Are you struggling to survive? Do you find yourself trapped in a vortex of negativity, budget cuts and staff reductions? I believe the answer to your pain is to leverage your branding.

You are all tied together in this “Lifestyle Industry.” You are the ones who deliver the American Dream of home ownership. Now, I didn’t say house ownership, I said home ownership. The difference is design, furnishings, color, character and personality.

It takes an entire team from the builder and the contractor to the real estate agent, from the designer and the home furnishings retailer and supplier to the organizer and eventually to the stager to start the cycle all over again. You must leverage your expertise collectively; you must leverage your branding.

You are in this together, like it or not. You all have competition in the field -- the choice you now have is to collaborate or continue to slash your budgets, reduce your workforce and struggle to survive alone, or you can get smart and realize that together you’ll all go farther.

You didn’t get this far by yourself, so realize that by creating a team of suppliers or retailers who complement your goods or services you’ll have a bigger impact, increased exposure in the market and greater consumer recognition. Leveraging your branding is about collaboration.

Let’s say you are a home furnishings case goods maker and that is all you produce. You know that every room has a mix of case goods, upholstery, lamps, artwork, rugs, soft goods, and more. With the challenging economy, you have hacked your marketing and advertising budget significantly, but you know you still need to stay in front of your buyers, now more than ever. How can you do it cost effectively and get the same bang for the buck, or bigger? You can do it by leveraging your branding. And yes, I did just say bigger bang for your buck!

To most effectively leverage you must create a success team -- a coalition of like-minded businesses that complement yours. Find an upholstery line, a lamp and lighting producer, a rug manufacturer, a soft goods specialist and an artwork purveyor all who service the same level of the market that you do.

Their budgets are tight too. What each of you used to spend, now collectively you are spending, but because you aren’t working together, you aren’t getting the benefits of the same coverage and exposure. But you all need it. In fact, you need it badly and may not survive without it.

I am talking about working together. Leveraging your brands works because together we’ll all go farther. This industry has been fractured and fragmented for many years; it is cannibalistic in many ways. Let’s stop the business bloodletting. Look around you and learn about your end user, that ultimate consumer who is buying your products and those of your complementary suppliers and retailers. Join forces for a real marketing outreach.

Imagine if you dive into local home shows and leverage your collective branding power. Yes, I know they can be expensive, but if instead of going it alone you worked with three to five other stores or vendors with complementary goods and/or services and you each shared the opportunity.

And going a step further, you can team up on the follow up by creating a collective direct mail and e-mail campaign that brands each of you. This goes not just to your market but to your team’s market. You would each be expanding your reach exponentially while at the same time reinforcing your value to your own customer. In addition, you would gain value by association when you select quality vendors who serve your same audience with complementary products and/or services.

I believe leveraged branding is the wave of now and the bedrock of tomorrow. It is an essential business concept and success tool to ensure your survival in tough times and outrageous prosperity when times are good.

Any one of us is only as strong as our network and our net worth is intrinsically tied to that. When we close ourselves and our businesses off we become weak and vulnerable. Leveraging your brand emphasizes our collective strengths while minimizing our weaknesses. Can you afford to do business any other way?

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