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Franchisee and Franchisors: the pros of working with a sign company that understands branding

Posted by Gary Baron on Thu, May 31, 2012 @ 02:57 PM

No one understands the value of maintaining and promoting a brand more than franchisees and franchisors. The relationship between the two parties exists because of the value both have for their brand and the ability to promote it.

With customers in your market being bombarded with messaging and signage unlike ever before, it's your brand that becomes your best weapon in the fight for market share and awareness.

It is paramount to work with a sign company that understands branding. A sign company that understands branding, use of logos, color match, branding standards and their inherent values can put your franchise on the right path.

Consistency

Both the franchisee and the franchisor want to deliver a consistent message that leans on the overall marketing and advertising reach while also driving home the key branding message in the neighborhood. A sign company that understands that won't tinker unnecessarily with the colors, logos or anything else. They'll focus on delivering signage that stays true to your exact needs and specifications.

A franchise is about maintaining a consistent message across all points of contact with the brand. The sign outside your store is a major part of that, don't leave it in the hands of a sign company that doesn't understand that.

Experience

A sign company that has worked in the industry for a long time picks up more than a few tricks. Working with large corporate clients and upstart entrepreneurs gives a sign company the experience it needs to anticipate logo and color issues as well as the challenges that come with any branding presentation.

This may be your first go at creating signage for your franchise but a quality sign company that has experience dealing with franchisees and franchisors can provide valuable insight into the process and foresee any critical issues that might arise that you would not be aware of otherwise.

Versatility

It's not just about putting your franchise logo above the door, sitting back and waiting for the customers to roll in. What about outdoor lighted signs, LED letters, indoor signage for your entrance lobby, vehicle signage, street banners to announce your grand opening, etc. There are endless possibilities when it comes to the promoting and marketing of your brand.

Not to mention the different needs between opening one franchise and opening multiple locations at the same time. Can your sign company handle the added demand on quantities while also keeping the branding in mind?

Your sign company should be able to provide quality solutions to all of these sign needs without sacrificing your brand or 100% focus on the messaging you are trying to get across to potential customers.

Save Money

When done correctly, signage is the most cost effective form of marketing. When a franchisor does their job to promote the brand and drive customers to your business, a clear, concise and on-point sign is often the best tool to seal the deal and ensure the sale.

A sign company can't look at each sign as just another tool in your marketing arsenal. A quality sign company sees each sign as the ultimate way to give you the most value for your dollar. Don't unnecessarily spend thousands on other forms of marketing or advertising to make up for the lack of awareness caused by poor craftsmanship or placement. A sign company that understands branding, use of logos, color match, branding standards and more will do the job right the first time, drive home your brand and save you money in the long haul.

For more information on franchise solutions and how a good sign company such as The Sign Center can help you, please click here.





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Topics: branding, illuminated signs, franchise solutions

Building A Complex Starts With A Great Foundation: A Site Sign

Posted by Gary Baron on Wed, May 30, 2012 @ 10:47 AM

Before a building ever goes up or someone lays the first brick for a new complex, there are a thousand pieces of information that need to be shared, communicated and offered. Sometimes, much of that information has to reach people that you can't reach otherwise.

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Topics: site signs, property managment signs

Your sign is branding your business 24/7

Posted by Gary Baron on Thu, May 24, 2012 @ 12:48 PM

It's the first thing a person sees when walking down the road.  The very first impression made on that soon to be daily customer.  The one main indicator that will be associated with you and your product from that moment on: the sign.  Proclaimer of good things, attractor of desire, beckoner to pleasure, a business' sign tells just enough to leave passerbys wondering.  A business' name is its title, something to call it, but the sign is the soul of a company, a way to recognize it when it's not even expected, providing consistency of look and feel.

By using branding, signage, marketing and other advertisements, you are creating for your business a reputation that is proven with every experience and visually reinforced upon every encounter.  Soon the aspects of the sign seen in your front window will become associated in the minds of loyal customers with your product, and recognized wherever they go as a testament to what you provide.

The combination of your unique complementing colors, recognizable symbols and confident lettering should become a known sign that reflects your company itself.  Keeping a consistent look for yourself in the way you use branding creates a specific ideal for customers to associate with you.  By presenting a constant and identifiable front with the physical signs of your company, you give your business a personality for customers to attribute the quality of your service with.  Your branding, signage, marketing tools becomes the visual assurance that you can be counted on, and that travels farther than other strategies ever could to make customers remember you and your product.  

Whatever it is that makes your company unique and spectacular in its very own way, that is what should also be heralded by your signs.  With your corporate logos and trademarked colors, you have unlimited choices as to size, shape and lighting of your sign.  It's what will link your locations together as you grow and expand, ensuring a great first impression that you need only to uphold.  It's what will help establish and maintain trust between your company and your consumers.  It’s the stamp of approval and assurance that you can be counted on just as every other bearer of this particular emblem has proven.

As assuredly as the saying that "your word is your bond", your sign is indeed your brand, recognizable in whatever form it appears.  Branding, signage, marketing are all forms of advertisement that can serve to create for you business an element of irresistibility and charm.  From the cheerful awning over your door to the sign leading from the freeway.  The menu board, "SALE" banner and decal on the side of your vehicles all point to a confident business that is not afraid to put its name for all to see.  Each sign is the same, which notifies viewers that you can be counted of for consistency of look and feel, assuring the same high quality of service at the same time.

To make sure that this most cost effective and valuable form of marketing is used to achieve the full potential of your business, don't leave the details to chance.  Enlist the aid of an experienced partner who can work hand in hand with your company to learn what it is that makes you special.   Easily then will expert designers set to work creating the perfect reflection of your company’s mission and values.  Your sign is your brand, every single day.

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Topics: branding, carved signs

A.D.A. signage are you compliant?

Posted by Gary Baron on Wed, May 2, 2012 @ 09:03 AM

In 1990 the United States Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a far reaching legislation that prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities. In addition to protecting the right to employment, the ADA ensures access to public transportation and full and equal opportunity to enjoy goods, services and use public accommodations. Consequently business establishments that serve the public are required by law to comply with a variety of requisites including some very specific guidelines for signage. 

Most of us think immediately of braille signs, but the ADA requirements go far beyond signage for the blind.  Signs must be readable to the functionally blind as well as those with lesser visual impairments. Persons in wheelchairs must also be able to access the information on signage.  In addition, people who are deaf, have difficulty speaking due to physical disease or psychiatric illness, the elderly, and those with other impairments can all benefit greatly from clear ADA compliant signage.

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Topics: architectural signage, ada, Americans With Disabilities Act signage

Dimensional signage adds impact

Posted by Gary Baron on Mon, Apr 30, 2012 @ 10:15 AM

If you want your business to attract attention, the exterior sign you choose needs to stand out amongst the competition.  Dimensional signs are an effective choice that literally jumps off the wall to greet your customers. They add value to your business, attract clients and increase your traffic.  While flat, two dimensional painted signs try to create the illusion of light, depth and shadow, dimensional signs deliver the real thing. Customers'  first impressions will be one of professionalism and attention to detail when encountering a unique, dimensional exterior sign.

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Topics: dimensional sign, dimensional letters, LED channel letters

Lobby signs are wayfinding tool

Posted by Gary Baron on Tue, Apr 24, 2012 @ 09:15 AM

What’s the first thing a customer or visitor feels when they arrive at your facility? In many cases, it’s probably uncertainty. If they’ve never been there before and don’t know the layout of the premises, if they’re unfamiliar with your company and services and don’t know whom to see, they're strangers in a strange land. Unless, they’re met by concise signage. You want to leave customers and clientele with a lasting first impression—but it shouldn’t be confusion

Lobby signs, wayfinding, directional signage, branding—these are all tools to identify locations, direct the flow of people, and make a visual statement about your company. Lobby signs do more than merely establish a place name. Psychologically, they endow your brand with both prominence and positioning, creating the perception of a stable company with permanence and reliability.  Elements of an effective lobby sign are as varied as their application: Lobby signs can be simple or elaborate, inspired or purely functional, yet still enhance the aesthetics of the building’s interior.

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Topics: dimensional sign, architectural signage, property managment signs, directory signs

New vehicle keeps same vehicle graphics program with a twist

Posted by Gary Baron on Tue, Apr 24, 2012 @ 08:37 AM

You are firmly aware of the psychological impact that branding, vehicle graphics, vehicle wraps have on your potential and existing customers.  You have fitted striking images and symbols to your current business vehicles which have resulted in the effective branding of your business.  When your customers take a glance at the branding, vehicle graphics, vehicle wraps fitted to your current business vehicles, they are instantly reminded of the top-notch goods or services you provide. 

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Topics: vehicle graphics, vehicle wraps, police vehicle graphics

Vehicle graphics can build your brand…and your bottom line

Posted by Gary Baron on Wed, Apr 11, 2012 @ 11:15 AM

Build a solid cost effective marketing edge that generates thousands of views every time your car or vehicle is on the road by using vehicle graphics. It does not matter whether your business is public safety, a floral shop, electronics or even moves homes and families across town, vehicle graphics will increase your business image, visibility and financial bottom line. One of the best points for developing a low cost vehicle graphic advertising campaign is how easy the signage can be applied to the vehicle surface.  It is a win-win for your company or public or private organization.

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Topics: vehicle graphics, vehicle wraps

LED vs Neon - what's the right decision

Posted by Gary Baron on Mon, Apr 9, 2012 @ 04:47 PM

The signage that a business uses outside of their location is extremely important to success. Without a clear visible sign, your customers will have trouble identifying your business from the road. Though as you explore different sign options, you'll realize there are two different types of lighted signs, LED and neon. Which one should you choose? Definitely LED.

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Topics: illuminated signs, LED channel letters, LED lighted signs

Can vehicle wraps and graphics inspire a potential client?

Posted by Gary Baron on Tue, Apr 3, 2012 @ 02:43 PM

You have taken your business off the ground and you offer products or services that are the envy of your competitors.  You have sharp, smart office signs outside and inside your business location and you have a stylized website for your business.  You have thought of it all, right?  Well, not if your business vehicle is without vehicle graphics.  There is no doubt that vehicle graphics, vehicle wraps, branding, quality graphics, good messaging have the power to turbo-charge your business and the power to inspire your potential clients.  If you are serious about taking your business to the next level, you cannot overlook the impact of vehicle graphics, vehicle wraps, branding, quality graphics, good messaging on your next client.

Consider this...

You are one of the most respected and skilled D.J.'s in the region.  You have worked night and day to establish and grow your D.J. business.  You have a smart website and you pass out your stylish business cards at every opportunity.    Simply put, you are a rising star in the business.  Lately, you have provided your services for weddings and small business events but you are ambitious and want to take your skills to the next level by performing at large corporate events.  The corporate market is a tough market and it takes skill and a little luck to land large corporate clients. 

One day, you are traveling to a wedding for a D.J. performance in your plain white business van when you are stopped at a red light.  A high-end Mercedes pulls up along side your van with a driver dressed in the finest business attire.  You steal a glance of one another.  Then, another van pulls up on the other side of the Mercedes.  The other van is completely covered in a stunning vehicle wrap.  The vehicle wrap shows an exhilarating scene of a D.J. performing to a throng of people who appear to be in a state of euphoria.   The vehicle wrap also indicates that the D.J. specializes in large corporate events and includes contact information.  The driver of the Mercedes steals a glance of the van with the stunning vehicle wrap and puts her cell phone to ear.  The light turns green and all vehicles go along their way.  

What you don't know is that the driver in the high end Mercedes is an executive for a major pharmaceutical corporation.  It so happens that she is in the market for a D.J. to perform at the corporation's annual summer event.  The corporation will pay top dollar for the D.J. services and is looking for a long-term relationship.  The executive has a hectic schedule and does not have the time to shop around for a D.J.  When the executive picked up her cell phone to make a call at the red light, she called a D.J. service.  Unfortunately, she did not call your service.  What D.J. service do you suspect she called?  

I tell you this story to illustrate how vehicle graphics, vehicle wraps, branding, quality graphics, good messaging can inspire your next client and throttle your business into high gear.  You started your business because you are a risk taker and you thrive in unpredictable work environments.  Indeed, you never know where the next client will appear.  Your next client may visit your business or your website.  Or, your next client may be, literally, waiting for you at the the stop light ahead.  Make sure you are in a lucky position to get the call from the next client by taking full advantage of vehicle graphics, vehicle wraps, branding, quality graphics, good messaging. 

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Topics: vehicle graphics, vehicle wraps

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