The Psychology Of Signage And Making It Work For You

If you’re struggling to break through the visual noise and get your business noticed, you may need to resort to psychological warfare. At least, you might need to look at the psychology of signage in order to break through and connect with your audience. Signs can increase sales, drive customer loyalty and improve the customer experience if you take time to understand the way they work.

The differentiation of the unfamiliar

In a visually dense marketing landscape, we start to apply filters that allow us to perceive messages selectively. Where signs can have an edge in differentiating your business in London is their relative unfamiliarity – we’re not bored with seeing them, so we allow our brains to take notice. In fact, 75% of people claim to remember a sign they’ve seen in the last month.

Signage has direct relevance

Relevant signs allow you to target the right customer, in the right place, at the right time in a way that other marketing channels do not. An ad for fresh sandwiches on the radio doesn’t have the relevance, context and impact of an advert outside a sandwich shop.

Adapt to your consumer with personalisation Your signage can be adapted for your consumer, with different signs carrying different messages depending on factors like footfall. Personalised signs are more responsive than other traditional advertising channels and are more responsive to consumer needs.

Let the consumer take control

Traditional forms of advertising impose themselves on the consumer. But signs that allow the consumer to take control of the way they interact make your advertising feel as if it’s less of an imposition. Allow your audience to interact with your signs in a natural and intuitive way and you’ll remove the negative connotations associated with pushy marketing. Your audience will make purchasing and other decisions based on the merits of your content, not because they feel forced into doing so.

Creating a better customer experience

Relevance, personalisation and control are all critical to a better customer experience. Instead of simply adding to the noise with irrelevant messages that consumers can’t be bothered to respond to, high quality signs are a genuinely creative marketing channel that delivers the right message at the right time and in a way that is fresh and relevant. Your signs can educate, entertain and inform, and persuade the consumer to take certain purchasing decisions rather than hectoring them. By earning your audience’s attention rather than demanding it, good signs deliver a great customer experience.

Ask the experts

If you feel that you’re losing the war for your audience’s attention, then take a fresh look at your signage. Using signs can deliver unexpected benefits when you understand the psychology behind them, but harnessing that power demands responsive, professional design for best results. At The Sussex Sign Company, we know how to maximise your ROI by offering a complete end to end service that delivers great signs with the minimum of fuss. If you’re interested in creating signs that break through the advertising noise, contact us via phone or email today for more details.

The Power Of Colour And Vehicle Livery

Did you know the colour of your vehicle livery can actually influence behaviour? If you want to create the biggest impact with car graphics, then you need to pay attention to the colours you use.

Evoke a response

Colour is capable of evoking an emotional response across a wide range of people, although the perception of certain colours may be different for different cultures. Past experiences can also put a different spin on how an individual reacts to a certain colour. However, there are still some generalities that can be drawn regarding people’s emotional and behavioural responses to certain colours.

Red is disruptive

You may hanker after a cherry-red Ferrari, but using a strong red for your vinyl wraps can actually work against you. Red invokes forceful reactions but that energy boost is short-lived. If your business logo or branding uses a lot of red, then, by all means, reflect it in your vinyl wrap, but bear in mind that the sense of urgency that red creates is better suited to time-limited promotions than to 8 years on the road.

Keep it natural

Blue and green have positive associations with the natural world and are linked to creativity, tranquillity and reliability. Our preference for blues and greens is drawn from the world around us and is linked to ancestral memories of blue water and green vegetables. If you want to create a long-lasting campaign for products and services that your customers will find trustworthy, reliable and, yes, eco-friendly, then greens and blues are the savvy choices.

Looking for positives? Avoid yellow and orange Sunny colours may seem optimistic, but in marketing, they have less positive connotations. Yellow is generally disliked – although people who like it really like it – and makes babies cry, while orange is often associated with good value from low-cost providers. If you’re aiming to position your products and services at the high end of the market, orange may be best avoided. Like red, these warmer colours can work if you use them to create a sense of urgency in a time-limited campaign.

Think pink

Millennial pink has become one of the ‘new neutrals’ moving it firmly into the mainstream. Pink is perceived as calming – sports teams often paint the opponent’s dressing room a vibrant shade of this colour – running counter to the emotional associations with a bright red. Another colour that may relax and inspire your customers when used in a long term campaign.

Monochrome = boring vehicle livery

White and black may have a perennial appeal and are associated with purity and power respectively. Apple has made white a coveted contemporary look, but unless you use a colour changing or textured vinyl, monochromes are perceived as boring. And once your customers’ attention begins to wander, you’ve lost their attention and a prospective sale.

Change it up with the power of colour

One of the great benefits of using colourful vehicle livery in East Sussex is the option to change it for time-limited campaigns or when you change your branding. Whatever the colour you choose, The Sussex Sign Company can help you maximise the impact of your vinyl wrap, so contact us today via phone or email for more details.

The Sussex Sign Company scores top marks.

When it comes to ensuring the highest levels of health and safety for its staff and customers, The Sussex Sign Company has scored top marks.

Based in Portslade, East Sussex, The Sussex Sign Company has a long record of providing some of the most innovate and creative signage in the South East and London and has now been awarded CHAS accreditation for the second year running, which is considered to be the highest accolade in terms of health and safety credentials.

MD, Norman Mayhew, is delighted to report that the business is one of a very few who have achieved the status – on top of Safe Contractor certification – putting The Sussex Sign Company at the top of its game in terms of health and safety.

CHAS (Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme) is rapidly becoming a construction industry award which improves standards across the whole industry.

Founded in 1995, The Sussex Sign Company has grown into one of the most successful sign manufacturing companies in the industry, with a reputation and diverse portfolio to match.

Norman said health and safety is taken very seriously and the business constantly works towards improving their processes and systems wherever they can.

‘We are delighted to gain the CHAS Accredited Contractor Award for another year. It demonstrates our commitment to Health and Safety legislation and because CHAS also focuses on reducing duplication, it helps our suppliers and buyers work with us seamlessly,’ he added.

The Sussex Sign Company also hold SafeContractor accreditation, which further provides assurance that the business has achieved the highest levels of health and safety compliance.

The Rules Of Good Signage

Good signage earns attention, and it doesn’t bully your audience. But how do you know what a good sign looks like?

Know your objectives

It’s always tempting to put brand awareness top of your list of objectives, but how do you intend to measure what that looks like? Instead, bind your objectives to clear metrics that allow you to measure success – or failure.

Identifying your target audience allows you to create signs that are relevant to your customers. It’s that relevance that drives action, whether that’s reaching out or making a purchasing decision. Be clear on your customer profiles, from their fears and desires to their emotional profile and spending habits, and let objectives and profiles inform placement, design, message and timing.

Know your location

The placement of your signs will differ depending on customer profiles and type of content. So an interactive sign aimed at women aged 40-55 will require a different placement to a point of sale promotion aimed at 18-25 year old males. Don’t equate footfall with relevance, and always take accessibility into account when locating your signs.

Understand design

The design of your signs should always complement the message. While the Stroop test shows that some level of disruption can force the brain to pay attention – when the word blue appears written in green, for example – be wary of splitting your audience’s attention as that can delay comprehension of the message. When the time to make an impression and impart information is already limited, it doesn’t make sense to slow comprehension any further.

Send a clear message

Your signs should prioritise a simple message delivered as effectively as possible. A simple message demands your focus and a response, and that counts when the human attention span is just 8 seconds – lower even than a goldfish. The point is that signs and signposting are very much a medium that is glanced at and they need to stand out from the visual noise of our modern marketing environment. Don’t make an impression without making a real impact.

Get the timing right

Timing is dependent on both the location of your signs and the medium you use to convey the message. A static sign is entirely appropriate for a roadside drive-by location, but won’t earn attention in a static location. Get the balance and timing wrong and you’ll frustrate your customers by failing to get your message across.

Good signage puts the customer first

Advertising often gets a bad rap, but it’s not the marketing channel itself that’s at fault, but irrelevant and intrusive content that turns consumers off. Consumers are responsive to well designed and relevant content – in a survey 77% of respondents said they wanted the ability to ad filter rather than flat out ad block – but you need to ensure that you’re giving your audience that optimal advertising experience. Make your content engaging, relevant and meaningful. Make enhancing the customer experience central to every piece of signage you create. With entertaining and interesting signage from The Sussex Sign Company, you’ll impress and engage customers in West Sussex and beyond. Call or email us today for more information.

Make An Impact With Vehicle Livery Design Tips

Vehicle wraps are one of the most cost-effective and high-impact ingredients in the marketing mix. However, get the design wrong and you’ve wasted time, energy and money on a failed marketing strategy, while missing the opportunity to promote brand awareness. If you want to understand the fundamentals of good design, these straightforward tips will help you maximise impact and return on investment.

Start with your brand

Your vehicle livery design will stand or fall on the strength of your brand. If your branding is poor, then you’ll be missing a huge marketing opportunity and wasting your money on a vinyl wrap that doesn’t attract interest. Your brand should always form the central message of your car wrap, so use vinyl wrapping as an opportunity to rebrand your business if necessary.

Don’t use a photo

Unless a photo connects directly to your brand, don’t use it. You have as little as 3 seconds to make an impression and convey critical information about your business. Although images can create better recall than words, only use an image if it contributes to brand awareness – if you’re a plumber and the takeaway from your design is an image of a U-bend rather than your contact details, then you need to rethink.

Keep the message simple

These are the message elements your design needs for maximum impact, and in this hierarchy:
Your brand
A tagline message
Your website
Your contact number

Focus on the key messages you want your audience to remember. Lists or jumbles of text have no place on your vehicle livery.

Vehicle livery design should stand out, not fit in

What would you imagine would make your design stand out? The correct answer, perhaps surprisingly, is not throwing everything and the kitchen sink into the mix. In the visual jungle that is our modern streetscape, less is very much more. Create a design that’s clear and bold and that your audience can read and remember ,and you’ll definitely stand out from the crowd. You’ll achieve that by depending on your strong branding and a clear message, not by using graphics and messages unrelated to your core branding.

Simplicity is good

Imagine how you’d advertise using a stationary billboard that traffic and pedestrians are constantly passing. If your design expects your audience to guess what your key brand message is, you’ve already lost them. There are only seconds in which your viewer can absorb your message when you’re on the move, and even when your vehicle is stationary, a clear primary takeaway is your first objective. That will also drive considerations of colour, contrast, font and image size for legibility at a distance. Remember, customers prefer passive publicity like a vinyl wrap to more aggressive marketing methods.

Creating vehicle livery design that’s right for you

At the Sussex Sign Company, we offer a bespoke and fully integrated service, from design to installation, by one of the finest teams in the country. If you’re in West Sussex and you’re interested in finding out what this cost-effective form of marketing can do for your business, contact us today via phone or email.

Does Your Van Need Vehicle Signwriting?

If you’re a London based small business, then you could be missing out on work by not advertising on your vehicle. In the centre of the city, your vehicle can be seen by as many as 3,000 people in an hour. That’s a level of impressions that other forms of marketing can only dream of. With drivers typically spending 20 hours a week on the road, if you’re not using your vehicles for advertising, you’re missing out on a huge potential market.

Wrap it up

Vehicle signwriting, whether that’s using a full or partial vinyl wrap, is both economical and hugely effective as a way of marketing your business. Highly visible, vehicle signwriting is one of the fastest-growing ways to boost brand awareness.

Imagine parking your branded vehicle outside a client’s house. Now imagine the word of mouth that your vinyl wrapped vehicle creates after you’ve done a good job. You’ll create awareness of your brand where it didn’t exist before, and that’s valuable publicity for your services for a minimal outlay.

Vehicle signwriting for your van

Vinyl wraps are a cost-effective way to engage with your audience and they’re a quick makeover for your commercial van. That means you can change your advertising message quickly and easily to respond to current events or to offer a time limited promotion.

Done well, with eye-catching graphics, a strong call to action and a professional installation, a creative and well designed vinyl wrap can create a real buzz around your business. Like a mobile billboard, your van will create thousands of impressions from as little as 4p.

In addition, a car wrap is a very low key, non-aggressive form of advertising and that quiet persuasion can set your marketing apart from the competition.

The additional benefits of wrapping

There are additional benefits to vehicle wrapping beyond brand awareness. Choose reflective signage, and studies show that night time collisions can be reduced by as much as 40%. Your wrap can also protect your vehicle’s bodywork from everyday wear and tear, which can be important when you spend your time driving in traffic.

Not only will your car wrap protect your paintwork from scratches and fading, but it helps to protect your vehicle’s resale value. Once you peel off the vinyl wrap, your vehicle is ready for the next owner – and it will have depreciated less than an unprotected vehicle.

Professional vehicle signwriting

Once you’ve understood the facts and figures and the additional benefits of car wrapping, the business case for using your vehicle to advertise your company becomes overwhelming. If you’re based in London and you want to harness the power of vinyl wrap marketing to boost your brand awareness, then get in touch with us at the Sussex Sign Company via phone or email.

We can deliver a fully integrated suite of services that can take your vehicle wrap from design and modelling to final installation by our expert team, so you need never miss an opportunity to advertise.

Why Your Sign Company Can Be Central To Delivering A Brand Experience

Whether your retail premises have recently undergone a refit, or you’re designing a walking route around a stately home, the challenges that face you are fundamentally the same: how can I use beautifully designed signage to enhance the brand experience for customers and visitors?

The problem that faces you is whether you can use bold and innovative signs to head off frustration, and whether you can develop a wayfinding strategy that hits all the touchpoints of your customer’s experience to positively improve brand recognition and experience.

Apply online navigation to offline spaces

Your customer should never be confused about the space they’re in. Signs need to be consistent with your branding and attractive and clear enough to bring in first time customers who can quickly interact with the brand thanks to the cues from your signage. Just as customers browsing your website will click away if the navigation isn’t simple, precise and consistent across the site, so your offline customers will go elsewhere if you don’t apply the same navigation principles.

The decision making process

Wayfinding is about keying into the critical decisions that consumers make and giving useful information at every decision point. The fact is a well-designed entrance will attract people when the overhead sign may be ignored, but the success of your overall strategy is directly dependent on how well all the elements of the wayfinding environment come together in the designs you create with your sign maker.

Wayfinding and the branding experience

If wayfinding is part of a wider visual environment, then it must be part of the broader conversation around branding. After all, it’s the purpose of good quality signage to control the movement of consumers within the retail environment. From the first touchpoint with your brand, you need to establish clarity and tone of voice, whether that’s a map on a flyer or spoken instructions on a phone message.

Interact with the space

Retail spaces are no longer designed to be static. Instead, ranges, layouts and promotions often change, which makes effective signage absolutely vital in helping customers navigate the store successfully, and creating a positive impression of their interaction with your brand. Treating the signage as integral to the success of the overall design will help avoid pitfalls that lead to frustration and disconnection with your brand.

Using a sign company to make signs work

You’ll need both directional signs (those with a visual clue like an arrow) and location signs (those that tell you where you are). Ask your sign maker to produce a group of signs that use corporate colours to enhance your signage, and pay attention to contrast, fonts and font size and accessibility. Remember that your customers will assume a frictionless brand experience that is the same offline and online, and if you don’t deliver, you’ll create a poor brand experience and impression that can be hard to recover from. Search out a decent sign maker who can help you deliver.

If you’re looking for an experienced and professional sign company in London, or the south-east, then here at the The Sussex Sign Company, we strive to earn the best ROI for our customers. Contact us via phone or email for more details.

Why Halo Illuminated Signs Are So Popular On The British High Street

Wherever you look on the average British high street, you’ll see illuminated signs with a subtle and sophisticated halo lighting effect. This beautiful way of highlighting and differentiating a sign uses built up letters and LED lighting to create the effect.

What is the halo effect?

Using lightweight and hollow letters, the internal LED lights are projected backwards onto the wall, creating a halo of light behind the letters. This is an extremely effective and eye-catching effect that can also match your company’s brand colours to produce beautiful – and energy efficient – signage.

Creating 3D effects

The use of channel letters creates a 3D effect, which is enhanced by the use of the LED halo lighting. Your sign company should mount the letters themselves on spacers, allowing the halo effect to amplify, while the use of either contrast colour or high impact white will further enhance the sense that the letters are floating in mid-air, creating an incredible 3D boost.

If you want to heighten the illusion of the letters floating in mid-air even further, try alternating lighting effects to highlight some letters more than others – the range of effects you can create is infinite and can even lend the appearance of movement.

If you want to create another level of illumination, then ask your sign company to panel mount the entire sign and then halo light the panel itself. Not only is this an excellent way to differentiate your sign from a similarly coloured background, but it creates a real wow factor with the extra level of illumination.

Eye-catching communication

In the visual noise of the typical high street, creating a sign that communicates with your potential customers and develops brand awareness is paramount. Nothing does that more effectively than a halo illuminated sign, which is why they’re so popular with big high street brands like M&S and Caffe Nero. The reason you can automatically identify their branding is thanks to well executed halo illumination using bright white to make the brand name pop.

Why use LEDs?

LED lighting is the ideal way to illuminate channel letters. Energy efficient and capable of a comprehensive range of lighting effects, LEDs last for 20 years or more and don’t require a large and potentially dangerous transformer, giving your business the flexibility to get the best possible return from your investment in halo lit signage.

Halo illuminated signs: not just for outdoors

The combination of your corporate colours and font, when used in a branded illuminated sign, are a powerful mnemonic for your business. So why only use such a powerful tool for the outside of your building. Across the British high street, you’ll see the repetition of halo illuminated signs throughout some stores, to reinforce brand awareness. It’s a trick you can use in your own premises.

If you’re looking for a sign company in West Sussex to execute beautiful halo illuminated signs for your business, then contact us at The Sussex Sign Company via phone or email. We’re experts in using LED technology to create stunning signs that ensure the best possible return on investment for our clients.

Why We Need Public Sector Signage

As the backbone of our society, the public sector has to work hard to give us information about our surroundings. That’s what makes public sector signage so important in our modern world – we rely on these signs to help us navigate the built environment or for vital information.

What is public sector signage?

When you enter a town or village, do you notice the ‘welcome to…’ sign? When you pass a building site, do you notice the warning signs? And when you have to visit the hospital, can you find where you’re going? These are all examples of public sector signs that are designed to make life safer, easier and more welcoming for all of us.

Why does it matter?

The more important the message, the more important it is that public sector signage is clear, distinct and has a unified look and feel for consistency and value. Professional looking public signs inspire confidence that everything is working efficiently and effectively, and that we can find the same navigational aids whenever we’re in a public place or building. Consider road signs – if they varied from county to county, they could prove dangerous and unsafe by delivering a confusing message.

Visual consistency and professionalism delivers a clear message that the public take notice of, because it carries the weight of authority. This is vital for road safety, health and for delivering important information that we instinctively take notice of.

Why design is important

When it comes to public sector signs, each panel is there to communicate precise information, informing and guiding the public whether outside or inside. Because of the clear and consistent visual vocabulary required, there are standards and regulations for the design of these important signs.

Signs should be displayed against a contrasting background, and should have a non-reflective surface so they’re easy to read. They should be correctly positioned for maximum visibility and accessibility and should use universally recognised symbols and sentence case, not uppercase lettering.

Using clear and consistent design principles is also important for the private sector when building top of mind awareness.

Innovative uses for public sector signs

Signage can also be used to celebrate achievement, raise awareness and build a positive image. For example, a donors’ wall in a hospital builds recognition, while a mission statement spelled out in bold graphics can really grab the public’s attention. Schools often use achievement walls to celebrate their pupils’ level of attainment. Innovation in public signage can even be used as part of an image building or rebranding exercise across all marketing channels, including social media.

The expert view

At the Sussex Sign Company, we understand that creating and producing high quality public signage can be critical to the way we interact with our environment. From the choice of materials to design and installation, we work to the highest standards to deliver public sector signage that meets all your requirements. If you’re in East Sussex and you’re looking for professional signage, please contact us via phone or email for further details on how we can work with you to create the signage you need.

Why Estate Agent Signs Still Matter In The Digital Market

The world of the traditional high street estate agent is under threat from the rise of digital and DIY options. RightMove has long been a first port of call for property hunters, but now estate agents themselves are moving online, offering some significant benefits over their bricks and mortar counterparts. So how can your business fight back against the online giants? It’s time for the traditional estate agent to up their game, and that means investing in better signage.

Enhance your business profile

Competition between bricks and mortar estate agents in London remains fierce, despite the rise of the online aggregators and DIY home selling solutions. So how can you make your business stand out from the competition? Strong and well designed signage acts as the gateway to your business, conveying brand trustworthiness, dependability and identity in the blink of an eye.

Offline branding through the use of great signs can help to define your unique value propositions, setting you apart from the other high street agents. Be bold with your design and use the best of modern technology to create a sign installation that really differentiates your business. For example, an LED illuminated sign can give a strong and professional look to your premises.

Investing in estate agent signs

Investing in new signage is one of the smartest things you can do in the battle for business. A well designed sign will act as a 24 hour advertisement for your business, building brand awareness every minute of every day, year round. When potential customers need your services, they’ll remember the impression that your brand made. Research by FedEx revealed that 76% of people have entered commercial premises based on the sign alone.
Estate agent signs get potential customers on board

Despite the amount of property porn that we can see online, nothing is as good as seeing a property for yourself and that’s where estate agent signs or boards can give you the edge. They promote interest, provide clear visibility for a property that’s for sale, and are a clear call to action to potential customers who are thinking of buying, and selling.

Your estate agent boards should be designed to achieve a range of outcomes – to attract the attention of passers-by and neighbours alike, since you never know who has a relative who is looking to move into the neighbourhood. These referrals can be tremendously powerful in influencing a buyer’s vendor decision making process. A proliferation of your boards not only builds brand awareness, it drives the impression that your company is the smart choice when you’re buying and selling property.

Employ the professionals

When you’re looking to invest in estate agent signs and boards in London, we’re your first port of call. We offer an integrated design and print service that takes advantage of a comprehensive range of cutting-edge, modern materials and technology to produce stunning signs with a high return on investment for our clients. Contact us via phone or email today to get more information.