Monday 26 December 2016

Frames and Displays: Getting them Right

Business development of any company depends on signage – an integral part of its brand messaging or brand communication. Unlike other media and channels that are time- or space-bound and short-lived, signage is a permanent entity that heralds to the world 24x7 the organization and its business message; it triggers better memory recall and enhances impulse buying.

Frames and displays

A-frames and display boards are among the oldest forms of advertising and signage; they are used at the point-of-sales or point-of-purchase (POS/POP) across industry verticals and sizes of business.

Frame display boards find wide usage from restaurants, bars, pubs, cafes, hotels, motels, and salons, to offices, factories and tourist locations. They are simply placed on sidewalks, or propped up on poles without much fuss.

They are thus very efficient and cost-effective. They can be used at all outdoor locations; their modern versions are spring loaded to prevent tipping over by strong gusts of wind.

They are in wide use indoors at hotels, conferences, symposiums, social gatherings, schools or colleges in the form of tripod displays in the lobby or main venue; they promote business or share secondary information that enhances the brand message.

Benefits of their use

Various surveys and studies conducted by Signs.org, Bang Advertizing and What’s your Signage highlight the importance of on-premise signage systems such as frame display boards. According to their findings, such signage can achieve the following:

  • Alert prospects about your presence: In the small and medium business segment, 85% of the prospects targeted belong to the neighborhood.
  • Bring in new customers: Signage can attract passers-by effectively; as much as 35% would miss noticing your business unless there is catchy on-premise signage. A recent survey to find out how customers discovered a business revealed that about 50% of them were solely drawn by on-premise signage; 33% by word-of-mouth referrals; the rest by print and broadcast media.
  • Attract impulse buyers: One survey showed that 20 to 45% of window shoppers who passed by were impulse buyers. This is quite significant, considering the revenue payoffs that come from spending small amounts on signage.
  • Increase profits: Adding or changing pole signage, directional signage or plaza identity signage for retail businesses can increase revenues in the range of 8.6% to 15.6%.
Getting frames and displays right

  • Planning: Give yourself 2 to 3 weeks to come up with the right themes, draw the best designs, do error-free proofing and printing, and think of the most appropriate installation.
  • Format and location: Given the wide range of formats and locations available on your premise, map them precisely for maximum business impact.
  • Weather factor: Install wind- and rain-proof frame displays; factor as well the need to use tent pegs or cables to fasten them secure, so that they can withstand the worst of any weather condition.
  • Maintenance: Check the signage regularly for signs of damage or impact of weather and fix/replace them accordingly.
  • Transportation: If you need to use the frame display boards at other locations or events, move them with care, as slipshod transportation could lead to damage.
Frame display boards are easy to use and cost-effective as well. Invest in a professional signage agency and you can rest assured of excellent design and installation, and maximum returns.

Wednesday 23 November 2016

The use of Humor in Signage

The American humorist Mary Hirsch once said, “Humor is a rubber sword. It helps you make a point without drawing blood”. In an increasingly stressed world, humor brings fresh perspectives, makes interesting observations, breaks long-established stereotypes, and helps lighten the mood in a social gathering. The huge popularity of stand-up comedians, comedy talk shows, and TV channels dedicated to comedy, is ample proof that people are seeking more and more humor in their daily lives.

Using humor in signage

Signage is one of the most important, yet a highly undervalued aspect of marketing and advertising. Though signage requires neither much real estate nor expenditure, advertisers have often downplayed its role in advertising. Another reason is the increased use of online advertising, and the proliferation of businesses that can bring to your front door everything from a pizza to a car.

Yet, signage is very significant as it is the first and foremost aspect of a business that you notice, even if you don’t step in to transact any business. Aesthetically designed signage can in fact attract people from afar, a point of advantage well exploited by rooftop and rotary neon signboards.

Humor can add an extra zing to signage, as it creates an instant connect with the audience. A touch of humor creates differentiation and improves brand recall: a funny logo, or a funny tagline below the company name, is bound to be recognized and talked about by consumers repeatedly.

Industries best suited for humor in signage

However, not all businesses are equally suited for using humor in signage. The inherent nature of some businesses makes them too complex, too intricate, or too serious to use humor in their signage. Accordingly, some businesses are more suited than others are.

Retail: In the deluge of brands, and unimaginative advertising of the vast majority of retail businesses, the few standout companies exploit humor as the cutting edge marketing tool.

Travel, Tourism and Hospitality: This segment can afford the comfort of a generous budget, and so can experiment with humor, as it targets huge revenue from international tourists.

Marketing & Advertising: Marketing and Advertising Agencies help improve the image of several businesses; they can use humor imaginatively to improve their own business.

Transportation & Logistics: Given the tense nature of the activity of this business, the use of humorous signage, can make things easier for everyone involved.

Clothes, Footwear and Personal Accessories: In the luxury segment of this sector, consumers show a taste for the finest things of life, and so can appreciate humor better.

Food, Confectionery and Beverages: Here again, in the face of tough competition, innovative entrepreneurs can make significant headway with the tool of humor in their ad campaigns including signage.

Construction, Architecture & Decor: This is also high budget sector, where humor is well appreciated.

Service businesses in general: A service company can project a sophisticated image of its services;  it can succeed in marching ahead of the pack by using humor in its promotional activities including signage.

Humor in signage is a great marketing strategy, no doubt; however, beware! It can be a double-edged sword: get it wrong, or belabor it, you are very likely to dismay your prospective and existing customers. It’s important, therefore, to engage a professional signage agency who have the expertise and experience for creating funny, effective and engaging signage for your business.

Sunday 23 October 2016

Wall Graphics: Get it Right

Wall graphics are a great way to showcase your organizational identity, culture, and values. It makes for a great first impression on visitors, clients, customers and employees every time they enter your office.

No wonder, interior decorators, construction companies and brand marketing agencies integrate graphical elements into homes and offices, in order to give the enclosure a unique identity. Inside a home, wall graphics can be used to present the residents’ taste and outlook to life.

Wall graphics win attention

Homes and offices have abundant wall and column surfaces, often left unused. This is a precious thing that can be utilized to convey necessary information, engage people in a lively manner, and promote business or homeowners’ passion in subtle ways.

Wall graphics aim at the focused attention of prospects, clients, employees and vendors, to enable ‘top of the mind recall’. However, to ensure that wall graphics are very effective, they must be designed to serve a clear purpose, and to blend nicely with the external architecture as well as the interiors.

Types of wall graphics

Wide ranging multiple elements:

Wall graphics range from miniature wall borders and cutouts to more complex wall decor that covers entire walls. They may contain elements of logo, photographs, text, motifs and sculptural elements in various shapes and sizes.

Non-PVC options

Smart technology has created a range of non-PVC wall graphic made from a finely woven fabric, and a tape that sticks at the back. It does not wear and tear, peel, or stretch, and can be used repeatedly, or moved around.

Decals

Decals are adhesive stickers, which you can peel off the template, and apply onto the wall easily. Popular versions of wall decal have motifs, animals or elements of nature in the design.

Essentials of wall graphics

Wall graphics poorly designed are a waste of money and of no purpose. Here are some essentials of wall graphic design: 


  • Tell your story: Tell your organizational story effectively to convert viewers to your services/products.
  • Project your vision and values: The wall graphics should project the vision and values of your business.
  • Personalize: Reproduce photos of great events and turn them into murals.
  • Try bold positioning: Experiment with bold positioning of wall graphics in unexpected and secluded places.
  • Use decals instead of artwork: The latest trend is to put wall decals into frames to make them look like paintings. A series of framed decals can give the look of a museum gallery.
  • Separate wall graphics from art pieces: Never put wall graphics alongside your art pieces; the former can steal the spotlight from the latter.
  • Avoid over use: Avoid the temptation to use too many wall graphics. That would turn people off and take the edge off your brand name.

Considering the fact that wall graphics reflect your brand identity or unique personal image, they must be designed with care; this is what specialist-painting agencies excel at. They make use of custom tools and materials in order to create skillfully the designs and execute them efficiently on desired surfaces. You would do well to entrust your requirements to experts with considerable experience.

Friday 23 September 2016

Latest Trends in Signage

Display advertizing has become more complex over time. Static display or signage steps up the game these days, as print marketers explore the full bandwidth of an online-integrated advertizing strategy.

Compared to online or print advertizing, where a whole lot of information can easily distract prospects, signage stays focused and has the power to make greater impact. This is why signage is indispensable from both utility and branding perspectives.

It remains the most effective medium of branding, as it uses messages that are intelligent, icons that are self-explanatory, and images that can entice. Listed below are a few rapid strides in signage trends and concepts, witnessed during the last two decades.

Interactive signage

Digital Signage has changed the face of display techniques and the current business perception of prospective clients and regular customers in general. Increasingly, business owners tend to use a mix of physical and digital signage, in order to derive maximum returns.

The older signage is used in the interiors, basements, car parks, foyers and all those locations that a customer is likely to frequent. Digital signage shines prominently in the exteriors of establishments to help customers identify the location, advertize its unique brand value to, and create a lasting impression on them.

Interactive digital signage (IDS) empowers greatly advertisers and marketers. One can create amazing multi-touch projects that are simultaneously displayable on multiple screens, across multiple locations. IDS systems are more user-friendly:  they provide a tech-savvy generation with familiar features like ‘touch’, ‘pinch’ or ‘zoom’ that are common to most designing software.

Interactive digital signage is ideal for high-impact marketing initiatives, events, businesses or even locations. For example, UK’s largest indoor digital signage screen is irresistibly arresting at Waterloo Station; it is massive as it measures nearly 40 meters, sweeping the entire length of the Waterloo Station Concourse.

Customizable displays

Customizable displays reflect the increasing need to port displays quickly across locations, or speed up the installation for events. They range from miniature bespoke stickers to a more comprehensive package that includes design, specification, manufacture, installation and maintenance. The latest software capable of heavy-duty processing is at the heart of their design.

Indoor/outdoor banners

Banners, one of the most efficient, cost-effective and popular instruments of advertising have also evolved over time. Poly, nylon, and flex face banners, in addition to the more prevalent and versatile vinyl banners find an increasing use today; they are trendy in a range of businesses including retail, hospitality, construction, and food & beverages.

These banners are available in a wide range of sizes and colors to suit your needs. Some of them such as vinyl banners are environment-friendly and ideal for businesses that have a strong Corporate Social Responsibility agenda.

Signage is one of the most time-honored and cost-effective alternatives to costly print advertizing. Experienced signage consultants and graphic designers can visit you for a free consultation and offer expert professional advice on options that are ideal for your business needs. Well-made signage goes indeed a long way in maximizing the ROI on your marketing spend.

Tuesday 23 August 2016

Trade Show Display Basics for your Benefit

As it is true of almost all aspects of life, technology is changing fast the way people create and present trade show displays nowadays. While this is a factor you cannot ignore, the basic function of the display remains unchanged – to attract customer attention and disseminate information about your company and your products/services. For those reasons, the basics of a trade show display remain unchanged, and you need to factor them into all your marketing planning.

Choose the right graphics

Ornate, artistic, and highly colored graphics with a large amount of artwork may look very attractive. However, you should be aware that you are not exhibiting your products/services in an art gallery.

What is important is that the message and information that the display tries to convey should be easy for the curated audience to read, understand and remember. The bottom line is that the clarity of the message and its desired effect should be primary, and artwork and graphics secondary.

Use a memorable headline

Most visitors to a trade show head for a few specific booths, and spend the rest of their time wandering around. These are exactly the people whose attention you need to target. Their attention span unfortunately is just a few seconds, and then they move on. That is all the time you have to make an effective impression, arouse their curiosity and to bring them into your stall.

It’s imperative, therefore, that your display headline must do the trick for you: it should be in an easy-to-read font, short, clear, direct and interesting enough to make them pause and then come in.

Keep the description focused

The trade show display should be succinctly informative to the visitors, not overly technical and all-inclusive. Let it highlight in bullets the Unique Selling Points of your products/services. If there is too much matter, the visitors will lose interest and walk away. If they are interested, they will ask the staff at the booth for more information.

Show up prominently your company name

The trade show is all about promoting your company. You need to make sure that the name is prominently and captivatingly displayed, so that it is etched in the memory of the visitors. If there is a company logo, strike a balance between the text and the graphic – the logo means nothing unless you have a distinctive name related to it.

Display clearly your website and social media addresses

Visitors cannot gather from one visit to a trade show booth as much information as they might require. In addition, there will usually be issues and questions they have after the visit. Placing your website and social media addresses prominently will help them later to access the information they want.

It is not easy to find the right mix of technology, creativity and display expertise to create ideal trade show displays. The best way to go about it is to seek the service of a professional signage company that specializes in this area.

They will be able to combine your industry and product knowledge with their signage and display specialist skills to design for you an excellent display; it will surely attract the kind of crowds you want and help you stand out at the trade show.

Thursday 21 July 2016

Creating Memorable Signs : Dos and Don’ts for you

Signage is the commonest cost-effective publicity medium available. The precise purposes of a business sign are to: create public awareness of the business entity and the products or services on offer; arouse interest in the form of footfalls and queries.

Many business owners try to ensure that their signs serve those purposes by looking around and following what others are ‘successfully’ doing. In most cases, business signs are sized nicely, balanced in the amount of information they convey, and perfect in the use of tasteful artwork and color coordination.

In other words, most of these signs are like a million others – all of them anything but memorable. That is what you do not want. That’s how your business sign should not be.

The universally known sign

One sign that is recognized all over the world and evokes immediately associations of the industry it represents is the HOLLYWOOD sign in Southern California. Forget the fact that it was originally put up by a real estate developer over 90 years ago, to promote a new property subdivision.

Today it means movies – not just in the place of its location, but all over the world. Let’s look at how it has turned out to be such a memorable sign.

It is dramatic

It is far too big, brash and loud. It is located in a strange place; it would have been perfect for a real estate subdivision, but not for the movie industry. It is 3-dimensional, where it does not need to be so. But it works beautifully.

It is unusual

The color scheme is odd: a white sign on a hillside of green and dark brown. The sign is not mounted on a pole or stand, but sits on the ground. It is not in proximity to high traffic areas and people have to look for it. But it works wonderfully.

It is not “correct”

The letters of the sign are not level: they rise and fall as the terrain undulates.  Would a normal sign have such sloppy lettering? It would not. But once again, the sign works enchantingly.

The HOLLYWOOD sign is an old one, of a period when signage was unknown to be what it is today – a sophisticated high tech science. It does not conform in any way to what are generally accepted as the fundamentals of good signage. It has major defects that advertising and PR experts would pronounce ‘fatal’.

But it has become a celebrated all-time icon. None of these “mistakes” were made on purpose – they just happened. At times, making such “mistakes” deliberately can work for you in creating memorable signage.

The HOLLYWOOD sign breaks all the rules that most people associate with business signs. But it works as no other, and has become an evergreen icon of the industry. In other words, playing too safe and being too conventional can make your signs forgettable.

Going to the other extreme can detract the onlookers from your message; the sign, not your business, would become a talking point. Finding the middle ground is not easy.

The best way to get your signage right is to work with a professional signage company. They have the experience and expertise to create signs that are memorable, maximize the publicity you get, and increase the footfalls as you expect.

Thursday 23 June 2016

The Role of Signs in Rebranding your Business

No retailers love a soft and slow market. Unfortunately, this is what happens rather frequently, especially when you struggle to attract eyeballs and retain footfalls. However, this can be a time, which you can use to your advantage. You can review your business critically and dispassionately to identify trouble spots. Have things become stale, boring and predictable? Could these be part of the problem? Could a little rebranding help improve the situation? If so, get started without delay.

Signs are reliable tools

What kind of rebranding can promote your business is something only you know: no one else knows your business and your market better than you do. Raising money can be difficult, when the market is dull or weak. The moment you make up your mind on the rebranding action plan, you need to keep expenses down, and make it as cost-effective as possible, without compromising on the outcome of the action.

The solution is simple – signs! Despite all the new marketing tools available today, like the internet and social media, the right sign in the right place in retail business, is still the most efficient strategy to attract customers and ensure a rise in profits.

Decide on a consistent and pleasing design and color scheme of the sign. This will become part of your revised brand. Find an effective logo or image that you can use everywhere to reinforce your new business image.

Create an equally effective message about the changes you want to spread. At times, you may need to spread more than one message. If so, decide on the proportions and mix of the messages with the budget available. Then get the final action plan and budget ready. Think not that you are risking money during difficult times; you are in fact investing for the near future to keep going ahead full steam.

Employ a professional signage company

When your homework is done, your next step should be to contact a professional sign making company. Work with them to fine-tune your business requirements and the budget in order to design the different types of signs you need. Your business acumen should go hand in hand in hand with their signage expertise. The outcome would be the best signs put up in the best locations proclaiming effectively your new message.

Signage is a far more complex and specialized field than most people realize. Depending on the design and the location, a simple sign could be as effective as an expensive high tech tool. Multiple smaller signs in different locations may be better than a single huge one in certain cases.

The best way to ensure that you make the right decisions and get the maximum return on your investment is to work with a reputed professional sign making company. They have rich experience and the right technology to provide you with the kind of service you need. Check their testimonials to boost your confidence in them.

Tuesday 24 May 2016

Signage Types You Should Know (Part-2)

We looked at a few signage types and definitions in the previous post. We continue to look at a few more in this post.

  • Mission signs: Also known as purpose signs, they give customers a clear statement of the ethics and beliefs of the business.
  • Motivational signs: These are the same as incentive signs.
  • Point-of-purchase signs: These signs attract interest to specific products, and prompt quick purchase decisions. They are usually found near checkout counters with the products exhibited nearby.
  • Policy signs: These signs provide information on business policy such as exchanging products or returning those that are defective.
  • Price only signs: A sign of this type displays nothing but a specific price – for example “$19.99”. No product information is given, and so such signs can be used for any goods of the same value.
  • Product benefit signs: These are signs that provide information on the benefits a customer can expect, if the product or service is purchased.
  • Promotional product signs:  These are small signs that look like price tags, placed on products. They contain usually the logo of the manufacturer or retailer, contact information and a tagline promoting the product.
  • Proud papa signs: – Proud papa signs draw attention to those parts of a retail establishment the management is most proud of and wants to show off.
  • Reminder signs: These signs do not directly sell, but remind customers of associated goods they may need. For example a reminder sign in or near the paint section of a hardware store could ask “Do You Need Brushes?”
  • Story Sign: Story signs give background information of a product such as where it is from, or how it was created. These signs require very careful wording because the information given may be interesting to some but not to others; it must therefore be made clear that reading the sign is not essential. Additionally, it should be as brief as possible, or else the customer may lose interest in both the sign and the product.
  • Testimonial sign: These signs repeat customer feedback on the excellent service received, or the high quality, or usefulness of products bought.
  • Threshold sign: These signs are placed within a few feet of the entrance of the store. They provide the latest information that may be of interest, and direct customers to where they can find special offers and so on.
  • Way finding Signs: These signs are used in large retail establishments to point to customers locations of products, for example “Toothpaste This Way.”
  • Window Graphics: These signs are graphics, placed in display windows to attract the attention of those passing by and lure them into the store.

The various types of signs listed in this post are meant to help you understand better how they attempt to increase customer interest and boost sales. As marketing and selling need to be more sophisticated and customer friendly, consider how these signs can be exploited to expand your business.

A professional signage company will be able to provide you with reliable inputs on the latest trends in signage. They will be happy to work with you to create the kind of signs that will bring prospective customers into your store and push your sales up. If you want professional results, you need to use trending signs made for you by professionals.

Sunday 24 April 2016

Signage Types You Should Know (Part 1)

As a businessperson or store owner, you are probably used to signs for promotion of your business. You know how effective they can be in conveying to your market population the message that would bring the customers in.

But are you sure that you are aware of the full potentials of signage? Do you know there are different types of signs for different purposes, which can boost your sales in different ways? Here are listed a few types of signage you should know.

Backroom or coaching signs: These signs are placed in the employee restroom or break area; they convey motivational messages to enhance performance levels of the employees.

Benefit signs: These signs highlight specific aspects of a product that promise specific benefits to the buyer.

Clearance signs: These signs demarcate an area in a retail establishment where are displayed products for sale    at specially reduced prices in order to reduce the inventory. The idea is to attract the attention of bargain hunters.

Customer profile signs: These are used to give information about the best customers of a business, as an acknowledgement of their contribution to its success. Names are put up only after obtaining permission.

Digital kiosks:  These are standalone units that have multimedia displays; they provide information on the business and/or products that will be of interest to customers.

Digital signs: These moving electronic displays, located usually in high traffic areas, provide continually updated business information to customers.

Educational signs: This is a kind of signage that provides customers with product details, which are informative and of some educational interest. For example, signage of an HVAC product may give details about ‘go green measures’, energy conservation, environmental implications of its use, etc.

Emotional signs: This type of signage helps strike an emotional chord in customers; to give an example: “10% of what you pay will be given to orphanages.”

Employee information signs: These are used to remind employees about policy or procedure changes that they need to keep in mind when working in specific areas. A “No smoking” sign indicates an area where flammable products are put on display.

Entertainment signs: These are signs that do not directly sell products, but use words or images to bring a smile to customers’ lips; they are thus made more open to spending money in the store, buying products they never thought they would.

Floor signs: A floor sign is an image painted on the floor that directs people in a specific direction; it may use graphics to point to people the locations of the products they are interested in.

Incentive signs: These signs are used to remind employees of performance-related contests and awards they could win by superior performance.

Information signs: These are used to inform people about the social or cultural activities of the business; for example, “We support the local orchestra.”

We will look at more signage types and definitions in the next post. In the meantime, if you would like to know more about the signs mentioned here, and how they can be used effectively for your business, contact a professional signage company. They have the knowledge and expertise to tell you what you need to know and, if required, make the signs the way you want.

Thursday 24 March 2016

How You can Create Effective Retail Signs

Retail signage is not just a matter of making prominent a product name and its price to catch the eye of potential customers. It is about telling him what he needs to know (whether or not he realizes it), and giving him a compelling reason to buy it.

Many retailers with the best of products, locations and displays are often left wondering why their sales are flat. The reason is usually signage problems. There are a few basic points, if kept in mind seriously, will help you create and use effective signs that will surely sell fast your products.

Be to the point

Remember we live in the times of Twitter, one-minute YouTube videos and the like. Attention span of viewers is getting increasingly shorter; no one has the time or patience to read longish fine print on a congested sign. Let the message of your sign be brief and to the point.

Use the right fonts

Fancy lettering may look attractive, but reading it takes more time than straight forward clear-cut letters. Once again, your potential customers have other things to do than spend a few extra seconds looking at a hard-to-read sign. And for the older generation, who wants to use binoculars to read a sign with a tiny font?

Provide a reason to buy

Tell the potential customer why he should buy what you are selling. Saying that it’s good or not expensive is not enough. Tell him it will improve his appearance or increase his safety. Once again, with limited space, you need to be direct and to the point.

Get the potential customer to relate to the product

Get the customer to visualize himself or herself, using the product. Use the words “you” or “your” in the sign to create a link between buyer and product.

Let images be powerful

Texting is trending these days, the messages getting shorter and shorter with abbreviations, initials and emojis, replacing the full word. Use these elements in the sign wherever you can; but remember that the texting style is generation-specific; it is primarily the lingo of the world of netizens and teenagers. You may have to use the old world style if your target population is the 40 plus generation.

Let not your signs be monotonous

The aim of the sign is to attract attention and appeal to good humor; puns, jokes, amusing images and anything else that keeps the sign from being insipid is good. A person who can be made to smile at your sign is always an easier person to whom you can sell your products.

Test the signs

A sign may be perfect as a concept or when you hold it in your hands. However, it may not be so good when put up in its chosen location. The tinting of the glass, the reflection from the sign and other things could make it difficult for a person driving by to view it. Test out the sign with a few customers before actually using it.

Knowing how to use effectively your signs is half the battle won to increase sales. The other half is to get the right signs made effectively in the right way. That means using the right fonts, colors, sizes and materials.

This is where a professional sign making company can be a huge help. They have the experience and expertise to guide you properly and create the best signage for you. Your business acumen coupled with the proven skills of a signage professional will give you signs that sell your products to your satisfaction.

Wednesday 24 February 2016

Designing Your Outdoor Sign: The Key Issues for You to Consider

Geography is an important factor in brick and mortar retailing. Your business is in one location. Your customers are located all over the city. Yes, there are roads that can bring them from wherever they are to the place where you are.

But how do you get them to travel? – by placing outdoor signs to remind them of who you are, and what you have to offer them. The outdoor sign, like a magnet, draws customers’ attention.

The effectiveness of this pulling power depends on how well the sign is designed and made. Here are the key issues you need to consider when planning the use of outdoor signage.

  • Design: The design is what makes the initial impact. A well-designed sign, though in a bad location, is certainly better than nothing. But a badly deigned sign even in a good location will create a negative image: that will be the undoing of your business. When finalizing the design, pay special attention to logo size, color and fonts.
  • Size: Check on the municipal guidelines on outdoor signs to ensure that you comply with them. It can be incredibly frustrating for you to have a great sign removed, just a day after its installation. You will feel bad when you are told it did not meet the specs of the local authorities. The despair will be intense, because you spent so much time and money on its creation. And the market will wonder why your sign came up and disappeared so soon. That is the kind of negative business image you should never ever send.
  • Height: Height is critical in terms of visibility. When you drive your car, you will see easily a sign, if it is pole mounted and above the tree line. Pedestrians can, however, see the signs mounted at lower levels. The abundant response of the main audience being the deciding factor, place your signs at the optimum height following, of course, the municipal regulations.
  • Mounting: The style, design and size of a sign are often dictated by the way it needs to be mounted. Better to know how the sign will be mounted, before starting to plan the design and size. Mounting considerations should not mandate last minute modifications that would impact,  for sure, the effectiveness of the signs. Moreover, any additional cost, wasted labor, or wasted time would certainly make you feel bad.
  • Environment: The sign must be durable with capacity to cope with environmental extremes like scorching shine and heavy rain – two things that can seriously affect the life and the quality of your signs.
  • Surroundings: The sign must be prominent and noticeable. At the same time, it should not clash with the surroundings, and stick out like a sore thumb and seem out of place.

Your retail establishment may be confined to only one location, but your outdoor signs will make your presence felt wherever they are placed; the message they send through the passers-by will travel in all directions. It’s of utmost importance, therefore, that the kind of your business image you try to create through them at these multiple locations should be very effective.

Your signs are the vital things that will improve your retail footfall, and your sales depend on how effective the signs are. That is why using the services of a professional sign making company is so important. They will be able to guide you on the type of sign, the size, the design and everything else that goes into making it an excellent marketing tool.

Sunday 24 January 2016

Ring in Your New Signage!

We live in a world where new products, services and innovations appear at an ever-increasing pace. The market has grown accustomed to this bombardment, and expects it to happen regularly and easily.

A small business or retail establishment just cannot afford to lag behind in this race: there is a constantly-increasing need for it too, to change and evolve its business strategy to keep up with market expectation.

A status quo is no longer profitable. In business, change is the only constant. But change in itself is not enough. You need to let your market know about it – in an effective manner. So, Ring in Your New Sign, and Ring out the Old!

Upgrading is not enough

It is essential for you to renovate regularly your retail space, and the products and the services you offer. But by itself, this is not enough, for the simple reason that your competitors too, do the same. Even if you fare much better than all your competitors in business, no impact will be perceptible unless you tell your market about it – and do it effectively.

A really great new product or showroom will not bring in more business unless people know that you are offering it. Advertising is important, but it is costly and has its limitations. An ad, whether in print or electronic media, has a fleeting presence and even the best of them have only limited recall value. And how long can you afford to keep putting out your ads?

Your sign: the cost-effective messenger

An ad, after repeated viewings, becomes dull, boring and even irritating. Think about the numerous ads that irritate and repel you? How often have you seen them? Is their regular repetition a major cause for your disliking them? Large corporate houses have huge advertising budgets, and can keep on churning out new ads on a regular basis. Small business owners just cannot afford to do this.

The use of a sign as the cost-effective messenger is an entirely different proposition: it has an aura of permanence and ever-lasting impact. It can, over time, become a prominent landmark of a trade area, and turn out to be both a conscious and subconscious constant reminder of your brand. It has even the potential of a standalone trademark.

Signs rarely become irritants. If a sign you see regularly on your drive to work disappears, perhaps you may feel that something is missing. In terms of cost effectiveness, there is nothing that can beat a well-placed and well-designed sign as your brand ambassador.

The old cannot support the new

The permanence of a sign is definitely a most positive virtue; however, an old sign cannot support a revamped business or new product line. Stability and permanence are great assets that inspire confidence in customers. But they cannot counter the attraction and effect of something that heralds a new order.

When you are ready to launch new products/services, you need to tell the market about them. That means your great ambassador – the old sign – necessarily has to undergo transformation. That requires a balance between reminding customers of who you are, and at the same time telling them that an old trusted friend now has something new to offer them.

Yes! Investing in new signage does involve considerable expense. But it is, at any time, much less than other ways of spreading the word about your new line of products/services. An investment in new signage to support the changes you have made in your business is certainly worthwhile: it will surely bring in the best returns.

There is no cost-effective way of providing information to your market other than a sign. While the information the sign offers is crucial, the way it is presented is equally important. A professional sign-making company will be able to create the right type of sign to spread word about the changes you have made in your business, and attract the walk-ins and trade enquiries your business needs.