We held a Branding Masterclass at the fabulous Fareham Innovation Centre. It was quite a day….

Often we can think of branding as a need for just big businesses; but it’s even more important for us smaller ones. It ultimately creates RECOGNITION and TRUST.

One of the fundamentals (but only a small part of branding) is, to put it simply:

THE LOOK!

You know, the logo, the colours, the fonts and such like. Why? Because they give our prospective customers visual clues, and it makes them think and feel things about the brand. Quite amazing really.

And here’s the proof, delivered in my TERRIBLE experience (albeit a first world problem!)…..

At the end of the Masterclass, I turned right out of the Innovation Centre road, about half past five in the evening, to get some fuel… because as always, I’d left it to the last minute with an estimated 3 miles of petrol left (that’s just how I roll, but it does not please the husband).

Now, I know it’s naughty at this time of day (what with dinner due and all!) but I was hungry so after grabbing my fuel, I grabbed my favourite Walkers crisps.

My mouth watered as I picked up the shiny pink Prawn Cocktail packet.

I instantly think of being a child and sitting around with my sister having a munch on our favourite flavours (my mouth is also watering right now). And plus, these are a treat, because just looking at these will pop a couple of inches onto my thighs.

Right, so back on the road and more importantly… let’s get those crisps open…..

So I take out the first crisp and crunch.

What? This can’t be right.

That moment when you think you are about to experience one flavour, and you are hit with another. Oh, it’s strange and sometimes unpleasant. This was one of those times.

So those crisps were Ham and Mustard. I can’t even begin to tell you my disappointment.

But this shows you how much a brand’s colour – THE LOOK – can impact the choices we make!

So the moral?

Be consistent. Use the same visual clues at all times, whether the location of your logo on your marketing materials, the font type, the style of photography and of course the COLOUR palette!

#PinkIsPrawn #BrandConfusion

Victoria ????

p.s. My disappointment led to this tweet to Walkers…..