In the world of online marketing and information, print has taken a bit of battering. The ease of the web, the instant power to information and images has reduced the need for things like brochures, leaflets and any other print marketing used to display products. But, I believe there is still a role for print marketing to play in the overall buying experience.
Do impressive, or don’t do it at all
If you’re going to invest in some print marketing like brochures, you have to do it right, or don’t bother at all. Remember, you’re up against websites and Google Images. If your marketing is pants, people are going to find it easier just to go online where all the other window companies are and your message is going to get lost straight away.
So you have to go big and slick from the get go. This means high quality images on every page, each page filled with material with no white space lost. Some of the most impressive brochures I have seen in recent months have been dominated by imagery rather by information.
I have written before on here that these days it is design that captures the homeowner’s imagination, rather than facts about locks, thresholds and energy efficiency. This is what the ideal brochure has to be about, demonstrating aspirational designs, the very best of what your product can look like. Trust me, bullet points of facts and figures aren’t going to keep homeowners interested.
Selling a lifestyle
The biggest trend I have noticed in recent years is the rise of lifestyle orientated brochures and books. Literature showing beautiful images of beautiful homes. Not images of floating windows and doors which doesn’t really give anyone any inspiration as to what their new products might look like in their own homes.
This is at the end of the day what we are selling, products that go into people’s homes that should in theory improve the standard of the lives that live in that home. And that’s where I think our industry’s marketing has been going wrong for so long.
We’ve been trying to sell a product, but we should have been focusing on the advantages those products bring to people’s homes and lives.
Two examples I have seen recently that have really impressed me have been the new brochures from Morley Glass and Express Bifolds. Both are printed on very high quality paper and every page is filled full of product and home shots showing off their products. Nerdy information is kept to an absolute minimum, with the focus kept on the images and the products. They are both seriously impressive pieces of work that has had many man hours poured into it. Items which won’t just be thrown in the bin.
Addition to the sales process
Some of the high quality literature out there can almost be called a book, rather than a brochure. Some of these things are 60-70 pages thick, packed full of stunning imagery. When a homeowner walks into a quality showroom selling quality products, it is quality literature in their hands like this which can reinforce the impression of the company on the potential client. This, I believe, is the future of marketing.
