This became a big media story with all kinds of motives attributed to the management. It took months to overcome the negative impact. In fact when Raju and I had gone to Singapore and Sydney some of the TV news channels there would ask him a question about that controversy during live interviews. He used to get upset and later ask me why I could not stop the interviewer from asking such questions. Unfortunately, he did not realize that professional journalists do not always ask what you want them to ask.
Networking groups meet once or twice a week and often vary in the niche or industry the group focuses on. Find a networking group in your area and offer discounts for them to hold their next meeting at your restaurant. You’ll get some regular business out of the deal and also get in with a group of influencers to help spread the word.
Like anything else in business, you simply need to go to professionals in this case as well. The best brains and talents are recruited in their service by the most successful advertising agencies. You may go to any of these successful firms for getting an impressive and lasting custom label for your product. Once designed the job left is that of getting that label printed.
Adding an identity program to your logo is a legitimate cost. Designing the business card, letterhead and envelope layouts are normally a higher priced package. You should receive camera ready files for each design.
I’m not sure how the survey was conducted and I’m never sure how companies calculate “loss”. One of my favorite examples of this problem comes from a friend who ran a bar in a ski area up north. Business was fine in winter when people were skiing but a little slow in the summer and shoulder seasons. So my friend suggested to his partner that they send a letter to all the adults for miles around inviting them to a party with a free open bar from 7 to 9 on a Friday night. “Are you nuts? We’ll lose a fortune,” screamed the partner. My friend ran the math and finally convinced his partner. And they did lose money from 7 to 9. But in the next six hours they had their best night ever! And for the rest of that off-season, they had one profitable night after another. The math worked.
It wouldn’t hurt, but more importantly, especially at pre-college levels, is your ability and passion for the topic and subject is most important. I think we both agree that you have that.
On the other hand, if you need an additional presentation of logos due to a complete change in direction on the companies part, there should be an extra fee. An example would be asking for a yellow duck logo design and changing your mind to a red dog design once the logos are presented to you.