AKA how I ended up with 3 logos, 2 blogs and an assortment of business cards.
The next time I say anything at all to a client about integrated marketing, consistent branding and the importance of all of this, I’ll have to come in with a HUGE disclaimer. “Do as I say, not as I do (er, did).”
My branding odyssey began innocently enough. I like the color green. It’s the color of nature, trees, and many of the things I enjoy in the world. So, naturally, I got myself a lovely green logo for my mother company, Harlan Editorial, Inc. I loved it. It was business-like; I took it through many fine-tunings. But it always remained forest green.
Then I popped up a blog, and that day, the color red appealed to me. My logo sat in the corner of the blog looking forlorn and out of place, but I liked it, and I liked the blog, so I kept them both. Already, I’d broken my cardinal rule of marketing: a blog ought to appear to be at least a distant cousin to your brand. My duo appeared to be more of an interplanetary collision.
I carried on, set up a new Website for a passion of mine, hiking. For that one, I have blue skies and a beautiful mountain panorama. So wouldn’t it make sense to have a logo for Web Words That Work in that same blue sky format? No, it wouldn’t. But I did it anyway. I sure do like that blue sky.
Integrated Branding at Last
Then, as I was working recently with Blair O’Neil, owner of Integris Marketing, I mentioned my logos of many colors. He, marketing guru that he is, had already noticed. He paused – I think he was trying to decide how he could put this tactfully. Then he said that, well, he had noticed my multiple personalities.
Luckily for me, he was able to help. And that is why today you see my new blog, my Website, my branding across the board for Web Words That Work. It’s orange, not the color of trees or blue skies, but the color that expresses my business. I love it. And I promise, Blair, to be as consistent myself as I ask my clients to be.
