Be the Brand

Yesterday, I attended BrandMaster Training. Learned the background behind the name changes, the importance of getting the brand into the public's mind and making sure to use the energy lines. This training is meant to get over 3,000 employees to make the public aware of the various brands - College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Agrilife Research and AgriLife Extension. They want us to be the brand. A positive experience with an employee equals a positive association with the brand assuming that the employee mentions the brand.

I'm willing to be the brand but only from 8:00 - 5:00 Monday through Friday. The rest of the time I will be the Linda.

I was disappointed not to learn any neat tricks like they teach in Jedi Master training.

I realized I couldn't have success in the "branding" field because I just could not take it too seriously. I couldn't make the presentation with a straight face.

I've read on business websites about people applying the concept of branding to a personal level. Using various tools to promote the, for example the Linda brand, and create positive associations with the personal brand. At lot of these articles use marketing terms to dispense this advice: Be good. Don't be a jerk.

A bit of advice:
Make one black and white copy of your colored charts to make sure the contrast is retained before making thousands of copies and discovering red and purple look exactly the same on a black and white copy.

Agriculture is Life!

The Texas A&M shout out continues.

Karen Moy actually receives money for writing this? I suppose intentionally writing boring stories is a special talent.

The place where I work will release to the public its new identity. I've already seen the new logos and usage guidelines. Seems to me a waste of money but since we hardly make things in the U.S., a large number of people need something to do and I guess developing a brand identity is better than wanton violence. My problem is that the higher ups expect everyone to take this whole thing so seriously. I really can't but I might go to one of the Brand Master training sessions so I can add "Brand Master" to my credentials and maybe learn to lift objects with my mind.

Here are the results of all the effort:

I think, Agriculture is Life, Motherf*ck*r!, would make a better slogan. The colors are Aggie Maroon and Pantone Cool Gray 10. I think the arc is unnecessary.

Details, little details...

You can order that arrangement from 1-800-flowers. Drew made the right choice in choosing Vera over Dawn, too bad he screwed up the dumping of Dawn and pissed off Vera. Perhaps, Vera should go out to dinner to deal with her anger. The Bum Boat?

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I finally affixed my new vehicle registration decal on to my window. The 2008 decals have an opaque blue backing that says, "Love your state, check the date" I suppose this will serve as a reminder to Texas vehicle owners to keep their registrations up to date. Texans seem to respond to slogans. The success of the "Don't Mess with Texas" campaign has served as a model for other states in combating roadside littering. The people responsible for the "Love your state, check the date" campaign did not think things all the way through.

As stated earlier, the new stickers have an opaque blue backing. Opaque to the driver. The previous designs are semi-transparent. A driver could glance over to the corner of the window and see the numbers and be reminded of their registration due date. That is how I remembered to renew my registration. I saw a 9 and 07, a backwards 9 and 07 but I could still read it. My inspection sticker has a 12 and 7 thus reminding me that I need to have my vehicle inspected in December. The new registration sticker design has taken away that easy reminder. It also takes away the "oh damn" exclamation, when a law enforcement officer has informed you that you were pulled over for an expired registration. Now I have to look at my front window from the outside. I rarely approach my car from a direction which allows me to look at my front window.

Check out the commercial below to get a glimpse of the new backing and a comparison with the inspection sticker - the beauty queens commercial from the TxDOT website linked above has a clearer picture of the semi-transparent inspection sticker

"Put Texas in your corner", "Love your state, check the date" and pay attention to the little details in implementing your two-year bilingual media, public relations and community outreach campaign encouraging drivers to register their vehicles, especially those who might forget to register, not know how to register or not know the law.

Another beautiful day, another icon

Another beautiful day and another Mary Worth icon. A classic Mary Worth audible punctuation dialog balloon. Why not, huh? That would make more sense since a sound goes with the word. A question mark by itself does not have a sound. It alters the sound of a word, unless one hails from parts of the southern United States. People from those regions tend to make every sentence sound like a question.

I noticed that KFC no longer advertises its Famous Bowls. I guess the demographic that enjoys its food in a huge pile rather than separated does not have as much disposable income as thought by the marketers at KFC. In the non-cracker south, gravy does not belong on top of corn. Non-cracker south includes most of the southern United States.

Why does Kentucky Fried Chicken use a sample from "Sweet Home Alabama" in its commercials? The unavailability of songs about Kentucky suitable for marketing products?