Worth Every Penny: Branding your Business

[Pesso]

Hey Square Readers,

As we’re getting into reading Worth Every Penny by Sarah Petty and Erin Verbeck, let’s get deeper into the material. Last week we talked about the basics, the authors’ framework and definition of a Boutique business. 

Now, let’s dive into the first main section of the book: Branding.

Benefits of Branding

“Your identity is how you look, and your brand is how people feel about you.”

“Here’s the bottom line: you can’t build a strong brand on a weak identity.”

First, let’s talk about what branding actually is. Your branding is the total perception your customers have about you. Your logo and color scheme are part of your Visual Identity, which is only one part of your branding. Your brand is essentially your reputation.

Overall, having a well defined brand is incredibly important to any business, but especially a Boutique one. The authors write, “Without a remarkable brand, a boutique business is nothing… If people don’t know what you’re about, [or] if your business looks different every time they see you … they can’t rely on you for a spectacular, one-of-a-kind experience every time… To charge what you’re worth, it’s essential to carefully craft and manage your reputation for being the best at what you do… Your brand lays the foundation for attracting the right clients and increasing the results of your marketing efforts. Your fantastic, reliable brand will put you ahead of the competition… and justify the premium prices that make yours a healthy boutique business.”

Branding Yourself

So how do you actually go about defining, establishing, and maintaining your brand? 

Customer Perception

The authors suggest stepping into the mind of one of your best customers who loves and is devoted to your business. They suggest writing down what those customers think and feel about your business, what it means to them, the reasons they keep coming back, and more. Feel free to ask some of them to get the real answer! You can also add in your own ideas of what you would want your customers to feel. 

Create Consistent Standards

The foundation of your brand is setting and keeping up certain standards, and consistency is key. Every bit of your brand and visual identity should be the same everywhere, including logo, fonts, color choices, website, even down to the cleanliness and orderliness of your shop or physical space if you have one. It all needs to stay the same everywhere they show up, every single time. Failing to meet expectations even once can lose a customer. 

They write, “A strong brand creates consistency and a feeling of trust among your customers. It creates immediate recognition of your business… Even the slightest change to a logo creates inconsistencies in identity and brand. It creates a disconnect with customers and prospects… Customers won’t recognize you and all the goodness you offer—the experience, the service, the customization, and the relationship—if your identity is marginalized, scattered, or conflicted. Your identity is the glue that holds your brand together.”

Make Rules

Make sure that you’re setting standards for yourself, your employees, and your brand, and maintaining them no matter what. The authors recommend writing down your identity standards into a style guide for easy reference and training. They even offer a guide through their website.

Beyond just your identity, make rules about what your business does and does not do. These can be around where you advertise, what you won’t sell, how often to clean, and more. Having rules like this can make it virtually automatic to maintain your reputation, stay within your niche, and not do anything that could compromise any of that. Then do what you can to monitor and enforce these brand standards.

In our next discussion thread, we’ll talk about Section 2: Products, Services, and Customer Experience.

We’d love to hear your answer in the comments:

• How do you define your brand and what makes your business unique? 
• What are your brand standards and what rules can you have to maintain them? 
• Take a hard look at all of your branding elements. What can you fix to be more consistent?

Feel free to share any other thoughts you have about this book. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Don’t forget to:

• View and Subscribe to all threads about this book
• RSVP to our Live Discussion 

Happy reading,

Pesso

[TheRealChipA]

This is definitely an important topic.  I’m always surprised how many new businesses either don’t think about the importance of consistent branding, or don’t want to spend the money, time and effort involved up-front.  Charles and I have always been true believers in Guerilla Marketing, and creating our brand was one of the first things we did.  We haven’t regretted that one bit.

I loved that you mentioned the importance of fonts, colors and logo.  I was so happy when I saw that Square Online finally allowed us to upload custom fonts and set those to be used consistently throughout our website.  Before they were even available to the non-Apple world, we had chosen Copperplate and Cochin which didn’t exist at first on Windows computers and even in Square’s font list.  So custom fonts were a great addition allowing us to further standardize our brand online.  The same goes for the scrolling banner, which we found to be the perfect place to put our slogan and draw attention to it.  We have that slogan for a reason, you know!

One of the best inadvertent decisions we made was to have our logo only say “Piper’s” and not “Piper’s Cafe” or anything too specific.  When we made the post-lockdown decision to rebrand into an ice cream shop exclusively, it was such an easy move to modify our logo to add “Ice Cream Bar” below the logo.  And we still have that flexibility one day if we lose our minds and decide to only sell horse saddles, or something equally weird.  Our initial logo still is a perfect base for any modifications!

Also, I love the “make rules about your identity” statement.  I’ll admit that we lost sight of this one a few years into business.  We did this by trying to be everything to everyone.  Being an ice cream shop is hard enough, but being an ice cream shop that serves locally-sourced, homemade food that even ketos and vegans and gluten-free folks and on and on and on……. Well, I can tell you that was wholly unsustainable.  Re-branding back to our roots — the ice cream shop whose slogan is “It’s time for something different” was the best decision we ever made.  We have focus and we don’t allow ourselves to be distracted by the next shiny new trend that comes along.  Besides, when you have 100,000+ flavor blends of lactose-free soft serve, and over 2 billion (you read that right!) unique products that we can make from our ingredient list, who cares about trends!  I certainly don’t.  Ha.

One more thing then I’ll shut up.  When we rebranded the best decision we made was to engage the services of a local marketing company.  Even if we had spent twice what they charged us, it would have been worth every penny.  Their media contacts gave us exposure that we never could have gotten on our own, and much of that is still paying dividends since as we all know the internet never forgets.  People are still asking me about this or that TV spot that I did a few years ago, one that they just found today.  Priceless.  

[Pesso]

Thanks @TheRealChipA !

Thanks for sharing that info about Guerilla Marketing -- I'd heard the term but never really fully understood it. That's a really cool approach!

That's such a good point -- sometimes brand inconsistencies are outside of your control! Half of the job is picking fonts and colors that can be easily replicated everywhere, and the other half is having tools that let you use the ones you want. 

Very good call about having a simple and modifiable brand like that! We did the same thing with our main Pesso's logo, when we decided to rebrand from Pesso's Italian Ices to Pesso's Ices & Ice Cream. It worked so well. And we also used Copperplate for a long time!

I love your pull back to being who you are, and not trying to do it all. "If you try to be everything to anyone , you'll end up being nothing to everyone." Already you're doing more than enough!

Thanks for the tip about looking into local marketing companies. I know this can be intimidating since there are some folks out there trying to scam and pretend to be experts. Any tips or suggestions on how to find a good reputable one?

I'll definitely keep an eye out for Piper's Saddleshop opening fall 2036!

[TheRealChipA]

@Pesso I definitely have tips for finding a great, reputable local marketing company.  That’s where networking is invaluable!  Make the effort to find your local business council or similar group.  In our case, we had two — the Covington Business Council and the now-defunct MainStrasse Village Association.

The owners of the marketing company that we used were part of the latter — the MSVA.  He had been involved for a number of years when Piper’s opened and had been President as well as held other positions.  His wife had been working for other marketing firms and wanted to start her own with a hyper-local focus.  She actually leased one of our small starter office spaces when she was first starting out, and we established a great relationship that way.

Anyway, being part of a business group can be invaluable, even for people like me who hate mixers and parties and basically any place where lots of people gather for small talk, which I also detest.  Ha.  The point of those groups is to connect us with other entrepreneurs and hopefully find common ground for working together to help both businesses.  Of course, it’s always good to ask for references of similar local businesses to ours and then to actually verify and talk to those references.  Remember that just because they are local does not mean that they are good at what they do.

Lastly, ignore all unsolicited emails, phone calls, etc, from marketing companies and “experts,” especially the national ones UNLESS yours is a national company.  The market you are in is the market that matters and only people who live, work and breathe in that market can truly understand that market.

As far as Piper’s Saddleshop, don’t hold your breath! LOL.  However, after I posted that reply I did get an inquiry from a new mixed-use development that is going up the next county over on the riverfront.  They would like to explore opening a Piper’s and so I guess it’s time for me to consider whether or not I’m in the mood for a second location, or a franchising opportunity, or not!  Just when I thought it was safe to seriously consider retirement! 

[Pesso]

Thanks for another set of amazing tips, @TheRealChipA ! We love a community here at the Seller Community, so finding local business groups sounds like a great plan. Very good callouts to go local whenever possible, ask for references and recommendations, and ignore the unsolicited calls & emails!

Oooh that sounds like a super interesting opportunity. Let us know what you end up doing!

[CareyJo]

Networking is HUGE!!!  Especially in small communities!  I was a member of a business networking group that is in several states but not nationwide.  Their focus was membership and the rule was that to be a member you must refer the businesses that are in your group.  It was great in the beginning but when I left we had some bad apples that caused problems.  That being said, had I not joined the group a year into our business, I would not have made the connections I did.  We got a lot of business from the members but no referral business.  We got a lot of referrals but no ROI.  It's ok though... we made a huge amount of money off of that group.  More importantly, I saw growth in myself as a business owner, even after being self-employed at that time for almost 35 years.  I still have a lot of those connections today.  I could literally tell you who to call for anything you need and most of those people still refer us to friends and family.  Believe it or not, I'm mostly an introvert and shy.  I don't mingle well and this group got me back out of my comfort zone and back to the days of standing in front of 200+ people each week and talking.  It reinvigorated my confidence and I joined other things because of it.  I became involved in the Chamber so much that I have sat on the board now for 3 years.  I've joined efforts of a major non-profit and gotten involved.  I've attended conferences and meetings and done the hard work of making the calls and saying "hey, let's talk".  I've realized what my capabilities are and what I'm good at BECAUSE I joined a networking group.  I would not be where I am today without it.  I used to never tell people what my skills are and just how vast my experience is and now I do.  Now I get asked to teach.

[Pesso]

Thank you for sharing all of this, @CareyJo ! It's so great to hear that these local groups helped you so much, in so many different ways.

We never really got involved in these groups when I had my shop since we were more focused on just running the business and didn't know or understand the value. I'm sure others feel the same way. Now I definitely wish I had! 

Having that support, building connections & referrals, challenging yourself, and getting involved sounds like a great way to be a business owner and community member!

[CareyJo]

It's also about the give and take.  If all you're expecting is for people to give to you and your business but you don't give back to them and theirs, then you're not being an effective community partner.  It has to go both ways.  The more we learn, the more we should share with others.  It's not a competition, maybe in same for same business, but not in the community.  Even if I was competing with another HVAC shop, there is always something different about us and both companies will attract business.  If I PARTNER with them, to pass referrals we cannot do, then we both win because they will (or I hope they will) reciprocate.  If I support their business and we have a good relationship, then why wouldn't they?  We all win.

[Pesso]

Such great points, @CareyJo ! Partnerships, reciprocation, mutual aid, and collaboration wins out in a community!

[CareyJo]

My focus is always "Shop Local".  There are very few times that I don't shop local.  I want people to support our small business, I want to do the same for others.  When we shop local we help keep costs down and away from the big box stores.  That also goes with bigger companies.  I'd rather give my business to a small firm who focuses on me instead of going with a big firm who farms you out to employees because they have million dollar clients and you just don't cut it.

Great advice!

[Pesso]

Such a great point, @CareyJo ! If we want others to shop local with us, we should practice what we preach and shop local with others!

[DLRosenberg]

We have a logo, font, etc.. those are the basics of brand. For us we dive into our brand "promise" which is to meet every customer where they are on their spiritual journey without judgement.

[Pesso]

Thanks for sharing, @DLRosenberg ! 

How do you keep your brand standards across all of your sales channels, and everywhere y'all show up? Have you ever had inconsistencies across them?

[CareyJo]

Our brand is focused on two things in our logo - the American flag and the use of opposites.  Our company name is Arctic Heat.  You can google it and see what I mean but make sure you ask for Boulder, MT or you won't find it.  Our logo is both hot and cold but in the opposite colors and flames for cold and ice for heat.  We have never differentiated from this.  It's looked that way since we opened.  We paid to have our logo designed for us and tweaked it until it was perfect.  Our brand is defined by our desire to show that we support America and American values and that we know all things heating and cooling and desire to provide the best service.

Our standards:  Best price for the best service.  Always do what is best for the customer's needs - not what they think they need.  (Most customers don't actually know, they think they do.)  We show the customer based on their property and mathematics, how much heating or cooling they need and how they can get it.  Sometimes we have to give them hard truths that their building wasn't built to provide what they want or they have existing issues that cannot be remedied to get them what they want and WHY.  We never give prices over the phone or without an inspection.  The bid price is the price.  We don't change it later.  We put them on the calendar and let them know when they are due for service so they don't have to remember.  We educate them on what they have and how to maintain it.  To maintain these things isn't hard.  We just simply do it.  But we also regularly have conversation about it and making sure that we're sustaining it across the board with all clients.

I don't think we need to change anything.  Our truck is so recognizable that if we changed our branding no one would know who we were... we would suddenly become vanilla!

[Pesso]

Thanks, @CareyJo !

I love that use of juxtaposition in the name and logo! It sounds like having it professionally designed absolutely paid off since you've been using it as is for so long. 

It absolutely sounds like great brand positioning -- focusing on education and expertise, being direct and transparent with customers, and having profound integrity. Sounds like a brand you can trust!

[CareyJo]

Thank you!!

[CareyJo]

Homework questions chapter 2:

1.  All of our marketing and promotional pieces were designed by the same person, at the same time, to be consistent.  Not an issue here.

2.  I don't have a document per se but I'm the only person in our business that orders anything to be made.  So I keep it consistent.  I have all of our files and instruct whomever I'm giving them to on how to use them.  I don't sign off on what doesn't look right.

3.  Our customers already know that we will answer the phone during heating season 24/7.  We won't drop that.  The two other things is that we will always do what is best by/for the client and that their needs are important to us.  The paycheck is just a bonus because when we put their needs first, we're rewarded.

4.  I've already talked in other places about how our clients already gush over us.  I'm not sure that there's anything left we could do, to take it to the next level.  We're also not looking to grow exponentially in the coming years, as we're on the downhill slide to retirement.  But we will continue to do what we're doing and not let things slide.  We're in transition right now and changing our clientele focus just a bit so that there's less super hard/manual labor involved in our work, with higher income.  We will continue to serve any client that comes knocking but we're going after more commercial contracts to fill our time with, so there will naturally be less time focusing on small clients.  We need to focus our finances on retirement and providing sustainable income, not collecting every client we can get our hands on.

[Pesso]

Thanks for sharing your answers to these questions too, @CareyJo !

I love that consistency is a priority for you, across the board, and maintaining those standards is essential. 

That's a great move to shift into higher profit and less manually intensive work, given your stage of the business -- but still not abandoning your existing clients. Love the shifting of the goals to meet your personal and business needs!

[rtfulk]

When we designed our logo we wanted something clean, simple and hopefully would stick in peoples mind. We went with a simple pink bow and our name in teal. It’s so simple, but I think stays with you. We are in no way big like Nike or Apple, but our customers know the bow logo.
One other thing I would highly suggest is to register/trademark your logo.

[Pesso]

I love that, @rtfulk ! It absolutely sounds distinct and memorable, so even if you're not a massive corporation, you still have the recognition from your customers which is what counts. I'd love to see if you want to share it here! Very good point about trademarking it, too!

Other than your logo, what is distinct about your brand? 

[rtfulk]

@Pesso