I finally emerged, triumphant, a little angry, with a broader perspective, more compassion, and ultimately a different person. The anger eventually subsided.

When I started writing this blog I wanted to share experiences about virtually all of the services I regularly perform for clients. Then I wrote some reviews and observations, and wrote more about general business, until finally the focus on branding and marketing was all but gone.

When I finally regained my full health, I began writing again, but with a whole new level of focus. At some point late last year, it occurred to me that I didn’t need to write about every business experience. I no longer had a desire to write critiques of lectures and other people’s work. There’s plenty of that out there already. I wanted to write something profoundly positive that would help people learn and grow.

Yesterday, I launched a new blog aimed at inspiring people to think differently about their brands. It’s called Branding Revolution.

I’ll be writing about small business branding, personal branding, brand development, how to find meaning in your brand, how your brand fits into your marketing, and a whole lot more. Every post will be focused squarely on brands and the process of branding. Current posts include a series on how to find a great graphic designer, personal branding, and more.

Branding can be the most boring of topics if you think of it only in terms of business branding. For instance, a house-mom (or dad) would have little interest in branding. But personal branding is a whole different beast. Personal branding is, well, personal. It opens the doors to the experiences that shape us as people. When you start opening those doors and seeing what is behind them, it’s pretty fascinating stuff. It can be profound and life-changing.

If you can’t tell, I’m super excited about Branding Revolution. I hope you will come over to the new blog to learn and share your experiences.

Just as a brand is a constantly developing and evolving entity, so too is Branding Revolution. I will be chronicling the development of my own personal brand as an example. If you would like to be featured in a similar capacity, shoot me an email and tell me a bit about your story.

I’ll still be posting articles here on KellyHobkirk.com too, yet this site is going to undergo a major redesign soon. The focus will narrow for sure. Keep your eyes peeled.

Thanks for reading.

Thing is, advertising is not manipulative in the least. In fact, people actually value advertising as part of their daily lives, more so now than ever before.

All advertising mediums are completely optional. Without the branding and adverts that people love to complain about, none of the mediums would exist. Advertising pays for the entertainment we treasure and learn from. Advertising is a win-win for everyone. You get your entertainment, the advertiser gets a great response (when they do it right), and the medium – be it a tv program, magazine, website, or whateva’ – continues. Win-win-win, in fact.

Do you watch movie previews? They’re adverts. Do you ever see a movie preview that entices you to go see another movie? That’s an advert that worked the moment you paid for the next ticket. If the movie previews annoy you, you are free to look away or come in just in time for the feature. I usually see a packed theater during the previews.

The same choice to look away or simply not engage applies to every other advertising medium that exists. Try thinking about advertising like this: Advertising pays for the entertainment you love. Which forms of entertainment do you love? What types of advertising are bringing that value to you?

What did surprise me, however, is that fully half of the students felt that they are not manipulated at all. Instead they felt while businesses can effectively market themselves in very visible ways, each person has choices about what to buy and which mediums to view. My point exactly!

The students liked the idea of defining their personal brands. The teacher liked it so much in fact that she suggested making it into a class project.

It was a nice way to spend an hour and great to connect with some smart, passionate young adults.

If you launch a business without a logo, you are endangering the success of your business and your brand right out of the starting blocks. A brand is not a thing created solely by the customer, and it’s not just for the customer. Your brand is a conglomeration of the following things, in this order: an entrepreneur’s or company’s core values, your visual and verbal identity (including your logo, the cornerstone of your identity), customer service, product or service quality, and finally the customer’s experience. All of these elements combine to create perception, experience, and loyalty. Your logo plays a vital role in this mix, as the single most communicative and memorable ingredient.

Your logo serves a much larger role than “just” the meaningful identifier for your customers though. It is a daily signal to inspiration and motivation for you and your employees. Your logo is also the single fastest way to communicate your worthiness to angels and bankers, as well as your professionalism to vendors. Your logo and corporate identity set the tone for nearly all of your branding and marketing communications, including your website. If you don’t start with a professional logo, it is highly likely that you will end up with a mish-mash of mismatched marketing communications.

If you skip the critical step of designing a logo, you leave the customer, and all of the people your business relies on, to define their own picture of you. Some people will do this with their own visual cues, and some will not do it at all.

If you design your own logo, it is highly likely that you will want to redesign within 2-3 years. The simple reason for this is that pro designers simply think differently. They solve creative problems in different ways than non-designers. They design logos that stand the test of time. A good logo should last 10-20 years. If you change your logo after just two or three years, you will have to re-educate your customers, yourself, and your employees, and that costs a lot of money.

The most common thing I hear from clients after we complete a logo and identity design is that they now feel real and legitimate. How powerful is that? Super powerful.

Human beings process 80% of all information visually, so if you skip giving them a meaningful logo to remember, guess what? Chances are pretty high that they won’t remember your company. Instead, when they need your product or service again, they will Google it or try to locate it at a store. They may find you, or they may find one of your competitor’s products.

If you later decide to design a logo after launching your business, you have just created a massive disconnect for the customers who have already created their own picture of who you are, and you must now retrain their minds to discover your company all over again. That costs a significant chunk of change. And people don’t like change when it comes to their brands.

How to Get a Professional Logo On Budget and On Time
Three primary misconceptions hold small businesses back from designing a logo prior to launching their business: 
1. Lack of money
2. Lack of time
3. Lack of a good graphic designer, also called disillusionment.

Small business owners and DIYers have a strong tendency to think that logo and identity design will cost too much, and they think it will take too long. If they manage to get past those two excuses, they often hire an inexperienced graphic designer who scares them away with poor design, and they get disillusioned and lose perspective. These are the three most common excuses business owners use to talk themselves out of launching their company with the single most compelling tool available (the logo). There are easy ways to get past all three of these misconceptions. Here they are:

1. Lack of Money – The money factor is the easiest one to conquer. You don’t need a small fortune to hire a competent graphic designer. It’s simply a question of finding the right designer. Set a realistic budget, and be completely up front about it with the designers you call. Avoid trying to get a deal because you’re likely to instead end up with less of a design than you deserve. If the idea for your product or business is great, it deserves to be well-represented. If it isn’t professional looking, that sends a message that your company or product isn’t up to snuff.

Avoid the temptation of trying to get a logo on the cheap from a bulk logo house. These companies have no interest in creating a logo that will truly represent your core characteristics and last you 10 or 20 years, and they can’t possibly help to give you the deeper understanding of your business that a competent designer can.

Interview 3-5 graphic designers on the phone or in person, and chances are you will find one who can work with your budget. You have to know where to look, but it’s not hard. If you call a designer or firm, and they tell you your budget is too low, don’t be offended. It’s not personal. Ask them for the name of a designer they know who can work with your budget. The good designers will want to help you. 

When I take calls from people looking to hire me, I am very up front about our rates. I’ve done an extensive amount of work to devise ways to make working with smaller budgets profitable. Not everyone knows how to do that, so it really is important to make several calls and ask good questions, all with an open mind to the possibilities.

2. Lack of Time – Begin with the end in mind. The first thing you should do when you decide to start a company is call a professional graphic designer. Why? Design runs the world. Look at what mother nature did with design if you need an example to validate that claim. (Unfortunately, she’s not available.) If you are having trouble naming your company, some designers also do brand naming, and they can help. If you already have a great name, you have a head start. 

If you have the time, get started with your graphic designer about 3-4 months ahead of your business launch. If you are short on time, find a designer who works extremely well under deadline pressure. They’re out there (not to plug myself, but I’m one of them). I’ve designed logos that lasted 15 years or more in literally hours, not days or weeks. It’s best not to count on instant turnaround, especially if the designer will be working with a committee for approval. 3-6 weeks is considered normal, but faster is certainly possible. The search for a designer should take a maximum of three half days, or 12 hours total. 12 hours to find a designer who fits your business like a glove is a bargain of time.

3. Lack of a good designer, or Disillusionment – This is another easy one to conquer. The best way to avoid getting poor graphic design that undermines your confidence in the power of great design is to get #1 right. Set a realistic budget, be up front about it, and find a designer who you really connect with in conversation. Are they asking relevant questions? Are they making you think? Are they paying attention? Make sure you like their logo design work. If they use a lot of photos as logos, keep searching. (Photos are used only when a designer is totally stumped, and photos make horrible logos because they are way too detailed to remember in the blink of an eye.) 

Ask a lot of questions. Don’t ask which software they use because software has nothing to do with design – it’s simply a tool, like a hammer to a carpenter. Instead, focus on their design process. How will they start? What will be the project stages? What does their estimate include? Does the estimate include revisions? If the estimate doesn’t include revisions, that can be a red flag. Experienced designers know to include this on their estimates. When can you expect to see rough concepts? When will the project be completed? Ask as many questions as you need to feel totally good about the designer, then hire one.

Great! You’ve Hired a Designer. Now What?
Once you hire a designer, think of them as a trusted partner who is going to understand you and help express your innermost visions. Your expressed confidence gives the designer the freedom to do great work for you.

If you follow these three simple tasks, you will get the logo your business needs to launch well at a price you can afford.

How do you make your customers feel after they tell you what they want? Your reaction has a huge impact on their perception of you, and on how they remember you and your brand.

Customer service is one of the most important aspects of your brand. That’s right, your brand. The way we treat people is a monumental core component of how people perceive us. As we all know, perception becomes reality. Our job as business owners and brand lovers is to guide perception in every genuine way possible.

Clients often have great ideas, but sometimes, their ideas are out of touch with their target market, or just plain wrong. The ability to smile in the face of a weak concept is paramount to successful client relationships. I always try to make my customers feel like they are right, even when they are wrong, sometimes horribly wrong. Here is my approach:

1. Do what the client asks. Even if it is detrimental to their business – even if it makes me pull my armpit hairs (I have no hair on my head) out by the roots – I always do what the client asks. If budget and time allow for it, I provide an excellent execution of what the client asked for, along with a stronger alternative. Upon seeing the results of their request, business-savvy clients will usually choose the best approach, even if it is ultimately not the concept or end-product they originally asked for. When a client sees that their concept is not really what they were after, and I present a stronger alternative, they are happy to pay for some additional work because they know that I did exactly what they requested, then I went the extra mile to deliver a great solution.

2. Do your best. Whether we are working on our own idea or a client’s idea, putting forth our best effort will always reap rewards in one way or another. Holding back does nothing for anyone. Showing the client our best work and hard efforts will usually pay dividends. Don’t try to save the best concept for the next project, or you may not ever get the chance to show it.

3. Give the client the credit. Do your clients ever try to take credit for your ideas? Mine do, all the time. Give clients the credit when they have a great idea. Make them feel like they came up with a great idea. After all, we would not have their business if they had not had a great idea in the first place. If a client tries to take credit for your great idea, sock them in the ear. Ha! Just seeing if you are paying attention. (Don’t ever punch clients.) When clients try to take the credit, gently remind them of your value or your idea, but ultimately, let them steal the five second spotlight if they insist. What would you rather have, the credit or the business? I’m not saying you should let your clients walk all over you, but it’s not hard to strike a balance that will keep you both happy.

4. Ask questions. Listen to your clients when they are talking. If a client says something that is just plain wrong, what do you do? Tell them they’re wrong? Hell no! Did you correct your grandma when she mispronounced a word? If you did, she probably hit you over the head with a rolled up TV Guide or National Enquirer. The customer is always right. (As is the grandma.) When a customer says something that without a doubt is wrong as wrong can be, I ask questions. We know our stuff, but hey! Our clients know their businesses better than anyone. Why risk pissing off a client by telling them that they are wrong? When we ask questions and give them their due attention, we learn important little clues about what makes them tick. That gives us fuel for promoting their company and for providing better value.

5. Involve the client in the process. The more involved a client is in the work, the more invested they will be. They will understand why we chose certain paths or made particular decisions. They will have less questions and more confidence in what we are doing. When they see the results of our work, our clients have a greater understanding of how and why our work is so effective. Involving the client in the process builds trust. Their is no greater gift to be granted than that. Well, a fat check is always nice too.

6. Pay attention! This is so important that it bears repeating. Listen to your clients when they are speaking. Have you ever had a client who had the attention span of a peanut? I have. These are the ones who can’t go five minutes without taking a call on their cell. You have to imagine that these folks were about to spontaneously combust before cell phones existed. Here again though, they can interrupt our meetings any time they want. If they choose to use meeting time on the cell, that’s their choice. Where am I going with this? Clients endowed with a short attention span tend to pack the really meaningful parts of their conversation into short snippets that can only be caught if you are paying close attention at all times. It doesn’t kill me to rivet my attention on a client for two hours. What kills my business is if I don’t pay attention during the critical moments where I need to learn about the client and their business.

7. Wrong can be right. Always look for the genius in your clients’ ideas. Sometimes I find myself kicking and screaming and cursing and moaning (silently of course) when a client forces me to pursue a concept that I know at the very core of my branding being is just wrong wrong wrong! But walk the path I must because my client is devoted to their idea and its birth into the light of day. I explore, I curse some more, and then something magical occurs as I relax and let my stubborn branding ego fall off the corner of the table. Their bad, wrong idea gives birth to a new concept, something strong and true and right that gives meaning to life and shines like a smile on the sun. In reality, client ideas are all born with the best of intentions. Sometimes a client’s concept might seem too simple or just plain boring, but there is a reason their mind went there. They want to say something, but their creative expression may not be getting at the underlying concept. That’s why they have us. When a client clings to a concept that appears to have no deep creative value, rather than rejecting it, look for the genius in it. Often times a client just needs to see a great execution of their bad idea to see that it was really not what they wanted at all. But even there, your great work will lead to the next round and can serve as a springboard for opening the client’s mind.

8. Buy yourself a shoulder to cry on.

9. Throw a private temper tantrum. Another tact to consider when a client presses you to explore a poor concept is to go ahead and stamp your feet, wave your arms, and yell obscenities. Do it all you want, but make sure you do it solo, in the privacy of your own sound-proof office. When you’re done, give the customer what they want.

10. Know when to say when. If every idea your client has makes you grit your teeth so hard they shatter, it’s probably time to refer your client to someone else. Teeth are hard to come by. Remember, though, that good clients are just as hard to come by. Sometimes letting go of a client is the best move for both of you.

Ultimately, every client comes equipped with their own set of rules. You need only decide if you want to play by those rules. I find that by always keeping this in mind, my average client relationships last over 10 years. Maybe it will help you too.

How do you keep customers happy? Have something to add to the list? Please post a comment!

I get sample packets all the time from printers wanting to become a primary supplier. They generally send their very best work, all contained in a sleek package. If the work is impressive, I keep the samples, file the card, and give the printer a shot on some quote requests. However, if the samples are lackluster, they make their way swiftly to the round file, and I remember them only for their poor quality.

Online printers don’t get it
I recently received a packet from a large online printer. I requested samples of postcards, business cards, brochures, and other identity materials. The packet I received contained only a few business cards, one of which had an ink smudge across the logo, and three identical postcards. All of the samples were poorly printed. The packet also included a form letter with a typo and two sentences that failed to make any sense whatsoever. One of those sentences happens to also be their tag line. The printer did not even bother to enclose their own business card. This company claimed to be able to help me with my marketing. As if!

The cheapest printing is often the most expensive
Another well-known online printer is staffed by customer service reps who know nothing about printing. They are nothing more than human, script-reading order takers. They cannot answer any questions about printing, nor can they offer meaningful advice about utilizing their own processes. I recently got a shipping quote from them that was less than one-third of the correct shipping cost. While submitting the order, I discovered their error, called them, sat on hold for 15 minutes, and was finally told, “Oh, sorry we got that wrong, but there is nothing we can do about that.” After 45 minutes of discussion with a manager, they decided that they would eat the difference, but only if I chose a slower shipping method. Net savings by trying the online printer: $186, a loss of three days, and an apology to our client (even though the client insisted on that printer).

Be sure to consider all factors
Large and small clients alike are telling us with increasing frequency that they want the cheapest printing available. They usually do not take into account that online printers charge for shipping. When you consider the lower quality, shipping costs, and poor service, it is usually better to stick with a local printer and pay a little more. The difference in quality will often be paid for by the first resulting sale.

There is no better way to ensure that the good money you just spent on developing a handsome brochure, or a striking identity is wasted than by hiring the cheapest printer. There are literally dozens of factors to consider when choosing a printer. Pricing generally slots in about four rungs down the ladder, after experience, quality, and service.

Budget for success
If you put off setting a budget until you are ready to go to press, you are sure to have a giant headache looming. If you set your budget before the project gets started, you will have a final design that will meet both your budgetary needs and printing requirements.

Use your designer to order your printing
Leave it to your graphic designer to choose the right printing source for the project. An experienced designer who has purchased printing for many years will know the right printers for each type of job. Designers are experienced with proofing stages, and they can catch common printer errors that clients often miss. While it may seem easy to write those things off, keep in mind that the little details that designers obsess over are the very things that make your marketing communications more effective. If you let details slip through the cracks, your marketing will be less effective. Also, while special cuts such as rounded corners may look cool, aesthetic decisions are best implemented as part of a design. Gratuitous effects rarely improve the effectiveness of marketing materials.

Here’s a quick checklist that will help you get the printing you need every time. This checklist will help you understand what is involved in good printing and why it is so critical to the success of your marketing communications.

10.5 Things to Check Before Hiring a Printer

1. Budget: Set a reasonable and realistic printing budget that fits with your goals before your piece is designed.

2. Print Quality: Ask printers for a sample packet. If the samples contain obvious mistakes such as ink smudges, or if the colors are not properly registered, or the color is inconsistent, find another printer.

3. Service: Make sure there is a high level of service. A printer who has low or no service doesn’t understand that printing is a service industry. Online printers are especially guilty of this. If you have to spend fifteen minutes on hold to get an answer to a one-minute question, that’s a waste of your time, and ultimately, your money. The more time the printer wastes, the less actual value their low prices offer. Use local printers whenever possible.

4. Price: Make sure that you get the best quality for your money. Upon receiving the quote, make sure that the printer has followed your specifications correctly. They sometimes miss small details that can make large differences in quotes. Keep in mind that printing specifications are sometimes quite complex, and the best estimators are human. Keep your cool when asking for corrections.

5. Quantity, part 1: Always get quotes from at least three different printers. The quotes you get may surprise you. Since different print jobs fit best on different types of presses, you may find that the prices are all over the board. If a printer really wants your business, they will sometimes price the first job very low. If the quote is too low in comparison to the rest of the quotes, that is often a red flag. If a high-end printer’s quote is way out of your budget, the job is probably not a good fit for that printer. If the prices are consistent across the board, pick the one from the rep that gives you the best service.

5.5. Quantity, part 2: The unit cost on most printed pieces will go dramatically down as the quantity goes up. If you have more and you paid less, you are more likely to hand out your communications more liberally. For obvious reasons, this is a good thing. If you can afford more, get more, but do not sacrifice quality for a higher quantity. Avoid going one step up and two steps back.

6. Delivery: Does the printer deliver? What is the cost of delivery? Local delivery is sometimes free. Online printers charge what UPS charges, plus a markup. Printed goods are heavy, so count on adding a significant shipping charge to your online price. If you need it online and fast, you need it expensive.

Additional checklist for designers:

7. Planning: Allow enough time to make sure that you can do all of these things without jeopardizing your deadline, and without making impossible demands of your printer. To borrow a saying from one of my best printers: Want it bad? Get it bad.(TM) (Of course, they always deliver excellent quality.) Local printers can sometimes move your job up in the schedule, but be aware that there is sometimes a charge for that service.

8. Stick to Your Guns: If a printer tells you that your design is too difficult, find another printer. Not every job is a good fit for every printer. Printers are generally hungry by nature, and they hate turning away work. They will often try to get designers to change a design to better fit their press. Do not give in to that pressure. Stick to your guns. A knowledgeable printer is qualified to make good suggestions for improving a piece, but they sometimes overstep their territory to the detriment of the marketing piece. If you know your stuff, you will know the difference between a good and bad suggestion. If they go too far, hold firm or find another printer. I can’t stress enough the importance of this. It truly can make the difference between a poor or great piece and an upset or happy customer.

9. Double-Check Your Art: If you are getting spot color printing, make sure you have used spot colors. If, on the other hand, you have used CMYK builds, make sure that you have used proper builds, not spot colors, or worse, RGB screen values. This may seem like an overly basic suggestion, but it is astoundingly common for printers to receive art from design firms or ad agencies who simply do not know how to properly set up their art. If the printer has to make corrections, that extra service will increase the cost of the print job, and it will often delay delivery by a day or more. If your online printer has supplied you with art templates, be sure to precisely measure their templates because they are often inaccurate. If the template is off by even a little bit, it can throw the design off balance and reduce the effectiveness of the piece.

10. Review Specifications: Review colors and papers with your client. Choose a stock that makes a strong impact and meets the budget. Good designers know which papers to specify for meeting goals and price points. If the client specifies an online printer for their business cards, make sure to tell your client that they cannot have the higher quality uncoated stocks that make the most impact because online printers do not offer them. Also, be sure to explain the extreme difference in brightness between many spot and process colors (oranges and blues, for example), and that spot and process colors will most often not precisely match. If you are using metallic inks, be absolutely certain to show your client a swatch prior to printing, as they are often unaware of the muted nature of metallics. If you are using any special printing effects, show an example.

A few words about cheap business cards
Avoid using online business card template designs and printers who offer free cards that fail to include your logo. Using cards such as these to make a first impression is detrimental to your business every single time. A generic card will not set you apart in any way. You don’t need to spend a fortune on your printing if you don’t have the budget, but if you haven’t got $200 to spend on your business cards, you may want to rethink your marketing strategy anyway. Even if your business is an online business, and you rarely hand out cards, spring for a good design and some decent printing, and you will find it to be worth its weight in gold. It can take months to build your credibility, but it takes only one cheap business card to undermine that credibility in the eyes of a prospective client. Are you a fly-by-night company or an established professional? Your business card will succinctly answer that question.

Make your printing a strong link
High quality printing defines an important part in the difference between acceptable and high-impact, memorable corporate identity, branding, and marketing communications. If you consider your printing to be a critical link in the chain, you will help ensure that your marketing communications will get the maximum return on investment.

This is how retail works. It’s a huge part of how we identify with the brands we buy, and how we develop brand loyalty. Where do you go when you need groceries? One store probably just popped into your mind.

Now imagine walking into your favorite clothing store, and having the following conversation:

You: “Hi, have you gotten rid of your sale section?”

Salesperson #1: “We haven’t had a sale area for at least a few months [emphasized], but we are having a sale starting next–”

You [calmly]: “Ok, but do you still have a sale section?”

#1: “No.”

You: “Great, thanks. That’s all I need.”

Salesperson #1 scowls and walks away, shaking her head and mumbling to herself.

You ask another salesperson about a particular type of jeans that you’ve bought there before. He’s never heard of them, raises his eyebrows and hands and says, “Sorry, never heard of that.” He turns to the manager who takes you to the jeans you asked about. Say you don’t like the colors they have – brown, black, light khaki, dark khaki, light grey – and you tell the manager, “Thanks anyway for finding them.”

Manager: “I don’t see what’s wrong with these colors?”

You: “I don’t like khaki. Khaki is boring. I’d like to see some colors.”

Manager: “Khaki is a great color. Well, how about these jeans?” she says, pointing you to some pre-faded, pre-scuffed blue jeans.

You: “I’ve never really liked pre-faded jeans, and those scuffs are the same on every single pair. I’m fine with jeans wearing out, but when every single pair has wear marks in exactly the same place, that’s not really me. It looks contrived, and not authentic. I always strive to be authentic.”

Manager: “These are authentic.”

You: “Well, they’re more conformist really. I’m not a conformist.”

Manager: “They’re all scuffed in the same place to keep, you know, the production level efficient.”

You: “I understand. Mass-produced “authentic” style. That’s speaks to conformity, and we don’t live in a conformist society.”

Manager [passionate and angry]: “That’s not what we’re about.”

You: “I’m not saying that’s what you are about. I’m a regular customer here. You don’t have to convince me that this is a good company.”

Manager: “I know. You look familiar. I think these jeans are very unique.”

You: “They would be unique if only one person had them. They would be great in a conformist society. Everyone could look unique in exactly the same way. We live in a free society. We don’t vote for a candidate because everyone else is voting for them. We vote for candidates we believe in. Same thing, smaller scale. I don’t happen to want the exact same wear marks on my jeans as everyone else. No big deal.”

You try the jeans anyway, along with a shirt. The jeans hang on you as though you’ve lost twenty pounds, but you haven’t dropped an ounce. The shirt is too big. Over the door, the manager asks if you need anything. You ask if they have a medium in the shirt. She tosses a different shirt, an unsightly plaid thing, over the door in a medium.

You: “Oh, uh, not that one, thanks though.”

Manager [exacerbated]: “Uh! (with throaty emphasis). You could try it for size, then I can check another store to see if they have it.”

You: “Ok.”

Manager: “Can I grab anything else for you?”

You: “No, I’m good.”

Manager: “How did those work for you?”

You: “If you can find the shirt in a medium, I’d buy it.”

Manager: “Well, IF I can locate the shirt at another location,” she says, making it clear that this is a pain-in-the-arse, “You can go pick it up, or for eight dollars, they can ship it to you.”

‘Gee’, you think, ‘Thanks for offering.’ This same store has shipped shirts free of charge from one store to another before many a time. You decline.

You: “Thanks for your help.” You extend your hand to shake hers, and she declines. You ask for her name, and she reluctantly gives it, looking at you like you are the devil incarnate. Then, awkwardly, she offers to give you the generic store business card. It seemed that she may have realized right there in that moment that this story would be written and posted.

Manager: “These jeans are going to be on sale.”

You: “Oh? When?”

Salesperson #1: “You would know that if you hadn’t interrupted me!” she sneered and frowned. You had interrupted her because she wasn’t answering your question.

The clothes at your favorite store don’t seem to fit today, even though the jeans are the same cut as the ones at home. The clothes may or may not be the same this time around, but they have lost some of their appeal after the staff treated you as though you were a royal pain in their arses. Today, the staff all seems hell-bent on making sure that you know that their opinion of the clothes is more important than yours. What specifically did they do wrong? Everything. They hurt the customer’s brand perception and endangered the long-term relationship.

The Cost of Poor Brand Representation
Corporations spend hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dollars on creating and promoting compelling brand experiences. Crummy customer service is the sure-fire way to flush all of that time, money and effort right down the tubes. The cost of customer acquisition easily justifies brand identity training for store personnel.

Now, I won’t write this company off because one bad experience does not define this company, but in other cases, I do write off the company after just one bad experience. In this case, the thing that surprised me was that every employee in this store had lost the meaning of their brand, or they simply did not care about it. In either case, brand identity training would enhance their sales by providing staff with a greater understanding of corporate values and better social skills to boot.

Now, to fulfill the promise of the title: How to Shred a Strong Brand in 10 Minutes Flat

1. 1. Do not adhere to your brand standards. Haven’t got any? Make sure to put some in place so that you can recklessly break them at will.
   2. Alienate your core customers on a regular basis. This one works every time!
   3. Do not instill good social skills in your sales staff. Let ‘em be as gruff as they like, and don’t worry about losing customers because that is the point of shredding your brand!
   4. Do not share your corporate vision with your employees. What they don’t know won’t hurt ‘em. It will hurt your business instead.
   5. Do not educate your employees on the importance of brand values. If they don’t know how to represent you, your customers will not understand your brand, and they will fly out the door faster than you can say, “Wish I had me some brand standards.”

How do you do all of this in ten minutes? Refer to the above story.

Food for thought.

‘How the heck,’ you may be asking yourself, ‘does a blue jay hiding a durned nut relate to branding and marketing?’ Well, I’ll tell you.

Blue jays are all very similar looking to a non-Audubon Society onlooker like myself. Without some specific knowledge of the species, I doubt that I could distinguish one from another if my meal depended on it.

When I meet my clients for the first time, they are often a lot like that blue jay in the back yard. They are visually indistinguishable from their industry peers, and they are usually hiding their best treasures. Like the blue jay, the messaging in their marketing doesn’t speak to humans.

‘What do you mean by that, Hobkirk?’ you think as your forehead rumples.

I’ll spell it out:
• Companies often lack a distinguishing, clear, meaningful corporate identity.
• Their best qualities are usually not communicated to their ideal target market. (In fact, they often have not clearly defined their ideal target market.)
• The messages in their advertising and marketing typically do not speak to the people in their target market, and their tag lines are often meaningless.
• Their treasures have been buried so long that they no longer know what they are or where to find them.
• They often lack a clear understanding of how their identity, brand, branding, advertising, and marketing can converge to keep their peers from stealing the show.

Instead of leveraging their identity, values, and brand to make connections with their target markets, most businesses, large and small alike, leave (and sometimes create) stark disconnects at nearly every point of marketing communication. What happens when a disconnect occurs? Your prospective or existing customer moves on to someone else. That doesn’t sound very appealing, does it?

Every small business can and should employ the same tactics and tools that large businesses use to market themselves. Small businesses often rely on the time-honored excuse that they haven’t got the budget for professional branding and marketing. There are now plenty of options available for attaining affordable brand development and marketing planning, so let’s bury that excuse next to the nut. Or they whine, “I hate marketing.” If you hate marketing, hire someone you can trust to do it for you. Better yet, hire someone who can actually convince you that branding and marketing are fun. Or, close your doors and go look for a job.

How can you avoid having a squirrel steal your customers?! How can you make sure that you are connecting with your clients using compelling messages at every opportunity? Where are these opportunities?

Hint: Marketing opportunities are happening to you every single day. Ring me up. I love talking about this stuff. Meanwhile, I’ll be out back moving sticks around, while trying to figure out where the blue jay got a hazelnut this time of year.

The question: How do you guard your brand reputation?

Have you ever asked yourself that? Guarding one’s reputation is harder than people think. It really depends quite a lot on the temperament of you and your employees, as well as your understanding of corporate philosophy as it relates to your brand. It relates to your mission statement and your goals.

How do you want to be perceived? How do you want your customers to feel after an interaction with you?

As brand development specialists and ambassadors, we can guide consumer perception to such a degree that we can accurately predict and to a large extent control their experience with your brand. Once the brand identity is developed, and the marketing campaign is launched, it is largely up to the company to cement the relationship with their prospective customers and ultimately to make the sale. But what happens after the sale is just as important to your bottom line as the sale itself.

How do you follow up with your customers? Do you contact them only in ways for which you have received permission, or do you make yourself an annoyance and lose their attention by blitzing them with unwanted emails, phone calls and non-targeted offers? Honoring an opt-out request may be the key to retaining a customer. Making sure that your marketing communications accurately portray your brand, and that they are precisely targeted, are good first steps. Personal and honorable follow-up helps ensure that the brand experience is pleasing throughout.

Most companies skip a significant portion of the brand development process, focusing only on the before, and failing to address the after until it has already passed. This is a squandered golden opportunity, and it has inevitably dire consequences. If you fail to define and guide customer perception and experience, the customer will do it for you.

Mining the Low Road
Let’s look at a couple of examples to illustrate the concept of brand reputation. Take Best Buy, who receives more complaints than most companies. In fact, Best Buy’s customer complaint department is larger than most corporate marketing departments. They abuse customer information (they call it capturing), discrimination is part of their customer service policy, and they regularly send email spam to their entire customer database. On pissedconsumer.com (no explanation needed for explaining this site), a search for Best Buy will reveal over thirty pages full of complaints from [now former] customers espousing on everything from failure to honor extended warranties, to discrimination for medical conditions, to relentless spamming, to ‘Geek Squad’ technical incompetency.

It seems that Best Buy has resigned themselves to having high customer turnover because they are unable and/or unwilling to provide good customer service. Their less than poor service damages their brand reputation at just about every turn. It would perhaps be easy for Best Buy to reverse the trend by providing thorough pre-sales information, honoring their extended warranties, closing their Geek Squad department or providing comprehensive training to their employees, and simply choosing the honorable path of not discriminating against people with medical conditions. But that is not what they do. It’s a choice, and Best Buy consistently chooses to dishonor the privilege of their customers’ attention.

What does that choice do to their brand? It defines it. How do people identify with Best Buy? They do it through their experience as a customer. My experience with them has been both good and bad. They carry a lot of products, and usually have a decent inventory. I can often find exactly what I want. If they think I might buy the more expensive model, they will aggressively try to upsell me. If I manage to find the right employee, they know enough about a few of their products to answer some questions, but their answers are not always accurate. I often have to wait 10-20 minutes for customer service. Sometimes, they tell what in hindsight appear to be outright lies just to make the sale. They aggressively push their extended warranties, but they will fight tooth and nail to not honor them.

They once told me that since I was shaking (I have an essential tremor, so I shake a little all the time), they would not hold a conversation about my extended warranty on a computer, which they did not want to honor. Without my permission, they added my email address to a mailing list that sends out spam once every day or two. I have requested removal from that list on five separate occasions only to be told that permanent removal is not possible. As a result, I have requested removal of my information from their databases, but they have refused the request, stating that it is their right to capture my data. How do you think Best Buy rates when I am considering an electronics purchase? How does their service effect their brand reputation? Why would a company ever tell a customer that it is their right to “Capture” them? Why? Because they do not understand how to protect their brand reputation, nor the importance of doing so.

Choosing the High Road
Now, contrast that brand experience with that of Apple. I bought an iPod in 2002, and it is still working great. It has had only one problem, for which Apple FedEx’d a box, checked it, and returned it to me in two days flat. I’ve had issues with their computers on numerous occasions, but they always do the right thing, either by replacing the unit, or by swiftly fixing it and returning it. Sometimes it takes a little more phone time than I would like, but I think they are just making sure that replacement is the right solution. Out of the twelve or so Apple computers I have owned, Apple has provided four replacements. Their store employees know their products — even non-Apple products — inside out. Their in-store service is fast and accurate, and they take care of their customers. Apple is very clear on their email policy. They ask for permission, and if you unsubscribe, they honor your choice.

As a fair comparison, I did a search for Apple on pissedconsumer.com, and found less than one page of complaints. They have had a few stumbles over the years, but they usually make a good effort to make it right and ultimately give a good customer experience. Apple seems to understand the importance of brand experience, and it is clear that a good experience is a high priority, as a matter of policy. Apple’s brand identity is consistent with their customer service. How do you think Apple rates when I am considering a computer purchase? I wish they sold everything Best Buy sells. Apple’s brand reputation is stellar.

Really, it’s a choice of short-term or long-term sales. Where Best Buy short-sightedly chooses short-term sales at all costs, Apple chooses to get the sale in the short-term and retain the customer for the long-term by providing outstanding customer service. This choice can be boiled down to something even simpler, but not without insulting the sensibilities of their individual target markets, a practice to which I do not subscribe.

How About Your Brand Reputation?
These are two mega-corps, but the same principles of brand reputation apply to small to mid-size businesses. How are you treating your customers before, during and after the sale? How do you shape their perception and experience? Is your brand identity consistent with your customer service?

It is a good practice to periodically ask yourself how you can shape a more positive experience for your customers. When you carefully consider every aspect of customer experience, it is clear to see that brand reputation plays a large part in both connecting with and retaining customers.

Is color important to a brand identity or website? This is one of the most frequent questions I field while we are developing our clients’ brand identities. The answer, in a word, is a resounding Yes! Color is the second most common way in which humans perceive and remember information. Shape comes first. Color is second. (Language is third.)

We learn the meaning of colors at preschool age and keep reinforcing that knowledge all through grade school. As young adults, we are taught the colors of brand-savvy corporations.

What color is a fire truck? What color is a ghost? How about the sky? Or the ocean? What color do you wear at a funeral? What color is UPS? How about DHL? What color is Kodak? Everyone knows IBM is blue.

Think about the colors you interact with every day. What would travel through your mind if you saw a green stop sign? How about a purple caution sign? Have you ever noticed that One Way road signs are black and white? If they were green and white, that would send a confusing message because we all know that green means go. Do you notice the color of peoples’ eyes? How about their clothes? Would you buy a green steak? Or a black tomato?

You rarely see the color black used as the predominant color on food packaging. What associations do you make with black? Burn, evil, death, mystery. You wouldn’t buy burnt food. At least, not on purpose.

What colors do you see when you walk into most natural food stores? Fruit and vegetables are most often positioned in your direct line of sight. It’s like seeing a rainbow right in front of your eyes. Rainbows make us feel good and fill us with wonder and happiness. Vibrant colors, like those found in fruits and vegetables, are associated with health. We like buying healthy food, particularly when we are happy.

Have you ever seen a doctor with a bright red business card? Probably not. What enters our minds when we see bright red? Emergencies, blood, danger, fire, passion, love and hate. What happens when a bull sees red? What happens when you cut yourself? The last thing physicians want their patients thinking about is blood, let alone emergencies or severed limbs. Physician brand identities are usually a picture of calm, with colors exuding that feeling. Band-aid packaging, on the other hand, almost always has bright red on it.

With these few examples, you can see how color can effect the way you feel. Color plays an unimaginably important role in our everyday lives. With so much of our perception and knowledge based on our interactions with color, it’s clear to see that the colors of your brand are critical in connecting with customers. Color can effect the way people perceive and understand your identity or website, and therefore, your company. Color can turn them on or off, bore or excite them, send them running scared or instill confidence. Color communicates meaning in ways that no other aspect of your brand can.

If you would like to read more about color in design, there is an excellent book titled Kelvin that is well worth a read.