Every morning, I drive my daughter to school. Well, more correctly, she drives and I ride because she has a learner’s permit. And every morning, we pass by a housing development that is one house, a piece of gutted farmland and this sign that appears to the left.
The developer needed a sign and needed it high off the road. So he did what any good builder (but bad brand manager) did and made a big pile of dirt and put the sign on this big pile. On a conscious level, I know that it is a sign on a pile of dirt. But on a subconscious level, I can’t help but see a freshly dug grave with a headstone.
Morbid? Probably. But even as I KNOW it is just a sign, my subconscious mind keep making references to a grave site.. and the inevitable jokes about the housing market, where good homes go to die, and a whole lot of other tasteless jokes that probably are not really appropriate.
Our advice: Take an objective look at the signs, tents, displays, posters, flyers, mailers and yes, even your web site. Do you see any grave markers? Sometimes they are not so obvious to spot because you, like the home builder, just had a problem that needed a quick solution. When you find them (and you will) replace them with signs that are more in line with your tournament brand.