All business owners face this question whether the economy is growing, stagnating, or contracting. They say that all politics is local – so is small business.

Success depends on several factors, some of which you can’t control. This is where we can help small business owners and entrepreneurs. We have years of experience advising business owners and entrepreneurs whether they want to grow, hold, or sell. Each strategy requires customized tactics to fit your unique business needs and personal goals.

We deliver proven business-building strategies that grow customers, customer loyalty, referrals, and testimonials. Advertising, marketing, and media are our tools, each honed to fit unique business and personal goals.

Executing a successful “hold” of revenue and profit is never easy, especially with so many moving parts. We can identify what should be enhanced and what should be maintained as-is.

Indeed, holding as-is can be the most difficult of the three options because of the many variables, including the competition, the overall economy, and change itself as a disruptor.

Is it time to consider an exit either as a sale of the business or change to new leadership in a family business?

We help clients position their businesses for a more favorable sale. tt can take as little as six months to do this. We’ll even recruit a buyer as an alternative to listing the business like a commercial real estate property.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is an idea worth that will help you achieve your business and personal goals now?

See what ‘Jack Latham’ can do for you!

Jonathan

Business owners look for ways to improve their products or services to ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Next they look at different ways to differentiate their products or services from the competition. This should be a benefits and value transaction, but sometimes real deliverables can get lost in how we frame our businesses.

Small business still does it the old-fashioned way even though the new tools are cutting-edge. Yesterday’s benefits are today’s deliverables. The specifics of a product or service used to be called features, now they are elements, components, or even factors.

Today’s small businesses face new challenges. The Internet has changed how we ‘do business’, how potential customers find us, and how we choose to communicate with customers, clients, and prospects.  New disruptors are in most sectors of the economy, but what we do and how we do it still matters.

Quality, customer service, and value are still the winning differentiators.

Jonathan Gehris

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Large or small business, public or private, family-owned or partnership, restaurant, service or retail, seasoned or start-up, all benefit from campaigning when done right.

It starts with ideation, a big word for an idea that will enable you to get more attention, drive more new business your way, and start dominating your market.  We’ll create the idea and flesh-in the various key elements so you can get more.

The power of the free market where competition reigns is a given. If a business is not campaigning, it’s stagnant.

You know advertising, marketing, and media are the tools of differentiation and engagement for good, better, best. You get it. This is a function of the creative realm where different, bold, funny and a taste for the expensive come to life.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is an idea worth!

Jonathan Gehris

 

 

 

 

 

What does a Strategic Advisory look like for your restaurant?

You get it. You’ve been growing your business and building your clientele each year you’ve been in business. You’ve got a marketing company that does your website, social media, and SEO, but is this enough?

Whom do you consult with about the business itself, where you want to take it, how to get there, how to position your restaurant for stronger immediate growth, how to expand, or how to create a smart exit position?

We do this. We provide Strategic Advisory for privately-held businesses that need an outside professional opinion, one that delivers a strategic advantage based on years of experience via our Advisory Board of Entrepreneurs.

Few envisioned just a few years ago how disrupters would change industries. This is the next phase of the industrial revolution and it is here already. Getting more requires many things, but it all starts with an idea. This is what we do.

Do you deliver upscale takeout meals via one of the several new delivery start-ups? Do you combine online ordering with texting and delivery? Do you still offer a traditional dining ambience as a dining destination draw? Do you have an upscale pizzeria and seek more? Is your restaurant in the tavern-restaurant niche? Do you have more than one restaurant now and/or have an interest in expanding?

You know who your customers are and you’ve mapped them to determine zip code and sub-zip code, but how do you communicate with them? Is there a more effective way?

Brand is your reputation. We measure this, including brand awareness, acceptance, and strength in your broader market.  Then we do a market analysis of the competition to confirm your restaurant’s current positioning and relative brand strength.

This is part of our complimentary initial analysis. This usually produces actionable intelligence, including different ways to enhance positioning in the broader market to take advantage of new opportunities.

What do we do? We do ‘now’, but we also do the ‘next step’ to help you satisfy your professional and financial needs, and fulfill your dreams.

We’ll help you get more, more customers, more testimonials and referrals, more gross revenues, and more profit dollars. This is the value of our Strategic Advisory.

How can we help you get more?

Jonathan Gehris

 

Why?

Do you ever wonder why some corporations do “dumb stuff”? How do you explain Gillette’s decision to attack virile men, surely part of their loyal customer demographic?

It is a given that Gillette was facing stiff competition from Harry’s and Dollar Shave, among others, before it launched its new campaign. Their 56% market share was already shrinking; now that loss is accelerating. 

What were the Gillette senior management team and agency thinking?

This follows a decision last year by Dick’s Sporting Goods to stop selling AR-15 rifles and all guns to anyone under the age of 21. Dick’s has lost market share in selling hunting guns as a result and may discontinue sales of all guns this year.

Did Dick’s expect to see its sale of hunting guns and gear decline markedly?

In each case these two American corporate titans either allowed the CEO’s politics or the politics-of-the-moment to cloud their judgment.

We know our culture is always changing, but embracing a divisive issue is foolish (and damaging) unless a company is positioned to withstand pushback and serious customer slippage.

Some CEO’s mistakenly believe consumers will reward them for demonstrating their commitment to being a “good corporate citizen” by participating in the cultural and political wars. Ask the CEO of Progressive Insurance how much business it lost by campaigning openly for the election of John Kerry in 2004.  

Most consumers do not buy a product because the manufacturer supports a political or cultural cause. Corporate good works are part of being a good corporate citizen, but supporting a political or cultural cause of the moment does not fit into that basket, plus it is rife with risk.

One age-old absolute is as true now as it ever was. Damaging the company brand is a whole lot easier (and quicker) than building greater brand strength which will increase sales and profits. Gillette and Dick’s are living the results of a self-destructive advertising campaign.  

Tune-in next week for an analysis of Nike.

 Jonathan Gehris

 

Branding, Marketin

Smart phones have changed how all of us obtain information from the Internet. The experts tell us that over 60% of all Internet searches now are either via Smart phone or tablet. Also, mobile-friendly websites generate more repeat visits and greater overall traffic.

It’s an given that more website traffic produces more prospects and new customers. The WordPress mobile app right-sizes content on each page for handheld devices, plus it gives you control of each page to change content at will.

We’ll even refresh existing content and add new content as part of an upgrade to make your website mobile-compatible.

How can you expand your reach quickly and easily to reach more potential customers?

Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will produce more quality website traffic, new prospects, and new customers. And, it only takes us a few months to accomplish this in most cases. It’s all good.

We start with a complimentary SEO analysis to determine where your website ranks on Google by existing keyword search term. We look at the competition and other keyword terms by traffic volume, and then create a custom plan for you.

Database mining applies Business intelligence (BI) to uncover new opportunities to leverage existing relationships. This grows sales, and produces more testimonials and referrals. We do this routinely for clients.

How else can you strengthen your brand’s acceptance and reach?

We use the new social media as well as old-fashioned targeted marketing. Both work.

The quickest and easiest way to get Google’s attention is to blog frequently. These should be short subjects, not essays. Brief is better. Think useful and interesting, and write conversationally. We do this for clients as well.

What about Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest?

Each one is different, but all are effective at connecting with clients and prospects. Facebook often serves as a parallel or stand-alone website. Standalone use works, but tag-teaming with your website is even more effective in winning a more favorable page ranking by Google. Think turbocharger.

Twitter and Instagram wok well depending on your business. Pinterest commands a following, too, but also is more effective for certain kinds of businesses.

Show your ‘social side’ to inform, educate, and amuse. It’s a powerful business-generator. How well you do this also can be a differentiator and prestige-builder. We help clients reach (and grow) their target audiences.

Power-partnering with another business for a special event or to make available a special value is always smart business, too. This often means matching products or services with sales capability. We structure Joint Ventures that deliver a win-win.

You know business. You get it. You’re on Main Street.

Jonathan Gehris

 

Privately-held businesses on Main Street are unique. Entrepreneurs do it the old-fashioned way, serving customers like they are family.

Privately-held companies of substantial worth likely have either a Founder or family member still running things. Entrepreneurs who start a business and have the requisite skills to grow it through the various stages are unique.

Does any of this matter when preparing for a meeting with a senior executive (perhaps the Founder and CEO) of a privately-held company to discuss an idea for a new branding, marketing, and communications campaign or to discuss how to position the  company for a more favorable sale?

Yes, it always matters, that’s why we do do our homework before we meet. This includes learning what products the company sells and who their customers are, why they are successful, who the competition is, which competitors have launched new products or a new branding campaign, and the state of their market.

If a picture is worth 1000 words, how much is a creative idea worth? We start with the basics and then build-out a strategic path forward that helps you grow your business or position it in the next six to 12 months for a much more favorable exit sale.

Jonathan Gehris

 

Take One

 

Success they say belongs to those who identify a need and fill it or create a must-have and deliver it, but you know campaigning is what gives the product or service ballast in the marketplace.

Be different, bold, or funny, all the while taking what’s given and pushing it in a new direction.

Be different – appeal to the individual in all of us.

Be bold – the swashbuckler image still resonates, even when spoofing.

Funny works, laughs are welcome, so are chuckles. Is funny a good fit for your demographic?

What does your marketplace value right now? How do your customers perceive your brand?

Does the old 80/20 rule apply where 80% is ideation and 20% is building-out the touch points of the campaign?

Granted, a new campaign can mitigate the impact of a price increase, but it’s not just about price.

It used to be easier to position a service at the upper end since deliverables are more perception than with a consumer product, but an outstanding campaign can compensate for limited differentiators.

Best campaigning starts with an idea, builds-out to a narrative, and flows naturally.

What about that new campaign? Will it reinforce the company’s identity, strengthen customers’ perception of its capabilities, or even enable it to pursue new opportunities and a new direction?

Identification is who and what a company is and does – branding is the action verb that reinforces, strengthens, changes, or positions the company in its market.

The next time you see, read, or hear an advertisement, ask yourself if it is different, bold, or funny, and ask if it is designed to appeal to a taste for the expensive. Chances are it swerves into three of these.

Jonathan Gehris