File Size: 436kb
File Type: Adobe PDF
File Name: A Few Questions.pdf

A few questions to ask yourself...

1. Who is your target audience?

As much as you would like to cater to everyone you need to decide what your niche is going to be. What do you do better than your competitors? Are you cheaper than most of them? Are you available for later hours? Do you pride yourself on having the highest quality services? You can be more specific and relate more to the individual areas of your trade but the point is that you pick a niche and stick to it. This isn't to say that you don't point out any other benefits of your company but it is best to focus on one or two as a hook rather than trying to cover all bases and confusing the reader.

You won't see McDonalds launch a fancy ad campaign aimed at the upper class trying to get them to buy a Big Mac combo to have with their $100 bottle of champagne because that is not their market. The offer cheap food and they will make it quickly (usually). So obviously their ads will correspond with this fact.

2. What is your colour scheme?

Rather than just picking some random colours do a little research...there is a reason that most fast food companies use the colour red in their logo's. I am not saying that you spend weeks deciding what colours to use but do exercise some common sense. Would you hire a mechanic with a pink and baby blue colour scheme in their logo...probably not.

Also it's a good idea to check out the colour schemes of your competitors. You don't want to be sharing the same colour scheme as it definitely won't help you to distinguish yourself from the increasing competition.

3. What kind of logo should you have?

This is often overlooked. There are many different kinds of logos. Typographic (mainly text), full blown illustration logos and everything in between. Anything aimed at children will have bright colours and lots of imagery. An inner city bar/restaurant would usually have something more minimalistic and trendy. Of course there are always exceptions but companies in any given field (the leading companies at least) usually have the same feel to their branding. When I say the same feel I don't mean they look the same...no one should be copying anyone else's branding, thats just lazy.

4. Keep it consistent

No matter what style and feel you end up choosing the main thing to remember is to keep it consistent. You should be able to pick up one of your business cards, one of your flyers, one of your posters etc and instantly be able to tell that they all belong to the same company. This doesn't mean that you can't vary imagery on your adverts it just means that they should all have the same basic look and feel because essentially that's what a brand is.


For a checklist that you should read through before consulting a designer READ THIS ARTICLE