Part of the article featured in the national magazine Making Money…

Many business owners are worrying about their brand and company’s reputation as more businesses take on board a corporate social responsibility strategy or policy for more ethical trading. This is beginning to affect the sensitivity and attitudes of todays empowered consumers.

With the rise in digital media, such as blogs and forums, consumers are publicly discussing every aspect of your business, their experiences with your brand – both good and bad, as well as highlighting the differences between your offering and that of your competitors. How does this affect franchising when you are dependent on an entire network to be consistent? Control can be hard.

So what can you do to ensure your business isn’t just keeping up, but leading the industry? How can you make more money? The answer comes through marketing communications…

· Build solid foundations
· Define strong brand values
· Build relationships with all stakeholders
· Communicate all of the above (listen as well)

The importance of brand values
Developing and maintaining a reputation in a competitive market can be tricky. Yet the best companies do this through consistent communication both within the business (through their network of staff and affiliates) and externally (by communicating with their suppliers, customers and prospective customers).

All businesses need a common goal and an aim, this is just like driving from Portsmouth to London, you need to know which roads to take, where to get petrol and how long it is going to take you to get there. If everyone is focused on a common goal, you are much more likely to achieve it.

Becoming recognised in your industry for doing something well and doing it consistently is vital in building a great brand, this where brand values come in.

Sarah comments “these values tell the world that you are the best, you are trustworthy and you are definitely worth the money. If you can then stand by your values over the long term, you might just achieve more than you can imagine.”

For more information about this subject contact Coconut Creatives on 01963 31030 or email tellmemore@coconutcreatives.co.uk

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Marketing Hints & Tips, Press Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.