Think About It

My husband and I were traveling in the wee hours of the morning through Dayton, Ohio on Christmas Eve when we realized we weren’t going to make it to Detroit without one of us falling asleep at the wheel. It was 4:00 in the morning so for safety reasons we took the next exit determined to get a motel room to rest.

We had three choices: A Motel 6, Knights Inn and a Red Roof Inn. The Motel 6 was on the opposite side of the road and down a ways so our options became Knights Inn or Red Roof Inn. After looking at both their marks I said to Jim, “I  gravitate toward the Red Roof Inn for some reason.” He agreed and said, “Yea, it looks like Knights Inn hasn’t updated their purple and white logo since the 1960s.” I quickly added that if they hadn’t bothered to update their logo in 40 years I wondered what else they haven’t changed. We didn’t have to sleep on it… right then and there our decision was made, solely based on the revised look of a brand mark.

This trip confirms my belief in the importance of a service or hospitality industries brand mark, especially in it’s most critical application: the big, high sign you see from a distance — before you even see the building, experience their customer service or see a room.

We had no problems sleeping.