To Brand or not to Brand that is OUR question 

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To Brand or not to Brand that is OUR question

Branding: ​

‘the activity of giving a particular name and image to goods and services

so that people will be attracted to them and want to buy them’

 

As Brand Ambassadors for a plethora of well-known products and retailers, you would expect us to know the answer to this quandary. We are installers of Point of Sale product displays and graphics, implementing Campaign promotions on behalf of brand owners, retailers or agencies across the UK and beyond.

Our Focus is to promote our Client’s brand rather than ours!!

Our own Marketing and Social Media team are constantly trying to think of how we protect our anonymity on behalf of brands, retailers and agencies which we are representing, whilst promoting our own business and services in the very same environment that we are trying to protect.

Can you see the dilemma?

We’d like to ask your opinion on 3 scenarios that we currently implement depending on client requirements: 

  1. Should our vehicles, fitters, and reporting carry our client’s brand name in terms of livery, uniforms, and logos?
  2. Should we have our own branding to ensure high visibility of a well-known, familiar, and respected implementation team?
  3. Should we go fully “White Label”?

There are of course, ‘pros & cons’ for each of these options and we have listed examples for each of the questions posed

  1. Client Branding

PRO: A seamless image delivery from warehouse, transit to store
CON: A heavily branded vehicle and staff working for a client with high value products is potentially attracting unwanted interest in their goods in storage or in transit. This could be targeted for theft or damage and could lead to a further risk of brand images being left discarded or ending up in landfill sites. This is not projecting the image that had been originally planned.

      2.Focus Branding

PRO: The use of our own branding ensures the service destination is aware that the installation or survey work is being undertaken by a third party. This provides a lower profile for the brand at a time when a promotion is being deployed ahead of a launch date. This might be preferable in a number of instances, depending on the specifics of a launch campaign.
CON: Uncertainty about who is responsible for our presence in store and creating an air of confusion.

      3.No Branding – White Label

PRO: Building Trusted Relationships – As we are regular visitors to most leading, multiple retailers across our field of operation in the UK, Europe, and beyond, the familiarity of OUR brand has benefits from security access and instore communications. We build an ongoing trusted relationship, irrespective of which specific brand we are working for at any particular time.
CON: No readily identifiable source of contact in the event of any queries or additional requirements

Can you help?

We’d like to ask the audience!

Our simple 1-minute video highlights what we do and where we do it using our White Label service but ends with us sharing the logos of brands we have worked with. For our own promotional needs this is a contradiction of a White Label service!

So our question to brands, retailers and agencies is “does the visibility of the brands we work with influence your decision to select us as a strategic partner in your campaign delivery?”

You can view the video here

Please add your comment to this post.

 

 

 

 

#TakeCare with Social Distancing – Avoid a Fine

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#TakeCare with Social Distancing – What this Means for you

Definitions of “Take Care”:

Collins: To pay attention; be heedful.

Oxford Dictionary: Be cautious; keep oneself safe.

Thesaurus.com: Be alert; be careful

We have all been advised over the past few months to #TakeCare in our lives, which of course has been massively important in relation to containing the pandemic virus. #TakeCare has punctuated every comment, post and article that has been written but for many, it still seems like an ambiguous term and people are left unsure as to what this actually means for them.

We all need to take care in everything that we do; with our family, in our homes, with ourselves and also, in our businesses. Whilst we can all use common sense in our domestic lives, our business and commercial activities are very much monitored and overseen by Health and Safety Executives [HSE]. It’s of paramount importance that we get this right.

We have all seen dangerous practices. These are always eye-catching and rightfully portrayed as stupid, unbelievable and frankly, sometimes ridiculous! These things are what health and safety executives are there to prevent but sadly, the health and safety executives are too often pilloried, mocked and mis-represented in the mainstream print media for their “‘elf and safety” actions and regulations.

This job below can be done – just not like this!!

 

There is nothing in HSE regulations to stop you from doing anything, all you have to do is……

  • Minimise the risk of any task you are doing

  • Clearly set out a method for your employees to minimise the risk

None of these phrases instruct us to do nothing. They are in place to make sure we are safe and compliant.

We don’t seem to have solid, clear advice as to what we need to do to ensure health and safety of people in our workplaces and so, I have been quite alarmed over the last few days with the rising political clamour for institutions and businesses. They are looking to begin investigations into the methods that businesses have deployed for ensuring that they are undertaking their essential tasks within the Covid Lockdown period.

Businesses are doing their earnest best to survive AND ensure the welfare of their staff as they return to work. The main responsibility is for the employer but the employee has to also be party to staying safe.

We are in uncharted territory with the virus, which isn’t helped by even the most experienced medical and scientific experts disagreeing over the best course of action. Regardless of this, the amount of design, creativity and manufacture that has gone into the Point Of Sale sector is incredible, with suppliers and retailers working together to create many solutions for a safe working and shopping environment.

To have all this effort invested, this huge entrepreneurial effort and massive investment from retailers, yet still risk blame and a fine is really unfair and unnecessary. All of us are simply trying to restore normality wherever we can for the benefit of all of our local and national communities.

Let’s support everyone’s efforts, help them to #StaySafe but not to hound, criticise and prosecute.

You can view our social distancing brochure here to view everything that you need to #staysafe in your working environment.

In our Point of Sale business, we prioritise the health and safety of our teams, our clients’, our staff and the premises we are working in. It really has to be at the forefront of everything that we do. We have even developed a number of social distancing packages to aid businesses in their reopening with Covid-19.