Life Musings

I recently saw one of the worst marketing flyers I've ever seen. Here are just some of the reasons why it was terrible:

• There was no headline -- nothing to immediately grab the reader or tell him what's being sold.
  
• It was a multi-page flyer with only one graphic. This graphic was on the front page, and it had a weird aspect ratio. It was tall and narrow, which is a very odd (and aesthetically displeasing) choice.
  
• There was no clear picture of what was being sold. Oh, the graphic that I mention did include a sample pic of one of the items being sold, but it was somewhat faint, and you had to look closely to distinguish it from all the other images in the graphic.
  
• The color red dominated the entire flyer. That made it very painful to look at.
  
• You had to read quite a bit of text in order to figure out what the flyer was about -- and the flyer gave no incentive for anyone to do so. In other words, there was no "hook."
  
• The text failed to communicate the message quickly and effectively. In fact, the text gave every indication of having been cut and pasted from a more technical source. When it comes to marketing materials, an entirely different style is required.
  
• The whole thing gave every indication of having been designed around the one graphic. That is, the designers apparently decided to use the graphic, and then they designed everything else around it. Such thinking is completely backwards, of course.
  

The whole thing was completely embarassing. It looked like the work of a thirteen-year-old.