How does Image affect your business?

As a business owner or employee, you know every aspect of your business. You know what makes it special, memorable and interesting. The problem is, your customers may not. To the customer, your image is only what they see in the short amount of time they interact with you. Everything in that interaction, from quality of service, to your business card is a part of the understanding they will create of your business. How many times have you said, If only people knew about this, I know it would be a success?

One misunderstanding about identity marketing is that effective image branding should be reserved for the large corporations. Some believe that small businesses do not need this, or that small businesses would lose their small town appearance if they were effectively branded. This concept is utterly false. While it is true, if we tried to implement corporate branding to your business, it would likely fail, implementing memorable, consistent branding and theme to your business is very powerful. The key to it is in the message we send.

If you compare corporate level branding, you will find specific messages and tones that present the image of a large successful company. For local branding, the message is quite different; therefore the strategy is quite different as well. Your business has a personal message, even if you are not aware of it. A small local country store, for example, may have a message revolving around being inviting, friendly, rustic, and maybe even a little nostalgic. This is a powerful message, and presented correctly, provides interest to local consumers. Your business has a message.

The Economy

A common theme in today's market is to blame the economy for business failure and slumped sales. Though the economy forced change on us, the failure to act on that change is what is truly to blame. As unemployment rose, investments tumbled and individuals began tightening their belts, individual sales declined to roughly half. What this means is, each of your customers on average are spending half as much money on the products or services you are selling. So, a business that was thriving with a customer base of 2,000 customers, is now struggling, even though they may still maintain a customer base of roughly 2,000. Sales have dropped in half.

In order to effectively compensate, we need to double that customer base. The only way to do that is to send a strong clear image, which presents stability, interest and most importantly gives local consumers a sense of relationship with your business. This is not done by just a website, or just a logo.. It is an overall cumulative effect. The services you offer, the smile on your face, the friendly conversation, the look of your store, the image you extend outward and your website are all part of this. Every element needs the share a clean friendly and most importantly, inviting image that people will flock to.

There is another factor to consider in the economy, and that is the following concept: The easiest way to not spend money is by not going into stores. We have to give the customers a reason to come in, and frankly sales, as you may have found, may not work very well. Why are sales failing, because the sale represents spending money, even if at a savings. The people who show up for a sale are typically looking to save a LOT of money on a particular item, and often do not end up purchasing the full price items that make a sale worth it. So, even though you may have a lot of people show up for a big sale, you fail to see the success in sales you had in the past.

So what will get them in the store? Interest, curiosity, need, and of course a relationship are sure fire methods to keep people coming in. That is where the website, marketing, emails and newsletters come in. It is also where identity branding becomes critical. We talked about your service and smile, now we need to translate that to the materials going out. Those materials need to present that same feeling. They need to let people know you, before they know you.

Remember everything you do is a part of your image, that desperate sale may seem like a good idea right now, but how does that affect your image of stability. It may seem cheaper to go with the cut rate designers, but what message will your marketing send to your customers? The pre-designed business cards, template sites, copied marketing, it all sends a negative image, and it can really hurt you.

To learn more about how websites affect your business click here.

To learn more about the importance of overall quality click here.