Give Your Communications A Basque Treatment

After a recent trip to see a client in Northern Spain, we spent a few days traveling in Basque country and neighboring La Rioja. Here the road signs are in bilingual in Basque and Spanish. They also tend to be in large letters in a highly readable sans-serif type. Our Spanish is so-so and our Basque, that unique language unrelated to anything else, non-existent. We were, however, better able to navigate the roads than in US cities we don’t know.

Where it’s important, such as entrances to traffic circles and narrow unlighted mountain tunnels, the signs are vivid graphical icons. We had never seen some of these, such as those for dimming lights, but we understood immediately.

Can you say the same about your package design, web pages, and ad layout? If not, we suggest giving your communications the Basque treatment. Think about what it would take to deliver a single message to prospects, who often don’t already know who you are and why they must have your products.