Brilliant Comment about advertising!

The first thing one must do to succeed in advertising is to have the attention of the reader. That means to be interesting. The next thing is to stick to the truth, and that means rectifying whatever’s wrong in the merchant’s business. If the truth isn’t tellable, fix it so it is. That is about all there is to it.”
–John E. Powers, member, Advertising Hall of Fame

Here’s a great article on Word of Mouth marketing!

What makes advertising evil?

I was at a networking luncheon yesterday and I heard someone say “our business is all by word of mouth. We don’t advertise and we never will.” Really?!? I’m not sure what makes advertising an element from the dark side.

It seems that people are more than willing to BE advertising (ie: the little logos on their shirts or shoes or handbags). People will pay EXTRA for products because of that and yet when it comes to building their own businesses they are offended by the idea of investing their own brand and making it public knowledge.

I think that advertising can be fun and informative. Who hasn’t laughed at a Coke commercial or thought twice about some PSA that was thought-provoking?

Advertising is the BEST way to generate “buzz.” It’s the best way to build customer trust. Ask any 3 year old, who can’t yet read, what the golden arches are and they know. Why? It’s an image that they trust. (Yeah maybe the menu could be a bit more nutritious, but they are improving – that’s another blog for another time.)

The moral to my story … if you are a business owner, don’t be afraid to advertise. It’s not evil. This is the “information age.” If your information is out there for potential clients, you WILL fall behind your competitors that inform.  In fact, you should embrace advertising and promotion at every opportunity and should budget for it. It’s the BEST way to make your business grow! Depending on your business, it might not be a service that your potential client needs all the time, but when the time comes for that need, they are going to trust a name that they remember. Why? Because you made your name memorable. You advertised.

QR code fun with your iPhone!

I’ve been reading about a new type of bar coding called QR codes. These are all the rage in Japan and sound like a great idea for anyone who has product or service information that resides in a website (ie: all of us!!!).

The idea is that one puts one’s QR code on one’s product (or one’s magazine ad, one’s t-shirt,etc.). When an individual “scans” the code with their 3G phone, it immediately takes them to the advertisers website with information about the product with the aforementioned code. What a great idea!! Potential customer can see a product, but perhaps he doesn’t have time or the cash at the moment to buy -  he can store it on his iPhone for a later purchase online? Great! That’s branding in action!!!

This is a GREAT idea for any business who has packaging or print ads. It’s an even MORE brilliant idea for businesses with outdoor (bustop, poster) advertising or those with trade show exhibits. Just think, a potential customer can come to your tradeshow booth, take a photo of your QR code from your booth and revisit your information once she is back in her office. Now your link is on her browser (bookmark, please). In this age of “pay for your luggage to travel by it’s weight,” an attendee may not take home brochures, but a photo that is on her phone is most definitely going with her.

It’s a great idea and a great way to make one’s product information convenient for one’s customer. Let us know when we can build  your exhibit booth or your product packaging! We’ll design it QR code ready!

Wanna try it? Here’s the RED design group code! Just download a QR reader on your iPhone or other 3G device (my favorite is just called Barcode) and take a shot of it. It will take you straight to www.red-adesigngroup.com!

AAF-Fort Worth’s 100th Birthday

I am a member of the American Advertising Federation’s Fort Worth Chapter (AAF-FW) and am proud of it!

Tomorrow is the chapter’s 100th birthday. It is the oldest organization in the city!

Happy 100th Birthday AAF-FW!

More recent work

In this economy…

It’s been a while, but I’m back.

I hadn’t logged on for many reasons, but now that my website host provides this service for free, I’m back on! I love a good freebie. And in this economy we all have to save money where appropriate. Now lets talk about what’s appropriate.

My take on it is this – when the economy gets tough, companies cut payroll first and advertising second. I’m not so sure either is a good idea. I can’t speak as much to the payroll topic as I can to advertising. So on that I shall speak.

I’m convinced that if a company drops it’s advertising, then it only retains old clients. Word of mouth does travel, but only so far. If you want to truly spread the word… you have to advertise your “brand.” Your brand can be your product, your service or in the case of entertainers, attorneys, doctors and other professionals, your brand is your self. Your brand is whatever you are trying to sell. And believe me, if you’re not advertising your brand… you’re not selling your brand. At least, not as much as you could be.

And to sell that brand, you TRULY need GREAT design. While your nephew who can sketch might be a talented artist, he probably doesn’t have the background and experience to properly design and Ad, brochure or website. He most definitely won’t be up to speed on the techniques required to pick the right paper, prep a file for a printer or publication or even know WHICH software to build the document in. a PDF/X-4 High-res file? SWOP proof? He won’t know what those thing even are. They can make an enormous difference in the quality and look of your ad piece. If your advertising looks cheap and the quality is bad, then what opinions do you thing your customers/clients will then have of your product?

An article, by Jan V. White, in Publishing magazine says “Design … isn’t just a service we buy…ignore it’s usefulness at your peril. Cleverly used, it is … vital to the sucess of your product.”

So, if you have a “brand” to sell… call a designer. In fact, start wth RED – a design group.

info@red-adesigngroup.com

Latest projects!

Happy February!

I thought I’d update everyone on the latest projects here at Red Design Group! We’ve done our monthly issue of Cabling Business Magazine. We had great fun making a Saguaro (spelled that right Brad?) cactus into a fiber optic connector! We gave it a Western “cowboy” feel.

And speaking of western theme, we did a couple of projects for Hard Bikes and Biker Pros, both with a “wanted poster” feel. They have that down and dirty look which appeals to the biker audience. Plus, if you ride and want a cool job for the spring, log onto Hard Bikes website to check out their latest job posting (see their link to the right)!

Have a great rest of February and have a happy Valentines Day!

February already?

Have I mentioned that I think that groundhog day is a scam?!? 6 more weeks of winter?!? Whatever! Here in Texas we haven’t even had winter yet and I could almost spit more than it’s rained in the last few months… I’m truly surprised that banks aren’t closed for the day, but anyway that’s enough ranting from me…

It’s been a crazy, busy week filled with mostly logo projects! Been building a couple for the ladies over at BrandEra marketing (and their clients) and one for my California clients, Mission Coast Realtors, who are starting a new venture (I’m not sure if it’s top secret or not, so you’ll have to wait for the logo to be finalized before I say more)! Postings of them soon! We need to finalize them before I can show them off. Logos are a great design experience for me. Basically, the idea is that a logo has to say everything about a business in one image, so I find logos a great challenge! It’s the design equivalent of bullet – usually, they do all the need to do in one shot and if it was done well, you’ll certainly remember it!

It’s production time for Cabling Business Magazine as well. That is always fun! I really love working with those folks. They are creative and very open to me and my “surprises.” For each issue, I’m trying to top what we did in the last issue. It’s exciting to me, that they are excited about the work we are doing!

I’ll post images of all those projects as the are completed!
Have a great February!

“All we are saying, is give peace a chance” – John and Yoko
(for you Petey!) (for some reason that keeps comin up in emails this month)

Peace out!

Caren

Red Design Calendar

Red Design Group’s schedule of “out-of-office” dates is now posted and will be updated on a weekly basis. Just log onto the “Red Schedule” link to the right to see a calendar of holiday and vacation events.
This will, hopefully, help you to schedule your project needs on a “live” or at least weekly basis!

Let us know if this is helpful! (or not)