The days of taking customers for granted are long gone. Unlike the 1950’s when brands could make mistakes and customers would still continue to be loyal, today’s customers have short memories and customer loyalty always needs to be reinforced.

I would like to share a story of one of the worst branding mistakes I have ever witnessed. The name and industry of the company involved has been changed to protect the foolish and just plain dumb.

The name of this company is ABC. ABC is a family owned business with a 35-year history. Since day one, ABC built a strong reputation for quality products. ABC specializes in a small niche marketplace, thus they enjoyed little serious competition. According to newspaper interviews with the current management team, the company was always profitable but sales were flat for the past several years.

Ironically during the time when sales were flat, the company was in transition from the original owners to the son. He took over day-to-day operations several years ago.

During the first few years of running the business the son made slight modifications to the product line and price points. These changes didn’t do much to strengthen the business brand, profitability and or market position. Since the inception of the company most of its products were distributed and sold to gifts shops, flea market vendors, local stores and restaurants. They had no real distribution model in place.

A several years after taking the reigns of the family business the son recognized a new opportunity in the marketplace. He wisely capitalized upon the chance and rapidly expanded distribution into regional grocery stores. This move strengthened the original brand and sales increased from approximately $300,000 to $2,500,000 within a few short years.

Results: ABC enjoyed a commanding market position and was fast becoming the true leader in its niche.

Lesson Learned: Capitalize on opportunities as they present themselves.

After a few years of rising sales, the son decided to make the first of several brand destroying decisions.

The first misstep he made was to make the decision to stop selling to small stores and gifts shops. His definition of a small store was anything that wasn’t a chain store. These small stores were the very same people that had been loyal to the company for decades.

The son even sent a letter to his entire customer base stating his company was only going to sell to large chains and would no longer supply any small account. The rational behind this move was to reserve his production capacity to enable him to supply the large accounts without any interruption. This was even stated in the letter sent to his entire customer base.

Results: ABC lost tremendous credibility in the marketplace by deciding not to sell to the very people who had made it successful. During this time, several competitors recognized his errors and rushed into the marketplace. These new competitors are now supplying his original loyal customer base.

Lesson Learned: No matter how difficult it may be to supply your customers, never “fire” loyal accounts.

The second misstep he made was he completely changed the name of his company and brand. During this expansion, the owner of ABC became the master distributor for a product called XYZ. XYZ was a deceit product line, but was not very unique. Once the son became the master distributor for the XYZ product, he changed the name of its entire product line to the XYZ name. The hope was to capitalize on the potential growth of the XYZ brand name. In addition, the rapid increase is sales as due to the XYZ product and not his products.

Results: Since the name change from ABC to XYZ, over 35 years of customer loyalty and brand recognition was willfully tossed out the window. In addition, many of the customers that were used to buying the ABC product on the store shelves could no longer find the ABC brand. Instead, they now can only buy the XYZ brand instead. Not only did the ABC lose retail customers, they also lost several chain store accounts due to declining sales. One way to solve this problem would be to change the name back to the original ABC name.

Lesson Learned: No matter what, don’t rebrand your entire company unless you have tremendous negativity toward your brand. Remember how several of the leading accounting and financial service firms renamed their companies after the financial scandals of early 2000’s?

The third misstep was the new management team of ABC jettisoned the company mascot. Since the creation of the company the ABC mascot was a cuddly kitten. All of the original company marketing campaigns, slogans, taglines, etc. included the kitten. ABC even had a souvenir snow globe with the kitten inside.

Results: The son threw away 35 years of history and knowingly gave up what made the ABC company unique. It is too late to reintroduce the kitten into marketing campaigns since the direction of ABC has completely changed and the only place for the kitten is outside looking in.

Lesson Learned: Yes, it is very wise to review and update company slogans, taglines, mascots, etc. however, unless you have a very good reason, throwing away 35 years of company history is just plain dumb.

Although no company is perfect and we all make mistakes, ABC is a great case study on foolish and just dumb business decisions. Not surprising, company sales have slid in recent years and will probably continue to slide for the foreseeable future.

I would like to ask you “Can a Company Ever Fully Recover from a Branding Error?” I look forward to your comments and insight.

The same holds true for your business:

Why launch that new product?

Why build your new facility?

Why move your business to Hawaii?

Why upgrade your website and sales material?

Unfortunately, in the real world, the answer is not as simple as “why not”. However, I believe the answer to that question is not “why not” but: “Is my management team up for the challenge?”

If you have any type of new product, project or challenge facing your business, ask your management team if they are up to the task. Remember, it is the human capital that makes your business a success. It is not yours sales material, your website, or your location. It is the people that walk out the door at 5:00PM everyday that make your business a success.

One of the best ways I have learned to challenge myself and my partners is to conduct brainstorming meetings every couple of weeks. The purpose of these meetings is to move closer to solving current and long-term challenges facing my businesses.

Here are a few tips for conducting brainstorming meetings:

• Ask a specific question that you want an answer to. The more precise the better. 
• When you conduct brainstorming meetings, don’t evaluate the ideas created during the session. If any of the ideas are criticized during the meeting, all of the creativity present in the room will immediately shut-off.
• Write down all of the ideas generated during the meeting
• Evaluate these ideas a few days after the brainstorming session
• Conduct a “Best of the best” meeting and rank the ideas
• Select the top 2-3 ideas and incorporate them into the next version of your business plan

So the next time someone asks you the question “Why?” answer it with a few ideas generated from your most recent brainstorming session.

-         How can I increase sales?
-         How can I increase my market share?
-         How can I increase my profits?
-         How can I increase my distribution?

The list goes on and on. Since the beginning of capitalism, those questions have plagued boardrooms and weekend retreats. Those same questions will be with us until the end of time. So I say forget the question and change the answer. The only thing that has changed and will continue to change will be the answers, so focus on the answer, not the question.

Here are a few examples of changing answers:

Mid 19^th century: How can I increase my profits?:
Forget the pony express, start a railroad company.

Late 19^th century: How can I increase my profits?:
Start a steel company. Andrew Carnegie did.

Early 20^th century: How can I increase my profits?:
Cater to the investors and stock speculators, prior to 1929.

Mid 20^th century: How can I increase my profits?:
Start a real estate company and construction business to take advantage of the baby boom after WWII.

Late 20^th century: How can I increase my profits?:
Start an technology-based Internet company.

Early 21^th century: How can I increase my profits?:
Start a communication-based Internet company.

Mid 21^th century: How can I increase my profits?:
Start a company that provides international trade and global distribution. The world is shrinking and trade will be vital to all aspects of the globe.

If you notice, the question stays the same, it is the answer that changes. The answer changes because the world evolves every day. Advancement in technology, distribution, communication, etc. blesses us with new and greater opportunity literally by the minute.

So the next time you ask yourself the question “How can I increase my profits?”, rephrase the question and ask yourself, “What exists today that didn’t exist a year ago?” This new question will refocus your attention on the answer and not the question.

But how do you create customers for life? For years, countless companies have wrestled with that question, and if answered correctly they will become both a profitable and powerful brand.

I don’t know the answer to that question, but I would like to share some clues that I have discovered that may help shed additional light into the darkness.

I believe there are six degrees of separation in keeping a customer for life. Yes, my six degrees of separation is modeled after the Six Degrees theory popularized by Kevin Bacon a number of years ago.

My definition for the six degrees of separation are the steps your company takes to gain a customer for life. As in the Kevin Bacon theory, you are just six degrees from Kevin Bacon, your company is just six degrees away from turning a non-customer into a customer for life. Here are the three I will include in this article.

Degree #1: First impressions - the first 30 seconds:

The old saying in sales says you have about 30 seconds to make a good first impression. Another popular sales saying is you never get a second chance to make a good impression. This is more important today than ever before. The reason is, your company now has over a billion competitors and that number increases everyday.

The billion and counting is the number of websites that your customer can chose to visit. We both know that all of these other sites are not direct competitors, however they can distract your customer away from your website and a distracted customer doesn’t buy.

So how can you make a good impression online? Although I am not going to get into website design tips in this article, your customers need to know exactly what you are offering at-a-glance. If a first time visitor doesn’t understand exactly what you are offering, they will quickly vanish into the vast sea of the Internet.

Action Tip:

Tomorrow morning, the minute you sit down at your desk, quickly glance at the home page of your website for 10 seconds. Then turn off your screen. Sit back and write down three things that jumped out at you from your quick review. Do these three items match the first impression you thought your site gives?

Degree #2: The final 30 seconds:

If you are lucky enough to get past the first 30 seconds and the first time visitor surfs around your site, the final 30 seconds is when you actually make the sale. This is when the visitor becomes a true customer. Is the path to your merchant account easy to follow? Is your merchant account easy to view, add and remove items, etc?

Action Tip:

Place a timer on your desk. Set the time to 30 seconds and make a purchase from your website. Can you get it done within this amount of time? Remember, people are time crunched today, and if they can’t make a purchase within a very short amount of time, again they will leave your shop never to return.

Degree #3: Consistency of your presentation:

How consistent is your sales pitch? Does your copy slowly but surely walk your buyers through the decision-making process blending logic with emotion?

Action Tip:

Reread every sales page on your site at least once a month to determine the ideal blend between emotion and logic.

If you have any comments or additional insights on how your company is building customers for life, I would love to read your comments.
Good Luck.

To be a triple threat your business must have all of the following:

Threat #1: Online marketing plan

Threat #2: Offline marketing plan

Threat #3: Leveraged distribution

Let’s take a closer look at each of the threats in a triple threat company.

Threat #1: It may be a little surprising, but some business owners still do not see the need to incorporate the Internet into their marketing plans. It has been often said that the Internet is the great global equalizer. For example a two-person company, based in a small town in Northern Michigan can be a very strong competitor to huge national and multi-national companies.

In fact, I personally know dozens of companies each having under 5 employees with annual sales of $100,000, $250,000 and $2,000,000+ annually. Most of these companies are selling their products/services in an International marketplace. This could not have been possible a mere 10 years ago. I also know a dozen or more companies where the owners refuse to even have a website. They believe their business isn’t right for the Internet.

Threat #2: Even if 100% of your sales are from your website, you still need an offline marketing plan. This could be as simple as selling your products to a local school for a fundraising event or having a booth at a local weekend festival. You need to decide what is the most appropriate offline strategy for your business.

Threat #3: My definition of leveraged distribution is selling your products to resellers, distributors, wholesalers, private label, etc. In other words, doing whatever you can do to maximize the number of people selling your products or services.

Let’s take a closer look at a triple threat example. I know many restaurant owners and managers and for some reason many of these people don’t see how the Internet can help their business. Many have told me since their business is so labor intensive, the Internet can’t help them increase sales. Here is an example of a triple threat restaurant:

Threat #1: The most valuable assets of a restaurant are the food and the service. One way a restaurant can capitalize on threat #1 is to create a website with photos, a blog and post sample recipes online. The benefit to posting photos is potential customers get to see the inside of the restaurant, ie, the staff, patrons, décor, etc.

A blog would allow the chef or owner to share thoughts and “stories” with potential guests. These would be the same types of thoughts and conversations she would share with the people sitting at her tables. Finally, by posting sample recipes, this would allow customers to actually get a “taste” of the actual food being served.

Threat #2: Most of us are familiar with the type of offline advertisements, so I won’t rehash this information.

Threat #3: Leveraged distribution: A restaurant could bottle and distribute its best-selling salad dressing to regional or national distributors. This additional distribution would allow people all over the country to taste this one-of-a-kind recipe.

As you can see, any type of business can be a triple threat to its competitors. Yes, it takes a little extra effort and time to implement these new ideas, but the reward will be worth the effort.

Determine how your company can be a triple threat and skyrocket to the front of your competitors, no matter what your industry.

The difference between a broad and narrow strategy is vast. Both strategies are good and neither is better than the other as long as you know which strategy you are implementing.

If you are implementing a broad positioning statement for your brand, make sure the statement doesn’t confuse your customers about your offerings. In addition, if you follow the narrow approach, reexamine your product offerings to make sure they are concentrated like a laser beam.

What is a broad positioning statement and what is narrow?

A broad positioning statement can be defined as being encompassing enough to enable your company to add new products without the need to create a new positioning statement every two months.

A narrow positioning statement is a very narrow approach. In a sense, your company is the “specialist” within your chosen niche.

Here are a few examples of broad positioning statements:

#1: “Professional money management services for discerning investors”

#2: “Elegant home furnishings at affordable prices”

#3: “Low cost vitamins for active seniors”

Let’s take a closer look into each positioning statement:

#1: This statement would allow the company to offer a wide variety of money management services including equity and debt money management, high net worth concierge services, bill paying services, etc.

However, by using this positioning statement it would be unwise for the company to offer the ability for its clients to buy car insurance services directly. Of course, adequate car insurance is a vital part of a comprehensive strategy, but the company focuses on money management for investors, not insurance. It would be better if the company offered a referral service to other companies offering car insurance.

#2: This positioning statement is broad enough to allow the company to include all aspects of home furnishings including oak tables, teak chairs, leather couches, etc. However, if the company also offered refrigerators and microwaves, it may confuse its customers with these unrelated products.

#3: A good positioning statement for active seniors in need of low cost vitamins. However, if the company also offered exercise tapes, magazine subscriptions, etc. they would run the risk of offering unrelated product lines in relation to their positioning statement.

Here are a few examples of narrow positioning statements:

#1: “Equity strategies for low risk investors”

#2: “Oak furniture for every room in your house”

#3: “Vitamin drinks for weekend athletes”

#1: This is a very good line for a company that offers strategies to investors looking for low risk equity investments. These could include covered call strategies, dividend reinvestment strategies, low alpha stocks, etc.

However, if the company also offered debt management strategies they would completely lose any credibility with equity investors.

#2: The company is using a positioning statement that indicates it only sells oak furniture. If you want oak, you can get from this company. If they offered teak furniture, they would confuse everyone.

#3: If you’re a weekend athlete, you can get your vitamin drinks directly from this company. If you are a senior looking to supplement your diet with fruit-based dietary supplement capsules, go to another company.

When creating a positioning statement, make sure it will adequately describe your company and your product line. In addition, review your product line every 6 months to make sure your line hasn’t strayed from your current positioning statement.

If a disconnect has occurred, you need to decide if you want to eliminate a few of your “unrelated” products to bring your line back in synergy with your statement, or update your positioning statement to match your newly expanded line.

For example, in the late 1990’s countless companies sprouted up that sold books and services teaching the “secrets of the Internet.” In fact, I owned one of these companies. I wrote two books that included all of the latest and greatest online marketing strategies of the time. I sold these books online and traveled the State of Michigan teaching online business marketing strategies and promotion courses. But despite all of my hard work, my venture failed.

One of the main reasons I failed was I was a “me too” company. My company didn’t offer anything different than my competitor’s. Like everyone else at the time, I offered a few books, a website and opt-in email courses. In essence, my brand didn’t graduate from kindergarten.

The companies that survived were also “me-too” companies. In a sense they also had a few books, a website and opt-in email courses, however they put their own personal “touch” into their brand and they succeeded. As I wrote in a recent article: “your ‘brand’ is the personal perception each individual customer experiences every time they interact with your company. An interaction is defined as when a person receives a “touch” from your company. A touch has multiple definitions including your website, your TV commercials, your Internet ads or talking with your customer service team.”

What makes your brand special is what makes your brand different. I am firm believer in creative thinking and developing critical thinking skills. Creativity and critical thinking will help any brand graduate from kindergarten.

I believe there are 6 degrees of me-too companies. However, for the purposes of this article I will include 3 of the 6. The three degrees I will discuss are:

Degree 1: Industry Level

Degree 2: Geographical Level

Degree 3: Product Level

You do not have a choice not to be a me-too company in the 1^st level. However, you do have a 50% choice in the 2^nd and 100% freedom of choice in the 3^rd level.

Industry level: You can’t avoid this me-too level. This is the only level that it is okay to be a me-too company. For example, if your company is in the computer industry, the me-too component of your brand is the fact that you and all of your competitors are selling computer technology. The industry you are in is the computer industry.

Although you can’t avoid being a me-too computer within your industry, here is one technique to use that will infuse new ideas into your company. By using this idea, you will be able to begin to separate your company from your competitors in your industry.

This technique is simple and easy. All you need to do is to subscribe and read publications outside of your industry. The benefit of this technique is that it will introduce new and creative ideas from different industries into your business. It will provide creative insight how other companies are achieving success.

For example, I subscribe to magazines from dozens of different industries. Some of the industry magazines I subscribe to include do-it-yourself home repair, fashion, investment and money management, skateboarding, hunting and fishing, self-help, writing and the entertainment industry.

Do I read every page of these magazines every month? No, of course not. I usually flip through each magazine on a Sunday afternoon, look at the pictures, read a few articles and then give them to the local doctors office. I have gathered invaluable insight and ideas that I have applied to my business models.

Geographical level: Today the Internet give companies the choice to either compete head-to-head with other geographical competitors or reach out to the rest of the world. The choice is yours. That is why you have a 50/50 choice.

Product level: You have a 100% choice for this option. Your products are one way to “touch” your customer base. You have the complete freedom to select what products and services your company offers.

How your brand can graduate from Kindergarten?:

For example, if you own an auto supply store, here is how your company can graduate from kindergarten.

Since you are in the automotive industry, you are stuck in the automotive industry. As stated earlier, you can’t do anything about that. – Unfortunately, you’re still in kindergarten at the Industry level.

However, geographically speaking, in addition to your retail store location, you can have a company website, sell your products on eBay, export to other countries and even apply to become a supplier to the governments. By applying a little creative thinking and critical thinking strategies, your auto business has now graduated from kindergarten.

Finally, you could also put simple color-coded stickers on all of your retail packaging. These colors correspond with a simple color-coded guidebook which customers can see when they enter your store. This guidebook is in your retail store and on your website. The purpose of this guide is to be a silent salesman and guide to your customers.

For example, all tire related products have a black sticker on the outside of the box. The color black represents the color of the road. If the customer has a problem with his tires, this simple technique makes it easier for him to go directly to the “black” section of your store/website. This section only sells tires and tire related products.

This simple technique also gives you the ability to cross-sell other tired related products. If the customer needs new tires, why not suggest a tire repair or tire cleaning kit. All of these cross-sell products are also coded with a black sticker.

Your brand has now graduated from kindergarten.

In this article, I will share with you one of the best ideas we have learned. This idea is guaranteed to keep your company stocked full with new ideas and provide a new perspective to your management team twice a year.

If you are the leading brand in your niche, this technique will provide you with the stimulus to keep your brand in the lead. If you are currently not the leading brand in your chosen niche, this technique will provide you with the fuel to catapult your brand to #1.

Let me ask you a question, Is your brand worth buying? Let me explain what I mean. Every six months, my partners and I conduct in-depth due diligence meetings to review every aspect of our company. We schedule an entire day to review every department of our company including marketing, management, branding, finance, new product launches, etc.

Since we own several companies, it is a very intensive one day worth of analysis and review. We usually conduct these one-day due diligence meetings during April and just after Halloween. The purpose of this meeting is to purchase each of our companies twice a year. In essence, we pretend we are buying our company every six months.

This mental gameâ permits us to look at our company with a new and fresh perspective. It keeps us on the cutting edge of our niche. During this time, nothing is sacred. If a new marketing plan or new product is not meeting expectations, this allows us to either update our plan or eliminate the plan or product.

Since most major changes in a business occur shortly after an acquisition, these make believe acquisition meetings provide a justification to make any major changes without selectively targeting any one plan or product. In addition, nothing is personal and nobody gets their feelings hurt if a pet product or marketing plan gets cut.

Is your business worth buying? The only way to find out is to conduct a due diligence meeting every six months. Although, these meetings are pretend, they will provide you with a fresh perspective and insight into your business. If you conduct these meetings as if you are actually buying your business, I guarantee you will have a new perspective on your business every six months. This new perspective will keep your company on the cutting edge of your selected niche.

Since the time I talked with my friend in 2005, he and his wife started a small business. They have enjoyed very good success. He and his wife grew their business from zero to over $500,000 in gross sales since January 2006. The problem he is having is a direct competitor is copying his website and stealing his marketing ideas and campaigns.

According to my friend, his company and his direct competitor has a product overlap of approximately 50%. The remaining 50% of product selection are unrelated and do not overlap.

His competitor has been in business for over 5 years and their annual sales are about $1,000,000 per year. My friend has a lot of very good ideas and approaches his business in a very unique and creative way. According to my friend, his unethical competitor has stolen his recent marketing campaign.

The story is, my friend began testing a new ad campaign on one of the leading search engines. After a few days, his competitor took his ad, made a few slight changes and began running similar ads on the remaining search engines. The ads are so close that they could easily cause confusion. Due to confidential business information, I am not going to provide the exact ads, but here is an example of the ads:

My friend’s ad:

Powerful Backyard Tools
Everything you need to get your backyard ready for spring.

His direct competitor’s ad:

Backyard Powerful Tools
Get your backyard ready for spring – Everything you need.

In addition, to stealing his latest campaign, a few months ago this same competitor copied the basic design and layout of his website. When I looked at the two sites, I was easily confused by the layout, design and titles of the two websites.

So back to the question in my title: Should you steal your competitors marketing ideas and brand identity? The answer is Yes! Let me explain. The only reason you should steal your competitors’ marketing ideas and brand identity is for the following reasons:

• You want to completely destroy your company’s unique selling advantage
• You want to lose your own brand identity
• You don’t have any original and creative ideas
• You want to get sued for copyright and trademark infringement
• You want to confuse your own customer base

Although we could easily create a list with dozens of bullet points, let’s take a closer look at each one of the above list.

You want to completely destroy your company’s unique selling advantage (USA): If you spent more than one day as a sales professional, you know that sales are made by explaining the advantages of your product over the competition. In addition, you need to explain the differences. By explaining the differences in product features, you present your products as the solution to your customer’s problems. I don’t mean you should badmouth your competitors. I mean to point out what makes your products unique. By copying your competitors, your company will lose its USA.

You want to lose your own brand identity: If you spend all of your time copying your competitor’s ideas you will lose what your company stands for and what your company is about. Your brand will become a carbon copy of the brand you are copying. This may appear to make sense in the short-term, but it will be lethal in the long-term. The reason it will not be good for your company is you will not have the experience of creating original material and content. You will get into the habit of copying and not developing your own creative and critical thinking skills. In addition, if you copy a competitor, you are consciously or unconsciously admitting your competitor is the leader in your industry. This is also very bad for your company.

You don’t have any original and creative ideas: Admittedly, creative and original ideas are very tough to create 365 days a year. If your company is lacking in ideas, the best place to create new ideas is to take a vacation. I find 3-4 day quick vacations work best for me. In addition to a 3-day weekend, you may consider hiring an outside consultant to infuse new ideas into your company.

You want to get sued for copyright and trademark infringement: In the 21^st century, intellectual property (IP) is the most valuable asset a company can possess. Since business moves at the speed of light, companies are very aggressive in protecting their IP and prosecuting any infringer to the fullest extent. Infringing of any sort is never a good idea.

You want to confuse your own customer base: My friend laughed when he said the following, “although my competitor is copying my ideas and campaigns, he is actually helping me to grow my business.” Let me explain; my friend’s competitor is larger than his business, so this means his competitor has a larger customer database. In essence, his competitor is actively confusing his own customers by copying my friend’s website and campaigns.

In addition, his competitor is aggressively putting himself out of business. He is spending his time to copy my friend instead if creating creative campaigns to grow his own business. His competitor is more worried about my friend’s business than his own. Again, good for my friend, but very bad for his competitor.

If you have comments or suggestions on how my friend could combat this copying competition, send me a note. I’ll pass along your comments to my friend.

Mountains are climbed. Rivers are conquered. Records are set. These achievements occur because one of the benefits of being human is the ability to choose among the many opportunities that present themselves each day and to make a choice.

Marketing and branding your business is much the same. You can choose to market and brand your company or not. You can choose to take risks to move your company forward or not. However, in the final moment, before you retire or sell your business, your choices regarding your business will be no more. At the end of your career would you rather say “I’m glad I did” or “I wish I would have?”

So how are great accomplishments achieved? In the moment of decision, you weigh the potential benefits of various courses of action against the potential costs. Some times the choices are between a course of action that offers the least amount of risk or the greatest amount of reward. Great accomplishments occur when the latter path is chosen. While not every decision we are faced with every day is one that carries the weight of tremendous achievement, we all still strive to make decisions that will be the most beneficial to our business. So with all of the marketing and branding decisions you encounter everyday, is there a correct way to making the right decision every time? I believe the answer is Yes!

The secret to making the right decision every time is to determine what will take you closer to your “Exit Plan” (EP). Did you notice I wrote “Exit Plan” and not the popular business term “long-term goal?” The difference between the two is vast. Long-term goals are things your business would like to accomplish. EP’s are things your business must accomplish. These are goals that you want to achieve no matter what it takes. In addition, an EP will reduce the amount of time spent to make a marketing or branding decision.

One of the best ways to determine the difference between your long-term goal and EP is to ask yourself the following question: “If I knew I was going to retire/sell my company one year from today, what would I need to accomplish?” One year is a very good length of time because it gives you the time to achieve your goals, yet it limits how much time you can waste. So, what is your Exit Plan?

If you already have a list of EP’s waiting on the tip of your tongue, it’s time to put them in ink. Writing down your goals is a time-tested tactic for the achievement of success that has been replicated by everyone from self-help guru Anthony Robbins to actor Jim Carey. It worked for them. It can work for you.

Take your time and really think about your EP. When you’ve got your list, write it down and don’t look at it for three days. When you see the list again, decide if there’s anything that you want to change. Repeat the process until the goals on the list represent your EP.

Here is an example of an EP and examples of marketing and branding decision opportunities:

Exit Plan Components:

#1: Increase sales by 100%

#2: Increase turnover rate by targeting sphere of influence buyers with marketing letters, sales calls and promotional offers.

#3: Create a website blog to increase visitor interaction, add cross-sell links and increase page views per visit from 4.56 to 9.0.

#4: Increase number of national distributors from 3 to 6.

Opportunity Presented: Attend and exhibit at industry tradeshow

Should This Action Be Taken:

Yes – This action should be take because it supports #2 and #4. Tradeshows can present opportunities to meet influential buyers and potential distributors.

Opportunity Presented: Advertise in local newspaper

Should This Action Be Taken:

No – This action should not be taken because it does not support the EP. It may be more appropriate to advertise in a regional or national newspaper? The increased exposure may lead to more sales than the local paper, thus better supporting the 100% increase in sales goal.

Opportunity Presented: Hire new web design company

Should This Action Be Taken:

Maybe – This action should be taken because it supports #3. The company should spend the time to interview the new web design company.

Every marketing and branding decision you make from this day forward, make sure it supports your Exit Plan. Will your decision take you closer to your Exit Plan? If it does, it is the right decision for you and your brand. If the opportunity doesn’t help accomplish the EP, the answer should be a “No”.

This article provides an insight into my 8^th upcoming book entitled: A Step-by-Step Guide to Taking Full Advantage of Marketing and Branding Opportunities.

It doesn’t matter if you’re an individual, a start-up business, or a multi-million dollar corporation, history repeats itself every day regarding your brand. Repeating history plays a vital role in developing and maintaining your brand.

Your “brand” is the personal perception each individual customer experiences every time they interact with your company. An interaction is defined as when a person receives a “touch” from your company. A touch has multiple definitions including, but not limited to, a visit to your website, watching your commercials on television, listening to your radio ads, reading your ads in a magazine or talking with your customer service team.

As in personal relationships, the touch is the most intimate of all interactions. The right sort of touch from a good friend can be remembered for a lifetime. Likewise, a harsh interaction or a rough touch can easily harbor resentment and bitterness for years.

In branding your business, developing the right sort of “touch” with your customers is vital. The first step in creating the right brand image for your company is with a creation story. Everyone loves a story because we all grew up with stories told by family members and friends that warmed our hearts or taught us important lessons.

Building a creation story about your business can touch your customers, employees and investors with powerful images and perceptions about your company. Once you have created your story, you need to ensure that history repeats itself everyday. Your creation story has to be intimately infused into every marketing plan, new product creation, website design and business card you and your employees handout.

Let’s look at an example of business branding with a fictitious company called ABC Health Sports and Consulting. The company was started by a John and Joann Smith, a husband and wife team. John has experience coaching high school basketball for 10 years and Joann has been teaching yoga at the local fitness club for 5 years.

Let’s take a look at some branding components for ABC Health Sports and Consulting:

Creation Story: The company was created by Joann Smith. After years of teaching yoga at a local fitness club, Joann’s students continued to ask her for quick and easy exercise ideas and healthy eating tips that can be used while traveling. In addition, many wanted similar tips that their aging parents could use to remain flexible and energetic. With a hectic daily schedule and with aging parents herself, Joann created a homemade study course that quickly became popular with her students and their parents. This initial success encouraged Joann and John to start ABC Health Sports and Consulting.

New Product Creation: After a few months in business, ABC needed a new product to separate themselves from their competitors. The couple decided to create a new daily exercise tip sheet with healthy eating tips to support an energetic and healthy lifestyle. This new product was in line with the creation story.

Website Design: The ABC website offers online education courses, photos, daily diet ideas and a message board. The message board has multiple categories including aged-based exercise and diet tip needs. The website reinforces the creation story of focusing only on exercise tips and healthy eating habits.

Business Cards: The business cards include the following tagline: “Healthy Diet and Daily Exercise Supports a Healthy Lifestyle” The tagline reinforces the corporate mission.

Instead of staying true to the creation story, the ABC company could have easily introduced a complete array of unrelated products to potentially increase short-term profits by offering exercise socks, motivational posters and magazine subscriptions.

These unrelated additions, would have diluted the brand and caused the company to spend valuable assets and time in these areas.

Staying true to your creation story is vital to strengthening your brand and building a solid leadership role in your niche. Prior to introducing a new product, redesigning your website, or reprinting business cards, re-read your creation story to ensure your brand is repeating history everyday.

“The other side of fear is courage. Courage is the basis of creativity. It is scary to face the white canvas, to uproot the clay, which you have to mold into something. When I sculpt, I know the context I am working with, but I cannot see the end. Those who are courageous enough will discover their creation and that gives more courage. Fear is there but out of it we discover courage. Going through this fear is real courage.”

As a young solo-preneur, I can relate. I often walk the line between, “I LOVE this stuff!” and “Maybe I’m completely crazy!”. At this phase of our business journey when we’re the only one answering e-mails, invoicing, tracking expenses, building brand identity and awareness, creating buzz and evolving as a “creative” all at once - it can become quite overwhelming. It’s also easy to slip out of “creative” mode and into “worker bee” mode. And let’s face it, we hate worker bee mode, that’s why we wanna quit workin’ for the man in the first place.

As I chewed on this tasty tid-bit, I was reminded yet again, of why I chose to take those first scary steps last January and why others before me must have felt so inclined to do the same…

“People are born to create. Creativity may be the core dynamic of life. Artist leaders understand that everyone has creative potential, and the leader creates the conditions for creativity to emerge throughout the enterprise: freedom, great goals, information, immediate feedback, no fear of failure, and skills equal to the challenge.

Authentic expression is the artist’s goal, and the artist leader treats everyone as if they can do great things. Importing creativity from outside the organization may provide an innovation quick fix, but the leader understands that sustainability depends on creating conditions for the inherent creativity of employees to emerge on a daily basis.

In chaotic times the best artistry and the best leadership may well come from outside the established structures: the management hierarchy, the consulting organizations, and traditional academic institutions. Pay attention and look behind positional titles, the slick presentations, the marketing machines, and the over-intellectualization of matters not that difficult.”

Did that get you like it got me? It brought me right back to the core of WHY I do what I do. For the creativity. For the passion. For how revved up my engine gets just by getting back to what wakes me up at 5 am in the first place. Back to the heart of the matter.

We can get tripped up in the high gloss shine of presentations and marketing machines, but what’s the price we pay when we get side tracked with over-intellectualized and over-sexified, shiny, too perfect displays of brand marketing? How much is too much over-analyzation of research marketing? Do we know when to say when to the buffing and shining and strategizing?

“Robert Greenleaf wrote that we have too many critics and experts with too much intellectual wheel spinning, too much retreating into research, too little preparation for and willingness to go into the guts of an organization and undertake the hard and high risk tasks of building great organizations in an imperfect world.

Observe what people live and what they do rather than what they profess and exercise your judgment in choosing your prophets. The world (and organizations) will be changed by the countless solitary and anonymous artists who get their hands dirty expanding the boundaries of the possible, not by those who spend their time pontificating.”

Right on! Let’s roll up our sleeves and dig in. Let’s get down and dirty and lean and mean. Let’s strip away the unnecessary BS and get back to raw & gritty, less is more, lean and mean, core values and visions.

If you’ve lost sight of your creative vision, how might you spit shine and polish your brand back to the basics? All that glitters isn’t gold. Have you replaced the sparkle in your brand’s eye with the shimmer of excess glitter and too much flash and cash? Sometimes a beer at a dive bar and a kiss on the forehead is a lot more effective than a flashy sports car, too much cologne and VIP velvet ropes.

Are you leading creatively and artistically, yet still owning up to your roots? Or are you waving your awards and forgetting where you came from? This article was an excellent reminder, that as I evolve and my business grows, to stay true to my heart, follow my basic instincts, maintain my integrity and keep Midwestern roots even as I climb through these urban and online jungles.

How do you stay true to your creative vision? What foundation are you laying today to walk the path tomorrow?

Create your boldest visions with passion & purpose,
Kammie K.