marketing in the 'credit crunch'?

As we approach December businesses will be winding down towards Christmas and maybe assessing the year gone by and thinking about making fresh marketing resolutions for the New Year. All this with depressing forebodings about how the credit crunch is likely to affect us all - tightening belts, cutting back on all spending. Traditionally marketing has been the first target for cut backs - even though most people know it's a 'chicken and egg' situation - to keep going, new business development cannot be allowed to stagnate.
There is much a business can do for themselves simply by having a marketing plan and working through it in a structured way at a pace that they can manage and maintain.
A design and marketing consultancy like Primary can help put such a plan together and provide the tools to implement it.
My first piece of advice is this - whatever is done should somehow be geared to collecting email addresses from all clients, potenital clients and targets so that a comprehensive database can be achieved. A small promotion may need to be put togther to achieve just that if email details have not already been sourced. Every promotional item used should be examined to see if maximum benefit is being gained from it in terms of data-gathering - whether that is confirmed contact details or simply feedback from clients on standards of products or services and user experiences.
Once the database is in place we can then work on segmenting the market and designing emailshots to each potential client that highlights u.s.p.'s and answers their needs. Emailshot campaigns can be closely monitored and results assessed. Regular contact with existing clients can be maintained with well-designed and informative e-newsletters.
As with all marketing, presentation is key. Brand image should be strong and consistent and concepts should be original, thought-provoking and clearly promote the u.s.p.'s of the business.
Where can you find all this expertise? Take a look at www.primarygraphics.co.uk - and start the new year with great design that works hard and gets results!

Why am I at Uclan?

Why, after so many years in marketing communications do I find myself back in the classroom? I sometimes wonder when I am sitting in the rush hour traffic into Preston and grappling with the unfamiliar PC I have to work on - among other far more pc literate students. However the reason is this - to get a broader view of web development other than from inside a design studio, be able to talk teccie to my clients with greater authority and less reliance on picking other people's brains (That's the theory anyway).

We have for many years created successful and good looking websites for our clients - and are continuing to do so. We have never been guity of indulging ourselves in the design and look of a site at the expense of good search engine optimisation and accessibility. In fact we may have gone too far the other way and limited our designs too much to accommodate our web developers' wishes. Who knows? - hopefully I will soon! Now I am catching up on the history and how things have developed over the last 10 years to get us to where we are now - and this includes getting to grips with the whole html / css bit. I'm pleased to find things have simplified a lot and a lot of the frustrations have been eliminated.

What Makes a Good Web Designer?

The very word 'designer' is sometimes used very loosely when applied to websites. Designing a web site must surely require some creative skills and assembling the content, probably the hardest, most time consuming part, requires indepth understanding of the person or business that the website is about.
It helps if the subject of the new website already has a strong corporate identity or brand image as this will provide the starting point for the visual style of the site. The website must relate to other marketing communications being used by the business.
Many web developers deliberately avoid any sign of consideration of typography and choice of images, feeling that this is not what the internet is about and it is all rather superfluous. However, as in every media, badly presented information has no credibility. A web page that is crammed with text in unattractive fonts and garish colours just shouts 'unprofessional' and the relevance of what is being said diminishes. In the early days some over enthusiastic designers indulged themselves with impractical designs that were contrary to guidelines and not search engine friendly.
Further down the line the gap between designer and web developer has closed. Users have expectations of what a website should look like and these have been lifted by strong, well designed, creative layouts that comply with web standards, consider quick, efficient navigation. many are still irritated by too many 'whistles and bells' that waste their valuable time, but good design, as always, wins through.

How to Choose a Design Consultancy….

Why a design consultancy?

A design project requires a lot more than a graphic designer.

Your job needs a team working on it. This team will include a project manager, with experience, to establish a clear brief and follow the job through to completion for you.

To do this they will first spend time with you understanding:

a) the culture of your business

b) your taste and preferred styles

c) where the service/product needs to be positioned in the marketplace (ie. is it budget or premium?)

d) who your competitors are and what they are up to

e) your unique selling points

f) your budget