Branding (not with a hot poker)

[eggwards]

I was tossing and turning last night - I felt all stuffed up, and maybe a little possessed, but hey, what's wrong with a little possession?. I guess Chris cursed me fro waking him up when i called him really late last night. Of course this means i will be falling asleep this afternoon.

From one to four this afternoon I will be in a "branding seminar". As exciting as that sounds, it's really only a talk about the company's new ad campaign. Someone thinks that we all need to understand the new slogan (Your goals, our solutions) and we need to drop it in to our corporate "culture". Apparently we need to live this phrase. Of course, being the cynical bastard that I am, I think this is totally overrated.

A couple of weeks ago they gave everyone a T-shirt (XL only, so naturally, mine isn't being worn) that said "solutions builder" on it. Folks, we're on the back side of the business, the product has already been sold, we don't build anything. In fact, more often than not, we're out just trying to fix crap that happened on the front end. We do our job, and we go home. There's not a big deal about doing more than providing good customer service, we don't sell anything, we don't offer anything new, that's done by marketing and sales people and brokers that work independently from us. We take orders, we put people's money in the right place, we take it out when asked. That's it.

I don't give into this notion that my job is anything more than it is. The company long ago moved away from really engendering people to do more, to go further. No snappy slogan is going to change this, and a three hour meeting to discuss how important our slogan is seems wasteful. I should sleep through it.

Comments

[garebear.livejournal.com]

I love branding. Slogans, teeshirts and brainwashing improve productivity, service and moral much more than kindness, encouragement and resources. Yes, your company will flourish and grow, just keep thinking, "Your goals, our solutions."

Of course some of your more cynical customer base may read that as, "Your company will suck the life out of my business (aka, solution) while "helping" to meet our goals."

Nah! Who would be that cynical?

[goofybearz.livejournal.com]

But you must become one with your company. Live it, learn it, Like it, become it. LOL, I going through something similar at the factory.

[clauditorium.livejournal.com]

I worked - on a much lower level - for Cineplex Odeon, and I remember all the corporate crap they tried to stuff down my throat. I didn't buy any of it, often got reprimanded for it, and I have no regrets today.
In short, good for you.

Also, in case you haven't, you absolutely NEED to see the movie Office Space. Whenever you're not laughing, you'll be nodding your head in recognition.