When It Counts, Print It.

Following is an excerpt from http://xerox.bz/1EJt0AU by Justin Doyle|Jan 30, 2015|Color, Customer Stories|2 Comments.  Since this blog is not about endorsing a particular product, I left the product specific information out.  I included this posting on MarCom Central because print is an integral component of the marketing mix, especially for consumer products. 

Print (on cartons, wrappers, corrugated boxes and labels) turns the product itself into a stand-alone point of purchase display on the store shelves.  With so many products competing for the attention of consumers, it is critical to have quality and consistency in the print.  For brand continuity, it is imperative that color is repeatable and predictable across the entire spectrum of brand presentation from direct mail to POP displays to packaging to magazine and television advertising to billboards to the color of the side of the company's delivery trucks.  To reinforce the power of the brand, color consistency is required across all representations of the brand (both physical and electronic). 

In the chapter "Flexography redefined" from my book, Common Sense Flexography: A user's guide to improved pressroom productivity,  I talk about the incredible power of print to capture attention, reinforce brand equity, exude qualities of the product itself and elicit an emotional reaction that triggers the purchase of that specific product even though it may be surrounded with hundreds of competing products on the store shelves. 

Following is the posting. While it is geared to MFPs (multifunction printers), there are important points that the author makes.  If you would like to read the entire piece, just click on the link above. 

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If you’re one of the millions of business owners still relying on print as part of your marketing mix, give yourself a pat on the back. Contrary to what the SEO companies of the world have tried to tell you, print is alive and well, and spelling success for businesses across the globe. But for millions of businesses, it’s more than just a means of communication; it’s an important step in quality assurance, and an essential part of the creative process.

Print: It’s Here to Stay

Forget the blogger buzz: extensive research continues to show that print is an integral part of your marketing mix, with 70% of Americans reporting that they prefer to read both print and paper communications instead of relying exclusively on digital. Print forms a connection between brands and customers because it appeals to the senses – it allows for a tactile connection you can’t create with any other medium.
But what about creative companies, for whom the imagery itself is their product?

A Means and an End

In a direct mail campaign, the printed piece your clients will hold in their hands may be the only chance you have to make an impression. The quality has to be exemplary. You achieve that result with excellent design, but also with outstanding print quality. But what about billboards? Business cards? Television commercials and other mediums? Would it surprise you to know that print is an integral part of assuring quality across nearly every marketing medium employed today?

In recent years, the creative industry has reached a global agreement on color perspective. Print is an essential means of providing color management and consistency across every platform.  No matter how great your colors look on the screen, if your printer isn’t calibrated properly or isn’t the best in quality, those colors just won’t look right in print. Whether you’re printing a direct mail piece or designing a logo that will be placed globally, this presents an enormous challenge, and a serious roadblock on the path to quality assurance.

Getting it right the first time saves both time and money. Getting it right the first time means printing it out, and choosing a printer you can count on to do the job.