FedEx Survey Finds Signage Powerful

Federal Express is both a well known brand and a highly successful company. So when it says there’s a solid and important connection between good signage and consumers’ decisions about whether or not to visit your store and make a purchase, it’s probably a good idea to listen.

FedEx’s classic survey, called “What’s Your Sign?,” measured the power of signage to attract people and influence their buying behavior. Its results underline the potential for small businesses to find new customers and increase their sales and profitability by means of effective signs.

• More than half of consumers will hold back from giving a retail store a try when its signage doesn’t measure up, particularly if it contains spelling errors or looks shabby.
• Nearly 60 percent of consumers won’t even enter a store if there’s no signage to tell them what to expect inside and to pull them in.
• Nearly eight out of 10 American consumers will enter a store for the first time simply on the basis of its signs.
• Nearly seven out of 10 admit to having made a purchase under the influence of signage.
• Nearly seven out of ten consumers (in this study, and nearly ninety percent in a previous FedEx study) also rely on a store’s signage to help them judge the quality of its products or services.
• On average, respondents to the FedEx signage survey suggested that a store should have at least two or three signs displayed near its entrance.
• Three out of four consumers say they have passed on to others their impressions about a particular retail establishment just because they like its signage.

Why Care About Signage?

FedEx is strongly interested in signs because it makes a good deal of money printing banners, posters, and other relatively simple forms of signage on an “ad hoc” basis not only for retailers, but for a variety of others who seek to attract the public.

From the business owner’s perspective, what holds true for a $10 posterboard sign touting a one-day sale is equally – if not more – true for a large scale permanent sign that effectively brands your business and attracts both new and old customers from relatively large distances.

The telephone survey was conducted in conjunction with Ketchum Global Research & Analytics, and tabulated the answers of 914 American consumers aged 18 years and older. Its margin of error is 3.1%.