2010. The year of the cheap fix.

Happy New Year. Here’s how to nudge your business into shape for 2010…

New year’s resolution or not, it’s actually a great time to think about refreshing your brand. And in uncertain economic times, “refreshing” is the key. It’s a big investment to completely re-do your image. What makes far more sense is to review what you have and knock it into shape – making sure it reflects where your business is at now. This evolution, not revolution approach is far quicker and more cost effective to implement – and is sure to provide results almost immediately.

By way of example, let’s take a typical SME. It’s probably been going for around 4-7 years and has an logo and identity that was done either at the formation of the business or shortly after. The company has grown due to it’s success and so far has not had to rely on its image that much. Chances are that since the boom of the last few years, cash is now a bit tighter than it was – and looking at the branding is way off the radar.

So why look at it now?

Think about the difference between the company as it was 5 years ago and now. It’s now larger, more established and well respected. It’s market has expanded and it’s now looking for new markets and ways of selling it’s product/service. The existing brand image will be still relevant, but looking a bit dated. The effort and cost to redo everything is not appropriate, but there are undoubtedly benefits of looking that bit sharper and more professional when dealing with newer larger customers.

So what I’m advocating in essence is a cheap fix. Something that gets you where you want to be, to put you in a better shape to move the business forward [or survive another slump]. A solution that is simple and effective, without any significant investment.

The secret is to start with establishing the brand values. What is it that makes up your business’s personality. What do you stand for? From this, it’s probably a case of writing a tagline that better communicates these values together with cleaning up the logo to bring it up to date – but without changing it significantly.

This provides the advantage of being able to phase in the updating of the refreshed identity. Your main items can be updated easily. The website for example is the simplest to change. Most other items can be replaced as stocks run out.

This strategy is not for every business, but for most who fit the profile above, it will serve them well until things pick up, giving the confidence to truly focus on their brand.

Here are links to a couple of recent examples on my website:

http://www.bland-id.co.uk/portfolio/sgdfolio.html

http://www.bland-id.co.uk/portfolio/Projectone.html