Product Research

Task 3: Product Research
Aby Jones

http://www.sas.org.uk/shop/
Source: Logo and Branding
The logo for Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) is quite simple but still
eye catching, the use of bright and dark blue to form a wave shape
is quite clever and after reading what SAS stands for, it makes sense,
it also looks like there is an eye incorporated in to the design which
speaks volumes, the logo is essentially saying that the SAS watch
over the waves/the ocean.
When it comes to their website, they have a ‘shop’ section where
they sell a variety of different things with the SAS logo plastered on
almost every item. It ranges from clothes like: hoodies, body
warmers, jumpers, tank tops and tee’s to accessories like: lip wax,
surf board wax, surf board covers, beach supplies, ceramic cups,
logo stickers, a key finder, gift cards and other things in relation to
those.
They use their branding very widely, by selling a variety of different
items for quite good prices it would bring in a lot of profit and
funding, the sale of their merchandise will greatly increase the
amount of money they take in and use to help aid their cause.
Their products are mostly made of recycled items, like a recycled
bottle zip hoodie, organic tee’s, organic cotton windbreakers and
fairtrade clothing items too.
To further entice the consumers, there is a deal where supporters of
the organization and it’s campaigns get 10% off selected items with
a special code, the only way to receive this code was to join the SAS.

With most of their promotional images, there can either be a limited amount of
information included on them or there can be a lot, like we can see with the
difference between these two, rather different approaches to the SAS’s
promotional advertisement posters.
The first example (left) starts with: ‘What if the next wave never comes?’ with yet
another powerful photograph featured on the background. It includes the
companies logo at the top right of the page and information that tells the viewer
what is happening to the UK’s oceans and where they can go and what they can
do to save them.
The second example is quite different in comparison, it features the same
question as the first example, ‘what if the next wave never comes?’ but includes
a lot more copy after that. There is the logo which tells people who is running
the campaign, there is a lot more information and facts used to help viewers get
a better, yet still brief explanation of what SAS is doing. At the top of the poster,
it includes a slogan, ‘and you thought wearing a wetsuit sucked’ which is related
to the image of a person in a hazmat suit holding a surf board with a slight slump,
showing dismay.
Source: http://www.protectourwaves.org.uk/case-studies.php
Copy and use of Facts
The use of more information on both of these is very different, even though they
are both from the same company/organization, yet they are both still effective.
Then there is the example from Greenpeace, there is a limited amount of copy
but still enough to instill fear and make the viewers question what they originally
didn’t. The facts used are those found by Greenpeace themselves, this is a
reliable source of information and even though it’s quite a substantial amount of
text, it still gets the point across – whenever anything starts with: ‘Did you
know…’ it usually immediately interests the viewer.
When comparing these three examples, they all have significant differences, dark
and powerful, bright illustrations that get the point across with a powerful use of
imagery and an odd, enticing piece that pulls the viewer in just because of the
curiosity of seeing a vegetable in the form of an animal.
What all of these do have in common, is that they are all powerful, especially
when it comes down to the copy, even though there are small amounts or large
amounts, it still gets the point out to the viewers.

Imagery
There is a lot to talk about when it comes to the imagery used in some campaign posters, they use some
very interesting, if not disturbing techniques. The first example (top left) is quite a shocking image of a
surfer stuck in a jar with the companies slogan, ‘what if the next wave never comes?’ handwritten on the
label, the overall image is very dark, the context it’s in seems to be quite a desolate, run down location
which further adds to the creepy, dark effect they were going for. It really makes a powerful point that if
the ocean’s become too dirty, toxic or full of garbage, it can be harmful to humans, the use of the surfer
further exaggerates the point of the organization, ‘surfers against sewage’ and what they are trying to save.
The second example (second poster, top left) is a very dramatic change from the previous example, it’s full
of bright colours and information, as well as being an illustration as opposed to a dark photograph. It’s still
the same message, ‘what if the next wave never came?’ except this time instead of a surfer in a jar, it’s a
person in a hazmat suit riding the litter ridden waves on their surf board. Even though it seems quite
childish, who I’m assuming this is appealing to, it’s still a powerful image to portray to the public.
The third and fourth examples are what I find the most visually powerful, the first one (middle) features a
surfer stood beside his board, covered in excrement and tissue paper, so much so that there are no
features visible.
This is clearly getting the point of sewage being pumped in to the oceans across to the
public, and it’s a very effective one, it makes a viewer wonder if that’s what they are
covered in when they come out of the water which would encourage them to help clean
the ocean up. The second example (fourth poster, top right) features a man surrounded
by a green luminous glow, he also has a third leg whilst a sort of green goo covers the
surf board, this is clearly getting across the point that chemicals are being pumped in to
the oceans, not that this would actually happen to a human being but it still gets the
point across and whilst being quite terrifying, should encourage viewers to join the
cause just to prevent things like this actually happening.
The fifth example (top right) is a campaign poster from Greenpeace, it features
vegetables shaped in to insects and animals, including: peas in a pod shaped as a cricket,
carrots shaped in to a scorpion and a spring onion as a mantis. The message in this -
-Poster is that the DNA of animals and other unhealthy substances are found in modified
vegetables, plants and other products. This is quite a clever, captivating image, it’s very
simple consisting of a black background, a spotlight focused on the main subject and the
vegetable(s) shaped like the insect. It’s very simple, very intriguing and it easily entices a
viewer so they become interested and read the small print. It’s very different to the posters
SAS produce, but at the same time it’s very similar.
The last poster is from the organization, ‘The Big Ask’ it featured a polar bear who has shed
it’s fur and has it slung over it’s shoulder like a fashionable jacket whilst it’s under layer of
muscle is on show for all to see. The message in this is very clear, it’s showing that the
climate is warming up and it shows who and what it’s affecting. It also features the logo of
the company/organization. It’s a very horrific image, it definitely stands out and shocks the
viewer. This shocking image may just encourage a viewer to do something about it. It’s a
little more visually shocking than the images used for the SAS.

Intended Audience
Obviously, one of the main intended audience members are surfers all across the UK, possibly
from other countries too, this is quite clearly insinuated by the name of the campaign, ‘Surfers
against sewage’. Plus surfers are extremely dedicated to their waves and the beaches, therefore
in order to keep up their hobby and enjoy it, they need to keep their beaches and waves clean
and healthy! The campaign was established in 1990 by a group of ‘passionate, local surfers and
beach lovers’ in the north coast villages, ‘St Agnes’ and ‘Porthtowan’ – they gained national
appreciation when they called for the improvement of the water quality in the UK.
Not only are surfers targeted, but so are eco-conscious people who want to safeguard and
ensure the sustainability of UK beaches and their waves, their clothing lines and accessories
target audiences: 16-60 year olds of both genders. This is to get people on board so that they aid
the company in it’s campaigns and get legislations passed to protect the beaches, in 2006 an SAS
campaign had gigantic success when the EU finally agreed to a new Bathing Water Directive, this
included strengthening water quality standards and a provision for more information for
consistent water users, which also links in to the national general public as it’s information going
out to them too.
Again, not only surfers or eco-conscious people are targeted, so are the national general public,
this is because, the more people they persuade, the more memberships, donations and funding
they receive. The SAS always ensure that their campaigns make the public aware of the problems
at hand, in 2004 they publishes a Green Blue print For Sewage Sludge Disposal which analyses
sewage sludge production in South, West England – they released the best practicable and
environmentally sustainable options for it’s disposal, to ensure that it doesn’t affect UK waters.
The SAS also target the educational system, which in turn targets children or adolescents, one of
their campaigns is actually to do with education, they target children and learning because it’s as
they grow older and learn these things, they will come to respect their environment and it could
potentially be a way of gaining more volunteers, events or memberships, especially if the
children make their parents aware and it appeals to them too.
Source: http://www.sas.org.uk/history/

Purpose
Source: http://www.sas.org.uk/about/
The purpose of the SAS and companies/organizations alike, is to
target coastal environmental issues which includes things like: litter,
pollution from sewage, toxic chemicals, climate change, coastal
development and so on. They aim to protect the UK’s oceans or just
oceans in general so that everyone can enjoy it safely for a very long
period of time, they also aim to improve all of this by changing the
public behavior, government policies and so on.
The objectives are to: promote these problems, raise awareness for
the benefit of the public. To also provide education to the public in
the ‘conservation, protection, improvement and ecologically
sustainable management’ of marine environments, associated land,
shorelines and structures.
The SAS and organizations like them believe that the ocean, waves
and surf spots deserve to be a part of UK heritage and should
receive greater recognition and protection which can be achieved by
political debates and the introduction of new legislations. They work
hard to raise awareness for these natural resources, the
environment as well as ‘physical and geological factors that create
waves’.
To achieve this, they need to make the governments aware of these
issues that are affecting the oceans and beaches until new policies
are introduced that are in their favor.
Creating volunteering opportunities for people or communities, this
gets them involved in activities to save the seas, coastlines and
beaches and raises awareness through word of mouth
recommendation and so on.
Educating communities and the general public on sustainable
solutions that can protect waves, oceans and beaches – making sure
they educate them on solutions that are definitely achievable. Also
about the issues that affect the UK’s waves, oceans, beaches and
those who use it.
Promote their scientific, economic and health evidence that
supports their campaigns and efforts.
One of the campaigns SAS are currently running is an educational
system, it focuses on scientific reports and their most up-to-date
information that’s available to the general public, they produce
regular scientific reports that cover a range of environmental issues,
this goes from things like: marine litter (another campaign of theirs)
to coastal developments. They focus on current campaign areas for:
climate change, water quality, marine litter, toxic chemicals and so
on. It also talks about citizenship, shows students how they can have
a positive impact if they contribute to safeguarding fisheries, oceans,
waves and beaches.
Another campaign is ‘marine litter’ where the SAS ‘work at
community, corporate and government’ levels to ‘tackle the growing
tide of marine litter that washes up on UK beaches every year.’ they
create ‘SAS beach cleans’ which is rapidly rising in popularity, beach
cleans help to directly remove marine litter from the beaches and
raise awareness to the public. Some of their other initiatives include:
Return to the Offender, Think Before You Flush and Break the Bag
Habit; they create over 5,000 community beach cleans annually. One
of the posters used for the campaign is a surfer stood beside their
board, instead of a surfer though, it’s a figure made up of litter and
rubbish.

Font, Colour Scheme, Layout, Tone
The font used for SAS and other organizations like it are generally very simple, easy to read, san serif fonts, they all differ slightly but they all have that sort of basis. SAS
has quite a tall, bunched together font which is easy to follow and see in the variety of different sizes it’s found in, this includes the logo’s text, the sub heading and other
sub headings and links which takes you to other pages, things like their ‘campaigns’ list, which is the same, continuous font against a dark background, they’ve ensured
to use a font that’s easy to read in a variety of different contexts and settings. The only time there is a slight difference is headers for different campaigns, ‘the problem’
example came from their ‘Break The Bag Habit’ campaign, it’s significantly larger and bolder than the rest of the text and it’s in a different font which is still very easy to
read.
The font used for the Greenpeace advert is a lot like the SAS font, it’s thin, tall and bunched together, it’s still very clear and easy to read and follow. It’s also easy to read
in a variety of different sizes, as shown above – it’s also easy to read against a darker background. The logo for Greenpeace is a little different from the SAS one, it’s got a
font that sticks out against the rest of the copy on the page, it’s still a clear, easy to read font, it’s just bolder and it looks quite childish, or a little less professional than
the font used for the SAS logo.
The marine conservation society and friends of the earth organizations have very similar logo font, like the previous examples, they are simple, san serif fonts that are
easy to read and are used in a variety of different sizes with readability not affected. The only few differences being colour, size and obviously the different variation in
words and phrases.
The colour schemes for SAS and other environmental organizations websites vary depending on what
it’s focusing on, for Greenpeace the overall colour scheme is green, when picking a colour scheme, it’s
very important to link the colours to the thing that’s being focused on, as Greenpeace focus on
environmental abuse like climate change, defending oceans and protecting forests, they have chosen
green so that when a viewer looks at the name and the colour, they almost automatically think of
nature, wildlife and all things associated with it – this would probably be a main selling point if
Greenpeace wasn’t already quite a large organization because the green is so bright and enticing to
the viewer.
Friends of the Earth also use green for their logo, but not for their overall colour scheme, theirs is
actually a mix of colours, which are: green, blue and orange. This organization also deals with
environmental issues which is why using green as their logo colour is a good idea, as for the blue and
orange, I guess you could sort of link those to the environment too, the blue for the sea and the
orange for the sun – this is quite clever, you link them together almost without thinking about it, yet it
still seems like an odd choice of colours to use for this.
Marine Conservation Society also use a mixture of blue and orange in both their logo and as their
colour scheme for their website, there are a couple of reasons why they could have chosen orange
and blue as their main colours, especially for their logo which features a dolphin (blue) and a human
(orange) swimming side by side, this could be because fishermen generally wear orange suits so it’s
insinuating that or it’s showing the contrast betwixt the two. Either way it’s also a mixture of bright
colours against dark, therefore it will generate quite a bit of curiosity and attract the viewer.
Surfers Against Sewage have very cleverly picked their colour scheme, they have chosen a mixture of
dark and light blues, as their organization is dedicated to the protection over the oceans and
environmental issues, as people take in the imagery of the logo - the wave looking like an eye to
show the organization is keeping watch over the oceans – they will immediately associate it with the
ocean, this will further be accepted as they read what the organization is trying to do.

The overall layout of the Surfers Against Sewage web page is pretty
simple, as soon as you’re navigated to the front page, a banner, asking
viewers to join the campaign and directly below that there is a news feed,
almost like Facebook – it’s filled with current campaigns, happenings and
victories as we can see at the side (left).
Further down the page is a set of links that take you to alternate pages or
part of the website, these include things like: ‘Take the pledge to prevent
single use bags from polluting the environment’, ‘See what events (like
beach cleans) are coming up near you…’ and so on.
Even further down is a darker part of the page, which asks ‘how do your
donations help?’ with a link to another part of the website where the
viewer can ‘learn more’ followed by a link to ‘useful links’ and a section
below that dedicated to supporting SAS, how to do it and why.
There is a button at the top, where, once pressed brings up a contents
page for the entire website, this includes things like: Issues i.e. toxic
chemicals, Campaigns i.e. water quality, Regions and Reps I.e. North
Ireland, How Can You Help? i.e. SAS membership, About SAS i.e.
Supporters and so on. When this contents page is brought down, it comes
up with Twitter, Facebook, Email and a search option – for the social
networking and email, it could be there to encourage viewers to share
what they’ve found or raise awareness, the search option is there to
navigate the pages.
I think that the overall layout it both complex and simple, it’s hard to
explain – it’s complexity lies within the contents page, it took me a few
moments to actually find one before realizing the option was at the top,
left of the page. The simplicity lies within the main page, the options
given are very straight forward and easy to understand with little or no
hassle or help, this is good for an organization like this, it’s aimed at ages
16-60, the easier the page is to navigate, the easier it is for a wide range
of ages to navigate it.

The layout for the Greenpeace website is a little more complex
as opposed to the SAS’s. The home page acts as a number of
things, at the top of the page is the Greenpeace logo and the
opportunity to change the language of the copy on the page –
or change to the correct country someone is in.
It’s followed by a selection bar that a viewer would use to
operate where they were going to look next, it features:
‘home’, ‘What we do’, ‘What you can do’, ‘Community’, ‘Blog’,
‘Donate’, ‘Contact Us’ and then the option to like their page on
Facebook or follow them on Twitter, this acts as one form of
navigation.
Directly below that is a banner – or a series of banners – that
features different campaigns using a different variety of poster
designs and so on.
Below that is the latest updates on campaigns the organization has won or is
currently doing good or bad on, this – much like the the SAS’s website – is a lot
like the Facebook layout in the sense that it features an almost timeline, news
feed like design.
Beside this is a quick way to join the movement, it asks for the viewers: email
address, name, phone number, postcode, a current campaign they can donate
to and the a way to subscribe to the websites update via RSS or email.
At the bottom of the page, a form of contents lies – this features links to: what
the organization does, what a viewer can do, blogs, about the organization and
different social networking sites a viewer can follow them on.
Overall, the layout of the website is quite
professional and easy to navigate whilst still
being a little complex – as opposed to the SAS’s
site, it’s got a lot more featured on it’s front
page, there is definitely a lot more to click on
and go through, plus there is a very easy way to
join the organization and this would actually
generate more subscribers/donations.

The overall tone of the SAS, not just from their website but from most of their campaigns, is quite
dark. The website is quite bright and vibrant because this contains it’s victories, it’s campaigns and
what the organization has achieved/ what it’s hoping to achieve. For example, the first image that
pops up when you go on to the home page is a volunteer/member of the SAS on a beach with a
bucket of trash in his hands, although the picture is there to represent the marine litter crisis and
the beach clean ups that they organize, the overall imagery is quite bright and happy looking,
rather than dark with a deep meaning hidden behind it.
The reason behind the website is to show viewers what it is they are doing, keep them up to date
with information and attract new ones – because it’s not a dark tone and instead it’s light and
interesting, it would bring in a whole range of viewers.
When it comes to it’s campaign posters and ad’s, they are generally quite dark – this is mostly to
get the point across, like I looked at in imagery, it uses dark images like: a surfer caught in a jar in a
dark room, a surfer stood beside their board covered in excrement or the surfboards lined up like
gravestones across the sand. These are all dark, but they are used to exaggerate a point.
The overall tone of the Greenpeace website is very bright and eye catching, if a viewer was to look
at this it would give them an overall sense of clarity and happiness – considering there is a bunch of
colour against a white background – it’s like this because again, this is the place where the
organization shows off it’s victories, achievements and current campaigns, it also features what it is
that they do, what the viewer can do and is generally there to attract the viewer and gain more
followers/donation/volunteers for the benefit of the environment.
The reason behind the website is to show viewers what it is they are doing, keep them up to date
with information and attract new ones – because it’s not a dark tone, it’s quite a light, quirky one, it
will bring in significantly more viewers than it would if it was all dark colours and red writing.
Like the SAS, most of the campaign posters and ads created by Greenpeace are dark and
humorless, the reason to use a dark tone within these types of campaigns is to really get the point
across, the organization is letting the viewer know that what they are campaigning against is a bad
thing, without this tone and use of imagery, viewers wouldn’t be as interested.

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