C Notes Newsletter Issue 6

Have You Planned For A New Business In Your Marketing Strategy?

Nearly everyone will concede that it makes sense to plan ahead. Marketing plans and long-term strategies have become as ubiquitous in modern business as hardware and software. But even as we fill today’s orders with keen attention paid to tomorrow’s, too many of us ignore the fact that commerce changes on a dime, and that our core businesses could very well evaporate overnight. That’s why it pays to plan for new business.

Admittedly, it’s not easy to plan for the total upheaval of your industry, but that’s only the worst-case scenario. More likely situations include gradual market shifts, and happily, new opportunities. Planning for that sort of growth, expansion and diversification can very well translate into the long-term survival of your company.

Contingency planning, while wise, need not be obsessive. Often it makes most sense to assign such planning to a single source. Consider delegating the task to an imaginative employee with vision. One who understands your business and your market, and recognizes opportunity when he or she sees it. Quarterly or even bi-annual reviews of the New Business Contingency Plan should be sufficient to assure that it is timely, relevant and useful.

A fringe benefit of contingency planning is that it doesn’t only pay off with new possibilities. The insights you gain through careful analysis of market trends and growth opportunities bring immediate rewards, and better enable you to serve your existing customers.

Business success is oftentimes predicated upon preparedness. A New Business Contingency Plan just might prepare you for success beyond your imagination.

Image Is Part Of Imagination

How do you want your company to be perceived? What are you doing to perpetuate and manage these perceptions?

Image is more than identity programs, advertising and public relations initiatives. Certainly, these are important aspects of creating a successful business and a necessary ingredient for image management. However, the culture that dictates the creative direction of these marketing tools should also be extended to every aspect of your business to maximize the value of time, energy and resources invested in marketing programs.

Image is everything in the marketplace. But what is it, really? It is the philosophy that a company communicates through its employees, and business practices, the timely delivery of a product or service, even the condition of the workplace environment. It permeates all of the daily business activities from customer service to billing practices, employee appearance to the way the phones are answered. What do customers encounter on the other end of the line when they call your company? You only have one chance to make a positive first impression and should capitalize on the opportunity every time the phone rings. Customers, suppliers and the business community will gather information and make assumptions about a company’s image whether it is managed or not. Take the time to create and monitor a culture that will allow your company to be viewed in a positive light not only by customers and suppliers, but also by employees and the community at large.

This can apply to many areas of your day-to-day business practices. How are people greeted when they visit your place of business? Fill your lobby with displays that are reflective of your success in the marketplace. All correspondence that leaves the office, letters, faxes, emails, even product packages should project a positive image and reflect your corporate culture. Unclear identity, misspellings and careless protocol all risk diminishing your company’s credibility. Even your delivery provider is an extension of your company and should reflect your company’s unique style.

The billing process is another source of image and awareness potential. Accounts receivable personnel reflect the attitude of their company with every interaction and invoice they send. Why not make this an opportunity? A courteous and personal approach, consistent with the sales approach that brought in the order, should be used in collecting outstanding receivables. This conformity helps to develop deeper relationships with your customers.

There are many subtle ways you can reinforce the positive image you have worked so hard to create. Examine your business practices carefully. Are they in alignment with your marketing strategy? In today’s fiercely competitive environment, businesses must find a differentiating advantage to remain successful. Consistent image management can be that edge. Customers will use companies that they trust and that have their best interest in mind. Show them that you are that company in every way possible.

Spend time seriously examining every aspect of your business. Pretend you are your customer. Then use your imagination to create an image that is in keeping with your unique business philosophy.

The Importance Of Good Design

Have you ever noticed that just when you’ve purchased a new car, you start noticing that same style everywhere you look—as if something that has always been there has gone inexplicably unseen? Is corporate design similar? In its myriad forms, design can be found everywhere, to the point of unconscious invisibility.

Occasionally, though, a few design stand-outs manage to rise above the background noise and command popular attention. Sometimes these designs become integral to our cultural consciousness. In more everyday cases, we simply find ourselves remembering a few of the designs we’ve seen…and remembering also the companies behind them.

As good as that sounds, be warned that there are at least two strong emotions that allow an element of design to be noticed and remembered. One of these emotions is positive, and to be sought after. The other is neither.

The murky dualism of design is this: bad design is every bit as memorable as exemplary design. In either case, a visceral connection is formed in the mind of the viewer. If the design is striking, or brilliant, or daring, the audience is positively receptive to the intended message. If on the other hand the design offends the eye or insults the mind…well, you can surely guess the result.

Design, then, holds an inherent danger; that something so ubiquitous, so potentially beneficial, can do untold harm if not handled with the requisite care. A poor design decision at best costs you money. At worst it can destroy your business.

Your company’s creative property—everything from letterhead to billboards— is the only face that most of the world will ever see. The design of these elements become your voice, and they speak your message every time a customer or potential customer sees them.

By way of example, consider the humble wine bottle. It is difficult to argue that the quality of the wine inside the bottle has anything to do with the quality of design to be found on the label. Yet, whenever a customer chooses to try a wine for the first time, that purchasing decision is based on factors that have nothing to do with the palate. One of these factors —perhaps the weightiest one—is whether or not the label design is pleasing to the eye. In that instant, the merit of the grape, the vintner’s craft, every aspect of the wine’s quality has become secondary to the visual image as perceived by the customer. Design, therefore, has clinched the sale.

Is the power of design to be feared, then? Not at all. Respected, definitely. Embraced, ideally. Note that the aforementioned vintner, who might understandably resent the way that design has trumped his own efforts, is much more likely to welcome the design that has brought attention to the package he offers his customers.

Design can be, and should be, integral to the consumer’s experience. It can never replace quality manufacturing and responsive customer service, but it undoubtedly augments these as a third building block of success. The most visionary of companies recognized this truth generations ago, and their designs have become cultural icons. Newer companies that adopt this view are destined to become the industry leaders of tomorrow. Those that resist are likely to fade into obscurity.

The most significant evolution in marketing—and therefore design—is that it is more vital today than ever before. Unprecedented competition in every field means that marketing is now everyone’s concern. Even institutions that have never marketed before—law firms and hospitals and universities—now find themselves struggling to sway their share of customers. Design can be the solution. Not a simple solution, to be sure; its planning and implementation must be approached with the same deliberation due any strategic undertaking. However, good design does much more than pay for itself when utilized to its full potential. It makes a strong organization undefeatable.