I called a merchant services vendor that negotiated a marketing deal with the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce thinking I was going to get special help because I was going through the Chamber.

I called the dedicated 1800 number and I was put into a voicemail box. The voicemail mentioned the vendor I was calling and the Chamber. It said to leave my name, phone, company and someone would get back to me in two business days.

Huh?

Why bother with partnering with a treasure trove of business like a chamber of commerce if you do not have a live person to answer chamber inquiries during normal business hours?
The chamber offers a potential built in customer base and to jeopardize that with poor customer service is mind boggling to say the least.

If you are associated with a large business organization for marketing purposes, make sure the customer service you offer to members of the organization is top notch. Don’t lose out on prized referrals due to poor customer service.

About Branding4Newbies
Branding4newbies (http://branding4newbies.com) is a full service consulting firm providing marketing, communications, branding and web strategy services to small and emerging businesses. Branding4newbies.com is an award-winning marketing and advice blog for entrepreneurs. Our team of professionals provide quality services at competitive prices to help support the advancement of small businesses. Our services include, but are not limited to: web strategy & development, graphic design, public relations, marketing, collateral material development, advertising, content development, search engine optimization, reputation management and business strategy.

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Over the last several weeks, I have observed several businesses who are not practicing what they preach.

One business leader helps other businesses with branding and tells her customers that branding is essential, but has no branding for her own business. Another business leader is offering website design, but has a dated,circa 1999 old flash pop-up website. I even heard of a tanning salon owner who does not tan himself.

Question: How are you going to get other people to drink your Kool-Aid if you are not drinking it yourself?

Well these business leaders have one thing in common - they need more business. I don’t know–could it be that they are not living and breathing the principles they dictate? I would say absolutely.

If I owned a fur business… you bet I would wear furs all of the time. If I owned-a hot dog stand, you better believe my hotdogs would be my favorite food.

How are your customers going to take you seriously if you do not take your own advice seriously?

Jack LaLanne built a lifetime career out of being a fitness guru. So much so that even today in his 90s the old guy still says he works out two hours a day like a young chap. He lives and breathes fitness. He would have never been a fitness icon if he were overweight and dictating the same fitness advice. He has a lifetime of credibility which has gone a long way. About 20 years ago, LaLanne became a spokesperson for a juicer appliance which exposed him to a new generation of followers. He would have never been able to do have sustainability for his franchise if he fell off and became a couch potato.

Fitness is LaLanne’s life and because of that he still as able to continue his business of helping Americans become fit.

Practice What You Preach
The best thing you can do for your business is BE or LIVE YOUR BUSINESS. As a business owner, your testimonial counts. People will listen to you and believe in you, if you can say from experience that your widget or service works or is the best.

A few years back, talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw put out a weightloss program and book. People immediately criticized him because he was not the picture of health, so how could he tell others how to get fit? His book and program were based on some nebulous issues related to eating associated with depression and other issues. In addition, he started marketing a product line of supplements which led to a class action lawsuit. He ended admitting that he had no expertise in the diet supplement area. His credibility was shattered and he ended up shuttering the supplement business.

If you do nothing else, always sell a product or service that you love and or use. Stay on top of the trends in your industry, especially if you are in the technology or interactive fields. Many industries are evolving and if you don’t pay attention, you will be left behind. Something cutting edge three or more years ago could now be outdated.

Most importantly, make it a point to be an expert at what you do and by that I mean - be your own spokesperson.

About branding4Newbies
Branding4newbies (http://branding4newbies.com) is a full service consulting firm providing marketing, communications, branding and web strategy services to small and emerging businesses. Branding4newbies.com is an award-winning marketing and advice blog for entrepreneurs. Our team of professionals provide quality services at competitive prices to help support the advancement of small businesses. Our services include, but are not limited to: web strategy & development, graphic design, public relations, marketing, collateral material development, advertising, content development, search engine optimization, reputation management and business strategy.

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When I was in college, I worked at several major retail stores. I learned quickly that you can’t size up every customer. Often those that came in looking like a million bucks didn’t spend much and you could always count on the jeans and t-shirt crowd to spend the most. It wasn’t an exact science, but it proved true many times.

Recently, I attended Search Engines Strategies New York (SESNY) Conference on March 24. I had a badge for the EXPO only. After I checked-in, I went straight to the EXPO floor. I was carrying a lot and needed to place some of my things in my bag. Right on the corner of the center aisle of the EXPO was a booth for the company Pulse 360 with two arm chairs, a mini love seat and a coffee. It was not roped off and was open for seating.

I moved in to grab a quick seat and just as I began to hover over the arm chair, someone who was working the booth for Pulse 360 ran over to me and said “You can’t sit there - it’s private.” He didn’t try to engage me in conversation, find out who I was or even introduce himself.

Wait- isn’t this a trade show? Private? There were no barracades or velvet ropes it could not be private. Was that guy’s job just to shoo people away from the booth all day? How the heck are they developing leads at conferences if they have paid for a booth that is not inviting to conference attendees?

The fact is the guy blew it. For one, he did not consider that while I was sitting in the chair in his booth that he could have struck up a general conversation with me. Certainly, if I didn’t want to be bothered with a sales pitch, I would have headed for the hills anyway. Also, if you are going to have a so-called private section of your booth, it should be just that —private. Not open on the corner of the main aisle of the EXPO without velvet ropes or a curtain. There was nothing private about this booth it was wide open. Yahoo! had a very large booth that had arm chairs through out that were free for anyone to sit down, relax or read the materials strategically placed in the booth. Of course, Yahoo! had many booth staffers roaming to speak with anyone who stopped in.

And let’s talk about the location of the Pulse 360 booth. It was on the center aisle on the corner. The area was teaming with people in the aisle hanging out. There was nothing private about the Pulse 360 booth it was in party central.

I think the guy just didn’t think to find out who I was or what I wanted. Maybe I was going to sit down so I could talk to someone in the booth. He just didn’t take the time to find out.

Lessons Learned
Follow these simple and fundamental rules at your next trade show:

If you have invested in a booth at a major exhibition, make sure you are friendly to everyone.

Before you size someone up, make sure you strike up a basic conversation starting with who you are and what your company does. Then find out what they do.

If you opt to have a booth with comfy chairs, expect that anyone will come in to sit in the chairs. Make them feel welcome by talking to them. Believe me if they are only there to hang out, they will not stay very long if you are giving the hard sell.

To keep a seating area private, set up velvet ropes around the area. Velvet ropes or any other type of barrier will deter uninvited guests from lounging in your booth - although may defeat the purpose of you being there.

A trade show booth should be inviting - if nothing else. Make sure you have your best and most knowledgable sales people working the booth and make sure they are friendly.

In marketing and sakes, the old saying “never judge a book by its cover” holds true. I am certain that the guy at the Pulse 360 booth did not anticipate that I was a marketing and branding expert that would blog about my bad experience at his booth. Don’t let a negative blog post about your trade show booth happen to you. You just don’t know where I will show up next.

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The Wall Street Journal ran a very small article in the Marketplace section today. For me it was the most important piece of news in the paper. After just two months, Tropicana is ditching its new branding ( a very clean and simplistic look) and going back to its iconic brand because consumers were unable to recognize the packaging amongst store brands and complained they couldn’t decipher between pulp and pulp-free offerings. (Tropicana will go back to the green Tropicana typeface with the banner underneath stating “pure premium” and the orange with the straw stuck in it within a months time.)

Lesson learned? Branding is indeed everything.

Tropicana (owned by Pepsi Co Inc.) didn’t change the size of its container or the quality of the juice product inside. Oh, no complaints there. Surprisingly, the change in containter’s look and feel ticked folks off enough to call or email the company with complaints about the new “packaging”.

Another lesson learned- Don’t underestimate consumers!

Score one for the consumers! They had the power to force Tropicana to change back to its old branding. Launching a new brand identity is no walk in the park. When you completely rebrand a product line behind the scenes you must create new brand standards for the entire company plus outside vendors, schedules are created to cease and desist use of the old branding across all marketing and advertising, and training is done across departments ( I am getting exhausted just thinking about it.) In essence, it is quite a big production. Months maybe even years of planning is now down the tubes to satisfy “Joe Consumer.” Hey why pay corporate brand fat cat MILLIONS of dollars to develop a new brand when Joe and Jane Consumer calls you for free and says “Hey bozos we liked the old look.”

(As a side note: I would buy Tropicana if it came in a metal canteen. I love the stuff. I didn’t have a problem deciphering pulp-free from the pulp offering. But hey I read lablels and standby the philosophy that “reading is fundamental.” I guess some folks are on autopilot at the grocery store.)

I can’t imagine that Tropicana ran the new branding by focus groups before the brand launch. Several focus groups around the country to the tune of $100-$200k or less could have saved the branding gurus from the scrambling that I imagine they are doing right now to revert back to the old look. Gives me the willies just thinking about it.

So, don’t underestimate the quality of your branding. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But if you don’t think you need a brand, think again because branding rules. Just ask the corporate branding team at Tropicana of whom many may end up on the unemployment line in this very down economy. Believe me a few marketing executives will take the hit for this one and if an outside firm designed the new brand, I am sure their services will no longer be needed.

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I recently went to a bagel shop to pick up something to eat. Part of my order was chicken salad by the pound. I wanted $4 worth of chicken salad and I knew this would be more than a 1/4 lb, but not quite a half pound. I assumed the staff could weigh the exact amount that I wanted since all of the salads are sold by the pound. I ask for dollar amount at the deli counter at the super market and that has never been a problem.

I placed my order of a bagel and $4 worth of chicken salad. The bagel shop employee looked at me and walked away. A few seconds later he returns with three containers: one for a 1/4 lb, one for 1/2 and one for a full pound. I only wanted $4 worth so the pound for $10.99 was out. I didn’t need a half pound ($5.75) so I opted for the 1/4 lb size. The 1/4 lb size was $2.75 and my pick.

The issue here is that I was willing to spend $4, but the shop staff only offered me the option to get preset sizes and of those one was less than I was willing to spend and two far more than I wanted. This is a serious problem. Granted many of the employees of this bagel shop are immigrants who are non-english speaking or speak a minimal amount of english. There is no doubt the shop owner is saving a buck or two hiring these folks to work his shop (and sadly taking advantage of them perhaps). But if they cannot work a scale and only can do what is preset based on container size - never going above and beyond- how much is the shop owner really saving on their salaries? It seems to me he may be missing the opportunity to make more money.

By not training the staff to work the scale based on the request of customers I imagine the amount of money he could be losing could be thousands of dollars a month. There are many ways he can lose money. What if the chicken salad is heavier than normal? If they were weighing the salads as they made them, some of the containers may go over the weight of the preset container. What about people like me who come in with a dollar amount they want to spend? If someone only has $5 and can’t afford the 1/2 lb size they will automatically opt for the $2.75 size. The bagel shop owner potentially loses $2.25 in those cases. If that happens 100 times a year - that is a $225. But I am certain it happens more than 100 times a year which is even more disturbing.

Sometimes you may think that you are developing a system to make things easier, but in the end it may prevent you from making money. If this bagel shop is going to sell only a preset container size than he should not be charging by the pound. Just like fast food restaurants they can offer small,medium and large. But I believe that the per pound option was set for the shop to make more money, but because his staff is not trained to funtion the scale he is losing in the end. Remember it is always harder to up-sell to your customers.

Never create opportunities to lose money. If a customer wants to spend a certain amount of money the goal should be to help them spend more — not less. If you feel your staff is incapable of doing what is necessary to make the maximum amount of money possible for your business than perhaps you need new employees.

About branding4Newbies
Branding4newbies (http://branding4newbies.com) is a full service consulting firm in New Jersey providing marketing, communications, branding and web strategy services to small and emerging businesses. Branding4newbies.com is an award-winning marketing and advice blog for entrepreneurs. Our team of professionals provide quality services at competitive prices to help support the advancement of small businesses nationwide. Our services include, but are not limited to: web strategy & development, graphic design, public relations, marketing, collateral material development, advertising, content development, search engine optimization, reputation management and business strategy.

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Many business owners are facing laying off employees for the very first time. How you layoff your staff will have lasting effects on the perception of your business. Because of this, you must handle the dismissal of your employees with care.

Although there is no “good” time to layoff an employee you must prepare accordingly. Have a statement ready to give your employee in person and individually. Do not e-mail the notice of dismissal to your staff. Talking to the employee privately and having a clear conversation regarding the state of the business and your reason for letting the employee go is the best approach. If you feel you can give an honest and complimentary recommendation, offer to write a letter of recommendation for the employee. Showing that you are remorseful will go a long way.

Timing your lay off may not be easy. My suggestion is to avoid holidays. A lay off in close proximity to major holidays such as Thanksgiving or Christmas can create ill will in the marketplace. With blogs and websites setup for angry employees to blast employers, gripes from an angry employee can out live the rough economic times and permanently damage your firms reputation and possibly make it difficult to hire employees in the future. For example, laying off staff the week before Christmas will look extremely insensitive and create ill will internally and externally. There is no best time to lay off an employee, but you must identify a time that will not create ripple effects.

The most important part of your communication strategy for your lay off is communicating the bad news to the rest of your staff. No matter how large or small the business, employees will be shaken. After you speak with all of the laid off employees, have a town hall meeting with the rest of your staff. Plan this event in advance and have it within hours of the lay offs. Explain why the lay offs were necessary and let them know whether additional cuts will be expected. In addition, inform your staff of other cost cutting measures and empower them to come up with ways that your business can save money.

Recently, I heard of an instance where a manager sent an email memo to her staff sharing the names and departments of individuals laid off. This is not only an invasion of privacy, but it also puts a “face” on your lay offs. By providing names, this will allow your staff to ask questions and find out more about those who were let go. With names in hand, the employees can create rumors and add a different element to your lay off. Although they may find out the names of those let go on their own, there is no need to assist them in the process.

Sensitive communications is vital in getting through a company lay off. After your initial conversation with your staff, invite them to reach out to you or managers directly with specific questions. Let them know that you are concerned about them and that you are there to provide answers to any of their questions. Until the company is in better financial standing, plan a town hall meeting once a month, to provide updates and to allow employees to share what is on their minds.

Seize the opportunity to communicate with your employees. You may find that beyond these rough economic times, regular open forum communications may help your business. Sharing a consistent and positive message will help prevent a culture of fear and panic in your business.

If you have further questions about crisis communications, please send me an email at sbrown@branding4newbies.com.

About branding4Newbies
Branding4newbies (http://branding4newbies.com) is a full service consulting firm in New Jersey providing marketing, communications, branding and web strategy services to small and emerging businesses. Branding4newbies.com is an award-winning marketing and advice blog for entrepreneurs. Our team of professionals provide quality services at competitive prices to help support the advancement of small businesses nationwide. Our services include, but are not limited to: web strategy & development, graphic design, public relations, marketing, collateral material development, advertising, content development, search engine optimization, reputation management and business strategy.

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I would say one of my biggest pet peeves is to go to a website thinking I will find a plethora of information, but instead I find key web pages “under construction”. Unfortunately, small business owners fall victim to this practice on many occassions.

If you are unclear what I am speaking of, let me explain. For example, small business owner x has a website that is being built. The small business owner’s web design team is working diligently behind the scenes to make a fantastic website. Only the home page is complete and all the other very important web pages that explain what her widget does and why people need her widget are no where near complete. The most important pages on the website like product descriptions and the shopping cart just have these words on them “under construction.”

But small business owner x, is an expert at creating her widgets and doesnt really understand the purpose of a website… she only knows that she needs one. So, Ms. X has a brochure printed with the website printied boldly on the cover and decides to mail the brochure to 5,000 homes in her area. As the brochure landed in mail boxes, the visits to her site increased. This would have been great news if her website were 100% complete and functioning. Instead, it all back fired. All of her potential website customers faded away when they went to her website and found nothing but a telephone number, an address and this pleasant note: “please come back soon.”

The moral of this story is that small business owner x spent money on printing brochures and on postage and all she did was drive traffic to a website that was not ready for the general public. Will those lost customers return?…probably not. Has damage been done? ABSOLUTELY!

Promoting an incomplete website looks very small time and unprofessional. So sending people to your under construction website gives them a negative first impression about your business. You will need to work hard to get those people to return to you. Undoing a negative first impression could be expensive.

Launching a new business or website can be exciting. But don’t let the excitement get the best of you. Only promote your website when it is fully-functioning and ready to make a lasting impression.

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About branding4Newbies
Branding4newbies (http://branding4newbies.com) is a full service consulting firm providing marketing, communications, branding and web strategy services to small and emerging businesses. Branding4newbies.com is an award-winning marketing and advice blog for entrepreneurs. Our team of professionals provide quality services at competitive prices to help support the advancement of small businesses. Our services include, but are not limited to: web strategy & development, graphic design, public relations, marketing, collateral material development, advertising, content development, search engine optimization, reputation management and business strategy.

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I recently heard a story about a yoga instructor who worked for a local yoga studio, who decided to launch her own yoga studio business. Her plan was not to open up on the same street as her employer, but to find a location further away to avoid a conflict of interest. She actually found a perfect location for her yoga studio 15 miles away from her employer. It was perfect.

As she signed the papers to get the ball rolling ,she decided to inform her employer and thought he would support her. Unfortunately, her employer took it the wrong way and became belligerent. He followed by sending snarky emails to clients and friends about her plans to launch her own business. Her employer did not wish her well, but instead admonished her.

What the woman’s employer failed to realize is that by berating his employee, he ruined a perfectly good opportunity to establish some friendly competition. With gas prices at record highs, if one of her clients were to move into his area she may have recommended they pick up classes at his studio. He in turn could have recommended her studio if someone was moving to her service area or if one if his clients had a friend in her area.

Friendly competition is great for any business. Being insecure about your competition, friendly or not, says something about your personal outlook on your ability to compete. You never know how things can work out if a former employee decides to branch out on their own. If your former employee had a very positive experience working for you and view you as a mentor, they will more than likely think to recommend you to others. Don’t sever relationships with former employees because of personal insecurities. It is always about business and never personal.

Cultivate relationships with your competition, if they are willing, because you never know when you might need their help to further your own business.

About branding4Newbies
Branding4newbies (http://branding4newbies.com) is a full service consulting firm providing marketing, communications, branding and web strategy services to small and emerging businesses. Branding4newbies.com is an award-winning marketing and advice blog for entrepreneurs. Our team of professionals provide quality services at competitive prices to help support the advancement of small businesses. Our services include, but are not limited to: web strategy & development, graphic design, public relations, marketing, collateral material development, advertising, content development, search engine optimization, reputation management and business strategy.

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It can be fun to market a phone number that uses both numbers and letters. Such as 1-800-555-cash or something like that. Before the invention of the mobile smart phone, this was a nifty idea to provide an easy way for customers, both existing and potential ones, to remember your phone number. Today it is more of a hassle.

I use my cell phone constantly. I make about 80% of my business calls from my smart phone. The phone has a qwerty keyboard perfect for typing emails and text messages. This phone does not feature the same alphanumeric keypad featured on traditional phones or regular mobile phones. The other day, I was calling a magazine for a client and went to dial the number on my cellphone. The magazine markets its telephone number alphanumerically. Unfortunately, I have no clue what letter corresponds to the numbers of my smart phone key pad because it does not have the traditional keypad setup. So I found myself being unable to call the magazine until I got a hold of a traditional keypad. I was near a computer so I pulled up a graphic of a traditional telephone keypad on the internet. I was finally able to make my call.

If you currently market an alphanumeric telephone number for your business, be sure to provide the numbers representing each letter in parentheses. You do not want to lose customers because they cannot remember what letters correspond to the numbers on their smart phone. If all else fails, just market a traditional phone number rather than display letters. Save your creativity for a great website or advertisement.

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