Software
Issuu has a goal to make online publishing simple, attractive and easy
to share. Not only can you create interactive, great looking
publications but you can join a growing community, explore their online
library and share your documents with your own, established community.
Take a PDF, upload it to Issuu and they will convert it into an online
magazine with page-flip capabilities, zoom, full-screen viewing and
more. After you upload your PDF you can publish it immediately to a
host of social networks and blogging sites, as well as get some code to
embed on any site. Your new magazine will also be available on
Issuu.com for public viewing, where there are a host of other documents
to browse in categories ranging from Academia to Tech and Travel. You
can also create a profile, add friends and spread your publication to
others.
But Issuu is just getting warmed up. Already an impressive service,
they look to keep innovating. Martin Ferro-Thomson, Co-Founder and
Communications Manager at Issuu took some time to answer a few questions
we had for him:
When was Issuu founded?
Issuu was started in 2006, with just a few guys with a lot of
ideas. We were funded in January 2007 and started developing, launched
in
public in January 2007 and now Issuu is in beta with many plans for the
future. We have a
handpicked and extremely motivated team, without a doubt the most
talented people I've ever worked with (and yes, we're hiring to keep up
with the booming interest).
What are Issuu's goals?
To make online publishing as simple and easy as possible; both for
companies, advertisers and certainly average people like you and me. We
want everyone with a message to be able to get across to the right
targeted audience, no matter where in the world that audience might be.
And we want to empower anyone to publish in style using the best
technology out there!
Who do you find are the most frequent users of Issuu?
Anyone! Businesses want to use us because we have the best online
viewer technology on the market (vector gfx and full screen mode).
Creatives love the viewer too because it's beautiful and they can
connect via our community. Everyone else just thinks it's exciting to
join this living library where you can find so much interesting stuff
you never though was out there - and in a format that really is
something people have been craving for: easy, intuitive and gratifying.
What are some future plans or upgrades for Issuu?
Watch the blog. And believe me, it's going to be a great year to watch out
for Issuu. We have only just started rolling out the basic features and
we have an extremely exciting road map with lots of new and innovative
features that we've worked on for years now - and of course by
listening to our top-notch members (thanks!).
Editor's
note - Issuu is promising some great features but understandably
prefers to keep things under wraps for now. See a recent press release
from their blog and an example of Issuu's capabilities.
Now, a couple of limitations that we mentioned previously:
- Zoom feature: When zooming in on a document, the default means of
navigation is by simply moving the mouse - there is no clicking
involved. While it's nice to easily move a page around, it's also a
little distracting, even disorienting. My hand usually rests on my
mouse - so even the slightest movement moves the entire page. Clicking
on the hand icon at the top of the page turns the feature off, but not
all users will notice this. Also while in zoom mode, you lose the
page-flip effect when clicking to get to the next page.
- Embedded links: Right now you cannot embed links into the PDF files. It would be a nice feature to have.
I've tested Issuu. At first there was a problem uploading the PDF. But
after emailing for support (and a rapid response) the problem was
solved. It appears I simply needed to install the
latest Flash player.
After that, it was easy. I'm impressed ... and looking forward to
Issuu's continued progress.
Issuu has been nominated as a finalist in the SXSW Interactive awards, from hundreds of applicants. If you like what you see, you can vote for Issuu
here.
An example of an Issuu file and choosing to embed the magazine
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The power of video advertising on the Web cannot be overstated. But many small businesses simply don’t have the resources to make compelling video ads. Or, their ads turn out more like home movies, possibly doing more damage to the brand than good. EZ Show has a solution and it fits any size business.
 |
Using EZ Show’s
software, users can create compelling, enterprise-quality video ads
complete with music, audio voice-overs and text, anywhere from 30
seconds to a minute long. An extensive library of clips divided into
five-second segments allows for custom creation of video that fits
together seamlessly and provides the video viewer with a complete video
advertising experience. Or, EZ Show even offers to send a videographer
to your business location to record video for you. |
Once a video is created and pieced together, the user gets a piece of code that can be pasted into any Web page, or any other place that code can be used for video — a business’ MySpace page, for example.
If you don’t want to use video, EZ Show also offers simple image ads with text overlay and audio capabilities and the images can include pan and zoom capabilities or be formatted to resemble slide shows.
As far as audio, users can choose from stock audio and music, or record and upload their own voiceovers. There is also the option to ask EZ Show to provide custom audio.
And what good is a great video advertisement if you can’t measure its success? Some of the tools EZ Show offers can provide analytics data as well. You can track clicks on your videos and even track clicks that originate from other sources. For example, you can track separately where you may have links to your video, say from Yahoo or Google. You can even track clicks if you send your video links in an email campaign to determine which of those efforts are bringing the highest return.
So why video? “That’s where everyone is going,” says Bernie Day, EZ Show’s CEO. “It’s faster and better. The different dimensions of video stimulate people to embrace and engage the message.”
Currently EZ show is experiencing great success. “We’ve been very well received. People are pleasantly surprised by the ease of use and the quality of the video,” says Day.
The EZ Show software is widely licensed to larger companies such as yellow pages providers as a service for their customers. But a do-it-yourself center is also available for individual customers.
Pricing starts at $49.95 per month to make as many ads as you want, and includes 1,000 views per month. There is an additional cost of $.04 per view over 1,000.
For more information visit www.ezshow.com and www.ezshowstudio.com.
Five popular software applications
and five things to look for in them.
Without software, the Internet would be a tool
reserved for data crunchers and programming
geeks. The rise of software has brought the
Web right to the fingertips of casual surfers and
businesses alike. Advanced applications make
communication, networking and collaboration
possible on a level that was unthinkable 20
years ago — even 10 years ago.
New software is constantly developed, while old software
becomes unusable. Caught in the middle is the website owner. It
can be difficult to decide which software applications or hosted
solutions are right for your business. Choose the right one and
business is booming. Choose poorly and you lose time, money and
possibly your livelihood.
Website Magazine is here to help. We examined five popular
software solutions and five qualifying attributes of each to consider
when making your selections. While impossible to cover every
piece of software in each category, our evaluation is based on those
solutions that are widely used or growing in use around the Web.
Our guidelines for ratings are based on personal experience and
trials, as well as feedback from other users.
Weblogs
Blogging has become an essential part of every Web
enterprise. It’s the single most effective way to control the
conversation about your business and keep your clients
and prospects informed. The trick is finding a platform
that works best for you, while differentiating yourself from
the thousands of similar blogs in your industry.
A good place to get started if you’re unfamiliar or not completely
sold on the idea of blogging is one of the free hosted solutions such
as Google's Blogger.com, Microsoft’s Live Spaces and Yahoo’s 360. Or,
even consider utilizing one of the offerings from social networking
giants MySpace or Facebook, where you can easily build a profile
page and start a blog at the same time. Otherwise, look into one of the
more sophisticated solutions. While many of the most popular blogging
platforms are free (open source) others are not, which for many
will be a deciding factor.
Outside of cost, one of the first important deciding factors will be
the system requirements. Making a selection based on the programming
language the platform is built on, the operating system and the
Web server can be crucial. If your enterprise program is in ASP and
you’re familiar with the Microsoft server environment, deploying
Wordpress (best suited for Apache servers) will present a host of integration
issues and a sizable learning curve.
One of the problems with establishing a blog, whether customerfacing
or personal is that they are magnets for spam — a very important
security consideration. Fortunately, all of those reviewed below,
with the exception of the Expression Engine, feature built-in Akismet
(spam filtering) support or have a plugin available. If spam is a
concern, other anti-spam features you should look for include word
blacklisting, the ability to ban IP addresses and the availability of a
“completely automated public turing test to tell computers and
humans apart” (CAPTCHA).
Scalability of the platform will play a big role in your success. As
your business grows, so will your blog. Will it be able to support new
users? Do you want to enable public contributions, either with new
posts or comments? Make sure your blogging platform is able to support
new versions, security patches and updated features.
Ultimately, the reason to get into blogging is for the attention
it can generate for your business. That means it needs to be SEOfriendly.
For example, Wordpress enables customizable permalinks
— meaning that your blog posts automatically contain original,
descriptive keywords in their page names. Finally, look for blogs that
support categories and archives. They both benefit long-term SEO.
Review more information about these blogging software platforms
CMS: Content Management Systems
In the early days of the Internet, website owners were
required to manually code Web pages. While there were
several tools and tricks to speed up deployment and ensure
consistency of Web pages throughout a domain, this
process was and still is cumbersome.
The advantage of using a content management system (CMS) is that
workflow, the idea of moving from the initial creation of a document
to its final approval, is greatly facilitated. Overall, supporting multiple
users and assigning those users roles to help develop or manage content
makes deployment faster and your business’ website more manageable.
In short, CMS solutions are all about facilitating collaboration
and making that content accessible publicly and privately.
Not everyone has the resources to develop a proprietary software
system or the procedures necessary to manage content online.
Fortunately there are hundreds, if not thousands of CMS solutions
available to help website owners. Some are free (open-source) and
some are commercial, typically available through a licensing system.
All, however, have the potential to make your days as a Web worker
more organized, efficient and successful.
CMS takes many forms but the most utilized (and thus most
popular) have features that have become standards — for example,
the ability to import documents, document change tracking and even
messaging features. So what are some other features someone
reviewing CMS solutions should identify as essential in their
selection process?
Not everyone working on your website will be skilled in the fine
art of Web design. CMS that offer a “what you see is what you get”
(WYSIWYG) editor are crucial to a consistent user experience. In line
with the document design are SEO-friendly considerations of the
system and the individual pages. The ability to customize individual
page names, content summaries and unique titles (meta data too) will
provide many long term benefits — namely website traffic. Overall,
the system’s ease of use will make or break your online enterprise.
Another key feature should be document management. The ability
to track the process of content creation (creation, revision, publication,
archival and removal) makes CMS a worthy investment as it will
reduce the workload if multiple personnel are working on a document
simultaneously. Advanced systems will even provide “workflow
engines” to see who changed what document and when that change
was made.
Scalability is also important. The Web is a dynamic environment
and adaptability is inherent in good software. CMS solutions are often
updated with added functionality (and even security patches) that
you should be able to integrate quickly. From templates to plugins,
the feature set of your CMS should be readily available for customization.
If the CMS solution you choose does not come equipped with
built-in applications such as guestbooks, link management, personalized
pages or even forums, make sure that these functionalities are
available through add-ons.
Review more information about these Content Management Systems (CMS)
E-commerce systems
While you may be blogging for exposure, selling makes
money. It’s the foundation of the commercial Internet.
And what supports it all for millions of website owners is
e-commerce software.
Operating a successful online e-commerce presence is one of the most
challenging aspects of running an Internet business. Simply put, ecommerce
systems are business applications serving commercial
transactions online. Of course, it’s more complex than that. Consider
the transfer of electronic funds, supply-chain management, online
marketing, transaction processing, inventory management and the
exchange of data and you can see the need for a robust e-commerce
solution.
Reliable e-commerce platforms make a big difference in the success
of an online enterprise. As such, the back-end aspects of these
various solutions should be a key part of your decision process.
Reliability and security aren’t buzzwords, they are imperative. The
Web host being utilized should support your e-commerce system
with parallel servers, hardware redundancy, and fail-safe technologies
that ensure availability and the highest performance at all times.
But beyond the technical aspects of e-commerce solutions, the
next most important influencing factor should be the experience that
will be provided to the end user — your client.
The leading e-commerce platforms share a common thread; they
provide a stable, seamless, user-friendly purchasing experience. The
design that is presented to users is, in many respects, as important as
the products you provide.
The best solutions also offer support for business owners to sell
their products. From coupons to special offers and discounts, the
capacity to automate these tactics should be important part of your
decision. When looking at the top e-commerce websites — take
Amazon.com for example — what do they have in common?
Personalization. You simply will not find a successful e-commerce
website that does not provide personalized offers based on previous
purchases.
Another key ingredient of successful e-commerce sites is the communities
they foster. When users can discuss and even collaborate on
products, they begin to develop an affinity for the online property
hosting the community. Loyalty programs are also an easy way to
develop a following and the solution you select should support them.
Facilitating consumption is another important part of community —
product information is vital.
The last, but arguably one of the most important aspect of the best
e-commerce solutions is communication. Transparency and openness
is not a dream, it’s an increasing necessity. Selecting a system that
helps you send email notifications and manage clients’ individual
needs is what will take your online enterprise from bust to boom.
Review more information about these Ecommerce software solutions
Email Marketing Software
Despite increasing customer distaste, ongoing legislative
threats and technological innovations, marketing to an
audience of targeted, opt-in subscribers via email still
produces results.
The only evidence needed to support the ongoing use of email as an
effective marketing tool is found on every email client — your junk
folder. While many end up in this wasteland, effective email campaigns
can produce big dividends. If it didn’t, your inbox would only receive
the emails you wanted and you would never need a junk folder.
The entire email process should begin on your website the
moment when a request for subscription is made. Software helps you
manage this process, from the submission of a name and email
address to the importing of that data into an application that organizes
and executes the mailing. Very much in line with this “support
from the beginning” approach is scalability. While some solutions
cater exclusively to periodic, small- and medium-sized campaigns,
others focus exclusively on large-scale and frequent promotions.
Understanding the capabilities of your provider and defining your
enterprise’s growth expectations will give you an idea on which vendor
or solution will accompany your business into the future.
Successful email marketing also hinges on detailed reporting.
Email service providers should offer detailed reports on open rates,
click-thru rates, and most importantly the deliverability of individual
email campaigns. Sending thousands of emails that all bounce back
will raise red flags with Internet Service Providers (ISPs), waste promotional
budgets and potentially aggravate future customers. Email
marketing software providers who excel at reporting are those which
have close relationships with the ISPs themselves and the technology
available to help you manage campaign data.
Your primary concern should be the success of campaigns, but it’s
easy to get sidetracked and focus on the aesthetics of individual email
creatives. While important, it’s debatable whether it makes much of an
impact. Some will argue that HTML newsletters work better, while
others only send text emails. Having the option to send both types and
support for both should be a deciding factor in your selection process.
Some providers even provide WYSIWYG editors and template suggestions
to facilitate “best practices” design for their clients.
Finally, email marketing software vendors should offer a high level
of support – both technical and administrative. Email marketing on
the whole is comparable in complexity to search engine optimization
in that it requires expertise in several areas to be successful; coding
and development, reporting and analytics, customer service and marketing.
When one piece of the email puzzle fails, they all fail.
Like most things in business, you get what you pay for. So, if you
are serious about the promotion of your online enterprise through
email, focus on paid services, as the others come with a characteristic
amateur look and feel.
Review more information about these Email Marketing software solutions
Forum Software
Since the beginning of the commercial Web, webmasters
have been deploying forums to foster communities. When
communities are healthy they have the tendency to thrive.
When left unattended, they are fertile grounds for all sorts
of wasteful marketing energy, not to mention spam.
Unfortunately, healthy forums have traditionally relied on countless
hours of oversight from the forum leader or webmaster. This is precisely
the reason that selecting the right software to power your forum
is so important. Choosing wisely will lessen the need to rigorously
oversee each and every happening at the forum, while ensuring that
your forum is active and secure. When choosing what forum software
to power your community, it is imperative to review server considerations,
technical requirements, the depth of the feature set and how well
it will grow with your online enterprise.
Forum software packages come in a variety of programming
languages such as PHP, Perl, Java and ASP. Selecting software based
on your experience with a programming language makes sense, as
does the operating system, database type and Web server. Choose a
solution outside of your area of expertise and be ready to climb the
learning curve.
Several considerations must also be made for the technical features.
Is your forum one part of a greater community? Is there a plan for integration
of your forum with weblogs or a CMS? For example, Website
Magazine utilizes Community Server from Telligent (communityserver.
org), a commercial-grade CMS that features weblog functionality, a
CMS and a forum. When a user signs into the system, they are automatically
able to access the various portions of the site. The result is a
more uniform Web experience, a goal set in the beginning of our decision-
making process.
Most website owners wisely base their forum software decision on
the feature set of the application. Each one offers different features –
from the most basic, providing text-only postings, to more advanced
packages offering multimedia support and formatting code (usually
known as BBCode).If you have never implemented a forum before,
choosing a no-frills version might seem appealing with the idea that
consumer use and administration will be easy. Unfortunately, all forum
software is not created equal — in the end, you’ll be more pleased if
you select a solution that is expandable. Some important functionality
to look for includes the presence and depth of plugins or add-ons (for
example the ability to include a calendar or catalog) and theme support
for design changes and alterations.
Also consider the ability to create polls, provide private messaging,
user management restrictions (including group creation, forum restrictions,
blacklisting and IP blocking) and, of increasing importance, syndication
(RSS/Atom). A few other key considerations are security features
such as CAPTCHA support, word filtering and the delivery style
of posts; straight text, rich text or HTML.
Review more information on these forum software solutions
Movable Type is a professional-grade blogging
system that powers some of the largest and most widely
known blogs. Many professional bloggers choose Movable
type because of its reliable service, performance and ongoing
innovation. Deployment is quick and easy and the offthe-
shelf functionality is impressive, but support licenses
make Moveable type just slightly out of reach for a beginning
blogger. However, more of the technorati top 100
blogs run on Sixapart (the parent company of Movable
type) platforms than all other software combined.
WordPress is a powerful personal publishing platform
that comes with a great set of features designed to
make your blogging experience as easy as possible. Wordpress
is a freely distributed (open-source) platform that
is standards-compliant and by all accounts easy to use
(reflected in its massive user-base). the latest version is
stacked with features and provides a very customizable
core which can be built out even further with an array of
plugins from the Wordpress developer community. Wordpress
is an excellent option for those just getting started
blogging.
Serendipity is a pHp-powered weblog that gives
users the ability to easily create their own personal publishing
platform. the default package is designed for the
casual blogger but Serendipity is flexible and can be expandable
quickly and easily to power professional online
properties. Sophisticated plugin architecture allows you to
easily modify both the appearance of a blog and its features.
You can install more than 120 plugins with just one
click, instantly enhancing your blog’s functionality. Serendipity
is also a good solution for beginners, although the
support community is not as robust as Wordpress.
Expression Engine is a commercial (with a free
version) blogging and content management system with a
good feature set and an excellent grouping of add-on modules
and plugins, including a moblog (mobile blogging),
wiki, simple commerce, member management solutions and
a comprehensive suite of security. The version tested here
was pMachine (free and deployed by thousands of websites
frequently through Fantastico) which has been absorbed by
ellislabs and now known as expression engine.
b2Evolution is a free, open-source blogging tool
available in many languages and includes many features
of traditional blog tools, and extends them with evolved
features such as file & photo management, advanced skinning,
multiple blog support as well as detailed user permissions.
there is also a broad set of third-party plug-ins, so
b2evolution scales nicely. One of the only downsides of
b2evolution is that it only works with MySQl databases
– so if you’re not running apache, don’t bother. there was
also some difficulty with the post editing feature, lowering
our ease-of-use score slightly.
eZ publish is an enterprise level content management system and development framework (CMF) that features some of the most impressive depth of functionality on the market today. The eZ Publish CMF consists of flexible engines for customization and extensions, and is supported by an broad group of expert partners. Both the CMS and CMF are freely distributed and can be downloaded for free from the ez.no website. eZ publish is dual licensed, meaning you can choose between an open source or professional license but support licenses are extra.
Joomla! is one of the most powerful (and popular) open source CMS solutions available and can be used for simple websites as much as for complex corporate presence online. Joomla! is easy to install, simple to manage and reliable. Many of the featured extensions have been developed by its developer community which does help build out the functionality of the system. There have been some security issues in the past with the platform, but the latest release is considered to be much more stable.
WebGUI is a content management platform built to allow aspiring Web business users without much technical prowess to develop and maintain impressive looking websites without much IT intervention. Modular, pluggable and platform independent, WebGUI has become a popular Web authoring tool utilized by many serious content producers.
Mambo is one of the best open source CMS available today. Once installed, the system includes a variety of templates to choose from and has impressive core functionality, with many free add-on applications (classifieds, events calendar) available. Content can be added, edited and manipulated without having to be familiar with programming – just enter content via a WYSIWYG editor and publish. The system is robust, proven (over 5 years as open source) and backed by a large community of users and professional developers.
Hot Banana is a leading commercial content management software used by more than 200 companies worldwide. The software suite is designed to help large scale Web enterprises with content creation and publishing. The uniqueness of the platform however is its Active Marketing Solution, which offers functionality to increase Web traffic, acquire sales leads and convert prospects into customers. HotBanana is one of the more stable and secure content management platforms reviewed.
Monster Commerce Pro is increasing in popularity as an e-commerce option for serious e-merchants. The professional version retails for $99.95 per month (or $1,000 per year and a $99 set-up fee), provides 24/7 tech support, hosting (200MB disk space, 8GB bandwidth per month), product options, an editable storefront, and up to 60,000 product listings. Monster Commerce also boasts search engine friendliness of its shopping cart software. Some of our favorite features include integration with QuickBooks, integration with UPS, FedEx and USPS, and modestly flexible design tools.
GoEmerchant is another popular e-commerce solution used by many very serious online merchants. Pricing is modest ($59.95 for their Total Package - $500 annually) and reviews from users were that ease of use (both in installation and management) was a primary selection factor. Unlimited products can be added to a storefront and there is no limit on the number of transactions. GoEmerchant is also known as a payment processing solution, so merchants who select the services have access to a built-in payment gateway with very competitive rates. One of the complaints we heard about GoEmerchant, however, was that themed sites, which come bundled, were lacking some attractiveness.
osCommerce is an open source e-commerce solution available for free under the GNU General Public License which features impressive out-of-the-box functionality that allows store owners to develop and manage their online stores with minimum effort and with no virtually no overhead involved. The design and layout of osCommerce allows for easy changes and there is a robust backend for modifying structure and functionality. osCommerce is a little cumbersome to get accustomed with, but as an open source e-commerce solution that’s par for the course. If you’re just getting started, it’s probably best to opt for a commercial solution.
Zen Cart is another open source e-commerce solution used by thousands of online storefronts. Recommended for its unlimited category depth, multiple shopping and payment options and design-friendly XHTML template system, the latest version of Zen Cart (v1.3.7) is a powerful, reliable and stable alternative to many commercial solutions. Some of the reviewers were sold by the feature set which includes a newsletter manager, discount coupons, gift certificates, featured products and quantity discounts.
ShopSite Pro is an e-commerce application designed to meet the needs of most online merchants looking to build a professional online storefront. ShopSite Pro features site creation and management tools, secure shopping cart, real-time credit card authorization, a site search engine, detailed sales and traffic statistics, plus the ability to handle larger product databases (2000 products and above). ShopSite Pro can only be purchased through a select group of vendors and prices start at $1,295 for the license and between a $70-$125 monthly fee depending on the vendor.
ConstantContact features more than 200 easily-customized email templates, a step-by step Email Wizard, and point-and-click interface, you can create high-impact email newsletters and promotions in just minutes. And Email Marketing makes it easy for you to manage your contact email lists and measure results. Some of the favorite options of our test group were the email list management features which allows for the import of information and customizable sign-up forms. List segmentation also received high scores as well as the email tracking and reporting features.
Lyris provides a suite of products for marketers to manage their email promotions and, over time, has become the solution of choice for large-scale newsletter publishers and serious corporate email marketers. There are three different versions of ListManager (Standard, Pro and Enterprise) that vary widely in price, depending on performance required, database involved and number of sites to which the license will apply. The ListManager product tested comes equipped with a template and content builder that lets users upload their own HTML and features stable drag and drop functionality for images. If you have the resources, Lyris comes highly recommended.
EmailLabs is a high-profile provider of email marketing solutions, software and services. Using a sophisticated solution that handles management of email lists, assists in the creation of newsletters, improves delivery through list segmentation and their EmailAdvisor integration and, of course, tracking and analytics to measure key performance indicators and website activity makes this a go-to solution for businesses looking to simplify their email marketing process.
JangoMail has the standard features of most email service companies (click tracking, HTML and plain text messaging, personalization, unsubscribe/bounce management, import/export capabilities, list hygiene capabilities, and a double opt-in option) but what separates this service is the 24-hour emergency support, the ability to connect to external databases (Access, Goldmine and MySQL to name a few), a desktop email client, API/Web service (to integrate functionality into your own web apps) and of course, price. Standard pricing is based on the number of emails sent per month and the number of data bytes transferred. Send more than 5 million emails per month and you’re looking at a modest $0.004 per email.
ExactTarget is another of the leaders in email marketing solutions. The Core Solution tested met the needs of many of the testers and was immensely scalable in functionality. The system’s ease of use and sophistication was only overshadowed by its advanced features which include helpful wizards, real-time tracking and reporting, personalization (and dynamic content) and some interesting survey tools. ExactTarget also provides more advanced solutions for agencies (white labeling), retailers (allowing for the leverage of behavioral data) and large-scale enterprises requiring greater control of their brand.