This was funny I thought as today I had to go renew my driver’s license and the map showed the closest office was actually inside a mall. So I inputted the address as Google maps guided me to it. As I was in the mall and walking to it I thought I arrived as you could see what appeared to be a store with a lot of light blue signs with all these notes about vehicles. It looked exactly like the branding design of the driver’s license office. However, as I looked at the entrance there was a bunch of signs saying that the store was not the driver’s license office. Instead, it seemed like it sold car insurance. Literally, only about fifteen seconds away was the actual licensing office.
I was thinking how maybe they did that intentionally initially thinking since people associate specific colors and design with the licensing office that would mean more people would go to them for car related services. However, as evident with the sign they probably get a lot of confused people who simply want to do things such as updating an address where they have no intentions to buy anything. That would make you think, is branding yourself to look like an official source like this as an example a good idea?
Imagine being a restaurant where on the outside you make yourself look like a big company such as McDonald’s with your choice of color designs which you feel would attract more people who associate that with food. However, if you don’t sell things like burgers and fries that could just mean more people inquiring about those on your menu which you don’t have in which they just leave. People usually say you should try and stand out with your own identity. That may be wiser in the long run with these examples.