Cheap Looks Cheap

When I took over the VP of Communications role for our local advertising federation, I knew that I would need professional help from graphic designers to meet the standards of our industry for some our direct mail pieces.

I tried my hand at it, and then sent it to our printer and he had a designer on his staff redesign it so that it would look 1st class.

1st class does not need to be expensive, but cheap often looks cheap, and you want to avoid making that impression at all costs.

Small Fuel Marketing addressed this topic:

The Hidden Costs of Cheap Branding

Branding a business can be an expensive proposition. Logos, websites and marketing materials often have hefty price tags.

It’s only normal to want to save some money on branding your business — but saving money on branding in the short-term just isn’t worth it in the long run.

There are plenty of ways to save money on branding your company. You can print your own business cards, use an automatic logo creator and generally find plenty of short-cuts.

But these options only save you money now. They cost you a lot more in the future…

Cookie-Cutter Branding

The biggest problem with short-cuts in branding is that you run the risk of not setting your business apart, or worse, making yourself look bad.

I remember when a client of mine announced that he had created his own logo, using an online ‘logo designer’ that allowed him to combine different images to get something he liked.

He pulled out his new business cards, and I had the hard job of telling tell him that I had seen the same exact logo on three other companies that year — all of whom had apparently used the same website to come up with their logos. They had all paid for this service — less than a graphic designer by far — but hadn’t differentiated their businesses at all. In fact, they had opened themselves up to some unfavorable comparison between the four of them, because of an identical logo.

The Cost of Cheap

There can be some financial consequences from taking short-cuts, as well. When you are ready to step up your branding a notch, odds are that you’ll have to start over from scratch. Perhaps the images you used for your logo aren’t high enough quality for the printer handling your new business cards or brochures. That means that you’ll have to go out and get a new, professional-quality logo, despite having already paid for that cheaper make-do logo. Just a couple of those sorts of replacements can wind up costing you quite a bit.

Poor branding, just like poor marketing, can lose you potential sales. A customer can decide that you seem unprofessional or otherwise unable to handle their needs and find another company to do business with — all because of a few short-cuts.

Consider your branding an investment: doing without is often better than taking short-cuts. Making the investment, though, means that you’ll have a logo and other branding materials that you can use for years and years. You’ll have a brand that will bring in customers and impress them with your professionalism. Over the long term you’ll make money, rather than spend it.

Sphere: Related Content