…to be jolly, thankful, thoughtful, hopeful. Best wishes for all of the above -- for all of you, from all of us. We look forward to the new year excited about the opportunities and appreciative of those who made the past year possible. After two years of following the same design, our programmer/designer Justin Milo has created a new format for the modern8 eNews making its debut in this issue. Building on the success of our own newsletter and the interest from our clients, we are developing a template based packaged solution for anyone to create their own newsletter, which modern8 will soon make available for purchase. Our Holiday T-shirt takes on a highway theme in our annual client thank you. If you’re a client, you’ll be getting one soon. If you aren’t a client, free T-shirts are just one of reasons you should be. Soon you’ll be able to see (and buy) all our T-shirt designs on the modern8 website. For the third year, NIC has again engaged modern8 to design this year’s annual report. NIC manages more eGovernment services than any provider in the world. / Randall Smith, modern8 Creative Director, is authoring another feature article for the local business publication, Connect. Appearing in the January issue, the article addresses the value of design and advertising in the business world. modern8 eNews, December, 2003, modern8 eNews is a free, monthly email publication www.modern8.com 801.355.9541 561 West 200 South Salt Lake City, Utah 84101 Subscribe | Unsubscribe Copyright©2003 modern8 Corporation. All Rights Reserved				For decades, marketers have touted the primacy of selling on the basis of features and benefits. (It has 4-wheel drive. You won’t get stuck.) But a shift is occurring. Purchasing choices now are staggering. Modern society is information rich and time-poor. Competitors copy each other’s features as soon as they’re introduced and quality differences are minute. Today customers base their buying decisions more on symbolic cues than features, benefits and price. Who else buys this? What does the cost say about desirability? Who makes it? What image does the maker have? Can I trust them? Answers to these questions will determine whether I buy the product, more than a comparison of features and benefits. The value of your brand grows in direct proportion to how quickly and easily customers can say yes to your offering. Make sure the symbolic cues your company projects are correct, consistent and compelling. This is branding. And by the way, if you product is more expensive than your competition, this becomes even more of an imperative. It’s fun to design something that’s not under the tight reins of corporate managers defending their executive superiors, board of directors and corporate culture. It’s even more fun if it’s music. And downright remarkable if you like the music as well. Such was the case with the CD package we created for Remedy Motel, a band from Southern California who plays something between Gram Parsons and REM. A hand-made collage of antique ephemera that relates to the band’s “porch rock” attitude enhanced the front and back covers. The band is touring the Western US to promote the new CD and, according to their manager, the reception to both the music and design has been “amazing”. Randall Smith, modern8 President and Creative Director will be speaking January 13, 2004 for the Business Life Cycle Series of Effective Corporate Entrepreneurship. The event is one of the monthly breakfasts sponsored by the Utah Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth. The topic of the presentation is “Cost Effective Brand Building” and includes Randall L. Hales President of Back to Basics Products, Inc. Attendance at the event is open to interested businesses. For more information visit: www.acgutah.org..