The Marketing Plaza

Much of what we put out as printers is marketing material for our customers — messaging to help them get their messages across. One of the first rules of marketing is to know your audience and speak in their language. That’s why it’s so interesting that, as an industry, we seem to struggle with communicating about ourselves to both our customers, our employees, and our future employees.

On Tuesday September 16, NAPL will be sending out this month’s edition of NAPL Consultant Ray Prince’s e-newsletter “Prince on Production.” This month, he discusses the work of the Education Summit and the industry’s increasing need to reach out to the younger generation for our future workforce and industry leaders. Ray chairs the committee, which includes reps from all over the industry. Last year’s summit set 6 action items for better positioning the industry for the discerning youthful eye. This year’s breakfast meeting, scheduled for GraphExpo, will review progress to date and then ask for input for new or improved initiatives.

Speaking kid’s speak is truly a different language. In my own personal blog, www.theparentrap.net, I have addressed Teen Speak several times. For instance, do you know the word Chillax? It means to both Chill and relax at the same time. Also, if you sign off a test message with 1-4-3, it means I Love You. Each number represents the letters in the respective word.

Yes, it’s a different world at there. Just a few years ago, my husband and I would not let our daughters wear flip flops to school. Now, we relent in the summer months, and my youngest just got a job at Hollister where flip flops are part of the required dress code! Yes, times keep changing. The challenge for us as employers is to recognize the change, and go along with it where we can. No, we obviously can’t allow flip flops, but perhaps we could start communicating a bit differently in ads using the language of text messaging. It might just have a better chance of being glanced at by a younger eye.

Pazazz Printing in Canada has been getting alot of industry buzz for the YouTube video it launched earlier this year. Did you know, that one of the side benefits of it was that younger potential employees from both within and outside the industry started calling the company because they now thought Pazazz was a potentially cool place to work? If I recall, Warren Werbitt, the CEO, didn’t consider the recruitment potential of the video when he first conceived of it, but he does now.

If you’ve got some ideas on attracting the next generation to the industry, feel free to comment and I’ll share your thoughts with Ray. Better yet, consider attending the Summit. For more information on the upcoming Education Summit, request a copy of the next edition Ray’s newsletter by sending me an e-mail.

Or to receive Ray’s free e-newsletter each month, e-mail the NAPL Subscription Center and put Prince Newsletter in the subject line. In the body copy, please identify yourself in terms of your name, title, phone and company rather than just your e-mail address, so if there’s a delivery problem, we at least know how to get in touch with you, or– heavens — can even snail mail you a copy!

~ Rhona
rbronson@napl.org

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In preparing for a speech I’m giving on Marketing at GraphExpo, I’m currently reading Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams. It’s not easy reading, so here’s my confession: I’m actually listening to it on an Ipod while walking the dog. It’s not great, but it’s the kind of book you almost have to be familiar with in this day and age. Here’s one simple phrase I got out of it last night: “The computer is not a box, but a doorway.” It’s a simple look into how the world of computing and marketing has changed.

TV was the original black box and, in many ways, still is. Its one-way communication with advertising that can easily be skipped through the magic of DVRs. When TV first came on the scene, it was a social experience with entire neighborhoods gathered around one set for a Milton Berle show. Today, more sets are watched by just one person. Even children’s programming seems increasingly watched by a child alone rather than a parent and child.

Computers are almost the exact opposite. The computer started out as a solo black box but with the emergence of Web 2.0, is an increasingly social and multi-faceted communication vehicle. Even if you appear alone at the terminal, the odds are you are increasingly interacting with someone.

It’s my hope that this Linked In group won’t be a one-way communication, but that you’ll respond to the occasional post, ask questions on the discussion board, find things of interest from the group that will lead you to other resources and ideas, and make suggestions back to me about what you’d like to see more of from us.

~ Rhona
rbronson@napl.org

P.S. If you’re going to GraphExpo, please stop by the NAPL booth and say hello. Or, better yet, sign up for my seminar on Wed. at 10am. It’s almost the last seminar of the show and although a few hardy souls have signed up, I’m sure I could use the extra company. The time slot is almost as bad as being the first speaker after a large lunch!

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LinkedIn is more than a networking tool. It drives traffic to blogs and websites. None are mutually exclusive. Use them all to improve traffic and web visibility.

On July 25, 2008, I started a LinkedIn Group for a trade association. It’s been steadily growing ever since. In touching base with other groups and other LinkedIn Group Managers, the key problem facing most groups is “Now What?” Just being affiliated doesn’t do much. The key, it appear, as with everything else is to communicate.

I made the commitment in a welcome letter to early subscribers that I’d send out an e-newsletter at least once a month. I drafted it this week, but it didn’t seem quite right. For one thing, it immediately became too long. One group member wrote me back saying, ” I think that a monthly email would be just fine, and if you feel that there is much more to share than just once a month, I don’t think too many of us would mind.” So, I’m taking him up on the offer, and have decided to also change format.

I’m going to try writing shorter pieces dedicated to one topic at a time, and instead of e-mailing them, posting them to a blog. Why a blog? For one thing, it helps with SEO and traffic back to the association’s main website. In addition, it can be used to supplement and start discussions on LinkedIn’s discussion group function. dA blog also lends itself to short topics, but lets you write more than you can on a discussion forum.

Increasingly LinkedIn is becoming more important in business communications, but not to the detriment of blogs. The social media and networking world is increasingly intertwined.  Discussion Group forums and blogs are just two of the strings in the growing web.
rbronson@napl.org

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