Lately, I’ve been noticing more and more businesses and organisations using acronyms in place of their full brand name. As an advocate for brevity, I’m all for keeping things simple.

However, by using an acronym, are we really simplifying and making communication easier, or is it in fact creating even more confusion?

In today’s noisy digital marketplace, everyone seems to be on a quest to increase their visibility. Post more on social media. Pay more for online ads. Get a bigger sign. And rightly so. It makes sense to conclude that “the more people who can see my business, the more people who will buy”.

While that may be the case in some instances, it isn’t always a hard and fast rule. You can still have high visibility, but low engagement.

As history tells us, Disneyland was indeed a success in 1955 and still is to this very day. But Walt didn’t know that at the time. His sharing of the process (the good, the bad and the ugly) took courage and conviction. After all, if he didn’t believe in his idea, why would anyone else?

If you’ve got a dream or goal you’d like to achieve this year, share it. Talk about. Document the process. Believe in yourself with the same courage and conviction that Walt had.

Whenever I’m talking with clients to plan their brand photoshoots, many of them ask “do I need to get my hair and makeup done? I don’t normally wear makeup.” My answer is always yes! Not because I think women need to cover themselves up or hide who they are, but because you’ll be on camera with the specific goal of elevating your brand to represent your business, and that requires some additional attention to detail by people with experience.

It can be so frustrating spending hours on your marketing campaigns, only to hear crickets! You have an amazing product and a stellar service offering! So why aren’t more people seeing your posts and engaging with your offer?

By using your visual communication effectively to make it as easy as possible to understand your brand story, you’ll remove any unnecessary barriers that would othewise stop people from taking action on your message….

I do love a fun cocktail on my birthday. Although I could very easily (and more affordably) pay $5 for a beer or a soda served in a can, I choose to pay four times the price for a fancy cocktail. Both are drinks. Both refresh my thirst. So why am I, and many other people, happy to pay so much more for a cocktail, or even a mocktail, when both are fundamentally the same thing?