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Issue 8iNovember 2004 |
ESA Marketing & Graphic Matter, Inc. sharing insights and methods. |
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in this issue
Marketing Matters: Achieving Success through Communications Design Matters: Fundamentals of Logo Design recommended resources
Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World
by Shel Horowitz
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Marketing Matters: Achieving Success through Communications
Whether you are communicating verbally or in print, it is important to plan for SUCCESS. From designing your logo to presenting a project proposal, how you look, what you say, and how you say it, visually and verbally, speaks volumes about your credibility.
SUCCESS Works Face to Face in prospecting, presentations, negotiations Stand Up - Standing is a “power” position. State your objective. Know what you want to achieve; focus on it. Use Your Eyes - Be aware of the people around you. Observe the message in their body language. Control The Environment - Look; Listen; Know when to talk and when to be quiet.
Clarity
Is Essential - Communicate
clearly; don’t cloud the waters with double talk or too many details. Be
aware of what you are saying and how you sound. You need to make yourself
heard, listened to, understood, and remembered (positively). Enthusiasm Is Contagious - Set the mood. Exude passion and confidence. If you believe, so will they. Sell Yourself - Anyone including your competition and other sales people in your office can sell product/service. But people do business with people they know, like, respect. In other words, the client is buying a relationship with You! Speak Positively - Assume the Sale and ask for it. Avoid negative and weak phrases like “would like to; want to; hope; maybe; should; ought; supposed.” Instead use power phrases like “am going to; expect; will; need to; recommended that; our policy is.” SUCCESS Works With Printed Materials. Your logo, business card, ad, brochure, direct mail piece all speak for you in your absence. State Your Objective - Start with your logo and the image and identity you want to develop (see Logo Design Fundamentals). Know what the collateral piece is supposed to do – establish/reinforce your identity; deliver a message; initiate an action.
Use Your
Eyes - Look at it;
compare your piece to your competition’s. Concept and Copy (Control) - Concise copy and consistent concept take the reader through a process Clarity - Is the message and copy clear? Is your product or service obvious? Is your contact information easy to find? Did you include a call to action? Enthusiasm - Even technical and statistical information can be presented in an appealing attractive way to entice the reader to want to know more Sell Yourself - Credentials, testimonials, a guarantee are more important than your life story. “Tell me about yourself” does not mean your autobiography. Service Your Clients - Outstanding service, exceeding expectations, sets you apart and builds repeat sales and referrals. In other words, SUCCESS.
Design Matters:
As you start down the road to SUCCESS, start with a LOGO. While many businesses with some computer literacy, especially new entrepreneurs, consider designing their logo themselves, this is not the best way to save money or time. There are many areas to cut costs; this isn’t one of them. Even though a well designed logo can look deceivingly simple, there are many factors to consider that make do-it-yourself-designing deceptively difficult and subject to problems or added expenses down the road. Key factors in logo design are Adaptability, Image and Identity. Your logo needs to be adaptable in any possible situation. It needs to work equally well in § Black and white, grayscale, or full color § Printing high quality commercial offset for your brochures et. al; or low quality printing such as newspapers and yellow pages § Web site, email, and HTML files § Television and Video presentations § Embroidery or silk-screening on cloth § Large on a banner, sign, or billboard; or small on a business card, pen, magnet Smart Design & Technical Specifications for your Logo Logo design is part art, part science. It’s important to design with forethought for printing requirements and usage constraints. Professional graphic designers think aesthetics as well as technical constraints. § Line art – A vector-based application (like Adobe Illustrator) will always be high-resolution. If you incorporate a photographic image into your logo this will make resolution and image quality an on-going issue every time you print. § Hard edges – Soft edge shadows or gradients can be used in Adobe Illustrator, but verify that your logo does not fade to white at the edge. A fade-to-white dictates that the logo MUST always appear on a white background. A logo with a hard edge design can be printed on other background colors (as when it sits on top of a photograph). § Tight registration – When colors touch, printing costs can increase to make sure that a white gap doesn’t leaks through where the two colors meet. § Clip art and stock images – Your logo should uniquely identify your company. While clip art and many stock images are free, you don’t want to see a competitor with the same logo as you. Or worse, see the image portrayed somewhere negatively. § Appropriate software – A logo created in a Microsoft product will not translate well for most commercial printing purposes. § Appropriate scale - Your logo should work equally well on a standard business card 2” x 3.5” or 8’x10’ billboard. § Fonts – Have a copy of your logo font. Note, many fonts do not work cross-platform; that is; a window true type (TT) font may not work on a Macintosh system. Most printers use Macintosh computers. § PMS colors – Most designers and printers use the internationally recognized Pantone Color Matching System. Knowing your color numbers will help you maintain consistency when ordering marketing materials. When you hire a designer . . . The visual design is only half the equation; technical construction and customer service are just as important. Logo File Formats – Once designed, the logo needs to be converted into several file formats for use in applications for Web site, HTML, Commercial Offset Printing, PC/Windows, and Macintosh. Have your logo created in each appropriate format and in both color and grayscale. Ask the designer to create a logo guideline to explain how to use the files they have given you. This will save your company countless hours and dollars in later production needs. For detailed instructions on Logo and Image conversion guidelines, visit our web site and download this article. Digital Files - Obtain a digital copy of all the working files in the native software applications, not just a PDF or quark file. This will maximize your ability to edit and reuse these files in the future. You never know when you will need to make small adaptations to your logo (i.e. change an LLC to an INC.)
Copyright and License – When contracting a designer, understand who owns the copyrights and/or license to use your logo or any other pieces created for you. Verify your rights to use the logo for all promotional purposes, for an unlimited amount of time, internationally, without limitation and exclusively. Understand that your designer will retain the rights to present this logo in his/her portfolio and to be identified as the designer unless this is specifically stated in your agreement. This is normal. Would you hire a designer that couldn’t show you samples?
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