Marketing BEEP

Print Industry Needs to Use Online Resources to Its Advantage

What does it mean nowadays to be employed at a printing company or a company whose main business is something printed? It means being scared of losing your job (good-bye, Rocky Mountain News) and it means toughening up and using the very thing that is helping take printing jobs away – the Internet.
 

This isn’t new news; the Internet’s impending doom on printed materials, from magazine to print marketing materials has been a long time coming according to some. But, most of print is still holding on. Yes, magazines and newspapers are folding, but not all of them are. There are nearly 300 national magazines still alive and well in the United States, not counting regional and city magazines, as well as niche magazines. There are probably hundreds of small and large magazines dying every year, but hundreds more spring up each year as well to take those magazines’ places, as well as fill a few other niches.
 

A Fast Company article likens newspapers to travel agents. It’s not quite that bad yet, but it is heading in that direction. The good thing is that print has time to make changes; travel agents didn’t.
 

Use Each Medium’s Strengths
As print budgets get smaller though, it doesn’t make sense to shut out the Internet realm and pretend like if you don’t see it, it doesn’t exist. The way to make print and online resources work together is to embrace each and use each for its strengths. For example, no one wants to read a feature story that takes 5 or 6 clicks of the mouse to get through. And no one wants to read about last month’s newest craze or hot news story a month late. So, in this case, for magazines, it makes sense to use print for features and display shorter, up-to-date stories for the magazine’s Web site. 
 

Use Each Medium to Entice Readers to the Other
Many magazines are printing shorter articles and how-to’s, with extra tips or “insider info” on the Web site. This is a great way to get print readers to become Internet visitors and vice versa. By placing an enticing nugget for a feature on a Web site and only providing the story in print, many magazines and newspapers can survive using both mediums.
 

Broaden Your Customer or Reader Base
A direct mail printing company can offer an online catalog as well as a print catalog and provide each to differing customers for a broad reach. Even though older adults are logging on to the Internet in droves, many are still scared of it. That audience could be reached by print, while the Web savvy can be reached by Web site. This includes two audiences whereas if you only had print or an online presence, you would only reach one audience.
 

There are over 300 million people in the United States, and only 31 million laptops were sold in 2007. That’s a lot of people needing print materials to read at the dinner table, in the airports and anywhere else electricity and WiFi is not readily available. Print still has an audience; you just may have to get to them through the Internet.

Bringing Your Brand to Life: Brand Implementation

A good branding strategy means a company understands the needs and wants of its customers. A brand is a perception or an opinion your customers have about your company and products – it’s not something that can be touched or seen. You have the power to influence some aspects of your brand, but ultimately it’s up to your customers to decide on whether your brand is positive or negative.

The best way to influence your customers about your brand is to implement it. That might seem simplistic, but many companies put together a logo, slogan, sign and/or design and call that their brand. They don’t put their brand out there for the world to see. They don’t use it consistently in all company communications. Brand implementation means using your brand elements in every aspect of business from business cards to packaging to the way you answer the phone.

Color
One of the basic and easiest ways to implement your brand across all company communications is to pick a color scheme and use it. In everything. Coca-Cola and Target use red in their TV commercials, Facebook uses blue, UPS uses brown. Color is a major indicator of certain brands, and it could be for you if you want it to be.

Slogan Use
A great way to implement your brand is to use a slogan in all of your communications, including answering the phone. From sales letters to brochures to letterhead, your slogan can be used everywhere to remind customers of your brand values. If your slogan is “We love our customers” saying that when you answer the phone or placing that at the top of your letterhead reminds customers that you value them.

Educate Your Employees
Your employees probably know all about the products you carry or the services you offer. But do the employees know why you present these offerings? If your employees don’t know what your brand values are, they won’t know how to implement them with your customers.

Use Consistent Terms and Tone in Communications
The best way to implement your brand is to keep it consistent across all communications. Use consistent terms for all of your products every time. If you use a formal tone on your Web site, you should use a formal tone in your brochures, sales letters and as you address customers that come into your store.

Having a strong brand is as important as ever when consumers are forced to be more choosy about where to spend their hard earned money in a tough economy. The best way to make sure your brand stays in the front of consumers’ minds is to use your brand elements consistently so that they’re recognizable in all situations. 

3D Printing: Rapid Prototyping to the Extreme

3D printing, or “fabbing,” is creating quite a stir amongst the printing community. The movie Coraline is an animated, 3D, stop-motion film released in February. The movie used replacement animation, where one stop motion puppet face is replaced with another slightly different expression so that the facial features and body movements appear seamless. 3D printers were used to create the models and facial expression rather than a digital rendering. You can check out the story at CGSociety.

Besides the movies, fabbing is growing among doctors, architects and obviously, designers.  3D printers have been around since the early ’90s, but are just now getting into the price range that most can afford. Desktop Factory has created a 3D printer selling for $4,995, about $5,000 cheaper than its next cheapest competitor.

Rapid Prototyping
Turning a digital image into an actual physical model in a printer is the epitome of rapid prototyping. Now engineers can design a house, print it out, and see if the dimensions planned out will work. Blueprints for models that once took a week to build can now be printed in hours.

Medical Uses
According to Business Week, the Walter Reed Army Medical Center uses a 3D printer made by Z Corp. that retails for $39,900. It uses the 3D printer to make models of arteries, knee caps and other body parts for surgeons. Surgeons and other doctors can now see “what if” and practice major surgery on these printed models.

Reconstructive surgeries can now be done with more ease since instead of putting plaster on a patient’s face, an imaging device acting as a 3D camera can create a map of the patient’s face, which can then be printed and altered and used as a guide for reconstructive surgery.

Levels of 3D Printers
Of course, the reconstructive type of printing commands work from a more in-depth, precise 3D printer than the $5,000 model offered by Desktop Factory, but the technology is there and it’s getting lower in price every year.

According to Wohlers Associates, a Colorado consulting firm, approximately 3,600 3D printers were sold in 2007. That number is expected to jump to 300,000 by 2011 with the lower prices.

Z Corp. sells an entry-level 3D printer for less than $20,000 and the 3D Systems is in development of a 3D printer that will cost less than $10,000.

A Disney-Type Fantasy
Yes, even Disneyland has gotten wind of the 3D printer and has used it in its Innoventions Dream Home in Disneyland. You can read more about the home, which includes all kinds of futuristic technology, including the 3D printer to recreate a cell phone cover, at the Los Angeles Times Web site.

6 Super Catalog Design Tips

When designing a catalog, it’s important to realize that the catalog needs to be both ascetically pleasing as well as functional in design. Beautiful photos of your highly rated products won’t be effective if there is no organizational theme to the layout of your catalog. Here are 7 design tips that will help to design a catalog that people will want to flip through and will allow people to flip through easily.

1. Include clear, crisp photos of your best-selling items on the front cover. Also include page numbers to these items so customers can save time by getting to the “good stuff.” The bad thing about this technique is that customers might not browse through the rest of the catalog, so be sure to spread these items out logistically if possible, to get the customer to look at all the pages in-between.

2.  Use emotions. This includes words and photos. Use text that connects with the reader like “You’ll be the envy of all your friends with this purse.” Appeal to the readers’ emotions, whether that be happiness, fright, envy or sadness. In photos, using a scary image of a burglar breaking into a home incites fright that might convince the customer to order an alarm system.

3. Include a “feature” page now and then. A consistent layout of 8 products per page increases readability, but can quickly bore the reader. Mix things up every four pages or so by including a “feature” page with a different layout than the others. Use larger pictures of fewer items and use different colors or design elements on these pages. If you use a circle as a text box on your “regular” pages, use a star as a text box on your “feature” pages.

4. Use white space freely. I know you want to save money, but cramming 16 items onto one page with no white space in-between the photos will just make customers put the catalog down. People’s eyes need time to relax between text and photos, if only for a second. That’s what white space gives them. White space also makes for a cleaner design.

5. Put your most spectacular, impressive products on the upper outside corner of all the pages. Then put a best-seller in the upper inside corner of all the pages. When people skim through a catalog, they generally keep their eyes to the outside edges of the catalog. This is the best position to catch their eyes.

6. Organize thoughtfully. If you’re selling clothes, put all the shirts together or all the pants together so that readers know where to go to find the clothing pieces they’re looking for. Keep it consistent from one catalog edition to the next. For instance, you could start with intimates, then tops, pants and shoes since that is the order most people get dressed. Choose an organizational theme and stick with it.

Whatever you do, design with your brand in mind. If your brand is serious, you’ll want models that have serious looks on their faces, not smiling goofy faces. A serious brand also wouldn’t use neon colors to design elements, but a children’s toy catalog might. Be sure the tone of the catalog matches the tone of your brand.

 

Print or Internet: Why Not Both?

The internet has changed the way we communicate in so many ways. I remember the days when you hand wrote a letter, mailed it, and waited as much as a month to hear a response. Now, I can email my buddies in Hong Kong and if I don’t hear back in 30 minutes I’m reaching for my cell phone to send a text message. The internet has made the communication process much faster, to be sure. 

 
But there is also the cost factor. It doesn’t cost anything to send an email. It does when you factor in that you pay a monthly fee for internet. Still, it’s cheap and easy. Text messaging is pretty much the same. There is a cost, but not like taking the time to write a letter and mail it.
 
These consequences are far reaching for many businesses. Print advertising used to take up most of the marketing budget, but now it’s only a fraction. In fact, one teacher had to resort to selling ads on his tests to pay for the printing costs! Even educators are being pressured to go digital. 

 
The truth of the matter, though, is that printing is alive and well. Many business models like magazines and newspapers are having to rethink and remake the way they produce income, but the need for catalogs, brochures, and flyers will be around for a long time to come.
 
I don’t know about you, but I still get lots of postcards and coupons in the mail. Why is that? Because they work! Many businesses have discovered that by using both print and internet advertising that they can actually leverage their brand and marketing dollars.
 
Printing has gotten both less expensive and higher in quality as the biggest and best printing firms have risen to the top. The internet has allowed even the smallest business to take advantage of big printing price breaks. This means that while printing budgets may be shrinking, you still have the opportunity to focus your efforts and get great deals.
 
The point is this: print and internet advertising are still essential and both still work. Using both methods can help you get the most for your marketing dollar. Working with top printing firms via the internet can save you money while also getting great looking prints. There’s just no need to abandon one format or the other when both can be made to work for you.