Is it useful to you to have somebody tell you to study trade magazines in order to learn about your trade/industry?  Did you need to be told that?  Is that truly helpful advice to you?

I have found that a lot of people don`t know about trade magazines when they first start their business.  I am always sending my own business members to sign up for trade mags.  Some are more useful than others, though, and I think that`s true in every industry. 

~Kim

I think some people may not know the exact titles, etc., but they know there are trade magazines and trade organizations.  For example, if I was opening a plumbing business, I would learn which plumbing orgazations to join, which plumbing shows to attend etc.  I would need some specific details, but I would not be learning anything at all if somebody said "join your local plumbing orgazation."  I might be learning something useful if they gave me a specific phone number to call, but not the general suggestion.

Depends a lot on the trade and the specific magazines. Some trade publications are nothing more than a collection of advertisments, others are more along the lines of a professional journal.

I like to see who`s writing the articles. If most are written by practitioners in the trade, then it is probably a good magazine. If most are written by sellers of products directed towards the trade, then I am less interested as these types of articles are usually just glorified sales pieces.

Of course if you are just starting out in a trade, you should be reading anything/everything that is related including the ads.

 

"you should read trade magazines in your industry" seems like very weak and obvious advice to me.  not "wrong" - just so obvious as to not need saying.  More SPECIFIC advice would be helpful - such as "bankers in Cleveland should read the XYZ magazine." 

Some trade mags are AWFUL!!!  Ironically, my industry is all about Acid free paper and we are taught that if it smells like chemicals, then it`s probably not archivally safe.  One of the worst trade mags I get literally STINKS when you pull it out of the bag it comes it.  It makes me laugh every time.  They use the cheapest ink possible and I swear I need a HAZMAT suit to read it.  It gives me a headache.  Kind of ironic for an industry determined to make sure every piece of paper lasts 1000 years.  Oh, and the content of that one stinks as bad as the paper - LOL!

Not every trade mag is a good trade mag!

~Kim

absolultely true.  That`s why "you should read trade magazines in your industry" is so meaningless.  You should probably read SOME but not others.  If you recommend specific ones, that`s useful.

Considering how many people seem to jump into a business without the slightest interest in what other people have done for years, it seems that "obvious" advice is having to be made explicit these days.

Run the poll scenario the other way:

Kohler sells bathroom fixtures.  Kohler Homes sells custom construction of homes.  Kohler and Kohler Homes are "trademarks" used by the two different companies.  Would consumers see both and think the two different companies are affiliated in some way - based on similarity of goods/services and similarity of the two names?

I figured one or the other is a subsidiary of the alternate.

If it is, registration of the mark might be cancelled via USPTO.  Should it be?

I`m not offended by it. If there were a team, the Carolina Crackers or the New York Ni... (won`t say that one), it`d have been crushed already, so in that regard, fair is fair. However, it`s been around so long, I don`t think it`s right to force a change now.

Interesting that we feel free to say the one racial term but not the other one, isn`t it?