When it comes to conducting your spring cleaning regimen, it’s important to put together a checklist to follow so you don’t miss anything. Organization reduces stress and ensures thoroughness. The same is true when organizing a spring cleaning for your brand. You want to follow a checklist to make sure you don’t miss anything. Here are some preliminary tips to help you get started.
So, when you organize a spring cleaning for your home, where do you start?
Closets are a natural place to start because your wardrobe changes with the seasons. It’s out with the old, in with the new. Time to reconnect with some of your favorite pieces that have been stored away.
What is the brand equivalent of your closet? What needs to be changed with the seasons to reflect your clients’ needs?
Your messaging needs to be updated on a consistent basis to stay relevant and meet the needs of your customers throughout the year. There is a consistent brand message that should always be reflected in what you communicate to your customers year-round. Unless you are doing a brand re-fresh or your business has changed,
this does not need to be changed. However, your brand messaging should change throughout the year to reflect what is on your customers’ minds. For example, during the Spring, your messaging can incorporate seasonal elements that have to do with outdoors, sunshine, flowers, blooming and renewal. Your business and customer base will dictate how you integrate these elements into your messaging to relate to your audience best. You can clean out your brand “closet” so to speak, with the changing of the seasons or even holidays.
The heart of a home lies in your kitchen. You can’t do a spring cleaning without including the kitchen. This may include some basic cleaning like doing the dishes, but it may also include refreshes and special touches like adding flowers to brighten the space.
What is the heart of your brand? Your logo. Many people think that your brand is your logo because it so strongly represents your business. Your logo is not your brand, but it is the center of your brand. Everything you do, including your messaging, extends from this pivotal piece. That is why you always want to make sure it is strongly representative of who you are, the heart of your business. Businesses change and evolve and that’s a good thing. However, one of the mistakes many small business owners make during their evolution process, is they fail to do a spring cleaning on their logo to determine if it still accurately reflects who they are and where they are going. Your logo should be a reflection of you but it should also easily communicate to your current and future customers who you are. During your annual spring cleaning, evaluate your logo to make sure it continues to resonate with your brand and who you are.
The last place we have to take on when spring cleaning is the bathroom – the least desirable place to clean, but a necessary task nonetheless.
One of the hardest parts of building your brand is determining your unique value proposition and knowing and understanding your competition. Why is this the least desirable portion of your cleaning? Business owners have a hard time being introspective and determining what it is that makes them different. It is a discovery process. You know that what you have to offer your customers is valuable, but it is often difficult to articulate this value in a meaningful way that does not duplicate what your competition is doing. In that same vein, evaluating and studying the competition is not an activity that business owners relish doing. They want to spend time working on their business and how to move it forward, not looking at someone else’s business. But, these activities are both important and this is a perfect time to review how you are positioning yourself in the marketplace – how do you stand out with your customers and how do you match up against your competition? It is possible that you may not like the answers to these questions, but isn’t that why this spring cleaning is necessary?
These tips should help you get started evaluating where you are with your brand, and whether or not you need to make any changes. If you need assistance working through your spring cleaning checklist, don’t hesitate to give the team a Visual Appeal a call.
