Branding in Marketing and Communication Design: marketing

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Are Marketing Brochures Still Relevant In The Digital Age?

In the digital age, the definition of marketing collateral has evolved to include digital assets like website, eBooks, etc.

Most likely you already knew that :) What you want to know is whether brochures are still relevant. Do people still interact with a printed brochure in the age of new media? Is it worth investing in them?

Don’t be surprised if I say marketing brochures are still an important part of the marketing mix. Big or small, enterprise or start-up, B2B or B2C, organisations use brochures for communicating with customers at different touch points.

Take a look at the ways to make use of marketing brochures or the types of marketing brochures.

Here are four reasons why brochures are still considered an important marketing collateral to showcase the brand and its offerings.

Reasons Why Marketing Brochures Are Still Relevant

1. A Break from the Digital Monotony

What was new and novel has turned into a pile of clutter. We skim through countless emails and articles every day. Mechanically move from one to the next. Printed marketing brochures offer a break from this digital monotony. It offers an alternative medium to connect with your audience.

Also, imagine reaching out to CXO audience through email. Well most probably you won’t pass through their assistant’s sight. A physical copy of a printed brochure occupies real estate on the CXO’s desk.

2. Tangible Impression

Well designed and appealing print collateral still has the power to make a tangible impression. It hits you straight. It literally adds weight to your brand’s presence. And that experience is derived from the intersection of a nice design, content and the quality or print and paper. Creative brochure designers skilled in brand design use content and design in harmony with the overall brand guidelines. That helps in strengthening the brand image.

3. A way to Drive Traffic to Digital Channels

Printed brochures offer a way to drive traffic to digital channels. To maximize the impact of your marketing plan, think beyond the single dimension approach and integrate digital and print. Whether it is our product catalog communicating with your customers post purchase, or an exhibition giveaway brochure targeting prospects in pre-purchase stage, every type of brochure can be designed to drive traffic to your organisation’s digital channel. The trick is to integrate it properly within the content of the brochure.

4. Tap Physical Customer Presence

Finally, no matter how much time your target audience spends online, they still exist in the physical world. They still go to retail store or attend events. They still visit their doctor’s clinic and they still spend considerable amount of time offline. What better way to tap their physical presence with an impressive printed brochure.

Digital age has given a new power to printed marketing collateral to re-engage the target audience. The key lies in giving a clear purpose to the brochures and integrating them wisely in the overall integrated marketing plan.

You might also be interested in: Creative real estate brochure designs

According to the CMO Survey report 2019 (see footnote), CMOs are increasing the social media marketing spends.
This, as per the survey, is inspite of a relatively modest contribution of social media to enterprise performance.

So Why are CMOs Doubling their Social Media Investments now?Following reasons have been identified for this trend in 2019:
1. Social media can provide powerful insights about the consumers. Beyond the engagement, social media help in sentiment analysis,measuring online behaviour of consumers and brand engagement.
2. Social media is made for mobile and mobile is the future of consumer engagement.
 Visual content and short updates are apt for social media and consumers
 interact with this bite-size chunks throughout the day using their 
mobile devices. That not only helps in building consumer profile but 
also amp up the marketers’ reach though post likes, shares and comments.
 Esp. the latter part is not possible with digital advertising.
3. Social media engagement and ad reinforcement is more memorable
 than the extremely costly digital advertising. As consumers are exposed
 to so many ads per day, it’s unlikely for individual interactions to 
realise returns.
4. Social media as a platform can be controlled and is relatively low-cost to operate. Companies can continually test campaigns on their platform, get immediate results, and scale successful outcomes.
Note: According to this survey, outside social media agencies
 continue to play an important role in guiding social media activities 
in companies, with this survey recording the highest level of engagement
 in several years.
The CMO Survey is sponsored by the American Marketing Association, Deloitte and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

More Marketers Are Embracing This Style of Corporate Brochure

Corporate brochure is an important company marketing collateral for every business. It gives a voice to the company. It communicates the brand values, highlights the brand strengths and creates the desired brand image which is made up of facts, vision and feelings. When used strategically, a corporate brochure can serve as an excellent tool for corporate storytelling.

Increasingly, marketers are deciding to make company brochures more engaging. They are embracing a different style of corporate brochure design to take it to the next level.

What is it that marketers are doing differently?

Well, they are indulging in presenting the company information in a highly visually engaging way. Marketers are opting for coffee table book inspired corporate brochures to present their brand in a memorable way.

Corporate Brochures Inspired by Coffee Table Book Format

Coffee table book format is larger and lavishly illustrated. They are like high-end art books and designed to offer visual treats to its readers.

Leading Indian coffee table book design company OH! Design Studio believes that presenting a company brochure in the form of a coffee table book is a wonderful way to create a powerful visual impact on the readers and stakeholders of the company.

Here are some such corporate brochure projects shared by one of the top corporate brochure design companies in India — OH! Design Studio. OH! Design, a Mumbai-based integrated branding and digital marketing agency, specializes in designing compelling, inspiring and state-of-the-art coffee table books.

1. Portfolio of a leading Indian architectural & interior design firm

ZZ Architects use this brochure as a coffee table book to engage their clientele in the reception area or meeting rooms ,while the latter is patiently waiting for their host to join them.

The brochure has a grand and exclusive feel to it. At the same time, the graphics are modern and clean. Together these elements communicate and highlight the brand promise of the client’s firm and do justice to the presentation of their bespoke and contemporary projects.

2. Corporate brochure for the largest valve manufacturers in India

Using the coffee table book format, OH! Design Studio designed this company brochure to express the legacy of an iconic company. By using stories, imagery and design, OH! presented a visually engaging journey of this company through time.

For more information, connect with OH! Design Studio at letstalk@ohdesignstudio.com

Other links that might interest you:

A unique corporate brochure design for a financial services firm

How Coffee Table Books are used for sparking conversations in marketing.

8 Ways in which businesses use marketing brochures

Is it possible for small businesses to compete with large brands?

Some would consider that established brands have unlimited funds for marketing or at least amount so huge that they easily hog whole market share.

With a clearly defined niche target audience, even small businesses can effectively compete with large brands.

Here is a brief introduction to target audience and why it is important for branding.

Introduction to Target Audience

As a product owner, you would want to believe that whole world will love your products.

The reality is that not everyone “needs” your product and those who do need it may or may not “like” what you are offering.

In other words, only a small population is interested in your product.

That’s your primary target audience- the group of people you should target with advertising or other forms of promotions.

It’s like how you play darts game by throwing darts onto different parts of the board. Let’s say target audience is that board- every dart you throw is targeted or aimed to hit the board.

Example of Target Audience

For a baby diaper product, primary target audience/ market segment could be guardians and healthcare professionals of babies and toddlers who use baby products as part of their daily routine. The secondary target audience/ market segment could be anyone who purchases these products for family and friends with babies and toddlers. The basic product positioning would be in the development stages of babies and toddlers.

Why identifying target audience is important for branding?

As part of brand development, strategist work on brand mission statement, does competitive research in the target category, outlines the key qualities and benefits of the brand offering, etc.

Rather than creating a brand which appeals everyone, which is not possible and can make marketing more vague, a company can better position its brand with messaging, packaging design, advertisements, products, services and so on that appeal to those specific audience groups. Even pricing, packaging design and distribution channels are decided to appeal to a brand's target market.

Defining a target audience allows to focus brand marketing money and attention on the people most likely to provide an ROI.

Related Reading: What is a brand?

At our branding company OH! Design Studio, while working on brand design projects we start by gathering insights about the target market from the client. Information about consumers’ values, preferences, lifestyle and habits provides a framework that helps determine the brand design strategy and appropriate communication.

Consider product packaging design for instance.

Packaging design is still the most powerful factor in product marketing to attract consumers. It is very difficult to separate consumer’s perception of the brand from its product packaging. Poor quality design is perceived as packaging a cheaper product with inferior quality. The choice of design elements, design structure and text must be then be driven by the kind of people the brand is targeting to visually stimulate their interest in the product and to create the right kind of brand image.

Brand strategy - Misconception about Target Audience

Does that mean while targeting a specific market you are excluding those who do not fit the criteria?

No. Targeting just gives a clear sense of direction for spending marketing money and creating focused brand message on a specific market that is more likely to buy from you than other markets. It is an effective as well as efficient way to reach potential clients and generate business.

Related Reading: Branding misconceptions

If you are looking for a branding or graphic design agency, then letstalk@ohdesignstudio.com . OH! Design Studio is an integrated branding + design consultancy firm in India.

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