EDITORIAL

Wblcome to Drab, IncorPorated

6NE of the problems any business has in any lfnela is to set itself apart from the competition. It can be a negative factor if potential customers never think of the firm and consequently do their buying elsewhere.

Many home centers and lumber yards suffer from a lack of identity. If you were blindfolded and taken into a series of stores, how many do you think you could identify by glancing around? Take a half dozen flyers or other home center advertisements, cover the company name and then try to identify the particular company.

Most hotels are also just a blur. Yet one we know of took an isolated incident over 50 years ago and, with creativity, turned it into a tradition and a powerful identity feature. When five ducks were first dumped into the lobby fountain they weren't just removed. Rather, they were marched ceremoniously out on a red carpet and upstairs to a rooftop pen. It was so much fun that now, morning and night, accompanied by an announcer and recorded music the ducks march to and from their fountain, urged along by uniformed staffers. (Old Memphis hands will, of course, recognize this as the venerable Peabody Hotel). It may be silly, but it's very popular and the hotel doesn't miss a chance to promote its ducks. Indeed, they are the theme of much of their advertising.

While you may not be ready to march ducks around your home center, you should be creative enough to find someone or something that will help you establish a vivid corporate identity. Our example shows that nearly anything, used in an imaginative, appealing manner can be converted into a trademark. One the customers will remember favorably at buying time.

The key is imagination, the magic ability to see something exciting in the commonplace. Whether you use your own or borrow someone else's bright idea, developing a device to bring your firm to mind is worth the cost and effort.