It's been many moons since I cluttered up your inbox, and clearly it's time to make it official: this thing is no longer the monthly Roundup, but the quarterly Roundup. Or the seasonal Roundup. Or perhaps the semi-regular-whenever-I-have-something-burning-to-tell-you Roundup. You tell me if you have a preference.

Regardless of the frequency, don't go believing everything you hear about economies tanking and businesses running around like headless chickens. Some of us are hanging in there just fine, even if I have been quiet, and I truly hope that includes you.

So without further ramblin', onto the Roundup...

Bailouts Are For Suckers and Other Marketing Truths

Economic meltdowns are a curious thing. On the one hand, there's a lot of media talk about companies who can't—or won't—afford to spend any more money. A crash is looming, we're all gonna fold, take cover and hold your breath! But on the other hand, the companies I've spoken with lately are drooling for the opportunity to pull ahead of their competitors. So, what's reasonable for an "average" small- to medium-sized business to take on ata time like this (as if "average" exists)?

Marketers have already started cashing in on the recent financial turmoil (see Copywriting in Action: Inspiration from the Financial Crisis for a good example), and the near-unanimous cry has been "invest heavily in advertising and marketing before your ship sinks!" Now, there's certainly evidence to suggest this isn't such a bad idea after all; companies like P&G thrived during the Great Depression by investing heavily in advertising on radio, a new lifestyle medium at the time. But there's a better option, and it's called moderation (gasp):

1. Take a deep breath—and do nothing.
Knee-jerk reactions to any crisis almost always result in crappy "solutions" (are you listening, Paulson?). Instead, press pause and use the moment to reevaluate everything. Once you've got a better handle on where you stand amid the chaos, your choices will be better informed and thus more effective.

2. Reduce spending.
Notice I said reduce, not eliminate. Unfortunately for me, marketing is often the first budget cut. But it's unfortunate for clients, too, because this weakens their business at a time when they can't afford to be weak. There's a reason Obama keeps slamming McCain's approach to a spending freeze: it's likely to do more harm than good. Instead of cutting your lifeline to your customers, you should reduce internal overhead and make your dollars more efficient by marketing smarter.

3. Increase revenues.
Holding a fire sale in the hopes of bringing in a few dollars is not necessarily the healthy, thriving message you want to send to the marketplace. Instead, you need to strengthen your marketing message and the delivery of that message. If you remain silent at a time like this, or if your message is unclear or contradictory, your competitors will move ahead of you—and once you feel like being proactive again you'll be scrambling to catch up, if you even can. So focus on increasing sales by strengthening your message, connecting with your sustomers, and supporting those relationships.

All this is just plain common sense, of course. So what about the nitty-gritty: what specific steps make sense now? Well, like the U.S. government purchasing shares of the big banks, you've got options! (Ugh, sorry.) If you're looking for a tanglible marketing step to take, now is the perfect time to put together a holiday mailer; you'll be marketing to those you already have an established relationship with, which makes it all the more powerful. Or, you could take a big-picture approach by taking stock of your current brand (a brand audit), and putting together a realistic, actionable marketing plan that unfolds over time. Whatever approach you choose, just remember: this is the moment for businesses like ours to step up to the plate and keep pushing on—there are millions of indie businesses surviving and even thriving, so stop panicking and start moving forward.

Recent Work: SFM Book Cover Design

Let's shift gears to...supermarket facilities management. Sexy stuff, huh? Believe it or not, though, this book defining best practices and new roads toward sustainability was sorely needed in such an energy-intensive industry. This isn't the most design-savvy readership, so I went with a clean, easy-to-relate-to approach.

The book was printed on 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper (30% PCW for the cover stock). Our printer for this job is a locally-certified Green Business, who uses only soy inks, chemical-free plates, and wind credits to power their plant. The paper stock alone saved the following natural resources:

• 5 fully grown trees
• 1,865 gallons of water
• 3 million BTUs of energy
• 215 lbs. of solid waste
• 420 lbs. of greenhouses gases

Not bad.

Q&A: How do I build my brand beyond ME?

I have great products, but my brand is very caught up in me - my background, my sense of aesthetics, and my story. At some point someone else will have to do some selling.  So, how do I build my brand as a separate entity from me? —ER

Companies who define themselves by their owners have a hard time; it's very difficult to align you as a person with the marketplace, which is about me as a consumer. Most small businesses that brand themselves as their owner find success only inasmuch as they happen to meet people who share the owner's values, personality, and aesthetics. This is an exceedingly inefficient approach that doesn’t scale up very well as the business grows. Typically, owners using this approach max out such a limited market and the business plateaus.

So, in practical terms, what does an owner do to create a brand that can stand on its own, apart from the owner? Having gone through this process with a nonprofit client earlier this year, I can tell you the most effective way to do this is to allow your personal values to inform the brand, rather than define it...

Read the full article online.

Got a marketing or branding question you need answered? Ask away (just let me know if you prefer anonymity).

Recent Blog Posts That Might Ring Your Bell

Copyrights and Wrongs: Getting Clients and Creatives on the Same Page

Images I Grew Up With: Illustrator Tomi Ungerer

You Gotta Be Careful When Making Green Marketing Claims

And that's enough of that. As always, if you have any questions, complaints, comments, or are interested in learning more about what Roughstock can do for your organization, just drop me a line.

Best,
Jess Sand
Principal