About Katzanne

Have you ever taken a healthy, delicious looking apple to work only to bring it home with you because you forgot to eat it? The same thing can happen with your marketing materials. A person picks up your attractive brochure but never consumes it. And by consume, I mean reads it.

As a marketing chef, I skillfully combine the ingredients of creative design and targeted writing to create marketing material that customers not only pick up and read, but more importantly it motivates them into taking the specific action my client wants them to take.

Not just a designer or just a writer

I am both. As I writer, I begin formulating the design that will deliver the message much like a chef does when catering an event. While he’s combining spices and herbs to enhance the flavors of his dishes, he’s also figuring out how the meal must be plated. What order to serve it in. Which wines or aperitifs will round out the dining experience.

Of course, you can hire a writer to write and a designer to design just as you can hire a line cook to prepare a meal and a waiter to serve it. However, dynamic creative interaction rarely occurs in such a relationship and you run the risk of either party obscuring the message by overcooking or poor service.

A chef, on the other hand, oversees the entire creative process. By being a marketing chef, I make sure the text and the design work together synergistically to create materials that will accomplish the goals set by my client.

Whether they want the reader to call, buy, inquire, click or go to a website - having creative control over the writing and design helps me to motivate the reader into taking that specific action.

How I became a marketing chef

For most of my graphic career, I’ve worked inside printing companies. So I have first hand knowledge of how print shops work. One time, I even ran a printing press. Well, it was more like baby-sitting than running.

As an in-house designer, I designed not only with the goal of creating something eye-catching, but to also keep the client’s budget and the design’s printability in mind. Believe me, pressmen will not remain silent if you design a job that is nearly impossible to print. And the more difficult the press run, the more expensive the job will be for the client.

I believe every graphic design student should be required to intern at a printing company for at least 6 months and study the fundamentals of copywriting before they can receive their degree.

From designer to marketing chef

I finally made the switch from designer to marketing chef after noticing how often my clients came to me with weak messaging. They needed help developing the content to go along with the design. So in September of 2006, I began studying copywriting for marketing communications so I could help my clients develop better messaging. That was the beginning of Katzanne. (See sidebar for explanation of name.)

Pairing together the right mixture of design and writing elements synergistically enhances the power of the message. This is where I have a distinct advantage over other designers and copywriters - because incubation of the creative vision occurs in the same brain and flows from the same finger tips. That means there’s no infighting between a designer who designs to please her own eye and writer who writes to stroke her ego. Such clashes only obscure the message meant to motivate the reader.

Instead, I take a holistic approach that ensures the client’s message shines through every time. After all, copy may be king, but the message is emperor.

For those of you who prefer to spend your time doing the tasks that make you the most money, leave the design and writing to me. Contact me to create marketing materials that will motivate your target market to take action and increase your income.

Happy Marketing :O)
Kathi