As 2008 comes to a close and we wrap up another year, we here at Pi Design would like to wish you the happiest of holidays – whichever ones you may be celebrating. As times change and cultures come together, more and more holidays are being noticed publicly around the world. It’s a wonderful thing to partake the different customs and celebrations that the diverse inhabitants of our planet enjoy.

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We sometimes get people who show up in our office and say, “I need a website.” They don’t really know what exactly they want or how many pages it will be. So we talk to them for a while to get the details all down on paper and then we struggle to provide what we think is an accurate quote only to find out they realized that they will need to add three more pages or they decided a CMS feature on the home page would be cool. And, oh by the way, could we provide all the content too? All the confusion could easily be avoided with a well thought out design brief. So I thought it would be a good idea to provide some simple guidelines to make the process much less painful for everyone and allow us to drive straight to the design part as soon as possible.

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“A Red Ryder Carbine Action 200 Range Air Rifle with a compass in the stock.” Remember in the movie, “A Christmas Story” how Ralphie tried everything to get his parents to buy him one of these cherished items? Doesn’t every little boy want a BB gun? It’s “the Holy Grail of Christmas gifts” according to Ralphie Parker.

Well, I can’t wait for Christmas this year. I found a classic Red Ryder BB gun at the swap meet. It’s all worn out in just the right places and has the engraved logo on the stock.  It even has the neat fringe thingy hanging down one side. I am going to mount the gun and add a little plaque that says, “You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out, Kid!” then give it to my older brother, Scott (who, btw, still acts like a little kid most of the time). He ought to get a real kick out of it as this is one of his favorite movies. I should probably give him some eye protection too, just in case.

What cool items have you found at swap meets or garage sales?

A stroll through the Ventura County Fairgrounds at the recent swap meet yielded me several “treasures.” I put the word in quotes because the phrase, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” kept running through my head. At first I was overwhelmed with the vast amount of junk people had stuck price tags on. There were torn posters from bad forgotten movies, a puppy pepper shaker without its matching mate, old shoes and 8 track tapes galore. I was deliberating whether I should have spent my $10 on Venti Double Vanilla Latte rather than on admission when I saw something that really caught my eye.

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People are hanging onto their money more tightly now so businesses have to tug harder to get them to part with it. Smart business decisions during slow times can keep your company in the forefront of consumers’ minds so they’ll remember you when things improve.

Resist the temptation to cut your marketing budget. People won’t remember your company over your competitors if you don’t keep your name in the marketplace. Here are some inexpensive ways to keep your marketing efforts in full swing in a slow economy.

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