Don’t Encourage the Public to Help You Fail

“Never under estimate the power of a first impression. If you look successful, the public will assume you will be successful and often support you. If you look amateurish, the public will assume you will fail and HELP you”.

There is great power and truth in this quote. Have you ever walked into a new business and immediately concluded that they were destined for premature failure? I certainly have and I have always been right! The interesting thing is that this conclusion may have nothing to do with the quality of the product or service that they offer. But rather it is the IMAGE...or lack thereof...that they portray!

Recently, in the town in which I live, there popped up a restaurant that we decided to try. They bought an old fast-food restaurant building and simply painted it a basic color scheme...brown. Their outdoor signage was hand painted on bed sheets and stretched between two stakes (this was put up after our visit). Upon walking into the building, they utilized the old furniture and they simply stripped off the former branding from the walls and left it plain. They had no branding of their own and if felt like I was in a glorified garage. That was not their theme, but rather their lack thereof! The food was dipped out of crock-pots that they apparently brought from home. Their menu was really rough and hand written. The whole operation screamed AMATEUR! Needless to say, they are no longer in business.

I have discussed this behavior with similar other small business owners and their reasoning is very consistent. They do not want to invest too much money into branding in case they don’t make it. The problem is that this way of thinking is a self fulfilling prophecy. Because they fail to create a brand that makes them look successful, patrons perceive that they will fail, and they, along with others, WILL refuse to do business with them. And the prophecy is fulfilled.

However, if that business owner invested a small amount of time, effort and money into looking like they are already successful, those same patrons would be much more inclined to continue using their products or services. By refusing to implement some basic branding techniques, you might as well take out an ad and ask the public to stay away!