Signage has always played an integral role in merchandising and marketing. The main objectives of signage are, naturally identification and direction with certainly an image component. And, like most elements of today’s sophisticated marketing process, signs are a true reflection of the times. The revolution is underway and going strong into the second decade of the 21^st century. Electronics, in the form of digital production and printing, is king. The age of the  ”sign painter” is fading into ancient history. Computers equipped with powerful software, wide format printers and skilled computechs now aid in the majority of design.

At a recent East Coast Sign Show held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the signage variety and new techniques were absolutely mind-boggling. Everything from electronic billboards and displays to new types of illumination using semiconductors to distribute light on thin, flexible ribbons were on display. Peripherals such as vinyl cutters for lettering and logos, as well as devices, which carve designs into wood, metal and plastic substrates with precision are the latest tools of the trade. Vehicle wraps are another innovation, representing the future of outdoor advertising. Cars/SUVs, Buses/Trailers, and Trucks/Vans print messages and images in high quality, scratch resistant and removable adhesive backed vinyl.The vinyl material produced on large format digital printers are applied to the vehicles and conform to the body surfaces. Wraps are often mistaken for high-end paint jobs, which cost thousands more.

Here are some tips for creating more successful signage:

• Get type and graphics as big as possible, given your space limitations.

• Keep the signs readable at a distance by simplifying verbiage with only the most important information.

• Well-designed landscaping and/or berming go hand-in-hand with a comprehensive signage program.

• Consult with a site planner, landscape architect and marketing professional to seek advice on placement and overall intent of the signage. Have them submit design concepts in color comprehensive form, even project signage in a virtual reality setting

Like every other element in your merchandising and marketing, take time to plan your work and work your plan. And, always think in terms of advanced technology to achieve your signage goals and objectives.

My earliest recollection of uniforms were those guys dressed in crisp Texaco shirts introducing Milton Berle on his popular TV show in the 1950’s. Obviously it made an impression on me. Fast forward tothe present and uniforms have become a mainstay if not an essential ingredient for projecting a cohesive image in the vital “branding” process. Similar to brochures, ads, website and other cohesive marketingdevices utilized by successful companies around the globe, the trend is definitely toward consistency and professionalism in all aspects of corporate identity.

Everyone from restaurants to health care, property management companies to businesses of every stripe need to represent the integrity and image of their product or service. All employees from top level executives to support staff and maintenance/custodial should be dressed with consistency. For example, dress or casual shirts—polos to collared button downs– in an appropriate corporate color and style characterizing your image.  Add matching or complementary pants/skirts with sport jackets/blazers. Also consider distinctive ties/scarves, sweaters, vests, fleece, jackets, other outerwear and appropriate headwear for a cohesive look and fashion appeal. Of course, all apparel should display a corporate or product logo and/ or web address, which can be embroidered or silk-screened on the front chest, sleeve or back of the wearable. Staff uniforms can run the fashion gamut from casual for dress down days to more formal depending on the corporate environment.

As far as color and fabrications are concerned, you can generally find wearables to match your corporate/product colors in soft, breathable cotton or easy care blends of cotton and polyester as well as 100% wool or microfiber. Bear in mind, that many tops are unisex, but the trend is to offer men’s styles and coordinating women’s styles with a more feminine silhouette.

Bottom line, you need not spend a fortune outfitting staff. The essential part is to convey an image of professional management and consistent, caring appearance both internally and extended to your external publics. Always consider consulting and brainstorming with a professional in the industry for the latest and greatest in standard and custom-designed uniformity.

From the earliest days of advertising, people have continually been seeking new and different ways to call attention to their products and services. It wasn’t long until the calendar, the original promotional product, became the obvious choice of business and industry alike.

Calendars provide a continuous, targeted marketing vehicle for just pennies a day. They are needed, wanted and used for an entire year. They put your message on the walls and desks of those who will keep you in sight and in mind 365 days each year. Calendars can support an overall marketing program, serving to enhance and amplify your brand and image all the while. Providing calendars can give your corporate brand/image more arms, legs and personality by adding them to your marketing mix. They speak directly to your target market,telling a story though words and pictures to a specific core audience. From research, message retention is very high. Your message has great reach, measurably extending your Return on Investment (ROI). You can add a variety of custom options such as coupons and special offers, giving the calendar a valued added element. Best of all, a high quality calendar will be welcomed as a gift, a token of sincere appreciation on your behalf. The sense of good will created is immeasurable.

Calendar solutions come in all shapes, sizes, subject matters, and practicalities. Whether serious or whimsical, historic or inspirational, you can find something that suits a particular theme or image. One clever use of a calendar has it incorporated into a mouse pad format.

The uniqueness and versatility aspects of these calendars can bring notoriety along with a rush of phone calls for additional copies, effectively spreading the wealth, so to speak. Create your own special calendar by using descriptive copy and one-of-a-kind photos such as personal, employee, pet, company facility/capabilities, local attraction/historic area and the like. Make your calendar a definite keeper by using creativity and imagination. Consider enlisting help from employees or your marketing professional.

In essence, calendars can prove to be a beneficial, valuable and low cost means of conveying your message. Try teaching this very old dog some 21^st century new tricks and reap the rewards.

I wrote lots of radio spots in college at Temple University. Some actually got recorded and were used to play for prospective employers. My first professional commercial was written for the John Wanamaker department store in 1974. The copy chief approached and asked if I could write a radio advertisement for a mattress sale. I developed a character named the “great insomniac” who couldn’t seem to find the right mattress
for a good night’s sleep until he found John Wanamaker.
Insomniac: Every time I lie down, I feel like I’ve fallen in a well, sinking deeper and deeper.
Interviewer: Have you tried John Wanamaker?
Insomniac: What? Another Doctor?
Interviewer: No Silly! John Wanamaker. It’s the only place in town with 25-50% off
Sealy, Serta, and Sterns & Foster mattresses and box springs…

The commercial was recorded at a local Philadelphia radio station and utilized a pair of veteran actors, a male and female, who really brought my words to life and added just the right sense of humor. I was thrilled and honored for the opportunity to create my first professional spot and felt even more elated when told that the commercial sold lots of bedding. Frankly radio has always been my favorite advertising medium. I thoroughly enjoy conceptualizing and Imagineering radio commercials. You often times write with a particular male or female voice or character sound in your mind’s ear. Then, think about the music or sound effects that will make the commercial flow and command attention by cutting through the radio clutter. My agency has produced hundreds of radio spots for diverse clients including car dealerships, retailers, law firms, apartment communities and new housing developments. I’ve also created custom jingles with original lyrics and music, which establishes a branding/awareness/lead generation campaign and extends the remembrance factor through a familiar-sounding tune and tagline.

Jingle for an insurance company, targeting an ethnic community went something like this:
“Turn to Tremple for insurance for your car. Turn to Tremple, now matter how you travel
near or far. We’ve got service that’s fast, no punk, no jive. Temple is the best car insurance alive. C’mon and turn to Tremple, we’re always at your side!”

As for radio research, placement and coordination, obviously your product or service needs to targeted to the right potential consumers. In my experience, talk and all-news stations seem to have a more direct connection with the audience as people are more attentive and actively involved as opposed to music stations which are more passive.
Radio should be bought for quality as well as by the numbers. A prime example is a classical or jazz station whose ratings are comparatively low, yet attract a sophisticated, upscale market. With radio’s need to be more dynamic, stations now have incorporated an internet component to further enhance the listener’s experience and drive traffic to your website in a push and pull marketing effect.

I personally still love radio and feel it can be used effectively in the marketing mix along with outdoor, direct mail and other forms of conventional and internet/social marketing.

From the time I think I could walk, back in the early 1950’s, I was listening to the music on radio. Growing up in the great metropolis of Philadelphia, I listened to the music and jocks on AM, namely WFIL–Famous 56 and WIBG—Radio 99. The radio on my nightstand was on loud and constantly. And when I was out, my transistor with its single-pole earphone was plugged into my right ear. The sounds that came out of my radio were magical and captivating. Doo Wop, Motown and (classic) Rock and Roll. Commercials and jingles galore. I memorized every lyric and melody of the songs and ads. Radio into my 50’s, the turn of the 21st Century was predictable and steady as Gibraltar on both AM and FM. Then something hit like a nuclear bomb. Formats changed like crazy. Radio started to stink and become unlistenable. The music was programmed from way out-of-town. What has happened to radio is a crying shame. Forgive me for being sentimental,
but broadcast/pedestrian radio is now a shadow of its former self.

Thank goodness for satellite. I followed Howard Stern to Sirius in 2007, the unabashed,
unbowed, uncensored “king of all media”. The diversity on satellite is astounding–talk, sports, music of every stripe. I still love the potential of advertising on radio. It is a great media filled with great potential for creativity. I still love going into the recording studio, after all these years (more than 30 since I recorded my first spots) I still get goose bumps. The prospect of using various voices, sound effects and music can be magic in promoting a product or service. Imagination can literally run wild. Writing jingles is my passion. I often write the lyrics and sing the melody I have in my minds ear, then turn it over to the professional musicians to make it come to life. Radio truly rules as an advertising medium for local, regional and national products and services.

Like a chef’s utensils or a carpenter’s tools, various file formats effect sharp reproduction of art. Since we are an advertising agency as well as a promotional products company, we are constantly aware of the essential art files sent for printed materials. We have intimate, hands-on experience with desktop publishing software to create logos and camera-ready digital art for everything from ads, brochures and mailers to screens and embroidery patterns for wearables and other promotional items. More times than not, clients will provide low res (resolution) files that they have downloaded from a website or created themselves in a word or publisher format. “It looks ok on my monitor and prints fine on my hp LaserJet”, they will say. Then, without getting real technical, I tell them we need “vector” art. Sometimes they will go back to whoever created their logo/art and send us the proper EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) file. On many occasions, I just tell my artist to convert or totally re-create the art as vector to avoid further frustration and consternation. Here is a description of various types of file formats and their uses and applications:

Raster Graphics

Raster or bitmap images can be photo-realistic and most often used for digital photographs, including digital camera photos and scans. Low res files are typically depicted as .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .png, .pdf and .tif. They are generally smaller files that work well on website graphics and in-house reproduction.

Vector Graphics

Vector graphics are based on mathematical descriptions of points, lines and curves.
Vector images are resolution independent. They have no particular resolution until printed. Images can be scaled to any size without losing reproduction quality. Page layout programs combine vector-based text with raster-based graphics for a high-resolution image. The most widely used software program is Adobe Illustrator, resulting in an .ai file format for sharp, smooth reproduction. Some PC computer artists use the Corel family of software applications to create vector art.

Portable Document Format

The PDF (Portable Document Format) was introduced by Adobe in 1991 and has been widely adapted as the standard by the graphic arts and publishing industries. This file
format permits you to freely exchange electronic documents. Acrobat is the Adobe software application that creates and reads PDF files. Most current graphic applications can export documents as PDF, including Adobe’s Illustrator, InDesign and Quark Xpress.
PDF format holds many distinct advantages for excellent reproduction. It is platform and application independent, self-contained, compressed and viewable. So, even if something was created on a PC, it can be easily opened on a Macintosh computer and vice versa.
PDF’s do not have issues with missing fonts or broken-linked graphics. And, since a PDF file is compressed, it can be easily transmitted over the Internet to print publications, printers, signage/displays and other suppliers that require high-resolution files. What’s more, PDF documents can be viewed with Adobe’s Acrobat Reader which can be downloaded free from their website.

In review, Word and Publisher or other software you bought off the shelf at a Staples or Wal-Mart may be fine for in-house projects. But, if you want to insure the sharpest, cleanest reproduction of a logo or other art use the most powerful and popular desktop publishing software applications such as Illustrator, In Design and Quark. If you do not possess the art skills or finances to purchase these expensive programs, my advice is to put yourself in the capable hands of a professional graphic designer or ad agency. It will avoid headaches and yield the quality you expect and deserve.

It’s like a ghostly character in a mystery novel. Making an appearance for a day or so and then disappearing until the next time it’s important to the plot. The proverbial trade show display. Maybe an enigma, but nonetheless an important element of marketing efforts.
These works of art are intended to attract attention and establish brand identity. The trade booth and accompanying display materials must quickly and effectively convey your message, your reason d’etre (reason for being) while differentiating your product or service from the plethora of other booths. If you think bright colors are the be all and end all, think again. In this marketing venue, a picture is truly worth a thousand words. Instead of droning on with tons of writing, you can tell your whole story at a glance with
the ideal picture or graphic. People attending a trade show will not linger or even stop to try and interpret long, long boring copy. They’ll just keep going if there’s nothing compelling or eye-popping to capture their interest. Make your booth memorable, yet flexible so you can easily change content.

Portable booths have made it feasible for anyone to exhibit at everything from a trade show to an exhibition or seminar or even a mall setting. The variety of displays is wide-ranging. First came the cumbersome folding panel displays, which now appear to be passé. Even though they offer ease and use and durability. The newest displays are sleek and expandable.

From a lightweight frame which quickly and effortlessly becomes a full size display.
The hardware or bones of this structure is invisible with seamless graphics. Yet, the hardware can become mis-aligned, chipped or outright broken. Graphic panels may be tricky and damage easily.

Latest wrinkle on the trade show scene is the collapsible banner stand with full color graphics on vinyl, canvas, poly or synthetic paper material. Some roll up from their stands and attach to a top hook, just like projector screens. Others come partially disassembled. You can easily use several of these positioned in a side-by-side configuration to form an attractive backdrop or arrange them in single file around your booth.

As far as the fabrication, most displays utilize color digital prints, generally from a wide-format ink-jet printer like HP or Roland, mounted/adhered to foam board, expanded PVC or other rigid mounting substrate. You can also employ fabrics which have been screen printed or dye-sublimated which are stretchable and can conform to almost any shape to spark further interest. Don’t forget about draping for your table (s) or pedestal/lectern, the throw cover can continue your theme with a simple logo and tagline.

Since trade show booths and accompanying display materials have a short appearance cycle, make yours soar above the maddening crowd. It may not have to cost a small fortune, just a small investment in your time and ingenuity. P.S. Consulting with a professional designer/fabricator couldn’t hurt.