branding – Page 7

April 13, 2012

Mixing Ink – the Pantone Recipe for Print

Twitter uses a specific blue – not the same as Facebook blue, or Ford blue, or “Big Blue” IBM. Coke always wants the same red, whether its on a T-shirt, paper, plastic, a television screen or a glass bottle. To reproduce color consistently, especially across different media, platforms, techonologies and visual arenas, everyone needs to be communicating in the same language of color, so to speak. The PANTONE® Matching System is that language – an industry standard and means of selecting, communicating, reproducing, matching and controlling colors. For offset, lithographic printing, Pantone created a Color Formula Guide with well over 1000 classified colors that fill the CMYK gamut. From a set of basic inks, each of these colors can be mixed.

For spot color printing, the Pantone Guide contains ink mixing instrusctions for each color, a “recipe” with amounts given both in parts and percentages. If a printer needs a large quantity of ink, or is doing regular printing for clients who use a specific color for their brand, these inks will be purchased premixed. But for smaller quantities, each color in the Pantone Guide can be created with a mixture of 2 or more of 14 standard base colors. They are: Yellow, Yellow 012, Orange 021, Warm Red, Red 032, Rubine Red, Rhodamine Red, Purple, Violet, Blue 072, Reflex Blue, Process Blue, Green, and Black.

In the image above, our printer is mixing PMS 151 Orange for a client’s job. The formula for that exact color is 12 parts of PANTONE Yellow (or 75%) and 4 parts of PATNONE Warm Red (or 25%). For this small amount of ink needed, he weighs each ink amount on a scale and then mixes thoroughly together for the correct color match, which is then tested alongside the PANTONE preprinted swatch for that color to doublecheck the outcome.

Pantone recently unveiled their cloud system of color management, PANTONELive: “a cloud-based color bank.” It is a color management system for companies and brand owners who do marketing over a large variety of media and across a diverse geographical area to ensure everyone is speaking that same color language.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

March 23, 2012

Creative Gift Ideas: Why Promotional Products Work

Don’t bypass promotional products – they are a powerful, affordable marketing tool. In addition to the high-tech reach of web marketing and social media, actually putting a physical gift into someone’s hands that they can use will keep your brand recognized and relevant in their mind. When you are considering investing a portion of your marketing budget into branded merchandise or promotional products, think about these characteristics that make them so effective:

Brand, brand, brand: promotional products generate brand awareness and exposure. You can choose an object that relates to your enterprise itself or to a specific message you want your business to convey. For instance, if you are an auto repair business, you could distribute vehicle cup holders, sunglasses, visor clips, or other such items useful to a driver. But, if your emphasis is on helping clients solve problems, choose a calculator; if you want to highlight your timeliness – a dashboard clock or calendar.

People Like Gifts: unlike a flyer, banner ad on a website or text message, branded merchandise has a physical presence and value. Promotional items are not thrown away, but often regarded as a gift. Their value and usefulness will keep them on your customers desk, in their purse, on their keychain… and that keeps your brand refreshed in their mind each time they see it. When you become part of a person’s daily life in that small way, you are more connected to them than a competitor. In a more literal way, give the item itself value as a coupon. For instance, a restaurant could brand drink coasters with a coupon on the back for a free appetizer at next visit. The coaster stays with them, reminding them of your brand with each glance or use.

Low Cost: when you order promotional products, you receive a price per piece that is far lower than the usual retail cost, and the selection is vast. Some items are very inexpensive, and others are much more high end. Test the waters with a low cost item, or reward valuable customers with a keepsake item for the holidays… all branded with your logo, contact information and message. When the product is something that will be used in public – such as an umbrella, sports equipment or iPad case– you get even more value for your marketing dollar as your logo is seen by others on a product they would also use.

Creative relevance: with such a diverse selection of products to choose from, you have a great oppportunity to get creative. Work out a tagline that makes sense with the product and work it into your larger marketing campaign. A quick example: if you run a insurance business, you could give away branded rain ponchos or small umbrellas with the tagline “We’ve got you covered.” If you want to emphasize the your company’s environmental commitment, think about seed packets, herb garden starter kits, or products made from recyclable materials. You get the idea… get creative.

Check out the diversity of items you can incorporate into your marketing plan: frisbees to hot sauce, yo yo’s to surgery scrubs. The variety is really eye-opening. Do yourself a favor and browse the promotional products catalog – you’ll get inspired with products that can get your business noticed and remembered.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

March 15, 2012

March Madness – Wear Your NCAA Picks with Direct To Garment Small Order Custom Tshirts

MARCH MADNESS: for college basketball fans this is the best time of the year. The brackets are full – here’s a link to the full Championship set-up; every team is charged with hope and enthusiasm. Fans, as of noon today, have filled out their tournament picks either betting for cash or just for bragging rights. Last year, our own Michael Smith picked UNC, Duke, Florida State, and Michigan State for the Final Four, hoping to see UNC beat Michigan to take the title. This year, the interest seems to be on Gonzaga, with the other top seeds being Kansas, Louisville and Indiana.

But you can check out all of Michael’s picks right on his tshirt. He screen captured his brackets, like you can from this link, and printed a DTG, one-of-a-kind shirt just for this year’s tournament. The beauty of DTG, or Direct to Garment, tshirt printing is that it makes low quantities of shirts like this easy and affordable to produce. No screens, no minimum requirements – even producing one and two shirts is practical.

When you order screen printed tshirts, each color is applied to the shirt through a seperate screen and you pay a set price for each. For example, if you print a shirt front and back with a design that uses red and black, you pay a set-up fee for four screens. The cost involved requires that either you buy a minimum number of shirts to offset that initial screen cost, or you pay a VERY high price for one tshirt! With a DTG printed shirt, the price is the same per garment. When you only want a few shirts (say less than a dozen or less than the quantity where the price matches what you would be paying for screen printing) or if you want even just one unique shirt – like Michael’s NCAA picks – DTG is the way to go.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

March 14, 2012

Now THAT is Integrated Marketing – Taco Bell Shows How its Done

We have all heard the discussion about what the true value of social media and marketing via Facebook, Twitter, etc. is for small and medium sized businesses. Everyone wants to know the ROI – we want hard and fast data proving this much money in, this much money out. But the reality that is gradually being revealed is a brave new tech world where the old business school models don’t always hold up in the face of “viral” product buzz. For both B-to-B or B-to-C models, the emerging evidence indicates that building a social network of customers, clients, acquaintances or like-minded individuals both locally and internationally holds an undeniably great marketing potential for any enterprise. This instant connectivity has never been possible before, and it’s value is rich.

The question for marketers becomes how to leverage this newfound social network into everything from product buzz to hard and fast profits. Take a look at how Taco Bell is making this work. They have 167,000 Twitter followers and over 8 million Facebook fans – a definitely solid base to begin a project like this with. The product being launched: Doritos Locos Tacos, which also provides sponsorship for a series of concerts called “Feed the Beat.” Packaging on the taco has a QR code to link those who scan it to exclusive video of these music concerts. An AR (augmented reality) code on other packaging lets consumers connect via a Taco Bell mobile app to view live Tweets and Facebook comments.

Now the brilliant draw in all this, even more than the online music and connectivity, is that TacoBell will be displayhing selected tweets using the #DoritosLocosTacos hashtag on digital billboards in Times Square in New York City and Sunset Boulevard in LA. The payoff for fans is to see their name up in lights (so to speak) in such iconic locations. The payoff for TacoBell and Doritos? Well you can see that clearly.

The Whole Enchilada…. er, Taco

Print, web, social media, signage, mobile marketing, product packaging… a truly integrated campaign uses all available media, and leverages that content through the connectivity of a solid social network. The best advice here for any small business appears to be develop your social network online, and then get creative about using that base to get your message out.

The development of a social network on outlets such as Twitter and Facebook is itself an asset. Many have questioned the profitability of spending the time and manpower to cultivate such a network. Enterprises like this Taco Bell campaign are blazing the trail to show how such connection can be leveraged into a big – and increasingly essential – marketing win.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

March 13, 2012

A Bloody Little Lesson about the Power of Promotional Products

I had a lesson this morning in the way promotional products have an impact above and beyond other traditional pieces of marketing. We’ve all had a paper cut. If you ever worked in the print industry, you’ve had a lot of them – and are aware of the degrees of severity these cuts can have: from the “one sheet slice” that occurs when opening a letter or shuffling papers on the desk, to the pain and hemmoraging caused by sliding your hand down the length of a stack of 100# gloss cover at just the right angle while trying to hurriedly load a digital press.

First thing this morning I inflicted the bleeder seen above. Not huge, but painful (why do paper cuts hurt as bad as they do? Read up on that here.) – and as I’m right-handed, it pretty much makes everything you do impossible until you stop the bleeding. A few cuts like this and you learn to show respect when handling paper. A good supply of bandages is always smart to keep close by in a print shop, but today I was out of the ones I keep at my desk. Then I remembered ImageSmith has a handy bandage dispenser as a promotional product: imprinted with our logo and contact information, and even containing zebra-striped adhesive bandages to promote our marketing tagline “Earning our stripes… every day.” A supply is displayed up front to give to customers.

Finding this bandage dispenser at the right moment was a clear lesson to me in the impact that branded merchandise can have. Most folks will hang onto this item as they know its handy to keep a few bandages nearby for an emergency. Your logo and message are refreshed in the person’s mind each time they notice it at their workstation. At the moment of need… when you really do need a bandage to stop the bleeding… the message of the product is a powerful one.

What message is this product implying when it functions in this way?

“I’m helpful.”
“I’m close at hand when you have a serious need.”
“I was thinking ahead, knowing you might need me some day.”
“I stay one step ahead, and can help you.”

Pretty powerful messages, right?

Think about how branded merchandise could be used for your company to put your logo and message directly into the hands of your public. Make it a gift that they will want to use, find helpful and keep handy. The longevity of these items outstrips other promotional media by far, as people have a need for the items beyond their marketing message. The variety of products available is HUGE. Enter a search term here and take a look at what you can order.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

March 12, 2012

Spring Forward with Branded Merchandise

The swag bags given away at the Oscars this year were valued at over $62,000 each. That investment would never be made by these masters of marketing if there was not a solid return on such an investment. These folks understand the power of promotional products! Giving away branded merchandise that is relevant to your business, desired by your customer base and branded with your mark, colors and message is a proven way to increase customer loyalty, attract attention and get noticed.

Branded merchandise keeps your company name right in the hands of your customers for far longer than other media – a steady reminder of your quality and generosity. The variety of products you can choose to brand is HUGE… select something appropriate for the season, for your current promotions, or based on your customer’s interests. In spring and summer, products that appeal to the athlete or outdoor lover work great: drinkware, lanyards, sunglasses, caribiner clips with bottles of sunblock or skin lotion. Finding a product that is relevant to your business and desired by your customer base should be easy… in fact the hard decision will be narrowing down which item you want to invest in to promote your business. These promotional products branded with your color, look, and logo will go far in helping you create brand loyalty and recognition in a way other media cannot match.

To browse through a huge selection of promotional products that are available for branding, go online at online store. You may also want to read our other blog articles for information and ideas on branding, promotions and integrated marketing. Remember, the more useful and desired the item is, the longer it will stay in the hands of your potential customer. A banner ad on a website is seen for a few seconds – they can hang onto that handy flash drive or water bottle bearing your logo and compliments for months to come.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

March 2, 2012

Zebra Van Hits the Road in Western North Carolina

Our newly wrapped Zebra delivery van hit the road this week. Look for it all over Asheville, Hendersonville and Western North Carolina. Marty, our zebra mascot, is watching from the back door.

Marketing Your Company with Vinyl Wraps

If you’d like tips on the incredible things you can create with vinyl vehicle wraps, check out our blog post. You can also wrap boats, motorcycles, equipment, trailers… pretty much anything you want to turn into a mobile billboard. The wraps hold vibrant colors, are all weather proof, and removable without damaging the finish of your property.

Look for Marty on the road! Earning our stripes… every day.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

February 28, 2012

Printing 101: What is Spot or Two-Color Printing?

Too often as printers, we assume everyone else understands the basics of print technology. Full color, spot color, process, digital, offset, thermography, letterpress, wide format… there are many paths to create a beautiful and effective printed product – decisions have to be made about which path is the best to take. The type of printing you need for your project should take into account many factors: budget, branding concerns, time constraints, intended use, and essentially the overall scope of your marketing plan. It becomes important that you have a printer you can communicate with freely and clearly. Your printer should be able to explain your options clearly. One basic topic in looking at the options for color printing is to understand what is meant by spot colors vs. full color.

Spot color refers to color generated in offset printing by a single ink. That ink could be a “pure” color or mixed according to a formula. Process, or 4-color printing, uses four spot colors to generate a full-color gamut: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (CMYK). Some more advanced processes use six spot colors, adding Orange and Green to provide an even larger gamut. This is called hexachromatic process printing, or CMYKOG. At times, however, you may want to print using just one or two colors – for example let’s say blue and black. This is a classic example of two color printing.

Pantone is clearly the authority on color – a provider of color systems and leading technology for accurate communication of color. The Pantone Matching System has long been the standard for defining “spot colors.” If you have a blue lion in your logo, you want that lion to always appear in the same shade of blue – not sky blue on your letterhead, royal blue on an employee’s shirt and some shade of purple on the website. The PMS system is a way to standardize that color for the printing process, and your printer can show you swatches to select the PMS number that you can then define as an integral part of your brand. Also keep in mind that with these two colors, you can enhance the design of your piece by using “screens” or tints of those colors. 50% of black gives gray; a percentage of the PMS blue will provide varying shades as well. With a good design, a two-color printed piece can have much depth and style. (Pantone is a rich resource for all topics on color. Check out which color they chose Color of the Year for 2012.)

Any PMS color, printed from a single ink, can also be translated into the closest CMYK match. Your blue lion can be printed by the 4-color process method when you choose to create a full color piece. There will be a slight variation in the shade or hue of the blue, however – no PMS to CMYK conversion is exact. In most cases, the difference is tolerable or even unoticeable, but with a few colors the shift is more dramatic. The CMYK gamut can not replicate all colors visible to the human eye. Again, your printer can show you side-by-side swatches of what the PMS color will look like once converted to CMYK. Some brands are so specific about their color that they budget for 5-color offset print jobs where full color printing is needed, but they are willing to pay for another pass to get the PMS color of that lion exactly right every time.

Have the discussion with your printer to learn the process they are using to produce your print materials. They can explain about color gamuts, PMS color matches, and even color psychology and selection. You will also want to translate these colors for other uses such as your website or online marketing. There you will need web-safe color matches that seek to maintain an accurate match for your blue lion on the web as well. You will be in good hands with a printer who can help you with both the artistic, creative process and the technical concerns of production.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

February 22, 2012

If You Have The Right Printer, You Have Your Marketing Consultant

Running a small business demands expertise in many, many divergent fields. You must excel at finance, employee relations, marketing, sales, and of course the specifics of the type of business you went into in the first place. In a large corporation, each duty or specialty is handled by an expert in that profession – or an entire heirarchy of experts: production, sales, marketing, human resources, R & D. As a small business owner, that’s all on you. Technology is only making that landscape even more challenging, daily.

To bring in help or advice on any of these areas is costly and risky. When it comes to marketing, however, your best resource is right at hand. And – this is by far the best part – it is FREE! If you have the right printer, you already have a highly trained marketing consultant who knows print, branding, direct mail, web strategies, social media and has years of experience in both high and low tech marketing approaches that work for businesses just like yours. The most assuring part of this partnership for you is that the print/communications company only succeeds when your marketing succeeds! Start taking advantage of this asset – the print industry itself has had to reinvent itself in this new high tech economy. They know what works.

Even if you have a background in marketing, the rules of the game over the past 10 years have changed DRASTICALLY. (Check out this amazing and exhaustive infographic on the History of Marketing.) The marketing success that got you and your small business to where it is today will most likely not take you to future success in the emerging economy and IT world. Do you have the time and resources to become an expert in web design, SEO (search engine optimization), interactive online marketing, web metrics or analytics, to position your operation to embrace the new and as yet unknown technoligies that are right over the horizon? In most cases, the answer is no – and unless your business IS marketing, you should not have to. Turn to your printer for help.

The term “printer” is misleading. Today, printers do far more than put ink on paper. They have become marketing and communications specialists, and they are your closest and most knowledgeable sources for consulting with you on your overall marketing strategy. A good printer will understand your budget, your marketing goals and be able to suggest many options for creating results: integrated marketing strategies, direct mail, targeted variable data printing, promotional products, signage, branding, website development and e-commerce, social media marketing techniques, and unique design ideas. Discuss with them your target audience, who your consumer is, what your mission and specific goals are for the year. These are the facts your sales rep needs to recommend specific marketing strategies that you can use to translate into profit and customer recognition of your brand and your work. So the question is: why drain your energy trying to learn the new world of marketing on TOP of running your business when you already have a marketing consultant waiting to talk with you?

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.

February 9, 2012

Setting Yourself Apart: Harnessing the Power of the Hand Written Note

We are connected today in every way possible – smart phones, texts, tweets, phone calls, mobile GPS, even blogs. But can you remember the last hand written note or card you received? I bet you can! And that is important – it shows the powerful impact of a handwritten note. They always find their way to the top of the mail that is piling up on your desk.

Taking time to do hand written notes may be a struggle, but the benefits can be huge. As we all know in this challenging economy we are all looking for something that makes us stand out. This small inexpensive detail will speak volumes. A note to say thank you for a great meeting, happy birthday or even just thanks for your time shows that you are ready to give clients the personal service that they are so hungry for. They can act as a relationship builder or the stepping stone to your next order from your client.

Personalized note paper or stationery is a smart choice once you get into the habit of note writing. Having the paper and envelopes at your work station will save time and remind you to write a note when the time is right. They should be branded with your company look and feel, including your contact information

How ever you plan to use this powerful tool, just remember to be consistent. Keep a roll of stamps with you. Write the notes while conversations are fresh on your mind or their last order just shipped out the door. This is one time that you can keep “time on your side” by mailing when you are still fresh in the minds of your clients. And if you are really feeling ambitious, send all your customers a note wishing them a Happy Valentine’s Day, or even just “Thanks for being a great Customer.”

The power of this secret weapon lies in it’s sincerity. In a world that is often OVER-connected, a personalized, hand written note speaks louder than any digital communication can. Receiving the note in the mail is an actual physical interaction – something not yet possible online. Read more at these links about the power of hand written notes and the lost art of note writing. Sometimes, low tech is still the best choice.

ImageSmith is a full-service print and marketing provider located in Arden, North Carolina. Contact us at ImageSmith for quotes on all your marketing projects, and more useful tips on how to create custom, effective, high impact marketing solutions.