Can packaging turn your customers off?

The Friday business profile in the Reading Evening Post is an excellent opportunity for small businesses to get some free PR. This week a couple who sell special fruit juices have taken the slot. Everything sounds wonderful (and probably tastes that way too) until I looked at their packaging.

I honestly couldn’t tell these cartons contained fruit juice - they looked more like men’s toiletries (shower gel and shaving cream) or – worse – something out of the back room of Ann Summers. The majority sported black backgrounds (with a couple of white ones) with a swirly motif that is reminiscent to the patterns made by swinging those fluorescent rings around that you buy at Guy Fawkes night.

How do these designs relate to fruit? OK, they probably wanted something that stood out from the rest of the fruit drinks, so a design with large images of the fruit in question wouldn’t have caught any customer’s eye. But a black background does not suggest something edible (or drinkable), unless you want to smear it all over your body…

Another look does reveal a description of the flavours on the front, which is the only saving grace it has to suggest it’s a drink. I may not be a brandist, but attractive, edible colours adapted from large, mouth-watering images or using a clever twist with the font from the descriptive words and the fruit colour in question would be much more conducive to achieving a sale.

The moral? Don’t disguise your product, or dress it up so it’s unrecognisable. Blatant, in-your-face designs which say exactly what’s on the tin have always succeeded in the past, with good reason. And keep them clear, concise and uncluttered - overuse of fancy designs can easily obscure your message.

Facing up to Christmas too!

As a continuation of my last blog regarding portraits on business cards, I’ve just read a blog which suggests including your portrait on Christmas cards so that the recipients remember who it is from, considering how many other cards they will receive at that time of year. And to save it becoming fodder for the paper-recycling box, include another item as an aide memoire or provide an action so they contact your company in the New Year.

Facing up to networking

Has anybody thought about putting a small portrait of themselves on their business card? Three reasons why came to mind: 1) so the recipient of your card wouldn’t have to rack their brains to remember what face was associated with this card after a networking meeting, 2) if you were arranging a meeting to, say, discuss a particular project or tout your new product, the other party would know who to look out for across a large hotel foyer or busy coffee shop, preventing the red carnation scenario, and 3) if someone wants to telephone or email you, having your image in front of them can help making that initial contact all that much easier…

Does anybody else have another reason for having your face smiling forth from your networking material?

How images can work better than words

Driving from an event, I noticed a van in front of me. It was coming up to lunchtime and my stomach was rumbling, exasperated by the fact that pasted on the back windows of this van were the most wonderful pictures of various breads and pastries. It was obviously a baker’s van, but the imagery was so powerful, you could imagine the interior packed to the gills with warm, yeasty rolls and sticky fruit buns dusted over with icing sugar.

What a wonderful way to advertise their wares. Just a logo and name of the company would not have had the same impact…

Alice’s Action #2 – Keep Your Images Relevant

My daughter Josie commented recently on some leaflets: “Shouldn’t the picture be relevant to whoever picks it up, so to grab their attention?”

She’s right - aim the visual aspects of your advertising towards your target market. Don’t reflect your personal favourites and be careful about your business’s image. The customer is king (or queen) and everything should be geared towards them and their preferences.

Take a good look at the pictures in your marketing material, and get feedback from your friends or past customers, to see if they work or not.

Sign up for more Alice’s Actions from my website.

Alice’s Action #1 – Clear Directions

Clear signage is vital, especially for directions, corporate identity and general awareness.

Take time to consider how clear your company really is. How does the outside world see your business? Are you recognisable? How simple is it to contact you? Are these details clearly visible? Can you be easily found? Are you approachable and/or welcoming?

You can sign up for more Alice’s Actions from my website.

Technology – does too much affect marketing?

The world moves on so rapidly, and so much is now possible in the world of technology, there is always the urge to use everything that is available. It’s like being a child in a toy shop: Everything’s wonderful! Wow, look at that! How does that work? That’s really impressive! I want one!

But it’s like my soup blog, you can’t put everything into the pot and expect it to taste nice. However weird and wonderful it may seem, is it really necessary? Does blinking adverts and moving images really make a difference? Do they not annoy and divert the customers’ attention from the true purpose of your website? And the spiders on the web interested as well? You may find they totally ignore them and do nothing at all for your SEO!

Moving gallery shows are only effective if used wisely, like promoting a book or showing examples. Opening your website with them totally defeats the object, for unless your surfer has time to wait, boredom or confusion will set in and they’re off. But if you do use a gallery, situate it in a clear background and large enough screen, thus avoiding unnecessary squinting, peering and on-coming headaches.

Another gimmick is to have wide-screens with rolling Powerpoint shows. This can be impressive, but care needs to be taken presenting your information, with concise text, simple backgrounds and each page not over-full to allow the reader enough time to read it before it changes. Don’t go mad with all the special effects available, as this contributes to cluttering and can look amateurish. A few well chosen simply produced styles can easily aid effective absorption of your message.

People have different attitudes to technology – the younger set react more to the possibilities and, as well as understanding them better, want to use them all the time. But taking a step back and choosing wisely, considering which one is the best use of money, time and resources, will allow your audience to enjoy your marketing, respond favourably and serve their purpose.

Is all junk mail bin-fodder?

More junk mail plops through my letterbox this morning, but two leaflets catch my eye:

One is promoting a furniture store – acres of brown background with tiny, indiscriminate photos that would require a magnifying glass to study what they contained in any detail, plus whited-out text in tiny letters crammed into the corners as if they are an afterthought and you’re not really meant to read them at all. The same hideous design continues inside the brochure, except that some pages have butterscotch backgrounds which means the white text blends in nicely and illegibly like cream. If there are any headlines I can’t see them, the benefits or incentives are non-existent, and the whole effect is a 1970s look which I haven’t decided is meant to be retro or terribly out of date.

Alternatively, the other leaflet is wild and whacky! It folds out into a cube-net (a cross of six squares) and each side provides a benefit/feature of the product, plus excellent pictures for recognition and tear-off discount vouchers for your next purchase. The images are simple, colourful and fill each square brilliantly, the main message is clearly put across with legible, concise text in a readable font, and because it’s different you want to explore the whole product to see what’s next or on the other side. There isn’t a beginning or end, but that doesn’t really matter, as the product is presented smack bang in the middle so you can’t miss it! The whole leaflet is just fun, and such a breath of fresh air!

Conceptual Considerations

More ideas gained through networking! Discussing what you do with all those business cards and leaflets you pick up at these events, my friend suggested promotional literature that is already hole-punched for storing in files, and the information could be designed around the holes. Also, why not have a tag on the side that sticks out further than the rest of the paperwork which contains recognisable details for instantly accessibility. Trouble is, this could be more expensive to produce; I will let you know my thoughts on this later after some try-outs.

Simple Soup Solutions

We’ve all heard the saying “too many cooks spoil the broth”, so does that mean the broth contains too many ingredients? If your stew-pot had all your favourite foods mixed together, do you think it would taste nice? Could you define any of the individual foods from the concoction?

Usually simple procedures are the most effective. Soup made from mushrooms with a hint of garlic and a sprig of fresh parsley is extremely tasty, and you can appreciate that it is mushroom soup and not a disgusting mess.

Now take a look at your promotional material. Is it easily digestible? Does your message present itself effectively? Would an alien from outer-space understand exactly what your company is all about? Is the meaning of your literature obvious at a quick glance? Are the contact details easily accessible? Is your logo clear and your strapline relevant and punchy? Are the benefits of your product/service instantly desirable?

Select your ingredients with care, because the proof of the pudding (or soup) is in the eating.

Separating Subject Matter

I’m always collecting leaflets for research purposes. I had to get my spare tyre replaced (the car’s, not mine!), and while I waited, I noticed the literature the garage had on display. Two factors were brought to my attention: the first was a repeat of the concept stated in a previous blog about cluttered versus simple information, in this case tiny dense writing in wide columns compared with clear diagrams of tyres with appropriate explanations and guides.

The second concept was something I had learned from a recent marketing course, which had spawned from the idea of headings and well laid-out details beneath: separate topics presented on individual leaflets and displayed together as a set. This series of A5 glossy sheets were collated within a tiered-leaflet-holder, each exhibiting their subject in clear, concise and uncluttered terms using the corporate colours and corresponding imagery to best show off their contents. These were suitable both as a group or individually, as customers were able to choose which were the most useful to them.

This concept of separate leaflets enables you to focus on individual benefits for customers and how best to present your solutions in an easily digestible form. Appropriate incentives can then be displayed to entice the public in, each relevant to the subject concerned and updated on a regular basis. Jumbling them up into one 3-fold leaflet may not enable you to adequately get your message across, and is far less likely to get read and understood.

Kicking into Touch

I am always pleased when I come across great design, especially when it’s an upgrade from an existing product. I would like to draw attention to Karen Skidmore’s Kick-Ass Blog, which has been most successfully redesigned by Claire Raikes of the Business Blog Angel. I particularly like the snazzy logo-links that direct the reader to other parts of Karen’s website, large, bright, bold and very inviting - you just want to click on them to see where they go.

Having just totally redesigned my own website, it now looks very bland compared to Karen’s blog. I’ve noticed other sites with brightly coloured links that entice you to take action - you certainly can’t miss them and curiosity always wins in the end. Another ingenious way to get your customers past the index page!

Spacious versus Squashed

I picked up two leaflets from my local gym, both advertising beauty therapies. The difference between the two was not what they did, but how they were presented.

One was crammed full of all kinds of treatments, listing all her services from manicures to makeup sessions, waxing to massage, eye-lash tinting to collagen treatment – busy, busy, busy. She obviously felt she needed to list everything with her prices, but the result was very difficult to focus on. The titles were the same size as the descriptions, with no line-spaces between, and used a difficult colour to see against a white background. Very small pictures were dotted around filling any spaces there were left. It was difficult to navigate to the next section, and the concertina folded effect added to the confusion.

By contrast, the other didn’t have so many options to choose from, so she was able to space them out with little explanations and proper headings so you could find your way around her leaflet. There were definite themes, prices were properly laid out (not mingled in with the text), and careful folding defined the package and incentive page to tempt her potential customers. Her choice of colour contrasted nicely with the white space, and her logo was simple and modern (the other didn’t have a logo). Even though she didn’t have so many treatments on offer, I had more confidence in her as a therapist.

Two factors here: one is, obviously, not to bombard your customers with too much information in your publicity material, as it can be off-putting; and two, be more selective in what you advertise so to present a more professional approach. The second therapist may offer just as much as the first, but her customers will find that out once they pass through her doors…

Corkily Clear

Last month I attended a seminar on how to present yourself properly. A speech therapist gave a thoroughly humorous talk on how to use your voice, and at one point he produced a load of corks, which he handed out to us.

Well, the mind boggles on what to do with your cork, but apparently we had to put them in our mouths, hold them with our teeth, and then read out from a sheet. After sounding very silly for a while (this exercise certainly sorted out the more self-conscience in the audience) we then removed out corks and repeated our speeches. Wow, what a difference! Freed from the hindrance of the cork, our annunciation had greatly improved, especially for me, as I usually get my words all in a muddle when reading out loud.

The moral is, if you need to speak more clearly, keep a cork in your handbag! Now, how does this relate to creating publicity material…?

Visible logos that make an impression

Just a quick blog to say how impressed I was with a particular lorry that drove past me the other day. On the side was the logo of the company, the name clearly written in big letters and the strapline that concisely described what the company was about, plastered effectively across the side of the vehicle. It was a pleasure to see.

Business cards and necessary content

At a recently networking event I met an interesting man from a psychology-based company. He told me about this particular man and his use of business cards.

He had two versions of his business cards printed. One had just his company’s logo, name and nothing else, and the other had the same plus his contact details. At networking events, he decides which one he wants to give out according to the kind of person he is talking to.

If he is interested in the person, he gives them the one with the contact details. If the person just routinely asks for a business card, he gives the other one. If the recipient just pockets it, it is obvious that they were not interested, but the ones who are genuinely interested look at it and question why there are no contact details, he takes back the card, whisks out his fountain pen with a flourish, and writes his details on the back of his card using his best calligraphy. This provides a personal touch designed to impress.

Interesting idea - but would it work for you? Sometimes the distribution of business cards at networking events can be haphazard and do you always remember which one goes with which person when you get home or retrieve them the next morning? Especially when you want to email follow-ups…

Another idea I heard if you want to make an impression: wear a large badge which says something like ‘Hi, my name is Alice‘ (obviously substitute your own name) and see what reaction you get - it could be interesting!

Punctuation within Presentation

During lunch with a friend (and past customer) the other week we discussed the lack of punctuation and grammar in writing nowadays. My schooling started at the beginning of the decline in literacy education, whereas my friend, being more mature, still remembered fondly ‘how English was taught correctly’ and bemoaned how many discrepancies she saw about her. We both particularly mourned the misuse of the apostrophe, especially within plural usage, and how it can totally spoil literature or promotional material.

She’s quite right, of course. I can think of some quite high-powered people, teachers even, who should know better and misuse their apostrophes left, right and centre. And there aren’t enough readers who will either notice or know how to correct it properly.

Bad grammar provides an unfavourable impression, and adds to the illegible factor that litters publications in so many areas. Signs and banners are particularly prone to this affliction, due to insufficient grammatical training in their authors. There is nothing worse than seeing a beautiful design ruined by a hideous spelling mistake right smack in the middle! And all due to ignorance of correct punctuation within presentation.

Clear logos – fashionable versus concise

Logos are difficult things to create. Yeah, anyone can make a logo, but is it effective? Does it send the correct message? Do your customers ‘get’ it? Does it truly reflect your corporate image? What is its target audience?

And above all, is it clear? Logos in the past were fussy, old fashioned things, following tradition and spawned off coats of arms, etc. Now they have to be instantly recognisable, snazzy, fashionable, easy to produce, look good in black and white, powerful yet unassuming. That’s why logos are difficult things to create.

Everyone’s talking about the new London Olympics logo. And above all, how much it cost. Does it do anything for you? It certainly has benefited from the ‘yuk’ factor, as bad press can create good publicity. But is that a good thing? Is it sending us the right message? Do you ‘get’ it? Is it clear, concise and uncluttered?

Take a good look at your logo and put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Consider if it could be made clearer, more recognisable, simpler even. Are the colours right? Is the font fashionable? Does it consist of meaningless initials, or would an image be more appropriate? And, for photocopying purposes, does it still look good in monochrome?

And then all logos should be accompanied with a catchy strapline, but then that’s a subject for another blog…

Branding - some thoughts

Branding is not what I do, as it’s not the same as graphic design, so I would rather leave that to the professionals! But I always sigh when I hear of how some companies have had the wool pulled over their eyes regarding branding.

One lady asked at a networking forum for ideas of how her firm could receive more recognition. They were just a step below the most popular companies yet were of the same callibre.

The first thing, which nothing could be done about, is the name of her firm, which was longwinded because it changed accordingly to its location, but the most recognisable and consistent element consisted of initials within a very boring design. I asked if her firm had a strapline - to which the answer was in the negative. What had they got that was memorable? If you consider all the companies we can remember, it’s either a clever logo, a personality associated with it, images like a nodding dog or very pink ladies, or a catchy strapline, in either 3, 5 or 7 words, that succinctly describes the product or service.

The alternative to a strapline is to get the representatives noticed when out networking - making them stand out with their personalities, networking pitch, information attack, incentive and gift presentations, colour of uniforms, or whatever.

The lady’s firm had recently hired a branding company to raise up their image, which resulted in a large advert in a relevant national newspaper (at great expense) and adverts placed on the sides of taxis. I wilted inside, as I expected the wording on that newspaper advert was probably inadequately stressed towards gaining publicity - banging on about their features and how brilliant they are, whereas they should have concentrated on their benefits for their customers, offering a solution to their pain to help them towards a better life. The taxi idea was a complete farce, as who has the ability to recognise a boring logo (and no strapline) on a fast-moving vehicle, or even bother to absorb it during a traffic-jam.

Recognition is gaining relationships, creating memorable images and straplines, getting brilliant PR in the relevant press, publicising all the benefits your company has with stories of how they have helped your customers – I’m sure there are lots more, but they certainly don’t include fancy ads and taxi-paint!

Postcards and clear presentation

At a recent networking meeting, someone showed me their quick sketches for some postcards they wanted to produce. In spite of the fact that they were going to see someone else about getting them designed and printed, I gave them some small pointers to consider during their meeting.

First, the pictures on the front. Each had an obvious subject which I felt was not highlighted enough. The eye of the reader should be drawn unconditionally towards that subject, which should either be placed centrally and largely within the space provided, or slightly to one side with the ratio of 3:5 if the background is important. Avoid irrelevant background or white space which detracts the eye from the matter at hand. Wording should be carefully placed so to not obstruct the content, and should be in a colour and style that is legible. If the picture is strong enough then words will not be needed, and can be saved for the reverse.

On the reverse of the postcard, there isn’t a lot of space for copy or text, so the reader should not be bombarded with irrelevant material. First thing to think of is a really good headline, which could make or break your promotion. Remember to put yourself in the shoes of your customer, and consider exactly what their needs are. Try forming a question so that the answer will be yes, and put the most important words at the beginning and the end.

Then work out what the benefits, not features, are of what you’re trying to say. Analyse your customer’s pain, and then focus your benefits as the solution to their pain. Avoid any jargon - use ordinary English. Present them as a series of bullet points, as these are much easier to read, especially for a busy person scanning your postcard. Again they should make your customer say yes.

Next should be a call to action. Not only should you tell them to go to your website or whatever, with a given time to respond, you can offer them an incentive or vouchers; people like gifts or something for nothing. By driving them to your website you can then gather their details so you can form a relationship with them in the future.

And don’t forget to make your contact details clear and placed in an obvious position, and there’s nothing wrong with repetition. If a customer can’t see how to respond, what is the point of the postcard in the first place?