Minding Your Own Brand

Can you afford not to ... Continued

In order to grow your brand, you must invest in strengthening your company. Because most companies are cutting during tough economic times, now is the time to gain an advantage. Evaluate your entire company with an eye towards enhancement of your brand experience. If you have the resources, this is the perfect opportunity to invest in new equipment, train your people, improve your processes and procedures, re-vamp your products and services, and build your brand experience both inside and outside your organization. You may even get it all at a fraction of the cost because in a bad economy most companies are begging for your business.

This leads me to my last point; stick to your strategy. Play by your game plan, not your competition’s. In any economy, but especially now, resist the temptation to deep discount in order to close the deal. Selling on price alone and discounting is a bad idea and will ultimately hurt your brand. If you keep dropping your price to undercut your competition, you may win the battle but you will lose the war. Your final rock-bottom price is probably less than you can afford to sell it for and now there is little or no profit margin left. You won the deal, but at what cost? This price may now force you to deliver a lesser product or service level. Can you even provide what the customer expects at that price? Even if you can, you have little or no resources left to deepen the relationship with that customer, let alone enough to reinvest in strengthening your brand and attracting new customers. Don’t let short-term cash undermine your long-term brand. Resist the urge to chase your competitors; set a fair price which is based on your business strategy and hold your ground. If they low ball the price, you may lose the deal but they probably won’t be in business very long or will not be able properly meet the customer’s expectations and in the end the integrity of your brand will win out.

If you are going to survive long-term, you need to be an extraordinary brand. During this economic downturn you may be asking yourself, “Can I afford to do all the things that are necessary to nurture my brand?” and the answer is “you can’t afford not to!”

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Dave Lubelczyk is the president of IMAGEidentity, LTD which helps organizations achieve success by building advocacy through brand development and organizational development. He can be reached by phone: 508-259-9016 or by e-mail: dave@imageidentity.com.

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