Charles Neville
Marketing Technologist

Window writing, sometimes it’s right but the Jury’s out on this one

Posted on September 20, 2009 by in Advertising, Branding
Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Earlier this month the Jury’s Inns hotel group opened their first property in Prague. It’s in a busy spot, opposite a metro interchange station, just on the border of Prague 1, the centre of the city.

Apologies for the poor quality of the image, it was snapped with my iPhone from the other side of the street, but you should be able to make out on the right hand side of the image, some fluoro window writing. Window writing is pretty popular here, lower-end restaurants use it to announce their specials or entice customers with an offer. This window writing says ‘Dvouchodove Business Menu, 120Kc’, that first word is the Czech for ‘two-course’. The incongruity of this struck me on several levels:
1) Jury’s Inn is a mid-range hotel chain in the UK & Ireland, I’d have thought them above tacky window writing
2) The wording and price are off. Mixing Czech and English like this is nonsensical, putting “Business Menu” but not having “two-course” in English simply doesn’t make sense. If you’re trying to attract the ‘right kind of people’ to have lunch there (120Kc is a full 20% more than the average lunch menu price for the area) then you can be pretty sure that even if they’re Czech, they’re not going to have a problem deciphering “two-course”. If you’re targeting those kind of people, put the price up to 150Kc just to make sure. As soon as someone’s broken the 100Kc barrier another 30Kc (about £1/€1/$1.50) isn’t going to turn them away and is more likely to infer a greater value perception.
3) Right next to it is a sign that appears to have been produced locally. Couldn’t a sign advertising the business menu have also been produced? If covering up the window is a problem, then get it professionally produced, or printed on clear single sided adhesive film, it’s not ‘that’ expensive.
I’m not denying there’s a place for window writing as a medium, it’s just that it sets certain expectations and assumptions. It says “we’re rather informal, so much so that we don’t mind scrawling on our windows to tell you about what we offer”.
Perhaps I’m just being obsessive in my expectation that all a company’s messaging should be ‘on-brand’. Maybe this is perfectly fine. One of my spells of work experience was with Hilton International’s Corporate Communications department so I’ve experienced first hand the conflict that can arise between a head office marketing department and property level management over branding. Maybe the Jury’s Inn brand manager has no idea that this is in the window of their newest property, it’s impossible to have eyes everywhere.

Earlier this month the Jury’s Inns hotel group opened their first property in Prague. It’s in a busy spot, opposite a metro interchange station, just on the border of Prague 1, the centre of the city.

Apologies for the poor quality of the image, it was snapped with my iPhone from the other side of the street, but you should be able to make out on the right hand side of the image, some fluoro window writing. Window writing is pretty popular here, lower-end restaurants use it to announce their specials or entice customers with an offer. This window writing says ‘Dvouchodove Business Menu, 120Kc’, that first word is the Czech for ‘two-course’. The incongruity of this struck me on several levels:

1) Jury’s Inn is a mid-range hotel chain in the UK & Ireland, I’d have thought them above tacky window writing

2) The wording and price are off. Mixing Czech and English like this is nonsensical, putting “Business Menu” but not having “two-course” in English simply doesn’t make sense. If you’re trying to attract the ‘right kind of people’ to have lunch there (120Kc is a full 20% more than the average lunch menu price for the area) then you can be pretty sure that even if they’re Czech, they’re not going to have a problem deciphering “two-course”. If you’re targeting those kind of people, put the price up to 150Kc just to make sure. As soon as someone’s broken the 100Kc barrier another 30Kc (about £1/€1/$1.50) isn’t going to turn them away and is more likely to infer a greater value perception.

3) Right next to it is a sign that appears to have been produced locally. Couldn’t a sign advertising the business menu have also been produced? If covering up the window is a problem, then get it professionally produced, or printed on clear single sided adhesive film, it’s not ‘that’ expensive.

I’m not denying there’s a place for window writing as a medium, it’s just that it sets certain expectations and assumptions. It says “we’re rather informal, so much so that we don’t mind scrawling on our windows to tell you about what we offer”.

Perhaps I’m just being obsessive in my expectation that all a company’s messaging should be ‘on-brand’. Maybe this is perfectly fine. One of my spells of work experience was with Hilton International’s Corporate Communications department so I’ve experienced first hand the conflict that can arise between a head office marketing department and property level management over branding. Maybe the Jury’s Inn brand manager has no idea that this is in the window of their newest property, it’s impossible to have eyes everywhere.

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