Unionwear Canada

The Police used to sing, “Don’t stand so close to me”. In today’s fast paced consumer society, the brand police (if they existed) would probably sing something along the lines of “Don’t brand so close to me”. And they would likely be wearing a carefully crafted uniform, designed to represent everything they stand for.

My brandspace is made up of all the brands I know, trust, and love.
And these days, it’s getting a little crowded.

Some brands are a little too close for comfort.
Too close, too loud, too gaudy, too big, too much.

Yesterday I was watching a show and there appeared an annoying little ad in the corner of the TV screen. We are surrounded by an onslaught of both digital and traditional brand advertising that can be overwhelming at times. Billboards, radio, TV, movie theaters, the napkins at a restaurant, branded merchandise of all kinds. I like being surrounded by brands I love, but some brands just intrude.

Something to consider: keep your brand presence at a moderate level that doesn’t create brand overload and on the other hand, isn’t so faint that it gets lost in the noise. A negative brand experience gets remembered just as much or more than a positive one.

The recent Shaw ad campaign with the blocky text, witty writing, sleek animation and dancing hands is entertaining and informative so I come away with a good feeling about the company and an inclination to do business with them. Some other ad campaigns I have seen created the opposite effect. There is a fine line between just right and too much.

Be bold. Take a stand with your brand.
Be beautiful. Get the best design firm you can find to work on your brand.
Be tasteful. Don’t race for the bottom, like the most ruthless, the grungiest, the cheapest.
Be entertaining. Make me laugh and like you first and then I will be open to learn about your brand.

If you do all those things, I will let you into my brandspace as a potential brand I buy and you can “brand so close to me”. And if you don’t, you may feel the sting of an unwelcomed tasering from the brand police!

Imagine a world without branding.

The earth has no name and everyone just calls it “the planet we happen to live on”. No corporate logos, no advertising, no brands, no marketing. You wake up, pull on your unlabeled jeans and a nice blank shirt and brush your teeth with no-name toothpaste, eat some unbranded bran flakes cereal, hop in your generic car and head to work at your no logo company.

On the way, on your ad-free radio, it’s your favourite band, who happens to be The Band. You check out the billboard-free scenery and zoom by thousands of active yet bland businesses and store fronts. You need a coffee. What was that beige, not-too-memorable store on the way that specializes in selling coffee? Oh right, it was the “coffee store”. You stop and grab a semi-medium regular coffee. So far so good.

You get to work on time at the widget factory and start your job, building widgets in the factory. It’s a good day and you get several hundred units of style #R52 widgets made. At home, you search for a restaurant near your home by firing up your generic computer and using a cool search engine called “search engine”.

Off to a lovely dinner at the Italian Style Restaurant – its hard to choose between several unbranded cola options. Afterwards you head off to the hockey game, with the Edmonton hockey team (the guys in the grey jerseys) versus the Pittsburgh hockey team (also in grey jerseys). It is a good game and you drive home happy.

Welcome to your unbranded life in a generic world.