Marketing is a critical component of a business, and it is also a critical component of our lives. There are 3 levels of marketing, so let’s break it down.
1. External marketing — marketing by other people.
One of the biggest mistakes new home owners make, and the reason so many get a headache, is they use the wrong marketing materials. This is especially true if you are marketing your home to potential buyers.
External marketing is important, but it is not the only reason people get a headache. The other reason is because it doesn’t come across as “cool”. This is something that just seems to pop up too often. In fact, I can’t think of an example of external marketing that doesn’t pop up too often.
The best thing about marketing your home is that you are the first one to see it and you can tell it is pretty. But a great example of this is the way Home Depot makes their home sales brochures look. It is a beautiful design and you can tell it is pretty without even looking at it.
The problem with marketing is that it comes across as boring, which is a shame because, in reality, it is pretty. But, like Home Depot, Marketing 3 does not come across as pretty. It is a black and white image of the home that is just slightly off-kilter. The problem is, once you see it, the design is pretty and the design is just a little bit over the top.
Home Depot’s website is pretty. It has a pretty logo, a pretty website, and makes it pretty easy to find what you are looking for. What is a little over the top though are the graphics. The design has a slightly different color scheme than the rest of Home Depot’s website. The design looks like a jagged mess that really needs to be cleaned up. The point is, the marketing is not pretty.
The problem is that the design of a product has to be pretty for people to want to use it. It’s easy to say that a design is pretty if it looks pretty. If your design is ugly, it’s not going to be pretty. However, a product has to actually be usable. Too often I see people that want a product to look pretty and put it on a shelf and expect that it will be ready to use.
This is why the concept of “design for usability” is so important. A website or app will look pretty if its designed to be used. A site has to appeal to the eye to be usable. A website needs to look good to be usable; it needs to be easy to navigate and easy to use. A site has to be simple to use.
