by Tim Parli

Running a business is no small task, ask any owner. With day-to-day activities consuming time and energy, it’s easy to forget about the need to keep up with the changing times. Unfortunately, there are often key elements of companies that are overlooked throughout these cycles of change. Often-times businesses update their infrastructure and technologies, but neglect their corporate appearance and identity. Is there a conflicting message being sent? Having and maintaining an up-to-date professional appearance, or corporate identity, is not something that only large companies do. Rather, it is a vital key to the growth and survival of nearly every business. One local company that has done just this is Louie’s P & R, located in Herrin, IL. Following a professional renovation of the company’s storefront location, they decided to revamp their brand image with a new logo and marketing materials. This update to the image of Louie’s P & R has resulted in an increase of business by 50%.

Following, are some tips to give your brand new life and to keep your business on track for future growth.

• Question your business associates and partners to search for any opportunities worth embracing and any pitfalls to overcome. By getting the perspectives from others involved in the business, your eyes may be opened to things which you were unaware of and may also strengthen your professional relationships with your business associates.
• Evaluate your overall brand image by assessing the use of the company’s logo, icon, colors, font, etc in a consistent manner throughout all aspects of daily operation. If not, you may wish to consider doing an evaluation of your corporate identity and work at re-defining it.
• Motivate the sales staff to accurately represent the brand and the deliverable that they are marketing and selling.
• Revitalize your own attitude so that your employees become inspired and uplifted. If you have a lousy attitude, even when it may seem warranted, you not only run the risk of becoming less productive but may even lose employees to more inspiring competition. Not to mention, your attitude may deter future clients.
• Improve the workplace and aim at creating a pleasant and creative work environment. Look for ways to make the job more enjoyable, this doesn’t necessarily translate to increasing employee salaries or benefits.
• Improve you customer care by taking time for your customers. Don’t just call them when you or they need something. Contact them just to see how they doing or to take them out to lunch. This will give your customers a reason to keep you top-of- mind the next time they need something related to your company. Offer customers a small, simple, yet memorable gift that isn’t an advertised special but something that says you appreciate them. Consider at times moving away from the impersonal email and make a phone call or drop in on your clients.
• Improve your product or service offerings. Go above and beyond customer service and create personal relationships that take care of your clients. Offer benefits to your products or services that, even if more expensive, are well worth the extra expense due to the attention to detail and personal care offered.
• Maintain an active interest in your company’s public relations. Keep people notified when you hire a new employee or expand a product line through the use of a press release. Consider picking a cause that you can relate to and wish to consistently take part in and assist with sponsorship. You may even consider integrating your public relations into social networking websites.
• Maintain a good reputation, as this will contribute largely to your success. Your clients will recommend your company if you do good work and offer good service. Although, you don’t want to rely solely on word of mouth, since this is something that you honestly have no control over.
• Actively promote your services and products. This needs to be done consistently and sometimes on a weekly basis. Promote and market your business both during the good times and the slow times in order to maintain a steady and manageable workflow year-round.

There are numerous ways, both big and small, to revive and improve your brand. Sometimes, it is the little things that make the biggest impact on maintaining an effective brand image. One area that might work well for one company, may not work well for another. Take some time to evaluate what you’ve done and what you’re currently doing at your business. During this time of reflection, consider the tips above to help you find out what you need to do in order to revive your brand.
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