Everyone in business is in the business of sales. You may not be peddling widgets, but we’re all selling something. Like it or not, commerce depends on marketing: a high-pressure, highly competitive field where genuine talent seems to be diluted with morons. I’ve worked with a lot of highly impressive and capable marketing professionals, but I’ve also dealt with too many who fall into the other camp. The fact is, being effective in marketing requires intelligence, an intuitive and intimate understanding of human psychology, and a finely tuned talent for communication.

Personally, I rank selling myself up there with paperwork and taxes. I’d rather be doing actual design work than making a sales pitch. I’d rather be doing just about anything else, for that matter. But success in business demands we master not only our own craft, but also those fields that we depend upon to stay afloat (and prosper). In my case, I’m helped along quite a bit by way of the fact that I also happen to have a university degree in psychology, so I’m able to mesh what I know about design with what I know about people.

Here’s another designer who’s taken an otherwise mundane everyday piece of equipment, and made it cool through creative re-conceptualization. In my books, ‘cool’ takes more than just making something pretty… it’s got to be smart too. The Donut Powerstrip by Ramei Keum meets these criteria. It is a very simple multi-socket power ‘bar’ that’s not just stylish (yes, a stylish extension cord), but gets big points for usefulness as each socket rotates freely and independently to allow any size adapter or plug assembly.

I have a few power blocks in my office. None of them can accomodate one plug per socket, since a good proportion of my gadgets use big bulky adapters. I hide them from view where possible. One has a fancy blue light, but it’s not really a design feature.

Two years ago, I put out a short article advising on the projected importance of sustainable and environmentally friendly packaging in the coming years. That was December 2006, and now nearing the close of 2008, with oil prices soaring and just about every third ad on TV touting their own green spin, I can smugly say, “called it”.

In my personal life, I would be classified as what’s been somewhat unflatteringly coined SCUMY. That is, Socially Conscious Upward Mobile Youth. Though nearing 30, I’m not so sure about that Y at the end any more. I’m not an extremist, but I do what I feel I can. I’m a vegetarian, buy local produce, reduce and reuse where possible, compost or recycle the rest, work paperless and get around by bicycle, when it’s feasible. I also love hot showers and drive a pickup truck so… well, nobody’s perfect.

A catalog is a highly specialized marketing collateral piece that, when designed and produced correctly, will drive customers to complete their purchase with your company over other alternatives. By presenting a tempting display of appealing products in a clear, carefully considered fashion, your catalog can become one of the most powerful calls to action in your sales arsenal – particularly when paired with a niche marketing strategy.

A niche market is a focused, targetable portion of a market… or a narrowly defined group of potential customers. In general, if your business focuses on a niche market, you should be addressing a need for a product or service that is not being addressed by mainstream providers.

Unless you are in the community being targeted, it can be hard to tell upfront whether the design of your creative is going to be effective. But when you’re part of the targeted community, you get the message loud and clear. The trick comes in when you want to target a niche market to which you yourself do not belong. Bridging this gap between business and niche markets thus often requires a thoughtful cultural conversion campaign

Although the days of the “penny” postcard are long over, these convenient cards still have a lot of marketing life left in them, especially with the advent of online postcard printing services that make design (and sometimes the actual mailing) a snap. Postcards afford instant visibility and are effective in boosting sales and building name recognition. Granted a great deal of today’s marketing buzz is on Internet-based advertising, but not everyone stays connected 24 hours a day. Postcards let you easily engage in mass mail-outs without breaking the bank and should not be overlooked in your marketing plan.

What is Postcard Marketing?

Postcards are a simple, inexpensive, and flexible direct mail marketing tool. They can be used to close sales, generate leads, cultivate return business, or introduce new products. In fact, the use of marketing postcards is really limited by nothing but your imagination. Some creative ideas include:

While print marketing should not be relied upon exclusively in today’s communications world, direct mail campaigns are still an important ingredient in an effective marketing mix.

Packaging. It’s something most people don’t necessarily think about, perhaps partly due to the fact that it is so overwhelmingly pervasive. Even just picking up groceries for the week, in a single forum we are subjected to the end results of thousands of individual design and branding endeavours; some good, some bad, and the rest forgettable.

It’s part of our job to educate our clients on the importance and advantages of excellent design. At the same time, it must be said that effective brochure composition requires more than (just) compelling design. In planning your promotional materials, you need to pay as much attention to content as you do to visuals – and vice versa.

Question:
What does excellent trade show signage look like? Is it simple? Colorful? Digital (narrowcasting)? Branded?
Jan-Burger Troost, Owner, Wester ExpoGraphics

Answer:
Your exhibit and trade show booth graphic elements must powerfully reflect who you are and draw visitors to your booth in the midst of a loud, crowded exhibit hall filled with distractions and competitors…