Firebrand

I was recently excited that a new restaurant was opening near my house called Wild Wing. What excited me about it (other than the wings of course) was that the logo was similar to the Top Gun logo of the 80s. With the wing tie in, I was sure that it would be decorated with the movie in mind.

I was wrong. It was a country western themed bar and restaurant. Nothing wrong with that, but I was excited about and expecting something else. The surprise factor tarnished my first experience, and the first experience is the most critical time in the relationship between a customer and a brand.

People (generally) don’t like surprises. There are good surprises, but people are generally used to dealing with negative surprises particularly from companies. When they are surprised, they assume it is negative and need to be convinced otherwise. McDonalds has built an empire on people being able to buy the same okay tasting hamburger anywhere in the world. United Airlines boarding, flight and deplaning is a scripted, predictable, choreographed play. Denny’s you can expect to get the same greasy breakfast 24 hours a day. People don’t get their cars serviced purely based on the fear of surprised.

People are also weary of bait and switch tactics. No matter what the bank offers at first, you wonder how long it will last. Sure the cable company is giving you 3 months of free service, but how bad is the service? The phone company wants to give you that shiny new phone, but how long of a contract do they lock you in for? When someone is surprised, they look for the hook.

Make sure your branding isn’t going to imply something that your product or service is set to deliver.

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By Colin Finkle. Colin Finkle is an award winning industrial designer who works with large multinational brands everyday designing retail displays for FX Displays in Toronto, Canada. He is the principle designer at Firebrand Creative. He also writes for AMD’s FireUser.com blog.

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The views expressed on this weblog are mine alone and do not necessairly reflect the views of my employer, FX Displays.