Remember, Package' is simply your face to the customer. The smart small business marketer is always open to new ways to keep that face looking its best.

Because Package is about presentation, it involves every physical detail of your store; but it also is very much the interplay between customers and staff. It's why you can walk into two different fast food franchises belonging to the same chain and utilizing the same signage and pricing and floor layout and yet receive a totally different impression of each shop based on how the staff treats you in them.

We urge you to brainstorm with your Bloom Team and dream up one or two small package variations to test. Remember, we're not talking Brand, here; we don't want you to overhaul your entire image in this exercise. Instead, let's fine-tune the way you present your brand.

Some ideas:

• If you use PowerPoint in your presentations, rearrange the slide order, to see if that affects your audience. If you can, have a partner or co-worker watch which sequencing better holds your audience's attention.
• Do you let a customer browse a bit before your salesperson engages her? Maybe alter the timing so that the sales staff speaks to them right awaypossibly even alerting the customer to any sale or clearance items. This is a modified way of probing for a cross-sell at the very beginning of the sales encounter.
• Another idea is to take your most perceptive employee and stand her up at the front of the store during downtime and have her pay a compliment to each and every person that comes in. Can you afford to do this every minute? Of course not--but even if you could do it an hour a day just think how much goodwill you'll create--and what a boost you'll give to your customer attitudes.

You can do the same with merchandising, client-seating and many other aspects of your package. Sometimes just the smallest changes in your presentation to the customer can bring unexpected results. Like many things in small business, you have the ability to make adjustments that big companies can't, simply because you are closer to your customer.

Remember, testing is the key here. Experiment, evaluate, then abandon what doesn't work and test some more. Its all part of the ongoing process to improve your small business marketing. Never-ending, isnt it?

Remember: Brand (who you are) + Package (your Face to the Customer) + People (customers and employees) = Marketing Success.

2006 Marketing Hawks