News & Insight

Sign Placement

Sign placement plays an important role in helping a business attract customers and increase revenue. This idea has been widely accepted by the business community as a fact, yet often is not adequately addressed.  Managers understand the key role sign placement plays in the continuing business growth. What many companies, large and small, do not realize is that sign placement is almost as important as owning a sign in the first place. Studies such as “BrandSpark /Better Homes and Gardens American Shopper Study^TM: A Three-Year Longitudinal Update” by James J. Kellaris, Ph.D at the University of Cincinnati, show that incorrect or poorly placed signs become almost as ineffective as not having a sign at all. Correct placement is essential to attracting passing customers. Failure to carefully consider sign placement can result in a large portion of business being lost.

Studies, like the one done by Dr. Kellaris, have been able to  quantify the effects of having poorly placed or indiscernible signage. These results have shown an incredibly negative impact when it comes to the revenue of a business. According  to Kellaris’ research, 64.0% of people surveyed said they failed to find a business because of improper placement of  signage.  It was also found that this problem affects all age groups, not just the elderly as many businesses presume is the problem.

Multiple factors have to be taken into consideration when actually deciding to where to place a sign either on exterior or interior of a business. These factors include:

• Size of the sign
• Mounting
• Environment
• Local Ordinances

Over time visibility of a sign can deteriorate as well.  Reduced brightness, tree and shrub growth, and new construction regularly degrades what originally was good sign placement.

All of these factors must be considered carefully when looking into placement of a sign. North American Signs is incredibly well versed in the proper positioning of signage.  We have worked with thousands of locations across the country, assessing sites for the best visibility of potential and existing signs.  When we know that signage failure reduces store revenue and proper signage increases store revenue, the impact of addressing sign placement both during initial construction and periodically over the life of a location can substantially improve profits.