Brand Quarterly Feb 2013

Brand

™

Volume 2 | Issue 2

February 2013

Quarterly

Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

Get Growing!

Use Your Brand To Build Your Business

Thinking Global?

Think Franchising!

Control Your Desitny It’s Your Brand. So Who’s At The Wheel?

Big Company B*S Branding And The Small, But Beautiful, Business

Brand Quarterly™

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In This Issue

2

10

Time For A Vision Checkup

13

LinkedIn Company vs Facebook Pages

14

No 2nd Chance For A 1st impression

18

Big Company B*S,

21

“Showrooming”

22

Design 101

24

Thinking Global?

28

Finishing Your Business

30

Get Growing!

34

The Law Of The (Business) Jungle

36

Mastering Your Domain

Making Sure Your Brand Meets Your Vision

What’s Best For Your Business?

A Tale Of Dancers, Cheerleaders And Red Lipstick

Branding And The Small, But Beautiful, Business

Insight From The Marketoonist

Frequently Asked Questions

Think Franchising!

An Exit Strategy Can Grow Your Business

Use Your Brand To Build Your Business

In Business, Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast

Adwords, Keyword And Domain Name Legal Issues Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

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Who’s Selling Your Brand?

42

Show Me The Money!

45

Get Your Brand Right

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Control Your Destiny

Your Staff Are Manning The Front Lines

Funding Your Brand

Why A Great Brand Matters More Than You Think

It’s Your Brand? So Who’s At The Wheel?

From The Editor It’s Time To Build Your Business...

I would like to first welcome all of our new readers, and send out a big thank you to our returning readers for your continued support.

This first edition for the new year sees us showcasing a record seven new contributors, as well as the return of some of your favourites.

A majority of this issues articles centre around growing your business - an important topic for any business owner or manager, regardless of your company’s size or where it’s at in its business lifecycle. I’m sure you will get a lot of value from this issue and the time that you invest in reading it will reap great returns.

Fiona Vesey Vesey Creative

You will also find a couple of new features making their first appearance: Our Recommended Reads section highlights books we consider to be highly beneficial to our readers.

These will cover topics from Business to Branding and beyond.

As Hootsuite Pro Solution Partners, we will also be delivering you advanced Hootsuite tips, tricks and give you more insight into how to take control of your social media channels and get the most out of them.

There will be many more new features coming in future issues. We hope you enjoy these first two.

Thanks again for joining us for this issue of Brand Quarterly. And remember: “If you love it - share it”.

Enjoy Fiona Volume 2 | Issue 2 | February 2013 Brand Quarterly magazine www.brandquarterly.com Publisher/Design: Vesey Creative Ltd studio@veseycreative.com

As the publishers of Brand Quarterly, we take every care in the production of each issue. We are however, not liable for any editorial error, omission, mistake or typographical error.

The views expressed by all contributors are not necessarily those of the publisher.

Brand Quarterly™

Copyright: This magazine and the content published within are subject to copyright held by the publisher, with individual articles remaining copyright to the named contributor.

Express written permission of the publisher and contributor must be acquired for reproduction.

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Featured Contributors Laura Beswick Laura started her career as a professional dancer, dancing with the Moulin Rouge and travelling around the world on dance and singing contracts. She made Edinburgh her home 5 years ago. Laura chose to move away from the performing world and created her company Prezent, which has now been trading for 2 years. Prezent offers outsourced business development and representation to clients in all sectors, helping them to create connections, generate leads and take their business to a wider audience. 7 years as a professional performer makes Laura the perfect person to talk about any business in an engaging, enthusiastic and professional manner. www.prezent.me.uk.

Tom Fishburne Tom is the Founder and CEO of Marketoon Studios, a content marketing studio that helps businesses such as Unilever, O2, Kronos, Baynote, Rocketfuel, and the Wall Street Journal reach their audiences with cartoons. He is also a frequent keynote speaker on innovation, marketing, and creativity. Tom draws from 16 years in the marketing and innovation trenches. Over five years with Method Products (“the 16th most innovative company in the world” ~ Fast Company), Tom launched new products, led marketing, and started the European business from scratch. He has led brands at Nestle and General Mills, and helped launch the first English-language magazine in Prague. www.marketoonstudios.com

Dr. Ivan Misner Dr. Ivan Misner is the Founder and Chairman of BNI, the Senior Partner for the Referral Institute, an international referral training company, as well as a New York Times best-selling author.

Called the “Father of Modern Networking,” by CNN, Dr. Misner is one of the world’s leading experts in business networking and referral marketing. As well as Brand Quarterly, Dr Misner also contributes monthly articles to Entrepreneur.com as the online magazine’s networking expert, and he is a featured blogger on BusinessNetworking.com.

Check out: “Networking Like A Pro: Turning Contacts Into Connections”

Ken Vesey Ken Vesey styles himself as a ‘QA Specialist, People Management Specialist, Facilitator, Implementer, and Technical Writer of policy and procedures’. His passion is towards the small business owner, whether in business or in education.

Over the past 27 years, Ken has compiled a wealth of management knowledge whilst holding the positions of NZQA Panelist & Moderator, Learning Manager at the Employers and Manufacturers Association, and Regional Director of Training for the Order of St John Auckland. www.approachableconsultancy.com

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Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

Andrew Vesey As a co-founder of the boutique Graphic Design and Branding agency Vesey Creative, Andrew lives his passion everyday – helping people and companies grow and be successful.

He is a strong believer in continually upskilling, learning and staying relevant in business. It was this ‘education brings growth’ mentality that originally lead him to create Brand Quarterly magazine.

Andrew is also now the Global Brand Guardian for the Global Marketing Network, and is presently developing and launching a new digital magazine ( Global CMO™ ) for marketing professionals world wide. www.veseycreative.com

Suzie McCafferty Suzie is regarded as one of the UK’s foremost franchising experts having worked in the sector for over 13 years having successfully built her own international franchising networks and establishing multi-million pound companies through franchising. Suzie now specialises in helping other businesses to grow and develop their businesses through successful and sustainable franchising and franchisee recruitment on an international scale. As a finalist in Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2006 and 2011, Suzie is an Affiliate member of the British Franchise Association and was Chairperson for the Scottish Franchise Forum, part of the British Franchise Association, in 2009 and 2010. www.platinumwave.co.uk

Ewan Menzies Ewan is an experienced and successful Business Strategist. Starting his working life as a teacher he gained valuable skills he now uses with business owners. After a short time in this role he quickly moved into management positions and through various achievements worked his way up to a national post in just a few years. Successfully setting up his own business five years ago, he now supports business owners and public sector clients. He works with them across a number of areas including business streamlining and process improvement, building effective autonomous teams, profit maximisation and franchising to name but a few. www.linkedin.com/in/ewanamenzies

David Hood David is a specialist in competitiveness and proposition / revenue improvement and was an early innovator in modern digital and technology-led marketing. He has served on the UK’s Marketing and Sales Standards Setting Body and the manufacturing trade body competitiveScotland. He is Co-Director of the ‘Competitive SME’ mission, Director of the Global Marketing Network’s Online Community and serves on its Advisory Panel, and is the Commercial Director for Aqua Energy Scotland. He is also a Guest Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, and has previously held the role of Chair of the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s technology group.

Checkout David’s new book ‘Competitive SME’ now.

Brand Quarterly™

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Featured Contributors Fiona Vesey As a multi-award winning professional photographer, Fiona has a great eye for detail, which she brings to her role as editor at Brand Quarterly.

Fiona is a co-founder of Vesey Creative, a Graphic Design and Branding agency which has recently expanded from New Zealand into the United Kingdom.

She thrives in partnering with people and companies wanting more than just ascetically pleasing design. Her natural ability to build relationships, communicate and truly understand clients businesses is essential in to the process of creating result generating, people focused design. www.veseycreative.com

James Howarth James specialises in contentious IP and IT work and has been involved with defamation and malicious falsehood actions, trademark disputes, data protection issues and copyright infringement. He also handles internet matters and domain name disputes.

He graduated with a first-class degree in English Literature from the University of Wales (Swansea) in 1996 and an MA from York University in 1997. He worked in the publishing industry as a commissioning editor for several years before embarking on a career in law. He trained with Manches and qualified into the IP litigation team in 2007. He was awarded a Postgraduate Diploma in IP law from Oxford University in 2009. www.manches.com

Cath Vincent Cath is so passionate about creating lasting positive change for her clients that she is a keynote speaker on the subject.

She has researched disciplines such as neurolinguistic programming and hypnotherapy, which may be considered somewhat left-field, to find every tool and technique to help business people make permanent changes Now she combines 10 years of conventional business consultancy experience with some dramatically effective coaching techniques to help clients reach their full potential. www.cathvincent.com

Bill Christie Bill is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland.

Starting in Branch Banking in Kirkcaldy he had a career of 25 years with “Royal Bank of Scotland” including 7 years in London. He held a senior lending position in a Glasgow Office prior to establishing the “Royals” first Business Development Unit at Branch level.

Bill then developed the Group activities of a Scottish Merchant Bank prior to establishing his own consultancy, 15 years ago.

A lateral thinker; always seeking to identify funding solutions for clients. www.cerbusinessfinance.co.uk 6

Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

Allan Blair Beaton Allan Blair Beaton is a social media scientist, born on the west coast of Scotland, but with an international client base that includes Elite Athletes, Government Organisations, and SMEs of all descriptions.

His passion for social networking and all things web enables him to provide his clients with the most up-to-date access and engagement on the social web.

Allan is also a UK Ambassador for HootSuite and will be assisting with their Community teams across the UK and Europe. www.allanbbeaton.com

Your Name Here?

Would You Like To Join Our Stable Of Featured Contributors?

If you are interested, please CLICK HERE to view the info pack, which tells you all you need to know, including submission criteria and content deadlines.

Recommended Reads The Art of Influencing and Selling Ardi Kolah Whether you’re new to sales or have at least one year’s experience in selling, this book will leapfrog your selling skills and understanding of sales techniques to a more sophisticated, satisfying and more genuinely customer and client-oriented level. If you’re more experienced, then this book provides a comprehensive refresher which uses fresh insights, the latest ideas and practical useable tools like checklists to help you sell more and sell better.

Fully reference and researched, The Art of Influencing and Selling covers: The psychology of selling a product or service; the sales pipeline and how to ensure it’s realistic; making an effective sales presentation; up-selling, cross-selling, cold-calling and warm calling; effective approaches to prospective customers and clients; how to interrogate a database of contacts to get more sales; how to write effective sales materials; the power of business networking; how to get senior level appointments in your diary and closing a sale and follow up.

Click the image to get your copy

If you want to improve your sales performance by learning how to listen to your customer and client and collaborate with them profitably, The Art of Influencing and Selling is the book for you.

The Rebel Entrepreneur Johnathan Moules Everyone wants to start their own business and there are many of books telling you how to go about it. The only trouble is that many of them are simply wrong. The Rebel Entrepreneur by Financial Times journalist Jonathan Moules explains why, in many cases, the received wisdom on entrepreneurship just isn’t the best way of doing things.

Full of examples of successful entrepreneurs, who’ve made the grade by doing things differently, this book will show you: • Why you don’t need to stick to a business plan; • There’s nothing wrong with learning from the ideas of others ; • Why, if things get tough, you should put your prices up; • How cutting costs can kill your business.

Click the image to get your copy

The Rebel Entrepreneur is the alternative guide to starting your own business and succeeding that no entrepreneur can afford to be without.

If you have a book you would like considered for our recommended reads.

Please email andrew@veseycreative.com

Brand Quarterly™

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From The Web Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.

Jim Rohn

What Bill Gates Is Focusing On In 2013 In his annual letter, the billionaire looks to the year ahead in his quest to end disease and poverty in the developing world, as the Millennium Development Goals loom.

Click the image to read via Fast Company.

Being Steve: Ashton Kutcher On The Making Of ‘jOBS’ The actor explains the trials and tribulations of emulating one of Silicon Valley’s most iconic startup founders.

Click the image to read via Inc.

The 50+ Places Where Big Ideas Are Born Sometimes the best work happens while walking, broadcasting, flying -- even on the beach. LinkedIn Influencers show where they work and explain what it means.

Click the image to view via LinkedIn.

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Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

Don’t design for everyone. It’s impossible.

All you end up doing is designing something that makes everyone unhappy.

Leisa Reichelt

Super-Bowl Commercials Through A Marketer’s Eyes Find out what lessons SME’s can take from the iconic institution that is the ‘Superbowl Commercial’ Click the image to read via Entrepreneur.com

Treat Everything As A Case Study Even broken headphones, useless gas pumps, and James Bond movies can help you to build your Marketing ‘toolkit’ Click the image to read via Harvard Business Review.

Derek Sivers: How To Start A Movement With help from some surprising footage, Derek Sivers explains how movements really get started. (Hint: it takes two.)

Click the image to view via TED.

Brand Quarterly™

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Time For A Vision Checkup Making Sure Your Brand Meets Your Vision A strong and consistent Brand is great.

In fact, it’s what we all want, right?

But what good is this Brand Strength and Consistency without Direction?

If your Brand message is focused in the wrong direction, then the stronger and more consistent it is, the more detrimental it can be. Educating and influencing your target market in a way that goes against your Brand Values, or completely reaching the wrong market altogether.

For businesses that don’t understand their Brand Vision properly, then all bets are off. Not only are you at risk of heading in the wrong direction, but how do you know what direction is the right one? Some businesses hurt themselves by ‘fixing’ their Brand’s direction, only to find out too late that they were on the right path to begin with.

So, it’s about time you had your vision checked.

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Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

your true vision for your business. ‘To be the best...’ just won’t cut it: • How big do you plan on growing?

• Who do you want to appeal to (Families, Business Owners, Teenagers, etc)?

• What are your core beliefs and values?

• What kind of voice do you have?

• What ‘Quantifiable’ levels of quality and service do you want to attain?

Everything you put in your Vision should be defined clearly. The clearer you can be now, the easier it will be in the next stage.

Step 2: Review Your Brand’s Direction You now have a Vision Chart for your Brand. It’s time to measure your current Brand efforts against it. For a lucky few, you will find that you’re right on track. But for the majority of us, there are always improvements to be made, and sometimes, complete overhauls are required.

Andrew Vesey Vesey Creative

Take your time. Make sure you cover everything.

The more in-depth you can be, the better your end result will be.

What’s that I hear you say?

“But how do I know if what we’re currently doing is the right thing for our Brand Vision?”

Good question.

Without some training and/or experience in Branding and Brand Management, it can be very difficult to do a proper review of Vision vs Direction.

Because of this, I (as unbiasedly as possible) recommend either leaning on any qualified internal staff members, or bring in an external team that have the required experience and knowledge.

Step 1: Define And Understand Your Vision As stated above: If you don’t know where you want to go, how can you ever expect to get there?

This is where so many businesses make a big mistake.

They rush off and start creating their Brand and their marketing collateral. Probably because it sounds much more fun than defining a proper vision.

There’s no right or wrong way for every situation.

The best advice I can give is to think: Who’s review will we trust more? The more trusted the results of the review, the more easily accepted the required adjustments will be.

Step 3: Make Adjustments This is where you start making a noticeable difference.

Up until now, we’ve been focused on planning and reviewing.

Now is the time to prescribe some action.

Let’s get one thing straight. I’m not talking about a cliche rich ‘vision statement’ produced by so many businesses today. What I’m talking about here is

Brand Quarterly™

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Depending on the results of your review, it may be as simple as spending more resources on LinkedIn rather than Facebook, or making your Brand Promise more prominent on marketing collateral. For others it may be easiest (and cheapest) to basically start from scratch and create a new Brand Image that blends with your Vision.

I don’t recommend making major changes ‘piecemeal’, as this will add a level of inconsistency and confusion to your Brand. However, you do need to remain budget conscious and plan your required adjustments inline with your available resources.

or ‘one size fits all approach’, sorry. Sometimes a little hard work, along with trial and error is needed.

This is where an experienced team can pay big dividends.

Once you have achieved the results you want, it’s time to record it all. Yes ALL of it. There is no better tool to keep you on track than a fully documented and systemised Brand Plan. For even more effectiveness and future-proofing, it is a good idea to record the actual changes you made along the way - what worked and what didn’t. The best place to add these notes is with your original Brand review notes.

Before throwing a major (eg: Logo) change out there, make sure you have planned ahead to ensure complete coverage for your change.

What is the timetable for changing your signage, stationery, uniforms, website, social media, cars etc?

Certain items like stationery can be pre-produced, ready for the change over, and your web and social media logos can be just a few clicks away.

Then there’s only one thing left to do.

The more seamless you can make each adjustment the better. Sometimes, a slightly disjointed image will be required for a short period of time (especially if other entities like franchisees need to cough up money to cover store rebrands), but planning ahead can lessen the timespan and impact.

You can also take longer between your reviews if you want. But remember: The longer between check ups, the longer they will take, the more they’ll normally cost and the more damage that can occur.

The shorter the timespan, the quicker your new image will get traction in the right direction.

There you have it.

It’s as simple as that (no, really, it is).

I recommend 12 months as a good amount of time, however if you want to really keep on top of your Brand, then by all means a quick review every 3 or 6 months will make a difference.

1. Check your Vision

Step 4: Review, Record, Revisit Just like with any sort of ‘checkup’, it makes no sense to do it once, never think about it again and assume everything will be fine.

First you will want to review the results of your adjustments to make sure they achieved the required unison of Vision and Direction. If not, then go back a step and make more adjustments to get done what you need - There is no ‘magic pill’

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Before you head off an forget about it, make sure you book in for your next appointment.

2. Review your Brand using your Vision Chart 3. Prescribe the right alterations for your Brand 4. Make your next appointment on your way out

Right, off you go.

It’s time to get your Vision checked.

Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

BQ

LinkedIn Company Pages vs Facebook Pages What’s Best For Your Business?

It’s been a couple of years now since Facebook allowed business owners to have a company profile, known as pages. There are many success stories for some of the bigger brands, but in the US, reports say that 58% of small businesses do NOT have any presence on Facebook at all. Why is this the case? I think there may be a few different answers.

Is Your Business B2B Or B2C? If your business has a target market that operates in the B2C sector, then I would agree that Facebook would be an effective way to engage and grow your online community. Brands like Coca-Cola and football teams like Manchester United Football Club have over 57M and 30M fans respectively.

It’s clear to see that B2C is working well for these companies. Remember, operating a football club IS a business with all of the television and sponsorship opportunities, but let’s stick to the point. What if you own a software development company, accountancy firm, website development, or perhaps you create bespoke enterprise solutions for business? Is Facebook where you really want to be?

Introducing LinkedIn Company Pages LinkedIn company pages have been around for a while now, but there have been massive improvements as of late and have made me reconsider their importance.

• LinkedIn is a B2B network, focusing exclusively on business relationships • You have the opportunity to include your company’s products and services • You can embed powerful videos to engage new prospects

• Recommendations to be applied directly to your company’s page, not your profile • Followers of your company can view your updates in their network updates • Followers can also see how they may be connected to your business and who works there • You can link your corporate blog directly to your company’s page Of course, none of this matters if you do not take the time to correctly and fully update your LinkedIn Company Page; first impressions count! Utilising the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd connections and powerful recommendations from your customers and clients could enable your business to operate at a much higher level of engagement than that of Facebook.

Allan Blair Beaton Social Media Scientist

It’s clear to see that Facebook works for many businesses, organisation, and groups. This is great, but in order for your social media strategy to deliver high ROI, wouldn’t it be best practice to utilize LinkedIn as a serious social media marketing tool?

To drive the point further, it’s also crucial to implement a LinkedIn profile strategy with all employees operating on LinkedIn. You don’t want the M.D to be connected to your company page without a fully completed profile. This happens more than you think! It just doesn’t look right and could harm your chances of new businesss opportunities.

Guess what? This can all be managed in your HootSuite dashboard as well! BQ

Brand Quarterly™

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No 2nd Chance For A 1st impression A Tale Of Dancers, Cheerleaders And Red Lipstick I’d like to ask you all a quick question. Do you own your own business?

If you do, are you the MD, marketing department, sales department, business development manager, cleaner and tea maker? I certainly am!

Some companies have the resources to hire individuals to promote their business, some do not. And the ones that do not have the difficult task of being all things to the business, and that includes the ‘business face’ that the public sees.

Even if you do not run your own company but work for one in a business development capacity, you are still responsible for portraying that company’s image to the public. As an employee, your job is to be the company’s ‘cheerleader’. If that company is yours, you have to be your own cheerleader.

I want you to think back to the last networking event you were at. Try to remember what you were wearing, how you felt that day and where you positioned yourself within the room. Also try to remember some of the other people in that room with you.

Did you walk into the room, head held high, shoulders back with an open and welcoming smile on your face or did you scuttle in, with your eyes on the floor and go and stand next to the first person you recognised?

Laura Beswick Prezent

How you enter the room is so important – it tells the others in the room so much about you and about the company you are representing. A confident, welcoming stance says ‘I’d love to talk to you and to tell you all of the interesting things that my business does’. A closed off, eyes cast down stance says ‘Please leave me alone, I’ve only come for the coffee and bacon rolls’.

As human beings, we are naturally attracted to the former, less so to the latter. I’m sure you’d all rather talk to someone who is enthusiastic, energetic and vivacious. You know that they will be interesting and in turn interested in what you have to say. That’s the first step to being your own cheerleader.

Make people want to come and talk to you. It may take a confidence that you feel you don’t naturally have but, like a lot of things in life, it’s easy to fake.

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Research shows that by just smiling alone, even if you don’t feel like it, releases endorphins and serotonin into your bloodstream, making you feel better naturally. It also reduces stress, lowers the blood pressure and most importantly is contagious!

You’ll find that as you smile, your shoulders will relax, you’ll hold your head high and you start to feel more confident. If you take one thing away from this article I’d like it to be that. I’m sure you’ll notice a difference in how you feel at the next event you attend or the next presentation you give.

The first (rather brutal if I’m honest!) introduction into brand representation was when I was 18 years old in my first job. I had just been accepted into the Moulin Rouge as a can can dancer.

I can honestly say that I had never before and have never since come across a company that takes it ‘public face’ so seriously. And for good reason too – the Moulin Rouge is the world’s most famous cabaret and it needs to uphold that reputation.

The first thing that was asked of us was to sign a contract, an affische physique, stating that we would neither lose or gain weight for the year long duration of our contract.

We were weighted and measured within an inch of our lives. Waist, thighs, knees, wrists, ankles, neck, the lot was done. To follow up on this, and to make sure we were all upholding our end of the contract we were then weighed every week. During my time there, 2 girls were fired for breaking this contract.

Like any other business, the Moulin Rouge needed to maintain the product quality and in this case, we were the product. Much like McDonalds ensure that every Big Mac is exactly the same wherever in the world you go, The Moulin needed to make sure that every girl upheld the quality and standard expected by the audience at each and every show, every day of the year.

But the main forming of my impression of the importance of personal and brand representation came behind the scenes, off stage if you will.

As dancers from the Moulin Rouge, we frequently were invited to many parties, functions and events, often at the request of a celebrity or, one occasion, royalty. How we conducted and presented ourselves at these types of events, even though they were outwith of working hours, was of the utmost importance to the Moulin.

Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

We were under strict instructions on all matters – from how to dress (not too appropriately) and how behave (don’t drink the bar dry). It was instilled in us everyday that we were representing the company and were ambassadors for the business.

That lesson followed me to Harrods, where I worked for a few months between dancing contracts. I remember quite clearly one occasion, when owner Mohamed Al Fayed was doing his weekly inspection of all departments, being pushed into a cupboard by a manager and having to stay there for half an hour.

Brand Quarterly™

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This was because I was wearing flat shoes, rather than heels due to an ankle injury. Once again, this displayed a company that were so massively concerned with the image portrayed to the public by their staff that they would go to any levels to protect it.

If you think of a cheerleading group, there’s usually more than one of them. By surrounding yourself with people who are willing to act as cheerleaders for your business you are creating a far bigger buzz around your brand, a buzz that will attract new clients and ultimately new business.

As you can imagine, all of these experiences have heavily impacted the way that I present myself. I believe it is part of my job to look closely at the message and culture of the company I am representing and make sure that I match with that image. I find that by putting on the clothes and makeup that reflect the company, I am ‘getting into character’.

But how do you convince people to support you and your business, to ‘take up the cheer’? By making and maintaining good relationships. And what’s the first step towards establishing a good relationship? By presenting your business, and yourself as a friendly, enthusiastic and professional prospect, rather than a glum, dull one. Remember, enthusiasm is contagious as well as smiles!

Also, whilst out and about it helps remind me of the message I am giving out to other people. Jeans and a t-shirt may say one thing about Google but it says something completely different about a large international law firm.

The fundamental building blocks of the impressive cheerleading human pyramid that they perform at football games are trust and responsibility.

These are the exact same qualities that you require of your cheerleaders –

We have already discussed that to become your own cheerleader the first step is to get people to want to come and talk to you. We’ve discussed body language and why it’s so important. In the same way, how you look says a massive amount about you and the company you are representing.

• trust, as you are trusting them with your brand and to pass on the right information, • and responsibility, as you are asking them to take a responsible approach to the way that they talk about you and your business and to whom.

Everybody here knows the importance of dressing appropriately but it doesn’t just stop there. Everyday I see an new kind of uniform emerging. Corporates still lean towards the suit and tie look, with some firms embracing ‘dress down Fridays’ for those employees who are not client facing that day. The creative industries have deliberately gone the other way, as a way of physically marking themselves out as being different to the suits.

A good relationship with any contacts you have will quickly show if they are the kind of cheerleader you want for your business.

But beware! Ripped skinny jeans and Converses may look great on Brick Lane but think about the image of the company you portray. Non conformist and creative yes, but also tatty and disorganised.

I have a friend who calls it ‘putting on her armour’. She’s self employed, works from home and, by her own admission, usually doesn’t get dressed until 3 in the afternoon. But she says that every time she picks up the phone to make a sales call she always applies a coat of red lipstick. This for her makes her feel professional and ready for action.

I do sometimes wonder what her clients would think if they knew that she was sitting at home, making calls in her dressing gown and red lipstick!

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There are no second chances at a first impression, this we all know and have already discussed. So how to make sure that your first impression is the best one you can possibly make and to make sure that the good impression continues to remain long after you’ve left?

Use all of the techniques we’ve talked about – plan your appearance, making sure that you epitomise the message your company wishes to portray.

Remember positive and open body language, a smile and a confident handshake. Follow on by being enthusiastic about your business and interested in theirs.

Following these steps make you a great cheerleader for your own business and you’ll start to convert your audience into cheerleaders for you too. Pretty soon you will have surrounded yourself with your very own cheerleading team. And that’s a great group of people to have around. BQ

Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

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Big Company B*S, Branding And The Small, But Beautiful, Business Ignore The ‘Chattering Classes’!

As someone who has ran small businesses, and advises them how to compete, I feel that one of the best maxims to follow is to know that what works for larger companies (and other smaller ones) wont necessarily work for me or you.

David J Hood Competitive SME

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We are constantly bombarded by the ‘next best thing’ to help us ‘improve’, by taking on a new concept, technology or tactical whim. Gurus, Advisors, and would-be Entrepreneurs galore, usually regale us with ‘try this - it worked for me/them/big-co and it will work for you’ nonsense.

The ‘Chattering Classes’ enthuse about each and every new

improvement concept and want us to try them all. But even tried and tested new tactical process improvements are frequently not what our business actually needs. We are told that improvement any improvement, anywhere - leads collectively to enhancing our overall capabilities and in turn, leads to better products, services and business excellence.

This is simply not true. Not only is ‘improving everywhere’ counter-intuitive for our small to medium sized businesses with precious resources, it makes sense to ‘improve’ only where it is absolutely critical and where know our best returns will be.

The irony is that as a smaller business, if we put ‘big company ideas’ to one side and focus on what can specifically develop a real ‘edge’; we can markedly enhance our competitiveness, without all the bull****, without striving and exhausting ourselves everywhere. The following table outlines the overall opportunity for the smaller enterprise.

Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

Big Biz V Small Biz

(table 1)

The differences, and hence the opportunity, for the smaller businesses are therefore clear. Whilst you may be competing of course with similar, smaller businesses, you can be sure that they are all trying to emulate larger companies. Your competitors are under constant pressure to follow the larger companies, thanks to the prevailing belief that to become one, you have to copy one. You, however, can increase your competitiveness by not following the pack. In recognising and building upon the natural differences between large and small, and redefining what marketing and brand-building should and could mean for you, your ‘smallness’ can actually become a foundation for approachability, agility and attractiveness.

You can order David’s new book right now on Amazon.

Just click the book and get your copy.

It isn’t about ‘big company ideals’ such as their obsession and addiction to ethereal issues such as market share, ‘share of mind’, ‘brand recall’ and all that... it is all about having sufficient Competitive Advantage and Revenue. That’s it - easy to say but indeed, if one focuses on what works for the smaller enterprise, ‘fixing only the things that are broken and which stand in the way of real value for the company and the customer’ then that’s it.

Don’t ‘go mending what ain’t broke’ but focus on a simple, yet comprehensive and real quest for a specific competitive advantage. Table 1 offers a good starting point.

Is Branding Too Much For Me?

(table 2)

Its not that branding is unimportant for the smaller business; it is just very different, and carefully deployed, can actually be so much more powerful, efficient and effective. People - either the customer or consumer - want to hear about you. They have a natural affinity for the smaller person or organisation, the ‘under-dog’ as it were, and are unlike the larger organisations that are seen to be increasingly disruptive, less trustworthy and indeed less concerned about their customer or consumer’s wellbeing. Yet there is an inclination for the smaller company’s leading Executives and Directors to see engagement with their market as an uphill struggle.

It could and should be very different. Again, Table 2 offers a good start.

Table 1: SME v Big Business - © David J Hood

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Remember - Its Your Story! The Prospect, Customer or Consumer are far more interested in your story than you think (if the story and supporting activities are conducted properly). You may not have the Big Budget, but you do have the Big and Authentic Ideas... You can be agile and interesting; You can have a very focused Edge; and lets not forget that the #1 advantage in being ‘Small’ is your capacity to actually CARE. If that is reflected in your ongoing ‘story’ or narrative that form the foundation of your evolving and improving brand, then that is a firm basis for good competitive positioning.

Yes, You Care! You Can Listen Better Too. You can adapt quicker, and introduce real yet simple changes to enhance the engagement with your market; consider for example an issue such as Word of Mouth (W.O.M.). Everyone talks about W.O.M. as being the main issue for a company’s advantage or otherwise in the market. Yet, as Marketers or Managers with a focus on revenue generation, we haven’t given ourselves the means to measure, manage and maximise W.O.M. This is long overdue and a real opportunity for you to introduce a simple system to better listen and respond. To show you care.

You Can Be More HUMAN! Allied to the opportunity for your smaller business to develop its own worthwhile and interesting story as ‘its brand’, the fact that you actually care and can instigate and manage an easy and effective W.O.M. system, is one of the really good opportunities to create an build a meaningful and competitive brand: to realise that you can make it all more HUMAN for your market.

In an age where big business (and many misguided smaller ones too) automate everything to cut costs and end up cutting links and engagement with its market, therein lies the ultimate opportunity. Where big businesses favour ‘press #1 for this and #2 for that’ etc etc, where they love the technology and the removal of the interface between PEOPLE, you have the opportunity to recapture person-to-person, ‘brain-to-brain’ engagement. Its all about people so they say; so lets recapture this and tell our great stories to people who are interested, and lets show them we care. BQ

Table 2: Branding and the SME - © David J Hood 20

Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

One of the biggest threats to traditional retail is “showrooming”, where consumers check out products in a store, but then go online to buy.

Petco CIO Herman Nell had an interesting point of view on “showrooming”:

Mobile devices have made prices fully transparent to everyone. Since traditional retailers carry higher overhead than online retailers, it’s a real marketing challenge. Do retailers drop their prices and cut their margins, or do they find a way to justify the premium versus online?

Many retailers opt to drop their prices. Electronics chain Best Buy first tried to make it harder to comparison-shop by changing their in-store bar codes. When that didn’t work, they tried to match Amazon prices over the last holidays.

But you can’t out-Amazon Amazon, at least not in the long run. The last time I shopped at Best Buy, I ended up buying at Amazon, but not because of price. I really wanted to buy from Best Buy, particularly after I’d invested the time to travel there and preferred to have the product the same day.

But the store experience was so transactional and it was so hard to find a knowledgable sales rep that I gave up. Best Buy could have won me over with a better retail experience, but they dropped the ball.

They were trying so hard to be like Amazon on price, they didn’t excel at what could have made them different.

“We have the best defense against showrooming that you can think of — puppies. Anyone who comes in with the intention of showrooming looks at that puppy’s eyes and the showrooming is over. A product offering needs to be differentiated. And, if possible, it needs to bring out an emotional connection. That’s what a puppy does. Every puppy is unique, and some can strike a chord with the consumer.

Tom Fishburne And people have emotional Marketoon Studios connections with different things — from shoes to smartphones.”

It will be interesting to see how different retailers weather the effects of showrooming. The lines between physical retail and online retail will increasingly blur. The winning retailers will be the ones that create a meaningfully unique experience.

Or as the new Best Buy CEO Hubery Joly put it recently: “Once customers are in our stores, they’re ours to lose”. BQ

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When you’re creating and maintaining a brand, you’re working with designers.

Whether they are in-house or an external team, designers and branding are never far away from each other.

Design 101 Frequently Asked Questions With so much involved in creating a quality visual identity, there are always plenty of questions to be asked.

Here are answers to a few of the most common ones we are asked.

Should I Design My Website First?

That depends.

Are you a ‘Web Based Business’? Is your storefront your website? If so, then it makes the most sense to create the site before any supporting materials. But remember, your logo, colours etc should be decided before the site is built as sites are regularly updated, while your logo and colours won’t be.

On the other hand, if your site is a supporting piece for your storefront or face to face service, then it should compliment the rest of your Brand collateral, not the other way around.

Do I Really Need To Use Both Sides Of My Business Card?

Design 101 is a series aimed at bridging the gap between you and the design world. Helping you to better communicate your vision with your designer and get an understanding of ‘how they tick’.

I Have A JPG Of My Logo.

That’s All I Need, Right?

Absolutely... NOT While it is handy to have a JPG file of your logo, it is always good to have a selection of file formats and sizes at your disposal. And for quality and consistency, a ‘Vector’ file of your logo is vital. If you’re not sure what you have access to, contact your designer and find out.

How Do I Get My Whole Team To Agree On The Design?

Chances are, you can’t. While it may be important to get input from many people and encourage them to ‘buy into’ the new design, the more people involved, the harder a consensus will be. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “A camel is a horse designed by a committee”.

Your best bet is to get everyone’s input in the brief creation and concept stages and then appoint a (very) small number of people to ensure the design meets the discussed requirements and goals.

If your budget allows it then Yes. Now, you don’t need to write a novel on the back of your card, in fact it’s best not to. It can be as simple as a solid Brand colour, or a clear space for a sales rep/ serviceman to write notes.

Keri Sandford Vesey Creative

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The same can actually be said for the rest of your corporate identity. Compare one and two sided letterheads, comp slips or presentation folders and decide which ones give the best image.

But like I said earlier, this is only if your budget allows for it.

Can You Use These Images That I Found On The Web? To be safe, the answer is No in most circumstances.

Unless you can prove that you have the legal right to use an image (and for the purpose you require), then chances are, you are breaching someone’s Copyright. There are sites out there that offer images free for commercial use, but make sure you check the rules/limitations. There may be a maximum size, number of prints or an authors credit that must be given.

If in doubt, don’t use it.

Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

BQ

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Experience Vesey Creative.

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Thinking Global?

Think Franchising!

One of the key growth challenges facing any business is the decision to expand overseas. It can be a huge commitment in terms of time, money, market research and patience! Setting up an operation overseas cannot be achieved overnight however there may be alternatives which can take away many of the challenges associated with international expansion. One of these is international franchising.

Using the franchise business growth model to expand overseas can be very successful but it is fraught with difficulties if you do not know what you are doing. This article aims to give an insight into internationalisation through franchising and hopefully help you avoid many of the pitfalls.

Many companies venturing overseas may look to appoint an agent or distributor in the target country however this can give mixed results as it is hard to maintain control over branding, quality, sales performance and standards.

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Establishing a concession or license partnership in the country is another common growth model used in international development strategies.

However appointing a country or regional master franchisee within a new market means they have a greater stake in making the franchise and brand a success.

A country or regional master franchisee will typically invest an upfront initial franchise fee for the exclusive rights to operate the brand in the country or region.

In return, they will receive a franchise agreement for an exclusive territory, for a period of between 5 to 10 years, sometimes more depending on the brand. They will also typically receive initial and on-going training, a level of start up equipment and stock, access to a nominated supply chain, use of operational and accounting IT systems and process and access to a bank of marketing materials and templates.

Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

Master franchisees then have the sub franchising rights to develop the brand in their territory, granting franchise rights to other franchisees in their territory whilst also developing their own managed operations. It is normally the master franchisees responsibility to recruit, train and support their franchisees in their territory. Master franchisees in turn, would be supported by the Franchisor to ensure they have the “tools” to support and grow their own franchise network.

For international franchising to be effective however companies must firstly have solid foundations in their home market as well as robust operational systems and procedures, and a strong brand, which can be scaled to an international level Choosing the “right” international partners with the appropriate level of business acumen, network of contacts, proven track record in brand development and financial resource, is also crucial to the success of international franchising as a growth model.

Having established international franchise networks across Europe and the Middle East I have seen first-hand that the franchise model offers several advantages: • Less investment is required than setting up company owned outlets.

• Solid systems and procedures promote controlled business growth.

• Your partners will have local knowledge, business experience and network of contacts.

• You keep tight control of brand and quality standards.

• Owners will have a greater commitment than managers.

• Increased brand awareness and market share.

• Overcome legislation, culture and language barriers.

There are several steps which must be taken to ensure international franchising is the right growth model for you. You need to research the market to validate that there is a demand for the product or service in the target country. Just because your brand and product/service offering is a success in your home market, does not guarantee it will be well received or in demand in other countries.

What is the profile of your ideal master franchisee or regional developer and how are they going to be recruited? How are you going to establish the franchise brand in the market and how can you sustain brand awareness? What training and support infrastructure needs to be put in place to enable franchisees to succeed in that market and to enable you to maintain brand standards as your international franchise networks grow?

It is easy to underestimate the costs involved in international franchising. There are costs involved in making your business “international friendly” such as market research, legal fees, broker fees, translations, travel, trademarking and so forth. Whatever budget you have allocated double it!

It is essential that you choose the right partner to be your country or regional master franchisee.

Here the services of a franchise consultant with international experience can be invaluable.

You are making a huge commitment when taking on an overseas partner and it is vital to Suzie McCafferty do your due diligence to ensure Platinum Wave the right fit with your business.

It is also important to ensure that your intellectual property is protected, that is, your brand and domain names, and the franchise agreement documentation is properly constructed to minimise your exposure to risk and here it is worth considering a solicitor who specialises in franchising and who has international experience.

In conclusion, taking your business international through franchising is not an easy option but if done properly it can be highly rewarding. My top tips for success would be: 1. Know your market and competitors 2. Seek advice from an experienced franchise consultant and lawyer 3. Validate your market – market research is key!

4. Prove your brand first with a pilot in that market 5. Ensure your brand will stand the test of time 6. Choose your country or regional master franchisees carefully 7. Don’t underestimate the investment required 8. Ensure the branding, messaging and marketing communications is appropriate for the country 9. Create a strong franchisee support infrastructure and ethos from the start 10. Ensure strong brand auditing processes are in place to maintain brand standards as your international network grows 11. Partnership approach is key! BQ

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Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

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Finishing Your Business An Exit Strategy Can Grow Your Business What a fantastic feeling the first day you start your business. Whether you have been a business owner for one year or 40 years you will still remember that first day. You may have gone straight into business or come from a job; you now have no teacher, parent, manager or boss to tell you what to do – you are in charge.

You can get up every day and do what you love doing, building websites, advising people on their investments, running a sandwich bar, or whatever it is you do. As you go forward customers talk about your business to their friends and your business grows. Life becomes easy and you can relax and enjoy your work till you are 65 when you can sell up, and live off the cash. Finished!

If you are like the hundreds of business owners I speak with, the reality is something very different.

You are not your own boss, but just another employee in a company you happen to own. That exhilarating feeling you had in the beginning is waning as you work longer hours, dealing with such diverse areas as finance, marketing and IT, which you know little about and do not enjoy.

Let’s not mention the plethora of perpetual problems surrounding employees, for those of you who have successfully grown to that size! Your goal of retiring at 65 and living off the profits has gone.

You begin to wonder if you can survive working like this until you are 65, or whether you might in reality have to work well beyond that. “Will it ever be finished?”

Maybe holidays are your thing.

What would need to happen in your business to allow you to do this every year?

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Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

Tackling these issues in a business is one thing; however, the starting point I would recommend is in clarifying what your business will look like when it is finished? Very rarely do we as business owners get an education in this. Even if you have done your MBA you will find the focus is on instilling propositional knowledge on topics like organisational behaviour, managerial economics, operations, logistic and the like.

This reminds me of a story Steven Covey tells in his “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. A group of managers and workers are doing an extremely effective and efficient job of clearing a jungle, when the boss arrives and says “wrong jungle!”

The dream business I spoke about at the start of this article is rarely achievable because, I expect, it is not our true goal. Often it is the only goal we know so we follow it blindly stumbling as we go. If I may, might I open your eyes to a few other options of what your finished business might look like?

First, the finishing line does not have to be when you reach 65 or even the two to three years prior to that.

What if you could get there now? Yes, even if this is your first year in business. Secondly, and this is my main point, the finish is not necessarily the sale of your business; I believe, it is simply about you getting more time. Now this can mean different things to different people so let me give you a few examples to help you find your “jungle”.

Consider the parent who feels guilty working 50 hours a week and is permanently tied to their desk between 8.30am and 5.30pm. If this is you, you might like to finish at 3pm each day so you can collect the kids from school, have the flexibility to attend the odd sports day or school show, and be able to take 6 weeks off in the summer.

Or are you the serial entrepreneur with a successful business who is desperately looking for time to start your next, and another two after that? What if you could get your first business running with just a few hours of your time each week?

Maybe you are the workaholic who does not want to stop or slow down, but instead wants to open another two or three offices this year, expand across the country then go global? Imagine if your first office or branch could run without your input? Then you would have time to focus on the new offices and manage the expansion of your business.

Maybe holidays are your thing, and you are looking for three fortnights a year away, a trip of a lifetime for a whole month in Australia, or to have the flexibility to permanently travel the world. What would need to happen in your business to allow you to do this every year?

For those of you still saying “I don’t want more time, I love working in my business”, let’s look at one more scenario. I speak to many people who love their business and don’t want to stop – I am one of them!

However, when I tease into this I often discover they would like it if they never had to do their accounts again, or manage staff, or worry about sales, or some other task they do not enjoy. By all means keep working 40+ hours a week, however might your life be better if your daily work did not involve those chores?

Please note finishing your business is not about stopping work. Very few people are genuinely happy when they have no work. Look at all the Lotto winners who head off to Spain, get drunk for three months, realise they have no friends out there and end up depressed and broke. Do you really want that?

Ewan Menzies Castle Strategy

I do believe work is a good thing. It gives us purpose in life, structure, social inclusion, a sense of pride and a reason to get up in the morning. However, I feel we have lost the balance between work and life in the last few decades. It is time to redress the balance in our lives. Wouldn’t it be nice to know you didn’t have to work tomorrow? What if you decided you would rather be climbing a mountain, visiting your mum or playing 18 holes at Gleneagles?

In business we are so busy we rarely stop to consider why we are in business, where we are going or what it will look like when finished. I hope you have paused for thought today to consider your work to life balance, and what your finished business might look like. BQ

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Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

Andrew Vesey Vesey Creative

Get Growing!

Use Your Brand To Build Your Business So you’ve been reading (in this publication and many other places) that getting your Brand right is really important. In fact, it seems everyone says a strong Brand is key to building a successful business.

business. From the obvious things like your visual identity, through to the less obvious things like how you answer the phone and what your opening hours are.

But why?

The Brand Power Triangle

There’s no point in telling you all about how to build your Brand if I never tell you why it’s so important. So I want to take the time now to cover for you some of the ‘How?’s and ‘Why?’s when it comes to Branding and building your business.

When I talk about having a quality or successful Brand, I am referring to what I call Brand Power.

What Is A Brand Before we go any further, it’s best to make sure we’re on the same page.

When I talk about your Brand, I mean much more than just your logo and visual identity.

Your Brand starts at the heart of your business.

It’s core values and business vision, these values and vision normally reflect those of the company founders. Some people believe that a businesses values and vision are a construct of some Marketing/Branding company, but I can tell you from experience, this is (normally) untrue.

A Marketing/Branding company’s job is to present your values and vision in the best possible light to get you maximum returns - not create the values and vision for you.

Stemming from these core values and vision, your Brand presents in all aspects of the

Brand Power is a measure of three components; each important in their own right, but extremely powerful when used together.

Strength - Brand Strength is a measure of how well the developed Brand portrays certain values or emotions to the target market. The stronger the value or emotion, the more effect each individual piece of your Brand will have.

Consistency - While Strength relates to how well you get your message across in a single Branding instance, your Brand’s Consistency relates to how well that message presented, on a regular basis. A consistent presentation of a strong Brand will multiply it’s Power and success.

On the flip-side, poor consistency will hurt to the same level, if not more.

Direction - Without direction, you can be sending as strong and consistent a message out as you want, but to what end? If you’re heading in the wrong direction by not understanding your values and vision then it can do more harm than good. Having a direction in-tune with your core values and vision is key in ensuring maximum Brand Power.

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The examples above are relating to the more obvious and visual side of your Brand for ease of reference. But the keys to Brand Power extend right through your company. From hiring the right staff, to using the right tone of voice on the phone, right through to the sort of special offers you make to your customers (That’s right. A special offer that matches your Brand will be more successful).

How Does Brand Power Help My Business?

Let’s get down to the part you’ve been waiting for What your Brand actually does to help your bottom line.

Your USP - Your Brand affords you a discernible point of difference in the marketplace. Now, I’m not just talking about “We use red while everyone else uses green”, although that can make a difference depending on the emotions evoked by those colours. I am talking about being able to really get your core values and vision out there in the market place.

This is why people buy from you. Sure, the price may be great, along with the service and quality. But can you really say that not a single competitor out there can even come close to matching you on these in some way?

Your real point of difference is Why you do what you do, Who you really are and What you really believe in, not the goods and services you supply.

Increased Sales and Sale Value - With higher Brand Power you can expect more first time customers who want to ‘check you out’. If you have your Brand invested in all aspects of your business as described above, then you will more than follow through on your Brand promises and secure yourself even more returning customers.

Add this to a potential opportunity to charge more for your products/services (only if it fits your Brand of course), and you have the oft sought triple threat in sales.

Creating Brand Evangelists - Brand Evangelists are the ‘Holy Grail’ in marketing. Customers that do everything they can to promote you and your Brand. They provide you with a highly motivated, low/no cost, auxiliary salesforce who truly believe in what they are selling.

The more powerful your Brand is overall, the easier it will be to convert these ordinary customers into Evangelists - and the easier it will be for them to their contacts into customers as well. The end result More sales.

Improving Your Business Processes - Looking to hire new staff? If your Brand’s defined then you already know the exact type of people to look for, making recruitment that much easier.

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A well defined Brand is a great yardstick for any proposed system and process improvements as well. Will the change improve delivery of your Brand promises or is it just change for change’s sake? If it’s the latter then you can save the man hours, money and stress involved in building and introducing a new system you don’t actually need.

Brand Management - A High Return Investment Often seen by business owners and managers as more of a cost, well performed Brand Management can be one of the biggest investments made in your business.

True Brand Management will work on all three aspects of your Brand Power (Strength, Consistency, Direction), and will look to get you maximum value following the formula: Brand Power = ( Strength + Direction ) x Consistency To this end, Strength and Direction are keys at the start and at each review of your Brand, with Consistency being built into the Brand Plan and controlled on a day to day basis.

On top of all of the areas of Brand and business covered above, a successful Brand Management system will lead to: • Increased Business Value • Increased Scalability • Increased Business Salability If you are looking to grow your business through adding multiple new offices/stores, franchising or licensing, then Brand Management allows you to present a turnkey package to quickly and affordably set up and run a new site.

The same can be said for single site companies as well. New staff members, new departments, the method and results will be the same.

For those who are looking at an exit strategy for the future or are looking to sell now, managing your Brand properly and offering an ‘idiot-proof’ system will make your business more appealing to possible suitors. You may also find that due to the lack of Brand development and systemisation required by a new owner, you will be able to secure a higher price for your business.

A high level of Brand Power should be an aim for every business. It will give you a competitive edge, increase sales and profits, and can even lead to a higher value exit strategy.

So what are you waiting for? Start building your Brand Power and Get Your Business Growing! BQ

Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

BRAND

TEAM

In The Storm

Rescue Coming Soon To A Troubled Brand Near You

VESEY CREATIVE LIMITED presents in association with BRAND QUARTERLY a VESEY CREATIVE production ‘BEACON IN THE STORM’ starring YOUR BRAND and OUR TEAM offering BRAND ESTABLISHMENT, BRAND REVIEW, BRAND MANAGEMENT, BRAND IMPLEMENTATION and BRAND DEVELOPMENT based on YOUR COMPANY VISION supported by a VISUAL IDENTITY MANUAL plus Graphic DESIGN, PRINT MANAGEMENT, WEB DEVELOPMENT and MARKETINg consultancy in conjunction with Strategy, tRADE SHOW DEVELOPMENT, SOCIAL MEDIA, PHOTOGRAPHY and COPY WRITING produced by FIONA VESEY directed by ANDREW VESEY

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The Law Of The (Business) Jungle In Business, Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast Strategy is often talked about in business schools, in fact it’s a primary focus. Culture however, is less understood. Culture involves a variety of contributing factors including a blend of attitudes, beliefs, mission, philosophy, and momentum that help to create and sustain a successful brand.

It represents the vision, norms, symbols, beliefs, behaviours, and traditions that are taught to new members of an organization. Organisational culture affects the way people within an organization interact with one another and the people they serve.

Consistently ranked as great companies to work for, organizations like Zappos and Apple are both examples of companies with a distinguished culture and solid strategies. Although all companies have ups and downs, these have remained strong over a long period of time. An important factor in their success is their strong organisational culture.

Organisational culture has a much stronger power on employees’ motivation than strategy does.

Culture fuels growth. It’s the secret sauce of strategy. Without the sauce the strategy isn’t as good. Corporate culture describes and governs the ways a company’s owners and employees think, feel and act. It is built from the combined experiences of the members of an organization at all levels.

Culture is key in an organization for long-term success. It is the most important thing in an organization and it applies at all levels, from the top of the organization all the way down. Rules, regulations, and operating standards are important, of course, because you have to have systems in place to guide activities. But culture is the factor that stands above all others.

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There are many factors that go into building an organisational culture. Each successful company has a different combination of factors that makes their culture successful. Here are a few that I think are particularly important:

1. Traditions Traditions help make a company what it is. They tell the world who they are as an organization. One way for an organization to maintain and develop its organisational culture and ethos is to introduce and celebrate a variety of traditions. Disney in particular has been a master of this concept by training all new employees on the traditions of the organization.

Strong traditions that are applied throughout an organization are one of the best ways to maintain a healthy organisational culture.

2. Mission A burning mission can give laser focus to an organization. The mission statement needs to be short and memorable. Most importantly, it needs to be a rallying cry for people throughout the organization. One thing I’ve learned in running a business for almost thirty years is that “ignorance on fire is better than knowledge on ice.” Getting employees and clients excited about the mission is critical to organisational success. If the average employee can’t recite your mission – it’s too long.

Amazon.com has a great example of a short and effective mission statement. They state that their “vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”

Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

3. Engagement

5. Education

Collaboration encourages engagement. Get all levels of an organization involved. In BNI, the global referral network I founded almost 30 years ago, we have focused on getting a high level of engagement at all levels of the company.

This engagement includes a Franchise Advisory Board made up of key franchisees to address organisational challenges, a Founder’s Circle of stake holders to provide direct feedback to management about issues concerning the organization, a Board of Advisors made up exclusively of clients to ensure engagement regarding policies that effect the organization globally, an Executive Council made up of the largest seven master franchisees within the organization, as well as a number of other entities to help ensure full participation at all levels of the organization. Engagement can be messy, but when done correctly, it encourages a collaborative culture.

Immerse and engage in a culture of learning. The more a company can integrate ongoing Dr. Ivan Misner learning into the organisational BNI ethos, the more likely that The Referral Institute company is to stay nimble and prepared for change.

Educating the organization regarding the culture of the company is particularly important to fuel and maintain a great culture. A great strategy keeps you in the game, however, a great culture helps you win. Especially important are the traditions and mission of the company. These things need to be part of the ongoing education of all new and existing employees.

4. Recognition Many years ago, Ken Blanchard got it right in The One Minute Manager. He said, “catch people doing something right” and recognize them publicly. Praise in public and re-direct in private.

No truer words have ever been spoken when it comes to building a healthy organisational culture.

Recognize and celebrate successes. As Blanchard says, if you can’t catch people doing something right – then catch them doing something ‘partially right’ and recognize that.

Culture is a critical key to organisational success. It is one of the most important things in a company and it applies to all levels, from the top of the organization all the way down. The challenge with culture is that it is illusive. The best and most scalable culture is one that is managed and maintained by the majority and not by a single policing body or by management alone.

Companies that dominate an industry for a long period of time do so because of a shared vision of organisational culture that is effectively implemented throughout the company. That shared implementation of the vision is an important key to building a successful organisational culture.

If all the people in an organization row in the same direction in unison, that organization can dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time.

Implementing a strong organisational strategy can be difficult however, implementing a healthy organisational culture is rare and in my opinion when all is said and done; culture, eats strategy for breakfast any day. BQ

Brand Quarterly™

35

Mastering Your Domain Legal Issues Concerning Adwords, Keywords And Domain Names With the explosion of goods and services being offered via the internet, the need to differentiate your brand online is vital. This article looks at how brands can be protected in cyberspace.

text, are searched by search engines to locate, rank and list sites. When one of your keywords is used in a search, the metatags are picked and your web site appears in the search results or your advert appears next the search results.

A Brief Overview Of Domain Names, Keywords And Adwords

‘Adwords’ is Google’s advertising and marketing product that allows the association of certain keywords with your website when using Google. You are usually required to pay for the use of advertising keywords (the more popular, the more expensive).

A domain name is a human readable format URL which is used to signpost to a website. The address consists of source-identifying designations (such as ‘wikipedia’) and a domain name suffix. Domain name suffixes are of either a generic top-level (“gTLD”) variety (such as “.com”, “.net” or “.org”) or country specific (e.g., “.uk”, “.nz” or “.tv”) It is clearly desirable to have the right to use a domain name that reflects your brand and attracts customers. The significance of domain names is evidenced by the paying of large sums of money for their transfer in some cases - ‘business.com’ reportedly sold for $8 million.

If a third party (especially a competitor) uses a domain name that is an unadorned version of your brand or which incorporates your brand, it will have an obvious adverse affect on your business by diverting users away or confusing them as to who is providing the online offering.

‘Keywords’ are words or phrases that you can select to relate to your business and describe your website’s contents. They are then associated with your website or adverts using (user invisible) metatags embedded in the hypertext mark-up language. Metatags, along with a website’s visible

36

Using advertising keyword or metatags increases traffic to your web site as your adverts or website links are more likely to be shown to users who are already interested in your brand or your business area. The more often a keyword appears on a site the higher a search engine will rank the site in its search results.

Restraining Use Of Brands Your trade marks communicate information about the origin and quality of your product or service to which they are applied. These rights can be registered (most countries have an official register) or unregistered (consisting of reputation and goodwill).

If someone else uses your brand in the course of trade, they would potentially be liable to you for trade mark infringement or (depending on the jurisdiction) related civil claims, such as passing off, unfair competition etc. The key question is therefore, does the use of your brand as a metatag on a web site constitute an infringing ‘use’?

Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

Your Brand’s identity is priceless.

Lock it down online.

Although varying between countries, generally the use of your trade marks as metatags or adwords by a third party will not be actionable if: • it is legitimately used to describe that web site’s contents or the product distributed via the web site, to offer a substitute product as part of comparative advertising or to criticise you or your business; • there is no likelihood of confusion by internet users as to the origin of the advertised goods or services (although deliberate ‘initial interest confusion’ will not generally be tolerated); and • it is explicitly clear that there is no commercial connection between you and the advertiser.

Search engines and Internet Service Providers are unlikely to be liable for facilitating the use of your trade marks by a third party.

If you think your brand or trade mark has been infringed by its use in keywords, you could (subject to taking legal advice in the relevant jurisdiction) insist that the infringer ceases such activity and in default of this commence court proceedings.

Recovering Domain Names Domain names can be addressed in a different manner. This is because all registrars of gTLDs will implement WIPO panel decisions under ICANN’s Universal Dispute Resolution Procedure (“UDRP”).

This means that where a gTLD in which you have rights (registered or unregistered and anywhere in the world) has been registered by a party who (i) has no rights or legitimate interest in the name; (ii) has registered or is using the domain in bad faith

and (iii) where the domain is identical or confusingly similar to your own, you can submit an application to WIPO for a domain name transfer. There will be a cost associated with such an application (currently US$1,500).

For national domain names you would need to apply to the relevant national registrar (in the UK this is Nominet) and the application would be considered under a set of national rules a broadly similar to the UDRP.

Our ‘Top Tips’

James Howarth Manches

• Run regular searches on a variety of search engines, and search the websites of competitors, to identify where and how your trade marks are used by a third party so that you can assess whether such use is affecting your brand and business.

• Decide what brand names you wish to represent and/or protect online and consider registration for your own use and to prevent others from acquiring them (you may wish to consider obvious variants and typical misspellings as protective registrations).

• Take prompt action to recover domain names that should properly belong to you and in particular those which are being used for scam sites as this can cause massive damage to a brand BQ

Brand Quarterly™

This article was created in collaboration with Sophie Arrowsmith.

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38

Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

Who’s Selling Your Brand?

Your Staff Are Manning The Front Lines I was talking with a group of business owners late last year. The discussion inevitably turned to the perennial issue of “Staff”. What a surprise.

The essence of the discussion centred on getting good staff. I asked them to define the word ‘good’.

Basically it boiled down to – staff who actually appeared outwardly to customers that they to loved their job. One commented – “How much does it cost for a staff member to actually smile at a customer?”

Cost Of A Smile Good question. Perhaps it does cost some individuals to smile. From a business point of view, I can relate to the cost of not smiling at a customer.

Sales. Try and tell staff that to smile will increase sales. What the heck – I am still paid even if we sell nothing today! Do I see an ‘attitude’ here? Note those smiles from other organisations you deal with; you know the one that says ‘The boss says I smile now with my mouth’.

Celebrity Approach To Marketing.

If I asked you how much you put aside for marketing and advertising your Brand, I am sure I will get the usual statement of 5% of net earnings. Really.

How do you market and advertise your Brand on 5% when your Brand is actually more about the customer experience?

I know there are companies out there that use celebrities to convince people to use their Brand. It is well know that people will follow like sheep if the right celebrity is used. Notice I used the word ‘right’.

A question to ponder. Whose Brand is being marketed in these situations? The organisation’s or the celebrities?

Some celebrities, after using their image to convince us to follow them, suddenly see they could make more than one million dollars per advertisement if they actually produce their own line of product. You love me. Why would you not buy my underwear!

Now just imagine if you offered your staff a salary of one million dollars to convince people to use your product or service. There would be a line outside your door waiting to work for you. What motivation.

For how long? Just think for a moment about cosmetic and magazine organisations. How often do they ‘change the face of their campaign and why’?

Make Your Staff Celebrities.

I believe you can achieve the same concept using your present staff and without the large sums of money being involved. Take a look at your last year’s accounts. What was the total you spent on staff wages and salaries for the year? Work out this as a percentage of total costs. What was that comment about ‘without the large sums of money being involved’? Yes they are large are they not!

Here is a thought. Ever considered your wages bill could be part of your Brand advertising budget?

You are paying this money anyway while you still have staff. Why not get some added value from that large amount. This is the link back to my second paragraph.

If we agreed your staff could become a ‘Celebrity’ in your business, how would the ‘Celebrity’ behave?

I cannot answer this for you. Yes, I could say look for these characteristics and make your job easier.

I could become a guru and sell you the perfect plan which will sort out all your customer service problems. When that does not work I can then sell you the perfect recruitment plan, followed by the perfect contract, followed by the perfect induction plan, followed by ….

Instead let me provide you with two ‘real life’ situation experiences which wooed me as the customer on my recent holiday to Melbourne.

I have chosen these two specific examples because to me the first illustrates staff have been turned into celebrities and understand the requirements of the Brand to be projected and the second one shows the Brand being developed with a new staff member.

The Bread And Bun Café.

Ken Vesey Approachable Consultancy

(not the real name)

Walking around feeling like something to eat, I spotted a small café across the road with an interesting looking window display. There was little product in the window, but the graphics, use of colour and the writing caught my attention.

I wondered across the road for a closer inspection.

The first thing I noticed was the delightful smell of freshly prepared food floating out the doorway. Let’s go in and buy something for lunch!

Brand Quarterly™

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On entering we suddenly realised it was not just a bakery but the shop next door was the café entered only from inside the bakery. The cabinet, although not large, held plenty of nice healthy looking rolls, sandwiches, filled baguettes, Panini’s - I must stop.

On the top of the cabinet were well displayed trays of cakes, slices, buns, Christmas pies, etc. First impression – I will eat here!

One of the staff approached us while we salivated over the offerings, and greeted us with a smile and “What could we tempt you with today?” Four brownie points - not the usual; What can I get for you? We ordered our baguettes.

“Now, what about afters? Could we tempt you with our special homemade Christmas Mince tarts or the freshly baked delectable mini Christmas cakes?”

Four brownie points - not the usual; Anything else.

I added for two flat whites. While paying, the staff member said, “Are you from NZ? I thought I picked up the NZ accent.” More brownie points. It turns out she is married to a NZer who used to live in Christchurch.

The table service was as unique as purchasing the food. Within minutes of settling down at the table, a well presented and well groomed young waitress arrived at the table.

“Hi. I see you have both ordered my favourite baguettes. I just love the way the chef dresses up the beef baguettes with that wonderful pickle he makes and the dressing he uses on the ham and salad baguettes is to die for. I will send the Barista over with your coffee shortly. Take your time and enjoy.”

“Well how was that? Wasn’t that pickle divine. I keep asking Chef for the recipe but he says it is a family secret”. To my wife: “Did you enjoy the dressing? Doesn’t it just combine the salad and ham flavours? I might even consider treating myself to one of those for lunch. That is if there are any left by that time.”

“And how was our delicious fair trade coffee?”

“I am pleased you enjoyed”. “I will pass your compliments onto the Barista. He will be pleased. He loves it when people like his coffee.” The dishes are cleared. And yes the mini Christmas cakes arrived with the additional two cups of flat white in the same flamboyant manner as the main.

On leaving we thanked the staff member who served us at the counter. “Thank you. I hear you enjoyed your time with us.”

My comment: “Yes. And we will be back to eat and relax here again”. And we were. The second experience, with different wait staff, was just as superb as the first. They used their own unique flamboyance to sell the Brand.

40

The Cake Shop On our visit to St Kilda, we just had to have morning tea at one of the many cake shops situated on the one street, all plying a similar product.

One shop caught our attention. The window display of product was outstanding. Unlike four of the others we had looked at, there was no indication of where cakes had been taken from for sale. We knew they were selling as we had to wait to get into the small area of the café. They were coming out with bags filled with delectable morning tea (and perhaps lunch).

On entering the shop, the mystery was solved. They took them from another cabinet? No. The cabinets inside were filled with more delightful treats. It was the system they used. While one of the counter staff served customers, the other replaced stock. Too many customers and they both served. The owner hovered in the background. To the untrained eye he looked extremely busy. To the trained eye, he was supervising and noting everything!

I watched the store owner teaching a new staff member the ropes. I gathered the person was to be the new shop counter supervisor. Here is what I observed.

Coming to the counter: When you come to the counter area from out the back, look in the mirror on the cupboard and ensure you are still smartly dressed and clean. No flour on your apron. Check on the staff as you approach.

Are they smartly dressed and clean. Do not have cake product all over their uniform or face. If they do, then ask them to go speak to Chef. They know what that means!

Look at the floor. Is it clean and tidy? How does the counter look? Does it look as if it has been cleaned down between groups of customers? Is everything in its place?

Look at the counter against the wall. Are there dirty dishes stacked there? If so, and if customers are not waiting, take them to the kitchen. You need to keep on top of the dishes or you will not catch up.

The stroll: Every 5 to 6 minutes, stroll out onto the café floor.

Have the tables been cleared? If not, clear them and wipe them down or get the counter staff to if they are not serving. Look at the floor. Has anything been dropped? Casually pickup any rubbish. Look at the doorway to the shop. Is it clean and free from rubbish?

Look at the window display. Can you see places which need filling? The counter staff are supposed to fill as they can but sometimes they get too busy.

Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

Are the cakes nicely separated and square onto the line of the window?

Before you come in, have one last look around the shop and its entrance. Is there anything out of place? As you enter the shop, smile at the customers, quickly check the floor area and the table and view the inside cabinets from the customer’s perspective. Are they still inviting? Do more cakes need to be put out? How are the sandwiches and rolls?

This check should take you no more than 1 minute!

Now I trust you to look after this shop just as if it was me. I have three other shops in the town and rotate between them during the day. What I have asked you to do is exactly what I do when I come to this shop. Look out if it is not up to our standard. Any

questions? Go for it and I will watch.

You must agree none of this is really rocket science.

However, in both cases the owner had decided what their Brand would look like and how to achieve it. I must admit the cake shop owner could be called a little fastidious. However, to him his Brand was about the small things. He knew he had a great product. BQ

Post script: You may, after reading this article consider I am food driven. No (however my family may disagree).

They just seemed to capsulate for me the whole idea of Brand and using the staff to champion it.

Are Your A Marketer?

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Show Me The Money!

Funding Your Brand The life blood of any business is the “finance” to commence, grow and expand the products/ services being marketed.

Where Does The Funding Come From?

Many business owners have the capital with which to launch and promote an idea or more practically several product lines. To be successful in launching and promoting a product/brand can be very expensive and not always successful.

The first step is to prepare a comprehensive business plan. This will ensure that you have researched thoroughly your chosen market and that the monies available to you can ensure that you can FUND your business. Perhaps more importantly is the chosen vehicle for your business, Sole trader; Partnership, Limited Company, Limited Liability Partnership. No matter what country you are in; advice should always be taken from the appropriate professionals to ensure that you are complying legally; that your chosen route is tax efficient and that you and indeed your family/investors have identified the appropriate “protection” for your business.

For those of us without the ‘Midas Touch’, There are many other ways to fund your Brand.

42 Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

In many countries of the world the High Street Banks’ have been placed under considerable constraints when it comes to assessing lending proposals.

Are Banks’ The Only Providers Of Finance?

Approaching a “bank” should be your initial “port of call.” BUT be prepared as they will ALWAYS require a CONSIDERABLE amount of information and it is recommended that you approach a “professional” to assist you in the preparation of any funding proposal. The professional should know 1. 1. How best to advise and assist prepare the presentation.

2. 2. Know which lender is the most appropriate for your circumstances.

3. 3. Be with you throughout the whole exercise to provide the advice and guidance.

4. 4. Introduce to you, where appropriate, other likeminded professionals.

Investing your own money in your business can have its advantages. By contributing it as a Director’s Loan will enable you, through time to “withdraw” and “recover” your investment.

This of course is dependent upon the ability of the business to “repay.”

Take advice from your Accountant.

However should you be borrowing funds from a Bill Christie conventional bank they CER Business Finance could insist that you postpone repayment to yourself until they have been repaid, either in part or in full.

Alternative Sources Of Funding.

1. Local Authority/Government Department.

Check with your local authority or indeed a Government Department to ascertain if you and indeed your business qualifies for “assistance.”

Your Own Contribution.

Cash Or Personal Assets.

1. Your own experience in the particular sector is essential.

2. A lender will look for you to commit a certain percentage of your own cash to the project.

3. If you have security; domestic property, investment property, stock & shares, other forms of tangible assets; then these may be required to be “charged” to a lender.

4. Monies can be “raised” to meet your own financial contribution from:a) Obtaining cash from suitable personal pension funds- provided you qualify to do so. b) There are lenders who will advance monies from your family home by way of a second charge over the property. This is known as a Secured Personal Loan. Funding will be dependent upon 1. Your level of income 2.

The Total Loan to value. c) Through providing a lender with a second charge over a Buy to Let property. This is also a Secured Personal Loan and is based upon 1. The level of rental income; 2. The Total Loan to value.

In certain instances an SPL can be taken out over a considerable period of time in order to minimise monthly repayments AND repaid early with only a “minimal” penalty.

Investing Your Own Money.

2. Privately Funded Local Authority Lenders.

Some local authorities may additionally have set up separate entities to consider funding applications.

3. Community Development Finance Institutions.

In some countries this is a network of Independent Institutions prepared to lend to certain industry sectors. The amount available could be restricted and in some instances they can consider “matching funds” already obtained either personally or through another funding institution.

4. Crowd Funding.

This Internet based lending and has become very popular and indeed effective.

This is where “investors” are invited to deposit with a “company” a sum of money of their choice in order that when the “company” receives applications for funding and once the applicant has “passed” the initial “credit check”, the application goes out to auction. The Investor can then indicate “how much” they are prepared to commit and at “what rate of interest.”

This financial tool is for the meantime in some countries restricted to Limited Companies or Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP) where a minimum of two years accountants have been submitted to the

Brand Quarterly™

43

appropriate authority ( In GB Companies House).

Unlike deposits made with Authorised Banks, where deposits up to a certain level are “guaranteed”, this is NOT the case with Crowd Funding.

5. Invoice Finance/Factoring.

When a new product or brand is taken to market it is important that the business has the relative cashflow in order to meet its financial commitments and indeed continue to produce/manufacture. Whilst a long established financial tool, which for the wrong reasons may not always have enjoyed the respect that it deserved, this funding tool is now seen as very effective. It allows the business providing the goods to obtain an agreed percentage of the Invoice issued to the client. Instead of “waiting” for many weeks to be paid, the agreed percentage is made almost immediately thereby ensuring suitable and sustainable “cash flow”.

There are also Financial Institutions which can fund a “one off” expense or substantial invoice.

6. Private Investors/Business Angels.

An important factor when considering “growing” your business. Be prepared to consider “giving up” a portion of the shares in your Company. Take advice from the relative professionals to consider ALL the implications involved. In certain countries there are “tax benefits” to potential investors considering investing in approved sectors. Be prepared however as they may not be in for the “long haul” and you may require to have in place an exit strategy after a prescribed number of years.

7. Franchise/Licence your products/brands.

Provided you have a “track record” this could be an ideal way to further inject “cash” into your business as well as providing a route to market your products/brands.

In The November 2102 Issue of Brand Quarterly, Lesley McLuskey. Managing Director of Billmar Franchise Services provided an excellent insight as to how best to consider this.

Funding for your product and service is essential to the promotion of your business.

Take the appropriate professional advice; be prepared to commit your time, energy and personal resources to your business. Plan ahead, employ the appropriate staff, take advice on ALL Accountancy, Funding, Legal and HR aspects; and oh yes, make sure that you have the appropriate Terms and Conditions for your business. BQ

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To Be Heard In the next issue of Brand Quarterly, we will be launching our first Global Reader Survey.

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In order for US to provide you with the best business tools possible, we need YOUR help.

• We want to learn more about you and your business • What your big issues are • Your opinon on some of the Brand and marketing options out there • How we can improve Brand Quarterly magazine

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Get Your Brand Right Why A Great Brand Matters More Than You Think Now, I’m not an expert in branding – but I am an expert in creating more of what you want. Most people don’t get what they want from their brand because of 3 basic misconceptions.

3 Misconceptions About Branding • A great brand establishes credibility • A great brand is all about attracting customers • A great brand is something a designer or brand manager does for you There is some truth in all of these, but if these three points sum up your approach to branding you are probably not getting all the business you deserve and more importantly the quality of business you want.

3 Steps To A Great Brand 1. Work out who you are – I mean, work out who you really are. Make a list of your personal characteristics as well as business ones, warts and all, and express that in your brand. List all your bad points too and realise the positive benefits in them. If you’re stubborn or impatient, then your brand may be about being committed to delivery no matter what.

A great brand will establish your credibility – but it is much more about presenting the essence of who you are.

2. Decide your ideal client – I don’t just mean by sector which is how businesses usually define their target market. Decide who you really like to do business with.

Be really specific about who they are, and don’t forget in your list of criteria you may want to add ‘pays the bills on time’.

Since people do business with people they know, like and trust, finding clients who are ‘your type of people’ makes doing Cath Vincent business more fun and improves attraction and retention too.

A great brand will attract customers – but if it truly represents who you are, it will attract customers who are attracted to your core values, not to an image you think you should fulfil.

3. Work with a branding expert who understands you – when looking at branding it’s easy to get seduced by the pretty pictures and produce branding that ‘looks nice’. This is just the external stuff, the icing on the cake. Great branding is a marriage of the internal (who you are) and the external (attractive design). Working with an intuitive brand manager who understands you ensures that your brand doesn’t just look nice but ‘feels real’ too.

A great brand can’t be done for you – your brand already exists in the essence of who you are. No designer on earth can express it for you until you’ve worked out what that is. BQ

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Do you have control of your Brand?

Or are you just along for the ride?

Control Your Destiny It’s Your Brand? So Who’s At The Wheel?

Finding Your Gatekeeper.

It seems simple enough: Brand Power = Success So why leave it to chance?

With a multitude of internal and external Brand requirements, coupled with the number of individuals and companies involved in delivering them, you need to retain control to ensure it is done right.

While I don’t recommend personally keeping control and overseeing Brand execution (let’s face it, you’ve got plenty to do already and your time is worth a lot), it is important to have a single, trusted ‘Gatekeeper’ for your brand. This Gatekeeper will help improve your Brand Power, which in turn will improve your ROI.

Following are the keys to selecting your Gatekeeper and, just as importantly, how to use them to maximum advantage.

46

Finding the right person (or team) for the job is important. The better your Gatekeeper, the better the results. The main points to consider during your search are the following:

1. Internal vs External Internal and external Gatekeepers both have their advantages. It really comes down to which fits you better financially, what employment responsibilities you want to have and whether you want to create your own specific processes/systems or work with someone who has them already done for you.

2. Experience And Knowledge Experience is important, and vital if recruiting externally. When recruiting internally, don’t overlook those with the knowledge but not the experience, especially if they have that ‘X’ Factor. While they may take longer to reach their full potential, they can be a good long term investment.

Building Your Business From The Brand Up™

Role Dedication

Making The Brand ‘Easy’

With an external team, this isn’t an issue. With an internal Gatekeeper, it is important to make sure they have a dedicated role. This is important as with combined roles, the Brand is normally the first thing to be dropped as it seems to have no immediacy of result.

The creation of standardised and (where applicable) templated Brand collateral makes Brand consistency much easier. Couple this with an simple method for all required personnel to easily access and utilise the collateral, and you have a powerful tool to increase your ROI.

Combining this role with Marketing position works of course, but only if that is their only role. If they also handle admin, accounts or sales etc, then this is a no-no.

Reviewing, Approving And Coordinating Brand Carriers

The X Factor This covers everything else. Is Branding their passion? Do they just ‘Gel’ with your Brand’s values and vision? Are they entrepreneurial? Unbound energy?

Getting the right Brand Carriers takes work. It’s not as simple as looking for the cheapest printer, the largest uniform supplier and the closest signwriter to your office. Matching your price, quality and service requirements with your Brand values and growth strategies is key. Your Gatekeeper should review all applicants and approve the most appropriate ones for your Brand. They will then coordinate them and ensure they continue to deliver at the required level.

Your Gatekeeper’s Role:

Being The ‘Bad Cop’

Now that you have the right Gatekeeper, it’s time to put them to the task of controlling your Brand and guiding it’s success.

Whether you’re an employer, manager or a franchisor, sometimes it’s better to let someone else be the ‘Bad Cop’, which can be key when dealing with Brand approvals. You will need to award them the power to do so and stand behind them in this role.

Reviewing The Brand And Brand Planning This is where a combination of experience and knowledge help from the outset. A key role as Gatekeeper is to regularly review the strength and consistency of the Brand and plan how to improve it. Keeping an eye out for new opportunities and how to maximise them is also part of this process.

A Single Brand Gateway EVERYTHING goes through the Gatekeeper Full Stop. If it is Brand related, it must pass the Gatekeeper’s eyes. See the next few points for examples.

Whether you are looking to consolidate your position or grow your business, appointing a Brand Gatekeeper will reap rewards.

It doesn’t matter where you are in the business lifecycle - a Startup, an emerging Brand, a Market Leader or even preparing your business for sale: The best time to appoint your Brand Gatekeeper is NOW. BQ

Controlling Brand Distribution Any requests for Brand related materials is handled by the Gatekeeper. From a web site requesting your logo, to a magazine requiring your Brand messaging, through to a Brand Carrier asking for your Brand fonts and colours.

Fiona Vesey

Brand Approval All Brand collateral created, internally and externally, should be approved by the gatekeeper.

This creates the highest possible level of consistency and ensures everyone is on the same page, no matter how many people are involved.

Brand Quarterly™

Vesey Creative

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