Interactive or Integrated Print?

Feb 27
2009
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A news item from Cal Poly posted on WTT.com today states: "Cal Poly’s Graphic Communication Department is partnering with Goss International to revolutionize the printing industry by making it interactive."  The article goes on to discuss using print to provide codes that can be uploaded to mobile devices to create coupons and assist customers with obtaining special offers.  It's an "important step to ‘reinvent’ the value of print as a medium that expands reach and utility when combined with interactive technology such as handheld devices,” states the release.

That's good news, but begs the question: Hasn't print always been interactive? I would argue print's role hasn't changed, but the definition of "interactive" has.  Years ago, interactive meant a call to action in calling an 800 number and using a coupon code to get a special offer. Today, it means walking around with the coupon code in your mobile phone. Tomorow it may mean having the register scan your mobile phone for the coupon bar code and to do the debit transaction from your checking account.

And, in the end, isn't it all about marketing?  It's not a new concept that integrated marketing programs are the ones that work best. Integrated means using all medium at your disposal including (not excluding) print.  Every medium has its role in a well-thought out campaign.  The goal is to make sure that marketing people like me know where print fits and use it wisely and to their best advantage. Integrated in today's world just means "also interactive!" 

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Written by Rhona Bronson in: Integrated Marketing, Marketing, Marketing News | Tags: , ,

Getting Found

Feb 23
2009
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Today I saw a banner ad on a web site that was borderline profound.  It said " Be Found Before They Start to Search," or something close to that. The message was simple.  The challenge is not about being found. It's about having customers who never look for anyone else but you.

Once customers start to search, the gig is up.  You're already a commodity.  One of many competitors who need to stand out to attract a customer. A better game plan is to be so solidly entrenched with a customer that he or she would never fathom to look around for anyone else. 

In the web 2.0 world, you constantly hearing about search optimization.  It's true that customers more and more use the web to find vendors, but it's also true that great partners, vendors and suppliers are not a commodity and are not searched for as if the customer were looking for a local plumber or lawn care service.  Once they are looking for you on Google, you have been relegated to lawn service status. 

Bottom line:  Graphic arts and printing companies are more special than that.  Let's be found long before a customer starts searching.

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Written by Rhona Bronson in: Marketing, Web/Tech | Tags: , , ,

Thoughtful Leaders

Feb 15
2009
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There's been much discussion lately about Charles Darwin, born February 12, 1809, as last week marked what would have been his 200th birthday.  A new book out called Angels and Ages, notes that on that same day, a world apart, Abraham Lincoln was also born. Both men became leaders of their age although in very different fields, and both are still discussed, studied and admired for their thought leadership. 

According to Buckminster Fuller (remember I promised to write more about him in the January post), one attribute of a leader is the ability to anticipate the future.  Similar to Darwin and Lincoln, Fuller was considered ahead of his time.  He saw a future so far out that the rest of us couldn't quite visualize it.  One thing that Fuller, Lincoln and Darwin did in common was to take time (lots of it) to think. For example, Darwin formulated his theories during his famous voyage of the Beagle in 1836. He published notes from that journey in 1838, but his landmark work Origin of Species was not published until 1859, 21 years later!  

In today's world, we all feel time starved.  One of the handicaps for business leaders today is the lack of time to make purposeful and thoughtful decisions. The world is almost moving too fast. Or, is it? Is it possible that we just haven't taken the time to create a strategy, philosophy, or vision about where we want to take our companies? Or, that we've gotten old and tired?

A January 31 Harvard Business Review blog post by leadership author Stewart Friedman discusses the qualities of leadership and he compares great leaders to great musicians. "Leadership is a performing art," he writes. "You can can never be too good at it."  He goes on to explain:

"Great performers devote themselves to increasing their capacity to perform.  It's the same with leaders. The best ones commit to learning continually because they want to make a difference."

In our current youth culture, Stewart Friedman makes a great case for admiring how we can improve with age, especially in terms of leadership.  It's also a good time to go back through the ages and look at our great leaders, many like LIncoln and Darwin, who did not hit their strides until their later years. 
If you're feeling this crisis needs the young, stop and take a deep breath. What it really needs is leadership, thoughtful leadership and experienced leadership.  

It's no coincidence that this year's theme for the upcoming NAPL Top Management Conference is Leadership. As always, it's timely and on target.  I hope you can participate. Another thing I hope you actively participate in is this blog/newsletter.  Please let me know if you feel the topics are on target, feel free to comment on a post, and if you'd like to contribute as an author, I'd welcome a broader voice of thoughts and perspective. Either just write something up you'd like me to post on your behalf, let me know if you'd like to be a more formal guest author, or e-mail me with topics you'd like to see covered. 

~ Rhona Bronson

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Written by Rhona Bronson in: Books, Buckminster Fuller, Leadership | Tags: , , , , , ,

Land of the Free

Feb 01
2009
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If you think Land of the Free refers to the U.S.A., you are showing your age.  Land of the Free is the Internet.  In the January 31 edition of the WSJ's Weekend Journal, author Chris Anderson wrote a thoughtful piece on "The Economics of Giving it Away."   If I can, I'll post the article on the news section of the group.  I posted a NY Times article there earlier in the month, and if you come across a great news story or other material from your neck of the woods, please try to post it on the news section of the our Linked In group so we can continue to gain from our collective experience. Unfortunately, the news posts get buried quickly so you have to dig a bit to get to older uploads.

The gist of the Anderson WSJ article is that the price of goods and services is continually going down, courtesy of innovation and the Internet.  The question for all businesses — mature and start-ups — is how to make money in an increasingly "free" world. Anderson writes: "It's now time for entrepreneurs to innovate, not just with new products, but new business models."  Easy to write — harder to implement, eh?

Even Microsoft, he writes, is feeling the pinch but is responding by providing free services to a segment of the market in hopes that when they mature to larger companies they will already be loyal to Microsoft branded products.  What does that mean for you?  It means finding a model that allows you to provide something free to provide outreach to potential and future customers.  You can't do free forever, but you can rob a page from the supermarket industry and provide some things as a loss-leader.  If you haven't figured it out yet — here's my dirty little secret – that's where Linked In fits in my NAPL marketing strategy.  Now, I've broken a marketing rule here — don't tell people when  you're marketing to them, but you're the Linked In Group and, by definition, a bit more hip than the rest of the industry so there it is… my secret.

This is why I believe so strongly in NAPL. As an association, we are supported by dues, but much of what we provide is value added or "free."  In January, alone, we sent out six different free e-newsletters (four exclusive to members, two open to the general industry), posted more than a half dozen free blogs, and took on the US Postal service on a proposed new regulation.  That's in addition to our member services, economics research, magazine and events.  If you'd like to subscribe to any of the free newsletters, go to our special request page. If you'd like to sample any of the management blogs (giving you a free sampling of some of the best thinking of our brightest consulting minds) go to NAPL's web site (www.napl.org) and click on the blog links.

This past weekend was the amazing Super Bowl XLIII between Pittsburgh and Arizona.  And, as with all Super Bowls, the commercials are almost as important as the game. In that tradition, I hope you'll indulge me with this mini-commercial for NAPL as a real-life example of how free can play out in today's economy.  For more on this business model, I strongly suggest Seth Godin's book Free Prize Inside. Written in 2004, it again shows why he's ahead of his time. To save you time, here's what it's about: We all loved getting the free prize in the Cracker Jacks box, didn't we?  Studies showed kids wanted the box as much, if not more, for the prize than the Cracker Jacks themselves. People still love to be surprised. So, don't just give what you have away… give it in a way that surprises and delights your audience, and make it part of your business model to turn that audience into paying customers.

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Written by Rhona Bronson in: Books, Marketing, Trends, Web/Tech | Tags: , , , , , , ,