Blog Archives




 

  • Navigating the Offline and Online Marketing Landscape
    - Thursday June 9, 2011
    By Gale Grimmenga Principal/Creative Impulse (www.creativeimpulseinc.com) We use two charts to help our clients plan a course for their marketing communications. The first is an overview—it starts with a company’s strategic and creative positioning then divides into creative key message and target audience and then branches into the communication vehicles. The communication vehicles are divided into four broad categories of media: traditional (broadcast & print), interpersonal, new, and environmental—from magazine ads to websites to SEO to outdoor to direct mail to banner ads, bringing us to about 60 vehicles. Adding in all the specific spots for placement, as in thousands of magazine titles or links on websites, makes this list...

  • Time Marches On
    By Bob Hall - Monday June 6, 2011
    Our car is in the shop – again. This is the second time in two weeks and probably the sixth time since the beginning of the year. If you knew that it is a 1997 Dodge Avenger, you probably would think that this number of shop visits for such an elderly vehicle is expected. However, it only has 137,000 miles on it since we don’t have to drive to work. (Our office is in the basement of our home.) That’s pretty good for a 14-year-old car. We like the car. It’s sporty, handles well, and gets good gas mileage with its four-cylinders and five-speed gearbox. We also like the fact that it is paid for. The idea of not having monthly car payments is appealing. The problem is that the cost of rental cars is starting to...

  • Industry Trends Video Extravaganza
    By Denise Gustavson - Monday June 6, 2011
    I have to admit, it's been a whirlwind since my last post. Between various trade shows, a really quick vacation, pre Graph Expo Show Daily planning, regular monthly issues, a little side project about the history of the wide-format industry (check out LinkedIn for more on that) and the launch of the MyPrintResource portal website, I can't say that I've had a moment to sit and simply breathe. But, at the recent 2011 ISA Sign Expo, I had the opportunity—and the complete pleasure—to sit down with 12 industry leaders to talk about some of the critical issues facing the wide-format industry in the beginning of 2011. Some of these folks I'd only had the opportunity to talk with via email or over the phone, so it was a pleasure to meet them...

  • It is Hard to Believe: Customers Lie
    By John Giles - Thursday June 2, 2011
    Rising fuel costs are pushing prices up for everything we buy. Printers are seeing jumps in paper and every other thing they buy. The rising costs mean lower profit margins if a printer doesn’t react quickly, but we aren’t seeing a jump in print prices because customers tell the printer it isn’t happening. Every day I talk to printers who are concerned about raising their prices. They tell me that they can’t raise prices because their customer told them they could get the job cheaper somewhere else. When we drill down in the conversation, I find that usually the printer doesn’t have any facts to what the prices really are. He is just going on what he was told by the customer. Printers lose jobs every day...

  • Does Your Business Suffer from Disorganitis?
    - Thursday June 2, 2011
    By Philip Beyer, president, Beyer Printing and Ebiz Products (Nashville), and author of System Busters Disorganitis? You may have heard it called Reworkitis or Noclueitis, It’s even  been referred to as This-is-Normalitis, within the printing industry. This is a disease that is difficult to cure, especially if you don’t recognize the symptoms -- or are in denial that you have it. Symptoms may vary from mild to severe: HEADACHES over recurring mistakes HAIR LOSS due to losing money from wasted time & resources PANIC ATTACKS from missing deadlines ULCERS from making excuses to customers  INSOMNIA from long hours training & retraining personnel  RED EYE from over working and no personal life ANGER OUTBURST...

  • Printing Politics
    By Bob Hall - Tuesday May 31, 2011
    At the annual Capitol Hill Fly-in, NPES and Printing Industries of America members will buttonhole members of Congress to promote issues that affect the printing industry. Fair trade, small business taxes, health care, and “legal reform†all are on the agenda. While I may have questions about some of the industry positions on these issues, there are two with which I am in total agreement – the importance of a healthy and viable U.S. Postal Service and the need to oppose the so-called “Do Not Mail†efforts sprouting up across the country. For some odd reason, those latter two issues got me to thinking about Ben Franklin. Most in this industry are aware that Franklin was a printer. Some may not know that he was the...

  • In the Eye of the Storm
    By Karen Hall - Monday May 23, 2011
    Spring is always a busy time for the Quick Printing staff. First there’s the Annual Franchise Review in the April issue, followed by the Top 100 for the June issue. Spring and number crunching just seem to go together around here. This year’s Top 100 is finished and looking good. Overall sales were up by 7.27%, sales per shop was up, sales per employee grew, the number of locations held steady, and for the first time in years, the number of employees was also on the rise. In previous years that would be a job well done and we would settle into the rhythm of our regular production schedule as we reach the season for attending franchise conventions. That’s not the case this year. We have a new project in the works that is...

  • Graphic Designer's Perspective: Technological Innovation + ROI = Marketing Oxymoron?
    - Monday May 23, 2011
    by Gale Grimmenga, Principal at Creative Impulse (www.creativeimpulseinc.com) Marketing technologies may change, but the goal remains the same: to capture the attention of and make a connection with a specific audience in order to inform, promote, educate, or influence -- increasing return on investment. Or is it? We used to develop innovation to a forecasted demand or anticipated need. But now that we are in a media and technology frenzy of evolution, we must sense and respond to demand 24/7. Whether you are trying to keep your company current with leading-edge equipment, digital technology, or marketing opportunities, you probably are asking, "Where are the controls to drive this baby?" The swift, fast-paced, immediate, no-editing...

  • Take Time
    By Bob Hall - Monday May 16, 2011
    Vacation, Urlaub, vacances, vacanza, vacaciones, holiday – everybody needs one from time to time. In our 24/7, constant contact world relaxation is often hard to come by, but it is necessary for both physical and mental health. As one wag once put it, vacation is what you take when you can’t take what you’ve been taking any longer. Well, we are taking a vacation next week and going back to the Gulf Coast, where Karen spent the summers of her youth. We have absolutely no concrete plans other than arriving, but I have been looking on the Internet for restaurants and attractions we might consider. In doing so, I ran across a site with advice for Northerners moving to the South. For no other reason than it’s...

  • GPO Work Has Signifcantly Decreased for Private-Sector Printers (But It Makes No Sense/Cents)
    - Wednesday May 11, 2011
    By Deborah Snider Sr. VP, e-LYNXX Corp. Less than half of all printing handled by the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) is now produced by private sector printers. Previously, for many years back to 1982, the GPO procurement system had been one of the strongest public-private sector partnerships that existed, and it had served as a model for how business and government could work together to accomplish a common goal. In this case, that goal had been delivering top-quality printing, on time, with competitive pricing. When Congress passed Title 44 of the U.S. Code, its idea had been to have all federal government printing channeled through the GPO by all federal agencies, including the Executive Office of the President, Congress, the...

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