Of Literature, Logos and Misinformation

By FH Cooper | Leave a Comment

Imagine yourself making a sales presentation to a prospective client and the subject of product literature, data sheets, etc. arises. The client stops you in your tracks by showing examples of dozens of brochures, data sheets, catalog sheets, and case histories that the company has produced. Careful inspection of these examples indicates that the logos are different on many of them, the names of the same products appear differently in different brochures, specifications in one piece of literature are different in another or on the website for the same product. This happens in large multi-national companies as well as small and mid-sized companies. Even though this company has produced a proliferation of material about the products and the company, its effectiveness is diminished by its lack of uniformity. The underlying reason often given for this problem is that the materials were created in a crisis mode.

The establishment of parameters for the use of the company name, logo, etc. would provide uniformity and make production easier while at the same time reinforcing the corporate identity and credibility for the company. Advanced planning at the start of the year for materials to support the marketing and sales efforts will go a long way to increasing their effectiveness. Color schemes, type styles, formats, stocks, etc., all can be coordinated to achieve maximum impact. Each of the people involved should work against a “master marketing and communications plan” so that everyone is heading in the same direction. One person should be tasked with the job of checking all materials to ensure that they all present the same information.

Franklin Cooper  © 2020