How Design Adds Value to the Bottom Line
It always delights us to find small businesses which are able to leverage great design and in the process add value (i.e.: dollars) to their bottom line (see Honolulu Cookie Company pictured above). For too many businesses, design is thought of as a frivolous expense — and nothing could be farther from the truth.
Design has a profound effect on how consumers judge the value of your product.
…bad design will have the opposite effect and drive customers away creating an obstacle which is very difficult to overcome…
When it’s done strategically — and executed well — design triggers an emotional attraction and desire for a product, and in the process, increases the perceived value of the product. In simple terms, customers are willing to pay more for a well-designed product.
If your business is selling chocolate bars which cost $2 to make and you have a choice of selling them for the going rate of $3, or selling them for a premium price of $6, which would you choose? If you had to spend $1 per bar on design to double the perceived value, you would still come out $2 ahead. Math has never been my strong suite, but I know that $3 dollars in your pocket is more than $1.
22°North Projects Win Advertising Awards
After taking a six year break from advertising award shows, TsunamiMarketing of Kauai, Hawaii, brings home the Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards for 22ºNorth Restaurant’s Logomark, Single Print Advertisement, and Print Advertising Series. When asked about the award, Todd Oldham, 22ºNorth’s General Manager, noted “The Pele-winning logo designed by our creative partners at Tsunami is intriguing, memorable, and gives us a strong sense of place.”
What is a Brand?
Key Concept: The underlying reason that brand marketing works is because of how your brain is wired to analyze and filter information.
Brand building works because of how the human brain processes, filters, and recalls information.
Your brand can be thought of as the quality or trait which makes you different from everyone else—and therefore memorable. It’s what grabs the customer’s attention as they survey the competitive landscape.
This difference is demonstrated in your brand personality, which is the overall impression you give to your customers—the look, feel, tone, and attitude of your company. In contrast, marketing is how you sell customers the range of products you have to offer. Marketing is the externalized communication of the brand.
New Restaurant Checklist
We’ve recently partnered with two restaurants — one was existing and needed a fresh start and the other was brand new — and both required starting from the basics.
Here are the top 10 things to carefully consider before undertaking the opening, or re-opening, of a restaurant:
- Know who your restaurant wants to be when it grows up.
We highly recommend that you spend the time and resources to develop a brand strategy prior to opening your doors. If your restaurant was a person, what would its personality be — loud or quiet, wise or silly, intellectual or more athletic? What type of clothes would it wear? What is its favorite color? If you think about it in those terms, it will help to put a face to your new undertaking and make decision making on its behalf much easier.
Branding is about Navigation, not Communication
Key Concept: Advertising often fails when it attempts to “communicate” with customers — instead of helping customers “navigate” to a product or service.
Effective advertising is more like a lighthouse and less like an explanation about the perils of running aground.
Before you read this article, ask yourself: “what do I want my advertising to achieve?”.
If you’re like most businesses, you’ve got a simple and clear goal for your advertising: you want to attract new customers to try your products; and you want to encourage your existing customers to buy from you again.
Seems like a no-brainer right? And yet advertising often fails to produce the desired outcome…so what’s going on here? Somewhere between the goal and the execution advertising becomes muddled and ineffective.
In most cases it’s because when it comes down to building an advertisement, businesses can’t resist the temptation to try and communicate with customers instead of helping customers navigate to their business. This problem is rooted in the common misconception that advertising is a vehicle for communication — and it’s not.
Marketing in the New Economy
Key Concept: Consumers are still willing to spend on brands and products which are aligned with their personal values.
Did You Feel That? Was that Thunder?
It was the “aspiration generation”—when consumers aspired for the “best” and were willing to pay for it.
The herd is on edge. Eyes are dilated. Adrenaline is pumping. Heart rates are up. Sometimes it feels like it’ll only take one more crack of thunder and we’re all going to bolt.
I’m not actually talking about cows, I’m talking about you and me. I’m talking about the tectonic shift in consumer behavior that’s been driven by the financial realities of the new economy. I’m sure you’ve noticed that things are different and the rules have changed—again.
The Value of Great Creative
Key Concept: You can’t bore people into buying your product. Creative communication matters more now than ever before.
What’s the power of great creative?
This question has come up recently, as many companies look for ways to cut back and hold on through the current economic challenge. But if you really explore this question, you’ll realize that you already know the answer based on your own experience.
Which ads catch your interest, both in print and online? Which landing pages stand out, make a great impression and make you click? What companies do you continue to buy from even in an economic downturn? The answer is simple. The companies you buy from are the ones that give you what you want in a way that’s clear, easy, engaging, respectful, intelligent, relevant, and original.
Creating a Media & Marketing Plan
Plan ahead, and be prepared. It will make a world of difference to your business, to your customers, and to your bottom line.
Peace of mind. That is what you will be rewarded with if you take the time each and every year to develop a comprehensive media and marketing plan for your business. It is a road map that you can rely on to help you stay the course, or to know when you need to change course.
I work with my clients on their media and marketing plans on a yearly basis. We usually meet every August to review the previous year’s plan, evaluate what worked, what could have been better, and were there any missed opportunities, or new ones that have emerged. Once we understand these core components, I start evaluating opportunities specific to each individual client’s goals for the upcoming year while compiling my beloved spreadsheet.
Digital vs. Offset Printing
Two of the most common commercial printing technologies in use today are “Offset” and “Digital” printing — and one of the most common questions in printing is, “When should I use them?”
Knowing which type of printing is best for a given project can save money and headaches.
Offset, or conventional printing, has changed little since the original steam powered offset press was first developed in 1906. It involves a mechanical process of applying layers of ink to paper with a series of rollers. Each roller has its own specified ink – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black — or CMYK. As each of these rollers pass over the page, they transfer ink and build layers of colors, resulting in complete images and text on the page. Additionally, specialized colors called Pantones or PMS colors can be added to the layout if very specific colors are needed, for instance in a logo.
Digital printing eliminates the numerous steps involved in the offset printing process, such as creating films and plates for ink rollers. Most digital presses today apply ink in a single pass from a single ink head, similar to common inkjet printers found in homes and offices.
