Creating Touchpoints Part 1

Once the client has approved the identity design concept, you can move forward with design and development to create touchpoints. The book covers creating several touchpoints so I'm going to break them into two different blogs.

One of the first important topics covered is the trademark process. Basically, the importance of trademarks, service marks and registered marks is that these efforts help secure identity assets. Roberta Jacobs-Meadway offers a good quote:

"A distinctive identity is worth nothing unless you can protect it."

Business cards. Yea, I know business cards are sorta lame in the context of so many other hipper touchpoints. Anyways, the only reason why I mentioned business cards is that printing services like VistaPrint make solid quality print materials like business cards super affordable for small businesses.

Next, let's ask a question: How do you stand out when 30,000 products are vying for attention? Packaging. In the average half-hour trip to the grocery store, shoppers will have 30,000 products vying for their attention according to Thomas Hine, author of The Total Package. Wow.

In addition to standing out from the pack, packaging is an important opportunity to enhance the brand experience - before, during and even after the sale. Obviously, when products are positioned on the shelf, packaging is a key to the purchasing decision. And, on the other end of the cycle, packaging is an important way to enhance the brand after the sale. For instance, read up about Turner Duckworth's work with Amazon.com. They designed Amazon's logo, featuring the ever so creative arrow from the "a" to the "z", with key consideration being paid to how it would work on packaging. Of course, you experience Amazon.com's packaging after the purchasing decision has been made and Amazon.com's packaging works to further enhance the brand experience.

The last topic probably deserves a blog to its own - the website. Geez. What can I say about the importance of a website in a paragraph or two? I don't know. The most important concepts that I'll offer are:

• Just having a website isn't enough any more. You have to use that website.
• Websites offer the opportunity for branding and direct response.
• Site usability is more important that cool graphics and technology.
• Designers should be judged just like marketers - on the basis of real measurables.
• With multivariate analysis attainable at all levels of business, letting your visitors dictate your design has never been easier.