Does Your Image Match Your Words?
To illustrate, here’s a story a friend of mine from the world of advertising told me. Apparently this is a famous story in advertising circles.
Imagine you are driving down a tree lined country road. You see a dirt road leading up to an old, somewhat run down farmhouse. On a weathered, old piece of wood, you see a sign nailed to a tree – SWEET CORN.
Now, if you had a little time and a little appetite, you might stop and buy some corn, right? But now image the same sign, only it says this – FLYING LESSONS.
Would you stop? If so, you’re a whole lot braver than I am.
So the question is – does your website’s design match your message? If it doesn’t, the most well written copy in the world may not help you.
- If you’re selling executive consulting services, your website should not look like it speaks to garage mechanics.
- If you’re selling industrial shop rags, your website should not look like it speaks to executives.
Here are examples of websites where message and motif are well aligned.
New Pig Corp. is one of my favorite companies, because they use humor. Here’s a company that sells shop rags that looks like a company that sells shop rags.
Here’s an executive consulting firm I found at random … that looks like an executive consulting firm.
Examples of No Motif Whatsoever
Here are three banking websites. Can you tell them apart? Does anything in the design speak to anyone?
Capitol One
Harris Bank
Chase Bank
Stop and reflect. Take a look at your website design – what does it communicate? Does it make your target customer feel comfortable, uncomfortable, or unmoved?
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(Photo credit – Maxwell’s Farmstand, by lydia63 on Flickr)
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The old aphorism (gee, I better look that word up before using it HERE… OK, phew!) may be true: “You can’t judge a book by its cover”. But the fact is, we do it all the time, don’t we?
I couldn’t agree more, Brad. And not only that, but once the viewer gets INTO the site, you have to watch for elements that “stick out” in obtrusive ways. The more seamless it appears (as a whole, I mean), the better.
Another great point from the master!
Robert, Books are definitely on your mind … I wonder why?
You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but you may judge whether to read a book by its cover.
The issue of site design on interior pages is very important, I agree. When page design varies too much, people get confused and as a result may just get fed up and click off.
Hi Brad – New Pig Corp seems like a great site. And as the look appealing to folk who might be looking for what they are selling.
Folk fly from one webpage to another so quickly and I guess if they can’t see that we have what they’re looking for in about 3 seconds – they won’t hang round.
Insightful Brad. A lack of alignment between any element of our offering raises distrust. Kay
I couldn’t agree more, for any online business it is so important that your web design matches you, your products and messages that you are trying to send to the customer.
If you were to click onto a website for a lawyer and saw an informal design it would certainly put you off!
Cath, New Pig has enjoyed explosive growth, and I think you put your finger on why – people like them. They just look like fun people to buy from. What a lesson for us all.
Kay, I was thinking misalignment leads to confusion, but you are taking it a giant step further. When I see a website that doesn’t mesh with the company’s brand or business model, I conclude the firm has poor marketing execution. But it could be just as easily true that the firm is trying to be manipulative. Great point.
Danielle, Lawyers are a fine example. Their websites must be spot on to attract the particular type of client they are looking for. A tax attorney, a personal injury attorney, a high profile partnership all require a different “look” on their sites.
Brad,
I once read that upon meeting a new person for the first time, it takes approximately thirty seconds for us to develop in our mind an image of our new acquaintance which is strong enough to play a very significant part in terms of setting the tone with regard to how we view that person for a very long time to come.
I could not imagine why the same would not apply to business, and if I were a handyman or tradesman, I would know right off the bat that the New Pig site was talking to me.
I think Kaye hit on an extremely important point, and I don’t know about anyone else, but if I personally sense any form of in-congruency between the sales pitch and the product offering, this would certainly raise concerns in my mind as to whether the organization concerned really had its act together and whether or not it could be trusted to deliver the kind of quality or products or services that I personally would expect from any organization with whom I would do business as a consumer.
Andrew, The incongruency you speak of sometimes creeps up on a company website because it hasn’t been updated in a long time, and during the interlude, the business model has changed. For instance, a company may start out selling to small firms, and later begin targeting Fortune 500 firms. A strategic change like that requires a different site design, and probably different content.