The other day I attended a seminar about branding for small business. The presenter talked about how to develop a brand from the inside of your company out, based on true facts about your business, product offerings, customers, and owner’s beliefs and boiling those down into meaningful statements until themes begin to emerge from which you can select one. We at CNS had gone through a similar process years ago when we came up with “count on us.”
We are careful to make sure that our brand message permeates all of our communications and flow into business practices. Even our office sports our brand, complete with teal colored cube walls and gray carpet and modular furniture.
It is perhaps with this lens that I approached a gentleman at the seminar who was wearing a white, performance fabric long sleeve Under Armour brand polo shirt with his company logo embroidered on the opposite chest side, and a pair of dress slacks and a sport jacket. I assumed that because he was wearing a sport branded shirt (Under Armour), that his business must have something to do with the sports industry, or perhaps the out of doors. So imagine my surprise when he told me that his business was…… outsourced accounting!
Accountants, like IT consultants, need to come across as trusted partners. Every customer experience and touch point needs to drive that message home. His logo’d shirt did not connect with his business or the message on his card, and because of that confusion I am not likely to further our connection. Just because you can put your logo on something doesn’t mean you should. Branding is all encompassing.
I have to say that I am a little disappointed with the stylus! It works well, but – well –umm – Apple sort of irritates me. The problem is that the iPad recognizes my hang as input. When I try to write with the stylus like a pen, my hand hits the screen too and all I do is move the note-taking app (Adobe Ideas) around. In order to write, I have to hold the stylus kind of weird. I suppose I can re-learn how to write, but what are my trade-offs?
I admit to being swept up with iPad mania. While there were no early morning lines, there is a general fascination with the device that I have considered essential for the last twelve years. Once upon a time, I stumbled into a Cross digital notepad. You wrote on a pad and it recorded the pen motions. You then transferred those “pages” via USB to a special computer application AND you had the paper notes as well. Fast forward until today and an actually FUNCTIONAL version of that is almost here. I spent some time last night working with the business manager at my local Apple store to discover how the iPad can integrate into a business environment. The short answer is: it’s almost there!