In October, the fifth annual National Signage Research & Education Conference (NSERC) will discuss key benefits of signage, including economic impact, advertising value, brand repositioning, influencing consumers, community esthetics and wayfinding.

The Signage Foundation has sponsored research on these topics for academic purposes, but the material is also intended to help sign companies improve their offerings, educate sign customers and communities and support the International Sign Association’s (ISA’s) government relations efforts.

Jeff Rexhausen, senior research associate at the University of Cincinnati (UC) Economics Center, will present findings on how electronic message centres (EMCs) affect store performance and customer traffic, using five stores as examples. Sign company executive Kevin Stotmeister will use case studies and surveys to support statistics about the economic value of signs to businesses and communities. And UC researchers will discuss the historic influence of road signage.

Charles R. Taylor, a Villanova University professor, will present findings suggesting a building sign’s real worth should be evaluated on the basis of cumulative exposures, similar to out-of-home (OOH) advertising. (Taylor has also been selected to conduct comprehensive research into the economic and safety impact of illuminated versus non-illuminated on-premise signage, which should be completed in 2014.)

Kyle Craig, CEO of Outlook Consulting, will explore how rebranded commercial signs affect communications with customers. UC College of Business signage and visual marketing specialist James J. Kellaris will present new survey findings regarding the usefulness of indoor and outdoor signage compared to other media, how signs can drive business to a store, what shoppers infer about a retailer from its signage and how various factors affect sign legibility. And city planner Dawn Jourdan will discuss how opposing forces can work together to ensure signs improve esthetics by balancing commercial and community interests.

Finally, in a session on urban wayfinding programs, ISA director of strategic initiatives Sapna Budev, environmental graphic design (EGD) specialist John Bosio and Craig Berger—formerly the director of education for the Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD) and currently an industry consultant—will look at how cities have used signage to simultaneously improve navigation and raise the visibility of key destinations.

NRSEC will take place on October 9 and 10 at the Kingsgate Marriott Hotel in Cincinnati, Ohio. Further information is available at www.thesignagefoundation.org.