 You might want to check out an interesting new book
called
“slide:ology: The Art and Science
of Creating Great Presentations.” It’s by
Nancy Duarte, a designer who played a major role in
helping Al Gore with his presentation “An Inconvenient
Truth.”
She makes the point that companies would spend much more
on improving the quality of their presentations if they
would consider presentations to be a part of their
brand. She writes:
Truth be told, the reason many organizations relegate
slides to the bottom of marketing food chain has to do
with how they approach brand.
Many companies have forgotten — or simply never realized
— what branding is. Rather than a name or logo or
tagline that reflects what a company thinks of itself,
brand is what a company stands for in the hearts and
minds of its customers: to be successful, the company
must have an emotional connection with the consumer.
Similarly, presentations all too often reflect the
agenda of the presenter rather than build a connection
with the audience. This is unfortunate because
presentations could be considered the last branding
frontier, in terms of both the attention paid to them
and where they fit in the sales cycle.
In many instances presentations are the last impression
a customer has of a company before closing a business
deal.
Indeed, it wouldn’t take much for any company to stand
out from its competitors if it paid some respect to its
brand — and its audience — through presentations.
Great point.
At
Speechworks we help our clients learn how to communicate
in a way that connects and persuades. If you’re
interested in becoming a great communicator give us a
call at 404-266-0888 or check out our website at
www.speechworks.net. |
