BUSINESS SUICIDE – Cutting the Advertising: The Sign Tells the Company Story

I feel compelled to share this very good article from John kitts of Cityscoop.us:
BUSINESS SUICIDE – Cutting the Advertising: The Sign Tells The Company’s Story Take a look out of the window of your car as you drive through the downtown area of your city and you can tell a lot about a business just by the signs on their building (even if there is no sign at all). Most companies recognize the importance of having a great sign for their business and you can discern a few things about a business solely based on their sign, like the type of business, the success level and whether to buy from them or not. For example, I won’t buy from a sushi restaurant if the sign outside is broken or dirty or just not cleaned or maintained. I figure if the sign is bad then the money is tight, and when the money is tight they probably hold on to their fish a little longer. I was once served spoiled fish at a sushi house that had a neon sign that was missing a few lights. It only took me once, one bad experience, to discriminate against all sushi restaurants from there on out. You can also tell other informational things about a company based on their sign. For example, businesses that sell to the public and depend upon walk in traffic typically and rightfully have bolder signs that will catch your eye. Again, a restaurant is a good example and that’s why you often see outdoor fold up food display signs in front of the place of business, usually plastic or with a chalkboard for daily specials. It’s a great type of sign because the sidewalk traffic can literally RUN into your sign. So when you see those types of signs you can take a pretty good guess and determine what type of business it might be (restaurant, ice cream parlor, cell phone store, etc). In the Bay Area, where I live, the cost of living is one of the highest in the nation. California is currently close to 3 times more expensive than Texas when it comes to living costs. This is why there are a lot of companies starting up or relocating to Texas to cut down on their business costs, particularly businesses in the energy sector. There’s one such company in Texas that is using electric car cell/battery technology to capture and store energy for consumption later and the business is absolutely exploding. Last year they provided over 50% of all new jobs to Americans and are building an entire community based on their growth. In turn, it’s creating other jobs such as restaurants, shopping centers and other places of commerce to support all the employees. And for a restaurant in Texas the rent is a lot cheaper and they can more easily afford to make sure they have a sign that properly reflects the image they want to project. The reason I’m talking about signs is because it is probably the oldest and most important form of advertising. When I’m driving through town and see a broken sign or a torn, dirty awning I wish I had the time to explain to the owners that even if the money is tight you have to find a way to make sure you’re allocating your funds to the RIGHT places. When the economy is down advertising is far too often the first thing to get pushed aside. BAD idea. It’s counter intuitive to shut down the advertising when the money is tight because it’s a faster death. It’s like drinking salt water when you’re lost at sea or not watering your crops when the harvest is meager because you want to save money on water. You can’t do it. It will kill your profits and you’ll be out of business in a split second. You have to keep the advertising going and if it’s not working you need to rethink your strategy. Go back to the drawing board like Wile E. Coyote. You, in fact, have to think like Wile E. Coyote in that he never gave up. He never caught the Road Runner but he also never gave up. If you don’t give up and continue to go back to the drawing board eventually you’ll catch your Road Runner, your prospect. To sum it up, don’t commit company suicide! Don’t let the pressure of low numbers cause you to change the way you think about your business. Be confident and find a way to make it work. Put in the extra hours and experiment with new advertising avenues. Recognize what your most important advertising vehicles are. If you’re a restaurant and you depend on your signage, don’t be stingy in that department. Cut corners elsewhere. Pull the yellow pages ad that nobody uses anymore anyway. Don’t kill your public image with an embarrassing broken or dirty sign. Some companies are different and signage isn’t that important in the grand scheme of things. But most companies, in my opinion, should treat their signage as one of their most important advertising and branding vehicles. I did a Google search for ‘sign company east bay area’ (because I live in the East Bay) just to see what came up at the top and found a company named SignWorks, Inc. They offer a wide range of services that I learned about from their blog and is where I found pieces of information for this article. One service I noticed in particular is their vehicle wrap services for people living in the San Francisco Bay Area. They have a high impact and a high cost per impression rate so you get a big bang for your buck. Research options with companies like SignWorks in your area and find out what you can do. If the budget is tight I bet they have some ideas on how to get a great sign that won’t break the bank. While you are at it, you may consider upgrading your ‘signs’ on the Internet too, for all the same reasons!!!