Branded For Success

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.

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. (more…)

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.

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.

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The first word is what got you to read this post… It is attention. All businesses, whether offline or online, have to attract attention, which might be through advertising, logo treatments, the press, etc.

The second word is what keeps a customer engaged, retention. A good brand will retain and create loyalty with the customer. You know that it is easier to keep a customer than to get a new one, yet without a powerful brand, this is not so easy.

The last powerful word is certainly not the last in importance. To discover what that word is and to reserve your gratis (on the house) seat at the Brand For Power Summit Teleseminar Series featuring top branding experts, go to:

http://www.BrandForPower.com/heather

See you on the Summit!

By the way, take a special look at the second page and see how you can make a difference in the lives of children who need medical attention across the globe.

Would you like to get your question answered during my teleseminar?

Go to http://www.AskHeatherKirk.com and submit your question. I will base my teleseminar content on the questions you submit at that site.