Does the quality of your design influence the success of your product? (Part 2)

Posted on May 3, 2008
Filed Under Brand Building, Brand Elements, Brand Integrity, Brand Maintenance, Branding, Branding Products, Christopher Kirk, External Branding, Marketing, Visual Branding | 1 Comment

Last time we looked at how important professional design for you products are and what to look for in hiring a graphic designer. Once you have secured the services of a professional graphic designer, find out exactly what he or she needs from you. Then make sure you give everything required to the graphic designer. Try your best not to give what is needed by piece-meal. In other words, do not give a few things here then wait a fews days then give a few more required pieces and so on. For the graphic designer to give you the best he or she can, make sure everything that is needed is given in short order. It is hard to design a piece well when everything is not there and may end up requiring more changes than necessary thus raising your costs for design.

Any graphics or images that are required need to be high resolution. Web images are not high resolution. Even if your product design is going to be for the web only, give the graphic designer high quality images. It will make the job easier. The resolution of a web image is usually 72 dots per inch or dpi. An image that is considered high resolution will be 300 dpi. Dots per inch is simply how many dots or pixels that are in one inch on your computer monitor or paper. The higher the dpi, the more information the graphic has to make a good image. Curves and shades look smoother with a higher dpi. Any editing will look more seamless with graphics that are a higher dpi. It is very difficult to use low resolution images an make quality work out of them. After the design is finished it is simple to make the image web-ready.

Also do not have your graphic designer overload your design with images. Less is more here. A graphic designer worth their weight will know how to design well with “whitespace” - the area where there is no design element. Too many graphics or images is just distracting and will be less successful in converting sales.

Also have in your plans the time needed for the graphic designer to do a quality job. Handing a graphic designer a job that needed to be done yesterday will probably will not get you the very best he or she can do. That does not mean it will not be good, just not the best.

To learn more on how to create successful products through targeted design, go to http://www.designedforsuccessseries.com and order the Designed For Success Series for more information.

The 7-Question Author Profile Quiz

Posted on May 2, 2008
Filed Under Christopher Kirk, Internet Marketing, Marketing | Leave a Comment

If you’re an author, info marketer, small business owner or Entrepreneurial CEO and you have a book in your heart, then I have a quick multiple choice question for you to answer today. Here it is:

“How would you rate your marketing skills?”

(a) “I’m a veteran author/infopreneur in need of more JV partners to broaden my market reach.”

(b) “I’m a published author in need of proven book promotional advice to broaden my market reach.”

What’s your answer going to be?
Read more

Does the quality of your design influence the success of your product? (Part 1)

Posted on April 26, 2008
Filed Under Brand Building, Brand Elements, Brand Integrity, Brand Maintenance, Branding, Branding Products, Christopher Kirk, External Branding, Marketing, Visual Branding | Leave a Comment

Let me answer that question by having you ponder another question. How much does good design influence you when you buy something? When you go grocery shopping, does the design of the packaging affect which food products you buy? How does the look of a car on the outside and inside change how you feel about purchasing the car? During your house-hunting, does the look and layout of the house influence whether you want to buy it?The reality is that design plays a crucial role in consumers purchasing products. If you have not been taking notice how good design affects how you buy stuff, start taking note of it. Read more

Branding is communication that is perceived, not intended

Posted on April 19, 2008
Filed Under Brand Integrity, Brand Maintenance, Branding, Christopher Kirk, External Branding, Visual Branding | Leave a Comment

How many times have your parents told you when you were young that it is not what you say, but how you say it? How often have you said something and it was perceived by the intended individuals differently than how you intended it? Branding needs to be considered the same way. When you are in the process of branding, you are attempting to communicate what your brand is. You are sending messages to customers and prospective customers about your company to gain their business.

branding perceived communication Here is an example that I ran across locally. A new bank chain has appeared in my community and they have been doing the usual things to establish a market presence here by purchasing smaller and struggling banks in order to gain an existing customer base. Also they have been in the processes of building new branches around the area. The picture here shows one of the “new” branches. The inset is the humongous sign they placed on the plot of land beside them.