Monthly Archives: August 2011

Random thoughts on branding, social media marketing, etc.

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I went through The Rocky Mountains this week, on a trip that started in Chicago. I was returning a vehicle back (home in Seattle) from relatives in suburban Chicago. Along the way I made a few stops, visiting with a few clients and suppliers, etc. I must have passed the signs and billboards of thousands of companies down many streets I have traveled hundreds of times before.

Somewhere along the way I started thinking about the topic of “branding”. I had dinner with and old friend in Denver and we started talking about some of our favorite “brands”. Of course, being we were both from Chicago, we were partial to our teams: Chicago Cubs, Chicago Bears, Chicago Blackhawks and of the “DaBulls”. All of these teams are solid brands. My friend was also Nebraska Cornhusker Fan, and although I can’t relate to that, I do understand the fact that you don’t give up on “your team” when that’s what your team is. Then we got to talking about food, and up came the name Lou Malnati’s Pizza- what a great place. Later on in Denver I had to make it down to El Chapultepec for some live jazz, what a great place. As I approached the tiny bar I had not been to in years, I could see everything around it had changed (due to the monstrous Coors Field across the street) and all sorts of more commercial restaurants and franchise type bars up and down the street. But El Chapultepec was still the same and thank goodness for that.

I know I’m rambling here. But there’s a point.

The next thing I noticed was in my visits to certain suppliers I know. There’s a change in the industry going on and it’s not going to revert backwards. The companies that I visited that are slow also seemed to have no marketing plan, and absolutely no social media marketing program in place. If the quote inquiries aren’t piling up like they used, I would hazard to say that something needs to change. All of this concerns me a little.

Then there are a few of these I have looked up on the internet to see if they have a Twitter account and find out they last tweeted something in 2009……and have 9 followers.

I also heard their complaints about the commodity driven pricing they are forced to work with now from those online villainous companies like VistaPrint.

I feel lucky, kind of like an outsider looking in, I can see the problems this industry faces. If you are not branding and marketing yourself and your company, you are destined to be just selling “ink on paper” and of course, if that’s all you have to offer, it better be cheap. Well if you’ve read this far, you probably “get it”. I don’t know what to say about those others that don’t, other than I can see CLOSED FOR BUSINESS signs in their future. Have a good night now.

Summer Scrapbooking Made Simple With LifePics Photo Print Options

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LifePics simplifies scrapbooking by helping organize photos and get prints easily, without mail-order waits.

WEBWIRE – Monday, August 22, 2011

August 22, 2011, BOULDER, Colo. – As summer comes to a close, families are often stuck with the headaches of organizing hundreds of digital photos left on personal computers, smart phones, digital cameras and tablet devices. The best laid plans to create a scrapbook or keepsake album of summer vacation memories often fall by the wayside amid the complexity of compiling hundreds of snapshots, uploading them to a photo site and ordering prints that arrive in two or three weeks via mail.

However, now families can simplify the task of getting prints for a summer scrapbook with LifePics. LifePics offers a convenient, easy method for ordering prints and hundreds of other photo products online to pick up at one of 13,000 local photo finishers, including neighborhood drugstores and photo-mats, no matter what type of device the digital images are captured on. LifePics also offers easy-to-use photo applications that instantly transfer photos to a local photo-finisher for printing, eliminating the arduous steps of compiling and uploading photos from a camera or smart phone to a computer, and then uploading them once again to an Internet-based photo site. Customers may receive their prints in as little as one hour and have the convenience of getting prints at a store where they are shopping for other items.

Additionally, with LifePics, those who want to create a summer album but don’t have time or the arts and crafts skills for a personal scrapbook may choose to create a professional-quality photo book, calendar, scrapbook pages or other photo gift online, and order it through their local photo-finisher. LifePics retailers offer dozens of photo products, many priced below $20.

“The fundamental element of scrapbooking is printed photos, yet all too often, getting the prints is the hardest and most time-consuming part of creating an album,” said Ken McDonald, Vice President of Marketing and Customer Success at LifePics. “Our goal at LifePics is to simplify the process so there is an easy, convenient way to get your photos and move on to the fun part: sharing them with friends and family.”

About LifePics
LifePics is the market leader in turning images into prints and photo gifts by connecting billions of digital images to more fulfillment options than any other service on the Internet. Using LifePics’ technology, consumers use the easy order interface to directly submit their digital pictures – taken on cameras or smart phones – to retail photofinishers in their own cities. Orders can be sent directly to stores for one-hour service, or routed to major wholesalers, gift providers, photo book manufacturers, and an assortment of other service providers. The LifePics service is available at more than 13,000 retail stores across North America, Australia, and Africa.

For more information, visit LifePics at www.LifePics.com.

Just Digital brings case binding in-house with finishing spend

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By Tim Sheahan Monday, 22 August 2011

Just Digital has brought hardback binder and casebound book production in-house after investing in a raft of finishing equipment from Ashgate Automation.

The Little Paxton-based business has taken delivery of a Fastbind BooXter Duo panoramic spine edge binder and Casematic H46Pro casemaker as well as a Replay 40 shrink wrapping machine.

According to Richard Ziebart, print operations manager at Just Digital, the new equipment meant the company was no longer resticted to printing text blocks and outsourcing the finishing.

He said: “Bringing this type of work in-house gave us a number of advantages. As well as being more cost-effective, we were able to have more control in turning urgent jobs around quickly.

“We can capitalise on untapped opportunities in future. Currently we are also using it to produce our own marketing material and corporate presentations.”

The eight-year-old company, which runs a trio of Xerox machines, said the ease of use also meant the equipment was up and running very quickly.

Ziebart added: “Anybody can operate the machine once they are shown, which means that we can make binders and hardback pocket books in-house and turn them round very quickly.

“For some customers, who we know order this type of work regularly, we pre-cut the spines and covers so that they are ready to customise and finish. We also keep generic print-ready material, which is overprinted on demand.”

Last March, Just Digital installed a second Morgana DocuMaster and upgraded its first to the latest MK3 version as a result of the company’s “continued recession-beating growth

Netpub focusing on Service

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Aug 21, 2011
Here’s a company spotlight article from one of our subscribers:

Net Publications Inc.
675 Dutchess Turnpike, Poughkeepsie, NY 12603
Tel: (800) 724-1100 Fax: (845) 463-0018

http://www.netpub.net

We here at Netpub like to think we know a lot about service and how
best to offer it to our customers. The print business has for its whole
history been a very service-driven industry with all kinds of personal
touches. We believe in providing full service, but as customized,
web-based solutions like our CLIENTNET have been developed, technology
has taken over much of the service part of the transactions-eliminating
the human element. This type of self-service is not about having the
customer do everything; it is about systematically choosing what
products, services, and functions would best benefit from using
technology-based operations. This is why customized print solutions are
best setup on the web, since the user is placing the copy on the piece
or directing what parts of the data base should be used for the
requested document.

As we see more print solutions being suitable for web-based,
self-service, we are trying to give our customers what they want when
they want it, in a fashion that they feel gives them the best customer
service. When technology can deliver better and more efficiently than a
human, we give our customers control over their needs and individual
requirements to deliver the results they want in a very efficient
format. Of course, we always have the phone lines to actually talk to
our customers. It is our opinion at Netpub that no business can be
completely self-service; sometimes a phone call, with the human touch,
is the best way to deliver the service that is required.

–
Posted By NetPublications to Grogg Blogs at 7/11/2011 11:32:00 AM

Dubai company eyes world record with publication of 1,500kg book

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Source: Gulf News

By Mahmood Saberi, Senior Reporter
Published: 00:00 August 19, 2011

Dubai: A Dubai-based company is planning to beat the world record for publishing the largest book with a 1,500kg tome on the life of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), organisers said on Wednesday.

The pages of the book will be five metres in height — about the height of three people — and will require about four or five people just to turn one page. The printing is being done in Germany but components may be brought to Dubai to complete the process here, the organisers said.

“The idea is to bring the world’s attention to Islam,” said Hatem Mustafa, operations manager of Mashahad Company, the investments firm which is behind the project. Normal versions will go on sale once the mammoth book is launched in Dubai soon after Eid.

Secret details

The biography has been registered with the Guinness Book of World Records. The comprehensive biography has been written by Saudi author Dr Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Muslah.

Details of the book have not been released as organisers are keeping it secret until the launch in Dubai. But sources said the firm is planning to beat the record with 5m x 4m pages and it is likely to weigh 1,500 kg as the paper is luxury, premium paper. The book will have 420 pages. Printing is expected to take nine months.

The largest book on record currently is in Hungary and an image on the web shows a man dwarfed when standing beside it. It is four metres by 3.6 metres and weighs 1,420kg. It was made by 26 people and focuses on the Aggtelek National Park in Hungary. Printing was done on a five metre wide large format printing machine.

The sewing of the book took about five months to finish. The book is on display in Szinpetri, Hungary in a watermill at the National Park.