Just a quick note that we have a brand new identity here at Sodium Halogen. My good friend Matt Lehman knocked it out of the park with a simple and crisp mark that has a scientific bent without being over the top.
Note the 3 icons at the bottom that represent our Designtific Method. Under the Microscope, In the Lab & Designtific Results.
In a word…yes. Yes it can, but at what cost and who is going to have to do that overcoming? Your salesperson?
When it comes to first impressions and how people interact with and think about your business…trust me, it all comes down to trust. They start forming an opinion on your organization and if they want to do business with you the first time they lay eyes on you. So what are they laying eyes on? Your business card? Your storfront signage? Website? Brochure? Ad? What is on each and every thing listed above? Your company logo and branding.
If each of these elements looks professional and appropriate, then that is a big plus in the trust column. If not, then it can be a minus.
Think about when you first “meet” a sales person or representative for a company you are considering buying from. If his clothes are appropriate, if she has a firm handshake and a warm smile, then you are starting to trust what he/she is about to say.
What if its a bad first impression? That can be overcome. Over time and building a relationship, you can overlook the disheveled look of his clothes, the awkward silences in the conversation or the food in her teeth. But that takes time… keep going later…
Let’s be clear. I love my wife. I tell her often, show her often and she knows it. Its been 16yrs now and we are still very much in love, but I have not always done a good job at showing her that love on Valentines Day.
For the past few years we haven’t really done much on Valentines day. We might go to a restaurant to eat that night, but no real planning ahead on my part. I thought it was fine. To my cynical mind, Valentines is a made up holiday to sell flowers and cards, but my wife came to me this past Valentines Day and told me that it hurt her feelings that I never did anything special for her. It was not a fun conversation, but it was an important one and I am so glad that we talk like that. Now I know there is a problem and I can do something to make it better.
So what does this have to do with business and design?
Well, you probably have clients that don’t feel appreciated either. They might not come forward and tell you you hurt their feelings and you won’t know about it to make it better. That damages your business relationship.
So here is what (if I was smarter) I could have done better.
1. Ask her if us not doing anything on Valentines Day bothered her.
Pretty simple solution really. Ask her.
2. Go out of my way to make her feel special.
She doesn’t really care about that specific day anymore than I do, but If I had let her know that I would be doing something special for her on a non-Valentines day, then that will make her feel even more special. It really is the thought (and me showing that I care) that matters. I should have been doing this all along.
Wrap it up with a bow.
I have been thinking about how do a better job of showing I care about my wife. I won’t list those, but here are a few ideas on how to show my clients we care.
What ideas do you have?
Write an article not talking about the development costs of a site, but talk about how much your site is costing you in sales. If your site is not built “on purpose” then it could be costing you alot.
see if you can find some articles and numbers to help illustrate.
continued from last article…
After thinking about strategy, we are ready to put something on paper. Enter pencil sketches. Pencil sketches are a tool that [sh] has been using for 2-3 yrs now and it really helps us focus on focus.
Sketches help us focus on the main thing – message. They also help us not worry about colors, fonts, the right image or even the exact copy we will use - at least not yet. We are able to figure out what the most important thing on the page (and the site) is and making that the most important thing (visually) on the page.
(examples)
These sketches are also a great and quick way to include the client in the process of laying out the site. The client has expertise in their business, and we have expertise in how to communicate that. So pencil sketches let us work together.
(next) mockups
You know you need a website and you’d like it to actually serve a purpose rather than just “put my company online.” Well, then lets think about what that purpose should be.
Maybe you want your site to sell things, maybe it should just be an online brochure or maybe you want your site to make bologna sanwiches for people. Well, we might not be able to help with that last one, but its obvious that we want to think about the purpose of the site.
Let’s start with some questions. What is the story you are wanting to tell and who is your audience? After we determine what you are wanting to say and who you are wanting to say it to, we can ask questions like:
I was thinking this morning after I watched a video about branding that many of our customers will ask us to “create a logo” for their company. This is something we have done quite a bit of, but the more I really think about it – the less I want to tell people that we can “create a logo” for them.
We are actually much more passionate and interested in helping craft identities. “Oh boy” you think, “here goes another high-and-mighty speech about branding and synergy and other buzzwords.” But the identity of your company really is alot more than a logo. It’s everything from the way you answer the phone to the landscaping in front of your building.
We recently did some work for a local company that sells products internationally. Even though they are not a “small” company - they are smaller when competing against multi-billion dollar businesses for contracts. The bigger competitors are well known names, so we wanted to make sure the promotional materials they hand out look like a professional organization that can do the job right.
One problem. Their logo felt dated, was too complex to be effective and they were not interested in changing it. So, Sodium Halogen focused on crafting an identity that would work even if the logo didn’t really work.
We created a campaign concept of “helping you connect the dots.” We retooled their brochure and line card as well as designed promotional materials and banners to be used in their trade show booth.
The connecting the dots campaign can be used for lots of different ads and materials in the future and definitely goes toward crafting an identity - even though we didn’t change the logo.
In the future, we plan on trying to take this more holistic approach in helping craft identities for companies. Not just logos.
more thoughts:
make a list of values/adjectives that the company wants its identity to convey to their audience. Then make a sheet and get several people in company to dole out 10pts for each of the words. Discuss and see if they all agree on the values they want the identity to represent.
come up with list of words beneath each identity concept and let them talk about which best suits the company.
