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[W474]What Is Corporate Image

by Jim Degerstrom, Jim

Present a positive first impression with your logo, business card, post card, and trifold brochure, but don't try to finalize your sales in print. Realistic goals for each of your printed marketing materials should be considered before trying to fit your company history on the back of a business card.

Understanding the purpose of your printed materials is the basis of my print strategy advice. The viewer's reaction to your corporate image in print is like having a silent salesperson 24/7. Marketing materials are not intended to close orders. They should stimulate interest based on a professional image. Don't overdo it or your efforts may backfire.

Business Card
Your business card is the introduction. That's all. A professional look and positive first impression may get you to the next step. If you attempt to sell your product or service on your card, it will most likely be too crowded and ruin the purpose. The back of your card should be used and include a small ad that goes beyond who you are, and briefly presents the benefits of what you do. Keep the design simple. Violate what I call My 5 Second Rule for Small Business Owners, and the card will be tossed. Search my name and "5 Second Rule" to find the full article.

Post Card or Flyer
A 4x6 or 5x7 flyer or post card is an introduction, also. However, with more space for creating a favorable first impression a design with less content is still more effective, and preferred. The purpose here is to impress the viewer and include a call to action which may be as simple as call us or visit our website. For example, I created full color artwork for a real estate post card that tells how effective the "less equals more" worked. The message was simply "If you are looking to sell, buy, or rent, please give me a call", and it worked wonders. The stunning graphics included a gorgeous background photo of Orlando and the real estate broker in the foreground. Again, you have 5 seconds to impress the viewer.

Trifold Brochure
Your 8-1/2 x 11 full color trifold brochure is the first opportunity to go overboard with photos and a more direct sales pitch with benefit statements and color photographs. The key turning point in the buyer-salesperson relationship is when the prospect reaches out and they contact YOU. Your trifold brochure's purpose is to go beyond the call to action as mentioned for your post card or flyer, and it needs to convince the buyer to make contact by presenting realistic benefits for what you offer. Brochures still cannot close orders. If there is a remote possibility that the viewer has a need, the positive first impression and list of benefit statements may make the difference between the brochure being saved or tossed. The lifespan is still 5 seconds if your printed piece is unprofessional.

Why Does This Strategy Work?
Knowing the sales psychology of how to approach new prospects explains why this corporate image print strategy works. You must get past the first obstacle of human character which is to avoid change. They were in business without you, so they don't really need you now. A positive first impression breaks the ice and leads the prospect through the evolution of initial casual interest to sincere desire to explore the potential relationship. Closing the order will take more effort to convince the buyer.

Here's how each piece works. The business card and flyer or post card are the introduction. Buyers need to know who you are and how you can help them first. A professional trifold brochure takes them from who you are to what you do. Once the prospect goes to your website, you have the opportunity to sell, or at least presell. Understand the psychology that occurs and gradually lead your potential new customers to a happy conclusion. Your print material strategy will be more effective.

Do not exaggerate anything. Time limit offers are an insult. Act now or else will backfire. Your entire message must show sincere interest in helping your prospect solve a problem. Printed materials are the introduction. The brochure can help presell the prospect. The strategy for your website content needs a different slant, so the rules change. All you present in print introduces and reinforces who you are. The brochure, website, and your sales approach share the job of convincing the customer what you do. People are more likely to find you online searching for what you do than your company name. Make sure your website addresses the subtle difference in the sales process and buyer psychology.

To summarize, how you specify print materials that present your product or service to a buyer will help determine when and if they initiate contact. The true sales process cannot begin until that happens. It will take a real person or a very convincing website to turn each prospect into a paying customer. Keep in mind that your business card, post card or flyer, and trifold brochure each has a simple purpose. Don't stress out your print strategy with unrealistic expectations.

In conclusion, don't overlook a professionally designed website to match your printed marketing materials. Your website can sell, or presell the client before they pick up the phone or email you to initiate contact. Every person who calls you has in effect said "We can do business; prove to me why we shouldn't." Don't take this action lightly or overlook the significance. You just struck gold. Treat this person like family, and both can look forward to the mutual benefits of doing business now and in the future.

The survey went on to say that some 90% of all companies said protecting their reputation was one of the most important drivers for information security. Yet despite this, the majority of organisations still do nothing to audit or monitor for staff accessing digital pornography.

In order to assess their level of risk, companies need to understand the Severity, Likelihood and Visibility of the risk.

Severity: the severity of an illicit incident is typically high and can range from criminalisation through civil law suits to breach of corporate compliance.

Likelihood: The ICT fraud and abuse 2004 study by the UK Audit Commission said that “ICT abuse continues to rise and survey respondents generally felt more vulnerable in their use of ICTs”. According to the Audit Commission's findings the highest growth of ICT incidents in the workplace is access of inappropriate material.

Visibility: According to the 2006 Department of Trade and Industry's biennial Information Security Breaches Survey, Only 1 in 6 companies scan for illicit content in emails. The worry for the others is what is slipping through the net via email, internet and other routes such as USB key, digital camera or mobile phone.

How can The Irish company Help?

In just one day, The Irish company can undertake a ‘Discovery Audit in which The Irish company will scan a subset of your corporate network desktops, servers and email files for illicit image content in order to provide you with Visibility of the scale of digital pornography on your network. The Irish company will also provide you with a report assessing the Likelihood and Severity of inappropriate image material on your network based upon the image material found.

In business, image is everything

On 23rd June 2006, Merrill Lynch was reported to have told 20 staff in its Dublin to stay away from work after they had been caught sending pornographic email; at almost the same time, in the UK, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency dismissed 14 of its staff for distributing pornographic email attachments.

“Such incidents are not uncommon” says John Nolan, CEO at The Irish company, an Irish company specialising in detecting and dealing with digital pornography abuse in the workplace. “About 95% of the companies we audit have unwanted digital pornography on their systems which we can identify and help eradicate. What is unusual about these reports is that both companies understand the business risk and have taken very positive action by sending out a clear message to staff and reassurance to customers that such abuse will not be tolerated.”

Staff misusing the Internet by accessing inappropriate websites remains the second largest cause of reported security incidents after viruses for large UK companies, according to findings from the 2006 Department of Trade and Industry's biennial Information Security Breaches Survey.

This is borne out by a similar study undertaken by IBEC in Ireland which reported that almost 60% of companies reported computer misuse; the main types of misuse were inappropriate emails both internal and external and pornography.

“The risks to the corporation are high” says Nolan. “Companies can suffer from breach of corporate compliance, financial loss, brand damage, exposure to civil litigation and even criminal prosecution in extreme cases. Most companies either won't acknowledge that such activity may be happening in their organisation or put in limited software protection and assume that the problem has been dealt with – it hasn't.”

Yet assessing the risk and tackling the problem is straightforward.

However, companies must first recognise the business risk and be prepared to takes steps to deal with it.
In order to assist companies understand how to deal with this high risk issue, The Irish company recommends the following actions:

1. Get visibility of your risk – by undertaking a discovery audit of email accounts, desktop PCs and server shares.

2. Clean up your act – deal with incidents identified in the audit, update your policies, communicate policies to staff and ensure staff comprehension.

3.Stay clean – maintain gateway protection and implement auditing and monitoring systems at the desktop / servers.

“Many companies call The Irish company in after they uncover an image incident but increasingly companies are calling us in order to see if they have problem” says Nolan “The Irish company offers a no risk, confidential way to quantify the risk, identify the perpetrators, help the company ‘clean up their act' and to ‘stay clean'.”

How can The Irish company Help?

Article Source : Lung Carcinoma Small Cell

About Author

Both Jim Degerstrom & Colm Doherty are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Jim Degerstrom has sinced written about articles on various topics from Small Business, About Branding and Computers and The Internet. Jim Degerstrom offers small business advice based on 30 years in management, sales, and marketing, including President or General Manager of small companies in 5 states. He is proficient in website and graphic art design, and runs his online. Jim Degerstrom's top article generates over 33100 views. to your Favourites.

Colm Doherty has sinced written about articles on various topics from Legal Matters, Computers and The Internet and SPAM. This article was written by Colm Doherty of Pixalert – http://www.pixalert.com . PixAlert is the market. Colm Doherty's top article generates over 5400 views. to your Favourites.