I was out with my mates pedalling around the beautiful suburban beaches of Port Philip Bay when I happened to come across a huge sign promoting a product called “Nulon”.
The only indication of what the product might do was a picture of a guy and the product plus the headline “For less friction make the change at home.”
I asked my mates to tell me what the product might be used for and we agreed that it was some sort of oil or grease and maybe could be used to stop squeaking doors, oil rolling parts and so on. But as there was so little information provided we weren’t really sure.
Then we looked at what was in the yard in front of the sign and the penny dropped… it was for boats, yes, boats!
So it was obvious this amazing product could be used on boats. None of us knew exactly where on the boat but then none of us were sea dogs.
Here is a sign that’s meant to catch the attention of people driving past on a busy highway. Frankly it’s the curse of assumption to believe that people going past at speed could take the message in and make the connection with marine activity in the yard in the fraction of a second available to do it.
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How much better would the sign be if the headline boldly proclaimed “For less friction in your boat engine!” or something similar?
So, no matter where you are using signage, put yourself in the shoes of your market and think about the time people will have to view it and if they will make sense of it.
Beware of assuming they’ll know what it’s all about because you do.
Remember, the curse of assumption is the belief that people know what you know. That’s totally wrong! If they knew what you knew they’d be doing your job!
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