Category Archives: Business Branding

Forgotten Art: Writing Business Letters

Does anyone write business letters any more?

The kind of letters that go out in envelopes with the company’s logo and address in the upper left hand corner and with a first-class stamp in the upper right? Or that are neatly printed on company stationery, signed with a person’s actual signature, and folded correctly?

Odds are that today’s preference is to send an E-mail to the intended recipient and wait for a response. One of the problems we’ve discovered with E-mail correspondence is that the sender assumes, when he/she hits “Send,” that the E-mail will be received by the recipient. Unless the sender gets some form of confirmation, he/she never knows.

We’re not saying we should abandon E-mail correspondence. There was a time not long ago when it was proposed that E-mail was a dinosaur and would not be around for long. Then it was realized how valuable a tool it was and here we are.

What we are standing up for is the good, old-fashioned business letter as a method of correspondence and means of enhancing a corporate brand. Quality paper displaying a crisp logo with a clean typed message (no typographical or grammatical errors) can be an impressive way of demonstrating the power of a company’s brand image.

The first step is to make sure the information about the person receiving the correspondence is accurate. Sending a letter with the person’s name misspelled or calling a male Ms conveys a negative impression right from the start and, in most cases, sends the letter to the recycling bin without being read.

The second step is to be concise. Know the reason you’re sending the letter and what response you intend or would like to receive. If it’s a congratulatory note, it’s probably best if it’s hand-written and brief. If it’s a bid or something similar, short bullet points are likely to get the best response. Keep in mind that even though it’s a somewhat personal letter, people rarely have time to go through their mail and read every piece in detail. Much of it is junk mail, so your letter needs to stand out when it arrives in the snail mail box.

Write the letter as if you were the person receiving it. What would you like to see or read if this piece came to you? How would you respond, based on what was in the letter?

Start with a cordial greeting, and end with your call to action. No one likes a letter that concludes with the recipient wondering why they even got it. Make sure the stationery has contact information on it so the person receiving it knows where to send a reply or to call.

It’s also a good idea to include two of your business cards in the envelope. Why two? One for the recipient to keep and the other for them to give to someone else to refer your services. Writing a good business letter can boost your brand identity with customers and prospective clients.

Brand Your Work – Work Your Brand

A Positive Spin

It is easy to head down the road of negativity. It is an element of our human nature to want to bring other people down, especially if they have better looks or more money or whatever else irritates us about something or someone. When it comes to marketing your business, however, take the high road because a positive spin brightens your image with prospects and customers and with your overall corporate culture.

Putting a positive spin on your business builds brand loyalty.

Being in the midst of political campaign ads as we are, the mud-slinging is rampant. What the candidates hope is that their negative ads ripping their opponent will have an impact in a positive fashion (by getting the electorate to vote for them) and not backfire because the message is a slam on their adversary and they’re seen as bullies. The more effective message has a positive spin and focuses either on their record of service or what their plans are once they’ve been elected.

Enough about politics. We had a client that had a small, easily-contained fire at their place of business. They wondered whether they should notify their customers about the fire. When asked about the damage and the impact on clients, our initial response was that letting customers know didn’t matter since damage was minimal and the fire had no impact on the level of service provided to customers.

On reflection, though, a positive spin emerged that we shared with the client. The idea was to notify clients about the fire in a positive manner. We suggested the company advise clients to update internal safety procedures such as checking fire extinguishers and smoke alarms, teaching staff how to use fire extinguishers, reviewing emergency evacuation procedures, assessing computer system back-ups, and other steps to keep the business operating should something like a fire occur.

The suggestion came from being pro-active and the concept it’s much easier to prevent a fire than to fight one.

Think about your business for a minute or two. What’s the worst thing that could happen besides a fire or other natural disaster? Will it have a negative impact on your business? Do you have a plan for dealing with that catastrophe or a strategy that can put a positive spin on it so your company survives and/or thrives?

Those steps are important, and it’s also a good idea to have a positive approach to marketing your products and/or services.

This strategy comes down to knowing what it is you’re marketing to potential customers and what those consumers are buying.

For instance, selling life insurance has a negative connotation with most people. Providing peace of mind or the ability to sleep well at night has a positive spin.

Another common example: Consumers have a negative impression of used car sales people. The positive spin would be to let people know you provide reliable or economical transportation options.

Business and marketing consultants exist to provide business owners with the clarity they need to ensure that their business and its products and/or services are portrayed in as positive a light as possible. This perpetuates the corporate culture and builds brand loyalty. We like the adage that a pat on the back goes further than a kick in the pants.

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Image Is Important

There was a time when you would see a shop owner sweeping the sidewalk in front of the store before opening for the day. The reason was simple: Image.

Customers care about the image of the businesses they patronize. Why would they purchase the same jeans from a discount store when there’s a certain prestige in saying you got them at a higher end store? Image. The owners of a business should also care about their image for that same reason – because it’s important to their customers and prospective customers. Think about it.

Would you eat at this restaurant if you saw how the kitchen looked?

Would you patronize a fast food restaurant if wrappers, napkins, and straws littered the floor whenever you stopped in? Would you be a regular at a grocery store where the produce section displayed rotten tomatoes or moldy fruit? How about a machine shop where it looked like the floor hadn’t been swept in a month?

The inside appearance of a business is important for building brand loyalty.

Would you feel more confident if the kitchen looked like this one?

The image your business conveys to the public on the outside, including in your brand identity, logo, and your advertising, is even more critical to the long-term success of your business and your brand.

If you have a delivery or service vehicle with signage that advertises your business, how does it look? Is the paint or decal faded? Is the vehicle showing some rust or have a few dents? What does that tell your customers? Any lights out in your neon sign? Are you flying a faded, tattered American flag? Are veterans one of your market segments?

Do you showcase your location in your ads? Are you proud of what your building looks like? Take an objective look at your website. Does it convey the kind of image you want people to have of your products and/or services? Think about the last time it was updated.

Your website, like your place of business, should convey an image that gives your customers the confidence to send their family, friends, and referrals to you so they can become customers as well.

It’s often the little things that make a huge difference when it comes to the image your business conveys to the public and your customers. What message does it convey to shoppers coming to your grocery store if there are no carts available because they’re scattered around the parking lot? Yes, rounding up the carts and returning them to the corral is a menial task for some employee, especially if it’s raining, but those carts are usually the first contact those consumers have with your business.

If you’re not sure what the first impression is that people have of your business, try first to visit it impartially – as though you were a client yourself. What’s the feeling you get? Think about engaging a consulting firm such as Brand Irons to find that out. First blush is one measure, but that impression may go much deeper and require talking to your customers about why they patronize your business.

Something as simple as sweeping the floors could enhance business. Think about it.

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Brand Success: Tylenol

Have you ever asked for acetaminophen?

More than likely, you’ve asked if anyone has some Tylenol. That’s a classic example of brand success. If you visit the Tylenol website, you’ll find 20 different varieties of the product, and learn that the parent company is the McNeil Laboratories subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.

In the mid ’70s, Tylenol moved from the 5th most popular analgesic to become the number one branded over the counter (OTC) analgesic product on the market. It had become a more familiar pain relieving product than aspirin. As often happens when a product is the top-selling or more recognized brand, someone or something tries to take it down.

In 1982, someone tampered with bottles of Tylenol Extra Strength by adding cyanide which killed several people in the Chicago area. No one was ever caught, but Johnson & Johnson made a smart move. The company distributed warnings to hospitals and distributors and halted Tylenol production and advertising. On October 5, 1982, it issued a nationwide recall of an estimated 31 million bottles of Tylenol products with a retail value of more than $100 million.

Some considered the move a death knell for the product, while the consuming public praised it for the emphasis placed on the greater well-being of the general public.

The company advertised in the national media for individuals not to consume any products that contained acetaminophen. When it was discovered that only capsules were tampered with, Johnson & Johnson offered to exchange all Tylenol capsules already purchased by the public with solid tablets. The company also took the innovative step of creating tamper proof seals for bottles, creating a renewed sense of security with the consuming public when Tylenol was re-released.

Now, more than 30 years later, the tampering incident is little more than a footnote in the product’s history. The Tylenol brand owns the market for acetaminophen pain relieving products. Bayer still owns the brand recognition for aspirin, while one of the other pain relieving medications, Ibuprofen, has become recognized for the product rather than the manufacturer. In essence, it is it’s own brand.

The lesson in this case study of a successful brand is that Tylenol has dominated when it comes to the 1st Law of Marketing: The Law of Leadership.

It is the leading brand because it is the first brand in the prospective customer’s mind. People don’t ask for acetaminophen, they ask for Tylenol. Once you have a customer, they are likely to stick with your brand – as evidenced by Johnson & Johnson’s success with recalling Tylenol products because of the tampering incident. Tylenol has become the generic term for acetaminophen, another example of that 1st Law of Marketing.

Remember that marketing is perception, not the product, so people perceive the first product in their mind to be the superior product. The first brand tends to maintain its leadership because the name often becomes generic, as is the case with Tylenol.

Professional consultants are available to help your product become the #1 brand at whatever scale is possible.

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Business Viability

Is your business concept feasible?

Will it make money at some point?

More often than not, we find business owners starting their endeavor without a clue as to its success potential. Success potential is a realistic consideration of whether the idea has a chance of earning a profit, and at what point in its existence.

Far too often, the person with an idea for a product or service has little experience operating a business. They’ve got what they believe is a great concept, and they become emotionally invested in moving forward. They probably invest some financial capital as well, but are unsure of how much more they may have to invest to make the project viable. They need to take the time to think things through.

Conducting a feasibility study involves taking a step back to evaluate the idea from several points of view, removing the emotional element (there’s a place to bring that back in), and assessing the business from a rational perspective. Among the considerations are financial projections – obviously – along with management, market demand, production, distribution, licensing and legal concerns, product definition, and a host of other business elements.

Financial projections need to be as realistic as possible. It’s easy to project an optimistic forecast for sales, but the pie-in-the-sky numbers can convey a false sense of short- and long-term profitability. The cost of goods sold (COGS), expenses, labor costs, and cash flow are among the down-to-earth considerations that can provide realistic numbers.

Realistic projections are also critical if the business owner needs financing. We’ve seen potential loans turned down because the borrower, when asked, told the banker the numbers were just “plug ins” and was unable to explain why they were in the projections.

An independent third party like Brand Irons can review the financial projections in a business plan and do the research to verify their accuracy. They can also look at the other elements, such as the strength of the management team, to provide a prospective lender with the information it needs to make a decision. Lenders often want to know if the management team is capable of making tough decisions when necessary, and the business owner completing a plan for financing is rarely objective on that issue.

One of the most difficult parts of conducting a feasibility study is removing the owner’s emotional attachment to the concept. Although it may be the best idea since the invention of the bread slicing machine, we advise business owners that they must be able to walk away from a project if all indications are that profitability is fleeting. Where emotion comes back into play is once the idea looks viable and the owner elects to move forward, their emotion becomes the foundation of the marketing strategy that convinces prospective customers to purchase.

Keep in mind that some people may have great ideas but lack the skills necessary to carry them through. Yes, a feasibility study can cost thousands of dollars and months to complete, depending on the concept and its variables.

It is well worth the investment if, in the long run, it saves the heartache of risking one’s personal wealth to realize they’ve lost it all. And, if it proves feasible, the study becomes the foundation of the business plan and marketing strategy. More next time.

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Handling Customer Complaints

We often find that training to help employees deal with customer complaints falls short of expectations. The result is dissatisfied customers, discouraged staff members, loss of brand loyalty … and profitability.

We’ve expanded on these eight steps from Associated Bank as a tool to improve your business, your customer service, and strengthen customer loyalty:

Train for the worst. When your employees, associates, customer service associates or whatever you call them are prepared for the worst possible scenario, such as the potential for an active shooter, they are ready to handle those situations. It makes handling the more simple problems much easier.
Listen. Customers are emotional when they complain. They want to be heard and give you information that is, indeed, helpful for operating your business. Provide your employees with the training they need to be able to listen and, most important, understand what is being said.
Assume the truth. You may get an occasional customer who tries to milk the system, but most are honest and should be assumed to be telling the truth. By assuming it’s true, your employees can focus on fixing the problem, which should be the desired outcome.
Apologize. An apology is more sincere than saying “I’m sorry” for something that may or may not be the employee’s fault. The apology is for the fact the customer had to experience the problem. It should be sincere – and count – so it can diffuse a potentially tense situation with an irate customer. Tread carefully for legalities so the apology doesn’t end up in court as a “Well, he said …”
Act Immediately. Staff should be trained to take care of the problem right away, and to keep the customer apprised of what’s been done. We asked someone registering us for an event to correct a misspelled name and it was done immediately. That instills confidence that the company does care about its customers.
Ask what they want. Be straight forward and ask what can resolve the problem to their satisfaction. They may not actually want anything other than to apprise you of a problem or potential issue. Use this as an opportunity to find a solution – for the client and for the prevention of future problems.
Make it easy to complain. Provide a phone number on invoices or your website. Give out an E-mail address for customers to express their concerns. A word of caution, however: Avoid letting those concerns reside and linger in a voice mail message system or in box for days on end. Take care of the complaints promptly.
Follow-up. If nothing else is accomplished, follow-up. Make sure your customers are pleased with your service, your products and/or services, and your company/brand.

Brand Irons can provide your company with an in-service workshop on customer service. You can find out more with a phone call to (920) 366-6334.

In our next blog, we’ll cover whether management may be the problem.

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The Trust Factor

Credit must be given when credit is due. The trust factor is a concept we learned about word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing from the networking guru, Dr. Ivan Misner, founder of BNI (Business Network International). The concept is worth elaboration since it applies to more than WOM marketing for your business.

Graphic designed by Brand Irons.

The process of building trust begins with Visibility. From the networking perspective, you must make yourself visible in order for people to begin building some trust. That often means attending networking events on a consistent basis, whether it’s a BNI meeting or a Chamber After Hours event.

From the business and marketing perspective, visibility is important because your consumers and potential customers need to know you exist. In this case, visibility is how your place of business is perceived, how your products and/or services are viewed, how visible you and your employees are, and how well you advertise and promote your business. Perception needs to reflect reality. You need to be seen and recognized!

In networking, you also establish trust by building Credibility. You have to say what you mean and mean what you say.

The same principle holds when it comes to marketing your business. If you promise to deliver within 24 hours and it takes 36, your credibility is damaged. If your advertising offers a “wide selection” and the consumer discovers they have two choices, your credibility is suspect. If you post certain hours and are closed during those times, it has an impact on your credibility.

Credibility, like visibility, must be maintained on a consistent basis to build the trust you want your customers to have in you and your business. Our last two blogs have harped on consistency because it is so vital to continuously growing your business.

When it comes to networking, and we have found this to be true in more than a dozen years of being involved in BNI, your Profitability comes from the trust that’s established when you are visible and credible in your business dealings.

From the business and marketing side, establishing the profitability of your company is also built on the other two sides of the trust triangle. When your products hit the market and gain visibility, they hopefully become credible and desirable in the eyes of your consumers. This establishes the trust in you, your company, and your products and/or services that leads to the profitability you desire.

Trust is at the center of building customer loyalty to your brand. Trust must be established and maintained with your clients. Remember, too, that trust is easily destroyed. It requires honesty and hard work, as well as consistency throughout your organization. It is also worth protecting when you achieve it.

One service that a consulting firm, like Brand Irons, can offer is an evaluation of the trust factor for your business, your products and/or services.

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How Critical Is Consistency?

We all like to try different things. In business, however, being consistent is important … unless you don’t care if customers come back.

Think about a pizza joint as an example. Assume you order your favorite toppings and crust for delivery. When it shows up, within the promised time frame, it is hot and prepared to perfection. Your expectation has been established for the next time. The bar is set.

Two weeks later, you order the same pizza from the same establishment. It shows up hot and on time, but the crust is a bit overdone and the taste is different somehow. Maybe they forgot to spice it the same way. Okay, you can tolerate that, but now your expectations have been altered, maybe even reduced. You may even call the pizza parlor to ask the manager why there’s a difference.

The next few pizzas you order are tolerable but still not as good as the first. The joint seems to be having a hard time with consistency but still within a tolerable range fro delivered food. Then the bomb drops.

You order again and the person answering the phone is rude, asks you to hold, and rather than wait, you hang up and have someone else call it in. Same thing happens to them, and it takes five minutes to get back to you. If you are emotionally tied to ordering from that pizza place, you wait and place your order.

Thirty minutes after your pizza should have arrived, you call to find out if the driver got lost or what’s going on with it. No apology, just some line about being backed up and your pie is just coming out of the oven, so it should be there within a few minutes.

You expect a fresh, hot pizza that meets your standard for this pizza parlor. You’re hungrier than ever since you were ready to eat when it was due to be delivered. Instead, it arrives cold, the whole pie looks burnt – especially the crispy crust, and it tastes horrible. This is unequivocally not acceptable. Yet you’ve still paid good money for your dinner.

As the owner of this business, what would you anticipate the customer would do if you were them? Shut up and eat the pizza without complaining? Eat it but call to complain? Bring it back and demand a refund? Or the more likely scenario: Never order pizza from you again and tell everyone they know how horrible your pizza was?

The lesson for any business owner: What does it take to deliver a consistent product or service to your customers? In this case, making a pizza should be relatively simple: make a crust using your signature ingredients, put it in a cooking pan, add your signature sauce, top it with consistent ingredients and spices, and cook it in an oven set to the right temperature for the specified amount of time. Then box it up and get it delivered within the promised time frame.

Walk through that exercise with whatever product or service you offer to consumers. Assess what it takes to be consistent. The steps should be relatively simple and easy to identify. Those steps should be your normal and your staff should clearly understand that “normal” is the minimal standard to achieve. Nothing less than that should be tolerated.

What goes along with delivering a consistent product or service is the customer service side of the process. Back to the pizza example: How difficult would it be for someone in the business, preferably a manager, to call a customer back, apologize, and let them know the pizza is going to be delivered later than previously stated? Find the order slip, pick up the phone, and call the client. The point is to retain customer loyalty if possible. Unless you have enough business that you can afford to have only one-time customers.

For some business owners, it may be essential to have a business consultant come in and analyze what’s going on when it comes to processes and consistency. The solutions are often simple but may involve changing a company’s existing culture. There are firms, Brand Irons comes to mind, that can help assess those challenges and create options.

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Consumer Oriented Marketing

Rule #1 – The customer is always right.

Rule #2 – When in doubt, see rule #1.

Sound familiar? As a business owner, you know rule #1 may be false but that the customer’s perception is that they are always right.

In either case, the consumer is the lifeblood of your business. The more focused you can be on exceeding the needs of your customers, the more profitability you enjoy. You will build brand loyalty and have repeat customers as well as solid referrals for years to come. Think about what you would have without any customers.

Here are some steps to consider in becoming more consumer oriented in marketing your business and your products and/or services:

Know what you’re selling. You may believe you sell insurance, but your customers are buying peace of mind and the ability to sleep well at night. Think about what your customers are purchasing.
Know your customers’ buying motivation. This relates to #1, but goes further by analyzing whether they’re purchasing on price, convenience, satisfaction, previous experience or some other factor. Think about why they buy from you.
Know your customers. How often do they come to you? What other demographic information do you have about your market segments? Do you know where they live, or what they do for a living? Can you address them on a first name basis?
Know how to reach your customers. Traditional advertising methods such as radio, TV, or newspaper ads may fail to get their attention. You need to know what appeals to them and how you can best get your message through to them.
Know what you want. If you want loyal customers, treat them like they want to be treated. That’s the platinum rule. If you want referrals, ask for them. If you want volume and traffic, that’s a different call to action. Ask them to do what you want.

In many cases, your consumers want you to listen to them. That is the foundation of the rule about the customer being right. They may expect that you will refund their money or take back the merchandise or hear their complaint, and those all relate back to them knowing you will listen to them.

Some of the most innovative new products and services have originated from listening to consumers and their suggestions. Keep an open mind and listen!

At Brand Irons, we walk business owners through a proprietary process that helps them identify their products, markets, value propositions, and viable distribution channels.

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Brand & Business Review

You should review the status of your business every six months, if not more often. This includes an analysis of your brand and the products or services you offer to consumers.

This review can be a simple process of taking a step back and looking at your business from a couple points of view, or a rather lengthy evaluation with a professional consultant.

If you’re going to do a self-evaluation, the hardest but most important thing to do is to remove any emotional attachment you have to your business. Think rationally. Emotion is what you bring back when it’s time to market your business and advertise your products. Look at everything from an objective, independent perspective, just like a consultant would do:

Evaluate your cash flow situation
Assess actual sales vs. projections
Consider how far out are your receivables
Rate your advertising return on investment (ROI)
Look at employee turnover rates
Where is your company in terms of the industry standard

These are a few of the areas to evaluate on your own. Take the time to get the information you need to make intelligent decisions, and think through what the cold, hard facts are telling you. Look at it as if you were someone on the outside looking in.

You need to know the value of your company … and the value you provide to your market segments.

If you’re honest and open with your consulting firm, a six-month assessment may not be as critical with them as doing it by yourself. Your consultants should know where you are on a monthly or quarterly basis. The idea is to help you take corrective action while it can have a positive impact and before it becomes a huge risk or serious problem.

Looking at your business impartially enables you to discover if certain employees need to be released or divisions need to be trimmed or modified. Your investors and shareholders have to know you can make the tough decisions when they need to be made. Removing yourself from the urgent demands of daily activities to review your status reduces the risk of making fatal mistakes and reveals the validity of your company.

As the owner or CEO of your business, the responsibility for making hard choices falls on your shoulders. It may be your chief bookkeeper who is engaged in fraudulent activity and needs to be prosecuted. It could be that your closest friend and VP of sales is stealing clients and collaborating with your competition. You may have an obsolete product line that needs to be terminated. It’s difficult to make a decision unless you have the correct information, and your job is to make sure you have all the right information.

Let us know if you would like help.

Brand Your Work – Work Your Brand