Marketing Archives

We’ve all heard the phrase one-stop…. Does it work for Trades based businesses?

Savvy Trades have come to discover that building a recognisable brand and having values to it, which reflect who and what you do can help achieve more in business.

Over the last few years, we’ve worked with multi-faceted construction businesses, one-man plumbers, country-wide gas and plumbing engineers, groundsmen and landscapers. What rings true is when they take their identity and use it to not just deliver the basics but tie the visuals and communications together.

HAD-Print – understanding your needs…

It often starts with workwear, which has numerous benefits, and promotion, builds awareness of who and what you do. With customers, it also sets a tone of professionalism with a standard of apparel that reflects the business. As one trades business said to us, “We even get sub-contractors wearing our kit, and then they take ownership of the job they are doing”. Customer expectations have shifted with the rising cost of everything, and labour charges reflect this, equally, customers do expect to see professionalism and presentation. We have a wide range of workwear, from high visibility through to thermal protection

Building on professionalism; Regulatory requirements also mean that ownership of site health and safety can mean localising to make it relevant. Here at HAD-Print, we are well aware of the requirements to produce compliance (Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals Regulations) 1996). We have access to a library of standard Prohibition, Warning, Mandatory and Safe condition signs. So, site access boards combined with your branding and office details and relevant site marshals can be developed appropriately.

Over the years, we have been well aware that project sign-off, and authority to proceed following inspections all require necessary paperwork with signatures. Whilst digital technologies might provide some solutions in certain parts of the construction trade, the need for a physical document is the benchmark which provides the authority and sign-off on the job. We have a wealth of experience with No Carbon Required (NCR) sets providing duplicate and triplicate. Plus, we know what you expect to make them hardwearing on site.

More than just print – relevant marketing

Whilst every business runs social channels and other marketing, people still like people and referral is the strongest. Referral cards and business cards are probably key items. We do get asked for a bit more. One Gas and Plumbing business, left it late to ask us, can we do some flyers for an event… yes is the answer. However, what the owner wanted to develop the business into was maximising some of their recently high-value bathroom work. When running a team of lads, sometimes you just don’t get pictures of work done, equally pictures which sell. Thankfully through our connections, we were able to source the right pictures to meet the aspirations and benchmarks of the business. Combined with some careful copywriting finished flyers were artwork approved, printed and in the hands of Ben within 36 hours of the request.

Another top reason for using HAD-Print for your trade business, is we know/understand you (we’ve grown up with mates and friends in the trades); we can reflect this in any branding work. Make sure it will work across workwear, van graphics, site boards, traditional print and also into your socials. What makes it different, unlike “creative designers” that be architects and interior designers to you as a tradesperson, we suggest functional designs which work across multiple print and production methods. Plus, in our approach of being honest, like yourselves, we know how to bring it in on budget, plus our range of knowledge allows us to specify more efficiently.

King of the hoodies!

Probably the most requested item in any apparel range is the Hoodie. They’ve evolved so much over the last few decades, styling comes and goes, and equally “trend” colours shift on an annual basis too. But they’re well and truly a staple of the apparel mix. Corporates now adopt them for team wear, they appear as an easy means for work-from-home branding, and above all there functional.

Where did they stem from? Well if you go back far enough it’s the monks, that were the first adopters of the hood in everyday apparel. More for functional purposes than style. Hoods keep the warmth in and are so relevant to today’s cost of living issues. Yes, hoodies have had it rough, the 1990s associated them with yob culture. As we said, the flavour has changed.

So with the plethora of options now available how do you start?

With the likes of Just Hoods by AWDis with over 75 colours, the choice is massive. The generic college is the starting point. Also, AWDis have an excellent choice of varsity hoods, with the 2 colour combinations. So the sky is the limit when it comes to colour options.

The next option people ask for is something more weighty. The standard hoodie weight is 260-280gms material, so the next level is 300-310gms weight. In our opinion there are two options AWDis have a heavyweight option, note not with the same range of colours. Also, the other option is Anthem’s heavyweight – we seriously like these, the trim and finishing level on these. Yes, we can get other options around this, however, the finish or quality doesn’t match the two options.

If you’re running an event and need hoodies on a budget, we’d recommend Ultimate Clothing Co, a 260-270gms weight garment, with a limited colour range, but it prints great and delivers a product you can be proud of within a budget.

All of the above can be found in our showroom, so pop in if you want to get your hands on them and decided for yourself!

So if you are planning to style up a hoodie for a merchandise project, here’s the low down on how to manage this from stock to something different;

• consider the cords, yes you can often upgrade these to match your print colour or other styling facet
• hood prints, you really need to get the garment and work out what can appear where, as hood panels do vary from garment to garment style.
• if zipped, you can look at zip pullers, there are options to trim these to make them look funkier.

If in doubt, ask, between us here at HAD-Print we live our hoodies, we’ve tried many different options, and we know what we like. We listen to our customers and pick up what works, even when it is family members who are envious at people’s hoodies!

The big question… Why?

In an age where buzzwords and rhetoric spin around endlessly. Falsities around being kind to the environment by using electronic communications bluff their way into everyday life. Why does print or physical marketing matter?

We exist to provide the following

• enable successful businesses/organizations to engage with effective physical touchpoints
• assist SMEs / charities to deliver effective physical branding to enforce their presence in their primary customer touchpoints
• enable more accountable communications with known carbon footprint materials

What drives us… in a physical world, where being seen is a significant challenge. The reality of physical provides a great opportunity to help SMEs and third-sector organizations to create reality, and retention whilst resonating with an audience in a meaningful way.

The power of print, aka physical marketing, lies in the ability to connect. Connections are created through, the impact of the message; evoking the senses, visual and touch. Print through its lesser utilization due to mass market digital communications being cheap and overused, means print holds a unique power of trust, and reality, there at the moment, with no distractions. When coupled with creativity in a proper design, and well-written content, it has leverage in a very different way. Add in personalized or localized to make the message even more relevant to the recipient, and the engagement level increases further.

As a multi-disciplinary print provider, we don’t just print on paper, but everything through to large format items like banners and signage, through to garments and apparel. Delivering a wide range of physical items ready to take your brand. Delivery of this range of items, allows us to support our customers more fully in delivering their message, even just reminding people of who they are. Of course, this can be subliminal, working in the background.

We don’t live in silos, unlike some graphic communication providers. We know and understand the power of connecting digital communications with print. We don’t profess to be experts in digital communications, however, understand what you can do. Hence why you won’t find us selling websites, social media support or other digital products. At the heart of what we do is the power of physical media through print. We understand the paper, and the nuisances of print finishing, which allows us to better specify strong campaigns and items in print.

Don’t think we are not connected, we do understand marketing basics, we have professionals in other disciplines we love to work with. We will ask, what is your call to action? How do you want to measure or quantify parts of marketing tools? How are you distributing or connecting with people who might be your ideal audience? These aren’t hostile questions, purely us making sure you have thought through a customer journey, where are you wanting them to go next and why.

As for being accountable, we can identify sources of paper, substrates, garment stock and pretty much everything that flows through our print studio. From the shortest journeys of Kendal to Preston and us in Halifax, or paper manufactured in Portugal. With toner which is compostable, latex large format ink. We are well aware of every item we use in our processes. We’d like to challenge you to think of the carbon used in digital communications- you’ll struggle to fully identify every element or resource used.

Above all, we care about what we do, try to be properly responsible, and have some ethics along the way. Perhaps we are an exception to life in modern business society, we aim to be credible, through being responsible. We work best when in partnership with our customers, helping them to achieve whilst delivering progressive development for all involved. Making us part of the bigger community, valued and adding value where we can.