Best Themes for Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer by Brand Thunder

Brand Thunder is completely changing the way that you and I experience the Internet. With savvy technology and groundbreaking ideas, Brand Thunder is customizing the user experience like never before. Both users and businesses alike are flocking to this technology and the offerings of the Brand Thunder team.

There are a couple of different things that you will want to understand as you dive into this technology and the many benefits that Brand Thunder has to offer.

What is Brand Thunder?

Brand Thunder completely changes the way that your browser looks. The brand works to create customizable web browser themes that greatly enhance the experience the user has with their normal Internet browser.

The business and technology has been recognized by all of the major Internet browsers on the market, with all working to form a partnership with the brand. Firefox, Google Chrome, and even Internet Explorer fully understand the benefits that Brand thunder brings to the table and wants to make the technology a regular part of the user experience.

What Are Web Browser Themes?

Web browser themes are the future of web browsing as we know it. These themes are all-immersive, completely changing the face of the Internet browser that we use. The web browser themes allow individuals to customize what they see when they open their web browser. The colors and visual style of the browser completely changes, from the menu bar to the buttons that are used on the browser. Individuals and businesses can easily add in their own buttons to the browser, integrating things that would normally not be found through a web browser.

These browser themes are available on all of the major Internet browsers on the market: this includes Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Internet Explorer.

Users and Browser Themes

Many of the best themes are available as add-ons to the web browsers. These add-ons piggyback on the user’s existing browser. This makes it incredibly easy for the user to install and maintain all their current bookmarks, favorites and security settings. Take themes for Firefox for example. These Firefox themes are simple to download and simple to install. In a couple mouse clicks, the user will have selected the theme that they want to use, have downloaded that theme, and have installed that theme onto their browser. They will be able to use the theme from that moment forward, and can change or remove that theme as easily as it was downloaded.

Businesses and Browser Themes

Businesses can use these themes to their advantage, changing how they communicate with their target audience and getting the ultimate in both reach and frequency. These businesses can create browser themes and Personas for their own brand. This leads to users directly interacting with their brand whenever they load their Internet browser.

Businesses are only limited by their creativity, as far as their use of the Brand Thunder browser theme is concerned. They will be able to deliver the buttons, links and content they need to connect with their users right in their browser.

Take the time to fully understand Brand Thunder and its the browser themes. The future of the web and how we interact with it is constantly changing and evolving. The popularity and success of Brand Thunder helps to outline the possible future of the Internet for both the users who use Internet browsers and the businesses that are trying to reach them.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: brand thunder, browser, business, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, themes, Web browser | No Comments »

The Magic Ratio of Business Relationships by Kevin Dwinnell

Psychologist John Gottman explored positive-to-negative ratios in marriages and defined the magic ratio of 5:1.  By scoring positive and negative interactions in one 15-minute conversation between newlyweds, Gottman and his team of researchers discovered that they had predicted divorce with 94 percent accuracy.

Five positive interactions for every negative one.

If you’ve done any business training on troubleshooting or problem solving, you’ll find that the methods used for creating a positive relationship within the business world are no different than those used in the personal world.  To look at Gottman’s data, you need to show your clients, customers and business partners five positive experiences to every negative one.  (Remember, we’re talking relationships here, not product quality.)

That’s a lot of interaction, and that’s the appeal of social media.  The potential is there for more frequent interactions because you’re not waiting for your customer to come to your site, you’re meeting them at theirs. And it’s an interaction, whereas your normal marketing message is an impression or a spot.  It’s a pitch and not an engagement.

So, my self serving question is, what other tools are available that can give you the frequency you need to ensure your getting the volume of interactions you need to build that positive relationship?  Yes, I think we have a good one and I know there are others whether you use KickApps or an iPhone app.

What are your favorites?

Posted in Commentary | Tags: business, John Gottman, Marketing and Advertising, Persuasion, Ratio, Relationships, Social media | No Comments »

Old Spice Overkill by Kevin Dwinnell

Enough with the endless coverage of the Old Spice viral videos.  Marketing is a simple game – you break through the clutter, you build awareness, you make a sale.  Just like baseball is a simple game – you hit the ball, you catch the ball, you throw the ball.

There’s been so much attention given to the success of the campaign, it seems like nobody believed this Internet marketing thing really works.  It does and it’s a solid part of the overall marketing plan.  Just as the description of marketing and baseball above grossly simplify the games, credit should be given to P&G for the overall execution of the Old Spice campaign.  It’s been hard to miss Old Spice lately, whether its online videos, coupons or in-store promotions.  They had an abundance of presence, not a single good tool.  That presence helped break through the clutter and ultimately drive sales.

This is just another example of a well executed marketing plan.  We’re in the midst of relaunching the Huffington Post browser themes.  HuffPost isn’t successful because it rolls out one cool tool for their community.  HuffPost is aggressively building its content, Arianna is everywhere, and they continue to offer community tools like their interactive browser theme.  It’s an ongoing promotional and growth campaign that keeps gathering attention for them.

The same can be seen with The Daily Beast.  It’s another good news site with their own interactive browser theme.  Yet, you’ll also find Tina Brown across the media, whether it’s on Good Morning America or NPR, representing the Daily Beast and its excellent editorial staff.  You can find an example of her brand building for The Daily Beast as well as a list of excellent reads at her Must Reads at NPR.

It’s this hustle on multiple fronts that pays off.  Kudos to the Old Spice marketing team for a big hit.  A nice work across the board to build that success.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: browser theme, business, Daily Beast, Good Morning America, Huffington Post, interactive browser theme, marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Old Spice, Tina Brown | No Comments »

Product Extension for Growing Your Business by Kevin Dwinnell

The background

To get to the point about product extension, I have to set the groundwork, so bear with me a moment. Brand Thunder’s core business is helping brands talk to their online consumer through our interactive browser themes. It’s an affinity marketing tool where we leverage the powerful connection an audience has to a particular brand.

That connection was vital in helping us solve part of the distribution puzzle. Most online businesses need to drive an audience to your product. If you require the download and installation of software like we do, that’s an additional hurdle. Affinity to a brand can help overcome that.

For any business looking to grow, it considers natural extension to its product lines and for us that direction was to look beyond the brand affinity and see what else fit.

When to Extend

The idea originated when we were analyzing user adoption and the sales cycle. We were seeing great market response from end users with each product launch bringing a spike of new users. There was also great response from our business development efforts as well, but getting an executed agreement always seemed to take longer than a young company would like. Those two were the pain points we were trying to eliminate – shorten the time to market for new releases.

Solving for X

Brand affinity helped build our business, but affinity isn’t related to brands. Since our early success was with sports teams, it made sense to look to more broad offerings in the same category. Naturally, we went for the general fans of baseball, football and basketball. Then we branched into holidays. What both categories did was provide us with themes that had strong following plus a high rate of search and discovery. We knew these topic would be sought out and balance the distribution we were losing from not having a supporting brand.

This decision to create a product extension has been a good one for us, and we continue to build out the offering to this date. This week we just released the Pro Wrestling theme, Golf theme and the recently released Movie Premiere theme. All combine the solid visual elements of our product with the interactive components that keep them engaging over the long term. They are also evergreen in their popularity with their audiences, which gives each a great deal of promise.

These topical themes have been a big win for us. What product extensions have worked for you?

Posted in Commentary | Tags: Affinity, affinity marketing, browser theme, business, Consumer, marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Relationship Marketing | No Comments »

Trust – The Unwritten Agreement Between Brand and Consumer by Kevin Dwinnell

Trust is a powerful tool in the business arsenal. It’s the enabler to the value exchange that a business seeks with its consumer. With trust, businesses can weather some pretty bad situations. Without it, you’re in a very bad situation. Fortunately, we live in an optimistic society and most companies are given a fair chance to prove themselves.

The Internet has leveraged this trust with its beta releases. It’s a way to test a product in the production environment prior to being production ready. There’s an inherent trust for a user to try a beta product that by its beta name admits will have issues. The expectation is that those issues will not be serious to the user. Because of that trust, the user gets a first look at something new and cool, and the company gets to see its product perform in a real-world environment. That’s the value exchange that trust enabled.

Advertising works not because consumers love it, but because the value exchange of free content for viewing ads is apparent. If the message becomes too much about the advertising, the consumer moves on to a different choice. I’ve canceled magazine subscriptions when I couldn’t find the table of content for the sheer number of ads. Digital is even less forgiving.

You’ll find this mantra in social media guidance. You can’t just sell. It’s boring, offensive and you’ll wind up social all by yourself. If you’re interesting and relevant, people will want to hear what you say and hang around more. You’ve earned their trust.

So, how do you earn and maintain trust?

Be True to Your Word

Wal-Mart offers Always. Low Prices. You can always go into a Wal-Mart and get a very good price. Not always the lowest, but consistently in that vacinity so most consumers are forgiving if they’re not.

Admit When Your Wrong

Facebook continues to test the boundaries of their privacy policy. They’ve made some missteps and retracted the changes – keeping the trust of their consumers. The fact that they continue to stumble in this area, based on consumer reactions, will show the strength of that trust overtime.

Be Open and Honest

If you’re open with your customers, that’s an easy way to gain trust and respect – even if you can’t meet their needs.

These are pretty standard things for any relationship. But that’s what builds trust is that ongoing relationship. So, each touchpoint between you and the consumer is an opportunity to build on that trust. The more trust you have, the better the position for the rest of your business.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: advertising, business, Consumer, online marketing, web apps | No Comments »

Have a great read and don’t forget to reTweet – Keeping up with B/T by Kevin Dwinnell

If you’re like us, you like to keep up with companies, news and opinions across the web. And, we’re probably like you in that we offer different ways of communicating what’s going on and what we deem as relevant. To help you sift through the delivery vehicles, I’m providing an overview of each one. Then you can choose one or two that fit your needs best, or simply follow the links and sign up for all of them.

Twitter:

Follow: brandthunder http://twitter.com/brandthunder It’s company insight and more. Patrick must be the speed-reader in the company. He gets through more blogs, articles and newsfeeds in a morning than I can all week. If you want a grasp of the best of Internet business news, his take on current company activity and the occasional compelling gadget – following us on Twitter is a great way to go.

Newsletter:

Another easy method to keep up with company news and activity is to sign up for our email newsletter at http://brandthunder.com/stormreport. What I appreciate and respect about the newsletter is that it’s news, when it happens, and not on a schedule. We’re not going to put something in your mailbox until there’s something worthwhile to put there. No clutter, just the goods.

Blog:

Our blog continues its evolution. We’re on a publishing pace of once or twice a week. What you get is a range of news and information about the company, insights into our industry (which I view as interactive marketing, but am open to feedback and requests for information) and some insights into the life of a company in the midst of its early growth stage. You can always read it on our site, and visit our Gallery while you’re here to see the latest browser Boom!, or get the blog in your favorite reader with this URL: http://brandthunder.com/feed/.

Facebook:

Another easy way to get the new news bits… become a fan on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/brandthunder. It makes us happy and it’s guaranteed to impress your friends – or something equally good (I need to check my legal disclaimers). :-)

I hope this helps, and we hope to see you in more places.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: Blog, brand thunder, Brand Thunder Boom, business, Facebook, Interactive marketing, On the Web, Social network, Twitter | No Comments »

Eliminating Single Points of Failure in Start Ups by Kevin Dwinnell

Back when I worked for an ISO 9000 certified company and was feeling overwhelmed at the extensive documentation and process, I learned that writing the requirements avoided “bus-terminated projects.” If all the requirements are in the head of a product manager, there’s a huge amount of risk. Putting it all down on paper ensured the continuity of the project.

There’s a lot to be learned from that message for a start up. If you’re like us, money is tight and staff is lean. With little or no depth on the team for any given position, however, risk is considerably high with all those single points of failure.

That same ISO 9000 company was in the uninterruptible power supply business helping network administrators maintain uptime, and from that I also learned how redundancy exponentially reduces your risk.

Now, we’re not in the position to hire a second head count for every position. We have, however, used this as motivation to be purposeful about using contractors. We seek additional help, and line up contractors, in key areas so we’re able to weather a catastrophic event.

The additional bonus to this strategy is we have trained resources to help us load balance when our client list grows suddenly (and we see our fair share of that). With major brands using our Booms (custom browsers) as a means to stay connected to their consumers and fans, we’re often trying to meet deadlines whether it’s the season opener for a sports team or a new tour for a music artist. Having this small level of redundancy built into our team is ensuring we’re meeting immediate demands in addition to protecting our future.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: Branded Browser, business, custom browser, Redundancy, start-up, Uptime | No Comments »

Web X.0 – What to Do When Your Product Doesn’t Fit the Hype by Kevin Dwinnell

With the term “Web 2.0” declared dead, and “Web 3.0” yet to be defined, where does that leave the marketers still trying to become “part of the conversation”? The same place it has always left us – making sure our value proposition connects with our target audience, and making sure our message reaches that audience.

Hype is a wave. If you’re there and you catch it, awesome. Not every one is in position to do that. But the Internet continues to be a birthplace of cool and spawns a river of things that generate hype. Eventually, our time will come.

In pitching our branded browsers (Booms) as a great affinity product for CPG, we hear “that wouldn’t work for toilet paper.” Correct, but it would work for diapers. Both products serve the same purpose, but one has a more robust avenue for connecting with the consumer than the other. Pampers and Huggies both produce a lot of web content tailored specifically toward Moms and create affinity to the brand – that’s an ideal place for one our Booms. Have you looked at your product and that cool new web site and determined if there’s a fit? Are you sure?

Not seeing a fit for marketing or integration into that hyped application doesn’t relieve you of your responsibility to understand it. I’ve been fortunate to work in the Internet space for a long time. That, however, has built some complacency and I’ve missed my share of opportunities because I didn’t “get it.”

In the interest of full disclosure, I’m still trying to “get” Twitter and continue to work at my understanding. I see the positive affect it can have for a company on several levels. I’ve extracted value, hopefully shared some, and when I meet a social media expert, I try to learn more. I believe it’s paying off for our start up as it does for many other companies. But I would have missed this if I’d left it alone without trying to first understand it.

Your product may not be right for every hyped Internet site, but with more of your customers online, some of these sites will work for you. To stay competitive, whether a start up or not, it’s in your interest to know which ones.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: Branded Browser, business, custom browser, Customer value proposition, marketing, Social network, Target audience, Twitter, web 2.0, Website | No Comments »

Red States and Blue States – Get the Most from the Contrasting Views of Business and Development by Kevin Dwinnell

We just went through a period of disagreement here at Brand Thunder – the classic and clashing viewpoints of the suits and the geeks. I think it ended well, but if this is my last post due to a malicious crashing of my computer, I’ll reconsider.

When your business is evolving this rapidly and timeframes are perpetually short, it’s already an intense environment. Mix in a bunch of strong personalities on a hot topic and you’re bound to have differences of opinion. Ideally, it’s during these times that a fledgling idea can be sculpted into something meaningful. Or, the process can disintegrate and lead to a lot of hurt feelings.

How do you get one result instead of the other? And how do you foster the type of discussion that is challenging, but creates the better end result? We asked the Brand Thunder corporate counselor and received the following advice:

Revisit Covey’s Seven Habits – #5 – Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

This concept has been well known to business people for years, but now, much research has validated its power. It’s the crucial technique that will enhance your team’s functioning. (And by the way, it’s not just for the business setting—it’s a great tool in any relationship.)

If the concept is a little too vague, here are some specific recommendations to follow when you find yourself in a group with differences of opinion:

1. Give each side uninterrupted time to define their position.
2. Before the other side speaks, reiterate what the first party said to confirm it’s understood – and ask if it’s correct “What I hear you saying is…”
3. It may help to whiteboard it. Bulleting the key ideas and positions on a topic. provides a visual reminder of the discussion and viewpoints.
4. Then move on to collaboration or decision-making.

Keep in mind, understanding does not equal agreement. Nor does understanding mean there will be a change in course or decision. What it does mean is that each side will know they had a chance to have their opinion expressed and understood. Everyone wants to feel that their opinion matters to others.

In the end, you’ll not only have a functional team. You’ll have a better one.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: brand thunder, Branded Browser, business, custom browser, Marketing and Advertising, Relationships, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People | No Comments »

Brand Thunder Hires New Business Development Manager by Brand Thunder

For Immediate Release

COLUMBUS OH (December 3, 2008) — Brand Thunder LLC, the branded browser specialists, is pleased to announce that Ryan D. Miller has joined the company as Business Development Manager.

Miller will be responsible for broadening the vertical markets in which Brand Thunder’s branded browsers are being utilized. He brings a solid background in technology, marketing and business development and has held positions at Assurance Group, Sapphire Technologies and Junior Achievement of Central Ohio. He remains active with Junior Achievement and is currently serving on the board of directors for the Heart of Ohio Tech Prep Consortium. Miller received his B.A. in Psychology from Flagler College.

“We’re seeing increased demand for our custom, branded-browser themes,” says founder Patrick Murphy. “And, we find ourselves talking to a range of departments within a company – Executive Management, IT, Marketing, Innovation and New Media. We needed someone adept at addressing the needs of each audience, and Ryan’s broad accomplishments make him an ideal choice to fill this role.”

About Brand Thunder

Formed in April, 2007, Brand Thunder creates a more persistent presence between corporate brands and their internet consumer through its browser customization which leads to increased web site visits and revenue. Through a software installation, end users change the look and feel of their internet browser into an immersive experience from their favorite sports team, entertainment franchise or internet site. The customized browsers feature official logos, colors, content and functionality, but can also extend capabilities including video, music players or other internet widgets. Current business partners and clients include the The Huffington Post, NCAA, NHL, Starpulse.com, Universal Music and Yahoo!. Samples found at http://brandthunder.com/gallery/.

Contact

Patrick Murphy, CEO
Brand Thunder, LLC
614-408-8202

###

Posted in Press Releases | Tags: Branded Browser, business, custom browser, new hire | No Comments »