1. We Get To See Success First-Hand
With small businesses, there’s just not a lot of red tape. I understand that you could work for a company of just about any size and develop good relationships, but with a small business, specifically, you really get to see their success first-hand. There’s such a feeling of satisfaction when we know that our work has made a difference in their bottom line.

2. We Have the Opportunity to Educate and Lead
About half of the small businesses we work with have little-to-no experience with branding. This provides a great opportunity for us to educate our clients and lead them through the process of defining, and building their brand. Then, we get to watch them experience the difference that good branding makes, not just for sales and marketing, but also for developing culture within their business, and often, sparking a new passion for their business. There’s just nothing like watching someone learn something new, and then apply it. We thing it’s pretty darn special.

3. The Feeling of Being a Valued Resource
When we help small businesses, nine times out of ten, we end up as their ultimate resource for marketing, branding and design. We help our clients with everything from strategy, to naming, logo design, website design and development, social media, SEO, and more. It’s a lot of fun to work on the big-picture level, and also work on the small details of a brand for a small business. We’re an important resource for our clients and that is extremely rewarding.

Sometimes we think it’s good to remind yourself why you got into business in the first place. Can you think of three reasons you love to do what you do? Feel free to comment on what you do, and why you love doing it! Maybe writing it out will help remind you of why you got started in business in the first place!

Once we got in, we were handed a program printed on newspaper, and yet again, was a completely different logo on the cover – this one was completely different than the other two I had seen on the street sign and the website. It was a lot more fun and festive looking, but it also looked kind of like clipart. Take a look at the two main differences of the festival logos:

Why use two logos for one event? It was pretty clear upon visiting the website, and then seeing the mis-matched signage and program that the festival not quite sure how to brand itself yet. There was no real message or tagline that informed me as to who they are or what they’re about that gave me any kind of emotional connection with the festival.

The logo that was used on the website had more of a modern and reserved look, but the one on the actual program, as you can see was completely different. The festive one was colorful, playful and fun, while the other logo was contemporary, and more business looking. Surely they could have stuck a balance between the two and just found one solution. I searched all across their site and found no use of the more festive logo, however, I did see that on the page about their 5K race, they were still using last year’s logo.

Developing a compelling message and consistently utilizing it across all mediums is critical to creating a memorable brand identity and building brand awareness. In this economy you have to utiize every dollar effectively. Not only does a consistent identity help to create awareness, but it also gives the impression that you are organized and have a clear vision. Are you using your brand identity consistently across all mediums and experiences? If not, you’re wasting time, money and brand equity.

So how do you use your identity consistently?
One way that has been used in many corporations for years is to develop a brand standards guide. This is typically a book, or .pdf file that contains your brand history, brand attributes, and logo in all acceptable uses, pantone colors, all acceptable fonts, a consistent grid in which your pages are structured with, among other things. These can be an investment up front to develop, as they do take some time, but the payoff is that you’ll have a guide in which to use across all vendors, mediums and experiences that will keep your brand consistent and build brand equity. When you develop a brand standards guide, you’ll not only create a unified look and feel, but you’ll create a consistent compelling message that people will recognize and remember.

Once we got in, we were handed a program that was really informative and laid out all the events, times and locations in an easy-to-find format. The first thing we did was check out the helicopter that Arizona Search and Rescue had displayed. They’re not funded by the state and they volunteer their time and money to do their jobs so they were there to raise a few bucks. They had some sherrif Joe boxers for sale and if you bought some merchandise, you could get your photo taken in the helli. I got a pair of pink Sherrif Joe boxers (for the wife!) and we got a few snapshots – they’re supposed to email them to me soon and I’ll post them here.

The kids and I bought some tickets and went on a few rides. Their favorite was the bean bag slide. I loved seeing their smiling faces as they slid down the rainbow colored slides at lightning speed on potato sacks – that was awesome. Next, we got a few snacks and bought a cup for $4 that was refillable for $2 for soda, which I thought was a pretty cool thing, considering most drinks are like $4 a pop. We then saw a really funny street act, where the guy was juggling flames, cups, all kinds of stuff, while telling jokes. He even had a cool poem that he recited about living life to the fullest every day, while juggling a machetti, a ham and a flaming torch.

We then went to see a pretty entertaining stunt show (I later found out that earlier that day, a guy was critically injured while practicing for the show). The main event was the ostrich race. We got there right at 2:00pm and it was packed. We could barely find a spot where we could see the races. I was really excited to see the race becaue I’ve never seen an ostrich race before. Here’s where things got interesting…

…The MC was announcing all of the jockeys participating. He said that the jockeys could weigh no more than 150 lbs. and then he gave each jockey a quick interview that we could all hear. One of the jockeys was a woman who said that “she definitely weighed under 150 lbs.” but would give no more detail than that, and rightly so! So a few minutes later they were off. Even though we were standing towards the back of the really large crowd, I could still see the main drag all the way up to the turn, and the ostriches took off way faster than I had anticipated. They were really tall and you could see the top half of their bodies, and their long necks and heads – they bolted down the drag.

Then, the rider I was watching looked like she was loosing her grip going down the main drag. She seemed to lean more and more to the left until she finally fell off! She tripped the ostrich and the giant bird fell right on top of the poor girl. Everything just stopped. At first, I think most people probably thought to just shrug it off, but when the girl lay there motionless, you knew something was seriously wrong. At that point, you knew that this was more than just a little accident.

5 or 6 people ran out to her, and then you could hear the shouting. The girl looked like she was convulsing, as her legs were shaking what looked like uncontrollabley. Then you heard the MC start yelling for an EMT. At that point, I grabbed my kids and we decided we’d had enough for one day. While we left, we said a quick prayer for the girl together and hoped she’d be okay. Man, what a day! I’ve been doing google searches trying to find out any news on the poor girl, but haven’t come up with anything. If you’re reading this and you know what’s happened to her, please drop a comment!

I think I’ll go back next year to see the ostrich races. They do have a lot of things going on and it’s a good event for families that won’t break the bank.

The ones that stand out to me are Allison Iraheta and Adam Lambert. The rest of the contestants are still pretty good, but they don’t seem to have an identity or musical style that really grabs me. Allison and Adam have both been consistent in delivering great performances, while staying true to their rockstar identities. They don’t just deliver consistent performances, but there’s some real talent there. From the way they dress, to the way they perform to their vocals, they’ve just got it (IMO). The rest have stories and identities, but I believe that Allison and Adam are a few giant steps ahead of the rest.

Having an interesting identity has also helped Megan Corkrey stay on the show. IMHO, she’s a horrible singer, and rather annoying (but beautiful!), but she has an identity that appeals to the judges, and apparently a few others, as she’s still on the show – so her identity has actually saved her! Michael Sarever – the oilrigger, has a great story and has remained true to his identity, and I think people like that about him. Danny Gokey and Scott Macintyre (from Scottsdale!) both have great stories, but Danny is trying to make the transition from Gospel to Pop Culture and he seems to be sort of stuck in the middle. The rest, to me are rather forgettable (Simon Cowell voice).

Weeding out the remaining 11 contestants will be interesting. I think while the rest of the contestants are trying to figure out who they are, the ones who already know who they are will be on the top and have the advantage.

Think about how this applies to your business. Do you have a memorable identity that appeals to your market? Do you know who you are and is that clear in your communications? If not, I encourage you to start thinking about it. This requires asking yourself some honest questions, brainstorming, and spending some quality time reflecting on who you are.

Be memorable, tell your story. Even if you have a product or service that is common, if you have an appealing identity, you’ll still differentiate yourself. If you’ve got a great product or service AND a solid identity, you’ll be right up there with the winning American Idol (Go Allison!).

When making a video for social media, you need not have a huge budget – it’s the idea and how you brand it that counts – if you look at any of their other videos, they do a really great job of consistently branding themselves. They just don’t make ‘em like this anymore, folks.

This was the beautiful box of botticelli chocolates that stole my heart (for about 2 minutes).

The box was absolutely beautiful – everything from the logo, with it’s well, designed, whimsical, swirly B mark, to it’s uniquely shaped enclosure, to the fancy embossing and beautiful little shots of the “Dark Delectables” on the box. It just jumped right off the shelf (and into my hands!). I was even more excited to see a 2 for $12 (although that probably should have been my first clue).

Upon opening the box, I was surprised. The the chocolates themselves were far from “Delectable.” They were just your average chocolates and really nothing special, like the beautiful packaging had led me to believe. Now, if you’re wondering if I ate them…of course I did! It’s a box of chocolates man! Will I buy them again…nah.

My point is, excellent design can absolutely help you win an initial customer or client, but it cannot keep them. You must deliver on your brand’s promise, whether that’s serving up “Illuminated Chocolates” or telling people “When You’re Here, You’re Family.”  Are you finding that despite having good design at work in your business that things aren’t panning out? Maybe it’s time to take a survey about your products or services. Maybe it’s time for an introspective look at whether or not you’re really delivering on your promise. Do you even know what your promise is?

If you’ve got a great product or service, good design can help win new business and make a great first impression – actually delivering on your brand’s promise is up to you.

PS – Excellent job on the design and branding for botticelli by Struck.

I hope you’ll find it informative, entertaining, and useful!
To start off, I’m going to be doing a three-part series called “Shoestring Branding – How to Effectively Build Your Brand in a Down Economy.”

Here’s what we’ll cover:

Be sure to either subscribe to the RSS feed (look in your browser’s address window on the right-hand side for the orange icon), or check back in mid February for our first portion of “Shoestring Branding – How to Effectively Build Your Brand in a Down Economy.”