Archive for the ‘Opinion and knowledge’ Category

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Destination Chesterfield – a great town in a beautiful setting

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Crush Design moved to Chesterfield over a year ago.

People thought us mad, but we know something they do not – Chesterfield is nowhere near as backward as people would like to believe.

Firstly, this town has secured a huge pot of money, pre credit crunch, from the European Union for development. Secondly, it is a perfect location commercially. We can be with clients in London in the morning and back at our desks in the afternoon. In addition to capital clients, we are in easy reach of our customers in Nottingham, Sheffield and Derby. Thirdly, there is more going on in Chesterfield because of this EU money that any other equivilant town.

Destination Chesterfield, the modern town with beautiful old buildings and a stunning peak district setting.

Good move Crush!

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Social Media Advice

Friday, July 9th, 2010

First thing to say before you read my advice is that I fail to stick to it myself.

This feels a little like a confession but; I haven’t update my blog for 35 days now. Flail me!

And its my failure that gets to the absolute crux of social media, to work it has to be done religiously, passionately and that all means time and energy.

Be half hearted about your blog and people will be half hearted in their readership. Design an average looking Facebook page and people will think you are average.

I love hearing about people who have made their fortune through social media. It can and does work, but more rarely than you might think. For every popular blog, Twitter, Facebook page and forum there are hundreds of failures – no visitors, no subscribers, no followers and no business.

To make it work you have to be a good and interesting writer and have ceaseless energy in promoting your content. There are 50,000,0000 blogs out there – why should I read yours?

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Brand presentation with the Business Link

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

I was delighted to be invited by Business Link to give a presentation on the human mind, buyer behaviour and brand development.

I have a big thank you to the fifty or so people who made the trip to Castle Donnington on what was a rather grim morning.

The feedback I got was really positive, which was great to hear and for those that asked for a copy of the presentation here it is: Follow this link to download a copy.

I would ask that if you were one of the attendees, please could you feedback using this blog as I would really appreciate your comments. Quite alot of efforts goes into these presentations.

presentation on brand and neuromarketing

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Love and want this invisibility cloak!

Friday, March 19th, 2010

Natalie spotted this scientific development on the BBC website

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8574923.stm

We’ve decided we want one but couldn’t find it on Amazon….What gives?

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Brevity

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

We don’t half blab-on when we type and it isn’t necessary. Ernest Hemmingway claimed his best work was a story of sixwords.

For sale: Baby shoes never worn

Can you allow people to think for themselves or is your opinion too important?

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Who do you trust?

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Consider this list and the degree of trust you have in these people / organisations:

  • Banks
  • Government
  • Mechanics
  • Doctors
  • Teachers
  • The Police
  • Insurance companies
  • Social Services
  • Supermarkets
  • Beauty Products
  • TV shows
  • Newspapers

I for one do not implicitly trust any of these people, which is a significant and scary change in our civilization over the past twenty years.

Trust me….trust is, and will continue to be, the brand attribute of choice in today’s economy. But there is no quick fix and it cannot be bought. For those trying, expect deeply ingrained suspicion from marketing weary people who have terabytes of information at the click of a mouse.

Honest is unambiguous, so cut all the sales bulls**t, the marketing gimmicks, the clever strap line and the profiteering.

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Time to help the Crooked Spire

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Quite simply a beautiful church – an iconic part of Chesterfield – but is it being let down by the local community?

online marketing chesterfield crooked spire Images of it are everywhere in Chesterfield, it attracts tourists and their money to the town, yet it is totally taken for granted.

Well not anymore, because Crush is on the case and we are going to help wake up Chesterfield to this gem that is the heart of our town.

If we achieve nothing but reduce the amount of drunken revellers weeing on the church on Saturday night it will be a step in the right direction. But we expect to do a whole lot more!

So please, if you live in Chesterfield, think about what you can do to help. Yes it needs money, but more than that it needs you become involved. Take your family to have a look, go on a guided tour, learn about its history, be proud of it and appreciate its magic. Then go tell others about it.

Because it is unique, it is beautiful and it belongs to us.

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Can photos of faces improve your marketing

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

I have often advised clients to include some humanity in their corporate design and marketing. The theory being it positively influences customer behaviour by engaging with them on a more emotional level.
I recently read two articles that back this design hunch;
One, in the New York Times, describes an experiment in which a digital photograph of the patient was attached to the front of a number of the radiologist’s file. The result was these patients received a longer and more meticulous report.

A pretty lady used in a design to increase response

A more obvious was example was one South African company’s attempts to boost their loan business. Using several variations of a mailer sent to 50,000 people they discovered that a photograph of a pretty lady in the design of the offer letter was as effective as a 5% difference in the loan interest rate in getting response from a male target audience – that’s a huge differential in the lending world.

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How much is that website in window?

Saturday, January 30th, 2010

Here is my rough and ready guide to planning and budgeting for a standard size website;

£0 to £500 Build it yourself or get a mate to help you. Choose an online template build service, there are loads about, though I have used and can recommend moonfruit. I would also recommend using a blog service for some.

£500-£2,000 There are companies and freelancers that specialise in quick and inexpensive build. Find a good one and you will get value for money. Just be conscious of the difference between flat html sites and content management sites. Its cheaper to build a flat html site but that will mean going back to your web designer for every little change. Content Managment System give varying amounts of control back to you for text changes / updates.

£2,000-£5,000 The amount most established SME businesses should be investing in their website. For this amount you will be getting both design & technical support. The designer will help you with the look feel and navigation of your site. A technician will advise you on the best CMS system to use and configure the software to suit your needs. Working together they should consider and advise you on your web strategy, planning SEO, PPC, data capture, email response and so on. However this is only advice.

£5,000-£20,000 When you spend more money on a website you are buying expertise and their time. For this level of spend you will get a full three stage design process, online brand development, bespoke CMS planning, search optimisation, data capture, integarted web strategy (including blogs, forums, social networking advice and email marketing).

£20,000+ At this level of spend and higher your website agency would be delivering a complex site, a tailored CMS solution and / or sophisticated design work, e-commerce facilities, planning of you internet strategy and ongoing support and SEO.

Written by Jonathan Worsley of Crush Design

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Website design

Saturday, January 30th, 2010

I am always checking out websites, partly because it’s my job, but also because it is the quickest and easiest way of judging a potential supplier.

Whilst researching in this way I like to think that I am reading the content and making rational opinions of a would-be supplier, but researchers into buyer psychology have clear evidence that facts are not the first things on my mind.

The evidence was gathered by scientists at the University of California by observing brain activity through EEG caps and brain scanners as volunteers surf the internet. They found that when the volunteers first laid eyes on a new site their rational brain remained largely dormant and it was the emotional part of the brain that was doing the work.

Furthermore, neuroscientists believe that this ‘emotional response’ is more dominant in the decision making process than rational facts by up to 80/20.

So does this mean that sites should be highly creative? Absolutely not. The brain is quickly suspicious of gimmicks and promises that do not match expectations.

What this does mean is; websites that “do not feel right” need changing. And it is not my or your opinion that matters, but your customers…..And the only way to find that out is by asking them!

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