Power of Branding

I went back home for the holidays.  I went to my parent's house.  I went to my little (6 year old) brother's room.  I went to play Legos with him.  I went.

While we were playing, we came across a classic piece (pictured).

This piece once belonged to an entire set  of mine when I was his age.  UBICS, the name, has an inconsequential meaning to the story, but belongs to an IT company by the same name (perhaps a promotion for their company).  I have a particular enthusiasm for keeping up with how my brother's schooling is doing.  Pop quiz;

"Owen, do you know what this Lego says?  Can you sound it out?"

"Geico!" he exclaims, quite proudly.

" :o " <-- my face.

Well, my brother can definitely associate symbols with meanings.  He hasn't memorized the sounds of the alphabet, but young minds can clearly detect even subtle changes in text.  The point here is the power of branding.  If your client thinks the difference between one type and another is inconsequential to their new corporate identity, educate them.  Geico dominates this typeface and color combination.  If Geico is your competitor, get as far away from their look as possible.  I'll end with this tidbit of information;  my little brother hardly watches any TV, but this association still came easily to him.  Geico and effective top-of-mind awareness.  And/or the scary power of advertisers over children.  All that and a bag of chips for another day.

- Jacob Mardi Philpott