Page 25 - Michigan Credit Union League: 2018 Contact Q1

IS YOUR BRAND IDENTITY
DRIVING CUSTOMERS AWAY?

By Daniel Curren with 20-something, college-educated clients who needed
a wedding DJ, so I studied other brands that worked to
No presence is better than a poor presence. appeal to this specific market. I collaborated with the
designer and she was able to execute on my vision. My
To be clear, I’m not suggesting that your business should website, business cards, letterheads and related collat-
have no presence — quite the opposite. But I will stand by eral had a sleek and professional design that matched
the notion that anything worth doing is worth doing right. throughout, and appealed well to my target audience.
This is especially true of well-executed and consistent
graphic design and web design. If you put our two companies side by side, there was no
question that potential clients would gravitate toward my
Allow me to illustrate this point with an anecdote. Before services. In reality, my associate and mentor had much
getting into professional communications, I put myself more experience and expertise (I was certainly no slouch
through college as a professional mobile DJ. My week- ... but just being honest). It’s a lesson that sticks with
ends consisted of weddings, graduation parties, sporting me 15 years later: Perception is everything.
events, festivals, fundraisers, bars and nightclubs. It
was difficult to give up after graduation, but we all must One Chance to Make a First Impression
grow up at some point.
Your company’s brand identity is its first impression and
Coming into my own as a young freelancer, I had several sets the tone for the relationships that you build with your
mentors to which I owed a great deal. One of those customers. In a consumer-driven society, you’re vying
mentors was an amazing DJ and emcee — arguably the for time with every other sign, billboard, commercial or
best I’ve ever worked with — but his business sense mailer that they encounter. Realistically, the decision to
and company presence wasn’t quite there. review your information and services is made in a matter
of seconds. You might offer the better products, lowest
His website, business cards and collateral materials costs and excellent customer service, but none of it
lacked consistency. Colors and fonts changed from piece matters if you’re not able to attract and retain customers.
to piece and even web page to web page. His marketing
materials had loads of pixelated images and clashing Deciding to re-brand is not a decision to take lightly
designs. Plain and simple, his “brand” was an absolute or make in jest. It is a big commitment that needs to
train wreck. It was a hard subject to broach, but I always be given thorough consideration. Just remember that
felt that his poor design and branding drove more busi- anything worth doing is worth doing right, and this is
ness away than it attracted. especially true when projecting a brand identity.

I took this as a lesson and sprung extra money for a
professional designer. I had been doing particularly well

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