The Best Brands Delight

When you’re at a conference, it’s hard to leave without a bag of loot. Every vendor has something to give, something they hope will inspire you to call them over the other guy when the time comes. Some of it is mildly interesting or at least novel, but if you’re honest, most of it ends up in your junk drawer no more than a week after the event, never to be seen again.

In a recent workshop with one of our clients, they told us a story of a conference they attended where another vendor was giving out two types of pens. One black, and one pink. Everywhere you looked, you saw a pink pen. Every professional at the conference was hunting them down, the mysterious booth with the pink pens. 

A pink pen scribbles a note or writes a novel just as well as a black pen would. The difference? You smile a little bit when you look at it.

Must have been a creative industry, right? Nope, this is healthcare we’re talking about.

In a serious industry, the pink pen brings whimsy. It’s fun, without being futile. The best part – it sticks out like a sore thumb. 

Now, what does all this have to do with branding? 

Every brand exists, and hell, there are a lot of them. The best brands delight. They understand their desired consumer and make every decision with their needs and perspective in mind.

Stressed and exhausted doctors and nurses could probably use a bit of levity, and that’s exactly where the pen delivers.

Even if you’re in a serious business, the best brands don’t take themselves too seriously. Not always, anyway. At the end of the day, we’re all human, and as logical as we want to believe ourselves to be, we make 95% of our decisions based on emotion. Any opportunity to tug on someone’s heartstrings or foster a personal connection is a welcome one.

A pink pen takes something mundane and makes it magical, even if only a little. A quirky writing utensil may not be enough to change the world (on its own, at least), but it’s enough to inspire a scavenger hunt at a medical conference, and there’s something to be said for that. 

It’s your branding team’s job to make your brand stand out in all the right places. This with identifying and analyzing every single touchpoint where your brand can and will be seen by your desired audiences, a key piece of a high-quality discovery process. With this insight in mind, your branding team can strategize how to communicate your brand’s value proposition and personality to drive an emotional connection and create desire.

Tangible experiences can be a massive differentiator in a digital world, but the idea is to create a delightful and cohesive brand experience across all touchpoints. Whether digital or IRL, working with a branding team gives you the tools to highlight your brand’s personality without distracting from your core value proposition. By merging form with function, you’ll be on your way to creating your brand’s “pink pen”.