On-Site Branding: How Signage Can Impact Your Brand
When it comes to your brand strategy, are you using the correct approaches to position yourself within the most desirable market or industry? From a marketing perspective, this involves creating an image to convey to your target markets. Thereafter, you can utilize new and existing resources to resonate that brand position with the customer.
In a changing commercial environment, particularly in the retail and service industries, many companies are shifting their marketing focus to online. While that is a great way to expand your reach, there is a danger in abandoning more traditional forms of advertising. When companies fail to utilize their brick and mortar locations, or more importantly their signage, there is a large potential for missed opportunity.
Let Signage Do the Work for You
When visiting a brick and mortar location, signage is the first exposure a customer will have of your brand. While some customers may have a continued relationship with your company. An article from Sign Research Foundation reveals that a past Burger King study indicated that almost 1/3 of people became aware of their restaurants when they “saw it while passing the facility”. With such a large portion of your business coming from customers who were passing by. It is necessary to understand the power your signage has on your business.
Shifting to the mindset that signage is a one-time advertising investment. Will allow for a greater ROI of the initial signage. Investing in high quality, long lasting signage. Will continue to benefit your business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In addition, InfoTrends reports that digital signage can increase brand awareness by 47.7%. Boosting the average purchasing amount by nearly 30%. The decisions you make when creating your sign package have the potential to greatly benefit your bottom line. As the purchase is made once, you will be able to sit back and watch it continue to benefit both your customers and your business.
Consider Signage Part of Your Marketing Mix
The traditional marketing mix for a product or service involves four different components: product, price, place, and promotion. When it comes to signage, it can greatly impact your brand’s physical product and place. Having signage in a retail environment will greatly impact the experience your customers have when they walk into a store. Keep in mind that this can either improve or tarnish their relationship with your brand.
Signage is a fantastic cost-effective way to extend your brand. It happens to be one of the first elements of a brand’s positioning that consumers interact with. Despite this, most sign companies focus on more analytical goals of signage such as gross impression, visual impact, color schemes, lighting efficiency, highway presence, etc. While these aspects of signage are important, many companies are missing the opportunity to set themselves apart.
Sign Research makes the point that “you need to become brand experts, not just signage experts.” As a sign company, it is important to discuss a client’s brand position. Asking them how they can make changes to improve their existing signage is a great starting point. Our job in the sign industry is to create a product that will best convey our client’s brand to their target audience. Understanding your client’s marketing strategy will aid in their brand positioning, creating unique opportunities. Opening up room for collaborative innovation, allows for better working relationships with clients, and ultimately a better understanding of their product.
Brand Consistency is Key
Overall, there is no argument that signage is important for any company. It alone will increase sales, drive in foot traffic, and direct consumers to the right location. There is still an important piece of the equation that is overlooked by many. Which is neglecting to understand signage as a necessary piece of your marketing mix. In doing so, you run the risk that your product/service may fail to connect with potential consumers.
Personally, we pride ourselves on not only being experts in signage but at being on-site branding experts as well. We understand what our client’s brand message is trying to convey. Create a quality product to reflect that position and ultimately drive results that will increase their bottom line. Signage is a powerful way to connect with the consumer but is often overlooked as part of the marketing mix. If you consider signage as a marketing tool, there are many more opportunities to connect with the customer and find creative methods to convey your brand through signage.