Digital Original: Raise Your Prices Now!

Do Your Customers Talk About You?

Speaking of brands, you might not know it, but customers are using the reviews in Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines to either give a business a pat on the back or slam them. Anytime a customer is looking for a specific business on several of the search engines, they also have the ability to read reviews or to add a review themselves.

If you are really into protecting your brand, you will need to monitor these sites and see what customers are saying about you. You can easily find reviews when you use a search engine’s maps.

You might be surprised by what is being said about your company. Disgruntled customers may be adding poor reviews that will affect how other Web surfers perceive your company and its service. You also need to worry about disgruntled employees and unethical competitors who might want to sabotage your business.

Is Print Media Effective?

The Print Council is funding new information source published by the Printing Industry Center at RIT. Printing in the Mix summarizes research on the effectiveness of print advertising and marketing, and demonstrates the role of print as a viable medium in the marketing mix. The information can be shared with customers to promote print-based solutions.

Shippers Get Aggressive For Printing

FedEx Office has introduced its Design & Print Center solution, a digital self-service tool for creating and ordering custom business cards, letterhead, and marketing collateral. Most FedEx centers now feature a Design & Print Center kiosk. The application is also accessible at computer rental stations in the centers. Customers can customize templates or upload their own designs. All orders are processed, shipped, and delivered within seven business days via FedEx with no delivery charge. The website is: www.fedex.com/designprint.

The Wall Street Journal reports that UPS is now making a push into Web-based printing where customers can send documents to UPS retail stores via the Internet to have copies printed. This service will compete with what FedEx offers. This move should cause a stir among UPS customers in the printing business.

Smart Phones Add Print/Design Apps

Designers can now get color support in the palm of their hand with new applications for the iPhone. Pantone has released myPANTONE as an iPhone application for graphic designers. It allows users to capture, create, and share Pantone Color Palettes without the need to carry around cumbersome guides. The app provides access to all the Pantone Color Libraries. Colors can also be extracted from photos taken with the iPhone camera and matched to the closest Pantone colors.

Neenah Paper has introduced Think Ink: Color Unleashed to allow iPhone users to build custom color palettes using the Dewey Color System. It can be downloaded for free at http://tinyurl.com/oujv4o. This tool begins with one of four approaches: a photo, a product from Neenah Paper, a predetermined color swatch, or the Psychology of Color with the Dewey Color System. After the color is selected, users can place their palette on a variety of Neenah papers to see which works best for their selection. They can then save and email their custom color palette, order coordinating samples of Neenah Paper, and see the palette in different proportions.

The Think Ink: Color Unleashed application is the latest in a series from Neenah Paper. It has released a series of BlackBerry applications such as Paper Math which provides mobile access to its online paper calculator, the Stocking Guide for specifying paper, and the Eco Calculator which calculates environmental savings realized by choosing recycling papers with different levels of post consumer fiber content.

John Giles is the author of “12 Secrets for Digital Success” and “The DTP PriceList.” He is technology director and a consultant for CPrint. He can be reached at 954/224-1942 or john@johngiles.com. You can also find John on Twitter (search for JohnG247) and Linkedin.com. Visit his website at www.johngiles.com and link to his blog.