The role of graphic design in Marketing

Leaflet design by G3 Creative in Glasgow

Still as effective today as its always been — an effective brochure is the key to getting any good business off the ground.

A well designed brochure is an advertising tool, used by companies to market their products and services. A good brochure should have a good balance of useful information and images, typically printed in full colour to attract the readers eye.

Brochures and leaflets can be designed in many shapes and sizes and not only the typical A4 for brochures and 3rd A4 for leaflets.

All flourishing businesses — from the small business owners, who own a café or a boutique, to the largest multi-national company, work hard to create the perfect brochure, or leaflet that can sell for them, without having to hire expensive sales staff.

Please consider the amount of content inside, as too much can easily distract the reader and too little may not give across the information that they are looking for. It should stimulate the customer to avail your products or services. So, when you offer a quality service, why show it off with a badly designed brochure that has been poorly designed and printed. 

The fact is — great design can mean the difference between a prosperous business and a closed down shop.

Here are thirteen different ways of improving your business marketing:

Corporate ID/ Branding

Finding your organisation or company’s branding spot is one of the most effective ways of reaching your target audience.
Developing your brand vision and brand stategy, before arming you with the correct visual communication tools needed to ensure that you either — rise above your competitors marketing noise or increase in public recognition.

Design for Print

Is the most important part of your brochure, where first impressions do count.
If it’s designed badly, it will put your business in the wrong place.

Advertising Campaigns
This means being creative in every area — from the overall execution and art direction of an advert, to the shape, format and the page positioning.

Colour
Colours carry meanings and create emotions without using too many descriptive words.
Many times, consumers feel especially attracted to a product without knowing why and it has been due to the product’s bright or strong colour.

Grabs Attention

A well designed leaflet, ready meal box or exemplary brochure will not only grab attention because of the quality of information on it, but it will also grab someone’s attention because of how it looks.
It is like a product on a supermarket shelf— if it looks ugly, it will stay on the shelf, unless the customers have come in, specifically, with that model or price range in mind. So make sure your leaflet or brochure looks good to grab the eye of your potential customers. So, you’ve found a graphic designer and are happy with the rates and time scale.
What happens next? You should get everything in writing! AND you should also, be prepared to pay an up front cost of 50%. This is standard industry practice. A graphic designer’s hourly rate can range anywhere from £35.00/hr for students and interns to £250/hr for seasoned art directors and businesses.

Creates Recall
When you buy anything — like hair shampoo, to a ready meal you might think that it is the product inside the bottle or box that matters.
The fact is, the product matters only once the customer has bought the bottle and tried it on.
To get them to pick your product, you must make an effort to create an experience from the moment someone recieves a box to the time they start using the product, they won’t have anything to remember you by.

Logo design by G3 Creative in Glasgow

Build your Image
Computer giants’ Apple created a surge by changing their logo colour, which is an apple from black to silver. This showed the company had moved forward and stepped into the twentieth century. The fact is, in the eyes of the target audience, this shift in design leads to a shift in perception.

Increase Sales
When people start looking at your company and brand differently, they start appreciating it more.
If two companies create the same quality and price of product, it is a guarantee that almost every customer will pick the one they remember the most.
Great design will help them remember your product and pick it out from the rest when they see it.
Make your brand memorable with some innovative thinking that touches your customer and watch them line up outside your business.

Improve Your Market Standing
This is a direct off shoot from a rise in sales figures. If you start selling more products — chances are you are outshining your competition.
That means, you are toppling them in the popularity charts, as well as in the financial charts.

A Strategic Investment
As the world is being driven by more visual content, it is now more important than ever to stand out from the crowd.
Using great design to create your own space, is a good way to set things up for the future.

Create Goodwill
As companies are struggling to compete in the battle of price, recession and severely damaged economies, the ones that will survive are the brands that are trusted by customers.
When you create a design, and connect it with the customer you are immediately getting at what they are looking for.
Everyone wants to buy a quality product, that shows that they have class and good taste and nothing says that better than a great and meaningful design.

Improve Staff Loyalty
Designing a unique brand is not just about gaining customers and increasing sales.
It is also about taking care of the people on the inside.
If you keep them happy, you’ll have a successful organisation/business, that is run by motivated people, who will strive to do the best for your company.

Reduce Time to Market

You don’t need to stay fresh in people’s minds by constantly launching products.
Changing the brand image of your company or simply creating fresh design can stop that enforced product launch.
So spend your time developing something better, for the next launch.

Create a Better World
By creating a product, which is functions or tastes better than others, you have already made it stand out from the rest. But to give it that extra something you need to carry that image through all other aspects of your business.
Creating good designs, puts you on a better planet, through fresh designs and thoughts. Your ideas will be the starting point for many others and the cycle will go on with you at the forefront.
Whether you are looking at making a difference to people lives or simply making a profit, you need to realise that running a business is a fulltime commitment.

If you want everything to work, then you should start looking at design as an investment for the future.
Here is a quote from Marianne McDougall, the creative director at G3 Creative Solutions, one of the UK’s well respected graphic design studios who specialize in branding and brochure design: “Good graphic design achieves a delicate balance". 

The lateral thought that sparks great ideas must be weighed against a rigorous logic to ensure each project achieves specific objectives. Good design flows naturally from a thorough understanding of your objectives, the communication you wish to achieve and the market in which you operate, all underpinned by careful research and study.”

Check out the websites below to see what visually appealing and interesting design solutions graphic designers have come up with. If you need a reliable and affordable logo, brochure or leaflet.

Showcase of Beautifully Designed Brochures
http://designm.ag/inspiration/brochure-design/

Graphic Design Showcase – G3 Creative Solutions
http://www.g3creative.co.uk/

27 Well-Designed Brochure Examples For Your Inspiration
http://rocketgraphs.net/2010/08/brochure-design-examples/