Apply this to catching your customer’s attention and think how a new product, logo or communications strategy could lift your brand (no surgery required). We had a ball producing some new brownie flavours for Sweet As, which expanded the company’s product portfolio and meant creating the names, look and overall packaging to entice and showcase the specialist recipes (and carrying out the essential taste tests, naturally). Added to the new shop signage, it showed that expanding a company should go hand in hand with polishing, revising and refreshing the look of the brand. Not a bad way to start 2010…

We’re poised and ready with our jam jars and labels, twinkle and sticky stars, knitting needles and yarn and family photos (the ones without the red eyes), to have a far more creative Christmas. It’s not all about flashing the cash (‘cash, what cash?’ we hear you cry!). True, it helps if you’re actually good at cooking, knitting or sewing, but with a bit of thought you can make something good using what you already have by adding a bit of (creative) sparkle.

It’s the same for company promotions and branding. If you already have an established business, it’s time to work creatively with what you already have to make some changes which will reap the rewards you need.

• Already have a great database of customer emails? Why not send them an eshot letting them know (or reminding them of) what you can offer them?
• Need to shout about a new product or service that you’ve already developed with an advert or leaflet? It costs less than you think to raise your profile.
• Need to reconnect with loyal customers through a cost-effective Christmas promotion? You’d be surprised how well people respond to being valued and updated.

So it’s not about spending and re-designing but more about making the most of what you’ve got, raising the profile of your business and getting the return you deserve in a few simple promotional steps (a crafty way of saving money too).

Speaking of which:

Homemade Christmas decorations

Festive jammie dodgers

]]> http://blog.pureazure.co.uk/2009/11/make-do-and-mend/feed/ http://blog.pureazure.co.uk/2009/09/be-prepared-not-just-for-boy-scouts/ http://blog.pureazure.co.uk/2009/09/be-prepared-not-just-for-boy-scouts/#comments Thu, 24 Sep 2009 08:11:48 +0000 holly http://blog.pureazure.co.uk/?p=15

Like a stealth movement preparing to take over, we’ve been noticing luxury mince pies, knobbly walnuts and festive cards sneakily appearing on our supermarket shelves, parked cheekily next to workaday tins of beans and showing off with red ribbon and shiny bits. So it’s only a matter of time until those already annoying advert breaks begin to have jingle bells as backing music, luring us into panic purchasing for our nearest and dearest and lodging songs we wished we could forget into our minds (‘mistletoe and wine’ anyone?).

“But it’s only September!” we hear you cry. Indeed, but there’s no denying that small businesses always need to be ahead of the game. Planning well ahead for Christmas is crucial for our scheduling of projects, and pre-planning is essential for anyone wishing to fully take advantage of this time of year for their business. Whether it’s special offers, Christmas eshots, or just a great time to make the most of seasonal goodwill with your marketing and advertising, planning ahead for print deadlines or product launches makes sense right now (even as the sun still shines and flip flops have not yet been fully packed away).

So we think letting a bit of Christmas sparkle into your day isn’t such a bad idea if it means your business will be ready once the festive spirit is upon us. (Just promise us one thing – absolutely no sneaky mince pies until December.)

But if you think we’ve swapped the beautiful, rolling hills of Yorkshire for lesser beauty, think again! Our shiny new offices nestle in equally green surroundings, and after some careful balancing and a bit of spilled soil, we’ve managed to transport our patio pots of pansies and salad leaves (not so attractive but rather tasty) as carefully as we did our Macs and PCs. So we’ve brought a little bit of Yorkshire with us and hope that the Lincolnshire soil will be as inviting to our summer seedlings and not too temptingly succulent for its resident slugs, which may as we speak be ‘yuthering and yetting’ (Lincolnshire dialect meaning to eat noisily and voraciously - Lincolnshire factet!). We want a butterfly-friendly garden (think nectar-bearing, scented and meadow flowers), though caterpillars aren’t quite so welcome (see previous yuthering comment). We incorporated butterflies into the design of our first communications to you so they’re a part of our continuation, and they’re in need of help as our 50 varieties of butterfly in the UK are fast becoming rare.

But we’re still here, raring to go with fresh ideas and ready to help your business put down its own roots in whichever sector you’re in. As soon as we’ve found the teapot, that is …

Purely interesting:

Nineteenth century papers online

Wheelie bin campaign

Yes it will soon be time to spread the love to our nearest and dearest, so what better time to show your company you care, too?

No, we don’t mean sending a box of chocolates to your own office (though we salute your style if you do). We’re thinking more along the lines of treating your company’s brand to a new image; starting a website to pull in a new customer base; redesigning your adverts to stand out in the local press; or perhaps adding a bit of ‘polish’ to your company’s business cards would send your customers the right message and show them how much you care about their perception of your company?

Devoting a little time and surprisingly little money to freshening up your company’s image or streamlining your promotions will show that you truly value your customer relationships. Which could make your company (almost) as tempting to them as that scrumptious box of Belgian chocolates.

So take advantage of the ’silly season’ - while everyone else is busy sipping mulled wine, planning disappointing office parties (think soggy sprouts and dodging the mistletoe) and frantically buying last-minute presents online, think about what 2009 could (and should) hold for your business.

Maybe you’ve been toying with a refreshed company website, or are thinking of a new logo to make your customers see your brand ’anew’? Or perhaps advertising your products or services is high on your agenda, and you want some eye-catching print or web adverts which will lure your customers in? Savvy clients are already scheduling their New Year promotions in, so it makes sense to jot down some thoughts on where your brand is ‘going’ next year.

The benefits of this forward-planning? You’ll be able to think of lambs, daffodils and other spring-like delights while you consider what 2009 will offer. Plus you can start 2009 knowing you’ve got your communications sorted, and that has to get us through the dark nights with a spring in our step (sorry).

So it follows that if the text and image content of your website remains stale and static, and latest news becomes old news, people won’t visit your site more than once. And that means lost customers and a pretty lean Christmas (those sprouts will have to stretch a long-g-g way).

So if you have a website, it’s key to update its content and let people know what you’re up to, whether it’s special offers, conferences and events or even a poll to ask people if beanies really are acceptable headwear (if it’s good enough for Agyness Deyn …). Updated sites fare better with search engines and ‘move you on’ in the eyes of your visitor. And a whole ‘refresh’ of your home page text makes you rethink your company’s message, which isn’t a bad idea because we all know businesses change and priorities vary, depending on the time of year, what’s in the bank and what’s happening with your competitors.

The best bit? These updates cost very little, and if you have a content management system, are achievable in very little time – just update your pages and voila, you have the power to attract new business. And if you’re not too keen to get involved in that ‘webby’ area, get your provider to update the site for you, as again this is a low-cost, low-effort way to boost business. Result!

Then check your stats and we guarantee (*disclaimer alert - ok so we can’t promise you this, but trust us, it will) that changing text and images here and there, and updating your news, will make a surprising difference to your site stats. 

So ignoring the cynical ‘they’re selling Christmas trees already’ comments, we think we should look anew on the run-up to Christmas. Glitter (oo!) and carols (ah!) warm even the chilliest of cockles, and sending out Christmas promotions might just do the same, while earning you some (much needed) money for the pot.

Christmas-themed enewsletters, posters and greetings cards are a good way to promote your business and products now, while spreading some cheer at the same time. People are thinking about presents already (oh to be so organised), so it’s a key time to bring people out of their ‘it’s not summer anymore’ blues and show them what you offer.  It really isn’t too late as print turnarounds can be surprisingly fast.

So before Father Christmas wakes from his slumber and the Christmas Fairy gets her tutu dry-cleaned, think about spreading some pre-Christmas cheer, and in the process, getting more business from your customers. We’ll project manage the lot so you’ve no need to worry, though we draw the line at fetching your Christmas shopping for you (have you seen Oxford Street in December? Call me a bumpkin, but online shopping is the way to go).

As you can imagine, this ‘testing’ application presents the optimum chance to show your friends that you did listen at school and do still know the basics of the English language. But it highlights something else to us (as purveyors of fine copy and choice words), and that’s the ever-present respect for good grammar and the correct use of punctuation.

Now far be it from us to lecture you (and I bet you’re scanning this text for errors - spot the deliberate mistake and you might just get a mention in our next enews), but how many times have you driven past a sign for ‘carrot’s 10p’ or suchlike and not tutted?

We think it goes far deeper than disapproval, as mistakes in copy immediately undermine that business or product. After all, if they can’t spell their own special offers correctly or don’t have respect for high-quality, and don’t value taking time, care and attention over their communications (think over-wordy website copy or shoddily-written press releases), what does it say about their products?

Too many times copy is neglected and design is king, but to produce effective communications requires the two to work hand-in-hand, complementing each other by being finished to the same standard of excellence. So don’t let them spot the mistake - whatever you are trying to convey to your customers needs to be self-assured and above all as good to read as it is to look at. So investing in a good copywriter, who knows their ‘who’s’ from their ‘whose’ makes complete sense to us.

It’s interesting how much of a big brand’s budget goes on advertising. Even when money’s tight it’s still the case that a company will value their marketing spend above all else when they need to lure in customers. So product packaging and design is key to creating that ‘buy me’ impulse. That’s where we see keeping it simple benefits a brand. We’re not talking basic and boring, oh no. We just like packaging to be pared down and not tell us more than we need to know. So that’s great design and minimal copy with less fuss and text which you don’t have time to read anyway.

Think of a Smarties tube (mmm - ever tried them on vanilla ice cream?) and you think of the colours, shapes and one name - that of the product. Which is timeless. 

So give Pure Azure the chance to get your product down to its core once again.