It’s easy and cynical to say that “all fonts are the same”.
One could say the same about anything.
“All wines are the same”, and it’s true, they do taste pretty much the same (compared to orange juice or beer) — but you come across as uncouth if you admit as much
So the same is true of fonts.

If you say “oh, we won’t bother about optimizing some details”, where do you stop compromising?
On the positive side, quality is insidious.
But the client doesn’t have to care about every little detail, micro-managing it: leave it to the talent to decide what’s important.

From my experience, small businesses are not particularly marketing-savvy.
They usually don’t have a strong idea what differentiates their product from that of their competitors, because they don’t have marketing specialists on staff. All they know is they love their thing and do it right.

So the trick is to explain the benefits of a marketing strategy which positions them positively in the marketplace with relation to the competition. Quality, price, delivery, whatever. And if you can convince them of the uniqueness of that proposition, than you can convince them that unique creative is part of the plan, and unique typography and fonts contributre to the design synergy of their market position.

If they’ll settle for generic fonts and typography, that means they’ll look like everbody else and will be reduced to competing at the lowest cutthroat level, on price — and a small business can’t afford to do that, because large businesses with economy of scale will blow them out of the water.

If they’ll settle for generic fonts and typography, that means they’ll look like everbody else

maybe it’s just the wee bit of designer in me… but i always judge products and services based on packaging and branding. i figure, if they don’t care enought to “put their best face forward,” then there are probably other details that they don’t care as much about either. i think just like good grooming, having a sharp visual identity (part of which includes choice of fonts) has everything to do with personal pride.

I think the consistency thing is the most important.

I personally agree that the specific face isn’t as important. What is important is that it’s a quality face, and used consistently.

I think selling big D design to a small business requires showing how the fine details of design (such as visual consistency and good typography) serve the large scale goals of the business. Consistency is a very important goal but there are some more immediate and appealing aspects you could present.

Paul mentioned a company putting their best face forward. I think that the visual identity of a business is the most immediate indicator of the value of their service. I would work out a way to show the client how they will benefit from developing a well designed visual identity (which inherently contains good typography). I would start by researching how their immediate competitors value and use design.
Goodluck.

Unfortunately, it’s not only small businesses that have little interest in branding, let alone fonts or typography.

Nick is on the mark suggesting a business marketing approach to your presentation. The only thing that gets attention is a way to improve business.

But before you start to create a presentation to enlighten the company by yourself, I suggest another tact.

Oddly enough, if the business owners hired an outside consultant to improve business, and one suggestion was to revise branding, they would listen. I know… been there, done that.

I’m not suggesting that they bring in a business consultant, I suggest that you bring in the expertise and plan for success by way of reputable case studies. That way you’re not stuck trying to educate or convince them. You just present the facts that good branding means good business.

Here are a couple of articles to get you started.

An excerpt from INC. magazine on the BrandEquity site:
http://www.brandequity.com/news/inc_wm.html
The article speaks for itself - “In 2000, the first full year after the redesign, the company’s sales rose 20%. In 2001, when most shoe companies’ revenues decreased significantly, White Mountain’s sales again shot up 20%”.

Here’s an article by an award-winning consultant:
Five Tips to Quickly and Inexpensively Improve Your Brand Identity
http://www.womeninconsulting.org/consultants/articles/improve-brand-identity.html
It speaks to consistancy of image, use of type, color, layout, etc. accross all material, web site, literature, ads and so forth. The outcome being an improved perception of the company or product by the target market.

You might try searching for articles about branding from publications within your client’s industry as they might hold more weight.

One or two success stories should at least open the door to a few of your ideas. Even if they decide to start slow, or put off revitalizing their image, you bring them proven ways to improve market share and profits.

Good luck.

———————————————————

Yes, I’m old, but I’m back in style!

Norbert,
I’m old but i’ve never been in style :-)

ChrisL

Good comments here - All I would add is; I would be sure to be as un-didactic as possible - a heavy ‘should’ attitude is a turn off & make sure you present your proposal in such a way that it clearly supports their business goals.

Of course if they don’t know what their business goals are you may have a nearly-useless client. You can’t be a coach & a designer…

What Nick said about ‘and will be reduced to competing at the lowest cutthroat level, on price’ is VERY true. Design can be a pretty damn significant rung on the ladder out of that hell.

ALOT of really good comments here. Instead of simply agreeing with everything y’all have said I’ll pick out a comment I’m not really digging.

I think that the visual identity of a business is the most immediate indicator of the value of their service.

It’s an “indicator” but not always the truth. We all eat at hole in the wall restaurants that have the most amazing food - and we have to wait to get in because everybody in town is there too. Nothing is pretty about them except the food. There are also many successful businesses that have never had more than Times Roman as their entire id program.

I find the major problem being with metrics - can the client measure the value they get from creating an identity program? I personally don’t have the resources or know-how to do the studies to prove this - aside from the quick, cheap, dirty approach. Let alone getting somebody to pay for the study itself. But as it was mentioned, you need a business expert to say it’s good before it’s good oftentimes (and this is where the bucks really start to add up). Showing that sales or perception have improved is key and can be difficult to define. Aside from all we’ve talked about this is the hardest point.

I’m trying to play the part of the client here - I know that design is so darn important these days.

But, the idea is to present a primer. I don’t want to be a coach - been there done that too.

And thanks alot to y’all for all the comments.

I was trying to be an optimist by assuming that your client doesn’t suck at their business. I agree completely. = )

Certainly a correct assumption Jackson. But with so many great comments I had to find one thing to work with. ;)