See and use the right size

I didn't think I would get three different blogs posts from attending one event this past weekend, but ideas keep coming to me long after I have returned home from the event.

Early in the event as people were just mingling around trying to remember names to go with the faces they were seeing, their gaze would wander down to the nicely produced name tags that people were wearing. Given this was a 30th reunion, the eyes trying to read the name tags were not as sharp as they used to be. Pretty soon the jokes about the size of the print on the name tags started flowing around the room.

Later in the evening, the DJ made an announcement that a professional photographer was at the event and was setting up to take pictures of the events attendees. Soon folks started wandering around putting copies of order forms onto the various tables where people were sitting. The order form had several packages listed with each of the packages including at least one 8 x 10 print. Now I am sure the photographer was a fine photographer, but in today's world with almost as many digital cameras as people at the event, most people just took their own pictures in their own groupings. I was not privy to how many sales the photographer made, but the large number of blank order forms left in the room and the number of pictures posted to Facebook after the event tells me he probably didn't sell too many packages.

In both the name tags and the photographers case not understanding the audience and the technology culture we live in today caused results that surely were not what the event's organizers had in mind.

The name tags could have just as easily been printed with larger type and the photographer could have offered to sell digital copies, but neither alternative was offered.

Is your business seeing the right options and choosing the right size for its products and services. I know most of us can't wait 5 years for the next reunion to figure it all out.