This segment of the business community is the stated target audience of many marketers. It simply refers to businesses who’s decision maker is not spending their own money. It is the money of the company they work for. They are an employee NOT the owner. There is a huge difference in attitude. Some good, some bad.

From a brand perspective the best situation is OPM (other people’s money). These people are quicker to spend the necessary funds to get the job done properly. They are not guided by an emotional attachment to the money. They are focused entirely on results. An owner’s focus is on the money.

From a Sales perspective, these people like to deal with the owner, (TM or Their Money) because the owner answers to no one. They are spending their own money. They ARE the decision maker. Sales is also better understood by an owner, because they view themselves as the firm’s greatest salesperson. Marketing is alien to them, and it is typically the first thing cut during tough times. It all seems like so much air to them.

But top businesses understand that a strong brand is exactly why your company can weather tough times. It is what separates you from the other guy. To ignore its potential will hinder sales and cost you more to promote. Taking emotional decisions out of your marketing equation will benefit your brand immediately.

Do you prefer TM’s or OPM’s? Do you find any difference in attitude between the two?

Here are a few fumbles you might recognize and a suggestion for recovery:

FUMBLE ONE: Developing marketing materials without a clear direction of intent.
RECOVERY: Before you design your brochures, postcards or ads, determine how to measure their success. What are you expecting from them? Are you hoping, at the end of the day to gain a few dozen leads? Are they mostly for awareness? Knowing what you are trying to accomplish, helps the designers to better develop a message that targets the intended goal. Your brochures or ads now have direction.

FUMBLE TWO: When developing your marketing materials you focus too much on you.
RECOVERY: Do you really think the prospect cares that much about how big your building is? Stop selling real estate and answer his question – “what’s in it for me?” Address his pain and deliver solutions that resonates with them.

FUMBLE THREE: Your brand image doesn’t reflect the size and stature of your company.
RECOVERY: Take a good hard look at your brand image – does it look like a serious player in your category? Look at your biggest competitors – do they look more successful than you?
Chances are they take their image very seriously and didn’t just get the cheapest designer to develop it. You can cheap out on carpeting and other hardware, but your brand image is paramount to your success – invest in it wisely.

FUMBLE FOUR: Your website is essentially a print brochure in digital form. You notice in your visitor stats that visit lengths are incredibly short.
RECOVERY: Make a large effort to increase the content available on your site. Be sure that this information is of a quality nature. The more information you provide, the more they will visit to take advantage of it. Another good vehicle for increasing content is a business blog.

FUMBLE FIVE: Your business is not known in your category as a leading expert.
RECOVERY: Get your sales team or marketing manager involved in public speaking. This is a great way to quickly build your expert profile. Blogging is also great here.

FUMBLE SIX: Every time you promote your small business the color scheme reflects the immediate message – no consistency in brand image.
RECOVERY: Develop a brand palette that is used consistently in everything the company does visually. Base the palette on your corporate logo. Over time, your brand palette becomes a recognizable icon in your prospect’s mind.

FUMBLE SEVEN: Your sales team has no after sales strategy in place. Out of sight – out of mind.
RECOVERY: Develop a newsletter that goes out to customers AND prospects regularly. Use eMail marketing to put your name and message in front of their noses. This shows that you care about their success and will remind them of whom to talk to.

FUMBLE EIGHT: Your business does not participate in events or trade shows.
RECOVERY: Events and trade shows are perfect opportunities to network. Nurture contacts and find them business. In return, they will actively refer you. You must give first. Everybody loves referrals, so developing your own networking mastermind group can help promote you with a message of your choosing.

FUMBLE NINE: You’ve tried advertising and it doesn’t work. Chances are you, probably ran one or two ads and didn’t get the results you anticipated. Advertising left a bad taste in your mouth.
RECOVERY: The fact is – if you are going to run just one or two ads, you are best to just keep your money in your pocket, because advertising mostly works with consistent repetition. An old rule of thumb is: just when you are starting to get sick of your ads, your customers are JUST beginning to notice them. This kind of patience also takes a serious marketing budget. Before you commit, be prepared to go the distance, other wise spend your promotional dollars where the results are realized sooner.

FUMBLE TEN: The economy is dragging you down and as a result you and the entire marketing team are frightened by customers who are holding the line on spending.
RECOVERY: Your entire team has taken their collective eyes off the ball. Staying focused on the positive keeps you all alert and looking for opportunities that are out there. Negativity just attracts more fear and the distractions snowball into continuing failure. Train yourself to benefit from slow times by using the time to positively affect your success.  Implementing the previous nine recovery strategies will keep your team in focus and heading straight for your goals.

I got a call from Marc. He wanted to meet to discuss his company and how I could help to re-brand the blade guards to better position them as the quality guard of choice. As it stood at the time, they were generally identical.The one mistake that was made in the past was that the product was sold as a generic guard, for numerous other retailers and they labeled it with their images. Marc’s product had no brand of it’s own. One saving grace was that Marc Evon Enterprises DID have brand respect with all the top skaters in figure skating, world-wide.

Time to dig in.

Well – the first task was to develop a name that we could grow with and which would inspire the marketplace. The team settled on “Guardog™” with one D. It was playful, and since a guard dog is a security icon, its protective qualities fit what we were trying to say.

Next was the logo for Guardog™. Of course, a dog would be the main icon. We wanted an illustrative logo because we felt it would be a better reflection of the playful nature of the product, and it’s demographic was predominantly a younger skew. As you can imagine we went through a whole kennel of dog images. What was settled upon was a Disneyesque dog. It was matched up with a distinctive typographic approach and “Guardog™ – Anything else is a mutt™ was born. The slogan spoke to the quality of the guard against the competition. It also set the playful tone of the emerging brand.

Marketing materials including POP, trade show promotions, online efforts, and packaging were developed to establish a consistent brand image. Brand values expressed in all materials were fun, young and progressive. New products were brought on stream branded with their own sub-brands under the main Guardog banner head. Eventually, the different guard markets adopted their own distinctive dog logos. Figure borrowed from the original logo, hockey adopted a bulldog, speed is a greyhound, and blade covers took on a Shar-Pei. All the blade guards, and covers have Guardog™ identification boldly placed.

In the five years since the initial launch, Guardog™ is widely respected and is recognized as the original skate guard. Marc’s effort has allowed him to start taking back lost market share and still get a few dollars more for his product. Guardog™ is a prestige brand, and young skaters desire its products.

One lesson to take from this short case history, is that in every seemingly disastrous event there lies opportunity. Look for the silver lining. It would have been very easy for Marc Evon Enterprises to simply throw up their hands and walk away at the seemingly endless resources of the over-seas manufacturing environment. They saw the opportunity to raise the bar and capture the quality niche within the skate guard category that they had a large part in developing.

Check out the <a href=”http://www.guardog.ca”>Guardog™ world.</a>

The current economic turmoil is a challenge in the extreme to many brands. If you are publicly traded and you saw your stock drop like a stone, to what extent you recover is a testament to your brand strength. Many brands will definitely recover better than most solely on the strength of their brand. It is this faith, that drives sales and makes advocates of consumers and investors alike.

Paying close attention to brand building is precisely the reason branding must be taken seriously. If you are looking to sell your company, any potential buyer is going to want the best positioned company to earn them future profits. A well branded company will benefit from this confidence. Giving lip service to brand building isn’t good enough. Not unlike the green movement, it is the action that follows your words that  your audience is watching closely. Every aspect of your corporate culture will come under scrutiny in the quest for a stronger brand experience. Are your compliances in order? Do your processes increase productivity? Do you have an action plan that compliments your brand’s positioning strategy?

Look at your competition and honestly consider their brand. Are you the leader in your category? If not, what will it take to raise the bar and snatch the crown and call it your own? Every company needs to improve and it is this that could prove to be your Waterloo or your victory over your competitors. All it takes is for you to watch closely and avoid costly mis-judgements.

Six important brand areas to analyze are:

• Brand Values: What the foundation values are for your brand. These values are so important – that – if they were taken away, your company would cease to exit as we know it.
• Brand Personality: Imagine your brand as a person walking down the street. How would you describe this person to a friend? Understanding your brand’s personality, better enables you to understand how your brand behaves in it’s business circle.
• Brand Positioning Strategy: Taking a perspective of differentiation, your brand should be positioned uniquely as compared to the competition. Even among commodity environs, you can develop your own unique services or even redefine your category.
• Brand Image: Take a look at your competition and be sure that your company differs from them. Be sure that in every instance your brand image is consistent across the board. Be sure that your image is in sync with your brand values and personality.
• Customer Relationship: Survey your customers so that you can determine if they understand your brand and also to gage their passion for you.
• Stake Holder Awareness: Poll your employees, share holders, suppliers and any other stakeholders to determine their understanding of your brand. Ask them the simple question, “What is it that we do here?” This one question often generates numerous responses – some will make you glow – others, well, you’ll catch the drift when you hear them. The goal here is to educate stake holders so that they are singing from the same song sheet.

In time with the proper attention, your brand will continue to grow and flourish. As they say, “never take your eye of the ball”, winning is too important.