What do the Mona Lisa and a traffic sign have in common with your website? Maybe nothing. But they should. You see, the Mona Lisa shows artwork’s ability to capture attention, hold someone’s gaze and tell a story. The power of art and graphic design may stem from the fact that before language, people had to make sense out of the world visually. And we all feel how visuals affect us. Good design attracts and bad design repels. But what does a traffic sign have to do with your website?

Good design is only half the equation. Like a traffic sign, your website needs to guide people to take the right actions. So, how does a website do this? The answer is both obvious and surprising: by applying sound marketing principles.

What’s surprising is how little most website companies know about marketing. Doubt that? Try giving them this very basic quiz:

1. What is the marketing mix? (You can even give them a hint: It’s the four Ps.)

Answer: Price, Product, Place and Promotion. (By the way, this is like asking your CPA to name the four basic mathematical operations: adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.)

2. What is a brand? (You’ll get lots of convoluted answers to this one, mostly confusing “brand” with product or a logo.)

Answer: The definition consumers hold in their mind of a company and/or product.

3. What is the difference between segmentation strategies and segmentation variables? (You’ll get lots of interesting made-up answers to this one. Most will revolve around demographics.)

Answer: There are four segmentation strategies: 1. Undifferentiated, which treats the entire market as one unit; 2. Concentrated, which focuses on the one or two most profitable submarkets; 3. Multi-segmented, which markets to many submarkets; and 4. Micro-segmented, which creates marketing messages specific to the individual. Segmentation variables, on the other hand, are used to build out the profile of your submarkets and they fall into the categories of demographic, psychographic, geographic, geo-demographic, usage rate and benefits sought. By the way, here’s some free marketing advice: Segment only when necessary. It’s needlessly expensive, time-consuming and complex to create multiple messages if there is no need to speak to submarkets differently.

Just as tax preparers should be expected to know basic accounting terms, website designers should know basic marketing terms. But that’s rarely the case.

One of the qualities that distinguishes our agency from others is that we live, breathe and speak marketing. We discuss marketing concepts in meetings and receive daily e-mail reminders that reinforce our marketing knowledge. Dedication to effective marketing is at our company’s core. It drives every design decision we make.

This focus really shows in the websites and other marketing materials we create. It would be easy to just create graphics that are flashy and pretty. But because marketing is so ingrained in us, we carefully plan our graphic design to encourage viewers to take specific actions. We use color and organization to appeal to human psychology. Graphic design is purposeful, very specifically directed art. Compelling design plays a vital role in driving awareness and sales of your product or service.

In addition to websites, we can apply our graphic design skills and marketing knowledge to a wide range of marketing materials. We have designed graphics for brochures, packaging and even a triathlon uniform. Our clients range from mid-sized businesses to large corporations. Our understanding of marketing ensures that promotional materials send a clear, consistent brand message.

The awards we’ve won reflect our ability to create dazzling design in a broad spectrum of assignments. We won American Graphic Design Awards for some very different undertakings. We were recognized for our work on:

• Cargill’s Wellness Advisor magazine
• Cargill’s Corowise mobile website
• Checkerboard’s branding (including website and business cards)

Graphic design serves a business purpose. Checkerboard can apply our marketing knowledge and design talent to illustrate what makes your product unique and valuable. Our graphic design will encourage your customers to take the next step, whether it’s exploring your website, completing a contact form or looking for your product on store shelves.

Discover what compelling graphic design can do for the definition people hold in their minds of your company or product (your brand). Complete our contact form or call us at 952-697-5211. We’ll create stunning design that guides your customers in the right direction.