Find Your Business Traditions

Michael Jackson Had His Signature, So Does Your Business

Every business model has a signature.  No matter how much a leader of a business wants to guide the model in the direction planned, some things the model does become expected events that consumers look forward to seeing.  Those expected patterns become part of the signature of that business model.  If you own or manage a business model, what are the events or patterns of your operation that have become part of the things your model does that your customers have grown to expect?  Do you know what those things or events are?

K Mart became known for its Blue Light Special.  Google does some interesting signatures with their company name on the cover page.  Les Schwab Tires in the Pacific Northwest does an annual "Free Beef" promotion.  Coca Cola promotes pageants and talent contests.  Pepsi uses celebrities in the entertainment business to promote its causes.  What does your business model do that your customers come to expect?  Does it do an annual barbecue?  Does it sponsor an annual golf tournament?  Does it promote a children's fun run?  Does it produce an annual pumpkin contest?  Does it have a Christmas open house?  Does it host an evening fashion show with all of its spring introductions?  What are the things your business model does that have become part of the signature your customers come to expect?

If you do not have a signature that consumers recognize, why not?  Ikea does not include Victorian furniture in its product line-up.  It does not match their European fashion trends.  Their consumer base does not expect them to deliver that kind of styling.  Their particular style, their particular 'look' has become part of their success as it defines their signature fashion.  Ikea has a following that they created in the fashion and style they maintain.  It is part of their signature.  What does your model look like?  How does your business model carve its way into the routine patterns of your customer support?  What do your customers look forward to seeing when they arrive at your business model?  What traditions have become part of who your business has become?  If you do not have any of these things happening, why not?  How do you expect your customers to become part of your business model and take a little possession of who your model has become?

Macy's in San Francisco used to do a magnificent 'tie day' for the men's department.  It was a whole floor dedicated to men's ties.  They would display them everywhere.  The interesting displays of ties would be creative and unique.  Some were placed on stuffed animals, automobile tires, model trains, baseball equipment and anything coordinated with the patterns and colors of the ties.  I do not gather my guy friends up and rally them together to go shopping at a major department store annual sales event.  It is not part of what us guys do. The male gender does not call their buddies up on the phone and schedule a day to head into a city and go shopping together at a special sales event in a downtown department store.  It is not a routine habit for the guys to do.  However, we did do exactly that for the big tie sale at Macy's, downtown San Francisco.  A few of us rallied together and headed in to see the event.  Joe Montana would be there, good food, good entertainment was scheduled and tons of chicks would be checking out the great looking ties for their guys.  We were single, had professional jobs and wore nice suits.  The tie event was just the ticket for up and coming young professionals like us.  A trip to the City was a great idea.  We lived in Sacramento.  When we arrived to the big tie event, we could not believe the packed store!  Unbelievable.  Shoulder to shoulder foot traffic.  The sign said this was the 45th Annual Tie Sale.  What signature does your business model support?

If you have not developed one, maybe it is time to carve one out.  Let's examine how to do it.  First of all, it will take time to become a great event.  Start slow and build gradually.  Find something unique about what your business model offers.  Make sure it is something the customers will support.  It might be a particular style of items you sell.  It might be the category of interest your model supplies, like hunting or fishing.  You may be an insurance agent in your model.  You can introduce safety programs for kids going to school for the very first time.  You can bring in the media, the teachers and the parents to help them prepare the community for the returning kids on the streets of the areas where the schools begin classes after the break from summer.  You can define a special focus on the kids that will be attending school for the very first time.  One family can win a free pizza per month with a drawing you hold during a special safety event you host at the end of summer.  You can head up a community fund raising drive to collect school supplies for the less fortunate.  Your agency can introduce a small scholarship fund given to a qualifying graduate, identified during their Junior year of school activity.  As a Senior in high school, they already know they have been awarded your small college scholarship.  Your agency is linked to education in the community through this huge annual event.  You no longer need to place your face on an expensive community billboard to sell your wares.  What is your business model signature?  Find one to support and begin to go to work on developing it into something that becomes very big and recognizable.

Your Signature Should Be Something You Promote, Something You Respect

Once you start making some kind of signature happen, begin to protect certain parts of that event to be routine.  Make sure certain components of that event are performed every single year, without exception.  If a famous locally grown 'corn-on-the-cob' has become part of your big barbecue, for goodness sakes, never run out of that corn and never stop offering it from year to year.  It may have nothing to do with selling insurance, but it has all to do with protecting a great tradition.  People come back year after year because they can count on some things being the same.  You have the right and the desire as well as the need to introduce many new things every single year, but never remove a part of the tradition your model has designed.  If you have a stage, and it becomes part of the signature event, never change how that stage appears...year after year.  Make sure you honor the inner desires of the consumer to help them satisfy the things they want to remain consistent.  Pay close attention to what these things become.  Protect them each time you run this event.  There will be times when Macy's leadership staff will stop for a moment to consider how much work it has become to display ties on a whole floor.  If they shave down that part of the tradition, because it is too much work, they shave down the expectations inside the hearts of their consumer.  The event will begin to deteriorate.  The tradition will soon become a memory.  It will get lost in time.

Wheel Of Fortune is introducing a new MC voice.  After 41 years of having the same one do the background vocals, they are introducing a new voice for the show.  They are placing that person on the screen to show him to their audience.  They are making a big deal about who he is and where he came from.  They are a business model who recognizes how important a simple background voice can become to the regular audience that views their program every weekday.  They want to make certain that the transition of this traditional voice is fully accepted by the consumer they serve.  They are working extra hard on protecting this tradition.  Business traditions are vital to long term success.  Get them established and learn how to protect them.

I had a furniture store competitor introduce his new 'Anniversary Sale' just two weeks prior to my 15th-year Annual Anniversary Celebration.  He had been in business for 20 years, but then decided to run his annual anniversary sale just ahead of my predictable anniversary event.  I did a little bit of research and sure enough, he was running his anniversary sale exactly on the month he opened for business.  As a result, since he never did this kind of event before, I decided to change my schedule.  For the next 12 years I ran my anniversary sale on the month prior to my true anniversary.  I decided the customers never looked at my historic calendar.  I made sure my annual event was bigger and better than his could ever be.  I made sure my annual event ran before his event could get off the ground.  He eventually ended his anniversary sales events.  I think he ran them for about seven years.  There was no tradition developed into his annual affair.  It was just another excuse for running a sale.  Be careful, making another sale is not the focus of why you produce a particular business signature.  Increased sales will become the by-product of the effort, not the focus.  Be careful to respect this marketing truth.  The real event will always outlast the sales event.  The real event will eventually out sell the sales event.  It is a tricky benefit when the right stuff is designed, introduced and protected.  Find the magic with your business traditions.  Once established, protect them well.

Since we are at it, when you introduce an annual consumer event make sure you add these three things; music, food and entertainment.  They are a must.  Do not skip the marketing respect they bring to the success of any event.  In today's world of marketing, you might find a particular cause you can support during your special traditions.  It may be the Red Cross, a Children's Hospital or something where a great need can become better served.  You can 'head up' that cause with something you dovetail into your regular pattern of traditions.  Benevolence is a healthy way to help out those who are in need.  Your traditions can include some of this work.  Give it a lot of thought, however.  Do not take this kind of work lightly.  Be serious about your attempt.  It matters greatly to a whole lot of people.  Learn how to respect that part of who they are.

One more thing, think hard before you introduce anything new.  Once you bring something aboard, you may never be able to successfully remove it.  Think about any new introduction long and hard.  Are you willing to fully support it and do it long term?  If not, do not introduce it.  It may take off and dominate your attention.  What if you decide to send out a personal gift card to every participant in your annual event?  That part of your signature is fine to do when you only have twelve postage stamps to send.  What about forty-three thousand of them 15 years from now?  Think hard before you decide.

Have fun making the signature your business model defines.  It should and will become part of the reason why many people support what your model does.  Traditions can turn into traditional consumer support.  Pay close attention to how they develop and how much they mean to your constituents.  Find your business traditions.  Go to work on it.  Make it one of the things you write on your list of things to do.

Until next time...