Business Branding In A Downwards Economy

A good business brand is one that can withstand an ailing economy.In today's times wherein majority of the world is suffering from financial crisis, small- to big-time businesses are feeling the impact of this downturn.

This is when your branding campaign will be put to the test.Indeed, when businesses are competing for what remains of the market, you have to double your efforts at making the brand enable your business to thrive.What is also essential in these times is to never discount the impact of quality and improving value statements.These are important factors that hold promise to deliver more to the clients and keep your business afloat.

Are You Recession-Proof?: Branding seems to lose its vigor during recession.People tend to buy base on logic and needs, rather than impulse or perceptions.Therefore, you have to maintain or improve the kind of value, property, and benefits that your product promises its consumers.This is something that you must not lose focus on in your branding and marketing efforts, but its significance become more evident during times of recession.

If you want to add more value to your brand to make it better able to withstand the challenges of a suffering economy, here are areas of your branding system that must be given focus on:

o During recession, most businesses would tend to cut back on their marketing efforts and investments.

On the contrary, this is the time wherein you need to strengthen your marketing efforts.

o Create more aggressive marketing programs to be able to capture a bigger share of the market.

o Assert yourself on consumers largely affected by recession by offering better value on your products.

o Your advertising campaign must highlight quality, economic benefits, and real benefits as opposed to appeal to their superficial concerns.

Helping Your Brand Survive The Recession

When recession has hit the consumers, buying becomes a less desirable practice.

This will largely impact your business' efforts and this is made worse by the intensity of competition amongst various similar businesses.

Try using the following practices to keep your business thriving:

1.

) Never change your brand identity.Doing so will reduce the trust you have built on the customers and will also ruin your reputation.Merely try to restructure the messages you are trying to deliver but make sure that it stays within the context of your basic brand identity.

2.) Utilize this time to appeal to your customer's needs by performing a more thorough market research.This will produce an impression that you are concerned about their needs and are seeking for ways to deliver that.

3.) If your business' products are mostly high-end, do not simply revert to dropping prices.Instead, try improving the value and quality of your products so that customers will have a better quality spending habit.

4.) Be open to potential new customers.In times of recession, people are in the process of re-evaluating their spending habits.This is your opportunity to come into the picture and offer your business as a possible solution.

Ensuring Brand Stability : Consumers change their buying patterns during recession, but business owners must remain committed with their branding strategies.However, you do have to make slight and appropriate changes though, such as increased sensitivity to this new buying attitude exhibited by consumers.During times of recession, you have to stay committed in helping your customers attain quality service and products that add more value to their money.This is your winning formula.

And with increased dedication to your business brand, you will also increase the loyalty of your patrons.

About the Author

For more info on business, sales & marketing strategies - visit : http://www.

newbusinessmethods.com/

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How to Avoid Sales Hiring Mistakes

Have you ever made what you thought was a great sales hiring decision and later realized that it was a mistake?This article will provide you with information about how you can avoid sales hiring mistakes by measuring the person, not the experience.Whether you're an executive, a manager or a team leader, the following information will be beneficial to you.

You are bursting with pride at your most recent hire in the sales department.You lured the guy with a high sales quota from his job at Giant Company to work with your small, entrepreneurial startup and told him you wanted him to work the same magic for you that he worked there.You believe he can do it or you wouldn't have gone after him.He believes he can do it or he wouldn't have left his job there to come to work for you.

He arrives wearing his best suit and carrying his updated Rolodex.You put him in a great spot and wait for superior sales figures.And wait.And wait some more.The sales figures you expected never materialize, even though he's always on the phone and seems to be rattling lots of doorknobs.You try to analyze the situation and can't put your finger on the problem.The gears just never seem to mesh.He's always out of step with your expectations and never quite reaches the level of performance you see in your sales leaders.Or he reached a certain level and never went beyond that.Now he is marching in place.

Such disastrous hiring doesn't have to happen, yet it often does.Why?It's linked to a belief that excellent salespeople are born, not made, and that sales success in one place easily translates to sales success anywhere.These beliefs ignore the fact that a great part of the top salesperson's success at his previous company was linked to that company's culture.Oh yes, a previously successful salesperson can be successful in your company too.But success in your company will depend on you redefining his role, training him well, and both of you thinking about selling for your company in a different way.In short, you can't import his previous success without key changes.

Prior sales success is often the sole criterion that hiring managers look at when considering a candidate for this crucial position.After all, that star by the quota line is a quantitative measurement.You don't get to count the notches in the belt of most other employees.So why is a previous track record a bad thing to look at?

It's not, unless it's the only thing you are looking at.Don't let your search end there.Look within as much as you do without.Study your own company and customers, and think about what you want sales excellence to look like.Only when you have discerned what your company's culture requires can you begin to develop a profile for what your top salespersons should look like.

Doing this is not terribly hard if you are willing to look at people in your company who are already tops in sales and still growing, achieving ever-higher quotas and building on their successes.They will provide you with the standards you need to hire future top salespeople.

Failures at sales are mostly due to a person's underdeveloped skills and to selling the wrong thing.You can put someone with good skills in a nice suit and give her lots of contacts, and she still won't be able to sell if she doesn't have the right attitude, vision, skills and training that you provide.

Also consider that good salespeople are not necessarily born.Some make it look so easy that it seems like native ability, but just like any job done well, a talent for selling takes training, practice and commitment.Yes, there's an art to attaining superior sales, but art is not magic.If you combine the right characteristics that assessments can help you discern with the right training, hiring top salespeople is a science that enhances the art.

About the Author

Jim Sirbasku is co-founder and CEO of Profiles International, a leading provider of human resource management solutions and employment assessments for businesses worldwide.

For more information about how you can avoid sales hiring mistakes, visit our website.

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What Difference Can a Colour Make?

Have you ever walked down a street and turned the corner - and there in front of you is the most hideous coloured car you have ever seen in your life? A hideous purple, or gaudy green? The car itself may be quite fabulous (in the dark) but the owner has seen fit to cover it in the most awful paint imaginable. Sure, there are boring colours that seem to dominate particular years of car design - Audi metallic sand was the colour of choice for many years. Ford even saw fit to allow buyers to adorn their Mondeos in a hideous semi fluorescent yellow. Maybe its all a ploy to distract buyers from how bad a particular model is. As if in some way if they can distract the general public with the colour they can draw their eye away from the terrible safety, poor quality and general nastiness of their offering?

Looking around the office furniture market, one could easily be lead into thinking the same could apply. At launches of new products we often see wacky colour schemes which are clearly meant to make us remember them. Or conversely everything is so bland and all white that we are supposed to think of them as cool - as if an association with iPods would make the chair in question cooler. Okay - well maybe that does work.

A popular brief received by office furniture dealers all over the country is fresh and contemporary so then we try hard to find the best catalogue photography to show a customer the look that can be achieved.
Most designers and furniture suppliers have virtually begged a client at some point to pick a different colour. Knowing that to choose that particular colour would make an office look boring, or staid - or possibly dated and faddish.

Whilst office furniture suppliers have seen some great colour schemes in place - whether through a customer with a good eye for detail, or as a result of a good interior designer - we have also seen some hideous ideas see the light of day too. I had a client about 8 years ago who set his heart on installing different pastel colours (about 8 different shades in all) blinds to each window in the office. He then colour matched the various pillars in the office to match a window blind. A nice idea in theory perhaps, but it looked awful. Embarrassingly so. It was so bad that visitors would come into the office and audibly draw breath at the choice. He was the boss though and he liked them, so it stayed. That is until some months later when the staff finally broke and demanded that new blinds were installed and paint applied put in to stop them walking.

The problem is that some sales people worry that they will lose an order if they start getting too involved with something that is such a personal choice anyway. They lose sight of the fact that perhaps the customer would like some help - rather than a Yes man just agreeing Oh yes sir that would look fabulous!. This is an element of service that a good supplier can easily overlook in the quest for a quick sale. One must consider that if a customer suddenly realises in a years time that it really does look awful - theyll be looking to blame someone for such a poor choice and the salesman looks like a likely scapegoat. The end result of this is that they may never return with repeat business in case you let them choose something else hideous.

Colour choice needs to be a considered affair. Often the colours chosen are governed by the need for a corporate logo colour, or a carpet colour to be matched. If these arent relevant then you can really have some fun. But remember that colours have their own psychological symbolism . Black can mean style, power, mystery, solemnity. White can mean purity, sterility, and cleanliness. Red says sex, speed, arrogance, strength, bravery and more. Blue symbolises calm, productive, confidence, conservatism, and seriousness. Unusual colours like orange mean enthusiasm, flamboyance, creativity, and playfulness. Choosing pink can have mixed messages too including appreciation, admiration, sympathy, femininity, health, love, or homosexuality.

The message is clear therefore. When choosing a colour - take a moment to consider. What is the colour saying about your company to everyone that visits?

Now would you like that office chair in red, black or blue......?


About the Author

For further information regarding our range of reception furniture please visit our website at http://www.evolutionfurniture.co.uk/

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