Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Presentation Script
Structure for PPD
PPD
NAME
MODULE CODE
etc etc
Slide 2
Content
- level 4 > level 5
- what happened this year...... ( subs into)
- Sustainability
- screen
- type
- and back to illustration
Sunday, 5 June 2011
Another reply from Minx Creative
Hello Sai,
Thanks again for your email.
Sadly, we do not run our internship programme other than between September
and December, however I will certainly let you know if circumstances change
or we decide to run a summer programme in 2012.
We really, really liked your handmade posters, a refreshing yet appropriate
solution and message. Your approach to sustainable design is very positive
and certainly a process that we feel very strongly about.
Definitely keep on developing your portfolio so you have a strong selection
of work on display. Work on honing in on the details, especially with layout
and typesetting, keep an eye out for spelling mistakes (example, page 4:
'stationary' should be with an 'e'), orphans and widows (see page 8 layout)
etc.
I hope my comments are helpful and good luck with the rest of your
course.
Best regards.
Charlotte
Charlotte Dickason
Designer
Minx Creative
2 Old Library Court
45 Gillender Street
London
E14 6RN
t: +44 (0) 20 7510 1005
f: +44 (0) 20 7510 1007
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Enterprise Evaluation
Promoting our Graphic Design Business
There are many ways to promote a graphic design business, including blogging, word-of-mouth, email newsletters and social networking. Many of these methods are inexpensive or free, and can lead to increased exposure for your business and new clients. Even when a design business is extremely busy, it is important to continue to market your work, and many of these approaches can become a part of your everyday workflow.
Promote Your Graphic Design Business with Online Interviews
Getting interviewed for a website is a great way to promote your graphic design business. Online interviews will expose your business to a larger audience and drive traffic to your website. While it would be great if websites came to you for interviews, this will not always be the case. At any point in your design career, you have to self-promote. This can be as simple as contacting a website and asking if they are interested in an interview or case study on your company.
How to Use Twitter for Business
Twitter is a powerful and widely used networking tool, and among other communities, it is very popular among designers and web professionals. While many think it is just for announcing day-to-day social activities, there are many ways to harness Twitter for your graphic design business.
Using Facebook to Promote Your Graphic Design Business
Facebook is enormously popular, most often thought of as a social tool for friends and family to share photos, thoughts and anything else that the huge Facebook network allows. It is also, however, a powerful business tool. With so many people on one website, it was inevitable that businesses jumped in with profiles, or pages, of their own and by taking advantage of other business opportunities.
Using LinkedIn to Promote Your Graphic Design Business
LinkedIn is a business networking website that allows professionals to connect and help each other. Unlike many other networking tools that were originally geared towards socializing, LinkedIn is specifically for business networking and therefore an obvious choice as a tool to market yourself as a graphic designer.
How to Create an Email Newsletter
An email newsletter is an important tool for growing a graphic design business. It is one of most effective ways to spread the word-of-mouth on what type of work you are doing and looking for. Here’s what it takes to create and maintain one.
The Benefits of a Graphic Design Blog
There are many benefits to writing your own graphic design blog. Writing a blog can build a community around your website, promote your business, and help to establish yourself as an expert in the field.
How to Design a Graphic Design Business Card
Whether you are a freelancer or you own your own design firm, it is crucial to have business cards for your graphic design business. First we are going to look at the advantages of having a card, and then move on to the decisions that have to be made and the actual design process.
Five Ways to Improve Your Graphic Design Business
There are many ways to improve your graphic design business. Some of the most obvious ways include building your portfolio and improving your skill set through practice or courses. However, there are additional improvements you can make to your business that don't involve design work. These include anything from how you dress to how you write.
Interview: Social Networking in a Design Business
Social media really expands your ability to connect with like-minded groups, especially Twitter. Not only is Twitter useful to broadcast and interact, it’s also incredibly useful to research prospective clients, learn more about potential employees and watch what your competition is up to.
How and Why to Get your Credit Line on Graphic Design Projects
Getting your graphic design credit line on your work is a great way to spread word-of-mouth on your business. It is satisfying, and lucrative, when someone sees your work and contacts you for a project. In many cases your clients would pass on your contact info for you in case of an inquiry, but it is a great idea to skip that step and guarantee people can get in touch with you. Also, it is of course nice to get credit when it is deserved and see your name on a final work of design-
Script
- We are a much smaller company, unlike Fuse8 and therefore we guarantee a much more hands on relationship with our clients.
- We also have a print liaison who will have built a strong relationship with the printers meaning that we are involved/ over seeing from start to finish of a print job rather than just handing it over to the printers
- As mentioned, having just one print and client liaison were guarantee consistency and a friendly face all the way through each project.
- We are offering a 10% discount in the first year which means that we are cheaper than our competitors especially definitely who's price range is quite high
- Situated just on the southern outskirts of Leeds ( which means rent is not too expensive) and were are easily accessible via cars and trains
- We are also situated near printers we are working with such a Team Impression and Duffields
- put commonly used keywords into our website so that our website appears on the top of the search engine eg. Google.
- enter design competitions monthly
- Entice customers with business cards that stand out
- customised direct mail for specific types of clients
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Slide 7- Marketing and Promoting
- set our budget to 5000 pounds
- therefore, try to cover as many of our target audience as possible under that budget
- need to be as effective as possible ( otherwise, waste of money)
- using the communication mix diagram to outline our marketing plan
- also using the 4 p's to analyse our marketing strategy
- We have established our target market to be medium-large commercial and cooperate businesses. with a high average income. Mostly would be regional but we are also aiming to expand our business to a more national based client group. Also, as this is branding design comnay.... most businesses that will be needing an identity and branding would be ones which are starting up
- Product - our Graphic design services mentioned in the previous slides
- Pricing - we have already aimed to charge for our services less than our competitors with the 10 percent discount in the first year
- a memorable business card ( a play with our company name (VOICE) so that they remember it)
- direct mails to our target audience. we could create different types of direct mails which is aimed at certain type of companies. eg the companies who are more likely to be wanting annual reports, then the mail out would be designed to advertise our company about our annual report service but then also mentiona other services too.
- as our company offers a branding service......most businesses that will be needing an identity and branding would be ones which are starting up...so we could aim to advertise our business with banks. ie. make a deal with certain banks to advertisie our branding service with their packages etc.
-
Write a marketing plan
Your marketing objectives
Your marketing objectives should be based on understanding your strengths and weaknesses, and the business environment you operate in. They should also be linked to your overall business strategy.
For example, suppose your business objectives include increasing sales by 10 per cent over the next year. Your marketing objectives might include targeting a promising new market segment to help achieve this growth.
For more information on how to identify the best opportunities, see the page in this guide on external and internal analysis for your marketing plan.
Objectives should always be SMART:
- Specific - for example, you might set an objective of getting ten new customers.
- Measurable - whatever your objective is, you need to be able to check whether you have reached it or not when you review your plan.
- Achievable - you must have the resources you need to achieve the objective. The key resources are usually people and money.
- Realistic - targets should stretch you, not demotivate you because they are unreasonable and seem to be out of reach.
- Time-bound - you should set a deadline for achieving the objective. For example, you might aim to get ten new customers within the next 12 months.
Plan your marketing tactics
Once you have decided what your marketing objectives are, and your strategy for meeting them, you need to plan how you will make the strategy a reality.
Many businesses find it helpful to think in terms of the four Ps:
- Product - what your product offers that your customers value, and whether/how you should change your product to meet customer needs.
- Pricing - for example, you might aim simply to match the competition, or charge a premium price for a quality product and service. You might have to choose either to make relatively few high margin sales, or sell more but with lower unit profits. Remember that some customers may seek a low price to meet their budgets, while others may view a low price as an indication of quality levels.
- Place - how and where you sell. This may include using different distribution channels. For example, you might sell over the internet or sell through retailers.
- Promotion - how you reach your customers and potential customers. For example, you might use advertising, PR, direct mail and personal selling.
For a more comprehensive approach, you can extend this to seven Ps:
- People - for example, you need to ensure that your employees have the right training.
- Processes - the right processes will ensure that you offer a consistent service that suits your customers.
- Physical evidence - the appearance of your employees and premises can affect how customers see your business. Even the quality of
Implementing your marketing plan
Your marketing plan must do more than just say what you want to happen. It must describe each step required to make sure that it happens.
The plan should therefore include a schedule of key tasks. This sets out what will be done, and by when. Refer to the schedule as often as possible to avoid losing sight of your objectives under the daily workload.
Resources
It should also assess what resources you need. For example, you might need to think about what brochures you need, and whether they need to be available for digital distribution (by email or from your website). You might also need to look at how much time it takes to sell to customers and whether you have enough salespeople.
Cost
The cost of everything in the plan needs to be included in a budget. If your finances are limited, your plan will need to take that into account. Don't spread your marketing activities too thinly - it is better to concentrate your resources to make the most of your budget. You may also want to link your marketing budget to your sales forecast. See our guide on how to forecast and plan your sales.
Control
As well as setting out the schedule, the plan needs to say how it will be controlled. You need an individual who takes responsibility for pushing things along. A good schedule and budget should make it easy to monitor progress. When things fall behind schedule, or costs overrun, you need to be ready to do something about it and to adapt your plan accordingly.
From time to time, you need to stand back and ask whether the plan is working. What can you learn from your mistakes? How can you use what you know to make a better plan for the future?
Researching your potential customer base
Once you know your groups of customers, you can look to conduct further research to see if there are any types of customer with more specific needs than others. For example, older customer groups may buy different types of products to younger groups.
'Market segmentation' can be an effective tool for this. It involves splitting your customer groups into smaller segments to find the sections of your customer base that will be most profitable to your business. You can segment customers by:
- lifestyle
- social class
- opinion
- activities and interests
- attitudes and beliefs
You should also consider the factors such as the following when deciding which marketing segments to target:
- Is the segment large enough to support your marketing goals?
- Does your business have the skills and expertise to deal with the chosen segment?
- Is there growth in the segment?