Suitability for Purpose
As outlined in the ‘Purpose’ section for this letter, its purpose is to persuade the reader to make a regular donation of £2 a month to Oxfam.
I think the letter is very suitable for its purpose because it explains in clear language what the charity is all about, and how your small donation per month can help them and other people enormously. The letter is friendly and easy to understand, so it is possible for everyone to donate, not just the people that can understand the letter. It is important to make the letter simple so that people are not put off by it, resulting in no donation to the charity.
Letter 3 – Barclaycard
Purpose
The purpose of this letter is to persuade the reader to apply for a Barclaycard, and to use it for everyday spending.
Content & Layout
- In the top right corner is the word ‘Barclaycard’ with the bank’s logo, printed in a variety of colours.
- Just below this, but on the left hand side is a short three line statement explaining that the letter was ‘Specially delivered by hand to ensure you receive the UK’s best credit card offer’. This is a pretty ridiculous statement to make because almost every piece of mail is delivered by hand. Although its benefit’s are that it lures the reader to believe that the company has gone out of its way to benefit the customer.
- Underneath this there is a large, bold statement ‘The only card you’ll ever need’ which is centre aligned. This is very striking line and is the first thing you would read when glancing at the letter.
- The letter is not specifically addressed to the reader so there is no real opening. There are five, left aligned paragraphs explaining the conditions of the account, rates of interest etc. These are printed in a small font size, I’m not sure the reason for this as there is plenty of spare paper, I think it may be to introduce variety, so that Barclay’s letter is not the same as every other credit card offer you receive. Key points in the paragraphs are printed in blue and are underlined.
- The last paragraph contains a catchy rhetorical question that is designed to intrigue the reader. It also explains how easy it is to apply for a Barclaycard, ‘It’s as easy as completing and reading the simple application form enclosed’. This is designed to make the reader think it is very simple to apply for the credit card, if they are impressed by the letter they may even complete it straightaway. The purpose of including an application form with a letter is to make it easy for the customer; it reduces the amount they have to physically do in order to get the credit card. If they had to walk in to a bank and pick up an application form, customers would be less inclined to apply.
- The six paragraphs mentioned earlier do not stretch all the way to the right side of the page they leave a gap of about three inches. Occupying this gap is a red rectangle about two inches wide, stretching almost to the bottom of the page:
Within this rectangle are the key points of the five paragraphs containing the details of the credit card account. This text is printed in white and is larger than the main text of the letter. The reason these key points are outlined as above is for the reader in a hurry, they may not have time to read the whole letter, so they just read these key point to assess whether the credit card could be beneficial to them.
- The letter is signed with Stuart Robert’s Signature with his name printed below it, and his position at the bank, Customer Experience Director.
- There is a short note under this explaining that the information in the letter is also available in large print, Braille and Audio format. A telephone number is supplied which you would ring if you wished to receive the information in one of these alternative forms.
- Directly below the red rectangle mentioned earlier is a small printed replica of the credit card you would receive if you applied with the application form. The reason for this replica picture is that customers like to see what they are going to get, even if this is not real, it still gives the customer an idea of what they are going to receive. Under this picture is the statement ‘It just gets better’, I think this is to give the impression that Barclaycard is the best credit card. For people that don’t understand the conditions of the account, this may assure them that a Barclaycard is a good credit card to have.
- The bank’s ‘small-print’ is left aligned and at the very bottom of the page, it includes the company’s website and their UK address
Suitability for Purpose
I believe this letter is very suitable for its purpose as it clearly promotes the Barclaycard as being the best credit card available. Obviously if people think it is the best, then they are likely to ‘buy into it’. The use of colour makes the letter more friendly and interesting. The letter tells the reader everything they need to know about the offer and gives them the opportunity to apply straightaway. In order to improve this letter, I would make use of the free white space on the page, possibly by including a watermark.
Comparison of the 3 Letters
Common elements of the letters:
- All of the letters use colour effectively, two of them just use one colour, but it still works effectively because it contrasts with the general text and is used to emphasise key points.
- All three letters contain a large heading printed either at the start or end of the letter.
- All three letters contain ‘small print’ containing information such as address, main employees and a website/phone number. The reason the letters have small print is to display information they are obliged to include but not put any emphasis on it because it is not important from the readers point of view.
- All three letters include a signature that is printed on, not written on by pen; this saves the company time because it would be very inefficient if someone was personally signing all the outgoing letters.
- All three letters have met the purposes with which they were compiled for.
- All three letters include the organisations recognisable logo at the top of the letter. This is standard practice for a business letter.
Dissimilar elements of the three letters:
- Both of the charity letters use simple language that is easy to understand and not complicated. On the other hand, the credit card letter uses a lot of jargon (subject specific language), this is because this offer can not be displayed in simple terms as you would need to have basic knowledge of credit cards and bank accounts to understand it.
- Both of the charity letters start off with ‘Dear’, whereas the Barclaycard letter has no real opening.
- The two charity letters both make their address obvious, whereas the Barclaycard letter prints its address in small print at the very bottom of the letter.
- The two charity letters use bold text to break up the letter and to help prevent the reader becoming bored and discarding the letter. The credit card letter does not do this, possibly because they are so confident that their offer is the best, they do not expect to people to discard their letter because it is ‘boring’.
An overall comparison of the three letters is that the two letters from the charities are extremely similar and that the letter from Barclaycard is considerably different. The two charity letters are so similar that they both use the same colour; it is possible that this has been proven from their research to be a good colour for charities. They also both have a large ‘chunk’ of green on the page with white text enclosed in it. The differences of the Barclaycard letter are:
- It includes jargon (subject specific language)
- It is less easy to understand
- It has no clear opening
- It does not break up it’s content by identifying key points in a different format
- It leaves a huge amount of white space empty to introduce variety and distinguish itself from other credit card offers.
The reason the Barclaycard letter is so different is because it is aimed at a totally different market, so therefore their research will show they have to produce their letter to different standards.
Brochure 1 – Macmillan Cancer Relief
Purpose
The purpose of this brochure/leaflet is to inform the reader about how Macmillan Cancer relief have helped one particular sufferer of Cancer, Jeanette Cordall. It is to inform the reader of the ‘vision’ of Macmillan cancer relief, and also tells the reader what a regular donation of £2 can help cancer patients in the UK.
Content & Layout
- The leaflet is 7 inches wide and 6.5 inches tall, on the front of the leaflet is a large picture of the recurring face of Macmillan Cancer Relief, Jeanette Cordall. The Macmillan logo is printed in white on Jeanette’s jumper, which is black to contrast the white text and design of the logo. The words ‘Pull apart and help keep Jeanette together’ are printed at the top with an arrow indicating how to open the leaflet. The words form a witty little phrase that when thought about is designed to inspire the reader to read on.
- The leaflet is split up into six sides of paper, the first of which is described above. When you open the leaflet you are faced with three sections of a piece of paper 21inches wide and 6.5 inches tall.
- The left hand section tells the story of Jeanette Cordall and includes a photo of her sat outside with her family. There is also a small rectangle blurred photo of some lavender with a quote from Jeanette saying ‘I love the scent of lavender on a summer breeze’. This is printed in white to contrast with the darker photo. The reason this quote is included is that the first paragraphs talk about enjoying simple things in life such as lavender.
The text is in Times New Roman, for comfortable reading and it is aligned around the pictures and totally unjustified.
- The middle section informs the reader about some cancer figures in the UK, and also tells about Macmillan’s ‘vision’ where every cancer sufferer in the UK will have access to services such as Macmillan Cancer Relief. Another picture of Jeanette is featured with the text wrapped to the left of it:
- The text is all left aligned and unjustified on the right. In the centre of the page vertically is a larger two line statement, ‘Help us support more people living with cancer’.
- This is included to break up the text and prevent the reader getting bored and discarding the leaflet.
- The right hand section tells the reader how their regular donation of £2 would be used and explains how the charity is helping cancer patients. The text is left aligned with no justification on the right. To break up the page there is a large statement, ‘You can make a difference with just £2 a month’. A the bottom is a large green box with white text explaining the different ways you can contact Macmillan Cancer Relief, the main way being their phone number which is emphasised by the use of a larger font size.
- On the remaining two sides are two photos one of some lavender with faded edges in the centre of one of the sections. The other photo is a very blurred photo of the outdoors with a tree. The reason it is so blurred is because there is a quote for Jeanette printed over it. If the photo was in focus then it would have made it difficult for the reader to read the writing.
Suitability for Purpose
I think this brochure is suitable for its purpose because it succeeds in completing all the objectives identified in the purpose section. It informs the reader in a friendly tone using no complicated words so everybody can understand it. It uses ‘warm’ colours and has a common lavender theme running all the way through it.
To improve this leaflet/brochure I would break up the content a little more, and use different font styles and sizes to emphasise important points.
Brochure 2 – Oxfam
Purpose
The leaflet is designed to inform the reader of problems people in foreign countries are having and how Oxfam is helping them. It informs the reader of exactly how £2 a month could benefit these people. It is quite obvious that this leaflet could have been improved by spending more money, but quality of leaflet paper is not a realistic priority for a charity. They should be making a compromise between quality and leaflet costs, they do not want to spend a vast amount of money designing an excellent leaflet, because they would rather use those funds to serve the purpose of the charity.
Content & Layout
This leaflet is comprised of an approximate 8’’ square piece of paper, with text and pictures printed on both sides.
- On the first side of the leaflet (Unusual Beginnings) the title ‘Unusual Beginnings’ is horizontally centred on the page. The word is ‘Unusual’ is printed in a larger font size to grab the readers attention and focus it on the leaflet. The word ‘beginnings’ is slightly smaller as this is not so important.
- Below this and with an indent of about 2 inches (to be inline with ‘Unusual Beginnings’ is a short standard block paragraph explaining a situation in Greece, and how Oxfam is helping the people living there. Just to the right of this is a small black and white (to save costs) photo of a child living in Greece under these conditions. The photo is slightly slanted to introduce variety and make the leaflet look more interesting. Vertically next to this picture is a small caption saying who the photo was taken by. The reason this text is in a small font size is because it is not very important, but still has to be included for legal reasons.
- Underneath this photo is a heading ‘Desperate problems need unusual solutions’; this repeats the word unusual and makes the reader think ‘Where have I seen that before?’ This heading is slightly larger than the regular text size, but nowhere near the size of ‘Unusual Beginnings’ The paragraph under this explains another situation, this time in Peru and what Oxfam is doing to assist the people with their problems thus improving their lives.
- To the left of this is a large black-and-white photo (to save costs) showing people in Peru using some of the equipment Oxfam has provided for them. Again the photographers name is printed vertically next to the photo for legal reasons. This is good because it shows to the reader exactly what Oxfam is doing with their donations, as people are interested to know what their money is being used for.
- The main title of the second size is ‘£2 a month. Unusually good value…’ the ‘£2’ is emphasised by the use of a larger font size to show how little money can help so much. This text is printed in green and justified at both the left and the right to cover the whole top of the page.
- Directly beneath the ‘£2’ part of the title mentioned above is a black and white photo (to save money) of two life-size pound coins overlapping each other. This is again included to emphasise what a small amount of money can do to help others.
- Below this is a description of ‘Oxfam Bucket’, a product which Oxfam has designed which can be used by many people around the world to help them with their daily lives. This is printed in the standard green small font for this side of the leaflet.
- Underneath this is a black and white photo of people using the ‘Oxfam Bucket’ this again shows to the reader exactly what their donated money would be spent on.
- In the top right corner of this side underneath the title is a description of life in Malawi and how the ‘Masika seed’ ahs helped people there immensely. It basically tells how much seed £2 a month could provide, and how long this would last for.
- To the left of this paragraph is a black and white photo of people in Malawi and a bowl of Masika seed. This again illustrates to the reader what they want to see, exactly what their donations would be spent on.
- Directly below the photo of a bowl of Masika seed is the short story of Mzee Magnus, an experienced man dedicating his life to helping the homeless street children of Tanzania. It also tells of how Oxfam is using its power to help Mzee with his task.
- To the right of this ‘story’ is a small black and white photo of Mzee Magnus with many happy looking children surrounding him.
- All of the photos mentioned in this section have the small text near them for legal reasons telling the reader who took the photo.
- In the very bottom left corner of this side of the leaflet is the Oxfam logo with the word ‘Oxfam’ printed beneath it in green.
Suitability for Purpose
This leaflet is very suitable for its purpose as it explains in an informal way what is going on in different countries of the world, and how Oxfam is working there to make the inhabitants lives better. The leaflet succeeds in displaying the information well, but still under a relatively small budget. The leaflet uses simple language and so is therefore understandable by most adults. There is no point in producing a leaflet that only half of its readers can fully understand. The use of photos helps to clearly show what Oxfam would be doing with the readers optional £2 a month donation. People like to see what their money is being used for so these photos show that. I can think of no way to improve this leaflet and would like to congratulate Oxfam for producing this excellent leaflet on a reduced budget.
Brochure 3 – Barclaycard
Purpose
The purpose this brochure is to and inform the reader about Barclaycards new of offer: ’Transfer a balance, then continue to spend £50 or more on each month on your Barclaycard, and pay no interest at all on the transferred balance.’ The brochure is also aiming to promote the offer and ultimately persuade the reader to apply for a Barclaycard.
Content & Layout
- The same as the Macmillan Cancer Relief brochure, this brochure is split into six sections. The front section is two thirds red and one third white, as shown here:
- Printed in white, on the red block are the words ‘0%APR forever’, in such a way that the 0 in 0% also makes the o in forever. This is a clever piece of design and attracts the reader to the brochure because they notice it and have to work out what is ‘going on’.
- As you can see form the above diagram there is a small replica of a Barclaycard printed in the white portion, this is to let the reader see what it is they would be receiving if they applied for a Barclaycard. Under the picture are the words ‘It just gets better’, this is one of Barclaycards’ slogans for this offer.
- To the left of the card and in line with it are some details about the two options you could choose if you applied for a Barclaycard. The words ‘You choose’ and ‘Or’ are emphasised by the use of a larger font size. They are emphasised so that the reader sees straightaway that they will have control of their credit card once they receive it.
- Over the page and on the left portion of the brochure:
- This section only has text on it, some being larger than the rest. At the top is a basic summary of what is being said on the rest of the page. This text is emphasised by the use of a larger font size than the regular one.
- Below this there are 4 Short paragraphs explaining the main details of the offer. These are printed in a normal font size (10/12) and in black. The paragraphs are left aligned with no justification on the right. Important points are emphasised by the use of underlining and printing key points in a dark blue colour.
- Underneath this is a standard block paragraph printed in dark blue and much larger than the regular text. This again helps to explain the offer in simple terms for the benefit of the not so informed reader who could not totally understand the paragraphs above.
- The middle section of the leaflet is printed on a ‘baby blue’ background to make it ‘reader friendly’ and to introduce variety form the plain boring white of the pages adjacent to it. This page has a heading at the top which is larger than the regular font size, printed in dark blue to contrast with the light blue background.
- This page describes the benefits of having a Barclaycard in two separate columns. The two columns have headings at the start which are slightly larger than the regular text. These to columns basically summarise the benefits of owning a Barclaycard, and tells you how to use it to its full potential.
- The headings of each separate list of benefits are emphasised by making the text bold. All of the mini paragraphs in the two columns are standard block paragraphs.
- Next to the section ‘Rewards you with every purchase’ there is a small ‘Nectar’ logo. This is a well recognised logo so Barclaycard are determined to be associated with it because it is a respected company/scheme.
- At the very bottom of the section is some ‘small print’ explaining that all of these benefits are subject to Barclaycards terms and conditions which can be found by logging onto their website or telephoning them.
- On the next page is a very striking rhetorical question which is blatantly promoting the credit card deal as being the best. The rhetorical question starts with the word ‘could’ where the ‘o’ is also included in the recurring design with 0% APR added. The background of this page has returned to white and this question is printed in the large red font used throughout the leaflet.
- Below this is another statement with a rhetorical question included. The statement clearly defines this offer as the ‘best’ available.
- Under this is a small table comparing nine different credit cards including 2 different Barclaycards which are emphasised by a bold font.
- Below the table is a small one line sentence included for legal reasons quoting where the information in the table above was gathered from.
- Of the other two remaining ‘sections’ to analyse one of them is has a totally dark blue background with white text on it. Again a relevant word containing an ‘o’ is used for the recurring ‘0% APR’ trick. This time the word is ‘honestly’. This part of the section is printed in a large font and is the most striking thing when you first look at it. Underneath this is another basic summary of the offer Barclaycard is offering:
‘’Transfer a balance, then continue to spend £50 or more on each month on your Barclaycard, and pay no interest at all on the transferred balance.’
This is printed in a smaller font, but is still larger than the regular font used throughout the brochure.
- The back cover of the leaflet uses the same design as the front, which is two thirds red, and one third white. The same ‘0% APR, forever’ design is used and positioned the same as the front cover.
- On the white portion of the back page is some more of Barclaycards ‘small print’ This includes the website and two separate UK addresses. The website is printed in bold. In the bottom right corner of the white portion is the ‘Barclaycard Premiership’ logo, this is another recognised organisation associated with Barclaycard, and so they are keen to display their support for it.
Suitability for Purpose
This brochure is very suitable for its purpose as it succeeds in informing the reader about Barclaycard’s new offer and promotes it very blatantly. If the reader was not very educated about credit cards they are lead to believe that this IS the best offer available. Words describing the offer as the ‘best’, ‘better’ or ‘unbeatable’ would clarify to the uniformed reader that this is a worthwhile credit card to have. The brochure does it’s best to describe the offer using as little jargon as possible to help someone not familiar with credit cards and the terminology. To improve this leaflet I would probably include a small section explaining some of the jargon used throughout the leaflet. This would not be hard to include but could significantly increase the return they receive form the leaflet.
Comparison of the 3 Brochures
It is clear straightaway that these three brochures/leaflets were printed using different budgets. You know this by the quality of the paper and printing and how professional the design is.
The Oxfam leaflet was clearly printed using a smaller budget than the other two this is because the charity is concerned about how much to spend on appealing for donations, in case they are not successful with their attempts.
The Barclaycard and Macmillan Cancer Relief leaflets are printed on much better quality paper and use much better quality printing.
All three leaflets try their best to use understandable and language and keep away from using complicated terminology that few people would fully understand.
All three leaflets use alternative text formatting to emphasise key points and to break up the text. This helps to keep the reader interested and tries to prevent them from getting bored of reading page after page of standard text.
All three leaflets use graphics to promote their purpose, whether it be photos or a ‘mock-up’ picture of the product the customer would be receiving.
Jonathan Stamp – ICT Coursework Unit 1 – Six Document Analysis Page of