Brand Champion of the Day-Christine Prado, Patron of Idea Paint, Art Director, Clemson University, President, UCDA

A few years ago I had the pleasure of presenting a brand strategy workshop at a UCDA conference in Toronto. One of the participants in that session was Christine Prado, Art Director at Clemson University. During that session I got to know Christine and have been impressed with the work she does at Clemson ever since. Her leadership skills have now landed her as the President of UCDA. One of my favorite organizations on the planet, by the way. Today, Christine takes time out of her busy schedule to share her views on what it means to be a brand champion for one of her favorite brands, Idea Paint.

 

"I was looking for a solution to painting our basement rec room after moving earlier this summer. The room needed to be a place to unwind and have fun, but chalkboard paint would be far too dusty. For fun, I googled dry erase paint. Ideapaint.com popped up. It was a beautiful site, with clear instructions and thoughts about how it could be used.

"The cost of the paint is breathtaking. Take a gallon of premium paint you’d buy at your local hardware store, make it a quart and add a zero to it. Still, the site made the paint look so much fun that I couldn’t resist. I ordered two quarts. Immediately, I got an auto-response. But this was not your ordinary auto-response. Instead of coming from customerservice@ideapaint.com or donotreply@ideapaint.com or any of the ordinary places, it came from awesomeness@ideapaint.com. I felt brilliant for ordering it.

"Several days later, all with appropriate email updates from Idea Paint, I got my package. It came in two beautifully designed boxes. I was to open a can of 'this' with the enclosed paint opening key that you’d pay $3 for at your local hardware story, pour that into a can of 'that', stir with the marked 'stick.' All this was to happen only after following the prescribed directions, printed on clearly worded instructions that turned into a poster you could hang up, warning you to let the paint cure before you attempted to draw on it.

"I put the paint up immediately, having done all the prep work prior to receiving the paint. Several days later, I got an email from a personal representative of Idea Paint. He sent me the directions again, along with video instructions on applying the paint. I responded that I had already completed the work and it seemed to be just fine and included a few shots. He wrote back, saying it looked great.

"I’m just blown away by the personal touch and the well-thought out design of the whole product. And I can’t wait to draw on it. A few more days and we can dig in."

Christine Prado

Art Director, Clemson University

President, UCDA

Christine, thanks so much for sharing your experience. Today you and Idea Paint are the Brand Champions of the Day!

Rex Whisman

BrandED Consultants Group

Comments

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