The Chamber Chat held on the 7th October 2009 was once again a great success with around 40 people attending.

They heard from recent Birdman flier Vicky Vaughan, of the Brand Surgery, talking about branding and Andy Lake, of Aurora Promotions on the power of promotional items and their effective use.

Just a couple of the tips from Vicky included the need to value your brand as you do your business. Don’t be too clever with the name but get a good memory hook. Make sure you refresh it!

It’s not always the best thing to have Aunt Flo do the design as this will be how others see you. Choose your name carefully and make sure it tells people what you are?

Andy gave us food for thought with some interesting statistics:

•    92 per cent of people believe that promotional merchandise increase company brand awareness.
•    76 per cent of people can name a branded item on their desk.
•    82 per cent of people keep promotional items they are given.

Some very powerful figures to consider when looking at ways to promote your business. It’s surprising that the old favourites are still within the top three – pens, calendars and mouse mats.

Tony Hedger won the business card draw for a bottle of bubbly but just to prove the power of suggestion through branding he was surprised, if not a little disappointed, when he received a bottle of bubble bath!

Chaired in her usual informal and upbeat style by our chief executive officer Tina Tilley, the evening was capped off with a delicious array of food courtesy of The Liming Restaurant. So, if you haven’t been to the Liming recently we certainly enjoyed the experience and can recommend it.

The mini workshops are proving to be a huge success, are there any topics you would like to see us cover or do you have a workshop you could run for us? If so please contact us at info@worthingandadurchamber.co.uk