In yesterday’s post, I began a lengthy discussion of how to “green” your business while steering clear of so-called “greenwashing.” Unless you have some interest in prolonging the problem of environmental degradation, there are a variety of actions that a business can take to put its money where its mouth is vis-à-vis environmental responsibility. Some basic steps are inspired by a recent Xerox survey that measured environmental consciousness in the workplace. The survey found that work colleagues may have some strong objections to those who don’t walk-the-green-talk at the office. According to the survey (the results comprised an April 17, 2008, WhatTheyThink article):
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First of all, I would to take this opportunity to declare a permanent moratorium on the phrase “It’s not easy being green.” It seems that almost every article or blog post in the past 18 months has featured this as a head or subhead. I say “stop!” It makes me want to discard (without recycling) my Muppets albums!

That said, unless you’ve been trapped in an underwater pyramid for the past 18 months, you know that so-called “green” initiatives—that is, environmentally responsible and sustainable business practices—are becoming ever more crucial for consumers and, ergo, businesses.

For example, eMarketer cites recent research from DoubleClick that found that:

60% of US adult

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I’ve talked a lot in this column about the benefits of applications like personalized URLs. In my last post, I specifically encouraged readers to look into them for their own marketing. Now it’s time for a word of caution.

Like any marketing tool, PURLs don’t generate response. Recipients won’t log into a PURL just to log in. Too many marketers make the mistake of thinking that the novelty of receiving a PURL, in itself, will motivate recipients to action. (They make the same mistake with other full-color 1:1 printing applications.) Consequently, they are surprised and disappointed with the results.

Just like any other marketing program, in order for PURLs to pay dividends, the creative, the offer, and the hook must all be well matched to the recipient base. In ...Read More

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What does it mean to bring your printing into the 21st century? To get it out of the mire of 1990s thinking? One of the ways marketers can do this is with personalized URLs.

These applications use the technological capabilities of digital printing to print a personalized URL on each mailer (www.janesfurniture/bobsmith). This URL takes recipients to a personalized landing page, where they are greeted by name and the information can be tailored to them.

Most of these mini-sites have a common structure. They include the personalized landing page, a survey page where respondents are generally asked to take a brief survey to provide more information for future marketing efforts, a main information page, and a thank you page. Once logged in, visitors’ movements can be tracked, so marketers can see which pages they view and where they spend the most time....Read More

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I got hit by a bit of nostalgia this week. When I first started covering the printing industry, it was 1993. I was the editor of Printing News and the cover story was the installation of a pair of the first Indigo E-Print digital presses, now the HP Indigo series of machines. At the time, printers were required to buy them in pairs, but adventurous printers did. The cover photo was some kind of piano-moving equipment lifting them high into the air to be installed at a non-ground-level printing location.

How times have changed. At that time, you could count the number of digital press models on one hand. Distinguishing them was easy. One was rollfed. One was sheetfed. One was from Agfa. The other two were from companies no one had ever heard of.  Today, the ability to rattle off...Read More

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Yesterday, I discussed an interesting session at NEXPO’s Capital Conference earlier this week about the potential for producing customized, personalized, and 1:1 targeted newspapers—and how advertisers and marketers could avail themselves of such an idea.

At the show, the Newspaper Association of America announced the results of consumer research commissioned by Google that found that consumers who respond to newspaper advertising use the Internet to conduct further research, and of those who have responded to a print ad and then conducted further online research, 70% make a purchase. Of course, these are only the people who responded to a newspaper ad—not consumers in general. But still...

The ...Read More

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One of Jerry Seinfeld’s quotable observations was, “It’s amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper.”

Indeed.

Yet I just spent four days in Washington, DC, at the Newspaper Association of America’s NEXPO Capital Conference, held April 12–16, which is the annual conference for the newspaper industry. The theme of this year’s show was relevance, both in terms of making print relevant to the changing demands of media consumers, and making the news in general relevant to an audience that is less and less interested in it. That is, with more and more eyeballs and ad dollars going online, paper and printing costs going up, and wholesale changes in the way people interact with news and information, the amount of ne...Read More

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At the end of March, Amazon rocked the publishing world by announcing that, if authors and POD and subsidy publishers wanted to continue to stock their books, they would have to set up an account with Amazon’s in-house book printing unit BookSurge.  Authors and publishers were incensed.

How dare Amazon do such a thing! Amazon was clearly discriminating against POD publishers, using its market monopoly to line its pockets, and wresting away the control that authors and publishers have over their own businesses.

I’m a small publisher, and when I heard Amazon’s announcement, I was offended, too. It meant adding another supplier, and based on the negative industry buzz, I was concerned about being forced to accept less-than-desirable quality, poor customer service, and having to take the time to re...Read More

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On Tuesday, I had a post about how you can use April Fool's Day pranks and jokes to help with your company's marketing. One caveat, however, is that you might want to hold off making real news announcements on April 1. I say this from experience:

I have been a senior analyst and writer for The Industry Measure, a market reserach company serving the graphic communications industry. One of our most popular (i.e., free) services is a weekly "Fast Fact" e-mail that wenty tout to thousands of subscribers. On March 31, The Industry Measure was shut down by its parent company, and for that week's Fast Fact I wrote a "farewell" that read like this:

Be Seeing You!

The Facts
Since 1995, The

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For the last year or so, Richard Romano and I have been blogging here for the industry research firm The Industry Measure, sharing industry insights, trends, ideas, and cheeky comments. As of April 1, however, the Industry Measure has officially shut its doors, although its reports will still be available for sale on the Industry Measure website for the next few months.

This doesn’t mean that Expert Business Source readers be rid of us. Richard and I will continue to blog here, offering the same industry insights, industry analysis, and cheeky comments under our own names. We will also be continuing to offer special reports, newsletters, and other products covering the new media and printing marketplaces that will be available from us directly.

The details are still being worked out. In the meantime, ...Read More

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You know what today is, and by the time you read this, you may very well have fallen for an April Fool’s prank or two. (Significant others and/or children are good for this.) The top news portal for the printing industry, WhatTheyThink, today published its annual “WhatThey Don’t Think” issue of gag stories, including:

• The Ultimate in Green Printing: Xerox Enables Customers to Grow Their Own Toner
• Forecast: By 2012, Printing Industry Consultants to Outnumber Commercial Printing Establishments
• Google, China and Sovereign Fund of Dubai Acquire Entire U.S. Printing Industry for $90 Billion
• Printers Add Ancillary Services of Laundry, Furniture Repair, and Other Profitable Tasks

Google gets in on the act and this...Read More

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When you think about design services, do you think about a high-end, boutique design shop? Or do you think about your local printer? Chances are, it’s the former. But increasingly, your local printer may be an option you want to consider.

According to the most recent Industry Measure data on commercial printers, more than one-third of print shops offer creative and design services. While it used to be that this “design” was little more than changing font size and color on template-based letterhead or business cards, that is no longer the case. Printers have added full graphic design services to their offerings, either hiring full-time graphic designers or, in some cases, even purchasing small design shops and bringing them under their roofs.

This is reflected in IM’s most recent stock image data, as well. According to “U.S. ...Read More

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