Everything Communicates

By Ted Wright September 23, 2010

Everything communicates! Yesterday I was a Bissell’s HQ in Grand Rapids Michigan for a day of meetings and to give a talk on WOMM to their marketing staff. As you can tell from the picture below, yesterday was not my first rodeo.

What struck me enough to write about my experience was how well thought out Bissell was when it came to my interaction with them. My nametag tells the story.

Bissell is known as a company that provides cleaning tools and products. At it’s core however, they are an engineering and design company and have been since the late 1800’s.

Let’s explore my nametag. Essentially a ‘throw away” product for most companies, Bissell went out and found something that communicates values their consumers prize namely being modern, sleek and functional.

Note how this attaches to my suit, not a pin or heavy clip that is going to leave a mark but a strong magnet. Communicating your values in unexpected places, like visitors name tags, gets people’s attention because you are out there being thoughtful in a place that very few others give thought to.

The point to remember is that everything communicates. If you are a firm with core strengths in design and engineering then everything you do should reflect those traits and the attention to detail that makes those traits come alive.

I go to plenty of corporate HQ’s that have forgotten this lesson. I thought I’d point out one that has not.