Having established that the best medium to advertise and raise awareness of my mother’s salon is a leaflet. I decided to carry out a questionnaire and an interview for my research method due to the fact that I believe that these two options would provide me with the best possible understanding of where I should be heading in order to design and make this artefact. I conducted a one to one interview with my mother because she is the owner of the company and I needed to find out how she wants her business to be publicised.
This would enable me to ask in depth questions, which I could set as criteria for the leaflet. I designed a set of 18 questions that inquired her about the layout, size, style, material and the specific purposes she wanted the upcoming leaflet to serve. I also produced different samples of font, colour scheme and a rage of graphics for the interview, which helped to gain a clearer understanding of her needs. From the sample, she selected a fresh colour scheme, which consisted of different shades of blue. This complemented with the result of the questionnaire I carried out because 86% of the people preferred blue over the other options I presented. She also wanted the name of the salon in untailored, casual style (Magneto, Ravie) to contrast with a professional font, which was used for the price listing (Times New Roman, Century).
Lastly she preferred to have real images on the leaflet over cartoon ones as they connote the professional genre of the business. From the interview I established key areas of what my mother wanted the forthcoming leaflet to be like and the first aspect we discussed was the target audience. She wants to appeal to customers of all ages therefore the leaflet would have to be modern yet professional in order to capture the attention of both ends of the scale.
She also preferred the leaflet to be small with just a single fold due to portability. She prefers on keeping the same layout for the price guide and she stated clearly that there was vital information that I had to include that wasn’t there in the existing leaflet. This was the terms and condition of the cancellation. It was important to include this fact because my mother informed me that most customers tend to forget the cancellation policy. I continued the research process with a set of questionnaires. These were divided and given to 25 of my mother’s existing customers and 25 to her potential customers. I specifically identified these groups due to the reason that they are the audiences I need to aim my leaflet toward. By dividing the questionnaire between the two groups I was able to collect two outlooks from my target audiences.
From my interviews my mother informed me that the majority of her customers are 25 and over. This is due to the fact that they have disposable income. The result also showed that only 67% people would pick up a salon leaflet when it comes through their letter box due to the lack of presentation of the leaflet. This clearly indicated to me that in order to design my leaflet to have the right effect I would have to spend a considerable amount of time on its appearance. My questionnaire also showed me that people considered a company that has a logo looked more established then the companies that didn’t. This helped me to gain an understanding of how to portray the leaflet in an effective way
My secondary research showed that images and pictures are considered to be a crucial key to a good salon leaflet as these signifiers are used to give the right representation of the salon. All of the leaflets had images of women on the front page showing that they are purely aiming on their female audience. These images are presented by attractive females with specialised hair. This can be seen as a means of persuasion by using the image as role models. This gave me a clearer understanding that these models create a form of ideology for the female customers, which would make them strive to be the same, resulting in a possible increase of people who visit the salon.
The inside however has images of the salon itself with the hairdresser pursuing their work. This is a good use of images due to the fact that the customer is able to see what the salon is like before they visit. This is important because people associate good presentation with good service therefore creating good perceptions of the salon are vital. The name of the salon is clearly displayed in big, bold fonts and some leaflets even had catchy slogans and company’s logo. This is used to create more customer awareness, which all adds to being a solid established business. Using a metaphor or alliteration as a slogan is effective as it is more likely to stay in people’s minds.
The colour of the artefact also plays a vital role of the impact of the leaflet. Colours that are used in the leaflet are mostly primary colours like blue, red, green, white and black. These colours denote professionalism therefore people would be more willing to look at the leaflet. It is vital to choose the right colour as each Individual colour carries a mythology, for example the colour ‘red’ is usually associated with blood, flame and considered to be very strong. Whereas ‘blue’ is the colour of a clear summer sky, which it gives out a sense of happiness.
All of the leaflets were produced out of glossy card so that the artefact would stay in its original condition for longer and the price guide were separated into gender sections. By doing this, it would signify that we took consideration while designing the artefact to provide a greater convenience for the customers when viewing. Everyone I questioned agreed that the quality of the leaflet reflected the quality of the salon. Therefore it is crucial for me to produce and advertise the leaflet in the right way so that every criteria is met.
