In short – I invested money in the logo and branding (and yes over the years I now need a tweak or two) but the agencies I’ve had contact with have not gained my trust, so I’m left in limbo unable to spend money and re-create my online presence.

I can see how others “don’t care” or “just want it simple” due to the nonsense a lot of design/web agencies are pushing and the over selling of product/services that are just fabricated.

The best way I’ve found to convey the value of branding is to put it in the context of potential revenue (both lost and gained )- the client probably doesn’t understand the branding process but they do understand money, so much so that they tend to focus on the outgoing cost of the branding at first, and nothing else.

Show the client two adverts for a fictional product/company, identical in every way except for the branding. Ensure that one advert is professionally branded and the other looks like it’s been done on the cheap. Ask them which product/company they would instinctively choose to spend their money on/with, given that everything else is equal. Encourage them to take the examples away with them, show it to their family & friends and ask them the same question, but before they leave really drive it home that for each person who chooses the ‘branded’ company, it’s a lost sale for the ‘non-branded’ company. Which company do they want to be?

I think that for many customers branding is initially seen as little more than a few colour changes, a bit of text and maybe a graphic, but when they start to see it in terms of lost/gained revenue then they stop concentrating on the outgoing cost and start calculating the potential ROI.

I find 3G tethering is working very well – I only have 1 bill for data, and am yet to find a situation where I have my iPad but not my iPhone in my pocket.

I’ve certainly not found it inconvenient and If I was buying again, would do the same.