Its a beautiful thing when a plan comes together. We began as a company that thought we would take a shot at being a printer that would support the vehicle graphics industry.
Change or die.
One of the things we discovered we were good at, was responding to requests for things that we had never done. We supported special events companies with projects like making a portable football field and giant dice to support a consumer product event.
A 9′ tall coffee cup mounted to trailer with its own energy source and water resevoir to support a coffee sampling promotion at the Whistler Winter Olympics and then came this.
Client specified a BIG stainless steel globe and accompanying signage,
as well as a smaller spinning version for the lobby.
Never stop learning and (almost) never say, “No, we don’t do that”
Are you a small business owner without a marketing department, or maybe a recent marketing graduate with very little real world experience? Then this might be for you.
Let’s start with the question; What is directional signage. Quite simply, signage that informs: “which way do I go?”
If you want a dynamic environment in any situation; you need to put thought into it. As it relates to retail communication issues, it can also relate to directional signage.
Some directional signage is strictly practical. Washroom this way. Exit that way. However, when you are trying to suggest to a potential customer that they are being invited to go in a particular direction, where they will be rewarded with knowing something valuable; it takes a little more thought.
One of the most important phases as we get to know our customers needs is to thoroughly understand what their business is all about. We want to know, from the perspective of the consumer, why anyone should care. Once we get it as consumers, we can more effectively assist in conveying what ultimately is established as the strategic communication objective.
A lot of people mix up strategy and tactics, but they are significantly different, as tactics serve to support the strategy. At Big Picture Imaging, although we started in the business thinking that it was a good name for a company that prints big stuff; it really has become the foundation of how we think about the bigger picture of our customers. Establishing strategy is critical and it makes it very handy to measure against, as you determine tactics to support it.
I’m going to illustrate this through a specific company we are currently working with.
Legend Spirits is a new company establishing itself as a craft distillery in a tourist oriented, smaller city in Ontario. It became evident, from initial meetings with ownership, that they were passionate about creating unique and interesting flavours with an old-world craftsmanship approach to experimentation and delivery of premium quality products. One might think that a bottle of booze is a bottle of booze, but in this day and age, creating an image, and backing it up with quality is the real deal, especially for small businesses competing with significantly bigger guns with monstrous advertising budgets.
Every tactical execution must support the strategic communication objective (We create high value premium products that are both interesting and, in some cases, unique).
Now, after that circuitous rout to get here, we’ll get back to the issue at hand; directional signage.
Directional signage is a viewable mechanism that can be used to communicate the messages that will support the strategy. How you “say” something can be equally important to “what” you are saying. Colours matter. Copy matters. Images matter and even a lack of images can matter.
These a-frames are used outside of their new facility, to direct potential customers into the retail store Visually, they are designed to reinforce a look of quality, some old-world craftsmanship, a teaser of what will be found inside, but overall, a consistency of a brandmark that can stick around mentally when future choices are considered.
Our modern world is full of distractions. I sometimes refer to it as visual pollution. Imagine yourself at a festival, or a craft marketplace. What do you see? Probably a lot of very colourful displays vying for your attention. Eye candy everywhere and your brain wrestling with where to look, how much time to process and finally deciding if you want to investigate further. Good odds that your brain will not process fast enough to tell feet to walk over…unless that message was powerful enough, or timely enough, to influence your effort in response.
Keeping that in mind; we opted to suggest a simple black and white device to attract attention in the thunderstorm of colour at outdoor events. Black & white is a classic combination and is virtually timeless. It never goes out of style. This canopy display for use at various events will not overshadow the product, which will be merchandised within this peaceful environment. This company is purposefully providing a relaxing visual, much like the wares it sells are designed to deliver the same reward.
A back wall was also required. It’s tempting to use a back wall as a sales tool and place pictures of products, but again, that makes it “noisy” and actually redundant. The products will be merchandised on a table and the objective of event marketing, especially in this case, is to initiate a more personal relationship with potential clients. The PEOPLE in the booth are there for that purpose. Why confuse the issue with something else trying to grasp/distract attention for the objective at hand.
And finally, a tag line has been established. Simply displayed and immediately activates the brain of the reader to take an idea away.
We’re confident that the ownership attitudes and attention to detail will pay dividends in the future. If you’re ever in Parry Sound, Ontario; look them up.
Need some help on your awareness projects. We serve the Greater Toronto Area and have supported car dealerships across the country. Gobpi.ca
A favourite client introduced me to this axiom. This was her response to my question, “Why do you use us as a resource when you know you could find cheaper alternatives?”
We have never been the cheapest game in town on vehicle graphics and we don’t based our prices on what our competition charges. We price our services based on what it is worth to put our focus, our experience and our effort to deliver a premium result in the hands of our clients.
Case in point; we received a call from a potential client that wants us to fix a “botched” job on a vehicle wrap. This is not the first time this has happened to us. A client asks us to quote. We lose the bid because a competitor comes in cheaper and then they come back and want it redone properly. Our quote doesn’t change, but we have to add on a fee to remove the inadequate previous job. That is when cheap gets expensive.
It means something else too when you are driving your mobile marketing message. The impression that vehicle makes is exactly the impression that is displayed to suggest your company either cares about quality or it doesn’t. If you don’t care about the impression you make to your customers before they engage your services; how can you expect them to think you care about the impression you have left after the job is done? Are we perfect? Nope. We have made mistakes but our clients can be confident that we will fix it and we will learn to ensure we don’t make the same mistake twice.
Anyone in this business knows what short cuts to take to save cost. How would you know if the inks used are UV resistant? How would you know that you can over-laminate vinyl with a film that will improve the UV resistance by a factor of five? Its not really up to you to know. It’s the responsibility of a value driven vendor to know that for you.
It all sounds like marketing mumbo jumbo, but the reality is that people want to confidently buy services. We all need to make resource decisions and we want to be assured we are making the right choice. We don’t knock on a lot of doors. Our sixteen years in the business brings us referrals based on satisfied clients being our best sales people.
So why am I telling you all this? To try to make you aware that value should be your primary driver; not cheapest price. Not just for vehicle graphics. For any purchase you make.
There it is. Short and sweet. Either that makes sense to you or it won’t.
Got questions? Feel free to contact us if you are in the Greater Toronto Area. Preferably west end. I am not the biggest fan of the 401. Have a great day! www.gobpi.ca
Please take note, This will be the only image provided on this blog and at the moment; this logo is meaningless to you. Please let me explain why.
Logos have taken on a fascinating relevance for many as a brand marker, but I wonder how many just use it for pure vanity. At this point in the blog that is all it accomplishes. Hopefully at the end, it might have relatively more. I hope I can earn the right to keep you interested.
The purpose of a logo should be more than a signature, just like a sign on a building needs to be more as well. Yet all you need to do is drive down the road and see a building. or a vehicle, with a logo on it that tells you absolutely nothing. Sure, both identify something as specific. Most building signage serve to just remind people what building they work in. Far fewer actually raise awareness to potential customers about what they do. Somebody in a company is willing to spend thousands of dollars on developing a logo, or a sign that says virtually nothing.
Logos only hold value if they are associated with the representation of why a potential customer should care. Why should they pay attention? What value is communicated, that can be processed by the viewer for a decision now, or in the future. Many are pretty; but effective beyond eliciting a response of “clever” ? Ummm…nope.
The logo itself can illustrate many things associated with a category or segment, but unless you have the means to support that logo with an educational program that communicates what the logo actually means, let’s call it what it is. A picture. There are good pictures and bad pictures.
Let’s get specific.You see a sexy logo that incorporates a monkey wrench in the word plumber. It got your attention. An important function of any outdoor advertising mechanism. You need a plumber right now. OK, you might make a mental note and call when you get home. Or you might be reminded that you need to remember to call a plumber and Google for a local resource.
Unless you have seen that plumber drive by, or those of an associated fleet, numerous times, that logo didn’t benefit the plumber that paid in both time and money for that logo.
A logo can make you look more professional. Professionalism is important after you have arrived in the presence of an actual customer, but did the logo get you there or a referral that helped them understand your value? A logo can also serve to get attention, but, as a standalone branding mechanism, it has very little measurable value for the small independent businessperson, considering the time and money (which is the same thing) spent on it. Measure the R.O.I.
The logo in the early stages of your business life cycle is to add to your professional image and only that. It takes time for that logo to mean anything. Higher R.O.I. will be realized on the effort of actually driving your business. How?
Consider this. Predominantly communicate your value first, your logo second. Illustrate why you are a great plumber instead of trying to fool your potential customers into believing it because you have a sexy logo. I think you will get more calls from “My Mom wants me to be your plumber” with a picture of her kissing you, than a $30,000 logo treatment that everyone had fun playing with on your dime.
Don’t get me wrong. Logos can generate equity over time and to not use one, when that equity is established, is just plain wrong. However, if you are a small business; understand the importance of putting your emphasis on why your customer should care and gradually raise the relevance of the logo when your customers understand your value. Tie it in, but don’t make it the focus of your three seconds.After the important orientation phase, then a picture is worth a thousand words.
Just so you know where this perspective is coming from. Fundamentally, I am trained as a salesperson. I have corporately directed marketing functions effectively. I managed to increase volume over fifteen years at one company where my very first sales call introduced me to a customer that asked me, “Why would a bright young man like you want to work for a company that is just selling a fad? I took the sales volume of another company, where I directed sales and marketing, from about $12M to $35M in three years. To me, it is less about pretty and more about function and the generation of a sale. And not ice to an Eskimo, but providing a solution that really matters for a client. I learned in the trenches that a display of merchandise that was too pretty is less likely to be shopped. A display that looks “just” good, will actually sell better. If that is considered a bias; I am totally ok with that.
If I put my logo at the top of this page; would it have mattered? It might if you believe I am qualified to have an opinion. Or not. Only if I convinced you that I might know what I am talking about, would this logo have any value at all.
My website is gobpi.ca Feel free to take a look if you want to see what we have done for clients we have supported.
It is very easy to place a logo on a vehicle and then think “Done. We have maintained the integrity of the brand”, but while that is relevant, the trick is to be consistent in the message associated with the brand, versus an icon that is easy to replicate.
Outdoor advertising, of which vehicle graphics is a definite category, demands a bit more complexity. It is communicating a message to hundreds of thousands of road warriors, and if you haven’t built your brand with all the other media mechanisms (TV, radio, magazine, social media) you have to pack your entire punch on your fleet…or your work truck.
Consistency of message is critical when you have a multiple vehicle fleet.
The three areas to carefully consider are initial eye candy to attract attention, then a clear understanding of why the viewer should care and finally an easy way to connect with the potential vendor.
In this case different background colours are irrelevant to the brand. The colours add eye appeal. But the message is simple; there is a Chrysler dealer in Galt. This aimed at consumers and independent mechanics who need parts. This dealer has about 5 trucks in town and every one of them ties the same message as a foundation with overlying messages on the back where a driver has an opportunity to give the message some attention.
This dealership does a great job of consistently communicating that they are there for all the potential customers they pass each day. The consistent foundation, coupled with a few variety communication elements tells the people who see multiple versions, that they offer a range of services, including those they may not see referenced. All they know is what they have seen and each time they see a new one, they have a built-in expectation that they may see another. OK, let’s call that psychological babble, but our brains have some interesting habits that consistently get represented by us all. This dealership has enough trucks on the road in a relatively smaller population town where the odds of seeing this advertising mechanism is high.
Here are some other examples of the three key issues necessary to consistently manage your message. A powerful corporate brand, the dealership “personal” brand and a consistent mesage on the back of each vehicle offering the same reason to care.
and from a different industry
In conclusion, it really isn’t about a logo. It’s about what the brand actually means. Depending on your marketing budget, how you establish that meaning needs to be considered carefully to ensure people think what you want them to think every time they see a marketing piece used to communicate to them. We call that determining the strategic communication objective. Once that important consideration is established, determining the tactical executions is far more effective.
We help you express yourself. This link takes you to our website section on vehicle graphics Mobile Marketing
