When the times are tough: get tougher

Complacency has never been a viable approach in the world of marketing. During an economic recession when consumers and businesses alike are spending less it can take more to get noticed. Unfortunately this can be a difficult prospect for many businesses as the inclination is to keep one’s purse strings closed.

One solution: digital. As always, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on your competitors to see what approaches they’re taking and where they’re succeeding. The current trend is definitely to stick with the cost-effective marketing options offered by digital technology. The obvious benefit of digital forms of marketing is their cost-per-impression. From websites to newsletters to social network marketing, advertising online generally lets you reach an unlimited audience for a set expenditure, a benefit that print media cannot give.

The flipside of this is that, as many companies are shifting their focus from print to web, the few print pieces that customers receive stand out more. We’ve seen an increased interest in media kits since they allow the best of both worlds. They can be designed as PDFs that can either be emailed or posted online, while also being printed for mail-outs. New advancements in the world of digital printing allow for affordable high quality small print runs. Ask us about the many options available for any print project from stationery to catalogues to trade show materials to unique self-promotional ideas that may never have seen before by you or your customers.

From strategies to the implementation of these strategies, we can steer you towards the highest return on investment solution. However you want to push yourself, be it online or through printed materials, ask us what Starmedia can do for your business today.

StarMedia Case Study: CHRD

At the StarMedia Advertising Agency, the client is always the number one priority. We've worked with clients regionally, nationally and internationally. Through the relationships we foster with our clients, we act as brand and advertising stewards, consistently and creatively producing solutions so that our clients can reap the results.

Here is the Case Study of the Cree Human Resource Development, one of our clients we have been working with in the last year;

The unemployment rate for the Cree population is around 25%, out of a labor force of 7,500. This number is particularly high, well above the federal and provincial averages. This unemployment rate doubles in the 15-24 age demographic.

The CHRD was designed to give the Cree, especially this large segment of jobless youth greater access to the proper resources to find employment. The CHRD wanted to enliven their materials. At Starmedia, our job was to create a strong visual product, well organized for ease of use. With the rich visual tradition in which the Cree culture is steeped, we thought it best to incorporate traditional motifs into a modern look of the CHRD, which would appeal to the Cree labor force.

Designing the CHRD materials became an interesting proposal for Starmedia design. It was our first experience working with the native Cree language, Iiyiyuu ayiimuun. In fact the materials were trilingual as French and English featured as well. The blend of these three languages required smooth lines and carefully modulated colors.

The colors for the material were selected through extensive research of the Cree traditions, and application of this new knowledge to the psychology of color: The greens express the northern boreal forest evoking growth, discovery, and respect. The burnt umbers and oranges of the autumn hearken the fall when folk tales and legends were told in the community. Red was used as a symbol for strength and courage. All of these colors correspond to the deep white background, suggesting the frozen tundra and winterscapes of the northern Quebec climate.

To see more please visit the CHRD Case Study or see other Case Studies on Our Clients page.

A Collection of Details

Everyone knows the expression, "God is in the details." The idea, as heretical as it may be to make this topical jump, applies just as well to advertising and, especially, to website design.

It's amazing how often I've gone to websites and been thwarted by some aspect of the design, actually hindered from doing what I need to do on the site. In most cases, this clumsiness of design directly results in an inability to, say, make a purchase or find a product or store. Don't people realize this? If I go to a website and can't find out how to telephone the company, or if a page takes 5 minutes to load, then the bottom line is that I will probably leave the website (and the product) and never look back.

Usability carries over into things like aesthetics and good writing too. A website that looks thrown together, text overrun with bad grammar and spelling mistakes, broken links and outdated information -- these things show that you don't actually care about your customers' experience. Or worse, that you think that they won't notice when you cut corners. We've said it before, but things like careless writing simply scream "unreliable" and "shoddy." Do you think people won't notice? Think again.

This isn't just useless griping. When my experience on a website is pleasant and smooth, I might not consciously think, "Wow, everything here is spelled correctly" or,"The pages sure load quickly!" On the other hand, I'll be left with an overall satisfaction with my experience, and I'll associate that satisfaction with the website and, by extension, with the company itself. Good craftsmanship (be it in design, programming, writing, or anything else) doesn't draw attention to itself, and therein lies its success. Rather than fume over the fact that I'm sitting in front of a screen waiting for a page to load, or stumbling over misplaced commas, I'm able to fully immerse myself in the actual content of the site, open and receptive to what it has to say.