Writings from Force 5 Basecamp

11/12/20

By Jim Ragosta, Digital Media Specialist 2020 has been a whirlwind for retailers globally. COVID-19 has had a dramatic effect on purchase intent and how/where consumers want to buy goods or services. This whirlwind will definitely impact the upcoming holiday shopping season. From government regulations imposed on brick and mortar retailers to individuals following CDC guidelines to keep themselves and

10/26/20

I know. I know. We’re all tired of hearing about the corona virus nowadays and how it’s affected all of us mentally, physically, emotionally. I’d like to take a different perspective, focusing in on E-commerce and how it’s seems to be flourishing. At the end of first quarter 2020, and leading in to the second quarter of 2020, “brick and

08/24/20

For nearly 20 years, an Indiana Trailer Manufacturer (because of an NDA, the company name has been changed to Indiana Trailer Manufacturer, abbreviated as ITM) has been producing premium aluminum trailers as the alternative to steel trailers in the Trailer/RV marketplace. Factors like exceptional design and construction with guidance from industry-leading engineers have catapulted ITM to high levels of growth and

07/21/20

We live in challenging times. COVID-19 has dramatically changed traditional human behavior in a short amount of time, leaving nearly all of us in a trance asking ourselves “where do we go from here?” From a business standpoint, “how is the way I conduct business going to change?” Furthermore, from a marketing standpoint, “how do the side effects of COVID

05/28/20

By Bob Earley I realize that there’s a redundancy in this blog’s title. However, so many people talk about vision, strategies, goals and objectives and yet so many fail one of the final steps: execute. How many times have you sat in planning meetings (and meetings to talk about scheduling the planning meetings), taking copious notes and leave the meeting

05/11/20

Written by Jim Ragosta Live Streaming has been popular during the COVID-19 outbreak, and I refer to “live streaming” in a broad way within this article because there are so many ways to do so. Live Streaming allows people to engage in real time, whether that’s watching your favorite artist perform, obtaining information from a press briefing, or watching your

04/14/20

During these challenging times, many of us are experiencing furloughs, unemployment, the juggling of our work schedules along with the schedules of students and their e-learning. On top of those challenges is wondering how do we stay in contact with our target audiences. Some experts have said people are “hunkered down” and aren’t doing anything, causing some businesses to wonder

03/12/20

40,000 search queries occur every second on average, which translates to 3.5 billion searches per day. Incredible right? And this is just from Google alone. Think about how often you search using Google each day? These searches could be as simple as: “What kind of oil does my 2012 Camaro take,” where multiple results appear, illustrating: Where you can purchase

02/25/20

McDonald’s recently launched an outdoor marketing campaign which they call “Iconic Stacks”. Each design is a minimalist, typographic representation of one of their classic sandwiches. At face value, it’s a clever and fun way to ask people to pause for a moment and think about their sandwiches. But it’s just type. There are no photos with perfectly poised drips of

01/29/20

TikTok is the latest social craze, as businesses and people alike are trying to understand the purpose of the media, as well as how to utilize it. Social Media still holds as a highly valuable medium to meet business objectives, however that doesn’t mean every business should be on every platform, popular or not. So, let’s try to answer the

12/17/19

“Hey Siri: How can I help people find my website?” When they first arrived on the scene, smart/voice enabled devices were a fun and novel way to search for things. But many questioned whether they would amount to more than a quick way to know how many tablespoons are in a gallon (256 if you’re wondering). We’re here to say

11/11/19

Can you think back to when searching the internet was simpler? No mumbo jumbo, ads, and information you don’t care about displaying everywhere? Yeah, I remember too. Take a look at the Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) just a decade ago. Now, take a gander at what the SERP looks like today by just typing in “Dwayne Wade” Holy