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The Faceless Company

insightslogoI wrote a post yesterday at Insights Group about giving a face to your company.  Customers no longer want to just purchase a product from your company.  They want to know something about you.  They want your company to have a face and a personality.

People are more likely to do business with a company if they have some sort of connection.  Be it a referral or emotional attachment or just some type of experience that puts a face behind a company. – The Faceless Company – Sarah Worsham – Insights Group

Does your company have a face? What kind of face does your company have?

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Your Website is Your Company

I’ve been thinking a lot about company websites.  So many small and medium businesses just have a brochure for a website.  What does that say about the company?  Tom Harris wrote a post yesterday at Insights Group on just this subject:

You’re about to go into an important meeting – a sales call, a presentation, a negotiating session, or a job interview. Whatever it may be, there will be people in this meeting who will affect your future. People that you need to impress, because they will make decisions based on YOU, and your words and your demeanor and your appearance. People who will judge whether they want to do business with you – to hire you, to accept your proposal, to buy your products or services, to contribute to your cause. – The Mustard Stain on Your Website – Tom Harris – Insights Group

So, if you wouldn’t walk into an important meeting with mustard on your shirt, why do you put up with a website that doesn’t do your company justice?  A meeting usually only has ten people or so.  Your website is seen by thousands of people!

What does your website say about your company?

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Simple is Good

simpleSarahJaneI had a chance to listen to Josh Holme’s talk The Lost Art of Simplicity at the KalamazooX Conference, which I covered here.  It’s a great talk, and if you get a chance to listen to it, I encourage you to do so.  Josh recently posted his slides from the talk, which are worth a peek.

I think all of us – designers, programmers, marketers, businesspeople, consumers… get caught up in complexity.  In making our products, our businesses, our websites, our lives complex.  Often I think we believe that people won’t pay for simple.  We need to add lots of features, lots of value-adds, lots of freebees.

If we take a few minutes to look at some of the most successful products, we see that they are inherently simple.  The Apple iPod.  The Sony Walkman. In their design.  In their features.  In how easy they are to use.

Simple is not easy.  It can be very difficult to make these as simple as possible.  But simple is a delight to use, too look at, to be apart of.

How can you be simple?

(photo by Sarah Jane)

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