SPIRITAS - SME - Services
If you're looking for cost effective and high quality marketing services and ideas this is the right place!
We are a 12 year old marketing agency and we've designed these products to be suitable for small to medium enterprises.
That's not to say large clients don't use these tools it's just to say that they are cost effective enough for small to medium businesses to use effectively and regularly.
We've used our experience to gather together some products that work for businesses who need quality professional services and can't afford to waste time with inferior products and suppliers that think "amateur" is good enough as long as its cheap.
We believe in our little motto "Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten!" ....perhaps this saying is often misused but it still stands true and we know that if we go too low on price you won't value our services and we will not be able to afford to put the appropriate quality work into your projects.
James Macdonald - Managing Director
Questions and answers for SMEs and Startups.....
Q: Can you, should you design your own Logo/Brand?
A: Yes of course you can....
If you can understand what is visually appealing and what is visually offensive you can.
If you understand your brand and the way people will perceive it you can.
If you know people who will give you honest feedback on your ideas you can. (Trusted prospective customers are the best.)
If you appreciate that for small businesses its 90% product/service and 10% identity to start off with you understand that nobody really cares what you look like (unless maybe you are a designer and even then its relative to their client's ability to judge design and even the industry sector they are in.) you can.
It is of course a great idea to have a professional do the work if you have budget for that or you can get a great job at a great price. Can you write a design brief by the way or are you going to transfer your vision via a few words in an email and then think oh god I hope he/she does a good one? You need the brief more when the logo isn't right for you, or how can you demonstrate that its wrong?
Before you assume that paying out your hard earned cash is a sure way to a quality result take a good look at the olympic 2012 logo which reputedly cost "a mere 400k". Unfortunately cost is not relative to quality particularly in the creative arena. Although it should relate to effort and process but don't bank on it.
Then there is the question what should your actual budget should be anyway, what is too much and what is too little? This should be a product of your commercial objectives, your industry sector and even who will see your logo anyway. A lot of small business get their work through contacts and referral initially so unless you are firing out with a big sales campaign etc is anyone even going to really see it?
Of course this is a great place to find a good logo designer because you can get references and see some real work examples. It might also be a bad place because its harder to give bad feedback to people you are friendly with on a forum.
Just bear in mind that sexy logos are a recent thing, the Unilevers, IBMs, Fords, etc didn't have great logos they had great products.
Checkout Google's first logo (purportedly) here:
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/200...ogle-logo.html
not sure any designers would like that in their portfolio, a few thousand of their shares however....now that would be nice!
Q: How much should a startup invest in company naming research and branding?
A: As little as possible
Its unlikely your name choice will make or break your company. It's all about service when you start up. The worst thing you can do is go into a business with illusions that your name and brand are up there with the high street names ( Of course nobody would think that.). Don't overspend on research and branding at the outset.
Check out Google's first logo above to prove that branding wasn't what made them so successful.
Make a decision you are happy to run with. As long as you love your company name you will be able to hold out your card and sell your services with confidence. It will be your service that wins and the consistency with which you carry out your regular customer communication to develop business.
Q: How much should a company pay for its website?
A: Approx £500-£1500
This sum is sufficient for small businesses and startups that want a competent web presence that is well ranked on Google. What can you expect for this?
A smart design in keeping with your company branding
5-20 pages of content that you supply
A contact form
External Links
Good quality images
Some sort of slideshow/image gallery if required
Search engine optimisation
Setup with analytics to monitor your visitor traffic
