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design and marketing should be based on a battery of
surveys that establish accurately what a target market needs or
wants or will buy (marketing) and how it should best be presented
to achieve that (art direction and design).
If you get that right, or even reasonably
so, you will capture a brief moment of your prospective customer’s
attention, and the sales pitch can begin. But there’s a
flip side to this: if your designer doesn't know these essentials,
you could end up with something that is in fact detrimental to
sales. An example would be use of irrelevant "pretty pictures"
that, while they may even look a fitting part of a good design,
at first glance lead one to think the product is is something
other than
what it actually is. (This is written from the assumption that
you are using a professional design studio to
begin with.)
Design should have as it’s
direct and prime goal to contribute to sales. The selling
of a product or service begins within the first one or two seconds
a prospective customer views your promotional material. And one
can extend this to the company logo, business cards, letterheads
— even to the appearance of your staff, building or office.
The same principle applies to design for the Internet
or email marketing, with just a few modifiers.
When we design a web site, email promo or a Flash
animated project, the factors that guide our creativity are speed
of download, ease of navigation and visitor convenience. These,
along with the aesthetics in the design, are what make for a pleasing
online experience, something you definitely want your visitors
have. (Waiting an age for a business site's graphics to download,
then not knowing where to find what and having to scroll and scroll
and move back and forth does not inspire confidence.)
There is many an impressive web site on the Internet,
professionally designed and constructed, but not all
of even those have these key basic principles applied,
which can be costly if a competitor's site is more
user-friendly.
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corporate
identity
How important is it?
Your corporate
identity (click for
our portfolio) speaks volumes about you before a prospective
customer has even seen what you have to offer.
In truth it is no more than
a symbol of a group, a mark by which to recognise an identity.
It can imply a group cultutre or hint at the group's core
activity, but other that that it doesn't usually say much.
But don't treat it too lightly.
Ever gone to a restaurant and
were disappointed in the meal because you expected better?
Perhaps you expected better because someone had told you
the food was excellent, or maybe it was the logo in the
advert that made you think that. Or the well-designed
menus or the web site design. In other words, the image
implied by the design — not the text.
Of course you're not likely
to return to that restaurant and its never a good idea
to pretend your products or services are something they
aren't, but this illustrates the importance of an appropriate
corporate image. You've probably also been to restaurants
that exceeded your initial expectations, and they had
a rather poor image presented in design elements.
There's just too much competition
today to not pay attention to this, the face you wear
in the marketing of your business. It is the very first
measure of your standard of professionalism.
Don't think your customers
are unaware of it.
Contact us now for a
free
cost estimate
View our corporate
identity portfolio.
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