10A Wednesday, October 22, 2014 ■ ■ ■

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■ ■ ■ The Charlotte Observer + 11A

charlotteobserver.com/business

Making a new name foryourself by rebranding

Small-business spotlight

- XCENTRI/CEO INC.

“The launch of Xcentri is a reflection of ourcommitment to quality and superiorcustomer service,” said CEO and PresidentDebby Millhouse.

By Virginia Bridgesvbridges@newsobserver.com

The Facebook posts – featuring an X logodesigned as a person, with “ ‘X’ marks thespot!” as one of the messages – all led up to anunveiling last week:Charlotte-based staffing and recruitment

service CEO Inc. relaunched as a newcompany named Xcentri (pronouncedEX-cent-tree).“We’ve basically outgrown CEO Inc.,”

Xcentri CEO and President Debby Millhousesaid in a statement. Founded in Charlotte in1994, the company recently opened a secondoffice in Columbia, S.C. “Xcentri gives us anexciting new brand and the ability to continuethe amazing growth and progress we’veexperienced.”Xcentri will provide permanent and

temporary staffing solutions in the areas ofaccounting, finance and clerical office person-nel. CEO Inc. will continue to serve clientsneeding executive placement.With relaunching campaigns like Xcentri’s,

small-business owners can signal a shift inculture or concept, or send a different message“when you think your brand is keeping you fromdoing something that your organizationwants todo,” said Keith Johnson, president of Raleighdesign firm Carolina Reprographics.Campaigns can range from changing a logo

or tagline to a complete overhaul. Once thebrand is established, marketing experts say itshould flow down to all the different touchpoints such as email messages, website, adver-tising and social media.In Raleigh, 6-year-old Jibarra, a contempo-

rary Mexican restaurant, shut down and reo-pened one week later as Jose & Sons, a morecasual concept centered on Mexican disheswith Southern influences.“The new experience was much more of

what people were looking for in Raleigh,” saidCharlie Ibarra, who is involved with the ven-ture along with his brothers, Joel and Hector.

When Jibarra became unprofitable, the Ibar-ra brothers started asking their customersquestions.“They said they liked the place, but it was a

place theywere only going to go for special oc-casions and certain celebrations,” CharlieIbarra said.The Ibarra brothers started making lists of

everything they wanted to change, from decorto menu items. They reopened as Jose & Sonsin September 2013.Initially, the response was quiet, but built up

over time as they promoted Jose & Sonsthrough fliers and social media.“By month five and six,” sales had exceeded

Jibarra’s and have continued to increasemonth after month, said Charlie Ibarra, who’snow Jose & Sons’ managing owner. — CELESTE

SMITH CONTRIBUTED.

Bridges: 919-829-8917;Twitter: @virginiabridges

ShopTalkYOUR SMALL BUSINESS HELP CENTER

Here’s the designer behindAnne Buresh Interior Designat work in Charlotte. Buresh’sbusiness offers services forresidential and commercialenvironments.She writes: “The best gift

you can give yourself is a well-designed home or office.That’s an environment that iswell thought out with a layoutfor functionality that reflectsyour personality. Sometimespeople don’t realize howmuch of an effect that has onyour sense of well-being, pro-ductivity and even health.”See more at AnneBuresh.

com.We’re sending Buresh a

ShopTalk travel mug. Send usyour selfie, and you could wina travel mug, too. Use yourmobile device to take candidphotos of yourself in yourbusiness, showing off whatyou do in your environment.You can ask someone to takephotos of you, too, but wedon’t want professional shots.We’re looking for candids thatcapture the selfie spirit.Go to charlotteobserver.com/

shoptalk to upload yourphotos. The best photos willrun here each week.

Small-business selfies

Here’s to your home – and your health

- ANNE BURESH

A well-designed personal space can have a positiveeffect on one’s health, notes Anne Buresh of AnneBuresh Interior Design.

SEND US YOURSMALL-BIZ SELFIES

Upload photos of yourself at workat charlotteobserver.com/shoptalk.

When you own a business,you’re in sales. And when you’rein sales, you’re in the business ofhuman psychology.Whether you’re selling candles

onEtsy, peddlingT-shirts out of thetrunkofyourcar, or inkingmillion-dollar consult-ing deals, your success will often come down tohowwell you understand themind of your buyer.Sure, every customer is different, but there arecertain universal levers that can be pulled to in-crease your chances of getting the business.

Social proof

Kit Yarrow, a professor of psychology andmarketing at Golden Gate Univeristy, calls this“crowd cred.” Her new book, “Decoding theNewConsumerMind,” reveals that trust levelsin the modern consumer are on the decline,making the opinions of similar othersmore im-portant than ever.How can your business put this insight into ac-

tion? For starters, make sure you are collectingand using testimonials from happy customers.For more impact, make sure your featured testi-monials are from not just happy customers, buthappy customers who resemble your ideal cus-tomer. If you’re marketing to vice presidents ofprocurement, make sure you’re showing thempositive reviews from other VPs of procurementto create the most powerful social proof.

Scarcity

While textbooks refer to this principle asscarcity, you might recognize the phenomenaas FOMO, or fear of missing out. Howevermuchwe desire something, the threat of losingit will usually make us want it even more.Are you using the powerful pull of scarcity in

your business? Typically, entrepreneurs focustheir communication, both online and off-line,on benefits. “Work with me and you’ll getXYZ!” But don’t forget the other side of theequation – what will your customer lose by notworking with you? Alternatively, if you’re in aproduct business, let your customers knowwhen something has been flying off the shelvesand is almost sold out.

Cognitive overload

In 2000, the Journal of Personality and SocialPsychology published a landmark study by re-searchers at Columbia and Stanford universi-ties. The findings were basically this: Whenoffering six product choices (in this case,gourmet jams), 30 percent of consumers madea purchase. But when offering 24 productchoices, only 3 percent of consumers made apurchase. In short, cognitive overload can put aserious dent in your sales.Andwhile it might not be practical to decrease

your selection of products or services, you canuse thispieceof consumerpsychology toyourad-vantage by providing your customerswith cogni-tive shortcuts. Save them from excessive readingand comparing, and possibly walking away, byclearly marking things as “Most Economical,”“Highest Reviewed” or “Newest.”

Jennie Wong, Ph.D. is a Charlotte-based executive coachand the creator of the product quiz websitewww.ABorC.com.

Boost salesby using thepsychologyof businessJENNIE WONGBUILDINGYOURBUSINESS

Like any runner, JonathanVogel doesn’twant his socks to slip or his feet to blister.A marathon runner for 20 years, Vogel,

44, gave up cheaper socks two years agofor a specialty brand that happens to havea Charlotte-area tie.Those socks are Feetures! They fit snugly

but not tight, don’t shrivel in the wash andcome in a range of colors, Vogel said. Andwhenhebeat his personal record in the2014Bank of America Chicago Marathon by 34minutes, he hardly noticed them.“The socks ... mean everything,” said Vo-

gel, a Bank ofAmerica lawyer. “Youwant tobe able to focus onwhat (you’re) doing andalso enjoy the run. And I can’t do that if I’muncomfortable and then blistering.”That’s themessageHughGaither and his

sons, John and Joe, have pushed for 12 years:compression arches, socks with a snug fitand fabrics that don’t retain moisture.The Feetures! brand, built from Hugh

Gaither’s affinity for sports socks, hasturned into a family-owned companywith offices in Conover and Charlottethat has seenmore than 30 percent in rev-enue growth over the past five years.Variety and family, the Gaithers say, are

keys to their success in a crowdedmarket-place shared by competitors such asNike,Adidas and Under Armour.“We disagree, which is good,” Joe

Gaither said. “We recognize that we havethe same goal.”

Forming the brand

Feetures! employs 20people, six ofwhomworkoutof anewlyopenedCharlotteofficein South End. In their loft-like space at theDesign Center of the Carolinas, a wall witha palette of colorful socks draws visitors tothe back. Sitting on a table are foot sculp-tures wrapped with tightly fitted socksmade with soft fabric.“Socksmake a difference,” said JoeGaith-

er, 28, the Feetures! marketing director. “Alot of people run out there ... and they getblisters and they have problems with theirfeet, and they think it’s part of running.”It’s not, say theGaithermen,who are all

avid runners.The company started in 2002 – the same

time Feetures! CEO Hugh Gaither, 64, saysthe running market experienced a boom.After nearly 30 years of working with

an athletic sock manufacturer, HughGaither sought to create a brand of per-formance socks thatwasn’t thick or bulkybut would snugly fit around a runner’sfeet and use compression to increaseblood circulation.Using connections he established earli-

er in his career, he found a South Koreancompany that helped manufacture thesocks from a plant in Vietnam. He part-nered with a North Carolina fiber pro-ducer to create the sock’s fabric. He gath-ered a team of 30 salesmen who promot-ed the socks to sports retailers.The pieces came together, but one issue

remained. The socks needed a name.

Enter Joe Gaither, then a 15-year-oldhigh school student doing homework atthe dinner table. He suggested Feetures.The name fit, Hugh Gaither said, andseems to have resonated with consumersfor more than a decade.

Premium products

The athletic sock business in the U.S. lastyear generated$1.8billion in retail, saidMattPowell, an analyst with SportsOneSource, asports market research firm with a Char-lotte office. The specialty sock business is asmall part of that retail space.Feetures!’s effort to promote itsmission

statement (enhance healthy lifestyles)distinguishes it from big-name competi-tors, Powell said.“That’s not something you see other

brands put a big emphasis on,” he said.“On (Feetures!’s) website, they talk aboutbeing runners. They are the consumer aswell as themanufacturer. They can speakwith authority.”Feetures! socks can be found in shops

throughout the U.S. and in more than adozen European andAsian countries. Lo-cally, the socks have shelf space at Run forYour Life, Charlotte Running Co., OmegaSports and TrySports.The originals sell for about $12, but an

elite brand of the socks costs about $15. Theproduct line has evolved from basic white

socks to a blend of bright and dark hues.In 2011, the company introduced Fee-

tures! Elite, a brand of anatomical socksthat provides cushioning support on thesole of the foot. A year later, it unveiled asock that helps runners avoid plantar fas-ciitis, intense pain in the foot and heel.“Consumers are paying a premium for

our products,” said John Gaither, 36, wholeads product development. “We think(the socks) need to stand up and can’twear down.”The recession didn’t hurt the company.

Quite the opposite, actually.“People kept running and we kept

growing,” Hugh Gaither said. “People,

evenwhen theywere out ofwork,wantedto stay healthy.”

Working with dad

HughGaither is the first to admit that hissons are not like him. John Gaither is care-ful, cautious and thorough. HughGaither isspontaneous and “shoot-from-the-hip.” JoeGaither came upwith the “invaluable” Fee-tures! name and is still waiting for the roy-alty check, his father said, jokingly.Their differences are good for business.“It’s fun to go out to trade shows and

marketing events and you’re with yourfamily,” Joe Gaither said. “You’re spend-ing time with people you like to bearound, obviously.”They’re not the BradyBunch.Disagree-

ments happen and meetings can become“lively,” Hugh Gaither said. “We can dis-agree and use that to come together forthe right decision,” he said.Those familydynamics, Powell said, might be why re-tailers flock to their brand.“It’s a grassroots story,” he said. “The

running specialty marketplace is a rela-tively small universe of stores and retail-ers. Because they’re small businesses al-so, they begin to express some of thesame values that Feetures! would.”

McFadden: 704-358-6045;Twitter: @JmcfaddenObsBiz

Family business finds the right fit

PHOTOS BY TODD SUMLIN - tsumlin@charlotteobserver.com

Joe Gaither, left, with his father Hugh Gaither and brother John Gaither at the Feetures! office in South End.. “Socks make a difference,” said Joe Gaither about running.

By Jonathan McFaddenjmcfadden@charlotteobserver.com

The father-and-sons-owned specialty sock company Feetures! has been outfitting local runners for a dozen years

How to keep customers interested in your brand:• Let them hold the merchandise: Customers at trade shows and expos can touch andexperience the product. On its website,Feetures! allows runners to offer tips orsuggestions on new sock designs.• Tell your story: Feetures!’s originstory is on the company’s website.They’ve told it to retailers and they’vetold it in videos with the CharlotteChamber of Commerce.• Give back: Over the years, they’veprovided socks to Samaritan’s Feet anddonated part of their proceeds to theNational Forest Foundation. Feetures!recently partnered with ZOOMA, a national women’s race series.• Find endorsements: Feetures! publishes a seasonal catalog that shows professionaland local runners wearing the socks. Joe Gaither and his marketing team have producedvideos in which runners explain how the socks keep them comfortable on a run.For a company that doesn’t have the backing of an NBA superstar such as LeBron

James, finding local pros to tout the brand is critical, said Matt Powell of SportsOneSource.“Professional runners don’t make the kind of money that LeBron makes but what

those professional runners wear means a lot to other people who run,” Powell said.

WEDNESDAYHARD KNOCKS 101 - BUSINESSLESSONS FOR ENTREPRENEURS:This seminar will address the personalchallenges in coping with the rejectionand uncertainty every entrepreneur faces.Free. 12:30-2:30 p.m. at CPCC CentralCampus, 1112 Charlottetowne Ave. Regis-ter: 704-330-4223; www.cpcc.edu/sbc/schedule.

THURSDAYBUSINESS AFTER HOURS –MATTHEWS: Network with Matthews

Chamber. 5-7 p.m. at Jamison Realty, 110Matthews Station St., Suite 1D, Matthews.Register: 704-847-3649;www.matthewschamber.org.

BUSINESS PLAN BASICS: Turn yourbusiness ideas into a solid plan for fi-nancing and long-term success. Free.6:30-8 p.m. at CPCC Central Campus, 1112Charlottetowne Ave. Register:704-330-4223; www.cpcc.edu/sbc/schedule.

TUESDAYMATTHEWS CHAMBER FALL GOLFCLASSIC: Join Matthews Chamber onthe course at Olde Sycamore Golf Planta-

tion for the Matthews Chamber Fall GolfClassic. Each player receives 18 holes ofgolf, golf cart, range balls, beverages,lunch and dinner at the awards presenta-tion. Cost: $100 for individuals; $400 forfoursome. 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. (Tee time isnoon) at Old Sycamore Golf Plantation,7500 Olde Sycamore Drive, Mint Hill.Register: 704-847-3649; www.matthewschamber.org.

JOINT-CHAMBER MIXER: LakeNorman, Statesville and Mooresvillechambers will host a joint mixer. Free.5-7:30 p.m. at Springhill Suites, 121 Gate-way Blvd., Mooresville. Register: www.lakenormanchamber.org.

THE FINE ARTS ENTREPRENEUR -FROM STARVING ARTIST TOCREATIVE CAREER: Redefine yourcareer in the fine arts as an artist-en-trepreneur, and turn your passion intoyour own business. Discover entrepreneu-rial opportunities at the intersection ofyour artistic strengths and your commu-nity’s needs and market. Cost: $229.6:30-8 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays,through Dec. 9, at CPCC Central Campus,1112 Charlottetowne Ave. Register:704-330-4223; www.cpcc.edu/sbc/schedule.

OCT. 29HOW TO DO BUSINESS WITHMECKLENBURG COUNTY: Businessopportunities with Mecklenburg Countyinclude purchasing, construction pro-jects, professional services and procure-ment programs. Find out how to becomea registered Minority, Woman and/orSmall Business Enterprise vendor andhow to prepare to take advantage of thenumerous business opportunities withMecklenburg County. Free. 2-4 p.m. atCPCC Central Campus, 1112 Charlotte-towne Ave. Register: 704-330-4223;www.cpcc.edu/sbc/schedule.

NAVIGATING DIFFICULT

CONVERSATIONS FOR BUSINESSOWNERS: Difficult conversations areinevitable in the business world, just as inlife. But business owners may suffer afinancial cost as well as a cost in teammorale when workplace conflict is notaddressed. Use these tools and strategiesfor effective communication and set apositive tone in the workplace even in themost trying circumstances. Free. 6:30-8p.m. at CPCC Central Campus, 1112 Char-lottetowne Ave. Register: 704-330-4223;www.cpcc.edu/sbc/schedule.

Business Calendar

SEND US YOUR NEWSEmail us at shoptalk@charlotteobserver.com by 5 p.m. next Wednesday.