The holiday season draws near, and with the coming of the “noisiest” promotional season of the year, it’s important that stores learn how to stand out from the crowd. Whether or not your customers say it directly, consumers can instinctively tell the difference between low-quality and high-quality signage and graphics during the holidays.
It’s the season where everyone is relying heavily on physical messaging to tell their story and drivepromotions home with customers. Here are a few things to consider when you’re trying to differentiate yourself from the competition:
The holidays are nothing if not traditional, but that doesn’t mean that modern design trends suddenly become irrelevant come October/November. If anything, modern design trends and techniques become all the more important because so many businesses will be relying on traditional designs to get their message across.
In some cases, a modern look might not suit your promotion or brand. That’s entirely possible, and nothing to shy away from. This is where knowing your options and having the ability to be flexible is so important.
Ideally, if you can find a graphics partner with an in-house design team, you’ll be in a better position to create holiday graphics that get customers’ attention. That’s because while a graphic designer with less experience can create interesting designs, it’s more difficult for them to know how any one graphic will translate to the store itself. Knowledge of scale, materials, and installations give designers who specialize in store signage a leg up. They’ll also have a keen sense of design trends that might work for your brand.
After enough repetition, graphics can become tired, but reusing quality materials can often play to your advantage. That’s because many stores will throw away their holiday promotional signage and graphics year after year. This often forces them to rely on cheaper designs and materials, a tactic that consumers will notice, if only subconsciously.
Rather than tearing everything down and rebuilding from scratch every year, investing in a few quality set pieces for the holidays can make all the difference and distance you (in a good way) from competitors. Through subtle graphic tweaks and some auxiliary promotional items, you can keep your promotions fresh while leaning on your quality holiday “set pieces” to draw more attention to your store. This will save you some year-to-year hassle and still give you the tools to stand out in a sea of holiday promotions.
Continuing on the subject of quality, you don’t have to cover every single wall in your store to get your message across. Instead, focus on a few, fantastic graphics that connect you to your customers. Remember that materials matter, but going all-out for a few quality graphics is going to be more cost-effective and yield the best return for your store.
To get a sense of what materials and graphics to emphasize, talk to your printing partner to get a better grasp of your options.
That time of year is approaching quickly, which means planning this year’s promotions and graphics needs to start soon.
Whether you need to consult with a team of designers or simply get the ball rolling to set up your graphics for this year’s holiday season, contact Vomela through the link below.