Customized Business Bags a Great Marketing Tool

In today’s over-marketed world, brand owners and brand marketers seek ways to rise above the “Marketing Noise”. Promoting a business brand can be a challenge if the business is in a category where the competition is regressive and the differentiation between two brands is quite thin. That is where, promotional items come as a breath of fresh air. Although the concept of using items like T-shirts, bags, and other personal paraphernalia to promote a brand is not a new one.Nevertheless, it is effective every single time. Promotional items make it easy for prospects and clients to say thank you and improve memory recall.

Though, there are various categories of promotional items, bags are a recurring favorite with both brand marketers on one side, and prospects or customers on the other. While there are various reasons, motives, and incentives associated with gifting business bags to prospects, customers, vendors, partners and employees, the three primary reasons for doing so, in the recent past are:

• Projecting your brand identity effectively: It’s interesting that although promotional items are equally popular with both men and women, they are perceived differently by the two genders. It’s been proved through various consumer studies that, to men, the quality of the item is more important, which is why, they are open to wearing a high quality T-shirt that carries a brand logo, the same way they would use any other quality promotional item. Whereas to women, the utility value of the gifts or giveaways is more important. Which is why, a high-quality bag which carries the brand logo clicks well with both men and women. These could be spacious bags that can accommodate laptops, cosmetic kits, toiletry, clothes and the like. Or they could be the smaller Tote bags that are used to carry small purchases which have become a rage off-late.
• Protecting the environment:A study by Clean Air Council has revealed that in just the US alone, as many as 1 billion shopping bags are consumed every year, creating 300,000 tons of landfill waste. The quantum is unimaginable if one were to consider global figures. Tote bags that are fashionably or aesthetically designed makes for a good replacement to the disposable plastic bag. Shoppers can carry their own tote bag every time they shop and their reuse,helps reduce the demand for plastic bags. In some countries, retail companies are encouraged to give discounts to buyers who bring their own shopping bags, while many countries are mandating carrying of one’s own bag. What better way for Brand Marketers to project and promote their brands than to appear as crusaders for a clean, green environment?
• Promoting Health and Fitness: There is an increasing trend towards employers being concerned about the health and fitness of their employees. While on one hand, employers may have their own interests at heart, on the other; it mirrors the increasing health and fitness consciousness in people. With a large proportion of them being diabetic or obese, Americans are exercising like never before. To brand marketers, this is a great opportunity to promote themselves! Which is why; companies are gifting fitness kits to their employees, prospects and partners, which carry their logo, taglines and a brief overview of their offerings. These kits are designed to carry fitness/sports equipment and promote the cause, while promoting the company.

HillView has years of experience in digital printing, and printing on promotional items. We have a wide spectrum of printers and technologies that can emblazon your logo and other imagery on business bags, and help promote your brand the efficaciously and cost effectively.

Promotional Advertising Specialties - Calendars

In the software and device world, calendars may be a trivial feature, but in real life, calendars are anything but trivial. Almost every human being who is literate refers to a calendar at-least once a day for one or more reasons. Which is why, calendars continue to be printed to this day despite the ubiquitousness of calendars on devices.

There is a clear reason for this. Research has shown that, people in general and customers/prospects in particular remember 5% of what they read, 10% of what they hear but an astounding 25% of what they see. On any given day, these facts can be said to be true of software and devices (one sees or uses a plethora of tools, features, and functionalities on a device), as they ultimately do diminish memory recall. But in the physical world, an object that is seen day after day, does have an impact which does enable tremendous memory recall.

It’s for these reasons that marketers and advertisers list calendars as one of the most preferred promotional items. These are not merely opinions or preferences that are subjective. There are enough statistics to corroborate these findings.

In 2011, Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) and Calendar Advertising Council conducted a study in parts to assess the relevance or impact of printed calendars. The findings from the study which covered various facets, was an eye-opener. A comparative analysis was done with the conclusions of similar studies conducted by the Calendar Advertising Council in the past.

Among the people surveyed: (Source: various sources including www.ppai.org)

• Over 78 percent use a printed calendar at home or workplace
• 82 percent said they enjoyed receiving advertising calendars
• 75 percent had a printed calendar in the kitchen
• 37 per cent of respondents had at least one calendar at work
• 63 per cent had between two and nine printed calendars at work
• 1 per cent had more than 10 calendars at work
• 67 percent preferred a wall calendar as against computer and cell phone calendars
• 70 percent and above recalled the advertiser and message on their calendars
• 70 percent said they may do business with the company again
• 48 percent had a more favorable impression of the company that handed out promotional calendars
• 41 percent reportedly referred others to the advertiser
• 37 percent said they looked at a calendar once a day
• 61 percent looked at a calendar between two and more than 10 times per day at home
• 24 percent said they looked at a calendar once a day at work
• 76 percent looked at a calendar between 2 to 10 times, a day at work

Some of the reasons printed calendars are so popular: 

• They are cost-effective to print, easy to distribute, and cheaper to get it out than a newspaper ad or an online banner
• Since the calendar stays in full view all the time, the memory recall is much higher
• People use the spaces provided in dates to note down appointments and notes
• It’s easy to customize the calendars for customer segments
• The calendar can carry useful information and relevant imagery to impress
• People always enjoy receiving gifts and gifting a calendar or two, at the beginning of a new year or just prior to the new year, adds joy to the season

HillView Printing DPM has several decades of expertise in the digital printing industry and have been printing calendars since inception. We understand its importance from a promotional or advertising perspective. We offer standard and custom calendar types, multiple layout formats, with choice of design, imagery, paper, texture, and printing methods. We can also package and ship the calendars to your customers and prospective customers, completing the entire process for you, efficiently and cost-effectively.

Choosing the right imprint process for maximum impact

Promotional products, which are an integral element of marketing and advertising today, have a history of over a hundred years. Calendars and congratulatory letters with only text were printed using a technique called foil stamping and handed out to customers and prospects. With the advent of time, company logos became more colorful and graphic and the need to use them in promotional products brought about the use of techniques like silk screening. 

Today, different technologies and techniques are used to print on promotional material, depending on the type of products involved and the overall goals of the advertising campaign. Some of these techniques are:

Screen Printing: Screen printing is the most cost-effective option and uses premixed inks and a screen to transfer the design onto the product. It is used for printing on bottles, pens, smooth surfaced balls, tote bags, pens and appliances like water coolers. 

Digital Printing: Digital printing also known as CMYK or full-color printing, color burst or 4-color process printing offers a larger range of colors to print logos. This process uses printing machines instead of screens. Digital printing is used for printing colorful stationery like books and notepads, fridge magnets and mouse pads. 

Heat Transfer: This process is an age-old technique that uses heat to press ink onto the product. It is an effective process for printing multi-colored logos and is used for printing tote bags and apparels like t-shirts.

Laser Engraving: A design is loaded onto software in the engraving machine. Then using the laser beam the design is etched on to the product. This technique is ideal for engraving on metal, glass, or wood and is also used on elegant gifts.

 

Debossing/Embossing: This method engages a combination of heat, pressure and a metal screen to imprint the design on the product and is the most preferred method for leather and vinyl products, chocolates and some varieties of thick fabric.

 

Embroidery: The vibrant colors of a logo or design are best reproduced using embroidering machines, and is the ideal option for apparel and hosiery products like shirts, blankets and towels. 

Foil Stamping: Foil stamping is used when a shiny metallic look is required in the design. This is also the best option when the design has to be customized every time, like the name of a person to be added in the design. 

Lithography or Offset printing,: This is the most favored method when large numbers of prints are required on paper based products like calendars, books and posters. 

Laser Printing: The technology used in this process is similar to that of photocopiers and this is the most preferred option for printing on paper and other substrates. Laser printing offers a better color rendering and is a quick and cost-effective process. This method is used for printing posters, pamphlets, newspapers and billboard contents. 

Pad Printing: Pad Printing is used for printing on irregular surfaces. This imprint method uses a silicone based rubber pad, ink and a hard polymer or steel screen to imprint the design on products like golf balls, liqueur glasses, squeegees, key tags and key chains, calculators, technical and musical instruments,  picture frames, etc. 

Color Filled Debossing: In this technique, a silk screen ink or foil is used, to transfer the design onto the product. It is popular for printing on vinyl based products. 

Silk Screening: Is used for printing colorful and complex designs on a variety of fabrics. 

Dye Sublimation: Naturally occurring dyes are sublimated on to intermediary products like plastic cards or printer paper. Using a heat press, the design is transferred from the intermediary product onto products like apparels, ceramic, metals and other materials.

Using Digital Print for Interior Design

One of the effects of the current recession is that it has put pressure on budgets for home or office renovations. Increasingly, designers are being asked to do more with less. This requires designers to think out-of-the-box and try innovative ideas.

If budgets are one reason for innovation, rapidly changing trends and styles in interior design is the other. Retail, commercial and residential property owners are seeking more flexible and adaptable interiors, more personalized and dynamic look for décor, more global and contemporary styles in design.

Each of these sectors has its own reasons for this new thinking.  

• For the commercial sector, the need to engage and motivate employees constantly is a challenge. At the same time, a strong desire to stand out from the competition requires that offices of these companies truly reflect their brand identities. Both these needs can be nicely combined in creative and innovative designs for the workplace which will inspire employees and impress customers.
• In the retail sector, intense competition in offerings and prices are driving brands to look elsewhere for differentiating themselves. The retail outlet space where customers spend significant time becomes the most convenient option for this. Brands are re-designing their outlets with new look and feel to create an awesome shopping experience.
• In the residential sector, new trends such as home entertainment and cross-cultural themes are driving designers to create homes that reflect the owner’s personality and identity.

So how does one find a simple, yet cost-effective way of combining all these needs? Digital printing for décor elements provides the answer.

The use of digital printing in décor is not entirely a new concept. In the 70s, carpets with images on them were printed using this technique. But the print resolution or quality of the image was low. In the last 40 years, there has been enormous progress in this area and today, digitally printed décor can equal or exceed the quality of imagery in printed collateral.

So what are the décor elements that are using digital print, today? From curtains to sofas, cushions to carpets, wall coverings to floor coverings, lampshades to artifacts, every element of décor can benefit from digital print. Tactile textiles, or fabrics that have a particular texture to touch, can be combined with the right imagery to create a great look and feel. This way, using digital print, interior designers can create a new working experience, shopping experience or living experience for offices, shops and homes respectively.

The benefits of using digital print are numerous: 

• Creative, yet cost-effective: Manufacturing new surfaces to have a new look and feel has been the traditional approach, and a costly one. In contrast, digital print can quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively create new designs and themes.
• The ease of using images: Till date, it was not easy to incorporate images in décor unless they conformed to an art form or artistic theme. But the current lot of designers is using realistic images, bright colors, and dramatic themes for a funky looking home or office. Hotels and resorts are using images of the outdoors in confined spaces to retain the resort like ambience.
• Wide range of materials: Digital inkjet printers can print on vinyl, metal, paper, plastic, wood, glass or fabric creating a mind-boggling range of possibilities in how to use digital print in décor.

The benefits of using digital print in décor are innumerable. To printer manufacturers and print service providers, this opens the doors to new business opportunities; while for consumers, this represents a new way of interpreting décor.

Wide Format Printing: The Game Changer

Wide-format printers are creating a silent revolution in the world of digital printing. These printers which generally have a print width between 17 feet to 100 feet has become the default mechanism to print banners, posters, hoarding creatives, booth graphics, environmental graphics and a whole lot of signage requirements.

Wide format printers use a continuous roll of printing material rather than individual sheets. This makes them capable of handling large format printing requirements in an economical manner. They also offer fool proof printing in the sense that they use hot-air dryers to dry the paint quickly and prevent the prints from sticking to each other, even as they come out of the printer. 

Wide Format Printers use a variety of technologies depending in the type of ink used in them. Broadly speaking, they are: Aqueous, Solvent, Dye sublimation, UV and Pen/plotter types. 

Why Wide Format Printing? 

Wide format printing is being hailed as one of the largest growth areas in the printing industry. But how did this happen? With advertising and digital marketing becoming more and more high-pitched and high-budget activities, companies started looking for more appealing, innovative, eye-catching and distinct ways of promoting themselves and their offerings. This obviously calls for wide format printing. For example, large banners, vehicle wraps, and point-of-purchase displays cannot be easily printed in the short run format and require wide format printing for ease-of-use and scalability. 

This led to higher adoption of wide format printing which reduced the initial price point over time. This in turn helped printers take up more and more services for their customers and evolve from being mere printing companies to full-fledged marketing services providers. 

Operational Benefits 

In addition to the business benefits, wide format printing offers various operational benefits to printing companies and their customers.

• A wide format printer makes use of the droplet technology system. This ensures that the dots per inch cannot be distinguished when the image is printed out, resulting in a sharp and well-defined image. This is true whether the printer is running at normal speed, high speed, or in enhanced mode. The quality stays consistent in all these modes.
• Wide format printers have the ability to distinguish between image and text in the printed matter clearly and print them without any error. Not all office printers can do this, which is why one can notice text and images overlapping with each other although that is not the original design.
• Wide format printers can print at very high speed without compromising on the quality. Which means: several large banners, vehicle wraps, posters, booth graphics and environmental graphics can be printed in no time. This gives marketing departments of companies the ability to plan for any new rollout at short notice and make changes at short notice thereby avoiding panic situations. This justifies investment in wide format printing which further helps improvise the technologies, creating a virtuous cycle.
• Wide format printing is compliant with various eco-friendly, environment-friendly, green and sustainability initiatives from the industry and governments worldwide. Wide-format inkjet printers make use of UV-curing inks, and technologies that provide an alternative to using high VOC inks. This makes it easy to recycle material printed using wide format printers, in a cost-effective manner. Further, UV-curing inks support printing at high speeds which adds to their utility value making hybrid wide-format inkjet systems the most popular choice as a printing mechanism.

Hillview Digital Printing has been one of the early adopters of wide format printing helping brands achieve a first mover advantage in the competitive marketplace of today.