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Direct, effective web and design solutions for real world marketing 
Small Business Specialist Visual
Design Web
Design Press
and PublicityPublishing
Design & PromotionOcean Highway Books is an affiliated consulting organization for Indie Authors (cover art samples here) Book
Cover Design QuestionnaireFor Indie Authors & Small Presses Click above link to initiate a discussion regarding your book cover needs Recent & Ongoing Projects: Kiva Trading Company SailleTales  Leveling the Field is a series of free design tips and articles I've written for Indie Authors on the website Publetariat I recommend these to anyone considering publishing your own book independently whether in an eBook format or in print. (The graphic is adapted from 1960s Chinese Cultural Revolution Poster Art) Ocean Highway Books Contact Information: RS Communications Creative Director Correspondence: 223 Wall Street Suite 145 Huntington, NY 11724 (631)470-4814 Email Contact:info(at)rscomdotco 
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RS Communications has over 30 years
of unique experience in the trenches of small business
marketing, design and media. Through the range
of experiences I've encountered and projects I've
contributed to, I've come to see marketing success as
a process rather than a
pinnacle. To implement that approach, I've
provided cost effective communications tools,
identification, point of sale and reference materials
for a variety of clients. I've also extended
marketing strategy support, product launch, publicity
and planning consultation services.  Over the years, I've concentrated on
serving the special needs of smaller businesses.
My clients have ranged from national corporations to
"mom & pop" retailers -- from high tech to "no
tech", but all of them have found my work to be clear
in concept, clean in execution and effective in
communicating their message.Richard Sutton The following article discusses the importance of a balanced marketing approach and some of the services and techniques available to small businesses including Indie Authors. Small Business Marketing Strategies Since 1971, I've worked as a graphic designer and conceptual consultant. My clients, while varied, have always received carefully considered individually crafted solutions. I don't believe that "package" design approaches offer anything beyond a lower cost. Since marketing costs are becoming a much larger share of operating expenses -- reducing margins of profitability, it's clear that smaller businesses must wring the highest degree of effectiveness from their marketing and advertising. In order to stay profitable, all businesses -- large or small -- must seek the course of least resistance in marketing their products or services. Quite often, I 've found that the most obvious choice is the most effective -- for the largest number of prospects. Establishing a hierarchy of priority in marketing might set the obvious, higher-margin offering as the most easily accessible. This leaves a small business free to plan a more customer service intensive approach for more complicated or lower margin offerings. In this way, a small business is able to offer a prospect more individualized service on more complex transactions while simple transactions progress smoothly -- creating, from a customer's point of view, a perfect relationship. This is the primary way a small business can have more to offer than their larger, better capitalized competition. Making this fact clear to prospects is the primary focus of my approach. Internet Communications The advent of internet communications has provided small businesses with a venue for additional market exposure, prospect/customer support, and message reinforcement. Small businesses have found marketing through the internet to be a rich technique to achieve a more level playing field with their larger competitors. I've worked adapting my marketing and design approaches to this new medium since 1997. The sites that I have designed and created content for have been proven effective tools for their owners. In my online work, I create platform-independent sites with the right balance of features and content to reach targeted potential customers quickly and easily. My site design philosophy involves distilling the goals of the client into specific content and uncluttered presentation while considering the time and attention of the prospective online customer or contact. Most adult internet users find that over use of "techie" bells and whistles often actually cloud the effective communication of a site's marketing message. Since I don't design entertainment sites, I'm free to concentrate on the message my client needs to communicate, not on trying to stay trendy for its own sake.. I also believe that creating the proper environment for a majority of potential and existing customers online is as important as it is in a small retail establishment. Too much distraction, and the prospect may lose their focus. This makes "browsers" out of customers. The most efficient kind of online environment establishes a straight-forward concept, with easily accessed products or information presented in a clear, pleasing format uncompromised by bandwidth-robbing "content" that has little to do with creating a sale. Visual Elements of Design Small businesses often choose their corporate graphics presentation from an overly limited palate. This is often defaulted to in the interest of reducing expense while insuring uniformity. A level of uniformity in style from message to message, cements recognition within the intended market. While a certain "homespun" charm can be very beneficial to a small business's sales environment; mundane, cliched graphics usually fail to hold the attention of the prospect long enough to reinforce the marketing message and its intended associations. Well executed, simplified graphic elements are no more costly than the "clip-art" materials usually associated with newsprint retail advertising, once you factor in the lost customer attention span and lack of impact. My design philosophy is to approach a project from the standpoint of the unique positive characteristics of the client's business, the desired market and the chosen medium -- equally. Graphics that are effective in process color print may not work at all in newsprint b/w and may be too bandwidth hungry online. Preserving continuity of identity and effectiveness, in multi-medium situations, requires the kind of attention to detail that I've employed for each of my clients' projects. When graphic elements are well crafted and effective, they pay for themselves over and over again. The best examples can continue "paying" dividends in terms of recognition and market perception for years. A one-time, "toss it up in the air" creative approach is usually ineffective at best and can actually work against your best efforts. Not all prospects will respond to an image in the same way. The job of the designer is to determine the range of responses an image elicits and balance these against the requirements of the marketing message intended. I've found that perfectly acceptable images and graphic devices may not always be effective in every situation. The most effective visual devices are those that were chosen or created for the specific project, through a process of enhancing the pertinent and de-emphasizing the negative, distracting or superficial aspects of a design until the central "core" emerges. This process is expedited when applied by a client who has done his or her market homework and by a designer who has enough range of experience to be able to control the variables and keep the focus until the solution is reached. Integrating Press News and Publicity One of the most effective ways a small business can reinforce its marketing planning is by forging a relationship with local and regional news and entertainment media. The real utility of public relations programs is often considered an abstract, "touchy-feely" concept. Over the years, I've found that smaller businesses usually think that this type of additional exposure is beyond their budget, or too time intensive to implement. While a full-fledged publicity launch or media event can be very costly, simpler, regular contact with your local media is very beneficial, too. The public respond differently to marketing information whether it is presented in the form of an advertisement or in the content of an "editorial" article. In print publications or web "zines" alike, a great deal of the content provided as the "product" -- showcased articles or opinion essays -- may actually be well concealed marketing. The same is true in local or small regional publications. Your attention to regular correspondence with editors and reporters, informing them of events, certainly but also of special areas of expertise, unique product lines or services is often appreciated since in this regard, you may become an easily confirmed resource for future or current assignments. A letter is correspondence, but a letter that says: PRESS RELEASE at the top is suddenly media support, and is given more weight by editors attending to breaking situations. In the reader's eye, mention of your product or establishment in editorial articles is much more believable than information you communicate through paid advertising. The benefits of the reinforcement your message can receive in this way is a fact proven again and again in large scale corporate marketing. This technique can become an important, and relatively inexpensive way to augment a small business marketing plan. I have worked with a variety of media and publicity professionals who can provide basic public relations consulting for even the smallest business. It can be a surprisingly inexpensive way to broaden the reach and receipt of your marketing message. The Process of Success Marketing success is a process consisting of frequent, detailed communication between a client and marketing/design professional so that time is used effectively and budgets aren't strained by unfocused experimentation. Any business must be careful not to lose the benefits of a carefully created marketing strategy through indifferent or sporadic implementation. Your marketing plans must be flexible enough to withstand market variations, but they must always be focused on the end results. The proof of the effectiveness of any marketing tool or project is first: in the sales; and more importantly in the recovered margin. However you plan to proceed in implementing your strategy, be sure to keep focused on your goals and get the most effective use of your budget. If you'd like to discuss your ideas and needs, contact me at your earliest convenience. Return
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