Print has begun to fight back, integrating elements of technology into it’s own architecture with Augmented Reality, Image Recognition and Quick Response Codes – bridging the gap between the flat printed page and the digital world. There are still many niche areas where print remains the communication tool of choice; product packaging and point of display are difficult to replace with a convincing, purely digital experience. However, Near Field Technology will go some way to enhance the instore experience – allowing customers to view product details on their smartphone as they walk by aisles.

These developments strengthen both communications streams, which is further illustrated by the growing use of print to target audiences groups using advertising and DM campaigns – then redirect them to the digital space where a more personalised experience can be delivered. As digital grows and traditional print media evolves in new ways in response, we will see more of this symbiotic behaviour.

For business, this means making the most of a mixture of mediums that best reach out and communicate with current and future customers – mixing and matching to greatest effect.

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In either case, a strong strategic approach is recommended to allow your business and brand to evolve to the next level, reaching out to new customers while still engaging with your traditional customer base. This strategic approach will inform the decision to either rebrand or, in a more low-key way, revitalise your brand by repositioning it.

The success of many of the world’s top brands lies in their ability to constantly realign or reposition themselves within ever-changing markets. This process of evolution serves to keep them at the forefront of their industries over a protracted period of time without losing their core focus and mitigates drastic fluctuation in their economic fortune. For businesses that are making major strategic shifts in their business model or moving into completely different markets, rebranding is usually more appropriate.

Whether your business is large or small, the same principles apply and the need to evolve appropriately is essential to extending future success and lifespan of your business. To help you gauge if your business needs to Reposition or Rebrand, work through the following questions answering YES or NO.

1. Does your brand identity still represent who you are and what you do (now and in the foreseeable future)?
2. Is your business, it’s products or services relevant for tomorrows customers?
3. Does your business, it’s products and services have any significant unique points of difference?
4. Does your brand look current, is it going to engage with tomorrows customers?
5. Does your brand identity standout in the crowd?
6. Is your new customer base growing?

If you answered No to any question 1-3 then rebranding is most likely the best approach for your business.
If you answered Yes to all questions 1-3, but No to any questions 4-6 then a reposition is most likely the best approach for your business.

If you’re interested in Repositioning or Rebranding your business then we’re keen to talk to you, we can help you through the planning required to design and implement a solution that will help to revitalise your business and get you on track for success.

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Looking around at the quality of content being produced for the internet these days, it’s obvious the that we all need to step up our game if we want to stand out. No matter how good your CMS, none are capable of doing what’s really required – developing a good content strategy.

Below are some tips to help you do just that.

• Understand what your target market want/need.
• Gain customer insight from research.
• Get rid of anything that isn’t relevant to them.

• Help your customers to solve their problems.
• Consider investing in development of useful interactive tools
• Your customers will feel more confident in their relationship with your brand if the brand is a regular part of their life.

• Define online objectives based upon business objectives.
• Define how you will measure success and measure your efforts regularly.
• Don’t spend your whole budget before launch. Consider using half of your budget to build the website and saving the rest for additional content and optimisation over the first year.

If you think you’re ready to start taking your online presence to the next level, get in touch with Adstract Art. We’d be more than happy to sit down and show you how a good strategy can grab the attention of your target market and help you achieve your business goals.

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Doing a little extra preparation on your brief for the designer is time well spent, because at the end of the day, design is not about drawing – it’s about thinking. Once the thinking is done, an effective design is the natural result.

But wait, we’re getting ahead of ourselves..

Design is a creative solution to a practical problem. That means you need to make sure we understand what you want to achieve, so that we can make sure the final product really works for you, to help you succeed.

Ideally, your brief should cover five areas:

Tell us the facts about your organisation or product. How is it perceived or positioned? What or who are its competitors? What are your strengths? Weaknesses? Opportunities?

Who do you want to talk to? Your customers may be one group, but it might be more complicated – suppliers, end users, people in a certain area or age group, even your competitors in some instances. What do these people think now? How would you like to change that?

What are the aims and objectives for this design? Don’t be afraid to set specific short, medium and long-term goals and structured time frames. It’s only by measuring tangible things like dollars, market share or changing perceptions that you’ll gauge the effectiveness of your overall marketing.

How is the design to be used? We’ll need to know – for instance, if it’s for packaging or clothing, or if it’s to be copied a lot, we’ll need to take that into account in the design. Make sure you let us know if you’ve had problems in the past that have been related to design … and we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Have a clear and realistic idea of what you’re prepared to spend and communicate this to us early so we can discuss what can be achieved within your budget and prioritise tasks. If you have the budget for a one-bed flat, you won’t be able to build the Taj Mahal … but we’ll make sure you get the best one-bed flat money can buy!

If you have a project you’re ready to take to market, talk to us today. We know how to get the right information at the brief, then deliver a solution which meets that brief to the letter. The result? Great design which plays an important role in helping you achieve your aims.

The post It’s all in the brief appeared first on Adstract Art.

When we sat down to discuss our ideas, we were pleased to discover how much they ‘got it’ – they saw the potential of the web for their brand and what’s more they understood how their complex data assets could be represented. After going through the details and presenting our plan, we then got underway with the design and build.

As an integrated agency, we know how important it is for the work you do offline to be reflected online and vice-versa so one of the first objectives for us was to provide a solution that offered a truly integrated marketing experience. This meant that the design of their marketing material needed to have a consistent look and carry the brands URL (web address), with plans to ensure the website delivered relevant content for all current marketing activity.

We started with a strong visual that could be a carried across a range of mediums. We then created a comprehensive series of communications centred around the new strategy.

The result is a great new website and range of promotional materials that are truly integrated with online, providing the brand with a consistent tone of voice and aesthetic.

The new strategy had an immediate effect, with the brand now expanding internationally and achieving significant success in Europe, the Americas as well as Asia – an important market as the economy expand and diets evolve to increase the importance of beef.

www.genaust.com.au

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