September 26, 2002

Cleaning Up Your Image

"Cleanliness becomes more important when godliness is unlikely." - P.J. O'Rourke

When we opened our new office four months ago, we carefully scrubbed the walls, cleaned the carpets, and wiped the windows. Since that initial cleaning frenzy, business has been good.

In the last few months, we've been arriving early and staying late to deliver great results for our clients. Additionally, we've spent a lot of time working on our own graphic presentation like our web site, business cards, and stationery. Like many small companies, we've allowed our initial standards of office cleanliness to slip as our business has grown busier.

Last week, we realized that we had a bit of an appearance issue when a potential client wanted to visit our office. We spent about 30 minutes scurrying around to tidy up so that we could present our business in the best possible light. Suddenly, it dawned on me that too many businesses become complacent allowing clutter and messy habits to incrementally increase as they get busier. Soon, they fail to see their businesses in the way that their customers do.

By now, you're probably wondering what this obsession about cleanliness has to do with this newsletter's title Marketing Without Advertising. Well, quite simply, it has everything to do with it.

You may lack money to hire a PR company, run an advertising campaign, buy new signage, or move to a better location; however, all business can dramatically alter the way customers evaluate them.

McDonald's, Supercuts, and Midas Mufflers didn't become icons in their industries because their products or locations were any better than those of their competitors. In large part, their stellar reputations are directly connected to the emphasis they've put on maintaining absolutely strict standards for cleanliness in industries in which attention to such details is oftentimes ignored.

We all have certain minimum hygiene expectations for the businesses that we frequent. Would you return to a restaurant that had an incredibly dirty bathroom? Would you take your shirts back to a dry cleaner that had coffee stains on the front counter? Would you want to buy furniture at a store that had a thick coat of dust on most of its displays? Although these examples sound exaggerated, I've collected them in just a few weeks of looking closely at the businesses I've visited.

Take some time to evaluate the appearance of your business as it compares to those of your competitors. How do you measure up? Does the appearance of your business differ significantly from that of others in your industry? This is not a time for defensiveness but rather an opportunity for honest self-assessment.

If you find your business fails to measure up to industry norms when it comes to physical appearance, do something about it. Vow to be an industry leader rather than a follower. Just like McDonald's, you may just find that strict attention to aesthetics might really be the most important way to improve the marketing of your business without advertising.

Best wishes,
Patrick Galvin