Articles & Links
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Strengthen Your Brand With Custom Maps
by Jolan Falk
Whether you own the corner pub, or are involved in a massive management team with hundreds of locations and tens of thousands of SKUs, at no other time in history has there been such an ability to concretely define Who You Are. Who you are is branding, and everything that isn’t contributing to good branding is contributing to bad branding.
Branding is ruthless: a small incongruence can cause your brand to appear ragged and irregular. Once your brand is defined, focus must then turn to your weakest link. And, that weakest link is often maps.
If you have maps on your web site or collateral materials, do they seamlessly merge with the surrounding elements or do they appear stuck in? At Creative Force Maps, we are map experts. Not only do we enhance your branding, we measurably orchestrate the many reasons you are using a map(s).
If your maps are not using your corporate colors and fonts, and also enhancing your colors and fonts, your maps are creating discord: bad branding. Here are some other elements to consider:
· Does each map have an optimized center? Or is your location on the edge?
· Is each map’s North, South, East & West boundary appropriate for your
customers?
· Are there enough roads or too many roads?
· Is the map clear visually? If the map is muddied with information, then you
may need a broad coverage map that zooms into more detailed maps.
· Does the map have optimized points of interest? A park is usually good, a
county jail usually is not.
· Should you include clear, printable driving directions to take in the car?
· Are your maps appropriate for your corporate image? There is difference
between a theme park and a funeral home.
· Does the map show that you care about details? (Don’t overlook this detail.)
· Does the map evidence you value your customer’s time?
The advent of digital maps reduced the cost of custom maps a hundred fold. The flexibility of map content is without limitation. I was there in 1985, when Adobe Illustrator™ had but a single layer of information. In fact, together with Adobe, we introduced the term “Desktop Mapping.” The technologies developed by Creative Force Maps have made digital custom maps available for the owner of the corner pub, and you.
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