People love nice business cards...

Some startups, long before they get the funding to do the next big thing online - get a card done.

A business card is arguably the single most important marketing tool a startup or an established business has in its arsenal. It's the first thing you offer to a new client. It's the first impression, it's the only thing in your pocket at a networking event besides your camera, phone and wallet.

Sure, websites are supporting material...but most people don't leave your booth or event looking at a screen - you need to do something unique and discreet.

Ever take your business on a roadshow only to realize you have so many products and so little room to transport your supporting material that you have to pare down the list?

With seminars being an expensive adventure its important that all your products are represented well. To reduce the expense of shipping, handling and managing volumes its worth considering an alternate method.

A few years ago, in preparation for an extensive roadshow in New Zealand and various shows in Australia we took stock of all the brochures we had on hand, looked at the cost of shipping and handling and considered taking a small sampling of only the key products. Airlines charge quite a bit for extra weight.

The concern was missed opportunities and the price of sacrifice.

But - we have the Kodak Nexpress Digital Production Press.

We don't need to reduce our inventory of titles, we simply need to reduce the volume and size - no compromise!

Here is what we did...

We took our existing business card template, designed a basic acrylic desktop stand and added a set of 'postcard styled racks' for the major shows to hold the complete set.

In all, we designed 90 cards, each had a single image on the front



and highlighted 4 or 5 benefits, functions or features of the technology. The back of the cards had a variable watermark and a basic design with contact details to reach the marketing team and a www unique landing page - at the time, only advertised on these cards. The cards were not designed to replace existing collateral - they were designed to tease.

The time to design 90 cards was about a month, we used existing images, copy and added an amusing slogan to get folks to pay attention. For software we livened it up a little and had some fun.

In all we did a print run of 85,000 cards and by years end we had given out an estimated 65,000. Perhaps a bit eager on the first run - after all, it is short run variable data!

The cards could be stored in traditional business card boxes making it easy to stack-n-ship. We took only as many as needed - but every product was represented.



The desktop stands are made of white and clear acrylic, the Kodak logo is vinyl adhesive making the costs low and the potential to modify easy. They stack like lawn chairs meaning you can take 3 of these in a large suitcase and about 12000 cards without paying extra at the airport.

This means we were able to have marketing material for 21 products and with the help of the unique landing page, we were able to capture responses long after the show, knowing they were from the feature cards. You could probably redesign this basic stand to include a Kodak digital frame...wireless...hmmm.



The postcard racks were a different story, again, perhaps a bit ambitious at the start, however they were built quite well and 3 years later still show up in the demo centre in Australia. They also have space for 8 A4 sized brochures.

We took this one step further after the roadshow...

Most companies offer some sort of thank you/give away product at a stand. What we did was take a nice business card holder with the Kodak logo engraved on it and insert 15 feature cards in each in advance of roadshow dates or events. A bit of work, but a great learning tool for new staff and even existing customers to understand the extent of our huge product portfolio... and a unique form of demand generation to boot!



For an Awards show, we had 500 guests seated. In advance of their arrival, we took 500 card holders, inserted 15 cards each and added two 'wild cards' for prize draws. We placed them on the seats, so when they arrived they picked them up and took a look at the contents prior to the start of the festivities. That's 7500 cards in one evening...and two Kodak cameras! People were happy, impressed and talkative after the event. We simply could not have been as effective with A4 material, a website or a TVC.

Now try it with Kodak Dimensional Ink!

What did we learn?

• A company that uses competitive products does not want to be seen at a tradeshow with a handful of your brochures? This solves the problem.
• After a 1-on-1 presentation, Product demonstrators hand an elegant business card holder with their own card and several product feature cards.
• 300-350gsm paper and 20 cards per A3 sheet equaled one set per holder printed and cut on a single page - made insertion and collating easy.
• leads were generated for products that would have otherwise not have made the trip.
• people discovered we had more products than they originally thought.
• you can add exclusive offers on the back, hand them out at shows.

The cost? The card holders were less than A$1.75 each. The printing was no different than your typical business card run. (how much do u spent per unit on give aways?)

Have a seminar with 100 invited guests? Do some variable data short run printing and spend $200 on the card holders. Less expensive then an A4 run and you can utilize custom URLS to keep the content fresh.

Think about it...how much $ did your last banner ad cost to design and post?

These days lots of people are saying print needs to think outside the box.

...Its time to print a new box.

Most marketing campaigns fail due to bad data bases, channel driven obsessions and forgetting who we are trying to replicate when planning a marketing campaign.

Data bases represent information and it is not a mystery to anyone that with bad information we can not identify the right target audience neither can we tell them what they want to hear so that they buy our products.

Channel obsession is a trend that is spreading very rapidly. When you start a campaign with a channel in mind often you will fail. Every time you show me that one communication channel is the best for something, I will show you that it is not the best channel for something else. In most cases the channel should be at the end of the process. I believe being market/product/value focused is more important than being channel focused.

Most channels in the market today will increase productivity in terms of contacting/impacting more individuals in a given period of time. Also, they will allow more contacts per individual in a given period of time. But, in most cases they will not reduce the amount of contacts needed to make a sale to one individual. Sometimes we are so convinced that one channel is the greatest that we obsess with that channel and limit the opportunity to see the bigger picture and build the best campaign possible.

Last but not least, we often forget who we are copying when advertising. We should be copying a sales person on a marketing/sale cycle. How come often do we say things that we would never say face to face? It is very easy to understand the fundamentals of Marketing and Selling. It is about saying the right thing to the right person at the right time in the right way. So, when you put your next campaign together think what a good sales person would say to whom, when and how. The What, to Whom and When to say relate to the information that you have. The How relates to how that information is used (sensitivity), presented (creativity) and delivered (channel).

"Advertising is what you do when you can't be there in person." - Fairfax Cone

We got away from designing for data and data management over the last few posts to bring the news from the TransPromo Summit in Boston and Print09. It's time to get back to the mission! What perfect timing!

Print 09 is now behind us, and outside of the trade show floor, there was an amazing amount of education taking place in seminars. A theme that emerged from the catalogue of options was the need to get refocused on the customer and how we communicate with them. It doesn't matter if you are a traditional litho printer, a printer who has both traditional and digital kit, a pure digital printer, or a multi-channel Marketing Services Provider - it seems everyone is coming to the conclusion that a well educated market provides the best opportunities.

One way to refocus is to look at what programs you have in place to ensure that everyone in your organization is up-to-date on their skills. Are you using all of the tools you have as efficiently as possible? Are your team members well versed in all of the features of the composition, color management, asset management, and other tools in your shop?

Then look outward. How educated are your customers? Do they know what you have to offer, or are you just fulfilling the same orders? Do they understand everything you can do for them? Do they know the power of variable data? Have you discussed data driven programs to enhance response rates?

Another common conversation at Print 09 and other venues this year has been right-sizing. It might include some reduction in print, but well-designed programs look at using a number of customer communication channels and making them work together. Often, for a well-outfitted provider, that might mean selling less print but more services. It you can sell your print for more money because it is smarter and drives a higher response rate, that's a win-win for all in the supply chain!

And, finally, reaching out! When was the last time you went to visit a customer? When was the last time you had a customer event in your facility? When was the last time you participated in a local user association event or a national event? Reaching out into the community raises your profile and establishes you as a thought leader with your customers. It is a sure-fire way to grow your business!

Have you walked this path? Have a story to share? Drop me a note: twitter.com/PatMcgrew - we'd love to share your success story!