Blog

Marketing – Back to basics

6 June 2021 Stuart Nimmo

Marketing is all about educating your customer about a product or service.

Ask any educational professional about key learning styles or methods and they will talk about Visual Auditory and Kinaesthetic (or VAK).

Over the last decade, we have seen a rush to engage digital technologies for the ease and convenience they bring. However, the rush has made us forget the key premise of how we learn. The engagement from touch, reality, which builds trust, through physically being there is missing.

The need throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to be still connected heightened the advancement of digital meetings, through zoom, teams and other platforms. We all read each other’s non-verbal language without even realising it, which has been devoid from digital platforms due to only seeing bust upwards of most participants. However, are we missing other communication receptors in this digital advancement? I know from people I have had conversations with, some have experienced zoom-burn-out, with back to back meetings, taxing the individual’s concentration to the max, through constantly staring at a small screen.

Working only with visual and auditory senses, it’s challenged us. When you think that sight is more than a small screen, hearing is more than the immediate speaker on a call. It leaves touch, which when we pick up something, a book, a pen or even a digital device, they are all crafted to evoke reactions. When we meet people we are aroused by the smell from perfume or aftershave or even fabric conditioner, the typical business meeting we’d meet for coffee or something else and we’d remember the taste and flavour of the coffee or the environment we were in. We build a picture of that moment and automatically attach it to the individual, this forming a mental picture and memories, whether favourable or not.

So are we missing a trick? Is now the time to return to being physical, leading the waive in positively creating memories? Of course, I am biased, I feed of tactile engagements, through my own experiences in print and design. Is it time to arouse the senses?

I am fortunate that I can do things differently, that I am accountable to myself. We have even before the pandemic did engagements via traditional mail, which evoked the senses. Our 2nd birthday being one example, where we partnered with CHIPP Coffee to deliver a cupping experience for our guests. The invitations featured physical real coffee beans inside a tactile (Linen textured board) gatefold (opening out from the centre) invitation. This raised a significant level of interest. Plus, once Royal Mail had processed the mail, they had also gently ground the beans to release some coffee aromas. Over the years we’ve inserted enveloped tea bags, chocolate bars and many other things to play on the wealth of sensory receptors of your audience.

The thinking overall is to think about the total experience, not just the design or the visual. In a world where marketing messages swamp us, the need to be different and pronounced and clear is paramount to achieving better results.

Cutting corners doesn’t pay…

18 April 2021 Stuart Nimmo

I know I’ve written blogs around the topics of design, useful tips and quality of reproduction before. But this seems to raise its head frequently and needless to say, things don’t change. The adage of what goes in is what comes out. Whether it be mail merge data, which hasn’t been prepared correctly, or the consistency is random; flyers that are produced without any thought to the target audience or how they will be engaged with are just a few of the many challenges to great results. The small nuances are the finer detail which is all part of what we do. Some might say it’s the 80/20 rule, but of course, it’s the last 20% that makes the difference.

So here are a few thoughts regardless of what your project is…

Planning

Failing to plan is planning to fail as the adage goes. Print is a pivotal point in a marketing cycle, being scattergun with it doesn’t help you. Having a production plan, including textual copy reviews, branding coherence, ensuring imagery is spot on, now’t worse than text saying one thing and your imagery speaking the opposite.

Know your audience

Absolutely critical, mapping this out will provide you with the key approaches to ensuring you successfully engage your decision-makers. This pen portrait will ensure you know who you are “talking to”

Use your budget wisely

This is where your 80/20 rule shows the most. Cutting corners can do more damage than the difference in the saving. Good design artwork doesn’t have to cost the earth. Good printers have experienced designers in-house. If part of something more critical, a graphic designer will add more flair to a larger project. Rule of thumb, design/artwork studio time within a print house will be £25-£35 p/hr whereas creative designers will be £40-£75 p/hr. Getting your design/artwork right will drive the results, so this is money well spent.

Ensure great reproduction

When a printer has been involved with a job from the start, if they have a good background with traditional “repro” as it was called, they will optimise images to ensure great reproduction. Or as one client called it “Sows Ear into Silk Purse”. See the blog on the Lost Art o f Repro

Print has never been as affordable

True fact, print comparatively is more affordable than it was 10-20 years ago. So don’t try haggling, you just rub the printer up the wrong way. The advent of digital print has reduced the cost of entry. However, set up fees; disk/file handling charges still apply, as it still requires someone to get your file ready for print. The downside of short-run print (small quantities) is that finishing set up costs for lamination, foiling, creasing, folding and other bindery work.

Working with a good print provider will help you to control your project costs, they will suggest ways to ensure you can measure the performance of your printed item. Printers are real-world people, with significant experience of working across media to ensure integration. Yes, you can ship your file to a big internet shed, have it squirted through a machine, and we know the chances of total satisfaction won’t be as high, a local printer does a lot more than you probably realise, above all they are human, and love engaging with people like you.

Lets get back to exhibiting your business!

28 March 2021 Stuart Nimmo

HAD-Print is all about service and support. With decades of experience and specialist partners, who are like ourselves, experienced and skilled in unique disciplines. We bring together a package approach for small and medium-sized businesses to promote themselves in the best possible light.

So after 12-18 months where you’ve had enough of the Zoom meeting, done endless Teams 1-1’s you’re now longing for something different. Yes! The physical engagement. One of the top experiences or highlights for any business is being seen at the right trade show or event.

Here are our top 10 tips to ensure your presence and stand is a success:

Be clear with your objectives

Before you even book a stand be sure of your business goals, ensure the event has the right profile to tick the boxes on the audience’s demographics. Are you launching a product, promoting your products or services or seeking new business? Make sure your targets are SMART with your targets and event budget.

The early bird catches the worm

As the phrase goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail”. Booking early will allow you to get the best location and take advantage of early-bird rates. This will also allow plenty of time for the design, production, delivery and installation of your stand and promotional material.

Brand consistency

Exhibiting will require your brand to be reproduced consistently across all. We can help you achieve this, with specialist print designers and our associate exhibition stand designer, getting consistency is easy with us. We work with your brand guidelines with brand colours, typography, logo positioning and imagery to maximize the results.

Shout about it and spread the word

An exhibition/event is a great opportunity to get seen and build new business. Consider promoting the event on your company’s website, email signatures, newsletters and social media. It’s a great opportunity to send invitations to prospective customers via post – building this into a VIP package for when they attend your stand.

Stand design

Be seen for the with eye-catching media walls/graphics, lightboxes, a bespoke exhibition displays are all great ways to entice visitors to your stand. Arrange a meeting with our associate exhibition designer to discuss your ideas and develop your concept.

** Top tip **
Even on the smallest of spaces, adding height can help you be seen more. Most exhibition halls do have height and stand schemes that are 2.5m high. Chat with us for some canny ideas on how to achieve some height, on a sensible budget.

Marketing collateral

Make sure you have plenty of marketing materials to give to visitors. As well as brochures, leaflets and business cards try some fun promotional items. Items that have an onward life tend to achieve more brand presence moving forward. So items like re-usable shoppers a good start, as they are environmentally friendly and get more use than just the exhibition.

Choose your team

Choose who you want to represent your business and brand wisely, after all, “People like people like themselves”. Apparel can also be a great way of putting people at ease, both your staff and potential customers. Branded t-shirts are a good way of making your team easily identifiable to visitors.

Make it fun

Exhibitions are interactive events, so try and make it fun! Dull and boring doesn’t cut it. Competitions and challenges with prizes can be great ways of enticing visitors to your stand, starting conversations and collecting data.

During the event

Encourage your team to appear friendly and approachable. Set up a rota to ensure your stand is always manned and don’t forget to collect contact details for that important follow up.

Follow up and connect further

Make sure your team follows up all leads as soon as possible after the event. Automated omnichannel marketing campaigns can ensure all leads are promptly contacted across a variety of media, such as email, text message and direct mail thank you cards and opportunities to set up valuable 1-1 refresher opportunities.

HAD-Print produces on-site in Halifax, West Yorkshire all of the above to support you with your physical items for exhibitions and events. We have a specialist Exhibition Stand Designer in Wayne Clarke at Clarke Concepts who can further develop the design of your built exhibition stand. Coupled with our partner installer we can support you from start to completion on your exhibition/event journey.