Better Product Knowledge Leads To Better Presentations And More Sales

The most sophisticated sales staff with a "Best In Class" product will fail to close the sale if the client cannot visualize the benefits derived from the purchase.  TPA's twenty-three years of experience in technical illustration and our knowledge of your product line, allows us to create artwork which shows your customer the benefits they derive from your product.  The knowledge we gain of your product will come from the direct interaction between your engineering and marketing staff in consultation with our artists.  This knowledge allows us to customize the visual information you wish to convey to potential customers, which helps them see the value in the purchase of your product.

This cutaway of the Guzzler truck allows marketing to clearly demonstrate the operation and product flow without the necessity of destroying an expensive piece of equipment.  The illustration can also be animated to further enhance the visual message you wish to convey to your customer.

Guzzler Truck

Photo Mythbusters

Myth - A photo studio and professional photographer are needed to photograph products, equipment, or parts for operator manuals, parts books, or marketing brochures.

Truth - The skill of TPA's staff combined with today's software can take existing photos or photos taken in non-studio environments and create professional looking results.

Digitally enhanced photos will present a clear and concise message to your customers while staying within a reasonable budget.

The top example shows how we maintained a realistic shop background and yet muted it to remove the distractions. At the bottom, our client needed a photo of their lift-gate for marketing. In this case the background was completely removed. 

Product Knowledge = More Sales

A product illustration may be worth a thousand words, but product animation can be worth a thousand sales.

Many times a sale is determined by how well a person understands the unique properties and inner workings of the product. The dilemma is how to get an 800 pound product into a client's office. What's a sales rep to do?

Simple animation, on an electronic device, for example can equip you with a visual tool to clarify how a product works. Understanding your product gives potential clients knowledge and confidence which will equate to increased sales.

#productknowledge

Photorealism - The Manufacturer's New "Sexy"

Have you seen emails that circulate showing famous people in their before and after comparison? The "average person next door" look beside the high gloss, soft focus, professionally photoshopped "don't hate me because I'm beautiful" pose.

When a manufacturer has the quality, why not add the beauty. Many manufacturers have really great products that are the best in their industry, but the average CAD model, photos from the field, or the black and white line art just don't do them justice.

Photorealism puts the "WOW" or "Sexy" into the marketing of a product to make it look as good as it performs. After all, when's the last time you turned your head to take another glimpse of that "HOT" piece of farm machinery?

#photorealism

Importance Of Technical Writing Part 2 "Safety"

The rule to follow for designing a product is "if you have a hazard and you can't eliminate it or guard against it, you must warn about it."

First of all, the major benefit of providing your consumers with as much safety information as possible is to help them prevent an avoidable accident. no one wants to get hurt, and as a business owner, we do not want anyone to be hurt or disabled as a direct result of our product or product support literature. You can't eliminate consumers who do not use common sense when using your products, but if you can prevent injury by making them aware of the hazard, do it.

Another important reason for safety information is limiting damages awarded from a product liability lawsuit. Nothing can stop you from being sued. In fact, from what we understand, lawyers start out suing everyone involved and then drop those whom they know will not be able to pay large settlements. If you don't think limiting your liability is a major concern, go to a retail store and look at a lawn mower or a ladder. To put any more warning labels on a ladder, the manufacturers are going to have to redesign it with more surface area.

So, as we see more and more lawsuits, you need to provide your consumers with as much safety information as possible. It's critical, because a single lawsuit has the potential of wiping out a small business that is not properly prepared.

Providing clear, concise safety information can help reduce or eliminate the damages awarded by a lawsuit. In one case, that was settled out of court, a manufacturer's insurance company paid out a $200,000.00 settlement. Why? Because the product had a built-in step with no hand or grab rails for egress and ingress. If their manuals had included a warning at the time of the lawsuit, they would have won this case. A simple phrase like "…it is the installers responsibility to determine proper ingress and egress requirements, such as steps, hand grips, grab bars,…" would have prevented a $200,000.00 payout. This company told us that over the years since, they estimate they have saved over a million dollars in insurance payouts because of properly documented warnings. If your insurance rates are going up due to lawsuit settlements, it's likely you could have paid for our services with the money now being spent on insurance premiums.

Steve Nichol, President and Co-founder of TPA, Inc.

#technicalwriting

Being Versatile with Vector

For clients in need of marketing material which maximizes value in today’s economy, Vector Based artwork is clearly the preferred option.  Illustrators who are capable of working in this media create a product which can be reduced or increased in size with no loss of detail to the illustration.  This process also provides for re-coloration of the image along with the addition and subtraction of features for various applications.

As seen in the various renderings of a 1954 Chevy Pickup, the color and features can be easily changed to meet any potential requirements that might arise.  This same idea applies to illustrators whose creativity encompasses the larger picture, for the creation of illustrations which can be easily modified for use by more than one client.

Nicklaus Hernan, Art Director / Illustrator  TPA, Inc.

#vectorillustrations

Client Praise for TPA

TPA worked closely with Premier Fabrication, Inc. to create an assembly and operations manual for their Barge Spout. This product is used to convey grain from a riverside grain storage facility into a barge at the river’s edge.

This is the feedback they received from one of their customers, “The Operational Manual is awesome. Good work to your design team. This is one of the better assembly manuals I’ve seen in our industry for quite some time. GROWMARK.”