Headline of advertising commercial or a book or marketing collateral is supposed to be the most important and attention grabbing part of the same. A headline is supposed to make the thing stand out from the clutter, draw immediate attention of the viewer. The copywriter can grab attention of the viewer with a wide variety of headlines. There can be several types of headlines as given below.
There can be headlines that put forth questions like – ‘Did you know 80% of women love our shampoo?’ or ‘How often do you need to de-tan your skin?’, ‘Are you spending too much in Insurance?’ These questions not only grab attention fast, but also stir interest and provoke thoughts. People soon relate to such questioning headline and move on to the next segment of the advertisement to find out the solution.
There are many advertisements that put forth its customers’ words to sell the products or services. This trick always works, as people consider it as a proof of the brand’s credibility. Not all provide testimonials of real customers, but when used such strategy can be effective. It may go like this ‘This oil has lessened 70% of our health problems’. Put name, location, age of the customer speaking to make it appear more credible. You may take permission of that particular customer.
There are headlines talking straight to the viewer, in a direct tone. These are effective at times. Special offers, heavy discounts, inauguration – such announcement oriented advertisements adopt straight on face tone. Examples, ‘Grab last few days of 50% discount’, ’50 free laptops with Bike purchase’.
Then there are headlines, which announce some news like ‘Finally, A detergent is here which actually works’. Such announcement of news – like something new has come up always works.
There are headlines, which ask you to do something. Such headlines are strong and are developed to encourage the action towards some benefit. They mostly start with a verb. Like, ‘Say no to plastic’, ‘stop drinking while driving’, ‘Stop abusing the minor’.
Let me know which one is your favorite.
Tags: Advertisement, Advertisements, Advertising, Bike Purchase, Clutter, Copywriter, Credibility, Detergent, Few Days, Free Laptops, Headlines, Health Problems, Inauguration, Marketing Collateral, News Headline, Proof, Segment, Shampoo, Special Offers, Testimonials
Logo making is not just an art, but also a strategic management decision. Anyone can make a brand logo, but making an aesthetically pleasing yet strategically strong logo is not an easy task. A brand has its own identity, tone and flavor. Keeping such qualities maintained in the logo, yet coming up with something new is the challenge for a logo designer. Commonly designers make some mistakes. They are listed below. Try to avoid them.
Often designers assume a logo should visually convey what the brand is all about. They often think if it’s a fine dining restaurant brand, its logo should visually depict that by including visual elements like a fork and knife or chef’s hat. But it’s not necessary. Don’t force yourself to include such visual elements within a logo. Include visual elements only when they fulfill the purpose, match with typography and don’t look too much stuffed forcibly. A logo may still look very appealing and eye grabbing without any visual element. Visual element need not be an object or literally what your brand is all about. It can be abstract too, but with reasoning behind it, conveying the brand promise.
Quite often designers fall in love with calligraphic italic form of fonts. But, such fonts come with their own limitations. They are hardly legible from a distance and specially keeping in mind when print outputs are not of great quality. Such fonts also do not go with every category of product, may be doing justice for perfume brands, lifestyle brands but hardly match with an educational institution’s logo. Don’t fall for such fonts unless you are confident about them and it matches with the product category in hand.
Designers often get tempted to put too many elements in a logo, make them multi-colored and as a result clutter the entire logo. They forget it may look fine only when they are projected big, but when compressed the logo may look very confusing and not readable. There will be occasions when you will have to print your logo in really small size, in a corner of the documents like envelope, writing pad, letter head, calendar. If your logo is not clear enough in such a case it may get totally unnoticed. So make sure your logo is clear and distinct even when small. Key to such clarity is simplicity. Keep your logo distinctive yet simple.
Tags: Aesthetically Pleasing, Brand Logo, Brand Promise, Clutter, Doing Justice, Educational Institution, Fine Dining Restaurant, Fonts, Lifestyle Brands, Logo Designer, Logo Designers, Management Decision, Match, Perfume, Product Category, Restaurant Logo, Strategic Management, Typography, Visual Element, Visual Elements
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