The Importance Of Corporate Identity Have you ever wondered the first thing that comes to mind when a consumer thinks about your brand or company? Unless you haven’t worked on building a corporate image for your company, your company logo is the first thing that a consumer will remember.
Brand awareness is crucial to creating and enhancing your company’s market presence, and to maximize brand recognition. You need to apply strategies that will define the uniqueness of your company. A strong corporate identity is key to reaching your target audience. Quite simply, if they don’t know you exist, how will they buy from you?
Two of the most successful and cost effective brand awareness strategies used by businesses to give their company a distinct identity are:
· Professional Logo Design
· Corporate Identity Packages
How Corporate Identity Helps Small Businesses Establish Their Brand Most small business owners mistakenly think that creating a strong corporate identity is for big businesses only. Just because you have a small business catering to a small segment of the consumer market does not mean that you should not try different ways of expanding it. A distinctive corporate identity will help to establish your company image among suppliers, distributors, and above all, your potential customers.
Ideally, a good corporate identity package should include a business logo, a motto or company slogan, and other promotional materials such as letterhead, business cards, and envelopes. When you have your corporate identity package designed by a professional company, the graphic design artists will take care of important details such as the font to be used, icons, graphics, color and spacing of the text. Your corporate identity package will give your business the professional image it needs to win the trust of your customers.
Why You Need A Professionally Designed Logo – NOW! A professionally designed logo has several advantages:
- Help in building your corporate image: Whether you are trying to get funding for your fledgling business or additional capital for an established one, it is important that your business looks professional. A professionally designed business logo, along with other marketing collateral, will help you to build a strong, professional image for your business.
- Increase sales: Being associated with good brands is important to most customers - and the look and feel of the business can greatly influence their buying decisions, helping to boost your company’s sales.
- Establishes credibility: A well-designed logo helps to convey to your target audience that you are established and strongly committed to your business as well as your customers.
- Brand recognition: Usually people will remember a logo more readily than the name of the company itself. A logo is often synonymous with quality and trust (provided your company also has great service).
It is very important for your company to establish it’s corporate identity and brand image. Marketing works because many people become emotionally attached to brands. The key to remember is that it is not necessarily great customer service or innovative products that will bring new customers in the door. People make decisions to buy based on emotions - then they rationalize their decision. If you can remember this, then you can understand how important it is to include a professionaly designed logo and corporate identity package as part of your company’s overall marketing and branding strategy.
Author
Michelle McCray is a marketing expert, author, and entrepreneur. She’s President of Swell Creative, a marketing and graphic design firm that specializes in marketing consulting, graphic design, corporate branding, , creative ideas, and advertising for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Visit http://www.swellcreative.com for more info.
Copyright © 2007 Michelle McCray
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Graphic Design Careers
If you think you are a person who could combine your artistic skill and your writing ability, you might try graphic designer as your occupation and become the professional one. A graphic designer has to be able to deliver the message effectively to targeted audiences or readers. That is the main job, because if the messages are not delivered very well, then no matter how artistic the design is, it would be useless.
Graphic design is an important marketing tool to create good images of the products or the company. Just take a look around you, whatever you see is, there is graphic design jobs involved. From logo, print ad, magazines, and many others.
Think about this, you are now reading this article on your monitor, right?! There are so many brands out there. Whatever decision you have made when you bought your monitor, I’m sure you believe that the product is the good one. That is because the company has already done a good job to market, advertise and sell their products. It is graphic designers’ responsibility to create a good image of the products along with the marketing and branding team.
As a graphic designer, you have to be able to dig in and explore your creativity and always come up with fresh ideas in order to produce the best graphic design and branding quality. Do some researches, find any information from their competitors, get the existing brochures (if any) and discuss it with your client. Ask what your clients really want and give them some alternative designs to choose.
There are some options working on graphic design field. You could focus on printed matter, web design or even on TV Commercials. It is possible for you to choose whether working on advertising agency or working by yourself as a freelance graphic designer. Working as a freelancer would give you more flexibility, while working on agency would give you steady income.
In fact, the options are almost unlimited. You could specialized on packaging if you think you are good at it, focusing on logo design is not a bad idea either.
If you like music, you can concentrate on music industry. That would be easier for you to explore your creativity when you are “in love” with the product. Specializing on CD cover design would be another interesting challenge.
Those are only a few alternative graphic design jobs that you could consider as your occupation for living. I’m sure you could come up with your own ideas.
Graphic design jobs is a promising career, considering that no matter how big or small the company is, it would need a good graphic designers to promote and sell their products.
Author
© Anton Ardjanggi, April 2007
Graphic design is an important marketing tool to create good images of the products or the company. Just take a look around you, whatever you see is, there is graphic design jobs involved. From logo, print ad, magazines, and many others.
Think about this, you are now reading this article on your monitor, right?! There are so many brands out there. Whatever decision you have made when you bought your monitor, I’m sure you believe that the product is the good one. That is because the company has already done a good job to market, advertise and sell their products. It is graphic designers’ responsibility to create a good image of the products along with the marketing and branding team.
As a graphic designer, you have to be able to dig in and explore your creativity and always come up with fresh ideas in order to produce the best graphic design and branding quality. Do some researches, find any information from their competitors, get the existing brochures (if any) and discuss it with your client. Ask what your clients really want and give them some alternative designs to choose.
There are some options working on graphic design field. You could focus on printed matter, web design or even on TV Commercials. It is possible for you to choose whether working on advertising agency or working by yourself as a freelance graphic designer. Working as a freelancer would give you more flexibility, while working on agency would give you steady income.
In fact, the options are almost unlimited. You could specialized on packaging if you think you are good at it, focusing on logo design is not a bad idea either.
If you like music, you can concentrate on music industry. That would be easier for you to explore your creativity when you are “in love” with the product. Specializing on CD cover design would be another interesting challenge.
Those are only a few alternative graphic design jobs that you could consider as your occupation for living. I’m sure you could come up with your own ideas.
Graphic design jobs is a promising career, considering that no matter how big or small the company is, it would need a good graphic designers to promote and sell their products.
Author
© Anton Ardjanggi, April 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Freelancers and Freelance Website Design
Freelance website design is the act of hiring a freelancer to design your website. Many webmasters all over the internet are doing just that. Hiring a freelancer is often cheaper and even sometimes faster and more reliable than hiring an establish design company. A freelancer is in business for himself or herself, they have a whole lot more to lose by losing you as a client, more so than an established company.
When you need freelance website design one disadvantage to hiring a freelancer over a company is that you may need to find several different freelancers to finish the website. While a freelance web designer will be able to take care of the design and graphic aspect of your website, they may not have the skills to take care of the technical aspects of a website. Furthermore, you might be able to find a graphic designer to take care of logos, headers, and buttons, but the overall design of the website might not be in their skill set.
Both of these situations will require a separate freelancer. Now it is not as bad as it sounds. You might find freelance website design in one very skilled and experience person or you might find a graphic designer who has a deal with another freelancer on the technical side of things. Either way you can get the job done.
Freelance website design is probably the most popular choice for business owners all over the world. However, you want to make sure the designer is experienced and has proof of their experience in references and samples. You never want to hire a freelancer that cannot provide you with verifiable samples of their work.
Now when it comes to budget, a freelancer will be cheaper, but you should be willing and able to pay for quality. Keep in mind you get what you pay for. If you expect to pay $50 for freelance website design, you should also expect to get your $50 worth and nothing more. This could result in a poor design that you simply are not pleased with. I once read somewhere a freelancer said, “If a client says they want cheap, fast, and quality, I tell him to choose two. I can provide cheap and fast, but I cannot combine it with quality.”
Keep in mind freelance website design takes time and talent, you should be willing to provide a good price for both.
Article Source: http://www.kokkada.com
To find a freelance website design specialist visit: www.unlimitedfreelancers.com today.
When you need freelance website design one disadvantage to hiring a freelancer over a company is that you may need to find several different freelancers to finish the website. While a freelance web designer will be able to take care of the design and graphic aspect of your website, they may not have the skills to take care of the technical aspects of a website. Furthermore, you might be able to find a graphic designer to take care of logos, headers, and buttons, but the overall design of the website might not be in their skill set.
Both of these situations will require a separate freelancer. Now it is not as bad as it sounds. You might find freelance website design in one very skilled and experience person or you might find a graphic designer who has a deal with another freelancer on the technical side of things. Either way you can get the job done.
Freelance website design is probably the most popular choice for business owners all over the world. However, you want to make sure the designer is experienced and has proof of their experience in references and samples. You never want to hire a freelancer that cannot provide you with verifiable samples of their work.
Now when it comes to budget, a freelancer will be cheaper, but you should be willing and able to pay for quality. Keep in mind you get what you pay for. If you expect to pay $50 for freelance website design, you should also expect to get your $50 worth and nothing more. This could result in a poor design that you simply are not pleased with. I once read somewhere a freelancer said, “If a client says they want cheap, fast, and quality, I tell him to choose two. I can provide cheap and fast, but I cannot combine it with quality.”
Keep in mind freelance website design takes time and talent, you should be willing to provide a good price for both.
Article Source: http://www.kokkada.com
To find a freelance website design specialist visit: www.unlimitedfreelancers.com today.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Freelance graphic designer – how to win the project
As a freelancer, whether you like it or not you have to get clients by bidding for the project often and wish to win to survive, because getting clients by doing marketing is not easy for freelancers. Some companies, especially the big ones hardly put the trust on freelancers to get the job done. On the other way around, if the companies open the project for bidding, they don’t really care who is going to do the job, as long as the freelancers able to fulfill all requirements needed, including the price.
The problem is that sometimes professional freelance graphic designer has to be pitched with either fresh graduates or graphic design students. In this case, they are ready to lower the price in order to make a quick buck, earning some pocket money or building their portfolio. It is not fair for professional freelancer, since they don’t do it for living. Not like us who really make a living out of freelancing.
Do you have to lower your price and integrity to win the project? Some freelancers succumb to the need to win projects after they bid on it. Hawking over a less than worthwhile project is a complete waste of time. What freelancers should do is to simply keep their integrity. If you’ve established yourself in the market, have a relatively large (and impressive portfolio) and think you deserve to be paid whatever you think you should be paid, why lower yourself?
Just stick to what you believe and control the price. By lowering the price, it means that you seemed to be desperate for business, and don’t let your future and potential clients think that you are.
Make them believe that you stick to your price because you are much better than others. That’s what you “sell”, isn’t it?!
Of course, even after winning a bid or not bidding at all, you should still be open for reasonable bargaining. In business, there’s always some bargaining involved. Therefore, mark your price up about 5% than what you would normally charge others on your first bid. If the clients negotiate for a lower price, bring it down by 5% and you’ll get whatever you thought you deserved to start with.
What if the client still wants you to bring the price even lower? In this kind of situation, you need to use your business intuition. If you think that this future client is a nice kind of person and your relation with him/her will long lasting, you might lower your price down. But if this is what you’re doing, make sure you point out the fact that the price is exclusive and you don’t charge everyone else the same price.
Sometimes the clients would say that they will give you all project in the future. Don’t buy that! They say that just to make you trust them and lowering the price. The only way that you could make them coming back to you is giving them a very, very, very good quality! Both design and service!!! Not only this will make the client feel special but he/she will recommend other people your freelancing services. And if they do, they will also make a special note not to mention the pricing.
© Anton Ardjanggi, April 2007
The problem is that sometimes professional freelance graphic designer has to be pitched with either fresh graduates or graphic design students. In this case, they are ready to lower the price in order to make a quick buck, earning some pocket money or building their portfolio. It is not fair for professional freelancer, since they don’t do it for living. Not like us who really make a living out of freelancing.
Do you have to lower your price and integrity to win the project? Some freelancers succumb to the need to win projects after they bid on it. Hawking over a less than worthwhile project is a complete waste of time. What freelancers should do is to simply keep their integrity. If you’ve established yourself in the market, have a relatively large (and impressive portfolio) and think you deserve to be paid whatever you think you should be paid, why lower yourself?
Just stick to what you believe and control the price. By lowering the price, it means that you seemed to be desperate for business, and don’t let your future and potential clients think that you are.
Make them believe that you stick to your price because you are much better than others. That’s what you “sell”, isn’t it?!
Of course, even after winning a bid or not bidding at all, you should still be open for reasonable bargaining. In business, there’s always some bargaining involved. Therefore, mark your price up about 5% than what you would normally charge others on your first bid. If the clients negotiate for a lower price, bring it down by 5% and you’ll get whatever you thought you deserved to start with.
What if the client still wants you to bring the price even lower? In this kind of situation, you need to use your business intuition. If you think that this future client is a nice kind of person and your relation with him/her will long lasting, you might lower your price down. But if this is what you’re doing, make sure you point out the fact that the price is exclusive and you don’t charge everyone else the same price.
Sometimes the clients would say that they will give you all project in the future. Don’t buy that! They say that just to make you trust them and lowering the price. The only way that you could make them coming back to you is giving them a very, very, very good quality! Both design and service!!! Not only this will make the client feel special but he/she will recommend other people your freelancing services. And if they do, they will also make a special note not to mention the pricing.
© Anton Ardjanggi, April 2007
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