Happy
Holidays !
Welcome
to another issue of Communication Matters! In every issue, we will review
topics that will help you grow your business faster with cutting-edge
communication skills.
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In this
issue:
Marketing
Plans for 2005
The Psychology
of Color in Design
Creativity
Corner: Synectics
Marketing
Plans for 2005
In the
past few years, we have helped many businesses create Marketing Plans
that accelerate growth. This is the perfect time for you to build your
marketing plans for 2005!
Most business
people know that by creating a "blueprint for action", they
can build sustainable growth for their business. Marketing plans help
you identify your best customer then develop a method to communicate
with them on a consistent basis to build a better relationship and add
value.
An effective
plan can positively impact your bottom line. Research shows that companies
with a marketing plan experience a 24-30% improvement in sales
over those without a plan.
The key
elements in a Mason Works Marketing plan are:
- Purpose-
to establish or confirm your purpose and message through goals, values,
mission statements
- Research-to
utilize research to understand your target areas: Business or Consumer
- Analyze-
to research findings and most cost effective methods to reach your
target
- Implement
Plans-to explore new ways to communicate your message to
your customer base and prospective customers, and create an implementation
calendar and marketing budget
- Strategize-
to develop objective and strategies to position all your products
and services.
- Evaluate-to
improve and assess the value of the changes implemented
Once you
put all of these sections together, then it should be easy to select
the best methods to communicate with your target market, schedule the
methods on a calendar and you're ready for 2005.
If you
need help with any of this, please contact us (www.mason-works.com
or 303-527-2978). Marketing plans are our specialty! The Acceleration
Team at Mason Works also supports your implementation of your new plan.
We currently work with several companies in Colorado as their "outside"
marketing department to provide monthly support. We would be happy to
support you in growing your business in 2005.
The
Psychology of Color in Design
Color is one
of the most useful methods for breathing new life into a design. Color
introduces another dimension to design that attracts the eye. Color can
also help define the market at which your communication piece is aimed,
determine its tone or image, be exciting or relaxing, or just improve
communication. Color
use is different for web communications than in print applications. Our
discussion here will focus on the use of color on the web. Our quick discussion
here will cover the use of Red, Yellow, Blue, Green and Orange and their
psychological impact. Color
is a critical element in your website. When color is used correctly, it
symbolizes and triggers emotions, memories, ideas and thoughts without
you even realizing it. The
emotion triggered by a color depends on nationality, past experience and
personal preference. When you design your web communications, you should
keep these things in mind:
Red
is the first primary color of the spectrum. It emotionally triggers
the sense of power, impulsively, sexuality and increases one's appetite.
Be careful how you use red. It can also shout anger, forcefulness, impatience,
intimidation, conquest, violence and revenge toward your site visitors.
Yellow
is one of the three primary colors. Visually it is the most difficult
for your eyes to focus on. It is actually brighter than white and stronger
in its emotional impact. It also has a stimulating impact on your memory.
That is why yellow notepads and pale yellow Post-It Notes are so popular!
It triggers the following emotions: intelligence, joy, and organization.
Its opposite effects when used in the wrong manner or with the wrong
combination of other colors can create feelings of criticism, laziness,
or cynicism. Splashes of pale yellow is the best choice since many tones/shades
of yellow are difficult for the human eye to focus on for very long.
However, if used with short burst of text as a background, it grabs
your attention and helps hold what you read in your memory banks.
Blue
is a primary color. It is the easiest color for the eyes to focus. It
generates feelings of tranquility, love, acceptance, patience, understanding
and cooperation. Its negative qualities if used inappropriately are
fear, coldness, passivity and depression. Blue is a favorite color choice
among all age groups.
Orange
is a secondary color comprised of the primary colors, yellow and red.
It emotionally triggers steadfastness, courage, confidence, friendliness,
and cheerfulness. Its opposite effects are ignorance, inferiority, sluggishness
and superiority. Orange is generally considered a social color but used
in the wrong manner and with the wrong color combinations could create
the opposite effects listed.
Green
is the combination of two primary colors, yellow and blue. It includes
all the qualities of yellow and blue and the emotions it triggers depends
on which of the two primary colors is dominate. Green triggers the following
positive emotions: hope, growth, good health, freshness, soothing, sharing,
and responsiveness. Its negative attributes are envy, greed, constriction,
guilt, jealousy and disorder.
Determining
which colors you should use in your web communications depends on your
web site's objective and targeted market. Using a color simply because
you like it is not always the best choice when you have a specific goal
or targeted audience in mind. When using combinations of colors (no
more than two primary with two accent colors), choose colors on opposite
sides of the color wheel from each other. To see a color wheel with
a great explanation of color attributes, go to http://www.drawingworkshop.com/art_instruction/ci2.swf
Creativity
Corner: Synectics
Welcome
to another month of Creativity Corner. This tool session will be on
Synectics. Unlike Brainstorming (see last month's newsletter), Synectics
does not strive for a quantity of ideas.
Synectics
(Gordon, 1961) is an approach to creative thinking that depends on understanding
together, that which is apparently different. Its main tool is analogy
or metaphor. The approach, which is often used by groups, can help teams
develop creative responses to problem solving, to retain new information,
to assist in generating writing, and to explore social and disciplinary
problems. It helps users break existing minds sets and internalize abstract
concepts.
Synectics
was developed by Gordon and Poze in their book, The Art of the Possible,
which instructs readers in the explicit method for stimulating creative
thinking about problems which are not solvable by traditional methods.
The sequence of synectics is as follows:
Describe
the Topic:
The facilitator selects a word or topic then asks students to describe
the topic, either in small group discussions or by individually
writing a paragraph; e.g., MUSIC.
Create
Direct Analogies:
The facilitator selects another word or topic then asks the team
members to generate a list that would have the same characteristics
as those words or phases listed in Step 1 (a direct analogy is set
up to make comparisons between the two words, images, or concepts).
How are MUSIC and BIAS alike? Ask them to generate vivid mental
images. Mental images are powerful tools in the process.
Describe
Personal Analogies:
Have team members select one of the direct analogies and create
personal analogies. Members "become" the object they choose
and then describe what it feels like to be that object. How would
it feel to be music that is biased?
Identify
Compressed Conflicts:
Ask the team members to pair words from the list generated in Step
3 which seem to fight each other. Always have the participants explain
why they chose the words which conflict. Then have the students
choose one by voting. How are auditory symbolism and personal inclination
different?
Create
a New Direct Analogy: With the compressed conflict pair voted
upon by the team, ask them to create a different direct analogy
by selecting something that is described by the paired words. How
are auditory symbolism and personal inclination like a painting,
poem, movie, political party, etc.?
Reexamine
the Original Topic: Return to the original idea or problem
so that the team member may produce a product or description that
utilizes the ideas generated in the process. They may concentrate
on the final analogy or use analogies created in the other four
steps (Gunter, et al., 1990).
For more
information on how to use this creativity tool, go to http://www.writedesignonline.com/organizers/synectics.html
We
hope that this tool helps your team create better solutions, filled
with creativity and care. Here's to successful outcomes!
* * * * * * * * *
We hope
that you have enjoyed our December newsletter and will gain many useful
ideas from our experience to accelerate your business! Please contact
us if you do not want to receive future mailings. For more information,
email kathy@mason-works.com
or go to our website, www.mason-works.com.
The Mason Works Acceleration team looks forward to helping you grow
your business faster and more cost effectively in the coming months.
Happy Holidays!
Kathy
Kathy Mason,
President
Mason Works,
LLC.
303-527-2978
PS. Have
a wonderful Holiday!
PSS. If
you feel overwhelmed with work and the holidays, look at this article-
it should help! http://successnet.org/articles/angier-overwhelm.htm
I hope you enjoy Michael Angier's article on dealing with "over
achievement" this time of year.
