Your New Brochure: Remember Your Audience.
I am just looking at two pieces that arrived in an envelope, from a reputable, national organisation offering training, support and coaching for company directors. One is a letter. The other is a brochure, encouraging business owners and directors to join the organisation.
Saying this may seem a bit tough, but it really looks like the design team went to great lengths to figure out how to create a brochure that is as difficult to read as they could. Seriously. The strong burgundy stock combined with the black copy is VERY difficult to read. While I am only guessing as an outsider looking in, my guess is that it was a complete waste of money. The cost of design, copywriting, printing and postage for this brochure would have been considerable.
So why am I telling you this? Because this type of graphic design madness is very costly - yet is so easy to avoid. And you want to make sure it doesn't happen to you.
The main thing to do is to remember the type of people you are marketing to, and create a piece that will work for them.
In this instance, the audience for this brochure is going to be aged 40+. Some will have 20/20 vision, but many will be wearing glasses. And all of them will be very busy people. And as a person who fits this category, I can tell you that reading this brochure was a real struggle. In fact, if I wasn't a copywriter with a passion for direct mail, I can't imagine that I would have bothered.
So, against that background, a clean, simple design with black text on a white background is going to be safer than the design that was used. Much safer.
The tragedy is, many business owners who would have gotten a lot from signing up would probably have made an effort to read it - and then given up. Or put it in the 'later' basket. And as you know, 'later' rarely happens in direct mail!
On the upside, the burgundy IS strong. When laying on a desk, there is denying that it stands out. HOWEVER... all the bright, appealing colours in the world won't help one bit if the target market can't read the message in the first place! That is the problem with the burgundy brochure. The black text on the burgundy background is nearly impossible to read.
Of course, the burgundy colour MAY have been chosen for the brochure because is that the corporate identity of this organisation is indeed based on this colour. Not that you would know from this brochure mind you. The branding and logo is lost against the strong, dominant color.
The lesson? Use colour by all means. But be sure the colour doesn't override your message. As any graphic designer worth their salt will tell you, colour must SUPPORT the message. There are many ways to include colour to make a brochure stand out, but it must ALWAYS make the content easier to read, not more difficult.
Saying this may seem a bit tough, but it really looks like the design team went to great lengths to figure out how to create a brochure that is as difficult to read as they could. Seriously. The strong burgundy stock combined with the black copy is VERY difficult to read. While I am only guessing as an outsider looking in, my guess is that it was a complete waste of money. The cost of design, copywriting, printing and postage for this brochure would have been considerable.
So why am I telling you this? Because this type of graphic design madness is very costly - yet is so easy to avoid. And you want to make sure it doesn't happen to you.
The main thing to do is to remember the type of people you are marketing to, and create a piece that will work for them.
In this instance, the audience for this brochure is going to be aged 40+. Some will have 20/20 vision, but many will be wearing glasses. And all of them will be very busy people. And as a person who fits this category, I can tell you that reading this brochure was a real struggle. In fact, if I wasn't a copywriter with a passion for direct mail, I can't imagine that I would have bothered.
So, against that background, a clean, simple design with black text on a white background is going to be safer than the design that was used. Much safer.
The tragedy is, many business owners who would have gotten a lot from signing up would probably have made an effort to read it - and then given up. Or put it in the 'later' basket. And as you know, 'later' rarely happens in direct mail!
On the upside, the burgundy IS strong. When laying on a desk, there is denying that it stands out. HOWEVER... all the bright, appealing colours in the world won't help one bit if the target market can't read the message in the first place! That is the problem with the burgundy brochure. The black text on the burgundy background is nearly impossible to read.
Of course, the burgundy colour MAY have been chosen for the brochure because is that the corporate identity of this organisation is indeed based on this colour. Not that you would know from this brochure mind you. The branding and logo is lost against the strong, dominant color.
The lesson? Use colour by all means. But be sure the colour doesn't override your message. As any graphic designer worth their salt will tell you, colour must SUPPORT the message. There are many ways to include colour to make a brochure stand out, but it must ALWAYS make the content easier to read, not more difficult.
About the Author:
There is lot to consider when you develop your brochure design for your business. The team at Crockford Carlisle have some helpful ideas on creating a persuasive business brochure and we recommend you vist their site and read their marketing ideas bank.
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