Find one of these…I am currently listening to a webcast on the update to my company’s “Brand Image”
I can only hope that someone sneaks into the building and stabs me with a spoon to put me out of my misery. Yes, I know stabbing with a spoon is difficult. It may even take several extremely painful attempts before you actually break the skin. If its a plastic spoon, it may take even longer. But thats what I’m willing to go through.
Now, as a rule of thumb, I really like having the idea of a “Brand” and having people recognize you for a look and style of work that you do. Great.
Now this particular brand image works fairly well (at least I think so) in the world of commercial proposals. A world where the Company can dictate how they go about saying something. For example, they can have a picture of a girl flying a kite and a Title across it that says “Taking you to new heights”. And the Client “gets it”. And is happy and loves it.
Where this doesn’t work is in the world of federal proposals. Imagine you are the DoD. And you get ten proposals. As you look down the row of them, on the covers you see: Tank, Tank, Tank, Tank, Tank, Tank, Girl with Kite, Tank, Tank, Tank. Which one of these proposals do you think immediately gets thrown in the trash?
And so here I am… listening to people tell us how good it is. How effective it is. All the benefits it will provide, etc, etc. And I patiently wait for somebody to bring me a spoon.