Brand Messages that Spark Sales: Why   Authenticity is More Important Than Ever

As pandemic patience wanes, consumers are getting restless.

Many people are ready to get back to “real life,” to return to a routine, go on vacation, or be less conservative in their spending. This means this is a great season to kickstart a new marketing campaign!

Striking the right tone can be a challenge. Are you looking for relevance and timely messaging? In this sensitive cultural moment, it can be hard to say just the right thing. But bland clichés don’t sell products. Today, many brands are tempted to offer platitudes centered around themes of unity, healing, and getting along. Businesses are falling over themselves as they promise to be “here for you,” or remind us that, “in these uncertain times, we care about your needs.”

Skip the Platitudes

There is a better alternative, and it starts with authenticity.

Authentic marketing means the heart of your business connects directly and deeply to the core of your audience. It's now time to stop hiding behind cheesy messages about how we’re “all in this together.” Instead, be bold and straightforward about matching the products you offer with the needs people have.

Today’s consumers can smell artificial ads a mile away, and it is a major turnoff. According to one survey, 84 percent of millennials stated that they don’t like advertising, and the increasingly fake tone of today’s campaigns certainly won’t help. When you want to inspire action, start with your own unique brand voice, and build messages that inspire action.

What might that look like? Rick Maynard, senior manager of public relations for Kentucky Fried Chicken, explains the authenticity of KFC’s brand voice like this:

“KFC’s social purpose is to celebrate ‘real.’ To us, being real means being honest, inclusive, boldly unapologetic, refreshingly to the point, insightful and occasionally, a little edgy. We steer clear of being artificial, judgmental, insecure, full of hot air, timid or gimmicky. We try to celebrate our real fans, engage in real talk and encourage real consumer-generated content. We prefer ‘man on the street’ images over staged food shots. That’s what being authentic means to our brand. And the great thing about being real is it’s also really easy. It’s much more difficult to try to be something you’re not."

To avoid a hollow, insincere tone, be as conversational as possible. This may be friendly, direct or daring, but it dials down on what you have to offer and why someone should respond.

Activate Consumer Instincts

What will drive people’s instincts to spend, make purchases that they’ve put on hold, and resume more normal customer behavior patterns? And how can you trigger those instincts?

First, your advertising should validate consumers’ need for preservation. Reflect an understanding of their natural desire to feel safe – like a prevention focus.

A Prevention Focus frames marketing messages around the problems a product can avert. Prevention themes are excellent for identifying problems and advocating for safety, personal health, long-term solvency, crisis aversion, etc. 

Authentic advertising should also help edge consumers more toward the perseverance or benefit side – like a gain focus.

A Gain Focus frames marketing messages around the benefits a product can provide. Benefit/gain themes are essential for brands selling security, reliability, peace, and comfort.

Reboot Your Image

Most consumers believe that most brands are not creating authentic content that meets them where they are at.

If you want to restart your sales engine, focus on what marketing can do best: reach people’s innermost mental processes and trigger their instincts to buy. Use a genuine voice, connect with your customers' benefit or prevention needs, and get straight to the point.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ANY OF OUR MARKETING PRODUCTS CALL: 516-561-1468 OR GO TO: www.printcafeli.com

Winning the Name Game: What We Can Learn from the World’s Stickiest Brands 

Have you ever wondered how the most iconic brands got their names?

The Lego story is as elegantly simple as the blocks themselves.

The Lego company began in the workshop of Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1932, where he crafted wooden toys. Christianson’s inspiration for the brand name came from the Danish term for “play well” – leg godt. By combining the first two letters of each word, he created a unique and meaningful brand name that has transcended countries and generations.

In 2016, Lego’s turnover grew 6% to 5.1 billion euro, surpassing Mattel’s measly $4.9 billion, making them, for the first time, the world’s largest toy company.

Making Your Name Stick

A great name can make a brand.

In today’s expansive global market, it gets harder and harder to win the name game. If you want your name to be known and respected, you have to pick a winner and make it stick.

What makes a great brand name? The “stickiness” of the word can make all the difference. Names that closely align with the service they offer are especially memorable (like Twitter, Smuckers, Naked Wines, SnapChat, Netflix, PayPal, Red Bull, Dollar Shave Club, and Snuggie).

Names with engaging metaphors are powerful too. When paired with a clear graphic device, names that suggest something beyond their literal meaning create some of the most evocative brand identities.

Take Amazon, for example. When Jeff Bezos was looking to carve out space as the biggest bookstore globally, he wanted to convey his company’s sense of mystery and endless possibility, available to any customer with an internet connection. Bezos tried two or three names before settling on “Amazon.”

The metaphorical impact of this name had great appeal: the Amazon River was the biggest in the world, home to a vibrant ecosystem as exotic and different as Beso’s dreams. It was the ideal metaphor for his new venture. The Amazon was striking and boundless, just as he wanted his online store to be. It was also the largest river in the world, 10 times larger than the next contender – perfectly fitting the vision for Amazon’s status today!

Growing Top-of-Mind Awareness

Once you’ve found the right name, it’s time to get it in circulation.

Brand awareness is the extent to which a brand is recognized by potential customers and correctly associated with its particular product or service. When your name becomes familiar, you will enjoy all kinds of perks:

-- People will know who you are and what you do

-- A viewer will be more open to reading your ads or mailings

-- Search engine users will be more likely to visit your website

-- Prospects will be warmer toward a referral from one of your current customers

-- Customers will be more likely to choose your brand over others, even if there are cheaper options available

Looking for ways to get your name out in your community or industry? Here are 10 ideas:

1. Create a custom hashtag that plugs your unique selling proposition 

2. Participate in or sponsor local events

3. Build bright, colorful infographics 

4. Post regularly to social media using your brand voice

5. Sell your name through special shapes (i.e., die-cut postcards, magnets, or key chains)

6. Go mobile by creating colorful decals for vehicles

7. Hang full-size posters in “can’t miss” locations

8. Add a blog to your website and feature it in printed inserts or newsletters

9. Invite your employees or VIP customers to wear branded clothing at key community events

10. Design beautiful labels for all your products

It’s a good idea to use a mix of online and offline strategies to build awareness in most cases. The more customers see your company, the more likely they are to think of you when they’re ready to buy.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ANY OF OUR MARKETING PRODUCTS CALL: 516-561-1468 OR GO TO: www.printcafeli.com

Disable Defenses by Creating Curiosity with Your Marketing

You want your prospects to understand how your products can solve their problems, so they’ll be moved to make a purchase.

But people don’t go from uninterested observers to committed buyers overnight. Asking for a sale is a relational proposition. And relationships have rules. Understanding the stages of a marketing relationship is important because it helps you understand what your sales funnel needs to accomplish.

Just as you wouldn’t propose marriage before a first date, you can’t rush a customer into a purchase.

What do romantic relationships, friendships, and committed customers have in common? They all move through three stages:

1. Curiosity

2. Enlightenment

3. Commitment

People will not want to know more about you (enlightenment) unless they are curious about you. And until they know how you can help them, they will never commit.

Curiosity is a Snap Judgment

The curiosity stage of a relationship is about instant impressions.

Whether you are scanning a print ad or sorting piles of mail, your mind is always evaluating information. Anything not relevant to your survival is perceived as “junk.” You’ll toss it aside completely, or you’ll procrastinate and plan to give it attention later.

At the curiosity stage, prospects decide whether to keep or discard the information you’re offering. At this stage, if you don’t tell somebody how you can make their life better, they will set you aside.

When it comes to marketing – whether it’s the tagline on your direct mail envelope or your entire elevator pitch – you will never succeed if you can’t succinctly express how you will help people survive.

Want to build engagement by provoking curiosity? Get them wondering about something or look for ways to turn information into a quest. A few ideas:

--  Strive to make the information personally relevant

--  Avoid using material that is given away freely elsewhere

--  Use a compelling “missing information” teaser

--  Offer the promise of something worthwhile

--  Combine a curiosity headline with a self-interest subheading

--  Use visuals to suggest or create the perception of mystery

Samples of Curiosity Teasers

• Learn why you never want to eat this before flying!
• Is the Honeymoon Over?
• If You Live in Siberia, This Trick Could Save You Thousands!
• The Secret of a Clutter-Free Office
• Why You Don’t Want to Drink the Pool Water
• Are You Maintaining Your Life or Actually Enjoying It?

Finally, remember to provoke customers with a vision of the “ideal version” of themselves.

Very little of what makes people curious is rational. People don’t buy products or join a movement because they are thinking rationally. They commit based on emotion, status, or dreams of their aspirational identity. If you can stoke curiosity by tugging these heartstrings, you’re already halfway to a sale!

FOR INFORMATION ON MORE OF OUR MARKETING PRODUCTS GO TO:www.printcafeli.com

How to Double Your Sales with Successful Catalog Marketing

Do printed catalogs still work?

The Harvard Business Review (HBR) worked with a U.S. based specialty jewelry company to find out.

This e-commerce retailer (which had no physical store presence) typically generated an annual operating profit of $12 million, with a database of approximately 28,000 customers. This company partnered with HBR to study the impacts of bi-monthly print catalogs through field experiments involving 30% of its customers over a span of six months.

Of those customers, 5% received neither email nor catalogs, 55% received a weekly marketing email, and 40% received the new bi-monthly catalogs in addition to the weekly email marketing. Over 90% of photos and product descriptions were the same between emails and catalogs to control the content's effects.

The results were impressive. Compared to the Control group, the “Email + catalog” group experienced a 49% lift in sales and a 125% lift in inquiries. In comparison, the “Email-only” group only had a 28% increase in sales and a 77% lift in inquiries over the control group; the sales and inquiry lifts from catalogs almost doubled those generated by email marketing!

Furthermore, of those customers that received the catalogs and made inquiries, 90% said they had browsed through the catalogs and kept them for an average of seven days.

Using Hard Copy Catalogs in Your Omnichannel Marketing

Catalogs are here to stay, and companies like L.L. Bean, Ikea, J. Crew, and Athleta continue to dominate sales by distributing printed catalogs.

The simple fact of the matter is that buyers don’t want to connect with brands exclusively online. Yes, the stats show that the number of people researching and shopping online versus in-store continues to grow.

But many buyers purchase online because they’ve seen something marketed through a printed medium. According to BRAND United, around 86% of shoppers buy an item online after looking at it in a printed catalog first.

5 Ways to Keep Your Campaign on Track

If you are considering catalog marketing, here are some suggestions to get you started.

1. Conduct Market Research

Study your current customers and make a note of gender, geographic location, and the strategic personas you’d like to target.

Match the items you want to sell with the target audience you want to reach.

2. Create Campaign Goals

These goals should be measurable, clear, and realistic – like driving customers to a retail location, increasing “product of the month” sales online, or growing your subscription base.

3. Develop Your Story

Catalogs don’t share information; they sell stories!

Your piece should invite prospects into a story that helps them visualize their “ideal self.” And remember, when people are heavily invested in a bigger financial commitment, they need narratives that justify this expense (like, “you deserve something delectable”). Work hard to set their conscience at ease, and you will be rewarded with loyalty and sales.

4. Stay Focused

Continue to send your catalog to existing customers to reinforce the idea that you have the products they want.

In addition, mail your catalog to individuals who fit the description of your target customer.

5. Connect Timelines and Expectations

Create a schedule and execute the campaign.

By using a schedule, you can see if you are achieving the benchmarks you’ve articulated. You can measure the outcome by having customers refer to catalog codes, measuring the number of new accounts generated, or conducting surveys.

A One-Two Punch

Direct mail meets customers where they live, and catalogs are a long-standing customer favorite.

Want to explore catalog marketing options for your business? Give us a call today at 516-561-1468 or hop online for a free estimate or go to:www.printcafeli.com

Print Perfection: Achieve Foolproof Production with this Pre-Printing Checklist

 

Have you ever rushed out the door and slipped on an icy sidewalk?

Or made a hasty decision in traffic that cost you loads of energy in the long run?

Accidents happen when we hurry, and that’s true in both life and work. In project management, sometimes people fail to allow adequate time for extra details or unexpected delays. As you draw close to a marketing deadline, errors are made, and important details are overlooked.

According to large-volume print production expert Allen Glazer, marketers should allocate 25-75% of a design project’s budget for printing costs. And if you don’t catch a mistake in prepress, it will be much more costly to fix down the line.

Do you want to be proud of your next print project while smoothly transitioning from design to print? Use this handy preflight checklist to help you eliminate chaos when a deadline is near.

Thoroughly Proof Your Piece

Scour your document for typographical, punctuation, margin, or grammatical errors.

Have one or two other people proof as well. Mistakes are easy to miss but embarrassing to everyone. To slow yourself down, trying reading your document out loud or read your text backward.

Include Correct File Formats and Crop Marks

It is crucial for you to send the correct file formats (like InDesign, PDFs, etc.) for your project.

This includes support files -- such as original images, artwork, and fonts -- in clearly labeled files. If you have to convert files, check for any corruption or formatting errors.

To maintain your design’s integrity, it is important to link all aspects (images, artwork, and fonts) into a high-resolution PDF. This includes crop marks for bleeds displaying the exact size of your trimmed and finished piece.

Use Correct Resolution

The resolution of image files needs to be higher for print: a jpeg file needs a minimum resolution of 300 DPI (Dots per inch).

If your file does not meet that standard, the quality will not be as sharp or distinct. Also, be sure to clean up distracting resizing or conversion artifacts and lighten any images that may require an ink density too high for the type of paper being used.

Use Consistent Page Layouts

Clean layouts communicate professionalism and make documents easier to read.

Proof your design (especially multi-page documents) to ensure margins are consistent on every page, including booklet covers or pages that feature charts or infographics.

Convert Image Formats to CMYK

RGB JPEG is the default image format for photographs from many cameras, cell phones, and mobile devices.

Screen images on TVs, computers, and cameras use red, green, and blue in varying percentages, but commercial printers typically separate artwork into four-color plates (cyan, magenta, yellow, black).

Most design software will allow you to convert or save a file in CMYK easily, or there are several free online file conversion tools available.

Provide a Printed Proof

A surefire way to ensure a quality product is to generate a poof and discuss it with your printer before the final printing.

It’s also important to discuss turnaround times so you can plan your milestones accordingly and allow for multiple print runs (if necessary).

Nervous? Don’t worry. With local printing, you get the benefit of a work-in-progress partnership. While it’s helpful to have a preflight checklist, the trained eye of a professional is even better! Our goal is to increase your productivity, reduce your stress, and save you time and money as your prep and proof your prints.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ALL OF OUR MARKETING PRODUCTS OR HELP WITH AN UP COMING PROJECT GO TO:www.printcafeli.com

4 Illustrative Design Options for Your Logo or Custom Labels

 

When you are building a business or launching a product, a label or a logo might not seem like a top priority.

But these branding pieces are essential because they open the door to your identity. Logos and product labels grab attention, make a strong first impression, separate you from the competitors, and make you more memorable (so customers come back again and again!).

Many businesses settle for something simple when crafting these brand icons – like the company name with a small swath of color. But have you ever considered an illustrative icon? These visually delightful options carry a pictorial presentation of the features and aspects of your product or personality.

Here are four examples:

1. Literal Illustrations

The more literal your design is, the less work a prospect needs to do to interpret it.

A buck hunting specialist might display a pair of antlers growing out of its business catchphrase. Or a dentist might stamp the name of their practice name inside the shape of a toothbrush. Literal illustrations like these function like a highway sign. Their meaning is clear but limited.

2. Metaphorical Illustrations

Sometimes, an illustration can be concrete while its meaning remains abstract.

Apple provides the classic example of an illustrative logo with its meaning left open for interpretation. Apple doesn’t sell fruit, but the logo features a stylized apple with a bite taken out of it. The logo serves as a symbol or a metaphor – knowledge, forbidden fruit, or the discovery of gravity. Its meaning is indirect but wide open.

3. Subject Specific Pieces

If your product or service centers around one service or word, you can place this front and center in your designs.

Is there one particular picture that matches your brand or product? Here are some straightforward examples:

-- A bee used for selling homemade honey

-- A magnolia flower for a restaurant of the same name.

-- A bucking bronco for a rodeo

-- The face of Colonel Sanders for Kentucky Fried Chicken

Depicting one subject as the focal point of your design will give you a timeless symbol you can stick with for years.

4. Hand-Illustrated Icons

Want something that is absolutely, uniquely YOU?

Hand-illustrated logos start with a freehand drawing that is then digitized into a graphic. Here’s one example: Gatorscapes Landscaping was looking for an energetic custom design, highlighting the company's speedy service and its aggressive, get-it-done attitude. Designers built these qualities into a spirited design – a traditional push-powered mower with the face of a hungry alligator devouring the grass with razor-sharp teeth.

A hand-drawn illustration ensures your imagery is a perfect synthesis of the values and ideas of your business. Plus, they bring out the child in all of us, creating a personal connection with the viewer that penetrates both the mind and the emotions.

Craft an Irresistible Image

Sales are more than just transactions; they involve a process of decision.

When customers buy from you, they express a vote of confidence in your products and your company. Show them they’re in good hands with a professional splash of your brand personality! As you sharpen your image, nothing communicates confidence quite like tactile, stunning print products.

Want to try one of these illustrative options for your next logo or custom label? Our full-service design team can get you started. Simplify and save by combining your design and print needs today!

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS ARTICLE OR ANY OF OUR MARKETING PRODUCTS GO TO:www.printcafeli.com

Packaging and Printing: It’s More Than What Meets the Eye

 

Packaging and printing: it’s more than what meets the eye. In today’s world, packaging is everywhere and used for almost everything — be it the cereal box in the local grocery store or the packaging used to contain your dreaded COVID test kit. With that said, printing is so important in the packaging process

One look at the packaging industry within the last year will show you how packaging is constantly changing. With the advent of COVID 19, social distancing, and lockdowns, the packaging industry had to pivot quickly to meet the demands of consumers who want and need safer packaging, particularly in grocery, toiletries, home goods, and eCommerce. While most people first think about the increase in the waste stream for disposable PPE and individual packs, instructions, certifications, and key details have also changed.  Print provides a different message and new information regarding the pandemic through packaging. As 2021 moves forward, I expect to see some new innovations regarding packaging and printing.

Companies should and will look at printing as a way to market their packaging toward the new, post-COVID consumer: someone who is more thoughtful about what they bring home, engaged with their packaging and its print in a way that is more meaningful than before. This is because packaging can literally save lives with the use of clear printing on its labels, and on the product it contains.

As I sit at my computer writing this, I can already tell you what differences I expect just by looking at the packaged items I’ve been stocking (hoarding) for months. For example: those boxes of KN95 masks from China with KN95 printed prominently on the top, front, and back will definitely be used more often by consumers who are looking to keep themselves safe from any kind of disease, not just the coronavirus. The printing on these boxes is detailed and explains the use of the masks so that any consumer can understand visually. I expect to see other packaging for PPE to follow suit. In contrast, I have samples of food packaging I expect to see this to change in more subtle ways. In recent times, consumers are becoming more aware of what they put in their bodies. As a result, I see food companies changing their packaging to reflect images and messaging of immunity based and organic products. Printing will be paramount in achieving high-quality packaging for food that reflects the new, more health-conscious consumer.

I personally look for packaging that matches my personal values, since the advent of the coronavirus and everything going on in the recent US political landscape. I will be seeking out printing that brings joy but also holds information about the product. I expect to see more than the name of the manufacturer on the packaging, and more about what I can expect from my products and the companies that produce them. I don’t want to wonder how to use what’s inside the packaging. I want to see packaging that is well-printed, that holds meaning and brings value to our lives.

Already there are companies that are creating sustainable, no-waste, reusable packaging. With this change, it will be important to keep in mind what methods and materials are used for package printing, what message the print conveys about each company, and what it tells the consumer.

As a packaging professional, I will do my best to continue to create packaging that gives a different “unboxing” experience to my clients and consumers in the new year and years to follow. I want people to seek out the products and packaging that come from small, innovative startups, manufacturers that are locally-based: companies that truly value their consumers as people. It will be important moving forward, to press companies about their packaging methods. It will be important to be more conscious about what we print on our packaging, and it will continue to be important to convey messages of empathy, health, and goodwill in the post-COVID world.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ALL OF OUR MARKETING PRODUCTS GO TO:

www.printcafeli.com