What’s in a nametag after all?

Getting the name tag right is the linchpin of a successful conference.

As another conference season gets underway and event planners go through their checklist of important things to take care of, I suspect, somewhere at the bottom of their list lies the chore of printing the lowly nametag.

The purpose of the time, money and effort of going to a conference ranges from the nostalgic college-time pursuit of pub crawls to the pursuit of learning about new products and continuing education credits. Across these various goals the common thread remains the human connections, that get choreographed and managed by how an event is structured.

There are conferences where the human connection is designed to be casual and not professional. You walk away having met seven Timothy’s and five Tammy’s, not knowing who's who or what role they play in the industry. In the theater that is a business conference, what’s missing is a simple way to learn about someone you meet, learn about their industry experience, and leave with an exchange of new knowledge, a new business lead or a new opportunity. Personal identities and stories are how one makes friends in an industry. It is how one gets known in an industry.

That is why the lowly nametag is not to be taken lightly. Until AR glasses become the norm, where someone you meet is instantly identified by your eyeglasses, the name tag is key. The current trend of name tags showing only the first name in large font is useless except for the barista at the café to announce that your order is ready. Effective networking requires learning about a stranger quickly and getting down to business.

Avoid excessive white space on a conference badge. The tiny real estate on a badge is like a billboard you pass by at 30 miles an hour. It must give a snapshot of who the person is in the context of the industry so that attendees can network judiciously. Less time trying to figure out if we can help each other, and more time helping each other. Conference badges that make me scan a QR code to drop a contact into my phone should be more thoughtfully designed to add context, so I can identify whom I met at which conference. Last, but not the least, the conference badge must be printed on the back and front so that no matter which way it dangles, the attendee’s identity isn’t hidden.

In a world of AI agents, in-person events are the last sanctuary for human connections in business settings. The only way to preserve the sanctity of that human interaction is to have nametags that tell a conference delegate’s story – at a mere glance. 

Imposter Packaging

Personal care product packaging that evokes emotions associated with popular foods and beverages may not hold water.

You reach for those bars of soap and sniff on them, and they remind you of your favorite foods – enough to want to take a bite. There are liquid soaps filled in cartons which at a glance look like fruit juices. I recently spotted a brand of shaving cream labeled as ‘Coffee Shaving Cream’ that is probably trying to find appeal among the caffeinated.

It’s the real-world equivalent of click-bait, gimmicks in the appearance and other sensory aspects of a product such as fragrances, shapes and colors. While they might catch one’s eye in a store, they risk not being taken seriously. They also may be an accident away from being abandoned or becoming a legal or public relations nightmare, no matter what the fine print on the package says.

What can marketers learn from such imposter packaging? There are probably many unwritten commonsense rules in product differentiation through packaging and their sensory experience. Let us consider a few.

1. If a product that’s not meant for ingesting can be mistakenly consumed as a drink or food item because of its packaging, placement or appearance on a retail store shelf, tell your designers to not go there with their design. The color of liquids in clear bottles is equally important – absolutely do not make it look like a popular drink, and hope that your customer is not color-blind.

1. Do not assume that all your customers will read and understand labels on your clever packaging. Task your designer to come up with graphics, signs and symbols to communicate warnings or usage instructions on the packaging. Run your designs by children – they have a refreshing way of looking at the world without biases. Show the design to the elderly; they have seen too much of the world. Find a happy medium between those two opinions.

1. If you want to differentiate your product, create a unique design for your packaging that becomes your brand’s signature. Do not cut corners by using milk cartons to package soaps, chemicals and oil-based products. Not only is that deceptive to the customer of a soap, but also disappointing for the connoisseur of milk or juices.

1. One way to differentiate your packaging is to make it easy to be opened by arthritic customers with perhaps a self-contained opening tool, and child-proofed where needed.

1. Make art that doubles as packaging so customers will covet it. Make it reusable for multiple purposes so that empty packages do not end up in landfills. Give your packaging a life beyond the expiration of the product it carries and your return on branding investment will improve dramatically.

If you are in the business of selling non-food products that smell like popular foods, consider adding a warning label for your customers: “This product may cause hunger pangs in those you meet. For best outcomes, avoid meetings before lunch hour.”