quick bright sharp:
the ad world of simone bouyer

Simone Bouyer grew up a city girl. Born and raised in Chicago, after high school she watched everyone she knew go away to school, or travel. Simone chose to stay put in Chicago to go to work at Ogilvy & Mather* advertising—one of the most prestigious advertising firms in the country. At that time Ogilvy had a work study program, so she worked in the paste-up room [before computers, everything got pasted onto a board]. "It was a great place to be—everything the agency produced came through the paste-up room. It was so much fun I stayed for 15 years!"

While learning the ins and outs of advertising, she also took courses in photography, design, drafting, commercial art and 3d design. Later on she took computer courses, learning to master Illustrator, Photoshop and Quark Express.

We had a not-so-hidden agenda when choosing to profile Simone for this issue. We so much want your ad to work for you. It's a tricky thing to critique an ad someone has sent. Some people are grateful and adjust their ad accordingly. Sometimes people are miffed. Some people ignore us entirely.
Our most challenging advertiser did a largish ad for a year: each ad s/he sent was an example of what NOT to do in an ad. The ads had no common elements...completely negating the benefit of building recognition from month to month. S/he used an alphabet soup of fonts...too many, too complex, too small, and often over busy, high-contrast backgrounds. S/he tried to put too many things in the ads. One month we refused to print an ad entirely until s/he changed it. When this business did not renew its ad contract after a year, saying s/he had had too little response, we were not surprised. We cringe when we imagine people asking her "How did your ad do in WNC WOMAN?"

We suggest, oh so strongly, that you hire a professional to design your ad. Please. PLEASE. (Simone, perhaps. ) You cannot simply cram as much text as you can into a small space and wait for it to work for you.

So we thought, why not profile a woman who knows what she is doing in this arena, and who is happy to support other women and men in creating an image that is clear, memorable, and compelling?

We asked Simone to tell us about herself, starting with the inevitable question, "How long have you been in Western North Carolina? What drew you here?"

Simone, take it away!

"I have lived in Mars Hill, just 20 minutes north of Asheville, for 4 years. (I can’t wait until I can say I have lived here for 20 years!) In the mid 1990’s my partner and I began to explore the idea of buying a home. The more places we looked at, the more that idea grew into the idea to buy a farm. We started to search in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. Being artists, we really wanted an area that had an active arts community. We had a long list of wants, including land, an affordable house, acceptance, proximity to a good-sized city and all of the things a city can offer. We were able to find a place we love, a 1920’s farmhouse on 1.25 acres for a price we could afford. We’re able to grow some of own vegetables, hike around the mountains, and we know our neighbors. Life here is much simpler: folks wave at you and stop to chat; you can pick up your baby chicks at the post office; everyone in town knows you by name, and there is usually a parking space waiting just for you.
Mars Hill is a quiet place, off the beaten path, with more than enough environmentalists, hippies, artists, and just plain good people to make this a fairly progressive town.

We had traveled for about 3 years looking at other places, including TX, CA, NM, and NY. It wasn’t until we got to Asheville, on our wayto Boone, that we found what we had been searching for: a community that is home to enough progressively minded folks, with an established arts community. We found a neat old farmhouse we could afford, then headed backto Chicago and packed our bags."

REBUILDING A BUSINESS
Having managed my own business in Chicago for at least 6 years, I was just beginning to pull in great clients. I knew I would be starting all over here, and that was ok—I know the steps to take to build a business. I calculated that it would take me about 3 years to build my business in a new location. It has taken 4. Life moves at a different pace here than in a big city. People are just getting to know me, to know my work, and to refer me to other clients. Most of my business comes from word of mouth and referrals. People want to know that they can rely on you, and trust you—for that to happen they have to get to know you, and that takes time."

WHAT ABOUT ADVERTISING?
With 20 years experience, I invite all of my clients to utilize my knowledge of advertising, market trends, etc. Although most of my work is for small businesses, I am pleased to be able to offer big business solutions and ideas that stem directly from my work for major companies and publications, including Sears, Home Depot, and the Spiegel Catalog. I believe that my work helps smaller businesses and provides them with a better chance at success. Starting any business is a challenge, and great advertising is one of the keys to continued success.

I also keep my rates low to encourage small businesses to use my services. I continue to believe that if my designs can help build your business, then you are helping to build my business. My favorite clients are not only the ones who pay on time, but the ones who see value in my work. In advertising, image really is everything.

HOW ADVERTISING WORKS
Promoting your business is directly tied to image and perception. You want people to remember your company name. Every business needs a logo. Use that logo on everything you produce—your letter head, envelopes, business cards, brochures, ads, everything. Keep your message simple, focus on one or two things that your company can do for your client. If you can afford it, hire a photographer. If you can’t afford a photographer, look into purchasing stock photography. Clip art will only get you so far. Some of the most powerful campaigns rely on a really beautiful and captivating image. Once you have that image, or design, or idea, you will need to run it in your local paper over and over again. Go ahead, sign up for a year’s worth of advertising. Running just one or two ads won’t give you the lasting impression you need. Why do you see the same commercials on TV over and over again? Why do some companies continue to mail you the same special offer? Without repetition, we wouldn’t know the brand names that we associate with quality goods and products.

Promoting a website? The same rules apply. Put that web address on everything you print. More importantly, pursue every opportunity to link your website to other websites. Links from other sites are kind of like referrals. Search engines rely on the number of links or gateways from other sites as a way to rank your site. If no one is linked to you, how important can your site be?

TIPS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES WITHOUT A MULTIMILLION DOLLAR ADVERTISING BUDGET
Keep it simple. If you have purchased the smallest ad, limit your message to one word if possible, along with your business phone or location and your logo. Don’t be afraid to be bold! You have less than two seconds to grab the reader’s attention. People don’t generally pick up papers for the ads. The paper is merely offering you the opportunity to reach a specific audience. Make sure the paper you are advertising in is reaching the right audience for your product or service. If you can’t advertise for the entire year, select a season, or several months that work well with your products and your preferred customer. If you can’t afford to hire a designer, most publications have a designer who would be happy to work with you to create an ad. I really can’t stress how important it is to find an artist or designer to work with you on creating your ad. If you decide to do it yourself you should know that although you are saving money, your ad may not be getting the attention it deserves. This could be due to any number of things, but generally it is caused by: too many messages; use of too many fonts, or a font that is pretty but hard to read; photos or images which haven’t been adjusted to the print specifications of the publication; or, it just doesn’t look professional—nothing lines up, some things get too close to other elements in the ad; you created it in Microsoft Word [Microsoft Word is great for writing letters, managing lists, building reports and about 150 other things, but in order to create a decent looking ad you should use a page layout program.]

BUT THERE IS HOPE: I can work with you to create the image you need to build your business. If your business is sucessful, then my business is sucessful. If you’re happy, then I’m happy!"

[editor's note: look back at our December issue, page 31 for a fine example of Simone's work]
Simone BouyerFine & Commercial Art Services
[ 828-689-8543; [email protected] ]Persuasive Advertising and Ideas quickbrightsharp.com