by Despite the widespread use of signage in marketing, it remains poorly understood. There is no comprehensive conceptual model depicting the relationships between attributes of signs, contextual variables, and the various conscious and unconscious processes that shape behavioral outcomes. Such a model is critical for designers, planners, businesses, and regulators, who must be fully informed about how signage operates in order to best advance the interests of business and society.
Signage is a key part of any marketing strategy and should be considered in all stages of the customer journey. This is because it can help set the tone of the brand, establish credibility and trust, build a narrative, drive foot traffic, and ultimately, convert a sale. The importance of branded signage is so great, it is often overlooked as companies focus on vanity metrics like website traffic and Instagram likes. While these are important, they shouldn’t be the sole focus of any marketing effort.
As a communication medium, signage is unique in that it reaches consumers both consciously and unconsciously. A person’s attentional state will influence their processing of the information they receive from a sign, which in turn influences their cognitive and affective responses. This is why it is so important to understand your audience when designing a signage campaign. Getting to know the profile of your consumer is crucial – this includes demographics, location and time spent at your business, their emotional profile, and what their hopes, fears, dreams and desires are.
Consistency in design is also incredibly important. Using the same fonts, colors and themes across all your signage will create consistency, helping to distinguish your brand from competitors and establishing a story that customers can connect with. Additionally, pylon signs and other forms of on-premises signage can add to the prestige of your brand, adding that much needed differentiation to gain a competitive edge.
Wayfinding signage is a necessity for any large property and is particularly valuable in airports, hospitals and shopping centers. This type of signage helps customers navigate the property and find where they need to go, which can be a daunting experience for newcomers. It can also reduce the time it takes to find a destination and therefore, can increase overall customer satisfaction.
Providing clear, concise, and relevant communication through your signage will also help limit the amount of information that your customer’s working memory can process. This is because working memory can be overloaded if too many messages are competing for their attention. This can result in frustration, confusion and poor decisions by the end-consumer.
Finally, giving consumers the ability to interact with signage and take control of what they see gives them a positive experience and reduces negative feelings associated with pushy advertising. Studies have shown that interactive signage increases engagement by up to 93% compared with static versions. For example, Digital Signage Today reports on an experiment that tested a series of 7-inch digital screens in venues, allowing viewers to move the content around and choose which ads they would like to see. To learn more about how your business can leverage digital signage to promote its branding and customer experience, speak with a sign professional Fresno sign shop.