It's not surprising that, when it comes to developing a new marketing plan or brand, everyone wants to get right to the sexy stuff -- the design work. We are all eager to see what out new look is going to be -- how the businesses cards look ... how proud we are of our glossy new marketing materials ... how this is going to be the thing that gets our prospects to beat a path to our door. No, it's not surprising, but it is definitely unfortunate.

Too many photographers (those in most industries for that matter) want to skip the things they don't understand. They don't want to "waste time" on the intangible stuff. Nope, that stuff isn't cool.

So on to the designers they go. But what are the designers supposed to base their designs on? What's your brand promise to your customer? How are you positioned when it comes to your clients and prospects? To your competition? How are you different from your competition? Without answers to these and other questions, the designers are left to work with what you believe those answers to be or simply improvise.

But where does this get you? Think about this analogy. Let's say you want to compete in the Daytona 500. So you take your Ford Fusion and plaster decals all over it. Yes ... it looks the part. But can it compete with the others cars? Of course not. We all know that a tremendous amount of work has been done on those cars -- work that you and I, for the most part, cannot see. Well the same is true for a well-run, profitable company.

All too often we believe that simply looking the part attracts business. I'm here to say that this is not how it works. There is structure and foundation to marketing ... there are your objectives that you want to meet ... there is the environment and your competition. There are a number of other factors that determine how you are going to promote your company and to whom. Without first undertaking these not-so-sexy elements of marketing, you're going to be going around the Daytona track at a brisk 100 m.p.h. while your competition passes you by as if you are standing still.