…talktojason

While sat in my car waiting for the wonderful van driver to come back and remove his van, which he had skilfully parked across the car park entrance/exit, my mind started to wonder. This is nothing new, my mind often wonders – usually about things relating to client work or what to have for dinner, or what to do over the weekend.

My first thought was to think about the great evolutionary question, which asks: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? After some deliberation I came to the conclusion it had to be the egg. Yep, it had to be the egg because chickens actually evolved from pre-historic lizards – it makes sense in my head.

After this amazing piece of brilliance I started to think about other things, like how to make the perfect beef curry; the move to the new office and which brand of coffee syrup I should get next – decided to get the Hazelnut as we still have some vanilla left in the office. Decisions, decisions!

After contemplating these important topics I noticed the van in question was extremely dirty and somewhat looking a bit depressed. I had also noticed after the driver had returned and drove off there was a sticker on the back of the van which asked the question: How’s my driving?

Now at this point I thought should I ring the number and ask them to pass on my comments to the driver, but instead I did the very British thing, which was to moan about it quietly and go over in my head what I should of said to him.

I also started to consider the company’s problem with brand perception. Didn’t they want to take pride in their own brand image? It may have just been a dirty van to the driver, but the vehicle was covered in brand imagery so the company obviously wanted people to know about it, so why allow what is effectively a moving brand communications tool to reflect such a poor image?

Like most companies they start out with good intentions: starting a business and creating a strong brand identity, only to allow internal behaviour (the driver’s personality (seen by external forces as the brand personality) and external pressures (customer needs and environment pressures) to distract them from the original brand strategy – how they want the brand identity to be perceived, grow and develop.

Or am I just over egging the point of positive brand perception? Well, exit now clear so moan over. Thanks for reading :)