Selling Signage Quality Part 2

Selling Signage Quality Why should your customer invest in a high quality sign? You know that quality comes at a price. So how do you explain to your customer why a signage quality investment is worth it? Answer: because signage quality is noticed by prospective customers. And it is often used as a decision making factor as to whether a prospective customer will or will not enter a business for the first time. Furthermore, many potential customers make quality assumptions about a business on the basis of clear and effective (high quality) signage. This applies particularly to younger consumers. 29% of American consumers report having visited an unfamiliar store based on the quality of its signage.1 So a high quality sign is well worth the investment, including channel letters. If you are trying to determine whether a channel letter is well constructed, what should you look for?

Here is a brief look at one part of a channel letter. Here is a photo of the back of one of our letters: This is a letter back from one of our competitors: Here are the quality differences: First, note that the back of our letter is fastened by clinching the flanges to the aluminum back. Both the flange and the clinch are constructed of aluminum. On the other hand, the back of another producer’s letter is fastened by staples. Keep in mind that you are paying for those staples – that is a separate stocked component. That staple also introduces a second (and potentially corrosive) type of metal into the letter. By comparison, a clinch uses the existing aluminum to form the metal joint – no separate fastening component is needed, and no potentially corrosive metal is utilized. Second, the overlap between the two return joints on our competitor’s letter is uneven and the excess metal has not been trimmed off.

The excess “lip” of the return joint should always be removed. Third, the flanges on our competitor’s letter do not lie at a clean 90 degree angle. Ideally, a completed flange should lie flush against the back of the letter. Flanges which protrude from the letter back will cause the letters to extend out from the wall – which can mean a diminished sign appearance. Those are just a few examples of how a channel letter sign’s quality can be compromised. We’ll cover a different part of the letter next month. The bottom line: provide your customer with high quality signage products. Those long-lasting signs will lead to more business for your customer. That will mean more referrals and future business for you. 1. Kellaris, James J. (2011), “100,000 Shoppers Can’t Be Wrong: Signage Communication Evidence from the BrandSpark International Grocery Shopper Survey.” The Science of Signage: Proceedings of the National Signage Research and Education Conference, Signage Foundation, Inc, Cincinnati, October 12-13, 2011.