Change Your Business, Change Your Life?

When we were doing a lot of live presentations, this is a refrain that the Fabulous Honey Parker and I would repeat from the stage.
 
The reason that we would say it is because, for the small-business owner, it was true.
 
We also used examples of people who had changed their businesses by rebranding, and had changed their lives.
 
We even had videos of them, saying things like the new branding "taught us how to be out in the world."
 
That might seem like a strange thing for a grown adult to be saying--until you realize that the person who said it is also a professional actor.
 
And who knows better the need for cues about "How to be out in the world" than someone whose performance upon a stage requires an objective third party providing direction?
 
 
AND OF COURSE, "ALL WORLD'S A STAGE...
 
"And all the men and women merely players..."
 
We'll not be going far enough into that old chestnut to get to the less popular line about "mewling and puking."
 
Instead, we'll just point out that the Bard of Stratford Upon Avon himself gave us the metaphor about the world being a stage.
 
And an actor on a stage benefits from direction by a third party.
 
And last week we, as de facto directors of brand, had an in interesting experience out in the world.
 
We did something unusual.
 
We visited a client business, and personally presented the new brand to 45 employees.
 
Understand, we have no problem visiting a client's business and making such a presentation.
 
It's just that, for many small-business owners, the branding budget is micro-sized.
 
 
GETTING ON A PLANE FOR SUCH A VISIT IS A LUXURY
 
Especially if a client is in hard-to-reach rural New Hampshire or tropical-paradisiacal Cebu.
 
But when a client is as big as this one, and the plane flight is only 90 minutes, why the heck not?
 
Besides, this was a big deal.
 
After 38 years in business, this family retail superstore was changing its brand name.
 
The original name, if uninventive and unsurprising, was clear. Which is fine. Building an empire over 38 years is one heck of an achievement.
 
If you can do that by giving yourself a clear and obvious name, have at it.
 
 
BUT THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY
 
It was deemed time for this business to evolve its brand to meet the 21st century.
 
They need to compete in a way that brings retail customers in out of the internet and into a brick & mortar store--especially to a store that's family-owned and flies in the face of the institutionalized and mediocre experience at its big-box competitors.
 
This brick & mortar store is superb.
 
Theirs is a retail experience unlike any other in the category.
 
It's the kind of place that makes you glad family-owned retail stores still exist.
 
Populated by good people and excellent products, they make you feel welcome, they make you feel at home, and they make feel like you're doing something really good for yourself.
 
Those kinds of things are really important to this brand.
 
And they weren't being reflected in the branding.
 
 
SLOW BURN'S JOB WAS TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT
 
Over the last few months, we'd been interviewing the management team, key staff members and select customers.
 
We'd been putting the information gathered through the Slow-Burn branding processor.
 
And the results that came out the other end? 

They have made the management team giddy.
 
It was now time to unveil the brand to the people who make the business happen every day.
 
So we stood there, in the store, in front of about 45 people. This included the founder, the owners, management, sales staff, office staff, warehouse staff and truck drivers.
 
Everyone who impacts this brand, and is impacted by it, was sitting there, eating bagels and drinking coffee and waiting patiently.
 
And honestly?
 
 
I HAD A LITTLE TREPIDATION
 
Not about speaking to a crowd.
 
After all, Honey and I have stood on stages as far flung as Los  Angeles and Kuala Lumpur, speaking to audiences of thousands of small-business owners, explaining brand and how it can make their businesses stronger.
 
But this was the first time that we had ever stood in front of four dozen people whose lives were about to be impacted by a new mission statement, a new goal, their first-ever core customer definition, and a designation for the one way that core customer should feel about their business.
 
How were they going to take it?
 
Would they be glad to have new, de facto rules?
 
Or would they resist?
 
Would they say, "Who are these carpetbaggers and why should I heed their directives?"
 
 
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN?
 
Cue the PowerPoint!
 
It took about 20 minutes.
 
Technically speaking, our performance went well.
 
But watching the audience--watching everyone from the founder to the truck drivers--it was clear that something was happening.
 
It was clear that a new brand name, new signage, new truck graphics, even new business cards--along with a new tagline--had flipped a switch.
 
You could see sales people nodding their heads.
 
You could see warehouse workers and truck drivers lighting up.
 
You could see the founder getting choked up.
 
As the manager said to me afterwards, "I really like the buzz in here this morning."
 
 
YES, THEY ALL APPLAUDED WITH ENTHUSIASM
 
But something more important happened in those moments.
 
Everyone on the staff became galvanized.
 
They were suddenly able to rally around a new name and a new brand and a new way of being in the world.
 
And they also had new business cards.
 
That might sound insignificant.

But this business card is sexy. It looks--and feels amazing. Grown men have been seen fondling it beyond what is considered a decent interval. 
 
And when you drive a truck for a retail store, and you've never had a business card?
 
 
THIS IS A GAME CHANGER
 
Afterwards, one of the truck drivers came to the founder.

He said, "So, if I go on a delivery, and I give that woman my business card, and she feels happy enough that she gives it to someone who comes into the store to buy something, what do I get?"
 
All of a sudden, the truck driver was ready to up his game.
 
His participation in the circle of retail life had more impact.
 
He was ready to drive more than just a white box truck.
 
He was ready to drive business.
 
He was ready to make that customer feel one way about the store he works for.
 
It was gratifying that salespeople came up individually and thanked us for the work.
 
 
IT WAS UNEXPECTED THAT TRUCK DRIVERS WOULD EMBRACE IT EQUALLY
 
For years, we've had clients tell us how new branding galvanizes their teams.
 
One even spoke about how it was like flipping a switch.
 
When she presented the new brand and its new language to her staff, they immediately rose to it.
 
It changed the performance in her office that very day.
 
But this was the first time we had the privilege of watching the result with four dozen people in attendance.
 
And it changed everyone's demeanor that very day.
 
Management is now deciding how they're going to incentivize and reward truck drivers (and anyone else not in sales) for driving business to the store.
 
And the owners are feeling something they haven't felt in a while.
 
 
THEY FEEL THE STRUGGLE MELTING AWAY
 
An outdated name.
 
An outdated and incongruous look.

To hear them describe it, it was almost as if there were a millstone around their necks.

Rebranding is an act of courage, especially after 38 years. 
 
And now, they have a brand new suit of clothes.
 
They have a new way of knowing how to be out in the world.

We feel a little like Stacy & Clinton from What Not To Wear.
 
Do not underestimate the value of what your brand does for your psyche.
 
The right focus on how to be out in the world is a powerful thing.
 
And it can make everyone in your business raise the bar and do better for themselves--and for you.
 
Change your business.
 
Change your life.
 
Change your brand. 

As always,
Blaine Parker
Your Lean, Mean Creative Director
in Park City