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Blog posts tagged branding
Is your design losing you business?
November 24, 2010
Most of us realise that great design can win us more business. And many of us invest in professional graphic design for our brochures, leaflets and website.
But what about the rest? What about that PowerPoint presentation you send to clients? How about leaflets you take to networking events? What about the checklist for businesses you’ve uploaded to your website?
If we accept that great design will engage, inspire and build trust with your customers (existing and prospective), what effect do you think bad design will have? You probably don’t need me to spell it out…
Many businesses design things in house. Even marketing executives at big blue chips design some pieces of collateral. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It can save time and money. But it’s those bits of collateral – your leaflet, your PowerPoint, your case studies or your self-designed blog – that can undermine your professionalism.
The bad news is that usually people don’t realise there is anything wrong with their designs. Oversized logos compete with standard colours and standard fonts to create a look that jars with all your well-produced work. The result? Your clients are confused and lack conviction in you.
It’s unrealistic to expect you to use a graphic designer for every piece of communication you produce, but you can learn some simple graphic design rules that you can apply to everything you do. And you can reduce the gap between the professionally produced stuff and your own stuff.
Do a bit of research into what makes design work. Read magazines, books (Robyn Williams’ The Non-Designer’s Design Book is excellent) and learn important from designs that inspire you. You can also find advice here on the Donut sites, too, of course.
Fiona Humberstone, Flourish design & marketing
Why passion is not enough
November 10, 2010
We often start our businesses because of a deep-seated passion for what we do. Perhaps we have a flair for something and we want to spend all of our time doing it. Maybe we want to turn a hobby into a business – perhaps we just want to do what we do best.
I have a lot of respect for people who follow their passions. When you bring a passion for what you do together with a flair for business, you have a winning formula.
The challenge is getting that flair for business into the mix.
I’ve spoken to two brand new clients recently. Both have more than 20 years’ experience in their respective fields and have a real passion for what they do, but they haven’t thought clearly about how customers fall into the mix.
Business owner number two – let’s call him Jeff – is an expert in his field. He works in a niche, scientific market but his service could be sold to anyone – domestic or commercial. He called my company for help with designing an advert for a school magazine. The trouble was, he hadn’t thought through how the parents at school would benefit from his service. He certainly hadn’t thought through why they should care about his business.
Jeff was blinded by his passion. So passionate was he that everyone should use his service, he’d failed to see it from his customers’ point of view.
You may believe in your product or service, you may have scientific evidence to back it up. But unless you can convince your customers they need or want you, you’re on a hiding to nothing. You’ve got to sell your business in a way that your customers can feel it in their gut. They need to understand exactly why they need you (ask yourself – so what? why should my customers care?) and what the cost of doing nothing is.
It’s hardly surprising that Jeff’s business is struggling. He needs to define a clear brand strategy for his business; he needs to work out who his most profitable clients are; and he needs to create a structured marketing plan that enables him to communicate effectively to them and get them to start buying. His passion alone isn’t enough.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been described as one of the most passionate business people in Surrey – on more than one occasion. I “get” the importance of running a business you’re passionate about. But passion alone isn’t enough. You’ve got to stay focused on your customers, because without them – you don’t have a business.
Fiona Humberstone, Flourish design & marketing
10 important steps to take when you’re setting up an online shop
August 03, 2010
There are millions of online shops, and whether they’re selling clothes, books, tools, gifts, homeware or camping equipment they all had to take the first steps towards getting their store online.
Setting up an e-commerce shop might seem daunting, but by reading these tips and following them up you can make the process smooth and hassle free.
1 Decide on a name for your shop and buy your domain name
It should be memorable and not too long. You can buy domains at Go Daddy, 1 & 1 Internet and Easyspace plus hundreds of other sites. Make a note of your username and password – this is essential as your web developer will need these details.
You could also look into buying domains that are related to the products you're selling and then point them towards your primary domain.
2 Talk to your bank about setting up an Internet Merchant account
You can then link this to SagePay and/or Streamline (secure card payment service). This can take time, so it's best to start the process early.
3 Work out your budget
This is crucial as it will help you focus on what you actually need at the moment and what would be nice to implement in the future. It will also help you choose who will build it (see point 5). Be realistic and remember that the more you invest in your new website at this stage, the less time and money you'll have to spend in the future developing the site.
4 Think about the branding, pages, content and functionality you’ll want
This will enable you to give a clear brief to your potential design agencies. It’ll also save time in the long run if you have a clear picture in your mind of what you’re aiming for.
5 Start researching web design providers - both agencies and freelancers
Look at e-commerce websites that you like and find out who built them or search online for agencies that can help. If you can look at testimonials from their customers or even speak to people who’ve used their services, you’ll be able to make a decision on who you feel most comfortable with.
6 Prepare your product list and images
You’ll probably find that this takes most of your time. Your web designers will give you advice on what they need from you, but if you want to get a head start you can create the product list on an Excel spreadsheet. The column headings would be along these lines (depending on what you will be retailing):
- Unique product code
- Category
- Sub category (if applicable)
- Product name
- Image file name (this should be the exact file name for the relevant main image – e.g. “rolling-stones-tshirt-lips.jpg” or it could be labelled by the product ID code, e.g. “100233.jpg”
- Product description (remember to make it informative and use your keywords for the search engines)
- Sizes available
- Colour
- Price
- In stock (1) or out of stock (0)
- Quantity in stock
7 Prepare your images
PLEASE don’t snap away with that disposable camera you stole from a wedding two years ago! There’s nothing worse than seeing a well-designed website with poor, fuzzy pictures. You may already have professional photographs from the manufacturer or you may need to book a photographer. The crucial point here is that your images must be crisp and clear.
Label them well and file them in an organised way so they will be easy to find and sift through as and when needed. Your web design provider may need to crop, cut out or alter the images for your new website and the better the quality of the photographs, the easier and more effective this will be.
8 Make sure you’re completely happy with the visuals from your website designer
Any tweaks to colours, layout, typefaces, etc should be requested now as it would be very difficult (and expensive) to change these further down the line.
You would be wise to steer clear of anything that's too "of the moment" and fashionable when it comes to design and colour - this will date very quickly. Neutral tones will ensure your website remains a contemporary classic and it will need little future investment when it comes to design.
9 While your website is being built, make yourself available for any queries from the web developer
The faster you can come back with the answers, the sooner your website will be ready to launch.
You’ll also need to test, test, test. Think of every possible scenario, try out the payment system and ask your friends to do the same. Their comments will be invaluable as you don’t want your customers to come across too many glitches in the system. There are bound to be a few teething problems and the aim here is to reduce them as much as possible before you launch to the general public.
- Is all text free from spelling errors?
- Has content been placed consistently?
- Have enquiry or shopping cart forms been tested and processed correctly?
- Have the compulsory question and answer fields been tested?
- Do your enquiry and order forms send to the correct recipient?
- Has your website been fully optimised for search engines?
- Does your website display correctly on all browsers
- Is your Web Statistics package (e.g. Google Analytics) installed and operational?
10 Launch date!
Tell as many people as possible about your new website. If you already have a customer database, send them an email to let them know that their shopping experience is about to improve beyond measure.
If you have a Facebook account, set up a business page too and invite all your friends to “like” it. Join Twitter to promote your website and try out using Google AdWords if you have the budget.
Check that your web design providers have submitted your site to Google, and register with as many relevant online directories as possible such as FreeIndex and let the universe know about your new site. Make sure your web address is on all your stationery and business cards, and make good use of them.
Alex Astell of Manage My Website
Would you put this in your shopping basket?
June 07, 2010
In the latest of our weekly blog posts from Marcela of Rico Mexican Kitchen, she'd like to hear your feedback on her new packaging.
I’d like to ask for your thoughts on branding and what messages the packaging is communicating and their appeal to you as consumers.
On the left hand side of the label, there is a stamp which reads “2 of your 5-a-day”. On the back of the label there is information about ways to use the product. We really want to communicate our passion for authenticity, healthy food, provenance and ethically sourced ingredients. We work with local growers and co-operatives in Mexico, but we don’t want to saturate the packaging with loads of writing!
Do you have any thoughts to share with Marcela? Add them to the comments section below.
You can find out more about Marcela on the interactive business website www.inafishbowl.com
Logo finished – what’s next?
March 23, 2010
Those of you that have been following the trials and tribulations of the development of a logo for Flourish, my new branding, graphic design and marketing services business, on this and my own blog know how much hard work we put into getting it right.
And those of you that can read between the lines probably know how much I wanted to just put the finished logo in a box and forget about it. Designing your own logo feels a little like childbirth – you’re pleased with the end result but you wouldn’t want to go through it again. Of course, most of us do forget the pain and go back for more!
So I chuckled to myself when a friend emailed me and asked: “Great, I see your logo’s done. What next?”
“Well where do I start?” I typed back. “Erm… the stationery, business cards, website design, exhibition stands, brand manual, email signatures, folder, postcards, ‘leave behind brochure’… I could go on, but you get the picture”.
Designing a logo is just the start of it. The impact comes from everything we do around the logo, the identity we build and the image we create.
Most small business owners will invest in having a logo designed, but they often don’t see through the whole process. They take the logo and throw together their own stationery, “knock out” some leaflets or take up that offer from a friend to design their website.
Their brand identity doesn’t reach its full potential and they miss the opportunity to create the best impression. At worst, the homemade designs undermine all the hard work they’ve invested and that hard-worked-for impression goes by the wayside.
It’s only by designing several pieces of marketing literature, perhaps a website or some stationery as well, that you can build up a true picture of what fonts, colours, imagery and illustration styles really work for your identity.
We’ve test-driven several fonts and illustration styles before we’ve settled on the ones we’re using. Why? Simply because, when you put them into practice you find some don’t work as well as you’d hoped.
And I’ve found that my “extra stuff” – the fonts, quirky illustrations and the photos we’ve used – are what I love more than the logo itself. It’s the “heart” stuff, the magic, which blends so well with the sensible “head” decision of my logo. But you can’t have one without the other.
So if you can afford it, you should definitely have your logo designed by a professional. But from experience, I’d also strongly recommend you set aside some budget for developing the whole identity. It will make such a difference in the long run.
Fiona Humberstone, Flourish design & marketing
Personal Branding
March 16, 2010
Personal branding is how you project yourself to the world, how you create and maintain your image and identity. Your brand is just as much about your profession, business and career as your background, what type of person you are, your interests and any interesting facts.
Personal branding is what you do, what you are and above all – what you can do for others. Having a meeting, making a phone call, sending an email are all activities where you get the opportunity to demonstrate your personal brand. Offline and online, you only get a few seconds to make a first impression, so you must get it right.
Do you need a personal brand?
You already have one. You need to make sure it projects what you want it to by staying consistent or – better still – continuous improvement. You must take control of your personal brand because it can help your business to get noticed. It will help you to be seen by current and prospective clients, business partners, employers and so forth. You want people to remember who you are and what you do.
People buy from people – not businesses. Unless you’re ordering a book online, you want to know the people behind the business. This is especially true in service and high-end sales environments, where customers only buy from credible sales people with strong brands. Blue chips are giving their managers personal branding training to turn them into better ambassadors for their employer. The trend is growing and personal branding will be part of everyone’s induction training one day.
Personal branding is extremely important to start-ups – possibly even more important. Customers buy from a few individuals – not really the business brand, which has to be developed over time anyway. Having people with strong personal brands working for a start-up basically means they lend their credibility to the business. Leveraging your employee’s personal brands is probably one of the most cost effective ways of marketing and promoting your business.
Where do you start?
If you want to boost your personal brand and get the maximum impact straight away, the Internet is the best place to start. It’s free and very simple to sign up for online networking sites, which are great tools for promoting your personal brand.
A typical professional will have a profile on Linkedin or Facebook, some will have lots of others. As long as you use and maintain your profile correctly, you’re on to a winner. Try Googling your name and see what happens. Prospective customers are likely to do this these days. Are you happy with what they will see? If you were a client, you would probably want to see a supplier with a professional profile on Linkedin and possibly other platforms.
If you can’t find yourself, you have a fair bit of work to do. You will also be cross-referenced on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, blogs and other sites to see that you are not simply putting on a ‘corporate act’. Make sure the brand you project is consistent and well positioned.
What are the ‘must-haves’?
Having a professional looking, well-written Linkedin profile will benefit many start-up owners. You should also have well-rehearsed elevator pitch that you can deliver at any time. I’d also recommend an online bio you can link to, as well as ‘clean’ and searchable profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and Google Profiles.
And the ‘nice to haves’?
‘Nice to haves’ include a personal avatar for commenting, a personal blog or website, your own Linkedin Group, your own domain name, a forum you own or moderate and published articles or blog posts.
Make sure you’re consistent with everything you communicate to the world. This includes everywhere you have an online presence. Consider whether prospective customers will be surprised or even disappointed when they meet you for the first time. You must be one and the same across all channels, then you will stand a better chance of coming across as genuine and trustworthy.
Share information about yourself, tell stories and inspire others. Add some personality to your brand – we all know it’s easier to sell on emotions than facts. When you think you are finished, anyone should be able to locate you online and find out what you do and what makes you special. If this isn’t the case – you need to put some more work in.
Jörgen Sundberg, Personal Branding UK
Good design sells. Fact.
March 03, 2010
Starting out in the big world of running your own business can be scary but also very exciting. We have come across a number of people setting up their business who don't invest time and effort into their logo, branding and marketing material. This may include business cards, letterheads, leaflets and even their website.
I will call this type of start up "The Hard Work and Cheap Joinery Company" (HWCJC for short). Often, what we hear is: "...Well, I have a mate who can knock me something up in Microsoft Word, using every colour in the rainbow and a font like 'Comic Sans'" or "my son who's at school has done it for me".
This will then be followed by a strict and detailed process as follows:
- The logo gets printed onto some card that is just thin enough to go through the printer for the business cards, but will add nice smudge marks to them.
- They are cut out by hand with blunt scissors.
- The Letterheads, to maintain a corporate identity, are printed onto 80gsm (toilet) paper. But hey, it's cheap.
Onto the website, which again, is to be handled by a mate who's good on the PC. First of all, he's purchased the following domain name:
www. freespacesomewhereinspace.com/my-new-business-setup-by-my-mate. (link does not work just to prove a point)
The site design is then handled by their "web-savvy" mate, who will maintain their corporate style with numerous colours, text saved as images (search engine friendly? No.) and META tags or keywords. The finished article will be placed into Google's top 1,000,000 results, just below "Betty's Ironing Service".
Then they start their business and wonder why they are not winning on quotes...
As a well known advert says "...there has to be a better way". This is what another person who understands the power of creativity would do. First of all, they would set a budget of let's say £500 to invest in their branding, letterheads, business cards and website.
Lets call this business "Cool Looking Joinery" (or, CLJ for short). CLJ will first of all meet up will with a creative and professional design company. Between them, they would work out who CLJ's customers are, what their target audience is, and what image and branding is needed to attract the right customers. After the initial meeting, the designer would come up with some great creative ideas, using the right colours, a quality font, relevant and appealing imagery. These would then be worked up into business cards and letterheads, linked together by a fresh and implemented corporate identity.
CLJ are very happy with the designs and then look at having them printed. The designer recommends printing the business cards on a high quality 400gsm board, in full colour, with the letterheads being produced on a 115gsm white bright paper stock which adds to the look and professional style.
The designer and the chap from CLJ progress onto the website and the options available to best suit their needs. As CLJ are joiners, all they need is to have good web presence as they don't need to sell direct to their client base. The designer recommends work on a small, 3 page web brochure, to be produced in the same corporate style as the printed material.
They get the right domain name in "www.coollookingjoinery.co.uk" which helps customers find CLJ. Then, the designer creates the site using relevant keywords and tags so that the little spiders from Google can find it in a heartbeat. Betty's Ironing isn't even on the same page.
Both CLJ and HWCJC get telephone calls from Mr and Mrs Needakitchen. They both go and have a look at the job, then go away and work out the quote.
Both CLJ and HWCJC are going to use the same kitchen units bought from a well known DIY chain, both will do it in the same time frame and both have the same basic quote price. The quotes arrive in the post. HWCJC's quote is printed on cheap paper, with a poor logo and a business card that looks like a dog's eaten it. CLJ's is printed on quality paper, is well designed and comes with a professional business card with the photographs reminding Mr and Mrs Needakitchen of the high class workmanship that CLJ have done before.
So, let's say you have the to quotes in front of you. One looks and feels professional, the other looks and feels poor. Which would you take?
We know which one the majority of us would go for.
So lets say for example the kitchen cost £10,000 an investment of say £500 in branding and professional material was an excellent return on investment. The key point that I am making is good design sells and is cost effective, bad design will eventually cost you money in lost sales.
Mike Handley, Graphic Reults
A version of this post originally appeared on the Graphic Results blog.
Five reasons you shouldn’t design your own logo
February 18, 2010
I feel very qualified to write this post at the moment. As the owner of a brand and marketing agency, I work with a lot of small business owners who are missing opportunities because their logo (and brand image as a whole) isn’t sending out the right signals.
And as someone who has just been client, creative director and designer (along with my other fabulous designers in the studio) for her own business, I can see things from the other side, too.
The fact is you really shouldn’t design your own logo. Here’s why.
1 You need outside perspective. Our clients tell us one of the most valuable things we bring to the table, aside from design, is the perspective we help them gain on their business. Working with a branding agency on your corporate identity forces you to think about the way your business is structured and who your most profitable clients really are. Working with someone who is not as close to your business provides a different – and important – perspective.
2 It’ll cost more than you think. You think design agencies get their design for free? Think again. I’ve spent thousands of pounds on developing the identity for Flourish, my new branding, graphic design and marketing services business. The staff cost and the opportunity cost of both my designers and I working on our own stuff rather than billable client work has been significant. And if you’re not a designer I recommend you focus on what you do best and let us get on with what we do best. More profitable all round – and the end result will be better.
3 Unless you’re a graphic designer, you’re unlikely choose the right fonts or colours. I’ve studied typography, colour psychology and logo design for years, as have my graphic designers. We understand how to evoke an emotion through a colour or a font.
4 You won’t add the creative flair your business deserves. Great logos have wow factor. Usually, they’re simple, but clever. And I don’t mean a Photoshop drop shadow (sooo nineties!) or a web 2.0 glassy reflection (oh so naughties!). I’m talking about a clever icon or creative treatment that will get your clients taking you seriously.
5 You’re too close to it. Being so involved in the design process makes it incredibly difficult to make objective decisions. In the end, the only way we broke through our creative block was for me to completely disassociate myself from the design and act as creative director only.
I see now why other design agencies commission someone else to design their logos. In the end, we managed to crack it ourselves and I have to say, I’m delighted with the end result. But if you’re not a graphic designer I urge you to invest in a professionally designed brand identity. It’ll be one of the best decisions you ever make.
Fiona Humberstone, Flourish design & marketing
Notes from a ‘board meeting’ (9/2/2010)
February 12, 2010
Ross (manager): “Welcome everyone, I trust you’re well. Item one: whether to invest in a company branded doormat.”
Ruth (marketing): “A company-branded mat will create a more welcoming entrance and make us look more professional.”
David (finance director; deep, gruff voice): “Make us look more professional? How exactly will a mat make us look more professional? Unless, of course, you intend the staff to wear it?”
Ruth (slightly squeakier now): “Professionalism is about the whole package, David.”
David: “How professional are we going to look when we go bust because you keep buying all this frivolous rubbish?”
Ruth (really squeaky): “If you don’t stop thinking like that, we’ll never go anywhere.”
Ross (calm, obviously): “Ok, David, can we actually afford the mat?”
David: “...........................(long pause)....................................... Er, yes”
Ross: “Ruth, do we need the extra gold tassels or will it still be fit for purpose if it’s bright pink and hardwearing?”
Ruth: “.......................(Not squeaky at all).................. Mmm… We don’t really need the tassels, no....”
Ross: “Right then, got there in the end, didn’t we? Let’s buy the mat.”
Of course, my company has but 10 staff, including me. We don’t have a boardroom or a marketing expert called Ruth or a finance director called David. I don’t know how other business owners make decisions, but when it comes to cost-benefit analysis, this type of things usually works for me.
Ross Campbell, The Exercise Club
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