What’s Your Marble Floor?
November 9, 2010 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
The Driskill Hotel's marble floor features its 'D' logo
Walking in to The Driskill Hotel in Austin for Brand Camp 2010 in October, I admired the high ceilings, the 1880s southwestern architecture and the quick attention from the staff.
And the marble floors.
Like many distinctive hotels, The Driskill spends a lot of money on its floors. They’re marble, distinctly colored, and clean as can be. Placed in the middle of the floor in the center of the hotel’s meeting space is the hotel’s logo (see photo to the right).
The floors and the logo were easy to notice as I was walking from meeting room to lunch and back.
High Anxiety = Insurance’s Best Moment
October 26, 2010 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
Aren’t we here for times like this?
Principal, Met Life, and other big financial brands publish research studies (or news releases about same) pointing out how the public’s financial mood has drooped and dropped. The consumer news media also have plenty of stories pointing out how difficult things are economically, and how that is impacting decisions by politicians and, in this pre-election season, voters.
It’s obvious how much value the insurance industry provides, right? As we said when we were kids: “Duh!?” Read more
This Middle-Aged House, Painted
September 28, 2010 by Charles Wasilewski · Leave a Comment
Every year at summer’s end I seem to spend time working around the house. This year I spent time over Labor Day weekend painting. I primed and then recoated the wooden paneling in a foyer/entry area of our home, and repainted the trim around the doors. Then my wife coated the walls using colors that accented the adjacent family room. This was all on the heels of having a contractor install some new tile in the foyer–tile that dated to the home’s creation in the late 1960s.
Most who own a home will recognize this pattern: As the project progressed, it became apparent that other work needed doing.
When I painted the trim that joined the newly repainted paneling with an adjacent wall, the paint on that wall looked dimmer and worn. When I put fresh paint on the the molding for the laundry room door, suddenly the laundry room walls looked drab.
It’s that way with branding too, isn’t it?
When an independent agency successfully upgrades to an agency management system, perhaps its speed makes other workflow seem slower. When an insurance carrier upgrades its e-mail communications, its Web site landing pages need an upgrade too. When an insurance trade association rebrands with a new logo, its member communications call out for attention. Read more