- Argos card Services
This is a business letter from Argos. The layout of the document is A4 that has been printed on one side, the purpose of this letter is inform customers who have already got an Argos credit card about the new offers and ways of paying using the card. The background colour of the letter is white; the Argos logo is displayed at the top left hand corner of the page with “Card Services” below in a blue colour. The letter has got a sub title, which states “Great news about your Argos card…” which is written in emboldened and a bigger font size. The rest of the text is written in the same size font, the text explains how the Argos card has become even more flexible. There are even more ways to spread the cost of your shopping at Argos- the new credit plan buy now pay later and interest free credit, which will be available when you buy selected items. Also the letter contains a signature of the general manger. This is a clear document telling customers who have an Argos card about the offers, which have been introduced. The good points of this letter is that it’s layouts good with paragraphs so sentences are spaced out and the text is clear to read. The bad points of this letter are that there should be more information about the new offers so more text to be added and the text should be all the same font size.
2. Organisation 2
Lloyds TSB
My second organisation is Lloyds TSB. I collected two documents from the company. The documents are Platinum credit card flyer telling customers about a new Christmas offer and Application Sole/Joint Lloyds TSB Account.
2.1 Platinum credit card
The flyer is about a special Christmas offer for a platinum credit card. The flyer is A4 laid out in five columns folded in portrait. It uses a mixture of graphics, text and tables to great effect. The background colour of the flyer is green to make it stand out and presentatable to the reader, also on the flyer they have inserted snowflakes around the page because of the flyer being a Christmas offer. On the front and back of the flyer they have inserted the Lloyds TSB logo in the bottom right hand corner. The flyers headings and sub-headings have been written in a larger font, with the writing to this document all in white with the important parts written in emboldened. On the back of the flyer they have put on the terms and conditions for the credit card. Two pictures of the platinum credit card are shown. On the middle page of the flyer there is a table showing customers the difference between saving from their credit card than what other banks are offering. They have used bullet points to state the benefits of the card. This flyer is very clear with a lot of information showing everything you need to know about the platinum credit card, which I think is suitable for the customer. The good points about this flyer are that it’s easy for customers to read and they have used different shades of greens all the way through so it looks more formal and for consistency also it has been laid out professionally.
The bad points of this document are that some of the text has a small font size for instance at the back of the flyer where customers might find it hard to read. Also they could have included more pictures to the flyer. To improve the flyer they could have inserted more images and made the text bigger on the back page and cut some text out
2.2 Application Sole/Joint Lloyds TSB Account
This document is telling people to fill in the form to open a sale or joint TSB account at their company. The layout is A4. They have used blue text with different shades of blue for the background of the document. The important parts have been emboldened up to add effects. The logo is in the top right hand corner and the title of the document on the left hand side. The boxes on the application form are lined up nicely. The instructions are very clear and the document is very formal. The good points of this application form are that the customer will know what to fill in because the instructions are good. There are lots of options to choose from, the document is well laid out and the important parts are emboldened so the customer sees the parts they want them to see. The bad points are that the text font size is very small and is hard to read. Also the use of different shades of blue in the background with blue text makes it hard to read. To improve this document the body text will have to be enlarged, change colour for the background to white or just a different colour to blue so the text can be seen clearly and add more information, the information on the form is accurate but more could be added.
3. Organisation 3
HSBC
My Third organisation is HSBC. I collected two documents from the company
The documents are a HSBC bank flyer on starting a business and HSBC application form.
3.1 HSBC starting a business
The flyer is telling customers about starting up a business by talking to them first. The flyer is an A4 sheet folded up. It has been laid out in four columns; they have used a mixture of text and graphics for this flyer. The background colour is a standard white colour. They have used white because the HSBC colours consist of red, black and white. Most of the text has been bullet pointed, at the front of the flyer there is a woman promoting starting businesses with the HSBC logo at the bottom of the page, there is a slogan at the top of the stage saying “Starting a business? Start by talking to us”. On the second page they explain the benefits of banking with them and on the third page how you can start a business now by talking to a banker now. The subtitles have been emboldened and have been written in a larger font size. On the last page the text is explaining how to make an appointment or request for a starter pack to starting a business. The good points to this flyer are that it has a lot of information for the customer on how they can start up their own business. Information on how to get an appointment by visiting your local branch, phone numbers to get in contact and the web-site so this flyer is jam packed with information. The flyer is laid out professionally colour coordinated and easy for customers to read so it makes this flyer a good starter for customers when starting a business. The bad points of this flyer that there is just a woman on the front page of the flyer so it might not catch the male’s attention when they are looking for a flyer. Also there could have been more graphics inserted and the font text could have been enlarged. To improve this flyer they need to add more graphics and more text
3.2 HSBC Application form
This document is telling people what to fill in to apply for job at their company. The document is laid out on A4 paper. They have used again red and black writing; the logo of the company has been inserted at the bottom of the page. The subtitles have been written in red and the rest of the text in black. Important parts of the document have been emboldened for example the deadline of completion of the application form at the top of the page. A phone number and email address has been added at the bottom of the page. This is a clear document on applications for transfers into the ladder ISA Andler PEP (HSBC ladder fund). The instructions for filling in the form are accurate, they tell you exactly what you have to do. The boxes that have to be filled in are nicely in line as this is a formal document. Some of the bad points of this form are that the writing is very small and more information could have been added. To improve the document the text could have been enlarged.
4. Conclusion
Overall all the six documents I collected were professionally produced. All the documents used all have similar writing styles; all the headings are bigger that the body text and they have used logos on every document. The type of language used in the documents have all been formal and have used different font size in order to make different parts of the texts to stand out.
