Have you noticed lately the plethora of makeover programmes, all trying to make is thinner, prettier, younger, fitter and happier? Just what is the appeal of refreshing the way we look? After all, the tears of joy and sense of achievement are very real after the event and it must be more than a simple dash of mascara or dropping of a dress size.

Apply this to catching your customer’s attention and think how a new product, logo or communications strategy could lift your brand (no surgery required). We had a ball producing some new brownie flavours for Sweet As, which expanded the company’s product portfolio and meant creating the names, look and overall packaging to entice and showcase the specialist recipes (and carrying out the essential taste tests, naturally). Added to the new shop signage, it showed that expanding a company should go hand in hand with polishing, revising and refreshing the look of the brand. Not a bad way to start 2010…

(Though we like think of it more as ‘making the most of what you already have’.)

We’re poised and ready with our jam jars and labels, twinkle and sticky stars, knitting needles and yarn and family photos (the ones without the red eyes), to have a far more creative Christmas. It’s not all about flashing the cash (‘cash, what cash?’ we hear you cry!). True, it helps if you’re actually good at cooking, knitting or sewing, but with a bit of thought you can make something good using what you already have by adding a bit of (creative) sparkle.

It’s the same for company promotions and branding. If you already have an established business, it’s time to work creatively with what you already have to make some changes which will reap the rewards you need.

• Already have a great database of customer emails? Why not send them an eshot letting them know (or reminding them of) what you can offer them?
• Need to shout about a new product or service that you’ve already developed with an advert or leaflet? It costs less than you think to raise your profile.
• Need to reconnect with loyal customers through a cost-effective Christmas promotion? You’d be surprised how well people respond to being valued and updated.

So it’s not about spending and re-designing but more about making the most of what you’ve got, raising the profile of your business and getting the return you deserve in a few simple promotional steps (a crafty way of saving money too).

Speaking of which:

Homemade Christmas decorations

Festive jammie dodgers

Ah the tweeting of lovebirds, the candy pink hearts and scented roses, the dinners á deux… not long until 14 February (what do you mean you’d forgotten?).

Yes it will soon be time to spread the love to our nearest and dearest, so what better time to show your company you care, too?

No, we don’t mean sending a box of chocolates to your own office (though we salute your style if you do). We’re thinking more along the lines of treating your company’s brand to a new image; starting a website to pull in a new customer base; redesigning your adverts to stand out in the local press; or perhaps adding a bit of ‘polish’ to your company’s business cards would send your customers the right message and show them how much you care about their perception of your company?

Devoting a little time and surprisingly little money to freshening up your company’s image or streamlining your promotions will show that you truly value your customer relationships. Which could make your company (almost) as tempting to them as that scrumptious box of Belgian chocolates.

Yes, we know that people are only just untangling those fairy lights, cracking open the Quality Street and dusting off the baubles in readiness for cheering the winter gloom, but time flies, and before you know it January will have arrived and you’ll be so busy catching up with post-holiday emails that the chance to hit the ground running will be lost.

So take advantage of the ’silly season’ - while everyone else is busy sipping mulled wine, planning disappointing office parties (think soggy sprouts and dodging the mistletoe) and frantically buying last-minute presents online, think about what 2009 could (and should) hold for your business.

Maybe you’ve been toying with a refreshed company website, or are thinking of a new logo to make your customers see your brand ’anew’? Or perhaps advertising your products or services is high on your agenda, and you want some eye-catching print or web adverts which will lure your customers in? Savvy clients are already scheduling their New Year promotions in, so it makes sense to jot down some thoughts on where your brand is ‘going’ next year.

The benefits of this forward-planning? You’ll be able to think of lambs, daffodils and other spring-like delights while you consider what 2009 will offer. Plus you can start 2009 knowing you’ve got your communications sorted, and that has to get us through the dark nights with a spring in our step (sorry).

A change is as good as a rest they say, and if the websites you visit are regularly refreshed and updated, the chances are you’ll visit them on a daily basis (those Facebook status updates and newspaper sites are pretty popular for a reason).

So it follows that if the text and image content of your website remains stale and static, and latest news becomes old news, people won’t visit your site more than once. And that means lost customers and a pretty lean Christmas (those sprouts will have to stretch a long-g-g way).

So if you have a website, it’s key to update its content and let people know what you’re up to, whether it’s special offers, conferences and events or even a poll to ask people if beanies really are acceptable headwear (if it’s good enough for Agyness Deyn …). Updated sites fare better with search engines and ‘move you on’ in the eyes of your visitor. And a whole ‘refresh’ of your home page text makes you rethink your company’s message, which isn’t a bad idea because we all know businesses change and priorities vary, depending on the time of year, what’s in the bank and what’s happening with your competitors.

The best bit? These updates cost very little, and if you have a content management system, are achievable in very little time – just update your pages and voila, you have the power to attract new business. And if you’re not too keen to get involved in that ‘webby’ area, get your provider to update the site for you, as again this is a low-cost, low-effort way to boost business. Result!

Then check your stats and we guarantee (*disclaimer alert - ok so we can’t promise you this, but trust us, it will) that changing text and images here and there, and updating your news, will make a surprising difference to your site stats. 

We can’t help but notice how many people have succumbed to the Facebook temptation to take the There/Their/They’re Test (yes we know that social networking is ’so yesterday’, but admit it, it’s addictive).

As you can imagine, this ‘testing’ application presents the optimum chance to show your friends that you did listen at school and do still know the basics of the English language. But it highlights something else to us (as purveyors of fine copy and choice words), and that’s the ever-present respect for good grammar and the correct use of punctuation.

Now far be it from us to lecture you (and I bet you’re scanning this text for errors - spot the deliberate mistake and you might just get a mention in our next enews), but how many times have you driven past a sign for ‘carrot’s 10p’ or suchlike and not tutted?

We think it goes far deeper than disapproval, as mistakes in copy immediately undermine that business or product. After all, if they can’t spell their own special offers correctly or don’t have respect for high-quality, and don’t value taking time, care and attention over their communications (think over-wordy website copy or shoddily-written press releases), what does it say about their products?

Too many times copy is neglected and design is king, but to produce effective communications requires the two to work hand-in-hand, complementing each other by being finished to the same standard of excellence. So don’t let them spot the mistake - whatever you are trying to convey to your customers needs to be self-assured and above all as good to read as it is to look at. So investing in a good copywriter, who knows their ‘who’s’ from their ‘whose’ makes complete sense to us.

Rural businesses are thriving but are so often obscured from the general view, having to hide their veritable lights under a bushel. This struck us recently when we met, at a local networking meeting, a glut (in a good way) of talented, enthusiastic (and exhausted) entrepreneurs, all working quietly to build their enterprises in some beautiful countryside locations, but with very little exposure and little communications help.

Don’t get us wrong, we love the buzz of the city (the coffee, the shops, the culture). But businesses tucked among rolling hills or located by the sea are no longer out on a limb. Email access and broadband internet has opened so many doors and these business should be encouraged: after all, there’s less pollution as commutes to work are shorter (or non-existent, as so many work from home) and working hours are less rigid, meaning they’re adaptable to their customer base. So it’s time to put rural business on centre stage…

Pure Azure has worked on some great projects with WiRE members and we offer discounts on our services to its members. So if you’re a rural business and want to let people know about your company, we can help make you stand out. No matter where you’re located, your business deserves to communicate with your target market in the best way possible; and that can be as cutting-edge as any urban outfit.

Pure Azure garden update: weeding done (check); courgette flowers, um, flowering (check); parsley and basil no more (sadly, check). The benefits of sunny weather meant some tidying and we’ve been rewarded with a visit from a local woodpecker. (Nothing to do with our veg patch and everything to do with the new, full-to-brim-with-peanuts bird feeder which the squirrels are eyeing up greedily.)

Squinting out into the (occasional) sunshine, we can now see the rather mixed results of our Pure Azure vegetable patch.

Much like life (sounds trite but bear with us), there are patches of vibrant green, with garlic shoots and salad leaves-a-plenty, ready to provide us with an abundance of tasty produce. But in amongst this, our new courgette plants are showing pathetic wilted leaves and sad looking stems which we fear will mean ultimate burial on our compost heap (ever with an eye to recycling). So why do some thrive and others give up the ghost?

At the risk of being painfully obvious, it is true that ups and downs in business (and life) happen. And not just in terms of money; ever wake up with a spring in your step, focused and energetic, then to spend the day productively working and getting results? (You must sometimes feel like this?!) For every good day like this in business, there are down days, when nothing goes right, the paper jams in the printer, you’re fighting off emails and yet again the sandwich trolley is out of tuna and cucumber (yes, it’s cheese and tomato again).

Well, ever obliging, we want to help you on those down days. Get your enthusiasm and business reinvigorated by some tactical promotions - think about refreshing your company logo, sending out enews to your clients or telling the local press about a new company initiative. In all of these enterprises we want to help, whether it’s design or editorial skills you need assistance with.

So talk to us. Just make sure you call on one of our good days (joke - we’re always happy to hear from you).

When is ‘cheap as chips’ not beneficial to your business?

I only wonder this since we’ve seen quite a number of online templates and ready-made options for websites and print ‘em quick publications lately. Well I could buy low-priced, own-brand cereal but will I enjoy its taste as much as I would a leading brand? Probably not, and without the presence of those extra-moist raisins it might set my day up really badly.

So when quotes for creative work are compared, surely thinking about more than cost alone isn’t us being too airy-fairy and purely (sorry for the pun) idealistic? Certainly saving money is key for us all, hence Pure Azure’s quotes are always as competitive as we can make them without being too much of a squeeze on us, but saving your image and your brand is essential. I wouldn’t buy battery chicken eggs just because they’re cheaper. Maintaining your brand in a high-quality fashion sometimes needs to look beyond price. And speaking of which, have you seen the Chicken Out campaign? Better lives for our feathered friends for just a few pence more …

And speaking of chickens, we at Pure Azure have decided we aren’t made for roughing it in the great outdoors. A recent trip may have been a great way to see beautiful, scenic Scotland, but the camping option was, shall we say, not quite ideal for damp April. Suffice to say our esteemed member returned home a little earlier than planned and consoled herself with a nice bath and a bad film. But fear not, come the summer, camping will once more be returning to our virtual ‘cool’ wall.

Green fingers

More like blue fingers still, but spring has officially begun and planting continues apace, with the indoor peppers close to turning a burnished orange and a rather late attempt at growing garlic (think putting cloves in earth then watering and hoping) underway. I must say that hyacinths may not be uber-cool but their smell is gorgeous and the currently blooming bunch in our office space are delighting our noses whenever we pass them.