Phantom CTO

Think Fondly of Our Past but We’ll Likely Kill You in the Morning

You might be dressing up for a pirate on Halloween or love Captain Sparrow but we’re still around today and we’re actually the complete opposite. Grimy and Bloodthirsty, Yes. Adorable and Romantic, No.

Buried Treasure #1

Build your own presence to match what you want your market to know about your business today.

Not here for the just the booty, but for the money!

It’s just so hard to get out there as a pirate. I mean, we’ll attack ships with tons of food on board and what are we going to do with that, open a market stand. Nah, just give use all the money on board so we can upgrade our weapons!

Buried Treasure #2

Build value for your market, give them what they are asking for. Let them want to give you money (and booty) in exchange.

We Pirates Are Here to Stop Piracy!  We Shall Call Ourselves Marines

There’s nothing like an official sounding name to convince the gullible that we’re looking out for their best interests. Sure, we’ll stop illegal trafficking in exchange for taking over the benefits of said illegal trafficking.

Buried Treasure #3

If you’re a small business, stop acting like your some big fish. If you’re head captain and sentry, be real about it. Your customers will embrace your honestly. Be real about who you are and what you bring to the table.

We’ll be looking for prey on waters with fuzzy government and no laws

When there’s no clear direction or laws around, who’s going to stop us? We make the rules to serve our purposes and destroy everyone and everything that comes in our way.

Buried Treasure #4

If there’s no leader in your market, you can establish and be the dominant authority. Instead of pirate ships and guns, you can use web presence and social media to put yourself at the forefront of your market.

We’re fond of the bait and switch maneuver to sneak attack your ship

You might think you’re navigating through some hard times, but what we’re doing is waiting for the right time to distract you and get inside your ship when you’re not looking.

Buried Treasure #5

It’s in times of struggle, in times of distress that your market can use your help most. Be that critical help that lets your clients do more with less. If their budget’s been cut say “Hey! We can still make your goals happen! Here’s what we’re going to do instead.”

A big Arr Matey to Dave McLure and the holiday as the inspiration for this post!

After watching Tony Hsieh of Zappos talk about what his strategy was for building web presence, I got to thinking how many other companies are so transparent in what they believe in. How many companies can you tell what their core values are?

I thought I’d have to go far to see an offline example of a company openly sharing their values to their customers but I didn’t. Instead I looked over at my Panera’s bag. On the back was their “recipe”. It was all the things they value that they want their customers to know about. Sure, I knew about the free Wifi and their artisan bread but that’s just the surface of what they want their customers to know about them.

A small business can show their values by listing them where their customers are. If your customers are on your website, let them easily find where you stand on your convictions, your passions and your business purpose in serving them. Your core values should be listed clearly like Yahoo, Google, Zappos and Whole Foods.

But don’t just list your core values. Live and breath the things you stand for. Let your employees and customers know what are your guiding principles. It’s what builds relationships between people and businesses.

What ways does your small business publicly demonstrate their values?

Solutions Stars Video has some great video clips about the value of being online. Guy Kawasaki adds that any business who’d like clients in more than a 5 mile radius from your store should have a blog. Or at least a site.

Web Presence Can Tip the Balance of Market Access to Progressive Companies

Having a web presence can show what you’re about to your market is the great flattener of reaching out to your ideal market. No longer is it large companies that have the resources to stand out and grab the attention of their market but small companies can speak equally as loud and draw in customers from their market by showing what they stand for and what they are passionate about.

Here’s our general strategy. Lets just be real and authentic and show customers our personality.

We tell our employees: use your best judgement and be yourself. –Tony Hsieh

Maybe your small business should just have a blog, maybe as a business owner you should be on Twitter. Really, there’s no way to tell if that’s the right web presence for you but the barrier to entry has been demolished by these kinds of web tools. The bigger question is if resources are not limiting you from showing what you’re really about to your market by having a web presence, what excuse will you let yourself believe?

Seth Godin had written on the new logos that Best Buy and Pepsi have pumped big budget dollars into creating for the purpose of capturing market share.

He says that a logo is more akin to a first name or short identifier. I would add to it and say a logo should be a trigger. It should lead to an association with the relationship you have by delivering your brand to your market.

If Pepsi and Best Buy are worried about market share is their attention on a critical marketing factor that will strengthen their brand? No. It’s not. The critical marketing would be renewing and establishing relationships their brand should embody. If those companies don’t know what their brand means or to whom they are building a relationship with, then no amount of logo revamping will help them connect to the people who make up that market share they are looking to call their own.

The Small Business Branding Reality Check

So here’s my reality check for small business who are drinking that Pepsi for their afternoon pick-me-up or who go to Best Buy to look at new computer gear. A logo had nothing to do with your next interaction with those companies. As small businesses look to grow and serve their market, stay focused on fulfilling the expectations that your business wants to project onto your market.  That’s your brand. Its bigger and more important that what your logo looks like.

Big Businesses Have Money to Spend on Non-Core Branding Activities. You Don’t.

Steven Cardinale put together a concept that I think most small business owners should focus on.

I think Pepsi or Best Buy or any of the large brand corporations out there are having a hard time trying to figure out why people connect with their product and consequently they simply spin their wheels working on the external facing components of their brand.  And since they have these huge budgets they have the resources to expend chasing non-core branding tasks.

What you think a logo says about your business, probably isn’t what your market thinks.

Jay Ehret of the marketing spot laid the cards on the table for small businesses who put too much thought into their logo.

The deal is that no one, outside of your committee or focus group that thought up these explanations, will have a clue to those meanings.

So if you think people will look at your logo and see “fluid connections with upward growth” you are deceiving yourself. If you want these explanations for your own internal use, go right ahead. But I think you are spending way too much time on that. You just need a simple visual that relies mainly on a unique font presentation.

Build your brand, spend the money and the time to grow those relationships with the people in your market, not the symbols behind them.