Print Buying Direct

The markets tomorrow – What does the future hold for printing? – Part 7 – 30th June 2009
There are several ways to obtain power. Pressing piezoelectric materials generates electrical current, so print a button with a ‘Press here’ message. Printed batteries will incorporate the power into the pack invisibly allowing electronics to be printed with a message using elctro activated ink or smart displays. An audible warning might be triggered using printed electronics reminding you to take your medicine or throw out food that is past its use by date. Packs will be able to reach out to potential buyers saying ‘I am genuine’. ‘I am in perfect condition’, ‘I am on special offer’, or ‘Buy me!’ It may send a voucher message to your mobile phone as you walk round a supermarket; this code can be entered as you put your PIN number in to pay. There will be more interactivity when you get the product home, or have it delivered through Internet shopping. Smart labels and packaging will lead to the smart devices. The intelligent fridge, linked to an online grocery could ensure you never run out of milk and standard items. This might link to new microwaves or ovens, the chip determining the correct settings to ensure it is thoroughly cooked, and the sell by data has not been exceeded. Detergent packs could tell the dishwasher or washing machine which cycle to use to minimise energy use.
Today packs have a barcode and a ‘best before’, usually inkjet printed. This is the result of retailer pressure for a standard identifier and governmental legislation on safety. Going forward, combating the rise of counterfeit goods will create some interesting opportunities when RFID chips are incorporated. As well as identifying the product a chip could do more. So, a medicine cabinet (that will also link in to our lavatory as healthcare gets really personal) will have a reader that knows when a drug is placed in it. The packs could use passwords that can be sent to or entered onto the pack for medical packaging. Beyond this, voice and other biometric feature recognition could be incorporated into storage containers such as medicine cabinets or fridges. These passwords might trigger an electrical which could release a memory material cap locking the device.

To be continued…

See Part 6 of this blog on the future of printing.

Order your Appointment Cards online at Print Buying Direct – prices from £13.50 for 100 cards printed in full colour. At print buying direct we are market leaders in the printing of appointment cards and can produce them for doctors, hairdressers, dentists, physio, beauty salons, nail technicians, garages, massage therapists – for anything really. Just visit our Appointment Cards web page for more information.

Our business cards are some of the best in the business – printed in full colour on our £200,000 state of the art digital press – you’ll be proud to hand out business cards that we produce for you. Our business card prices are also very cost effective – 100 full colour business cards for only £10!

Don’t forget we’re still running our Letterheads promotion – 2000 full colour letterheads (headed paper) for £125 delivered! We’ve been producing letterheads since 1991 for hundreds of customs as diverse as Bentley and Royal Mail.

See Part 12 of this blog on Print finishing, See also our Blog on Spot UV Varnishing

Print Buying Direct and School Prospectus Made Easy are both brands of parent company – The Printing House Ltd of Crewe, Cheshire, UK. Keep visiting both websites for details of our latest offers and promotions. For more information School Prospectus including School Prospectus Design or School Prospectus Printing (we also specialise in college prospectus) see our www.schoolprospectus.info website

Have a look at our Newsletters webpage for help and assistance with writing and designing your newsletter. It deals with, company newsletters, college newsletters, school newsletters and employee newsletters in particluar. Our blog often focuses on newsletters and we have a page which specifically helps with newsletters as a marketing tool.

TOP TIP: Add that feel of quality to your company brochure by first applying Matt Lamination then a Spot UV Varnish. The UV Varnishing actually ‘lifts’ your pictures to give them a glossy impact.

Our Digital Brochures (turn page technology) are really taking off now – get your brochure put online from only £15 per page.

One of the mainstays at Print Buying Direct is Leaflets. We are experts at Leaflet Design & Leaflet Printing.

The markets tomorrow – What does the future hold for printing? – Part 5 – 26th June 2009
Mixing and matching
As consumers get used to using the Internet to book a flight, manage their finances, buy books, groceries and even a car they are irrevocably changed and print may not satisfy their requirements. They may choose electronic billing and stop receiving printed versions. Once lost this volume cannot be replaced. There are opportunities for print, however. Legislation demands records are kept, paper versions of bills and statements are accepted legally while there is no proof for electronic delivery. Much e-mail does not get to the intended recipient as spam filters and corporate firewalls filter much out, and often e-mails will be cursorily examined and quickly deleted. Brand owners and retailers will learn that consumers browsing a website do so anonymously and so a potential prospective customer may be lost. A filled in form or a phone request for a brochure provides the identity of a potentially interested customer. Concerns about government and Internet service companies recording e-mails, websites visited, instant messages, phone calls and texts may cramp the potential for electronic communication to print’s advantage.
Print can be a part of the mix and printers will become expert in helping customers reach their customers with tools developed from today’s technologies – e-mail, SMS messaging, RSS, blogs, wikis, mash-ups, memes, social networking, viral marketing and the next bight thing that does not exist yet. Google is set to change publishing and information irrevocably and it is just ten years old. Printers should know about these and find how their print products can fit in with them.
Print can help drive prospects to a site, with a personalised micro site engaging visitors with offers to them. A leaflet, direct mail or magazines can generate leads by offering a benefit for the consumer to register interest. The clichéd term ‘The overall customer journey’ is bandied about by marketers and print has a role in finding prospects, selecting prime suspects, converting them in more valuable customers. Printers need to understand how their customers are using the new technologies and see how they can help. They need to develop strategies to get into the concept and design stage of a campaign.
Some major printers, arvato is a great example, actively help customers optimise their communications while others pay lip service to the process but the tide is starting to change.

To be continued…

See Part 2 of this blog on the future of printing.

Order your Appointment Cards online at Print Buying Direct – prices from £13.50 for 100 cards printed in full colour. At print buying direct we are market leaders in the printing of appointment cards and can produce them for doctors, hairdressers, dentists, physio, beauty salons, nail technicians, garages, massage therapists – for anything really. Just visit our Appointment Cards web page for more information.

Our business cards are some of the best in the business – printed in full colour on our £200,000 state of the art digital press – you’ll be proud to hand out business cards that we produce for you. Our business card prices are also very cost effective – 100 full colour business cards for only £10!

Don’t forget we’re still running our Letterheads promotion – 2000 full colour letterheads (headed paper) for £125 delivered! We’ve been producing letterheads since 1991 for hundreds of customs as diverse as Bentley and Royal Mail.

See Part 12 of this blog on Print finishing, See also our Blog on Spot UV Varnishing

Print Buying Direct and School Prospectus Made Easy are both brands of parent company – The Printing House Ltd of Crewe, Cheshire, UK. Keep visiting both websites for details of our latest offers and promotions. For more information School Prospectus including School Prospectus Design or School Prospectus Printing (we also specialise in college prospectus) see our www.schoolprospectus.info website

Have a look at our Newsletters webpage for help and assistance with writing and designing your newsletter. It deals with, company newsletters, college newsletters, school newsletters and employee newsletters in particluar. Our blog often focuses on newsletters and we have a page which specifically helps with newsletters as a marketing tool.

TOP TIP: Add that feel of quality to your company brochure by first applying Matt Lamination then a Spot UV Varnish. The UV Varnishing actually ‘lifts’ your pictures to give them a glossy impact.

Our Digital Brochures (turn page technology) are really taking off now – get your brochure put online from only £15 per page.

One of the mainstays at Print Buying Direct is Leaflets. We are experts at Leaflet Design & Leaflet Printing.

The markets tomorrow – What does the future hold for printing? – Part 3 – 24th June 2009
Shaking hands with the future
So, what does this mean for print productions?
In ten years time, people will still read books, magazines and newspapers. E-books will be more widespread with more readers joining those already here, but books won’t be dead. Amazon’s Kindle (an e-book reader, which allows the user to read electronic books) was launched in the US in November 2007 price at $399 and the first batch sold out in five hours, but then there were no more until April 2008. Citigroup estimates Amazon will sell around 380 00 Kindles in 2008 with Forrester Research predicting Sony’s Reader will sell only a fraction of that. Forbes Magazine reported that the Apple iPhone is more popular than Kindle for books, although it is no obvious how they will sell titles not in the public domain. Stanza is a free book reading application, by October 2008 there had been some 400 000 downloads.
Proponents suggest electronic readers will become publishing’s iPod. A small light device can contain hundreds of books making reading on a train or a holiday reading list easy to carry. They have features books don’t, for instance, a word can be looked up on the dictionary, and legibility can be changed with large text versions available for older eyes. But there are drawbacks. Navigation can be clunky and power is needed. While an iPod allows owners to copy their existing music from their CD collection, it is necessary to purchase your reading matter again, although if Google has digital content freely available this might change, but may content owners are fighting this. With a book you can be pretty sure that in 20 years you could re-read it – subject to coffee stains if not being ‘borrowed’ by your brother in law. With electronic devices you will have to buy another one in a few years; hopefully you will be able to transfer your library then. An MP3 player is a small, portable, easy to use device that provides access to the sensory experience of listening to music. The sensory experience of reading involves the feel and smell of a new book, as well as the reading experience that may involve a bedtime story for a child. This involves emotion. The iPod is regarded as a design classic and far better than soulless CDs. The same is not true of most e-book designs, and books do have soul, so it is unlikely they will be replaced in ten years.
They may well be printed differently, however. Growth in print on-demand and the opportunities of ‘The Long Tail’ to keep books in print will boost digital book printing. Distributors such as Amazon and Lightening Source will print, as will bookshops such as Blackwell’s with its in-store Espresso Machine. Digital print has opened new market opportunities as well, e.g. photo books, school yearbooks, vanity publishing. Books will still be here in ten years, as will magazines and newspapers.

To be continued…

Order your Appointment Cards online at Print Buying Direct – prices from £13.50 for 100 cards printed in full colour. At print buying direct we are market leaders in the printing of appointment cards and can produce them for doctors, hairdressers, dentists, physio, beauty salons, nail technicians, garages, massage therapists – for anything really. Just visit our Appointment Cards web page for more information.

Don’t forget we’re still running our Letterheads promotion – 2000 full colour letterheads (headed paper) for £125 delivered! We’ve been producing letterheads since 1991 for hundreds of customs as diverse as Bentley and Royal Mail.

See Part 12 of this blog on Print finishing, See also our Blog on Spot UV Varnishing

Print Buying Direct and School Prospectus Made Easy are both brands of parent company – The Printing House Ltd of Crewe, Cheshire, UK. Keep visiting both websites for details of our latest offers and promotions. For more information School Prospectus including School Prospectus Design or School Prospectus Printing (we also specialise in college prospectus) see our www.schoolprospectus.info website

Have a look at our Newsletters webpage for help and assistance with writing and designing your newsletter. It deals with, company newsletters, college newsletters, school newsletters and employee newsletters in particluar. Our blog often focuses on newsletters and we have a page which specifically helps with newsletters as a marketing tool.

TOP TIP: Add that feel of quality to your company brochure by first applying Matt Lamination then a Spot UV Varnish. The UV Varnishing actually ‘lifts’ your pictures to give them a glossy impact.

Our Digital Brochures (turn page technology) are really taking off now – get your brochure put online from only £15 per page.

One of the mainstays at Print Buying Direct is Leaflets. We are experts at Leaflet Design & Leaflet Printing.

The markets tomorrow – What does the future hold for printing? – Part 2 – 23rd June 2009

See part 1 of this blog on printing here

Driving the changes
When considering the future of printed products it is useful to consider the opinion of the final user, rather than the opinion of a buyer or supplier. Like all consumers, they will be swayed by advertising (even if they claim that they are immune to it). Real people do not buy or interact with print per se, they react with products that have been printed. So, a reader will buy a Harry Potter story or a textbook for a course; their newspaper or magazine of choice; be provided with a chequebook and debit card by their bank; receive a mailing with an offer or information. They are largely unaware of the printing processes; they react to the content and if an alternative to print provides benefit end users will take advantage of that benefit, no matter what print suppliers try to do. In 2008, print is not seen as ‘sexy and modern’ by many new consumers and buyers who have grown up with the Internet, mobile phones, texting and instant messaging. It is important to remember that the important function is the content, not the media. Print is seen by too many real people as a destroyer of tress. It is important for suppliers and industry bodies to attack this perception, but the change of attitude by end consumers is causing the changes in print products that will be significantly different in 2018. This will be enable technology changes, particularly:
• IT- systems will be much faster and cheaper and it will be easier to communicate. Moore’s Law states that the power of processors doubles every 18 months and this is actually accelerating. There are other IT laws. Mead’s Law says every 18 months the price of transistors will halve, true since 1950. Gilder’s Law suggests the total volume of data transferred is tripling every year and Metcalfe’s Law says the value of the resulting network is proportional to the square of the number of users, who are growing strongly.
• The Internet- often forgotten is the new generation of people coming into marketing and buying positions. The Internet generation is here; they do not necessarily rely or think of print as their key media.
• Globalisation- the good news is much of Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia will have largely developed but there will still be low cost countries, (Pakistan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines) to offer low cost printing.
• Environmental pressure – this will grow and printers will have to demonstrate their carbon footprint.

To be continued…

Order your Appointment Cards online at Print Buying Direct – prices from £13.50 for 100 cards printed in full colour. At print buying direct we are market leaders in the printing of appointment cards and can produce them for doctors, hairdressers, dentists, physio, beauty salons, nail technicians, garages, massage therapists – for anything really. Just visit our Appointment Cards web page for more information.

Don’t forget we’re still running our Letterheads promotion – 2000 full colour letterheads (headed paper) for £125 delivered! We’ve been producing letterheads since 1991 for hundreds of customs as diverse as Bentley and Royal Mail.

See Part 12 of this blog on Print finishing, See also our Blog on Spot UV Varnishing

Print Buying Direct and School Prospectus Made Easy are both brands of parent company – The Printing House Ltd of Crewe, Cheshire, UK. Keep visiting both websites for details of our latest offers and promotions. For more information School Prospectus including School Prospectus Design or School Prospectus Printing (we also specialise in college prospectus) see our www.schoolprospectus.info website

Have a look at our Newsletters webpage for help and assistance with writing and designing your newsletter. It deals with, company newsletters, college newsletters, school newsletters and employee newsletters in particluar. Our blog often focuses on newsletters and we have a page which specifically helps with newsletters as a marketing tool.

TOP TIP: Add that feel of quality to your company brochure by first applying Matt Lamination then a Spot UV Varnish. The UV Varnishing actually ‘lifts’ your pictures to give them a glossy impact.

Our Digital Brochures (turn page technology) are really taking off now – get your brochure put online from only £15 per page.

One of the mainstays at Print Buying Direct is Leaflets. We are experts at Leaflet Design & Leaflet Printing.

20 Years of publications printing – Part 7 – 29th May 2009
A colourful world
Colour is something we now take for granted in newspapers, but it has been utilised for only a relatively short time. However, this increasing use of colour has made newspapers more interesting and eye catching, and has certainly added to the popularity of the supplements. It was 1986 that saw Today (which ceased publication in 1995), the first colour national daily launched, and even in the US it was so short a time ago as 1007, that the first colour photograph appeared on the front page of the New York Times. However, the ‘local’ papers were printing in colour long before the nationals.

According to the Newspaper Society ‘Publishers have invested millions in new printing presses and production technology – the last few years has seen the 20 year printing press investment cycle return with confidence levels high in the future of the printed word. The coming 12 months will see the culmination of a one billion pounds spend on high speed, full colour presses, for both regional and national press titles – a huge commitment to the future of traditional newspapers in a multimedia era’.

At a recent conference organised by the World Association of Newspapers, the organisation’s business director Eamonn Byrne said, ‘We are in a position to exploit multimedia in a way that Google, or Yahoo, or our TV competitors are not.

‘We have print. We have digital, which offered the opportunity for us to become broadcasters, to become radio. We have the opportunity to become multimedia companies that other companies don’t have. We can offer print, mobile, video, and audio combinations across our media, to the advantage of our advertisers.’

He continued, ‘Print, by any standard, is the trusted media in most markets, even amongst online users. The first lesson is, print brings something very significant to the table, other than just its audience.’

Although there is no doubt that the publication sector will face many challenges in the coming years, the very nature of reading for leisure, convenient information gathering, and study will still ensure that, at least for the time being, print on paper books, magazines and newspapers will still have a place in our society.

To be continued…

See Part one of the Blog on Variable Data Printing – also part one of this blog, Publication Printing

Print Buying Direct and School Prospectus Made Easy are both brands of parent company – The Printing House Ltd of Crewe, Cheshire, UK. Keep visiting both websites for details of our latest offers and promotions.

20 Years of publications printing – Part 5 – 27th May 2009

Magazine rack
Magazines too are embracing the Internet and many now offer an online presence. Software technologies enable magazines online to mimic the abilities of the print and paper versions with ‘page turner’ technology that allows the reader to interact with the magazine in a virtual world in much the same way as they would with a conventional product. The reader can turn pages, zoom in and out of areas of particular interest, and get even more information from clicking on video, audio, and PDF pop ups, as well as instant hyper linking to other websites. This makes it a more in depth experience, but reading on screen is still not as enjoyable as reading a printed version – nor is it as flexible.

According to the PPA and PricewaterhouseCoopers, the UK magazine market is set to increase in worth at around 9.2% between 2007 to 2011. Advertising spend is set to increase by 9.7% over the same period, but consumer titles a will see the larger portion of this with a spending increase of 14.8%, whilst trade magazines will see an increase of 5.4%.

And, even with the challenges posed by the Internet, the two organisations see consumer spending on magazines rising by 8.8% to 2011. ZenithOptimedia aggress with this positive outlook, estimating that advertising spend in magazines will grow 7.4% globally by 2010.

Perhaps because a magazine is a product with a ‘throw away’ culture and not something that is bought to be kept forever, the big ‘threat’ of the Internet has not emerged. In fact, electronic media seems to be playing in the favour of magazines by giving them a broader reach, and certainly for the next few years will remain a complementary offer for publishers rather than a true ‘threat’. The PPA says that ‘In the decade since the dawn of the Internet, consumer expenditure on magazines has increased by 48%’ and that ‘consumers spent nearly £2.2 billion on their favourite magazines in 2007, a growth of nearly £500 million on 1997 figures’ (Advertising Association).
The World Advertising Research Center (WARC) states that 48 million UK adults purchased 1.4 billion consumer magazines in 2007 – an increase in sales of 69 million on five years ago. This now means that the average adult still buys almost 30 magazines a year – even with access to information from electronic media.

The number of magazines available is till growing too. According to BRAD (British Rate and Data), in the UK there are now 3409 consumer magazines, which is up from 2438 in 1997 – a 40% increase over the past decade.
The business magazine publishers have also seen growth over the last decade. Figures for 2006 show this sector with a worth of £8.9 billion per annum.

In 2007, there were some 4917 UK business magazines with around 700 publishers. The PPA states that ‘Eighty-seven percent of decision makers use business and professional media publications regularly for work purposes, more than any other medium’.

To be continued…

See Part one of the Blog on Variable Data Printing – also part one of this blog, Publication Printing

Print Buying Direct and School Prospectus Made Easy are both brands of parent company – The Printing House Ltd of Crewe, Cheshire, UK. Keep visiting both websites for details of our latest offers and promotions.

20 Years of publications printing – Part 2 – 20th May 2009

The Periodical Publishers Association (PPA) states that ‘More of the Internet generation read consumer magazines than any other age group. Contrary to popular belief, 80% of 15 to 24 year olds read consumer magazines. This is a higher penetration than in any other age group’.

A survey for the BBC RaW literacy campaign in 2006, found that reading was an important activity for 79% of people- even more popular than sex (69%), TV (67%) or computer games (15%). However, although 82% of the population say they enjoy their reading, 17% say they do not. And, whilst channels to market might change, with increasingly numbers of people going online to sites such as Amazon to buy their books – books are still what they buy.

Hot off the press
There is no doubt that the newspaper market has changed over the last 20 years. The good old days of Fleet Street are long gone (in 1989 the last Fleet Street paper was produced by the Sunday Express). The Newspaper Society now estimates that in the UK newspaper market there are around 1300 regional and local, daily and weekly newspaper titles, along with more than 750 standalone magazines. Add to this the host of national daily titles and their Sunday editions. There are 85 regional newspaper publishers, whilst less than 10 own the national press. Many of these big players also have interests in the local press.

The market has seen paginations come down in most cases, the ‘free’ daily commuter newspaper has become an institution (the Metro was launched in 1999), supplements have been boosted to add more interest, and publishers are using online versions of their publications to add a new facet to the printed versions. Advertising is still fairly strong, although some has migrated to the Internet, TV or other forms of media. This has impacted more on local newspapers than on larger national, as ‘locals’ tend to rely more heavily on advertising revenue, whereas ‘nationals’ derive a good part of their income from sales and subscriptions.

According to the Advertising Association Yearbook 2008 ‘Regional press is the largest print advertising medium in the UK, taking £2.8 billion a year and accounting for 16.1% of all advertising revenue’.

Pricewaterhouse Coopers also sees a growth trend for newspaper advertising over online media. It has forecast that print advertising will grow to $123.3 billion worldwide in 2012, while digital advertising will grow to $13.4 billion.

To be continued…

See Part one of this Blog on Variable Data Printing

Print Buying Direct and School Prospectus Made Easy are both brands of parent company – The Printing House Ltd of Crewe, Cheshire, UK. Keep visiting both websites for details of our latest offers and promotions.

In flight, preflight, and post flight – part 4 – 8th May 2009

Keep on checking
Once the packaged job for PDF are sent to the print shop or publishers (normally next in the workflow), the post production person does a final check, or post flight of the PDF file. Some of these checks include page set up, transparency usage, that fonts are embedded and that images are there and in the proper high resolution. Enfocus’ PitStop excels at the final PDF check, which must be done to prevent against any unforeseen errors up to this point in the workflow. What is more, PitStop can be used to fix any remaining problems. Some will opt for FlightCheck at this post flight staged as well, for is can also fully flight a PDF print job.
Generally, there cannot be enough checks in the workflow. This is because there are various disciplines and mindsets needed to produce the final printed product. Using a myriad of known and reliable software solutions is all important, and in some cases the solutions may straddle both the creative and the pre-production aspects, or even the creative and post production aspects. Yes, with the proper software tools used to preflight documents before printing, the pilot is able to keep an eagle eye on those gauges and a steady hand on the tiller during the light. It is just plain simple logic to understand flight checks must take place before take off, and after landing as well!

To be continued…

See Part one of – The magic circle – print, paper and recycling – also part one of this blog – in Flight, preflight and post flight

Print Buying Direct is the online facility for buying print of The Printing House Ltd of Crewe, Cheshire, UK

The Printing House are specialists and experts in Prospectus of all kinds – see our dedicated prospectus Website www.schoolprospectus.info – New on our Schools site – have a look at our new turn page technology (also known as digital editions)- have your prospectus or brochure online (digital prospectus or digital brochure) – but turn the pages as if it was paper.

Don’t forget to see our new offer – Budget Black and white leaflets – 10,000 Leaflets designed, printed and delivered for only £199

Best of all – don’t forget that our Banner Stands (pull up banners) are still only £99 plus delivery!

Business Cards (Business Card Printing) – £10 for 100 Full Colour Business Cards.

We’re still running our very popular Lettterheads Campaign. 2000 letterheads for only £125 in full colour, printed onto a quality 100gsm laser guaranteed paper. see our letterheads webpage for more info.

At The Printing House (Print Buying Direct) we are experts at helping you with the production of your newsletter, whether it be for your employees, customers or fellow club members. See our Newsletters web page for help and advice.

Keep an eye out for our new website for The Printing House Ltd, due for relaunch in May.

Our superb Wallet Folders are still on offer – see http://www.printbuyingdirect.co.uk/wallet-folders.html

Transactional and Direct Mail – Part 1 – 18th March 2009

Transactional documents are a necessary evil, direct mail is a typical occurrence in everyday life- often dubbed in the negative as junk mail, third class post or nuisance mail. None of us likes receiving bills, we tend to chuck the direct mail into the bin, we tenuously scan the loyalty card statement- but we soon get our communal dander up if anyone should dare suggest that we go online in future to look at our bills rather than have a printed statement. Why? Because a printed document is comfortable and safe, it is tactile, it is flexible, it can be easily stored, it is quick to locate, it can be kept for future reference, it can be notated upon. It is a good safe of reference and solid verification if things should go wrong.

Although transactional printing is a mature market- and for many has bottomed out, there are interesting activities going on just below the surface. A new route to market is emerging today that is opening up opportunities for transactional printers and the marketers that they work with, and that is transpromo printing- a conventional transactional document that bears a proactive promotional message. Meaning that those bills, statements and policy documents we all receive, now become a revenue boosting communication. It is only through recent advances with digital technology, that the full value of transpromo- personalisation and variable data in runs of one- can blossom. This type of messaging could never have been achieved before, nor could it be carried out with any other technology. And, with environmental claims that direct mail is harmful to the environment, and even hints about possible legislation being bandied about to stop unrequested mail being delivered, the time may come when the only way to get your direct marketing message across will be in the form of transpromo documents- after all, there are many people who will keep asking for these printed bills and statements. It wont be until the new generation of the ‘screenagers’ of today have grown up and themselves become bearers of credit cards, monthly bills, and mortgages that things may really change- and even then, many will still want a printed document for all the reasons already stated.

Marketing is not just about increasing sales, but also about spreading millions of cheques, invoices, and statements that are printed, it is the ideal mix for marketers wanting to spend as little as they can to get the most return as possible.

According to studies from the Direct Mail Information Service (DMIS), on average a customer will spend 42.5 seconds looking at a bill- better than direct mail where most is simply confined to the waste. In fact, two out of three customers rarely or never read the direct mail leaflets included with their bills.

Transpromo means less waste, less paper use, reduced, cost of time in production, reduced storage, improved effectiveness, and the flexibility for the advertisers to change the message whenever he wants to, as well as to up sell and cross sell his services.

Transpromo, as the new form of transactional printing, does however pose questions of its own that will need answering, to add to those inherent in transactional mailings- security, integrity of data (there is nothing worse than receiving a Saga holiday brochure if you are only 30!), getting designers, creative and advertising agencies to understand the benefits, competitive media, relevance and creating the right image- I doubt that your M&S credit card statement would look good with a Jo’s Pizza advert on the top! However, if used intelligently, relevant information will enhance the end customers experience, whilst gaining more sales for the printers’ customer- a Tesco loyalty card statement, for instance, with information and special offers/vouchers for the companies it has working co-operations with-each statement personalised to a specific individual carrying offers on things that he buys regularly, rather than a blanket coverall where offers received may be on things you never but. Transpromo is already here, and it looks like a market that is certainly set to grow.

To provide insight into this substantial market, InfoTrends has recently completed a study- Trans Meets Promo… Is It More Than Market Hype? – In the United States. The research builds on two previous Future of Mail studies conducted in 2003 and 2006. It focuses on direct marketing, billing, statements and notifications. According to the report, ‘While the North American market for transpromo communications printed in full digital colour stood at 1.7 billion impressions in 2007, InfoTrends projects this number to reach an astounding 12.8 billion by 2012. Also compelling is the fact that 63% of document owners surveyed stated that they currently add marketing messages to statements or are planning to within the next 36 months’.

Advertising through transpromo will rise to become a serious force, with predictions of its value reaching around £0.5 billion in the UK alone.

See some of of useful recent blog articles

• 7 Guidelines For Good Newsletter Printing

• Presentation Folders – Just £227 for 100 Folders

• Award Winning Graphic Design – From Print Buying Direct

• Print departments – Graphic Design – part 1

• New Website – specialising in School Prospectus Design & Print

• Improving Your Response Rate to Leaflets, Flyers and Brochures

Print Buying Direct is one of the Uk’s leading suppliers of graphic design and print, based in the Crewe and Nantwich area of Cheshire (UK) but supplying all of the UK & Ireland. See our websites for more information on graphic design, brochures, business cards, appointment cards, leaflets, flyers, pamphlets, posters etc

Print Buying Direct is a trading name of The Printing House Ltd. This brand was originally set up to protect the quality name of The Printing House of Crewe and Nantwich, Cheshire, Uk – recognised throught the North of England as a quality printers. Now Print Buying Direct has established itself over the last two years and has become a quality brand in its own right with very competitive prices nationally. Take a look at both websites and learn more about us.

Please feel free to browse our print buying website and use it as a useful tool – we are adding new pages and offers every week. So keep popping back, subscribe to our printing blog, email info@printbuyingdirect.co.uk or call call 0870 950 8444.

For more information please see our websites – especially our Printing Glossary – Printing A to Z – this makes a really useful guide for designers, printers, print buyers, college students etc.

Don’t forget The Printing House also specialise in Printing for Schools, especially School Prospectus, Secondary School Prospectus, College Prospectus, Primary School Prospectus & Sixth Form Prospectus. We have a vast range of experience design and print of primary, secondary, 6th form, college and universtity prospectus. Visit our School Prospectus Made Easy website to see examples of our work and more about our products. Our customer testimonials webpage is constantly being added to – please stop by and see our reviews.

Increase the Wow Factor – 4th February 2009

It’s not just the design and print that can determine how your finished printed item (brochures, leaflets etc) looks and feels. Fancy a very high gloss or matt finish on one side of your brochure cover or both sides or even throughout the whole of your leaflet, brochure, annual report or poster?. Then talk TODAY on 0870 950 8444 to one of our print professionals at the North West’s leading printing companies – Print Buying Direct at The Printing House, about Gloss Lamination OR Matt lamination, it’s not as expensive as you may think.

For more information please see our websites

The Printing House

Print Buying Direct (Print Buying Direct is a brand of The Printing House Ltd, Crewe, Cheshire, UK)