Gentle Giants

We have been discussing branding your business, brand recognition and logo design.

As Kate points out for an online business, and in todays world I think we all operate online, brand recognition is the experience your client has online on your site.  Your site is your brand and so your logo on your site is branding your business.

This means you must plan and design your logo with care.  No quick clip-art concepts need apply.  There is a high cost to pay for attempting to save money on a business image.

Fairly recently a client came to us to organise staff uniforms and some promotional caps, pens, keyrings etc for clients.  They had just purchased an existing business with a not great reputation for reliability and wanted to overhaul public perception. The business had no logo to speak of and the new owners needed things NOW, ads were booked and the doors were open.

But with the expense of purchasing the business etc they had left no budget for graphic design etc. They selected the cheapest shirts possible to use for their uniforms, they made a quick logo with some clip art. Neither partners were particularly happy with it but they decided to go ahead. 

Not even a year later they were in to see us, new uniforms were needed, a new logo was given to us to set up for embroidery.  And again it was adequate but not great, it lacked the depth of creativity and statement that a good graphic artist brings to logo design.  However these business owners needed to cut corners, needed uniforms for a trade show, they needed new business cards and other stationery. NOW.  They promised me that they would come back to redesign the corporate logo/image to better reflect their desires for the public persona of the business.

Really?

These guys are just like many business owners.  They did not plan for the possible costs involved in the creation of the image with which their business or product would be introduced to the target market.  They then spent more on products they were not happy with plus lost valuable time building a business identity.  It is easy to do.. but the bottom line 

- take the time to work with the graphic designer.  For identity design take the time to research the businesses target  market, local competition and industry before even starting with design

- budget time and funds for the design project

Realistically your logo design is an investment into the image and the future success of your business.  You will use merchandise to distribute your brand in a smart and creative marketing method.  the more often people encounter your brand identity the more benefits you receive through familiarity, credibility and visibility.

Merchandise can be more effective than advertising or work hand in hand with your advertising campaign - with results that impact your bottom line.  Giving away imprinted merchandise keeps your brand front of mind and so you need the logo/image to be well thought out.

So business awards over, thank you everyone for your comments, now lets get back to work.. ! 

The big question that we are concerned with is running a successful small business in a  rural town.  Well it is no different to running a business in any town.

As an entrepreneur you wear many hats, we all know that one.  It’s one of the things that make being an entrepreneur so exciting.  At the same time you are developing your product, you’re ensuring everyone is on task, trouble shooting etc etc.

In all this process don’t forget the marketing, specifically the branding. 

Many business owners think that salesmanship and marketing are enough to succeed in business.  But there is another level to aspire to!  Creating a brand.

Your brand creates your image, and proper branding places you in the marketplace and creates loyalty.

Brands are not just logos or tag lines.  Brands are a statement of who you are, why you are different and why a buyer should purchase from you.  it is important to consistantly communicate your brand.

For this you need a good logo.  Your logo should be memorable.  Think the golden arches.. very memorable.  Your logo should be able to be reproduced as a great print and/or embroidery. 

There are a lot of factors to consider with logo design as part of your branding.  We are just getting started on the topic.  The many different promotional products that you will purchase to display your branding and message means you must get a quality design, quality artwork and presentation. It is critical.

Gentle Giants Sportswear & Uniforms strives to communicate with your company in a strong working partnership that develops and translates your brand and concepts into striking visual designs for products and uniforms.

Ballina Lighthouse JSLC nippers uniforms

There are many great books you can read and websites you can view to help you with understanding the importance of brand recognition and how to create a brand.  One of the sites I have found incredibly helpful is http://www.articlealley.com/article_1719_15.html

On my next blog entry I hope to cover more about branding, staff uniforms, logos, and promotional products. 

Cheers

The team at Gentle Giants - logos’R'us!        

Thanks Lee and thanks Dylan.  It is really nice to get some comments on the blog.. I am impressed!

I look forward to finding out more about your fabrics Lee.  It was nice to meet you at the Business Awards Dylan and congratulations on your win.  I think we are all winners to be living here and working here!  No Harbour Bridge traffic delays..

The awards were a great night and they are another example of supporting the local community and networking in a small town.  Surprisingly they are highly competitive as there are a substantial number of successful business operators here.

Gentle Giants entered the small business manufacturing section.  We are one of the few uniform suppliers/uniform wholesalers left that still manufacturers a large amount of product in Australia.  We do also have to be competitive on the world market so we manufacture off shore too!  I have been amazed to find that many companies that supply school uniforms and sports team apparel actually do not make the garments nor do they do the embroidery and printing.  We do it all and it keeps us busy and it keeps us happy.

Business is busy-ness!.

If you are in a smaller population area I urge you to join your Local Chamber of Commerce and attend these award nights.  If you do not have time to put forward a submission then perhaps enter into a sponsorship arrangement with the Chamber and supply some giveaways and/or sponsor a particular award.  You will get great publicity out of it!

So our website is picking up more traffic now, we have a new design and quote maker feature on the website and seems a lot of people are enjoying have a play with design, uploading graphics, names and numbers to the shirts and emailing in for quotes and comments.  I am still running the older Garment design feature on the site also.

Let me know what you think of the features, do you prefer the first Garment Generator or do you prefer the new Quote and Design Maker.

Keep the comments flowing!

cheers

Gentle Giants

Further to the earlier post it is essential as a business operator in a small town to ‘think global, act local’.  By this I mean that we need to show support to other small business operators, therefore rather than purchasing my packaging from a larger interstate supplier I pay the extra .15c to keep a local business operating and I purchase from them.  Everyone has to make a living and I am happy to assist others, I am sure in the end it will come back.

‘Think global, act local’.. it means so much more.. it means putting your hand up and sponsoring a local sporting team.  Luckily Gentle Giants manufactures and supplies sports team apparel, tshirts, printing and embroidery.  We will often supply these to a team and splash our logo on the items.  It gives us great advertising and it really helps our local community.

I could keep going on this subject but I am far more fascinatedAbout the Giant by a compulsion to master blogging and to get this blog noticed.. I am a blog beginner and wonder if I need to tattoo the blog address on my forehead to get people to notice it!  Some handy advice has come my way by true pro-bloggers and I am about to try it all.  I will update and let you know what works. But if you have any ideas please feel free to share!

Mouse and money

Running a small business in a country town isn’t really so different from doing it in the city. Sure, there’s less traffic, more cows, less pollution in the air and the free range eggs are a lot fresher. Apart from the lifestyle changes, the way that business operates is pretty much the same whether it’s out of a home office on a farm or the north-facing office in a CBD high rise….especially when the internet is involved.

One of the greatest things about the internet is that it doesn’t matter where you come from or who you are - if you have the right tools you can flourish online. Internet marketing is important as a great resource for customers to locate your business, and for you to build a reputation around your brand. As part of the community of a small town, show that you are involved in local events.

1.)    Directories

The digital descendant of the phone book, directories are banks of contact information listed by location and/or category online. There are directories on the web for every interest, hobby and obsession you can think of. The Nationwide Business Association of Australia is a good place to start, located at http://www.nationwide.com.au/.
TIP: While you are at a directory, take a nosy look at the websites of your competitors to see what their sites are like. If you are in a very small rural area, it’s possible you have no competitors, but it’s worth looking at the sites of people in the same industry regardless of location to see what their methods are for making sales online.

2.)    Tourist Sites

Most towns and cities have a government ‘official’ website. These sites have information for tourists about the area, including activities and local attractions, and also local businesses and services. Gentle Giants is based in Ballina, NSW, and our tourist site is www.discoverballina.com in NSW. Whether your local tourist site is government sponsored or locally funded, the website will be a great resource for you as it’s a sure-fire way of putting your business in front of tourists. If you don’t know what your local ‘official’ tourist site is, you should be able to find it through Google or by contacting your local information centre.

3.)    Build Your Social Network

On the internet that is, not just down at the local pub – though who knows what business opportunities can arise over spending a little time with your neighbours. Making a Facebook page is an easy and free way to build up your brand online and get your business out into the public sphere. To get involved with potential clients, add people from the same location as you as friends (they or someone they know may be in need of your services). You could search within Facebook for people who are interested in the field your business operates in. Go to www.facebook.com for more information.

Communities online act much like that of small towns. It may take a little while to break in, but once you are welcomed in to the community they won’t be able to imagine what life was like without you. Search online for communities that share the same interests as you or who work in the same industry. Participate in discissions in online communities and over time you’ll build up relationships that could lead to business in the future.

4.) Get Your Site Ranked Higher On Google

Google and the other search engines are the online shopping mall of the 21st Century. Everyone comes here to find what they are looking for. The beautiful thing about search engines is that any business - big or small, multinational or operating out of a garage - can potentially appear in the best position for their customers to find them.  Being listed on page ten means not many people will find your business. Appearing on page 1, in the top ten listings for the best phrase to describe your products, can fill your online store with eager customers specifically looking for your stock.

Keywords are one of the keys to getting better visibility on the internet. These are the words and phrases your potential customers are typing into Google when looking for someone who sells your products. Brainstorm some keywords by thinking of terms that describe your business, and identify relevant keywords by trialling some you think would be relevant in search engines. Remember that many people misspell, so give room for common mistake versions of your keywords. Sometimes it doesn’t hurt to slip in a typo every now and then…

For a website that sells floral bouquets via delivery in Western Australia, people would search for ‘flowers WA’. Throughout the text on your website, use the words that describe what your business does. The more you can subtly incorporate these keywords in to your website copy the higher you will rank on search engines. The higher you appear, the more of your customers will see you. Having the keywords as part of the URL of your pages affects how search engines read your site, too.

5.)    Start An Email Newsletter

An email newsletter that gets sent out weekly or monthly can reach thousands of customers with one click. Invite visitors to your site to subscribe by highlighting that the newsletter offers more for free. A strong newsletter can keep your customers coming back again and again.

Living in a small town makes the community environment more important to people’s lifestyle than in the city. In your newsletter, you could include local news and events as well as updates about your business activities, new products and services and special deals. To encourage people to stay on your mailing list, offer special discounts to subscribers like a voucher they can print out or a promotion code that is only available to subscribers.

Online business is about content and relationships. By producing content people want to read, you can build relationships with a wide customer base, wherever they live. Gentle Giants isn’t confined to a small town. We are open to the entire global village and that does me just fine.