Friday, January 25, 2008

New Blog

Hey, I've got a new blog. Check it out: http://churchfiz.wordpress.com/

This blog will cease to exist soon.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Morning Morning Church

Here's another great sign I saw in Australia when I visited in 2005. What's wrong with this one (apart from the missing apostrophe)?


Think about trying to attract people to church... Still can't see it?

Believe me when I tell you - it says church starts at 7:30am! (Sorry, it's a little hard to see from the image).

How is that appealing?

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Don't Leave me Hanging


This sign appears on a Catholic Church just down the road from my house. I'll be honest, as a marketing campaign, I really like it. The concept of 'returning home' is a brilliant one, especially in the context of the Catholic church. It really does tug the heart strings and bring feelings of returning to comfort, familiarity, purpose, love and acceptance. That's what home is I guess.

But, there is one thing that ruins this entire campaign. One thing undoes all this good work. Can you see what it is? Take a look at the sign again.


I swear this sign has been up for at least 2 years.

So when does it begin?

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Forget about the Customer

A couple of years ago I discovered something that revolutionised design for me - iStock. iStockphoto.com is a website where photographers can sell their images for people like me who want to design brochures or websites etc. They are relatively cheap and with over 2.6 million images available, you can find almost anything you need.

I've downloaded hundreds of images that I've used in church, on flyers, posters, websites, videos etc. I usually download the 'medium' quality image which used to cost me 3 credits each - about $5.13 NZ.

However, I've just visited the site wanting an image of someone reading a Bible on the beach for a magazine I'm putting together to find that the price has increased to 5 credits - about $8.50 per image (medium quality version). That's a 66% increase in probably less than two years.

I've noticed price increases before - vector files went from 3 - 5 credits to 7 credits in one hit. The problem with iStock is that it is controlled, moderated and maintained by photographers and digital artists. Any thread discussing price increases is overwhelmingly pro-price increase. Try criticizing their new prices and you get shot down by a verbal barrage of angry 'arteests'.

The problem is that they're thinking only of themselves. They complain that they're not getting paid enough from the site - i.e. customers don't pay enough. But they're not thinking like a marketer should. If they keep increasing their prices, they'll lose customers, and they'll get paid even less. It really isn't rocket science.

So while they think they're doing the right thing, I am so disgruntled that I hop on over with a couple of clicks to their competitor - Dreamstime (and there are heaps more) who offer the same service for a lesser price.

Don't forget the customer. You can't price something at what you want. You have to price something at what people will pay.