LEADING THE WAY FOR GLUE DOTS ACROSS EUROPE WITH FANTASTAK
The satisfying aspect of web design is seeing the end product of a process. However, it is the process that creates the desired result, which in Fantastak's case is increased sales.
The before and after image below, although highlighting the visual benefit of good design, would be superficial without the process.
What is the client trying to achieve? How are they positioned compared with their competitors? What specifically makes people buy from them? What new reasons can be added to influence purchasing? What actions do we want to happen when people go to the site? What do people want to achieve by visiting the site?
A pre-requisite of a 'standard' job for Fantastak is that their products are tested on the chosen application prior to buying. So the website's role is to inform and trigger either a phone call or a request for samples. The design challenge was to give the viewer enough of a visual 'wow' to act quickly, whilst offering Google enough content to chew on. This second point was achieved by embedding client controlled copy in a scrolling product selector. The client sees one product at a time on the homepage; Google sees them all at once.
Despite being a mass-manufacturer, a 'non-standard' job is one of Fantastak's major strengths. Their main competitors, buy-in glue for their products. Fantastak have an on-site chemist as a director who is responsible for the adhesive product development. This is a crucial differentiator, as adhesives perform differently depending on environmental conditions, the different surfaces they're applied to and how they're applied. The customer can therefore get the exact product, not the nearest match.
The video aspects were interesting to develop because the core subject matter is invariably clear, so to photograph or video isn't straight forward. Combining custom intro/outro music, motion graphics, well-written copy and professional voice-overs with well-lit and narrow-depth of field filming, made the videos more engaging. They are a combination of sales-message-driven and instructional videos. A YouTube channel was created for the videos that is referenced in the site, thus adding to the search results.
Copy-wise, we have taken Fantastak's positioning from "...a UK based industrial adhesive manufacturer...", to "We are Europe's leading developer and manufacturer of glue dots".
Fantastak's excellent manufacturing capabilities were always without doubt, the missing link was letting the world know in a confidence-inspiring way. We shall be keeping an eye on their sales successes over the coming months so we can monitor the impact of the new website.
Visit the new site at www.fantastak.com
