There are many ways a company can promote its brand. Some of the more obvious touchpoints are dealing directly with a company salesperson, classic advertising and social media. But there may be over a hundred such touchpoints for each enterprise and some of these may be much more relevant and subtle than others. A touchpoint is “all of the different ways that your brand interacts with and makes an impression on customers, employees and other stakeholders.”¹

We firmly believe each touchpoint plays a critical role in a brand’s ongoing evolution regardless of its relation to the company product or service. It has the power to build or break trust in that brand – as such we like to refer to them as “Trustpoints“.

Earlier this year we conducted a survey of a select group of industry experts and senior marketing executives within service-based companies and asked them about Trustpoints, what they think about them and whether they use them in building and evaluating their brand platform. Our conclusion have been published in the following whitepaper entitled: Trustpoint Dynamics. The results give a better understanding of where their companies use or mis-use Trustpoints within 5 specific marketing channels. The paper contains both quantitative data as well as qualitative insights. A must-read for anyone interested in understanding how understanding touchpoints can drive focus into your branding initiatives.

My gripe is more about the name Marineland and the brand promise that goes along with the name. I expect this center to be the experts in marine life. Instead, the majority of their effort went into rides and a petting cage for deer (I confess I have never seen deer whilst scuba-diving).

In their defense, I did get some clarification only after asking the obvious questions to one of the trainers. Apparently they are working on an actual acquarium to be opened who-knows-when. Meanwhile, I spent well over $100 bucks there and managed to get precious little new knowledge out of my experience – I now know that my daughter loves roller-coasters! Even though my wife was suckered into buying season’s passes, I won’t go back until their offering is a little more in line with what they claim to be.