I HATE supermarkets, they are filled with people meandering about, I simply want to get in and out. When I’m walking down the aisles the first thing that stops me in my track is packaging. I love nothing more than to see an exciting and intriguing brand that makes me want to stop and explore. I find myself reaching for the most captivating brand, for example I am really addicted to ‘innocent veg pots’ at the end of the day it is vegetables, rice and some sauce but the packaging makes it seem much more luxurious. I trust in the brand and rely on the fact that I am going to get a healthy, nutritional meal. I personally love their relaxed and informal style this is emulated throughout the logo and packaging.

I am however slightly disappointed by their website. Don’t get me wrong there are aspects that are brilliant and completely right for them. Such as the bright colours and playful, rounded spring-like text. I just feel much more could be made of top categories; the site becomes a little repetitive. I am a huge fan of their adverts though and the efforts that go into the advertising and packaging win me over.

In the new ad for the Veg Pots the lively videos are simple, to-the-point and easy to watch and this is replicated in the product they are offering. Their target audience are consumers that don’t have time to prepare their meals. After just 30 seconds, I know I am going to get a healthy, substantial meal that takes just four minutes to make. Well I don’t know about you but that has ticked all my boxes!

I guess my point being that it is integral to be creative and have the courage to be different.

Some of you may have come across www.graze.com, again an appealing brand. When Caroline receives her Graze box I am immediately jealous! I see the gorgeous box and want one for myself. Graze deliver a highly personable service that allows their customers to feel valued. The packaging adds to the exclusivity of the brand and gives that extra wow factor.

Not only is their marketing fantastic; they deliver what they promise.

It is all well and good talking about what you can deliver, but it is vital to keep those promises as consumers want to know they can depend on the brand that they are choosing.

We all know you cannot please everyone; so don’t attempt to, focus on your target market. More than ever it is important to eat sleep and live your brand.

I’ve spoken to too many business owners recently who have spent scary amounts of money on ineffective websites or logos only to be too afraid to create something that is going to work because they’ve “had their fingers burnt” in the past and are worried about the same happening again.

Let me tell you about my fingers burning story.

When I started my business in 2005 I did my own books because I was advised that I should. I was told not to waste money on a book keeper, that I needed to know what was going on in my business and that it was easy. Well it might be for some, but it crippled me. I do not have a logical mind and it absolutely knocked me sideways. In fact, I got into such a mess that by October (four months into my business) my accountant advised me to get some professional help. To be fair, he did suggest that I get myself a book keeper who would be cheaper, but for some reason I persevered with him. I paid an accountant £80 an hour to sort out four months of bad book keeping.

£4,500 later (I seem to remember it was £4,500 + VAT?), as I handed over the last cheque he told me it “probably would have been cheaper to have just started again”. Clearly this was just what I needed to hear, money well spent

I couldn’t let my mistake hold me back

I had made a huge mistake, and I needed to take responsibility for it. A good book keeper probably would have charged me a fraction of what this accountant did and I’d certainly had my fingers very badly burnt.

But did this mean I would never use an accountant again? Absolutely not! Accountancy and book keeping isn’t a strength of mine and I knew I needed to use a professional to help me in my business. If I’d burried my head in the sand and sworn never to use an accountant again I probably wouldn’t have a business left. I have always used a book keeper to do the detail in my business and I review the monthly (as well as daily and weekly) figures but I don’t ever put myself through the torturous process of doing the books because I know it’s not helpful.

Are you letting a similar mistake hold you back?

Fortunately I’ve never met anyone who has spent quite such an eye-watering amount of money on 4 months worth of trading history books. But I do meet business owners time and again who realise they are losing opportunities through an ineffective website. They spend days and hours debating what they might do if they had the chance to change their website but they feel paralysed to do anything about it because they’ve already spent so much on something that clearly doesn’t work.

Hanging on to something ineffective for the sake of “getting value out of your mistake” just doesn’t make sense. For many of us, our websites are our shop windows: they have to be right. And if that means facing up to the fact you’ve made a mistake, perhaps that’s what needs to happen for the sake of growing your business?

If past mistakes are holding your business back, ask yourself: What can I learn from this and how can I move on?

Laila asked us to develop the flower icon further to introduce a more “scientific” element to the design. And as requested, Paul came up with a number of options. Laila and I have whittled the choice down to two that we are torn between, and we’d love your help!

Remember – core brand values are simplicity, passion and marketing virtuoso/ marketing science.

Icon One

Icon Two

I’m not going to say too much about these as I don’t want to sway you. All I will say is that I have one favourite, and Laila’s is the other! So we would really appreciate your input. Would you vote on the icon you think she should use for her business? Comments and thoughts welcome too as always…

Do they understand you? The relationship between designer and agency is essential. If you don’t like them, if you don’t think they understand you, if they’re not interested in or excited about your business, don’t commission them, simple.

Do you like their portfolio? You don’t have to like everything in it, and contrary to popular belief you don’t have to see something directly representative of what you’re looking for. But you do need to be wowed, impressed and inspired about how they can help you.

For me those are the two most important factors you need to consider when choosing a design agency. What would you add to my list?

When I started out in the print industry more than ten years ago everyone starting a business got themselves a logo, some business cards and either a leaflet or brochure. Times have changed, and that mix now tends to be a logo, a website and a business card nowadays. But despite the medium changing, attitudes to how you get your promotional piece to work for you doesn’t seem to have changed.

Over the years I must have spoken to thousands of business owners with the same laissez-faire attitude to creating promotional literature. The idea seems to be: get the word out and the people will come. So it wasn’t (and still isn’t) uncommon to see a leaflet with a logo pride of place at the top, followed by reams of text (or perhaps bullet points) on why XYZ Company is great. Unsurprisingly these types of leaflet don’t tend to win their owners much business.

Fast forward ten years and things aren’t much different on the web. There are numerous examples of great websites, but there are also an uncomfortable number of sites that follow the same format – focusing all on the company and very little about the intended reader. If you’d like your leaflets (or your website) to win you more business, here are five things you must do before you get them out there…

1. Set Goals: What do you want this piece of collateral to do for you? (hint: for websites treat each page separately as well as looking at it as a whole piece- it’s more work but I promise it will pay off!). I know this doesn’t sound like rocket science, but you’d be amazed at how many people don’t sit down and have a good hard think about what they’re trying to achieve. Starting here makes it much easier to get people to do what you want them to.

2. Understand what would compel your reader to do what you want them to do. Why does your (potential) customer need or want what you’re offering? What happens if they don’t do what you want them to do? What’s the downside?

3. Write action focused words that persuade people to do what you want: don’t talk about your business – talk about what’s on offer, why people need it – what’s in it for them and what the downside is if they don’t do it

4. Create a piece of design that doesn’t just look gorgeous – it makes all the right things stand out and grabs the attention of the reader as well as reinforcing your branding. Much, much easier said than done – I recommend you leave this bit to the pros!

5. Deliver with a flourish: if it’s a piece of printed literature get it in all the right places and deliver it more than once – three times in three months is my standard rule of thumb but it’ll depend on what you’re doing. If it’s a website you also need to promote it’s existence – think social media and offline promotion as well as traditional search engine optimisation and ad words.

Go on, give it a try! And let me know how you get on.

I’m running a workshop on this very topic on 20th January so if you’re serious about your business flourishing this year and are considering revamping your website or marketing collateral I highly recommend you sign up! Full details on our website…

I was recently lucky enough to have been taken to a fantastic Japanese restaurant in Soho, London. This place literally took my breath away.

From the moment we entered the restaurant we were very impressed with the décor and the outstanding service.  Friendly smiles, warm greetings and a great environment helped set the tone for the rest of the evening.

Arriving rather early gave us a chance to enjoy the rather swanky and romantically lit restaurant bar.  With a huge choice of very tempting and authentic cocktails it would have been rude not to sample them!  The service was quick and we were presented with two great looking drinks and a complimentary basket of Japanese snacks – everyone loves a freebie!

We heard about this restaurant from a couple of friends who had been previously.  They raved about the service and the food.  But most of all they talked about the interactive table ordering system. Now this is where our experience really took off!

Above every diner is a projector that beams images down onto the table that each person can control with laptop style touch pads embedded on the table.  Using the touch pad you can access and order from an illustrated food and drinks menu, set the mood image projected onto the table, discover the local neighbourhood, even order a taxi home. There’s even a live kitchen camera so you can see the chefs at work!

Needless to say the food was exceptional!  Delicate strips of sushi with tantalising dipping sauces where mouth wateringly delightful and together with some superb wine we couldn’t fault it.

So how does all this relate to my original plan on writing a marketing themed piece?  Well, this experience is a prime example of how a great product or service delivered in a friendly manner can inspire word of mouth marketing to really take shape.

It’s a fact that glowing reviews and advice from close friends, colleagues and family will encourage you to use a service or buy a product rather than from influencers of a detached third party such as an advertisement.

Today social media can play a big part in your word of mouth campaigns.  The ability for people to share information with their friends on a vast scale at the press of a button is something modern business should really take advantage of.  Your customers will actually choose to market your business for you directly to their close friends and family, and best of all – they’ll do it for free!

As with the restaurant I visited it’s usually something quirky or exciting that social media users latch onto and share with their friends.  You can’t force something to ‘go viral’ you can only help it by creating a great product or service to begin with.  So this new age social media and viral marketing run on the same principles as the traditional word of mouth.

So, does your business make people want to shout about it?

Over at Guildford printing.com we’ve been pretty busy. Not only are we launching our new brand, Flourish, in February, but we’ve also been recruiting, training and welcoming some fabulous new staff. And so it’s with great aplomb that I introduce you to Izzy, Ian and Georgette.

Izzy is our new Account Executive and replaces Kerry. She’s your first point of call if you’d like a quote or need some advice on what paper stock to go for. Izzy is an absolute powerhouse of organisation and was the first on the dancefloor at the Christmas party this year! Izzy has a passion for marketing and we’re looking forward to her helping you promote your business more effectively in the future. She also makes sure that our desks are never without tea. You can contact Izzy on izzy@flourishstudios.co.uk

Ian is our brand new Account Manager. He has a passion for branding, design and all things creative. Ian spent several years as an Account Manager for a packaging firm before heading off to the States. He’s now back in Surrey, throws a mean move on the dancefloor and we think is a bit of a Rupert Penry-Jones lookalike. Ian is your contact if you’d like a quote or would like to talk about design or branding. You can get in touch with Ian at ian@flourishstudios.co.uk

Georgette is our brand new Marketing Consultant and has launched the marketing arm of Flourish Studios and Guildford printing.com. She has a strong database marketing background and is a social media hound! She has an absolute passion for marketing, which combined with commercial experience means that she’s in a great position to help you get results. In her spare time George cooks a mean BBQ, proving that the girls can cook just as well as the guys when it comes to the grill. If you’d like to book a free marketing audit with Georgette you can get in touch with her at george@flourishstudios.co.uk

Oh, and the gorgeous photos? All credit to Matt Pereira (as well as the good-looking models) for his patience, attention to detail and truly stunning results. Thanks Matt.

Now I’m not going to claim that we built the website – have you seen it? An absolute feat of web developmental engineering. No, we stood well back for that and let someone else build it! But we did create the branding, the look and feel of the website and helped them out a lot with their marketing plan.

I think it looks rather fabulous, and it’s very different to anything else that’s out there on the market at the moment. One to watch I think…

Oh, and if you’re quick, you’ll see that our very own Rob is featured as wedding of the month! www.theweddingcommunity.com.

Dear Fiona,

If you remember me, I'll be amazed, but in March 2008 I came to your offices to take up an offer you made to a women's networking group to give a free 'branding consultation' to upcoming businesses. I wanted advice on how to present an idea I had to sell cards online. I showed you the cards and you advised me to go upmarket with them. You got the hang of what I meant very quickly. Although your company couldn't do anything, as such, for me, in your estimation of the product I wanted to create, you gave me some invaluable advice and a great boost.
 
The site I envisaged is launched now at www.takingtimecards.co.uk <http://www.takingtimecards.co.uk> . I thought you might like to see it.
 

And also see that on it, under the Thanks tab, I've listed your name. I am grateful for the time you took and for your enthusiasm that day, and I haven't forgotten it. In your friendly, intelligent approach and cheerful, upbeat advice, you did both your company and yourself proud.

Feel free to quote me! 

All good wishes,

Fleur Robertson

Taking Time Cards  

Isn't it lovely to know that even when we can't help people directly, that we've given something back? I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy!

We're all pretty much in agreement on the concept, the fonts and the execution of the website and business cards, but what we can't get our heads around are the colours.

Take a look…

Rather than go with our gut feel on colours, we've employed our knowledge of colour psychology to select colours that we know say the right things about our business. And that means not just picking the right hues, but also the right tones. I'll come on to why we've picked those specific colours in a minute, but the first thing we needed to do was identify our colour personality: spring, summer, autumn or winter. There's a lot more information on Bernay Laity's website (and I promise one day I will type up my notes on this blog too…).

We've selected colours from the Spring Palette: clear, light and vibrant they reflect our business well. Spring businesses are forward thinking, great communicators, they're visionary and enthusiastic. They are also bubbly, lively, vivacious and spontaneous. Importantly they are also imaginative, effervescent, quick witted, positive and optimistic. Spring represents our business really well and also the reasons that our clients use us. And we deliberately chose the name Flourish because it suggests growth and again fits in well with a spring.

Our problem is that these are colours that we wouldn't necessarily have picked ourselves. I love green, and the acid greens we've chosen sit well with me. In fact, so do the blues and the pink. Orange I have an issue with: but it says creativity, abundance and sociability, so it's a bit of a no brainer for a design company really! But for me it's too light. I would prefer darker colours to give it a bit more gravitas.

And Caroline and Chloe are similar. Whilst I readily identify with the Spring pallete, Chloe and Caroline are probably more Summer inclined. They're organised, efficient and detail focused. They are elegant, understated and keen on quality. They are cool, calm and collected and perfectionists! Summer personalities are also intuitive, perceptive and serious, which are all key attributes of our business: but they're not the most important.

If we'd identified our business from the summer palette we'd be using cooler, muted tones which were more elegant and sophisticated, but wouldn't encompass our approachability and accessibility.

We also all have a bit of the Autumn colour palette in us: passionate, intelligent, independent Autumn colours are warm and intense. Autumn people are great campaigners, they love to learn and they are very energetic and career minded. They're efficient, friendly, enthusiastic and independent. And we all really struggled to decide whether Flourish should be Autumn or Spring. 

Had we selected Autumn, the greens would have been more muted and intense, the orange more fiery (think leaves turning) and the blues more muted and petrol-y. And whilst aesthetically it would be nice to mix Spring with Autumn, you're then heading for a disaster psychologically speaking! By selecting colours from the same palette, we can communicate the positive elements of the colour, if we mix and match the design (and ergo the company) starts to lack integrity and you start bringing out the negative elements of the colour.

So the problem that many clients will be familiar with, is that constant battle to put your own preferences aside and do what's right for the business. Sure, you have to love it, but the orange is so right for the business I have to find a way of incorporating it in a way that I love it. And at the same time resisting the temptation to darken it too far!

What do you think of the palette so far?