Telecom has a new logo to represent their business. In their latest newsletter it says:

…Right now changes are being made in every corner of Telecom from the ground up.

The new logo is a symbol of this change, an expression of possibilities. And if you’re thinking, “anyone could have drawn that”, great, we’ve achieved our aim. Because the new logo is whatever you want it to be. It’s an expression of the spirit, drive and deep passion that exists in each and every one of us.”
In Touch, November 2009

A logo is something that represents your business, and a brand is what your business is. The key driver to any brand is that it must stand for something. A point of difference, a value or a key driver in your business. Just as a wishy-washy business will never stand the test of time, a wishy-washy brand will suffer the same fate. Again – It must mean something.

The above excerpt from the Telecom New Zealand newsletter is a disclaimer. It says “well, we don’t really know what our logo means to us, so let’s just hope it means something to you”. Wow, if only the salesperson at the design agency worked for me, imagine what I could sell. Fridges to Eskimos, ashtrays on motorbikes… The reason this erks me is that this type of treatment to the industry, the snake oil salespeople of the graphic design and advertising world, is the epitome of what brand consultants, who want to see their client grow, no matter what their size and budget, is exactly the image that we work so hard to shake off.

One thing to bear in mind is that a large company has to answer to a board – which by it’s very nature stays safe and chooses the image that will do the least amount of harm – as a small business owner, don’t look at the big corporates and think that if that’s what big business does, you should follow suit. Changing the image of a large corporation is like turning a large ship. Remember, as a small business, with it’s finger on the pulse of your industry, you can be ‘braver’ than a large business, and it’s even more important, for you to ensure your brand means something to you. You can turn your business and brand much faster, and far more effectively. If your brand tries to please everyone, it will be remembered by no one. In ten years time we’ll be lamenting (if we’re really stuck for conversational topics) ‘what was that Telecom logo back in 2010?’

Christchurch, the home of the car yard and the coffee shop. It seems as soon as one closes, the exact same type of business opens in it’s place. I can see the thought process now:

“Wow that place is set up for a car yard, I could open one up. It’s the perfect place. I can see a car yard here”. That’s because you have seen a car yard there! Unfortunately that and running the idea past a friend or two is the only planning that’s been done. Then voila! The doors open, and it’s all great… until it fails. The problem is not finding out the facts. Why did the shop that went before you fail? This should be more than a 10 minute consideration, but the key consideration to deciding if it’s a plausible business venue or not.

I know you’ll tell me, you’ll do it better, newer, brighter and different, but how can you do it differently if you don’t have a measuring stick? You can’t do it better, if you don’t know what the ‘worse’ was. Find the old owners, or make the real estate agent give you a feasible report on the past business. This is your investment, so do whatever it takes to find out what really (honestly) happened to the other business. If you can’t find an answer, walk away. If the reason is so hard to nail down, or no one has bothered, then walk away.

Which leads to another point, if your sole inspiration to set up shop is the location, think again. Great businesses, fantastic restaurants, and profitable car sales yards don’t happen by accident. They see the need, create the business and then find the right place, not the reverse of this order.

Of course I don’t need to say, if it’s a large chain that has moved out: Starbucks; McDonald’s; Volvo; don’t think you can do the same thing better.

I caught up with a girlfriend the other day. She’s happily single but looking on a dating site in the hope she may find a match. She told me a story and showed me a profile of a prospective suitor (is it PC for him to be the suitor these days?). He had a great photo and lots of information about himself. In fact the form looked a lot like a form we use in order to gain information about a business in order to start the branding process. Anyway, the story went that he was called by a lady with whom he’d been in contact with. She called him to tell him that judging by his photos he must be ‘nothing but a player’, and she hung up.

Which led us to a discussion about the conundrum of website dating (ie personal marketing). Do you dig out a photo from years past where you were (you believe) at your finest, in order to get the contacts, only to get belted at the end post when you meet face to face (what a let down!). Or do you use a nice but ‘honest’ photo so that when, and if, you meet there will be no surprises, and therefore no ill feelings at the first, and crucial, meet up?

Of course my answer is the latter of the two options. If you can present your personal brand honestly, and provide as much honest information about yourself (without painting a bulls eye on yourself for stalkers!) then those that do wish to meet you will be doing so well informed, and have already passed the first test of compatibility. hmm, a bit like clients really. Do you want 100 phone calls to find the 5 good clients, or do you get 10 phone calls for the same 5 clients? Seems to me that if you have 90 less people to screen through you’ll have more time to answer the the needs of the 5 new clients, than be waylaid wading through the surplus 90.

Back to the dating scene, we’re only looking for one great partner in the end aren’t we? (aren’t we?)

Have you ever noticed how much you can get done when you’re in the zone? That is, you’re singled minded about getting the task at hand done, and done well. You’re not letting yourself get distracted by anything else or anyone and you are racing through the task at hand.

Imagine what you could achieve if you could commit to all tasks with this kind of drive. The types of people who consistently reach high levels in their life, whether it’s in business or a sporting success are described as having discipline and focus. Therefore we, the not-so-high achievers tell ourselves that because we’re not disciplined people we’ll just have to be happy with where we’re at.

Why do we lie to ourselves? Discipline and focus are only hard because of the things we have to say no to. But it’s what we say no to that helps us achieve our goals. So then, why do you not have a disciplined business? Because you are not saying ‘no’ enough! People are often afraid to tell a customer that you do not do everything because they fear they are saying no to business. Yes, you are saying no to a financial transaction, but what you need to realise is what is that transaction costing you? As a dieter says yes to a cream bun (well it was good for the moment) in the long term it’s not just going to cost them in extra calories, which have to be exercised off later, it’s also costing them in the form of a psychological setback. They have proven to themselves they really can’t do it and have sabotaged their eating plan. So, by saying ‘yes’ to that cash exchange, for something you don’t really do, you are sabotaging your long term brand (and business) plan. After all you’ve done it once, what’s to stop you from getting off track and finding more ’side-tracks’ to your business. The next thing you know you’ve got an unstreamlined, bulging at the seams company that does have some direction (after all we all know we want something better) but lacks the focus and discipline to get there.

There is a saying that success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, and that perspiration involves not saying yes every time you have a inspiration, if you don’t have the perspiration to back it up. Stay focussed and say no a few times, only you know what your business could look like with a bit more focus.

We’ve all seen them, those URL’s (web addresses) that we notice, remember then plug into our web browser only to find a completely different site? Why is this? Because the company in question has a .net.nz, .biz, or .net address. Or worse, they have a .org website because it was available not realising a .org is for an organisation, not a company!

What seems like a harmless, ‘close enough’ solution to a domain name (and email!) could be doing you more harm than good. Why:

It’s just one more thing to remember
If you’re advertising is so compelling that you manage to actually get someone to go and look your company up on the ‘net, they have to remember your name in order to land on your website. But with a .net they also have to remember the suffix, smacking of ‘too hardness’.

You’ve settled for second best
Let’s face it .net-ers. Someone beat you to the punch and got your domain name first. Try creating either a local address such as .co.nz and if that’s gone reconsider the way you could write your name, or tie a clever domain name into your marketing plan. www.freestuff.co.nz is a compelling web address to market, for example. (some one’s getting a free plug – just to prove my point!)

These names can only be topped as settling for second by those that use a commercial hosting plan as their email address. You know who you are, bob.smith@xtra.co.nz or joe.bloggs@paradise.net.nz and of course jane.jones@gmail.com

Domain names cost next to nothing to register, and emails using domain names (the ‘@xxxx.com’ part of your address) is also free with the arrival of Google Apps and the like, so to settle for a second tiered domain or email name if you’re in business either highlights your lack of knowledge of the Internet or shows you’re happy to settle.

Design and advertising agencies work with business from the outside looking in. They give the business owner the advantage of an outside perspective. Therefore, if you can explain to your advertising agency, or designer what it is that you do, then they can in turn project that to the world.

The typical process of working with a design company goes like this:

1. You tell them what you want to achieve (more sales)
2. Based on their brief, and budget, the agency goes away and develops it’s recommended plan for achieving your goals
3. Agency presents one to three options for your company and the reasons for doing so, based again on what you’ve asked for
4. Agency completes project and you go about reaping increased sales benefits

Unfortunately the world doesn’t work like this anymore. This model for dealing with a creative is based on the premise that you know what your customers want. It also operates under the assumption that you can adequately communicate the whole gamat of your company to an external company in the first place.

Based on the above process, you will get no surprises as to what the message is, and who you will attract (or bore to tears). Nice, safe and predictable. Sure, the presentation of your advertising will differ between agencies, but the core message will not cause you to raise an eyebrow.

So if it’s not going to raise your eyebrows, no matter how clever the presentation, what chance do you have of getting the attention of your customers?

What if, your advertising message was to come from within your company? What if the way you worked with the agency was no longer a ‘them and us’ scenario, but a collaboration, where both parties challenged each other for a better outcome. For a different outcome? An outside perspective is an asset to have – but will always be based on what you give them. If your agency was to sit on the inside looking out, and you were to bare the soul of your business, what gems might you find? You may be sitting on a goldmine, and not know it because you’ve had no help to dig a little deeper.

Sure, you may not get the predictable, and ’safe’ outcome and reassurances that a design or advertising agency can paint for you, but if you really want to step it up and be somewhere different (and better), consider baring all to your trusted brand adviser and set in place a collaborative plan that will deliver you where you want to be, and not just where you’ve always been.

“Too many companies treat design as the skin slapped on at the last minute. In fact, at many companies, design is outsourced altogether.”
From Inside Steve’s Brain, By Leander Kahney

You’ve spent thousands of dollars, and thousands of man hours creating a product or service, and you don’t even consider how it will look? How will it feel when the consumer holds it, that’s if you can prompt the shopper to pick up the product off the shelf in the first place! It’s funny really, the reason you pick up a product and wish to part with your hard earned cash is that a product speaks to you, or at very least it looks professional. Would a iPod have been as popular, and created a whole new industry, if it had looked like a little beige box? After all, it still does the same thing?

The way your business looks, or the way your services and products look is important. It’s not about designing something that will lead the way and influence the next wave, or create a new genre (though, that would be fantastic if you were brave enough to do so), but about caring how your business looks. By telling yourself you can’t afford to create a professionally designed brand, or product package, you’re saying your product is of not enough value to warrant a professional image. To a prospective consumer, your product may be the best widget in the world, but if no one wants to pick it up and pay money for it, if it doesn’t look like a proper product, you’re going to go broke.

Imagine if, in comparison, you worked with a designer, while creating your product or service, and could intertwine the form with the function, what level of product would you come out with? By working these two often polarised aspects to business development, the design will also start to have function, in the same way as your products features work to make your product what it is. Design is not an add-on, but an integral part of selling your product’s value to consumers, and if you tell yourself you can’t afford design, can you really afford to produce your product and service in the first place? If your design says you don’t care about your business, why should your customer?

I’ve been reading a brief overview as to how the canals in romantic Venice were formed. But what’s more interesting to me is just why Venice was built there in the first place! The answer is after the fall of the Roman Empire (fourth century AD) the marshy islands were inhabited to protect it’s settlers from the invading northerners who came from the Alps. Wow, makes our worries look pretty small in comparison.

What can we learn from these resourceful settlers? We’ve all got marshy wastelands in our industries. The question is, are you sidestepping around these to firmer ground, or are you figuring out how to build, create and expand into this untamed territory?

There is a phrase in business – created by Jim Collins, and referred to by business coaches world-wide – about ‘getting the right people on the bus’. A business is about having the right people on the bus, before you decide where it is the bus is to go. That way those people who want to be there, are keen to adapt to wherever the bus is decided to go.

A friend of mine mentioned about a co-worker who was fantastic in her job in one particular area, but flailed everywhere else, making other people’s job harder as they have to pick up the slack. This is a prime example of the wrong person being on the bus. Which is all well and good to identify this down the track, but how do you identify this fit at the start?

As the owner of a growing business, I am all but aware of the importance of not hiring Amanda-clones (God help us all, if they’re out there) but people who can pick up the slack in the areas where my skills do not cover. Obviously the problem with this is these types of people are more than likely to operate out of a different space than me. So how do I know they’ll be a good fit with my business? The truth is, I don’t. The trick is, that though you’re taking a chance hiring anyone, you’ll have a better hit rate at finding the right people by the way you present your business. If you can openly project the attitudes, culture and style of your business, then you can attract more like-minded people, who, though their skill set differs from you, are keen to ride in your bus with you no matter where it’s pointed making the journey much more pleasant (fun) for all.