AuthenticMatters

**This post reblogged from my personal blog, daveclarke.co**

See these sunglasses?  They’re a knock-off of the “legendary” (quotes used heavily) RayBans.  Everyone and their mother has a pair.  And they come in a kaleidoscope of colors as opposed to the traditional black of the originals.  Whatever.  They’re popular.  That’s fine. 

I’m pointing them out today because I recently got a pair.  They were giveaways at an event. The company giving them away must’ve thought along the lines of “these multi-colored glasses are cool right now… and cheap! Let’s slap our URL on one arm and our company name on the other and hand ‘em out!”  Totally makes sense.  In fact, it’s refreshing compared to the standard stress ball or magnet or keychain we all get.  And frankly, I like the style so I would wear them.

Emphasis on the “would.”

The product in itself is cool.  It’s relatively universal.  Most people would hang on to a cheap pair of sunglasses, right?  (Always handy in the glove compartment.)  They’re not terrible.

But.  As mentioned, the pair that I got at this event… they had the company’s URL on one arm and their company name on the other.  My “I’d totally wear these” excitement plummeted upon seeing that.  It just feels lame to wear a pair of sunglasses that are so blatantly commercial.  So I probably won’t.

And that’s too bad. The company that gave out these glasses could’ve done something. They could’ve made their branding fashionable.  If instead of a URL and a company name, they put JUST the logo on the arm, that might’ve been a little bit more digestible - and they still would’ve retained some branding.  Here’s an example…

Say you’re Comcast. Actually wait. Bad branding example. Say you’re Netflix… DAMN! OK, let’s take a company near and dear to my heart, Thrive (for those that don’t know Thrive was a free personal finance management site… launched in 08, acquired by LendingTree in 09.).

Our URL was justthrive.com.  Our slogan was “Watch your money grow”

Here’s the logo:

So which pair of sunglasses would you actually wear:

1. Orange frame, black arms.  Spiraling leaf on one arm. Just the word “Thrive”  on the other arm.

OR…

2. Orange frame, black arms. The URL (justthrive.com) on one arm.  “Watch Your Money Grow” on the other arm.

My guess is most people would pick option 1.  No, you’re not “getting your URL” out there, but at least the glasses are being worn and not discarded! If you want people to actually wear your branded swag, you have to make it fashionable.  And that means sacrificing some of the core branding requirements.  Figure out which elements of your brand can actually fashionable.  Not all logos will work.  Not all company names will work. (I admit, “Thrive” works… so would something like “Moorings” or “Android.” “Wells Fargo Investments” might not… but “WF” would.) 

That all said, envision the scenario when someone’s wearing the Option 1 sunglasses and their buddy asks, “Where’d you get those?”  “Oh, the guys from this personal finance website, Thrive, were giving them away.” 

That’s a brand moment.

So. Stop forcing people to be a walking billboard for your call to action (i.e., your URL). Give them something that looks good and that they’d actually rock without feeling like a tool.