Sales tips…

Went to a sales seminar a few weeks ago, these tips may help when your trying to sell your company.

1. Know where you are going – have an approach get the key sales points out.

•     Listen
•     Introduce, clear points
•     USP’s

2. Experience – always show you have experience in marketplace or project
3. Have a system in place before going to market

•     Why use your company
•     Why have we met today
•     What are the benefits of using your company
•     What’s unique – complete package we will make sure you marketing joins up

4. Only look for certain markets ie. channel markets
5. Trained and untrained sales:

•     Generate interest
•     Qualify
•     Presentation
•     Experience
•     Examples
•     Understanding the marketplace
•     Develop a need – find a problem that you could be the solution
•     Form a reason to continue the discussion process, but make this a genuine
•     Be prepared to walk away

6. Listen to the custom – it’s not all about you
7. Discuss a case study or project that maybe relevant to there needs
8. Decide a strategy – don’t give away valuable information – away play to your strengths
9. Look at how you can provide a complete service to a client either by creating a proposal and schedule. Don’t just offer free advise and free work.
10. Don’t expect the call always make sure you offer just enough to able to walk away. If the client wants a pitch they need to be prepare to accept your offer ie. pitch fee or proposal
11. Turn the meeting around, why am I here today.
12. Set the ground rules

•     Learn to say no
•     Create an agenda
•     Would we be  a good fit

13. Compelling, emotional reason to buy

•     Creativity
•     Marketing experience
•     Results

14. Create a value in information don’t see your experience a free commodity
15. Find problems – present solution
16. Clearly understand you product

New website

It’s hear at last the new look website. We hope you’ll keep an eye on all the new projects and news we will be keen to post.

As an advertising and design agency based near Oxford we work with SME and national clients. We make sure we deliver the same professional attention to detail. We like to think we produce great creative ideas that are always on budget.

www.onehatdesign.com

How to get your company branding right

All too often, my clients look at brands as simply being the “logo on a product”. In times gone by, this could well have served as a good generalised description, but those were days when the ‘consumer’ was still an evolving entity, and communications were not as pervasive as ours today.
Consumerism has also evolved well beyond the generalised concept of people choosing which brand of beans, or clothing to buy.

We, as individuals or as groups, are consumers of products for ourselves, our families, and our businesses, and in all of these cases, more than ever before, we buy into the brand of our supplier, not just the product itself.

The reasons for brand based decisions are diverse and include:

• Perceived value of the product (commonly seen in clothing, luxury goods, and electronics)
• Differentiation of a product in a largely homogenised marketplace (e.g.: petroleum, courier services, telecommunications, et. Al)
• First move advantage (i.e.: those brands which were there first, and so gain respect regardless of quality, the advantage which, for example, yahoo maintained for a long time)
• Emotional Equity (i.e.: the intangible connection a consumer makes with a brand from having spent time and capital engaging with it, common in banking, utilities, and in the real-estate market)
• And many more!

But in any case, the argument for a business is quite clear, that branding is more than a logo. The great David Ogilvy even said, “You now have to decide what ‘image’ you want for your brand. Image means personality. Products, like people, have personalities, and they can make or break them in the market place.”

By Vikas Shah, founder of the Ultima Group.

Four clearly defined design stage

When creating the right design solution for your marketing needs, each clearly defined stage becomes an important milestone in bringing your new product or service to the market.

Design projects tend to follow these four steps:

1. discover – forming your ideas, having identified the need for a new product or service
2. define – refining ideas, establishing the business objectives of creating this new product, ongoing management of the design project
3. develop – creating a prototype of your new product and testing it in order to see if it performs as it is designed to do
4. deliver – producing and launching the product or service

Dividing the design process up in this way can help you to develop and plan the timetable for your new project.

Race Retro 2011

We recently helped promote Heritage and Motoring Classics website at Race Retro 2011. We created a series of promotional items to make sure the company gets hits on the Motoring Classics website.

We concentrated on informing prospective customers of all the products on the site through a 12 page leaflet, a competition card to be handed out at the exhibition and magazine advertising.

Race Retro has something for every enthusiast with motorsport, classic car and bike enthusiasts, event organisers, engineering and restoration companies on hand to discuss all your motorsport needs as well as hundreds of trade stands selling parts, tools, memorabilia, and much more.

Race Retro 2011 celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the Jaguar E-Type legend with a superb display of many of the best known racing E-Types supported by a host of racing Jaguars from XK120 through C-Type, D-Type, 3.8 Mk2 Saloons, XJ12C, Silk Cut XJR’s, even the F1 car.

What makes a good logo?

A good logo is distinctive, appropriate, practical, graphic, simple in form and conveys an intended message.

There are five principles that you should follow to ensure that this is so…

An effective logo is (in no particular order):
•    Simple
•    Memorable
•    Timeless
•    Versatile
•    Appropriate

1. Simple
A simple logo design allows for easy recognition and allows the logo to be versatile & memorable. Good logos feature something unique without being overdrawn.
2. Memorable
Following closely behind the principle of simplicity, is that of memorability. An effective logo design should be memorable and this is achieved by having a simple, yet, appropriate logo.
3. Timeless
An effective logo should be timeless – that is, it will stand the test of time. Will the logo still be effective in 10, 20, 50 years?
4. Versatile
An effective logo should be able to work across a variety of mediums and applications. For this reason a logo should be designed in vector format, to ensure that it can be scaled to any size. The logo should be able to work both in horizontal and vertical formats.
5. Appropriate
How you position the logo should be appropriate for its intended purpose. For example, if you are designing a logo for children’s toys store, it would be appropriate to use a childish font & colour scheme. This would not be so appropriate for a law firm.

Artwork made easy

Although our workflow can handle a variety of file types we prefer artwork to be supplied as print-ready PDFs. When supplying PDF files it’s important that they are set to our preferred specifications. A general overview is set out below:
•    All artwork must be composite CMYK
•    Any spot colours to be printed must be included within the file
•    All images must be a minimum of 300dpi
•    All fonts must be embedded or converted to outline
•    All files must contain crop marks
•    All files must have 3mm of bleed where required
If supplying native files a general rule is to collect or package all associated files (fonts/graphics/images) used in your page layout as they will be needed to successfully output the file. If you are unsure of any of these settings or require a more detailed explanation please call for assistance. We accept files from many applications but please call to discuss your requirements and we can then help with your file delivery.

love summer love pork

We were briefed by a consultant to create the visual look for Love Summer Love Pork this was used on the new 36 page recipe book, retail posters and recipe cards as well as literature focussing on Barbecues and Al Fresco eating that was aimed at the food service sector.

the magazine just gets better

Motoring Classics magazine rolls on for British Motor Heritage. MC helps to promote their new website www.motoringclassics.co.uk. The look and feel of magazine is aimed at informing consumers of new products, great ideas and developments within the company and beyond.