I was standing in front of a local establishment Saturday with a couple friends and noticed a car with a nice looking sign painted on the side.  It had the company name, then the owner’s name, with the words “Independent Distributor” under it, and a phone number. 

So I asked my friends, “What’s wrong with that sign?” They looked at it for a second and they all laughed. 

You see, the car sign gave you no idea what the person did, although you’d guess from the “Independent Distributor” tag, they were hoping to get some business going.  The name of the company, which I won’t rag on here, seemed to be possibly involved in a hobby-type trade, but we really had no way to tell.

Branding is great.  It’s also great when we get to the point that our brand is ubiquitously known, a part of the national lexicon.  But most of us will never achieve that status.  If you’re spending money to get your truck or car painted, you should be positive that you’re at least giving potential customers an idea of what you do. 

It turns out my gut was right, the company in question provides stamps and scrap booking supplies through a network of independent distributors.