06 Brief Title
The Brief
Solution
Evaluation
ZL Deliveries
Produce a piece of direct mail for a fruit and vegetable supplier based in Manchester.
The final solution was a mailer containing money off vouchers. This seems obvious, but plenty of development work was made to get to reach that outcome. In creating the mailer I developed a tone of voice which will distinguish the company from their competitors. A tone of voice which doesn’t preach the fascist ‘5-a-day’ message, and instead chooses to talk about the people behind the company. This transparency will help the company build trusting relationship with their customers.
This is a brief where the outcome doesn’t reflect the amount of work that went in to project. The deliverable was set from the start of the brief - design a piece of direct mail, however the content, strategy and tone of voice was left to me to decide. Making the brief somewhat of a branding brief, not in a sense of applying a logo to business cards and letterheads, but giving a company a tone of voice is core to and company/customer relationship.
Brief Type Live
Collaborators N/A
Background ZL Deliveries has been supplying fruit and vegetables to businesses and restaurant througout Greater Manchester for the last 2 years. The mailer is to reward existing customers and persuade strangers to become regular customers. The mailer is aimed at small businesses, not residential customers.
I am very happy with the outcome of the brief, and the client is, the mailers have resulted in new customers and helped their business grow. The brief has since been expanded into a full rebrand which will commence at the end of July. I am most happy with two things about this brief; the tone of voice I create, at the same time developing my copywriting skills and the strategy behind the mailer. It has given me a deeper understanding of action focussed, results driven design. Putting the clients ambition before my ego as a designer helped me see the priorities, avoiding the production of meaningless fuzz.
Considerations How are other fruit and vegetal suppliers marketing themselves. How can you make people interested in your company using direct mail, a media often just seconds from the bin. Why would people want to change their habits and use a new supplier.
David M Gaskell
OUGD603
Brief 6
1/5
Research
David M Gaskell
What I did
Why I did it
How the research informed me
The focus of my research was on how food is displayed editorially. I found this typically done photographically, however there are examples where the focus is on copywriting. There are books, such as the one in the top-centre of this page, that sell fruit and vegetables by using humourous body copy and simplified illustrations of fruit.
I was looking for similarities in how food is shown in print, and the tone of voice that is used.
There is a very open canvas in how food is shown in print. High-quality photography is commonly used, I don’t have access to that so an alternative route has to be used. This leaves two directions I can take, an illustration focussed route and a copy-led route.
OUGD603
Brief 6
2/5
Development
David M Gaskell
Previous Directions
Why they didn’t work
What needed to change
I took several directions when first starting the brief. From a mailer that is a tomato, which contains information about the products sold, this direction including the infographic that can be seen on the right of the page.
None of these ideas were logical, none of them would or could connect with the audience on any level. Human connection is the main intent for any piece of advertising, and these ideas lacked that.
The mailer HAS to be engaging, it HAS to give give give. I need to start thinking of the audience as human beings, not as cadavers to have a mailer thrusted at. Some questions I needed to consider in making the mailer were:
I made a version of the mailer which required heat-senstive ink. The idea behind that version was for people to cook the mailer under the grill.
I did try many variations of size, stock and possible ways of delivering information. I made progress but none of these ideas stuck, they didn’t engage or give anything to audience. The mailer has to offer more than it wants in return or the customer has no reason to pay attention.
Why would they use ZL Deliveries for fruit and vegetables? What makes ZL Deliveries different? How would ZL Deliveries want to be represented? Is the information clear? Is it a hard-sell, or does it care about the customer?
OUGD603
Brief 6
3/5
We are local, reliable, independent, friendly, accommodating, co-operative, knowledgable, focused, omnivorous, dependable, negotiable, reasonable, intelligent, mint condition, happy, growing, quality, beautiful, tasty, fresh, meat and potato lollipops, professional, interesting, interested, honest, succulent, lovely, sheep owners, cat and dog lovers, allergic to goldfish and peanuts, list makers, egg boilers, cheese graters, tea makers, gardeners, star gazers, humans, determined, open for business and enthusiastic to work with you ZL Deliveries Development
David M Gaskell
Concept
Tone of Voice
Why it works
To most people an apple ia an apple, a tomato is a tomato they don’t care where it was grown, whether local or in New Zealand. After realising this it became clear that I had to sell ZL Deliveries as people, not fruit and vegetable sales-people. The mailer will be copy-led and talk about ZL Deliveries as people, gruesome details included.
Honesty, sometimes humouress, sometimes boring but most of all honest. I avoided preaching the fascist ‘5-a-day’ message, as I wanted the recipient to feel like a valued customer and adult, instead of feeling inferior and guilty.
It works because we speak to people, not at them. The mailer offers a lot to the customers, containing information about fruit that could entertain and most importantly - money off vouchers are used to give people a reason to use ZL Deliveries the first time, from that point the quality of produce will have them coming back for more.
OUGD603
Brief 6
4/5
Outcome
David M Gaskell
Mailer
Content
Why it works
An 8 page A5 mailer is used to keep the costs down for the client. I made an envelope using lime green stock. This is to help the mailer stand-out in the post and keep it out of the bin, destination for the majority of direct mailer.
The humouress and informative tone from the front of the mailer is maintained throughout the inside pages.
It works because people have a financial benefit if they decide to use ZL Deliveries.
OUGD603
Brief 6
5/5