It doesn't matter if you are a hospital, a shoe store or a wedding DJ...everyone sells the same thing--a benefit.

People buy solutions--or benefits--not features. They only care about what your product or service can do for them. For example, a consumer doesn't care that an answering machine has the newest microchip technology. What matters to him is that the new microchip technology means he'll never lose a call and messages can be accessed from remote locations.

There's a great story about a marketing professor who brought a shovel into class. He held it up and asked his class how they'd sell it. The students pointed out the sturdiness of the handle and the sharpness of the shovel's point. The professor stopped them and said, "People do not buy shovels. They buy holes."

Look at your product or service from a client's point of view. What can it do for her? What is the benefit? Then check to make sure your marketing communications are focusing on those benefits, as opposed to the features that make the benefits possible.

Don't make your potential customers look for what's in it for them. Don't tout the shovel's features. Tell them about the holes.

This is a definite case of better safe than sorry. Intellectual property law is a hot commodity and you don't want to be on the wrong side of a courtroom in a dispute that can easily be avoided.

Whenever you are dealing with your own company's name, a client's name or just using a trademarked company's name in your materials, always be on the safe side with trademarks.

If a name is registered, you need to indicate that with the trademark symbol (a capital R in a small circle) after the company name. The good news is that once is enough. You don't need to use a trademark symbol more than once per name per document.

By the way, did you know that you are in violation of trademark law if you use a brand name, like Kleenex® or Roller Blades® as the generic word for tissue or in-line skates? These companies are starting to take the misuse of their company or product name very seriously.

Don't get legally sideways on this one.

There are probably very few consumers who haven't been driven to make a purchase because the sale ended "today." Why do marketers put time-dated offers in their promotions? Because they work. When consumers know they have a deadline, they can't linger on their decision too long.

In fact, it's been proven that the shorter the window of opportunity, the higher the sales. So don't have a month-long sale, make it a 12-hour one instead!

Before you give this tactic a try, make sure you are playing by the rules. Otherwise, you might find yourself in hot water with the government. The FTC has a phrase called "good faith" when it comes to time-dated sales. If you offer a one-day sale, and yet the sale keeps getting extended--you might get a review. The FTC calls that deceptive advertising.

Besides being deceptive, continuously extending the deadline sends a loud and clear message to your customers--that you say one thing and do another. Not exactly what you want them to think about your business.

The state of Vermont believes, and has proven through market research, that when the general public hears the phrase "made in Vermont" they believe the product will be handmade and special. That distinction provides significant added value to Vermont's merchants. They have a valuable brand in the name of their state, so valuable that they've managed to fine companies who falsely claim their products were made in Vermont. Legal support of efforts to protect their brand equity.

So what exactly is brand equity? Imagine a generic product like a cookie. Within reason, anyone can make and sell one. There's nothing special about the product itself. In your head, decide what you'd pay for the generic cookie.

Now, imagine a specific cookie. A cookie made from a grandmother's recipe by a company known for using only natural ingredients. Every time you have bought a cookie from this company, over the past three years--it has lived up to its hype. And there's been considerable hype. How much would you pay for that cookie?

Brand equity combines brand name awareness (the hype), the level of confidence or high regard that is associated with your company or products because of your brand (the grandmother's special recipe and all natural ingredients), and the loyalty that you've earned from your customers (every cookie has been good for more than three years).

You can see how profitable brand equity can be and why it's worth protecting. What's your brand equity worth? Or are you selling a generic cookie.