When "Cousin Fred" is Your Webmaster

(Ms.) Jj,
Creative Director
Vision IPD

Whether you are just starting a business or struggling to stay afloat in this challenging economy, "the bottom line" is never far from your mind. Every dollar saved, you think, might be the buffer you need to keep going until things pick up again. So you look at expenses with a critical eye, separating things you cannot do without (heat, materials) from things where cuts can be made.

Often, advertising budgets are the first to go. After all, it seems that everyone has a home computer and software that will print out flyers and brochures, and "spiffy" paper can be bought by the pack at the big discount store. And to those of us who call on our kids to program the VCR, it doesn't seem much of a stretch to call on the same youngster (who, after all, spends hours on the Internet) to build us a website. It's even better if the young one is working on a computer major in college, right?

Will all due respect to both your bottom line and the "hot young geeks" in your family, let me express a differing opinion.

Advertising and business communications -- whether in print or on screen -- involves much more than just knowing the software to push pixels around and pump ink onto paper. "Graphic design" in many ways is truly a misnomer that confuses and misdirects, for the actual business at hand is visual communication.

Visual communication involves images, yes... and words... and how they are put together on the screen or the page. But it goes much deeper than that. It is really as much about your potential customers and clients as it is about you and your products. Designers are trained, and spend years, thinking not just out of that trite and proverbial box, but also IN the minds of customers and consumers very different from themselves. Our expertise translates your message and displays your products to your customers in the best possible light.

An example from early on in my career illustrates exactly how reliance on "cousin Fred" can go awry. I had been asked to design a logo for a niche software company that specialized in development of industry-specific software. Though the father and son partners loved my logo, Dad decided to let Junior put together the ad for their first offering -- an inventory control program for used car dealerships. The big advantage of their new software was that it was a Windows-based interface, the first of its kind. At that time the only other programs out there were still working in DOS (I did say this was early in my career, right?)

After some time, the partners approached me for help on the ad. Junior had a concept that they all loved, but had no idea how to make it visual. His concept was to personify the dealers' current DOS software as a balding, pot bellied man and their new offering as a "studly young geek."

A bit of discussion confirmed my initial impression: the target market for this product was the owner or manager of a used car lot -- who was likely to identify more with the image of a balding, overweight fellow and be put off by the image of the younger man. Talk about an ad that would shoot the company in the foot! ...And all because they had not thought from the point of view of the potential customer.

After a bit of discussion, we collectively determined that what these fellows likely wanted out of life was more leisure time, which being able to use a more efficient software package could deliver. Our ad in the trade publication (which brought them massive inquiries and sales) featured relaxes sketch of a man leaning against a tree, with his hat pulled down over his face and a fishing pole in his hand. It caught their attention immediately (being the ONLY ad in the publication that did not include an image of a car) and followed up with a few appropriate words about the product and contact information.

The same type of issues come up in web site design. You have to think about your customers, how they use the web and what they need and do not need, and you also must keep on top of it as the digital world can change with unnerving speed.

Here in Maine, overall, we have a larger percentage of folks for whom dial-up service is the only affordable option for home Internet and I believe a larger percentage of folks who do not use the 'Net at all, or not from home, as compared to other areas of the country. Many factors are at play here, including lack of infrastructure, sparse population and poverty in much of the state. No matter where you live and work, though, things are changing. On December 17, 2009 U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke announced a $25.5 million grant to fund the construction of high speed Internet infrastructure in Maine. Though completion of that project will be years down the road, if your business targets visitors to our state, or could benefit from national exposure, a web presence is a necessity. And a web site that speaks effectively to your potential customers is the only kind that will work. If your customers want "just the facts, M'am," or have slower connections, they will quickly click off a site loaded with the sorts of animations, video and similar media that would attract visitors who want to learn and be entertained -- and who have high speed broad band connections.

The younger generations, here as in other areas, are using cell phones ('smart phones") more and more -- and these devices also access the Internet. Increasingly, if you want to reach a cell-phone toting audience, you'll need two versions of a site -- one for the phone, one for the computer.

So you see, while "anyone" can print out a brochure or flier from their desktop these days, and while "cousin Fred" won't charge you for making a web site, they won't be helping your business much either. For the time and effort that you put in to your business, you need solutions that WORK as hard as you do.

For a free consultation to see how your business can benefit from professional design services on the Internet or in print, contact Vision IPD Incorporated, PO Box 2497, Bangor ME 04402 phone 207 433 0687 or email vision(at)visionipd.com