One of the hardest things for any small-business owner to do is to change a successful formula. But sometimes it's one of the smartest moves he can make.Take Bruce Bleiman, a custom builder based in booming Charlotte, N.C. Bleiman had long relied on his own marketing skills, coming up with the logo, layouts, and wording for the ads his company, Unique Homes of Charlotte, placed in local newspapers and magazines. As the years went by, though, the homes he built grew more and more sophisticated—and he needed a marketing campaign to match them.
So when Charlotte marketing consultant Denise Davis contacted him about establishing a new brand identity, he felt ready to listen. “I was kind of hesitant,” he says. “I was very tied to our [old] marketing and advertising because I developed it. To sway from that took some serious convincing. But the more I got attuned to what Denise was saying, it made good sense.” He and Davis streamlined the company's approach, using the shortened version of its name, “Unique Homes,” for marketing purposes. They replaced the old logo with a stylized lion crest. Bleiman's original ads, filled with information and renderings, were revamped into splashy, simple pieces that use big, beautiful photos and minimal wording. The new tagline, “Master Builder,” borrowed from Renaissance-era terminology, conveys the company's expertise and emphasis on craftsmanship. And Unique Homes' Web site was upgraded with the same large-format photography and clean graphic design as the ads to reflect a freshly polished image. “There's no question that people respond to our advertising,” says Bleiman. “Our architects tell us clients are constantly bringing in our ads. We spend a lot of time and energy not only on our homes, but also in the way we package them.
