Sign, graphics and visual communications professionals know it. Their customers experience it. Now, research backs it up: quality signs lead to increased business.
Research from ISA and the Sign Research Foundation offer a better understanding of the economic value of signs. Quick-read executive summaries are also available for many of the reports.
Here are four must-reads:
1. Retail Signage: Practices to Increase Return on Investment
This study explores the connection between high-level design practices (for sign legibility, viewing enjoyment, informational aspects, quality, appropriate scale and uniqueness) and return on sign investment.
Executive Summary: Retail Signage: Practices to Increase Return on Investment
2. The Economic Value of Signs (2012)
Signs act as “silent salespersons”—branding businesses, providing information about products and services, and pointing customers to exact locations. In short, an on-premise sign’s economic impact on businesses—directly and indirectly—is significant. Researchers tackled the topic by exploring how changes in on-premise signage affect business performance. Part of the studies also focused on the impact on consumers and the surrounding community.
Executive Summary: Economic Value of Signs
3. Signs and the Downtown Experience
The report compares the effectiveness of different approaches to sign design with different strategies and economic trends. The analysis creates a clearer picture of how effective signs can enhance commercial institutions and play an important role in enhancing the community and environment.
Executive Summary: Signs and the Downtown Experience
Consumers learn—and assume—all sorts of things about a business based on its sign. This study by Dr. James Kellaris from the Lindner College of Business at the University of Cincinnati offers a wealth of insight into consumer behavior and provides key findings for retailers.