, e.g, the cost of 1,000 banner views. So, for example, if the CPM to advertise on a site is $80.00 your business will pay $80.00 for every 1,000 banner views.

6. “ROS.” ROS is the acronym for “run of site,” which simply means that a banner ad is displayed on every page in a website, as opposed to being displayed only in a particular category of a website or only when a particular keyword is entered into a search engine.

Everyone who is in charge of a advertising or marketing department (that’s you if you’re the sole shareholder of the company) knows that advertising is, in large part, a numbers game. The more frequently your message is seen or heard, the more likely the consumer is to purchase your service or product. Take Mattress Mac with Gallery Furniture , for example. If you live in the Houston area, or if your radio can pick up the signal of almost any Houston area radio station, you cannot go a single day without hearing or seeing an advertisement for Gallery Furniture. Peppering your senses with constant reminders that “Gallery Furniture Saves You Money!” has enabled Mr. McIngvale to build his single location furniture store into an empire. (Of course, advertising alone won’t do it; you still must have a quality product or service). I have no scientific data to support this assertion, but I’ll make it anyway: I’m willing to bet that Gallery Furniture is known to more people in the greater Houston area than any other single business. How did that come to be? Mattress Mac understands the advertising numbers game and plays it better than anybody else.

Banner ads are a numbers game. The industry standard click through rate for online advertising in general is around .5%. Not 5%, but .5%. Doesn’t sound very encouraging for your banner ad campaign, eh? Well, there are ways to significantly increase the CTR of any given banner. The best way is by targeting a particular banner ad to a narrow audience, an audience that is looking specific for a product or service just like yours. Highly-targeted can boost your CTR to as much as 2%-3% or higher and significantly increase the traffic to your website.

Another valuable purpose of the banner ad is branding. Intertwined with the messages Gallery Furniture delivers about particular sales events or types of furniture is the company’s consistent and recognizable logo, color scheme, and tag lines. Your banner advertisements can, and should, perform the same function; they should be designed using your company’s logo and colors, at a minimum. Sometimes incorporating the tag line is the way to go, but other times you may want to advertise a particular special offer, product, etc. The important thing is that you take advantage of the numbers game by continually displaying your name, logo, and colors. The more visitors that see you, the more they will come to associate your name with your type of product or service, and the more likely they will be in the future to buy from you.

READY FOR SOME SUMMER FOOTBALL?

September is months away and January is months ago, so I know many of you have to be ready for some football. How about Summertime football? The Houston Business Show is proud to support the National Indoor Football League’s Beaumont Drillers. Learn more about this great franchise and game of family fun by visiting the Driller's website today.

LOCAL PET RESALE MAY BE THE SMART CHOICE FOR PET PRODUCTS, by HBR Staff

In the 1990's, Janet Huey was both a grocery sales rep and a prophet. Although she had no crystal ball she accurately predicted the elimination of both her employer’s and her own job. Unfortunately, she failed to take her own counsel and she found herself without a job and (because of age and a lack of marketable skills, in her opinion) without much of a future professionally.

After several part-time or temp jobs, Ms. Huey found herself in a job with a national pet store chain. Her years of passion and interest in animals, reflected in her volunteer adoption work for greyhounds, led her to this new occupation and laid the foundation for a new business niche.

That niche, one that is unlike any business this publication has seen nationally or locally, became a reality in 1997 when Ms. Huey founded Pet Stuff Resale. Pet Stuff Resale buys, sells, rents, and trades recycled and sanitized pet items. In the short run it was utilized by other rescue groups and animal clinics that were a part of Janet’s network. Since those humble beginnings, this business has grown from a dog- and cat-oriented business exclusively to one that accommodates the needs of bird, reptile and other pet owners. In fact, a regular customer to the store is a Baytown breeder of pot bellied pigs who sends her babies all over the world in crates sold at Pet Stuff Resale.

Understanding her style and talents, Ms. Huey knew she would have to have a business with as little paperwork as possible and no employees. Because of this, Pet Stuff Resale doesn’t even have a storefront and won’t take credit cards. It is about as unconventional as any business can be. She runs her small business (or, maybe more accurately “micro” business) from her West Houston home, by appointment, seven days a week. Furthermore, she is also experimenting with an office/storage unit in a private mini-storage on Westpark.

After almost two decades of rescuing animals in Houston, Ms. Huey has a great deal of comfort with and personal knowledge of a variety of animals. As a result, Ms. Huey sees herself as more of an animal educator (to owners of course, not pets) rather than just a sales person. She’s quick to provide personal referrals, based on her years of experience, to vets, groomers, and pet sitters. She strongly believes that this adds value to each of her customer’s visits.

From day one her biggest problem has been – and remains – inventory. Rarely are there enough of certain items to meet the demand. Because of this she spends an enormous amount of time looking for dog kennels, cat furniture, and parrot cages. Other more traditional resale shops seem to have no problem finding inventory. The reason for this might be is that people don’t seem to think that Garfield’s little old bed or Spot’s big plastic cage still have value. They clearly do. Pet Stuff Resale provides savings for customers and facilitates recycling of “useless” goods. These are among the reasons why Ms. Huey drives in a car with its share of magnetic signs with contact information, wears a badge stating her needs, and is always ready to hand out a business card. For more information, contact Janet Huey at 281.398.9444.

ON FUTURE SHOWS AND NEWSLETTERS

Coming up on future shows and in future newsletters:

Amy Ridenour, President of the National Center for Public Policy Research will discuss the Reagan era. During the 1980's Kevin Price, host of the Houston Business Show, served as an aide to Senator Gordon Humphrey (R-NH) and worked for several think tanks, including the National Center for Public Policy Research. Amy Ridenour, a frequent guest of our show and former employer of Mr. Price, will discuss the Reagan of Legacy.

Did Reagan Oversee a Decade of Greed?The National Center for Public Policy Research produced an excellent study that briefly sizes up Reagan’s impact on the economy and how it benefited every economic group.

Cash Flow Houston Robert Kiyosaki, author of bestseller Rich Dad, Poor Dad and a frequent guest of the Houston Business Show, created a revolution with his books and his Cash Flow 101 game. The local founders of a group that meets regularly to play this game will be guests on the Houston Business Show.

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