Look Magazine – Santa Clarita Edition

Check out your mailbox, a new issue of Look Magazine is out, containing more than 80 ads by Migrate Design!

The Importance of Advertising for Local Businesses

“A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time.” ~ Henry Ford

Can you imagine what would happen if you stopped your clock just to give you more time? You might get the illusion of accomplishing more but ultimately, you would get left behind, especially in a world and era as fast paced as ours.

In today’s economy, business owners are sometimes reluctant to spend money on advertising, not realizing that it is the key to making their business move forward and increase sales.

Here are a few reasons why you should advertise.

- Not everyone knows who you are: Your business might have been established for years or just a few months, but chances are, people don’t know you yet. Families are moving in and out of cities and you need ways to let them know about you.

- Let them know you’re still in business: Just as people move in and out of cities, businesses open and close, especially in today’s economy. Regular advertising will let your customers know that you’re still here to serve them.

- Competition is fierce: You might see competition only as other businesses or products of your type, but really, competition is anything consumers are spending money on. Advertising will help you stand out from the crowd.

- Generate traffic: Steady traffic is the first step towards increasing sales and expanding customer base. Make your potential customers curious about a new product or service and offer them a discount. The more customers through the door, the better chance of a sale and a referral.

- Turn wants into needs: Convince people that they need your service or your product by creating catchy advertising and having a consistent presence, either in local magazines, mailers, billboards…

- Save your customers time and energy: Especially in today’s economy, you need to be there when consumers are ready to purchase. If they have been repeatedly exposed to your message, they won’t have to spend time researching, they will come to you when they need you.

- Keep your image strong: Your business is more likely to be chosen if you have provided a strong, reliable image that sticks in people’s head.  As I mentioned in a previous post, visual identity is key, make sure your advertising follows the trends of the moment.

- Move forward: Advertising is the perfect tool to make you stand out and help you move forward by getting recognition and increasing sales. Don’t see it as a cost but as an investment in your business.

There are many more reasons I could mention, but the bottom line is: advertising is important. It’s like an invitation for your potential customers to come see who you are and what you have to offer.

Contact Migrate Design to discuss the many advertising options available to you and your business.

Absolut Collection

In the early 90′s, I fell in love with the simplicity and cleverness of the Absolut Vodka ad campaign. I became Absolutely obsessed and started my “Absolut Collection”.

Did you know that Absolut vodka has been running essentially the same print advertising campaign for 25 years? All 1,500 of the ads in the campaign feature or make sly reference to Absolut’s distinctive bottle, with the stubby neck and see-through label. All also use variations on the two-word tagline used in the original ad, which shows the bottle with a halo above the words Absolut Perfection.

Over the years, the bottle’s profile has been used to mimic, for example, a ski slope, a polygraph’s printout and the rotund frame of Alfred Hitchcock. There have also been regional variations, including a bottle-shaped swimming pool for the Los Angeles market and a bottle in the shape of New York’s Central Park. In Philadelphia, Absolut ads offered a likeness of Ben Franklin wearing bottle-shaped spectacles.

Contemporary artists such as Andy Warhol and Keith Haring have done ads for Absolut and the company has run ads painted in the style of Rubens and other old masters. Fashion designers Gianni Versace, Helmut Lang, Manolo Blahnik and Anna Molinari have created clothing for ads and promotions; celebrity photographers Herb Ritts and Annie Liebowitz also have taken part. Ads have incorporated album covers from David Bowie, Miles Davis and the Velvet Underground.

Even though this original campaign came to an end in 2006, I’m still eager to grow my collection – a little over 200 prints so far. So if you come across an Absolut ad, think about me !

If you’d like to see more, don’t forget to visit the “Absolut Gallery”

Your Logo, Your Identity.

Why is having a logo so important?

A logo is a symbol or small design used to identify an organization, a business or even an individual, product or service. A logo is what gives you a visual identity and we all know how important it is in today’s world!

Relevant: Wether you want it very obvious or more subtile, your logo needs to relate to your company’s services, products or its name, one way or another.

Representation: Your logo is your image, so whatever you want your potential customers to know about your company, your logo should represent it. Make it look professional, stylish and smart – or fun, grungy and smart.

Memorable: A smart logo is a memorable logo, and by smart I mean simple yet able to deliver a message. It needs to grab people’s attention quickly and stay anchored in their minds.

Color: Choosing the right color is important but once again, less is more and a logo should work in black and white as well as in color.

Identity: So you have the perfect logo… Now what? Use it as your visual identity and spread it. Business cards, flyers, brochures, ads… you name it! The more present your logo is in your community, the more chances people will hire you or buy your products!

So, are logos important? YES! The moment you try to reach people and you want them to remember you or your business, you need a logo. Every business, as small as it might be, should have one.

What if you already have a logo but you’re not happy with it? Even though you shouldn’t change your visual identity too much – just like you wouldn’t change your name – it’s never too late to give it a small makeover. Visual trends change over the years and once your logo is established, it’s okay to change it to make it fit the times better. Pepsi is a good example for this type of design evolution.

Migrate Design can help you create something unique and memorable. Don’t be shy, get your visual identity out there!

Water Works Plumbing is the perfect example of logo makeover! From complicated and outdated, to simple and modern, Migrate Design gave this logo, a fresh new start.

ARTree 2013 Calendar

As a bud of the ARTree Community Arts Center, Géraldine designed their 2013 calendar.

The calendar showcases the art of children that participated in arts classes from The Newhall Community Center and The Activities Center. With a donation of $5.00 you can enjoy the art of 12 talented artists from our classes this summer and fall. Help support arts education in Santa Clarita by donating $5.00 to a great cause.

The Calendar is available at The Newhall Community Center, The Activities Center and by emailing the ARTree at dichos1@hotmail.com or calling 818 634-4180.

Oodles Of Business Cards

If you just started your business, you will need business cards. You may decide to save a few bucks by doing it yourself, but saving money is not really the issue here; time is really what you should be saving. Let us take care of those little details, because you have bigger fish to fry. We never use templates and all of our designs are self created from scratch, which makes the  identity of your company more unique, and your branding more tailored to your industry and the services you offer. A business card is still an important aspect of marketing, and it needs the proper attention of graphic design professionals.

We will also take care of the printing for you with one of our established vendors. We know that businesses adapt, and employees come and go. Regularly updating an existing business card is becoming a necessity, but it shouldn’t be such a big deal. So when you chose Migrate Design to help you with your business card needs, for each business card we create, we will offer one revision for the next 12 months for FREE. You will only have to pay for printing.

Please contact us if you need more information about this new offer.

Local Internet Marketing

Are you feeling overwhelmed by the multitude of online marketing choices?

- You’re not alone!

Google Places, Bing and Yahoo Local offer basic business listings, as well as paid listing options. If you are trying to boost sales and increase local presence within your competitors, the following list will quickly and simply let you grasp all the local online marketing options available to you.

1. Local SEO – Gain top rankings in the natural or organic search engine listings for keywords that also contain a city or region name (i.e. “Santa Clarita SEO specialist”).

2. Pay-per-click Advertising – Create and place ads strategically on the Internet where people are looking for products and services within a given local area. When someone clicks on your ad, it sends them to your website and only then are you charged for the ad listing.

3. Pay-per-call Advertising – Similar to the pay-per-click advertising model, except having a website is not necessary. When someone calls the number on your ad, only then are you charged for the ad listing.

4. Local Directories – Listings and links in various online directories, including online yellow pages targeted to your locale, online yellow page advertising.

5. Fixed Placement Buys – Create and place ads strategically on Internet sites where people search for products and services within your local area.

Whether you’re looking to drive traffic to your site, fill your sales funnel with prospects or increase revenue – or all of those – the options listed above can help you meet your Internet marketing goals.

Migrate Design will guide you through various SEO procedures and help you with all your graphic design needs. Call us for a free consult.

Migrate Google+

Google+ has been making quite a buzz since its official release 2 days ago. We’ve read a lot of online articles about the new social network giant and they all depict a wide spread of emotions. Some people embrace it while others are frustrated at the idea of having to create yet another page for this new outlet. How successful will this new circle be? It’s anyone’s guess at this point. Nonetheless, Migrate Design decided optimistically to get on this bandwagon.

If you remain undecided about your decision to join or not, consider this important fact: If you have a page on Google+, it’ll be strongly put it forward in Google search results, and even more so if you have a lot of followers that +1 your business page! That is the foremost change, which will interest all businesses, organizations and companies looking for a better online referencing.

So get your g+ and let the “plusification” begin!

Migrate Design Google+

Pacific View Remodeling Magazine Article

Go to page 172 of the Santa Clarita Magazine and you will find an article titled “From Design To Completion”, along with a quarter page ad.
A few weeks ago, We designed a brand new logo for Pacific View Remodeling, and we are in the process of building a website. As this remains one of the most important part of marketing, there is a strong need to complete static presence with a more targeted advertising style. Our client is using cross-promotion very efficiently and successfully, as one piece always links to the others. This method increases popularity, both in the community and online, and builds credibility with the consumer.

Ultimate Home & Garden Award

Congratulations to our newest client, Pacific View Remodeling for receiving the 2011 Ultimate Home & Garden Award from the Elite magazine.
This is quite the opportune exploit, as we are in the middle of building an online presence for our client. This news will be a considerable addition to an already established, ongoing marketing plan.

We have great hopes for the success of our online campaign, and for the return it will have for our client.