Larry’s Column

A business opens. The initial marketing is current, attractive, and fits the targeted marketplace. The business becomes successful. As time passes the marketplace changes, competition intensifies, and products or services that were once at the “cutting edge” become surpassed, then outmoded. Sales growth slows or even reverses. Management scratches their collective heads and wonders whether to accept this ugly turn of events hoping it will somehow change to a positive direction or to act and do something about it.

While there may be many possible remedies to the above scenario it is important to look at the core values of the company to discover whether the brand is still relevant. Does the brand describe and project the company’s specialty niche to its marketplace. Does it demonstrate the advantages, features, and benefits of the company or is the brand looking dowdy, shopworn, and approaching senility? Does it attract new eyes and new clients (having a system in place to track new customer counts can be very helpful here)? If the brand is looking dusty and showing cobwebs, it might be time to rebrand the company and / or its products and services.

Look critically at the company name, logo, tag line, web site, business cards, advertising and marketing material. Compare your branding to the branding of your competition. Ask whether your brand is relevant to today’s customers and tomorrow’s prospects. Many major companies rebrand regularly in order to constantly project a new, exciting image while most small companies become mired in the style of the year the company was founded. If you find your company’s growth languishing, it might be time to take your brand in for a rehab with a goal of retaining and reinvigorating your current customers and to catch the eye of prospects who are seeking your products and services.

Realize that rebranding is an involved, potentially expensive, time-consuming process and it goes much farther than just updating the graphics. It can extend throughout the company – into hiring, training, and scripting of staff, customer service activities and policies, and many other parts of the company but if done right, the benefits can be long-lasting and very positive.

Larry Galler larry@larrygaller.com

MUSINGS

As holiday parties, open houses, and shopping frenzy take precedence on our collective calendars set a little time aside to “defrazzle” yourself from all the multiple social obligations, business obligations, responsibility to others and give yourself a little quiet time to reflect and consider your accomplishments and failures of the past year.

We get so caught up (I’m just as guilty as everyone else) with social, family, and business events with busting buffet tables and holiday joy that we lose perspective. We return to our businesses after the New Year festivities a few pounds heavier, tired, and wondering what it was we planned to do in the beginning of the year and by the time we remember what it was that we planned to do, it’s darn near February.

Don’t let this happen again this year. Defrazzle and contemplate what you really want to accomplish next year and when you will do it. Then, with that in mind, go out and prepare for the holidays.