The Origins of AUC's Logo

Progression of AUC's logo design

The company's logo is drastically different now to how it was initially.

In the initial design, the logo colours were green and silver, which was mainly associated to the company's technological side at the time. A bit of a cliché, I know, but it was the colour that had that close association to technology.

The initial design had a three tier concept to illustrate depth in the services that mainly were, Consulting, Service and After-Care. The radial, star burst effect was to add a futuristic design and to give a feel of new age.

With a design like this however, reproduction was an issue. Printing was limited to digital machines and I felt it was a typical local design, nothing worthy of any international stage.

The second logo design came after outsourcing it from an associate company. It was very clean, able to reproduce in screen and digital printing yet still retained the three tier concept. This also matched up nicely with the addition of design to the existing services; information technology and marketing (a pattern with the number three begins to emerge).

This was reflected also in the type of service that was being provided where a holistic approach to analysis was being done; from the company, employee and customer points of view.

The current design is a reflection of the reconstruction of the business with the main focus was on relationship marketing. I chose colours that were a reflection of myself and what I wanted the company to be associated with.

A light shade of orange was used to express vitality and endurance, that no matter what obstacles that may come my way, the service will never falter. Red was selected to demonstrate courage and confidence and the strength to stand out against the plain and the traditional.

To create calmness amongst such vibrant colours, I used a dark shade of grey, adding a bit of neutrality to the logo, yet applied in such a way to create movement.

Though for the time, I am quite contempt with the design, I am certain that as the company progresses and evolves so too would the logo.

History behind the Name Part 2

AUC was formed in 2010 and was initially focused on information technologies such as database design and networking systems with undertones of relationship marketing.

Quite a reverse in thinking just a year later, the reason being as I more looked into database applications for businesses the more I realised that creating data gathering systems had little benefit if there were issues to deal with current systems or proper processes to handle the new systems.

This required a restructuring of the AUC's direction and required much more out of myself to be able to meet these goals. So I decided to focus the services mainly on my marketing skills and where needed suggest information technology applications.

I wanted people to be comfortable asking for assistance like my colleagues and friends were when they needed my insight. I also have the aspiration of growing this company into more than just myself, so with some brainstorming with some friends, the name ASK Us Consultants was chosen.

The tag line "if you are going to ask, why not ASK Us" was a nice way of having a personal open approach to the business style. There is no harm is asking for help and I wanted that to be understood to all our potential clients.

History behind the Name Part 1

This is the first of what I hope to be of many publications of AUC. If you haven't been to my website, AUC stands for Ask Us Consultants, a Trinidad-based consultancy with a focus on Relationship Marketing and its intricacies within the world or business and information technology. 

Simply put, its about helping you better understand your clients and applying that information to successful campaigns and business processes. 

This company started off as an idea, with the dream of becoming one of the regions well-known and well-established marketing consultancy firms. I've even  had dreams of it becoming even an institution for learning about effective marketing and customer service; let's see what happens in 5 years.

This idea came into being after working two years within a company that major strength was in its customer service. What I realised was that simple things that we do with our clients and customers have trickle down effects in how they perceive us and how it affects the relationship when problems arise.

Added, by providing exceptional service from the beginning of any new relationship and providing following up and follow through on transactions helps reduce the possibility of errors in their orders or the customers having a poor experience. 

Those two years were not my first in the service field, from my first job as a clerical officer in the insurance industry to then has always been about meeting the needs of the customer. I've been given letters, gifts, even poems from some of my customers about the extra distance I've gone to meet their needs.  

Seeing the low degree of quality customer service within Trinidad is what inspired me to share my growing knowledge and experiences by forming this company, Ask Us Consultants. I want every company no matter size, industry or clientèle, to be the best the can be through the service that they offer.

As a personal objective, I want the stigma of "no such thing as Customer Service in Trinidad" to be none existent. Quite a tall order for one person, but with progression comes growth. I am hopeful my full dream will become reality.