By Sandeep Cousik - Production Head, Signarama India.
Signages
though last thought off for any business establishment, is an important
part of any business. We being part of the Signage industry might
sound biased, but as the norm says, it acts as an inanimate salesman for
your business.
With a signage, you clients / customers are
being able to locate your business and it acts as the face of your
business. To a by and large extent it should talk your business.
Your
signage is your primary visual elements and what you say on your sign,
whether it is the colours or the text font or the graphics on it should
convey the character of the business and also of the person running the
business. And if you have creative branding or a creative signage, it
will only make your business more appealing.
Signages are an essential component of any business’s overall marketing strategy.
How
many of you have realized that your store sign is actually the longest
lasting and the most economical form of media that you would be
investing in, when compared to the other forms of advertising your
brand? Especially for business’ that have limited marketing funds,
signages are a cost-effective form of marketing.
Thousands of
people would be viewing your sign, depending on the location of the
sign. Your signs would be telling on your contact details or the
business hours, the kind of business’ that you are in and most
importantly, that your are present there. When you consider the cost,
against the thousands of people viewing your sign, the cost per
thousand, is much lower when compared to the any other form of
advertising, whether it is the newspapers or televisions or radios. In
fact, if the signage is placed well and well thought out in terms of
appeal of design and maybe even creativity, it could provide you with a
significant return on investment.
Your signage needs to have a
good visibility and readability depending on the best placement &
viewing distance available at your site location, while the colours,
fonts, graphics, lighting, and text size also play a prominent part.
Consider the distance from which your customers will be viewing your
sign and make sure it
is legible from that far away. It does little good to have a choice
location on a busy thoroughfare if passersby cannot make out what your
sign says.
Having complicated fonts makes your sign look too
cluttered and illegible from a distance. If it is an already style used
in your logo or name, where the size is large, then keep it for just
that and you could use clean and legible fonts for the rest of the sign.
Colours
would also play a part on your signs, especially if you have your
already house colours. Else, bright colours, though not overboard,
could be used as to draw the attention of the customers, just in
splashes here and there rather than having a kaleidoscope, as they would
play on the eyes more than what you are trying to convey about
yourself.
Lighting plays a prominent part of your signage, even if
your business hours are not into the night. If your business is on
high traffic areas, and when people are travelling back, lighting can
make people aware of your business being available at the location, for
their service, when required. LED’s consume lesser power and are
ecofriendly. Further consumption of unwanted power can be curtailed by
using a timer to automatically switch off and switch on your signages,
even without your presence.
You could have smaller signs on your
storefront mentioning on the working hours or phone number or maybe
credit cards being acceptable. It is also important for your business
to have directional and informative signs. Signs inside your outlet is
also a requirement. Your internal signs could be in the form of wall
graphics or informative signs. These also helps the customers for
impulse buying. Parking signs & directional signs to direct your
customer to the parking lot is a necessity.
When you have
invested in your signs, it sure is something worth protecting. Your
signs would be greeting your customers day in and day our in all forms
of weather and so its upkeep is utmost importance. Always get into a
maintenance contract for your signage. This will help in extending the
life expectancy of your signages and ensure safety of the signage. Any
potential defects in the sign or its fixtures will be discovered before
they become unsafe or lead to failure of the signs performance. Having
invested in your signage to enhance your business, you will want your
signs to remain visually impressive and structurally safe for their
lifetime.
It is but sad that the importance of signage is often overlooked and too
many businesses try to cut corners and don’t put a significant amount
of time and money into the process. Worse, signs are allowed to decay
and fall into disrepair, which becomes almost a sort of negative
advertising. That’s unfortunate, because properly done, a good
well-placed sign is one of the best investments you can make in your
business!
So, get creative and invest in some signage with Signarama India.
