The words of the famous Zig Ziglar quoted in the headline summarise my assessment of the need for businesses to keep themselves fresh.
Whether your business is a multi-national, a single contributor, or a not-for-profit, it is essential to keep the business fresh so that its customers and its people see that they are involved with a modern, progressive customer service/product provider.
Consider your business. What do your customers experience? Has the business continually adapted to the changes in the demographics it services (green and growing) or are you providing goods and services in the same manner that you were 3, 5, 10, or more years ago (ripe and rotten)?
Major successful organisations continually assess their offerings, especially their ‘branding’, and refresh them. Qantas is a good example. Whilst they are careful to be authentic and retain clear linkage to their heritage, they alter items such as the lettering of the name, the shape of the kangaroo on the tailplane of their aircraft, the uniforms of their cabin staff, the décor of their lounges etc. Another example is KFC. They realized that their brand of “Kentucky Fried Chicken” was out of step with dietary trends, so they rebranded to remove “Fried” from the brand because fried food is now widely accepted as being unhealthy.
Retailers are careful to update their stores with new ‘look and feel’ merchandising layouts, lighting, colour schemes etc. Whilst they initially resisted on-line retailing, they have now embraced it, offering a combination of ‘clicks and mortar’ as opposed to being exclusively ‘bricks and mortar’ which is “so yesterday”.
Pay careful attention to your customers, your competitors, and the trends in the market that you are addressing. If your customers expect to be able to transact on-line via mobile aps, move to make your business the easiest to deal with in that manner. Innovate fresh offerings that leverage your core competence whilst retaining your heritage. Ensure that your premises are fresh and regularly offering ‘something new’ to entice customers to ‘see what’s happening’ as well as giving your people a fresh new work environment. If you are a food service business, offer regular ‘features’, even if that is a unique combination of existing products. There are so many ways of staying fresh – lead, don’t just follow.
Customers want to feel engaged with trusted suppliers whilst enjoying new experiences. They prefer to deal with businesses who are “green and growing”, not “ripe and rotten”.
