32 | Regulars / Branding and design The language of value Branding and design columnist Vicki Stull offers tips for moving the conversation beyond priceet me paint a picture that’s probably the advantages of a particular technique, familiar to most of you: You meet substrate or embellishment, we can frame Lwith a client or a brand team about our printing expertise and behavior-based their latest product and packaging needs. knowledge within those goals. You’ll fnd They’re excited, you’re excited, the ideas that clients are more receptive to your are fying. You’re wowing them about what input when the point you make is in their you can do with embellishments, tactics, language with their goals top of mind. fnishings and more. Then they ask you how much those special features are going 1: Revenueto cost, and the conversation comes to a Let’s kick off ‘the business six’ with screeching halt. revenue. Revenue is simply the money It’s a reality in our business: As soon as that a company receives in exchange for the client gets caught up in a conversation its products and/or services. Now, there about cost, it’s no longer a conversation are a lot of terms that are associated with about value. Even more distressing, when revenue. You might hear gross revenue, net your client is focused on price comparison, revenue and top line. For example, gross your print services become a commodity revenue (also called top line) is the total instead of an innovative solution. amount of money a business receives from So how do you avoid this conversational its sales. Net revenue is the amount of rabbit hole? By steering the conversation money a business makes from sales minus away from price and instead speaking the expenses the business incurred making the language of business. When you think that product or providing that service. The about it, our customers may have roles in exact word a person uses often depends procurement, sales, operations, fnance, on their role. I’ve been in cross-functional marketing or other areas. Their focus is meetings that include the CEO, CFO, plus not so much on the substrate or fnishing someone from sales, operations and HR. we’re recommending, but on their business With so many different points of view, one goals and how the project can meet them. person might use the term top line, while For example, in conversations with fnance, someone else uses the term gross revenue. too expensive, they may re-think the cost earnings are the priority; in conversations They are talking about the same thing. if the packaging drives volume, increases with marketing, consumer engagement sales, and the company earns more – even is the focus. Talking with clients in their 2: Margin though their margins are less. The point is, language, using the business terms they The second term in ‘the business six’ is you’ll never know how to help clients meet use, reshapes conversations from subjective margin. Margin is typically discussed as a their goals if you don’t ask what they are. to objective; it allows us to discuss the ratio. (If you know all about margin, feel ‘why’ behind certain materials and designs free to skip ahead). Let’s say a company 3: De-commoditizeand how those elements can achieve their has a product that sells for 10 USD and De-commoditize is a cousin to specifc business goals. But frst, we have to the cost of producing that product is 8 ‘differentiate.’ When we’re developing understand just what those business goals USD. That means the company has 2 USD packaging and labels, we are striving to are. And that means speaking ‘the language left. Two dollars out of 10 is one-ffth; differentiate the product so it doesn’t feel of business.’ the margin, then, is 20 percent. Why like everything else on the shelf. In contrast, Just as in the labels and packaging world, is margin important to designers and a commodity is typically not branded. When the world of business has a long list of converters? Often the budget for printing, you walk into The Home Depot to get nails, relevant terms. design, branding, and marketing comes for example, you just pick out the size and I’ve narrowed it down to what I call ‘the out of the product’s margin. When we’re type you need. They’re not branded, they’re business six’ – the top six terms that should in conversations with our clients, we a commodity. You’re buying them based on be in every designer’s and converter’s want to understand where the budget is size, application, quantity and price.business vocabulary. When we understand coming from so we can address it as their Let’s look at spices to illustrate these terms, synthesize them, and use them investment in their labels, packaging how branding and packaging can correctly in conversations and meetings, and merchandising. de-commoditize a product. For example, we’re no longer just talking about presses, If we know the product’s margin, then we if we look at a pile of dried basil that’s run rates, inline, offine, CMYK, extended can predict a client’s receptivity to adding not packaged, there is no doubt that it gamut, etc. Instead, we’re talking about various fnishing elements. This becomes is a commodity. We’re thinking, ‘basil is economics. We’re talking about sales goals, even more enticing when we can tie those basil.’ But companies like McCormick & revenue projections, customer value and elements to their specifc business goals. For Company, Simply Organic, Spice Islands, strategies for gaining market share. example, an embellishment might enhance and others package basil differently so ‘The business six’ are tools we can use a brand’s position as the premium brand, it’s elevated in the consumer’s mind. For to expand our credibility and impact. Once which can help increase sales and capture example, McCormick has added a grinder we understand our client’s goals, then additional market share. While the client to its dried basil packaging and it is able to when we do share our knowledge about may initially think the embellishment is charge about 11 USD an ounce (instead of labelsandlabeling.com