Category: Article

Packaging Design – A very specialist skill indeed!

Packaging: the fifth P of Marketing Packaging design is a specialist niche within the graphic design/branding field…. Read More Wil Lyons explains why what’s on the box can be just as important as what’s in the box. Depending upon which survey you read, at least 66% and perhaps as much as 80% of all grocery purchase decisions are made at the point of sale – right there in the aisle as you fill your trolley! Not that one buys four times more than originally intended (although a whole set of supermarket layout strategies are designed to help achieve that objective too!). These findings relate to brand selection. Thus you may plan to purchase sausages, tea and ice cream, but there’s a wide selection of each and four times out of five you’ll decide exactly which brands to put in the trolley only while in the shopping situation. You can probably relate to that if, like most people, you come out of the supermarket with rather more than you originally intended and if, like most people, you browse to a certain extent while shopping rather than rigidly sticking to a favourite brand of absolutely everything. One U.S. survey has shown that, on average, people spend 10 seconds viewing each product category and in that brief time only get to see some two thirds of the goods displayed in that category. So fully one third of what’s on the shelf does not even get noticed. Thus, after all that product development, all that media advertising, all that distribution and shelf positioning – most purchase decisions are made in that last few seconds. The customer’s hand hovers briefly, then picks. Mostly, it picks out the product that best projects from the shelf, standing out attractively from the surrounding clutter. Although more comprehensive marketing models have largely superceded the well loved ‘Four P’s’ of marketing, they still strangely gloss over what always was and still remains arguably the most important P of all – Packaging, and specifically packaging design. On the face of it, such startling survey findings as those quoted above might be calculated to lead manufacturers, distributors and marketing companies to scale back a little on the enormous expenditures undertaken to differentiate their product through tweaking the recipes or product features. One might expect them to cut back on inordinately expensive advertising campaigns. Why not target the elusive half that doesn’t work for starters! Conscious that most purchase decisions are made in the final few seconds, a concerted effort to win the packaging endgame is indicated. While the aforementioned findings and similar ones from many surveys world-wide are quite well known, it has been my experience that, thanks to the scant attention paid to the power of packaging in marketing training and literature, most marketers and designers alike have a poorly formed view as to what constitutes effective packaging design. Intelligently conceived and well-executed packaging design is not just about art or aesthetics. Its primary function is to sell the product by means of visually communicating not just one ‘notice me’ message, but up to several distinct messages which range from statements about positioning and likely price to statements about quality, status, dietary considerations, environmental correctness and more. Intuitively, it is difficult to appreciate the capability of a simple piece of packaging to convey a complex set of messages in an instant. Due to the sophistication of the human eye, however, it is indeed possible to achieve this. At its simplest, you can look at a flat, two-dimensional representation of any object on paper and instantly ‘see’ the real world object. You can glance at a painting in an art gallery and have an instant gut reaction. If you look away immediately, even though you have only seen the painting for a second or two, you will be able to articulate not just one, but several reasons for your reaction. Subconsciously, the same process is at work as we fill the shopping trolley. In a sweeping glance we survey, say, the pre-packed cheeses. Sometimes we will know exactly what we want and will seek it out and select it. Mostly though, we like a bit of variety and will quickly scan what’s on offer – just whatever catches our eye. A brightly coloured generic or ‘own brand’ may catch the eye because it is designed to do so. It is also designed to suggest basic, processed, perhaps not of the highest quality, economy price. That’s fair enough and, if it suits your taste and pocket, go for it. Sometimes the marketing line associated with these products is that they can be sold cheaper because money is saved on packaging. Not so many customers believe that, or the competing brands would be wiped out. There are a lot of cheeses in that chiller cabinet and, if you don’t want the economy brand, you may spot another whose effective packaging design has managed to rise above the clutter and attract your attention. The quality wrapper in traditional looking ‘natural’ material, the upmarket name, classical design lines and labelling combine to say – at a glance – ‘quality product, natural, trustworthy company, suitable for putting out before guests, bio-degradable pack, expect to pay more!’ The ability to effectively achieve that immediate complex of signals through a piece of packaging design is a specialist niche skill within the graphic design field. Really good packaging designers are hard to come by. Once found, they are highly prized by customers who have discovered the difference good packaging design makes to their sales figures. There are important functional aspects attaching to packaging design. It should enable the customer to understand what the product is, how to use it, how it looks (when displayed at its most attractive of course!). It should possess appropriate functionality as a container, be it a cellophane wrapper, box, can, bag or bottle. Structural qualities may also be built into the packaging design in ways which can enhance brand equity and which, indeed, can

How to grow your sales in a recession?

A6: How to grow your sales in a recession? A recession is often considered as the time when marketing budgets should be cut. However, the opposite is actually true. Most SME’s don’t realise that 50% of their activity should be involved with income generation. If marketing is done effectively and consistently, with innovation and creativity, then is usually results in more income, more customers and more profit. You have to look at the whole marketing mix and your brand image may need a revamp if it’s not having the desired impact. Having a well designed, fully SEO optimised website is essential but often too much faith is put into online marketing. Sometime working the phone, networking, sending out professionally designed brochures and adverts that specifically target your customer can be more effective. Email marketing generally has a very low conversion rate (around 4%) as does social media marketing (depending on who you talk to). Yes there is a cost involved, but you need to see this as an investment in your sales growth. You cannot make an omelette without cracking open a few eggs. It can be cost effective to outsource your marketing activities by using a professional agency do two or more hours a week for you. Telemarketing and outsourced appointment setting is also a good option. Many sales people are good at closing but dread the idea cold calling.. Using a prospecting firm can allow you set up prospects or appointments that your salespeople can close. One of the best uses of your time is to be on the phone to customers. Delegating the marketing or sales call prospecting to a company can grow new clients either through meetings or marketing which can will cost you less that trying to do it in-house. Most businesses struggle with inconsistent sales. Outsourcing to a marketing / telemarketing company will give you consistent leads to more sales and thus lowering your company salary overhead. Many in-house marketing staff or sales people are often distracted doing other tasks than income generation, so this is another good reason to use a dedicated outsource team. Lets face it, your business is either going forwards or backwards. If you are not actively and creatively finding new and better way to generate new or recurring income, then you are going backwards. Need help to generate income? Email or call us TODAY on 01 8330081

Does your brand have a USP?

Does your brand have a USP? We are constantly working on client rebrands or new branding projects. Many people are decided to start their own businesses due to affects of the poor economy, but many company brands or product brands feel the need to upgrade because much of the strategic and research work was not done previously to properly evaluate the brand positioning, the unique value offering and target market before hurrying off to create all of the marketing material. This is very common. Unfortunately, these brands now find themselves with a brand message that’s not working as it should and not communicating their unique proposition effectively to seperate themselves from the competition. Strategic brand positioning and a USP(unique selling proposition) in the market is often overlooked at the early stages. Many people don’t understand the difference between these two crucial aspects of developing a successful brand. A clear understanding of USP can make the difference between selling lots of product or not. The USP is a device, not a strategy. Promoting a product’s benefit does not differentiate the product in a significant enough way. If a particular campaign doesn’t work or gets stale, you ask the agency to come up with another USP. Positioning: the Battle for Your Mind, likes to say it’s the single word that comes to mind when the brand is mentioned. For Volvo it’s “safety”. For Whole Foods it’s “organic”. These words come from the essence of the brand. It begins with the corporate mission and the vision for the product. It incorporates corporate values and culture. It’s the brand story, the brand platform, the brand presence. It’s the people associated with the brand at all levels of the supply chain. It’s the leadership of the company and of the brand champions within and outside the company. And it’s the word-of-mouth and status the brand enjoys. The USP does not normally communicate a genuine product position. There needs to be more than a benefit at the root of the brand and its position. Suffice to say that positioning is a strategic activity and developing a unique selling proposition is a sales or advertising tactic. Need to re-vitalise your brand? Email or call us TODAY on 01 8330081

Moments of Truth

Moments of Truth Jan Carlzon, former president of SAS, Scandinavian Airlines took the old phrase ‘the moment of truth’ and applied it to business in a very powerful way. The airline had been performing poorly when he took it over but within a very short space of time he had turned it around to become one of the most successful in the industry, respected as a model of how things should be done. Then (don’t they all!) he wrote a book. He entitled the book ‘Moments of Truth’ . He proposed that every critical point of customer interaction with the company is a moment of truth. For most businesses the most critical moment of truth is the actual transaction and that’s why Artefact raises the topic at this point in the strategic marketing model. But there are moments of truth before the transaction which may prevent the transaction from ever taking place, like if the prospective customer asks you a question and you don’t answer it. There can be moments of truth after the transaction which may prevent the customer from ever coming back again, like if he/she requires some after sales service only to find that you’ve lost all interest now that you’ve pocketed the money. Carlzon defined moments of truth thus: ” Any time a customer comes into contact with any aspect of your business, however remote, that customer has an opportunity to form an impression.” When you phone to make your flight reservation, it’s a moment of truth. You get efficient, friendly, speedy service, or you get music played at you, recorded messages, long delays and you come away totally frustrated. When you go to check in for your flight, there’s another moment of truth. The service provided by the cabin crew is another, and so on. Every single one of these – and the many other major and minor – key points of interaction between the customer and the supplier provides an opportunity for you to shine or to disappoint. Each is a moment of truth. Carlzon’s airline operated in a culture focussed on the product, the package, the engineering, the scheduling. All of these are necessary but the customer must not be incidental to the process. Carlzon’s achievement was one of marketing. He put the customer at the centre of the process. So, when it came to the transaction – check in and fly to your destination – the objective was to give the customer a great experience. Sure you had to make the plane fly safely and on time and with the baggage going in the same direction as the customer. These things were essential, but not the objective. They were incidental to the objective! So staff smiled, the food improved, the check-in lines were shorter and faster. Staff were anxious to avoid problems for customers and if there was one, to fix it flexibly, creatively, quickly! What a difference! When the customer transacts with you it may be a good, bad or indifferent experience. You know which one it has to be. Examine the points at which the customer comes into contact with your business on the following basis and ask in relation to each point of interaction “is there anything at this contact point which might make my customer’s experience less than excellent?” Artefact provides just a few examples to get you started, but you should make the list that’s right for you. Do not allow any part of your customer’s total experience with you to be any less than a magical moment of truth. That goes double for the transaction, the most critical interaction of them all. MOMENTS OF TRUTH – EXAMPLES Pre-Transaction: Point of Transaction: Post-Transaction: . When the customer…. Sees your banner ad Wants an easy payment method Needs help with assembly Sees your website Wants quick delivery Needs a problem put right Seeks information Wants no errors in specification Needs maintenance Tries to place an order Wants batteries included Needs parts/accessories Wants a test drive Can only collect on the weekend Needs advice

Enhance your bottom line by enhancing your (perceived) brand image

Enhance your bottom line by enhancing your (perceived) brand image. Over the course of some 23 years working at the forefront of brand development and graphic design, I am often struck by how some companies don’t fully appreciate the strategic importance of strategic brand positioning. Some still have a narrow view and see their brand as simply having a logo – often created by amateurs. But of course, seasoned marketers fully realise that the greatest asset of any company can be a expertly developed and innovately marketed, fully integrated ‘brand system”, so much so that in many cases the brand has a financial value attributed to it on some corporate balance sheets. Coincidentally, from my experience, the brand savvy companies are usually the most successful leaders in their field and quite often are the largest. Online brands have rapidly become established to the point where some are household names. Think of Google and Amazon. If I want to buy a book you’ll most likely head straight for Amazon or Barnes and Noble. They may or may not be the best on inventory, price and service – but they certainly have the strongest brands. Coca Cola, Google, Ferrari, Gucci, BMW, Harley Davidson, Nike, Apple… would be other good examples of top brands you would trust. Why risk going for a brand you don’t know when you know the brand you want is there waiting for you? That’s the power of branding – it’s not just the name but what the name says about the people you will be dealing with, the value, the consistency. The good news is, you don’t even have to have a huge marketing or advertising budget to create a successful brand, you can succeed by being highly effective at communicating and delivering your product/service to your chosen market. These days, in such a competitive environment, it is taken as given that a product and service quality has to be 110%, otherwise you’re not even at the races. Product (or service) functional attributes are important of course, but they are not solely what purchase decisions are based on. Artefact is fortunate that we have the privilege of working with some of the leading Irish and International brands (particularly in the food, drinks and pharma sectors) who go to great lengths to promote and protect the integrity of their brand image. A lot of companies are good at creating a product or service, but often are not nearly as good at promoting it through effective branding and creative marketing strategies. A realisation of the importance of Brand is vital for success. As consumers, we mostly buy on brand and less so on price, even in today’s economy. It is very difficult to convince us to move to another brand because familiarity leads to feelings of connectedness. People who feel they know you are more likely to deal with you than with someone they don’t know. In short, we need to help our customers develop a relationship with our product/service through the net effect of promises, statements, images and impressions we deliberately put out in the market place. This is not the same as selling our product/services on functional attributes only. If it becomes strong enough your brand can allow you to charge a premium price. People like brands. Sometimes the brand is used to deliver psychological values of status, image or just plain feel-good – that’s why people like the idea of owning a Mercedes Benz. A car just gets you from A to B but a Mercedes Benz car says something about You! Developing brand loyalty takes time, regular, clever marketing and truly expert visual execution done by seasoned professionals. It is the ‘perceived image’ of your product or company, in the minds of your target customer, that can often be the ONLY differentiator between brands, and as a result, can make the vital difference between a customer purchasing or not. Your market positioning should be mirrored in your branding, whether you’re a low cost, high turnover business, (think Ryanair or Aldi) or a high quality/luxury based model (think Gucci or Rolls Royce). Unless your ambitions are very modest indeed, you have to start thinking brand from Day 1. Crucially, the problem with many media or design agencies is a bit like the X Factor… many contestants believe they can sing, but as we all know, less than 10% genuinely can or have any real talent. This is why it can be a costly mistake to trust your branding development to pure creative agencies or just graphic designers, who although can be artistic, seldom have the high level of branding and marketing expertise you require to help you raise profile. Also, product branding (and consumer packaging) is a very different animal to corporate branding and is a highly specialist niche within the design field, requiring years of experience working with top brands to develop expertise. Creating top performing brands requires more than creating nice logos or pretty graphics. As brand and design consultant at Artefact, having focused a lot of my career to date on product brand development in particular, (including what constitutes good design) constantly researching books, studies and publications on brand behaviour, strategies etc, I am convinced the effective branding is without question, the main key to building loyal customers and building profit. Undercutting the competition on price as a general way of operating is not the answer for most businesses in the long term. It can be a shortsighted mistake that many companies and inexperienced marketers make and is often a knee, jerk reaction based on sales pressures. Clever branding is a long term courtship, not a hard sell. It is based on trust and consistency at every touch point. All of your communication channels need to project a cohesive and individual set of values and you should have very strict guidelines around the reproduction and usage of your visual brand identity. Often, this requires a fundamental change in corporate culture to achieve an

How to write a good creative brief

How to write a good creative brief Good design is a collaborative problem solving process, as much as it is a purely aesthetic one.. The good design brief, therefore, should clearly communicate a clients understanding of the problem that needs to be solved by your design/communication agency. ‘Garbage in garbage out comes to mind’ It should focus on the specific objectives of the project, on the particular deliverables, rather than on its purely aesthetic or creative aspects, which are the responsibility of your design company. It is against this written document, constructed in partnership between the client and the design company, that the effectiveness of the design solution can be measured. A creative brief is not the same as a proposal document, which is usually submitted to the client by the design company in response to the former’s written request for one. Both documents, however, can be incorporated into the design brief, once the design company has been awarded the project. No two design briefs are the same. There are, nonetheless, certain questions that should be asked in the development of most briefs. Here are some of them. • Why are we doing this project? • Why are we doing it now? • What specific outcomes, or results, do we expect from this design project? • Who are we designing for? Do we have a single target audience, or multiple audiences? • Who are the client’s key organisational stakeholders in this project? • What are the phases of this design project? • How much time should be devoted to each phase? • What will each phase cost? • Who are the client’s competitors? • Who will approve the final design solution? • What criteria will be used for this approval? • How will the design solution be implemented? • How will the results be measured? The time invested in a well-considered, well-constructed design brief yields great return. It is a road map through the design process. It allows you to track your project, from the creative stages through to implementation, as well as providing a tool for measuring the results of thedesign project. Finally, it acts as a reference document for similar future projects.

The Importance of Keeping Your WordPress Version, Plugins and Theme Updated

The Importance of Keeping Your WordPress Version, Plugins and Theme Updated If you have a CMS WordPress based website (the most preferred platform these days), the editor/manager of the CMS content will notice that not only does the version of WordPress need to be updated occasionally, but also your plugins and themes. For both functionality and security reasons, it’s important to stay updated. This in itself, typically once a month, will help protect your website from those pesky hackers who often can attack out of date plug-ins and OS versions. It is also a good idea to install a range of anti virus plug ins, plus make a monthly full back up of the entire website to a local disk. Backups are important for both functionality and security reasons. If you are not doing this, or are not having it done for you (by us for example), then your website is at risk of being hacked, damaged or deleted. It may be costly to have the website ‘cleaned’, fixed, reinstalled or indeed remade, after the fact. ‘A stitch in time saves nine’ comes to mind. Coincidentally, Artefact offers a full website management and content updating service. E.g. to update plugins, version of WordPress and do a backup costs 120 Euro + VAT as a one off (or 90 Euro per month based on a 12 month agreement). We only inform you of the above, in case you are not aware and because a number of businesses get caught out – when they leave it on the long finger! Anyway it makes good sense.

The importance of choosing the right creative agency…

Choosing the right Creative Agency Whom you decide to entrust your brand or corporate image to is vital, as it can make or break the perception of your business or product. You may also need advice and expertise on how to market and advertise your business/product. Therefore you should always work with the best agency you can afford, rather than going with the cheapest supplier. Top quality graphic design or branding expertise is not a commodity. It varies greatly from supplier to supplier as does the level of customer service and support. Like all things, you generally pay for what you get and your future earnings will rely heavily on how your customers perceive your business or product. It is always worth doing a bit of research into how long the creative agency you are considering have been established for. A combination of tough economic times and a competitive industry means that those companies, like Artefact, who have been around for more than 10 years are likely to offer greater quality, experience and customer service. You can also guage a creative agency by the quality of their portfolio/the prestige of the brands and clients they work with. Not alone should they be able to provide above average design skills, but importantly should also be able to offer excellent consultation in terms of branding, marketing and general business savvy. This expertise can only come with years of experience. Often the cheapest work can cost you the most in the long term. That is why Artefact should be your top choice… always. To help you make that vital decision on who to work with, the following process may be helpful to you: Stage 1: Research the Market Client researches the market to produce a short-list of prospective agencies based on criteria such as agency skillsets, capacity, relevant experience, portfolio work etc. This stage can be completed by desk research on agency websites. Stage 2: Agency credentials The purpose of this stage is for clients to discuss/liaise directly with the agency, to gain an understanding of the thinking behind some of the agency’s processes and get a feel for they operate. This is also the stage to begin addressing any specific requirements around the scope of work. Stage 3: Ability to work together.  By now, the client will have been able to whittle down the agencies to a final 2 or 3. At this stage the client should have met with the principles and the creatives they feel that they could have a good working relationship with. It can often come down to personality and chemistry. ‘People like working with people they like’. Obviously, the track record, work ethic, client base all have to be top notch. Stage 4: Decision  By this stage, prospective clients should have enough information to make a decision and will move to contract discussions and negotiations with the preferred agency. Stage 5: Discretionary creative stage However, we understand that some clients will simply be unable to appoint an agency without seeing some bespoke strategic thinking and, possibly, creative work to a brief that they have provided. While that is understandable, we believe that asking for speculative work should not be requested and we ask clients to treat this stage as if it were already a commercial relationship. A strong portfolio, client testimonials and conversations with the principals should be enough to make a decision. From both agency and client point of view, the fewer agencies involved at this stage the better (it is unlikely to be more than two but may be just one agency). This will enable clients to disclose all the information the agency needs, to make time available so that we can understand the client’s working environment better and to allow for the start of a building up of trust. We also ask for a pitch fee. (nobody should be asked to work for free) The pitch fee acknowledges that our time has value and goes a little way towards defraying some of the third party costs we will need to spend. One of the main advantages we find to this approach is having replicated a real working process, the agency-client relationship has already been ‘road-tested’ and, as a result, is a lot more productive much earlier. Much of our best and most effective work and many of our strongest, most successful relationships have followed a similar process. If you would like to discuss you creative project or advertising campaign with us, please contact Wil Lyons or one of the team at 01 8330081/ 086 2750662 or Email: info@artefact.ie

What is a Brand Story and why you need to tell one?

What is a brand story? A brand story is more than content and a narrative. The story goes beyond what’s written in the copy on a website, the text in a brochure or the presentation used to pitch to investors or customers. Your story isn’t just what you tell people it’s also what they believe about you based on the signals your brand sends. The story is a complete picture made up of facts, feelings and interpretations, which means that part of your story isn’t even told by you. Everything you do, each element of your business or brand, from the colours and texture of your packaging and business cards, to the staff you hire is part of your brand story and every element should reflect the truth about your brand back to your audience. If you want to build a successful, sustainable business and a brand that will garner loyalty, and if you’re lucky become loved you have to start with your story. Why you need a story to tell If you don’t have a story you are just another commodity. A replaceable cog in the consumption machine. You have no way to differentiate your brand or your business. Creating a brand story is not simply about standing out and getting noticed. It’s about building something that people care about and want to buy into. It’s about framing your scarcity and dictating your value. It’s about thinking beyond the utility and functionality of products and services and striving for the creation of loyalty and meaningful bonds with your customers. A brand story is not just a catchy tagline that’s pasted on a billboard to attract attention for a week or two. Your story is the foundation of your brand and a strategy for future growth. How do we begin to tell your brand story? Through years of experience of working with corporate companies, top product brands and entrepreneurs, we have developed the ‘brand story strategy’. This is a brand communication strategy consisting of up to 20 distinct elements, that enables you to tell your brand’s story from the inside out. It’s the foundation upon which you differentiate your brand and make emotional connections with clients and customers. A great brand story strategy will show you how to stand out, increase brand awareness, create customer loyalty and growth. The world’s most successful brands don’t behave like commodities & neither should you. We work with brands at every stage of their development, from startups who are shaping a complete culture to established brands who are realigning their positioning and marketing communications or launching new products. It doesn’t matter if you’re a bank or a city, launching an online platform or baking bread, you have a unique story to tell and we can show you how to tell it. Once upon a brand Your story begins with the connection made when the customer hears your name for the first time, when she sees your logo, visits your website, reads your about page and experiences your interactions on social media. The signals you send about not just what you do and how well you do it, but about what you stand for, build the complete picture of your brand. Marketing often happens when you are not listening and your customer is telling a friend how your product changed her life. It’s your job to give your customers a story to tell. Through consultation with you we explore your brand’s mission and vision. We work with you to identify the attitudes and beliefs that shape your brand’s culture. We evaluate your unique value proposition and emotional selling points and shape the way which you would like to be perceived by customers and clients. Our job is to work on communicating your essence, craft your brand identity through effective design and idea generation to shape perceptions that will reflect all of that. WE WOULD LOVE TO WORK WITH YOU TO CREATE: A COMPELLING BRAND STORY STRATEGY BRAND NAMES, PRODUCT NAMES, ADVERTISING TAGLINES ADN CAMPAIGNS THAT HELP YOU STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD YOUR UNIQUE MARKETING STRATEGY CONTACT ARTEFACT TODAY or call 00353 1 8330081 / Txt: 086 2750662 to talk about your marketing and brand story by FILLING IN THE CONTACT FORM BELOW. Will be in touch within 48 hours.