The Day the Sign Went Up

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I was going to college when I started at Geek Squad. The requirements for my degree involved taking a marketing class. As I worked my way up to being a full-fledged Agent, I was blown away by the Geek Squad brand and was struck by how much of it seemed to run counter to what the professor and marketing text book advised.

We didn’t have a phone number or our website address on our cars. Our uniforms were nothing like those of our competitors. Our business cards featured the tagline “We’ll Save Your Ass” – clearly not the kind of statement that usually appears on company-printed material. Still, we were the best of the best.

One other aspect of our corporate identity that ran counter to branding best practices was that we had no sign on our office on Washington Avenue on the edge of downtown Minneapolis. We did a lot of business in the office, with more than a dozen computers dropped off on any given day, and yet the only indication that Geek Squad operated out of this location was a small sign, maybe 12″ across, that hung in the door.

A year or so after I started, Robert announced that we finally had enough money for a real sign – a lighted sign, no less! It seemed like our little group of computer technicians was finally growing up.

A few weeks later, an alert went out to our Nextels that anyone who was available should head back to the office because the sign was going up. Most of the agents employed by the Geek Squad at the time gathered to watch our giant logo be hoisted and attached to the side of the building. Besides making our place of business easier to find for our clients, it was great to see the big, lit-up orange and black logo in our little corner of downtown. There were a lot of smiles.

I was there many years later when the sign came down and we left that location. I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a little sad. Fortunately, that sign now hangs in the main lobby at Geek Squad – sorry, I mean ‘Best Buy’ – headquarters. It brings back fond memories every time I walk by it.