Printers Devil its in the detail

Hilarious scenes at the M&S Simply Food attached to my local BP garage the other evening.

Standing there by the chiller unit, arms full of Coke bottles, burrowing into the farthest reaches of the display in search of the names of PrintWeek team members. That was me.

The search was partially successful, per this pic. Though I have to admit that’s actually Joe with an e.

Anyhow, the manager comes over, most perturbed about what I’m up to. He thinks I’m looking for the coldest bottles and/or just an annoying idiot messing up his stock. I show him the names on the labels and explain that I’m searching for specific names of chums.

A gleam of understanding crosses his face. Next time I go in the names are turned to the front. In fact, I’ve started going into shops and turning the bottles around as a matter of course. Do I need to get out more?

This morning I saw a big poster site advertising this campaign, which seems to be generating a considerable amount of traction. It’s obviously been a massive project for all involved, can only begin to imagine the amount of co-ordination involved.

It’s also thrown up an interesting “note to selves” for anyone plotting cross-media/social-media activities of this ilk, even if not on such a grand scale.

One doesn’t need to read the Daily Mail to know that Mohammed, and variants thereof, is officially one of the most popular boy’s names in the UK.

Yet there is no Mohammed to be found in the fridge or on the special Coca-Cola Facebook page that accompanies the Share a Coke campaign. My mate Moh is going to have to do without.

Why so? A glaring omission, or fear of a backlash akin to the Danish cartoon reprisals?

I had to ask, and here is the official response from Coca-Cola.

“Coca-Cola GB sourced independent data from Experian to identify 150 of the most popular names in the UK. This data reflects both the gender and ethnic makeup of the population.


Out of respect for religious groups or figures, as well as existing cultural sensitivities, where relevant we omitted names where offence may be caused. We liaised with representatives from the Muslim community in the UK, and it was advised not to include the name Mohammed in our campaign.
 


We’re delighted that so many people have responded positively to the campaign so far, and we’re providing lots of opportunities for everyone to participate.  During the summer, we’ll be taking our personalisation machine on tour across the country, so that everyone can have the opportunity to get their name or a loved one’s name printed on a bottle.  People can also create and share a virtual personalised Coke with friends online at www.shareacoke.co.uk“


What a complicated old world we live in. But ignore such complexities and potential brand disaster awaits.

Next stop, the “personalisation machine”. Can’t wait to see that.

“I thrive under pressure” is the sort of phrase that appears on most CVs nowadays.

And working under pressure can indeed be immensely satisfying. I’ve had fantastically exhilarating days at work when I’ve achieved fifteen impossible things by lunchtime, and it’s a real buzz.

I’ve also had dark days where work pressure has turned into something more damaging. Looking back at some of these happenings, and with the benefit of hindsight, I feel quite lucky not to have wigged out completely on more than one occasion.

It’s a fortunate person indeed who has sailed through life without feeling stressed out about something at work. Never mind at home. And this balance between pressure and stress is a tricky thing.

Unlike, say, a broken leg which is either broken or it’s not; one person’s perfectly acceptable level of pressure could be weighty enough to tip someone else over the edge and into mental illness. And therein lies a potentially big problem for business.

Little wonder this article about stress in the workplace has struck a chord with so many readers.

From a business owner or manager point-of-view it seems to me to be, well, crazy not to have a stress policy in place. It will help protect you and your employees.

I also think there’s a lot to be said for “management by walking about”, per one of the tips for bosses in the piece about connecting with the people in your organisation.

“People are our greatest asset” is another often-repeated phrase, beloved of the corporate entity. By all means sweat your assets, but do try not to stress them beyond repair.

Greetings from Harrogate.

For the avoidance of doubt, I am at the exhibition centre and North Print & Pack, having avoided the understandable temptation to install self in a nice window table at Bettys* cafe tea rooms.

Early this morning there was a spectacular rainbow arcing across the town, and from my vantage point it appeared to come to earth at the exhibition centre. Will there be a pot of gold at the end of it for those exhibitors who’ve put their faith in the revamped show?

Organisers Informa were delighted to have crossed the 4,000 pre-registration mark just prior to the show opening this morning. Let’s hope a substantial number of them turn up.

On first inspection it’s worth the trip. I’ve seen a bunch of interesting stuff and many delightful people from the printiverse, and I’ve only been here for three hours.

Highlights thus far include the Palamides Smartliner 240 lay-flat binder, featuring the clever cold gluing system from Ribler that I remember seeing in a formative stage at the last North Print. Go see it on the Perfect Bindery Solutions stand.

Moll is showing a compact pocket folder producing a real brain-teaser of a piece. Go see that too.

Autobond is running its nifty 52×74 spot UV coater and the machine is on its way to Falkland Press after the show.

GMG is showing a new cloud-based colour management system along with OpenColor packaging proofing, also new. It really is all go!

A big thank-you to all the lovely print folk here at the show who’ve already given us great feedback about the new-look PrintWeek.

What’s more, it’s a delightful ‘spring in Harrogate’ type of day. At least it was at 7am.

And there might even be time to nip into Bettys later.

*No apostrophe, according to the logo and website.

Hands up who’s glued to series nine of The Apprentice?

A hand is raised here.

Despite the known-formula and increasingly strident selection of candidates (at least on the part of most of the female participants, and that Neil bloke), it’s required viewing at Francis Towers and involves guaranteed shouting-at-the-telly action.

I’m not sure if the producers select the participants on the basis of who makes the most ridiculous assertion about their own merits; “I’m half machine”, “I’m prepared to fight to the death to become Lord Sugar’s business partner” and “I feel my effortless superiority will take me all the way” featuring among the current crop.

“Half machine” was fired in the first episode.

This relentless blowing of one’s own trumpet no matter how mismatched to the available facts calls to mind Tre, a candidate in series three. And indeed, some people I’ve come across over the years here in the printing industry.

Tre had a simple strategy, which was to repeatedly go on and on about how brilliant and successful he was, on the basis that enough people would believe this for him to get along quite nicely, thanks.

Beware any potential employees who display such characteristics! Be sure to closely inspect whether there is substance behind the hot air.

By all means blow your own trumpet when the circumstances warrant it, but who wants to hear an extended trumpet solo, every day?

A clever promo pack arrived at PrintWeek Towers the other day, highlighting that it was a mere week to go until North Print & Pack. Here’s a pic of it.

It arrived in a funky board envelope with asymmetric address window, and featuring additional promo info for the show.

The pack in question is a “7 days to go” piece containing chocolates, a bit like a mini Advent calendar.

This idea was conceived by product development whizz Nick Lewis. It’s something he set up after being inspired by the way kids countdown the days to their birthdays.

As well as consumers being able to order a single personalised item for a special occasion of a personal nature, such as birthdays and anniversaries, the pack also makes a great promo piece for use by businesses to highlight upcoming events.

That’s exactly what North Print & Pack has done.

And for those of us of a print anorak nature, the packs are produced by RCS on their Screen TruePress Jet SX B2 inkjet press. Yes, this is the sort of high-value ‘personalised gifting’ application highlighted by managing director Michael Todd when he invested in this kit. I can see how this sort of piece, or variants of it, would be of interest to all sorts of brands.

Each pack is personalised and there’s even more of a wow factor thanks to the addition of a tactile spot UV coating layer (and being digital this marries with the personalised text, for extra wow factor) via the Scodix.

Another one for the list of “interesting new print applications that would never have been possible before”. Love it.

Anyone who’s used Facebook over the sunny bank holiday weekend just passed will probably have seen an advert for Wall’s Cornetto in their timeline – a ‘suggested post’.

A chum went into a spontaneous extended rant about how irritating they’d found this, even though it was just a picture of some ice creams along with a little pun.

Thousands of people ‘liked’ this advert, but the comment trail attached to it also reveals a large number of people among the several thousand comments who find posts of this ilk intensely irritating. One person had a suggestion about where Wall’s could stick their Cornetto, another said: “AM SICK of these suggested pages even if I mark as spam this one returns time after time.”

I find this really interesting, in terms of the different dynamics between ‘lean forward’ digital media consumption and ‘lean back’ consumption via something like a printed magazine. No doubt brand owners are wrestling with the pros and cons too.

If this had been an ad for a Cornetto in a mag, I hardly imagine anybody would have objected to it so violently, or taken the trouble to actually make an unfavourable comment about it.

My own bank holiday weekend involved some relaxed perusing of the Morrisons customer magazine, an appealing near-square format that is full of ads which I read with interest, not irritation.

I also received the revamped Majestic Wine customer magazine on lovely tactile uncoated paper. The only annoying thing about it was discovering how much cheaper the wine is in Majestic Calais compared with its Brentford outlet.

One of the many powers of print is its ability to involve the consumer without irritating them.

Super-interested to discover that CPI has installed the first MGI JETvarnish in the UK.

And it’s the latest high-falutin’ JETvarnish 3D model, to boot.

A few months back I wrote an article about developments in the inkjet spot UV coating space, and at the time I was scratching my head about why MGI didn’t have a customer here on the small island yet, when it has well over a hundred installs elsewhere in the world.

The promise from MGI was that things were about to take off, with three UK customers poised to put the kit in. Well, now we know that CPI Colour is the first.

It’s not a cheap bit of kit, at circa £250,000, so any potential purchaser would need to have either a ready-made market or a rock solid plan for gaining one.

I can see how this digital spot coating facility should have appeal to CPI’s existing customer base, be that book publishers or corporate print clients.

Judging by the reaction to the samples on show at CPI’s launch event earlier this week, this ‘3D’ effect – whereby the profile of the varnish can be varied across the sheet – has appeal.

It’s the sort of tactile result that makes an immediate connection, and has a real wow factor. And because there’s none of the traditional makeready requirements or minimum economic run lengths of traditional spot coating it’s also ideal for things like test marketing and pitch documents.

So, CPI has first mover advantage with this particular offering. The next interesting thing will be to see if MGI’s prediction of a ‘domino effect’ once machines start going in proves to be correct.

This morning I have mostly been embroiled in clauses and sub-clauses while attempting to digest some 260 pages of legalese relating to Kodak’s plans for re-emergence.

While I can’t claim to have gone through the documents with a fine-toothed comb – yet – I did discover a number of interesting snippets therein.

Take this, regarding Kodak’s “customer-level profitability actions”.

In a nutshell, during its Chapter 11 process Kodak has deployed teams to carry out an in-depth review of its largest and least profitable global accounts, in order to discover whether things like the real costs associated with each customer have actually been assigned to that customer’s account.

Sounds basic? Yes indeedy. And these actions have obviously been born out of necessity at Kodak.

But there is a wider lesson here. It’s easy to see how any business can easily lose sight of where profits are being made, or lost, across a diverse customer base.

At Kodak this exercise has resulted in price increases for some customers, product substitution, and even the cancellation of uneconomic contracts. The resulting gain is put at a $90m improvement in gross profit, so a substantial figure no matter which way you cut it.

Unsurprisingly, Kodak now plans to carry out exactly the same exercise across a much larger tranche of mid-level customers.

You don’t have to be in Chapter 11 to see that a similar exercise could provide a useful boost to the bottom line.

It is one thing to spend someone else’s money, it’s something else entirely to spend one’s own.

Famed investor Warren Buffett is said to have coined the phrase “skin in the game” meaning that a company’s executives should have true buy-in to the organisation, with their own funds on the line alongside that of external investors.

The potential to lose, say, one’s house is certainly a motivating factor and I am filled with admiration for those print bosses up and down the country whose skin is well and truly in the print game.

A case in point is Walstead Investments, owner of Wyndeham Group. Walstead’s shareholders are on the line when it comes to the group’s debt (older readers may recall that certain Walstead directors provided £10m in loans when the business took over Wyndeham and bought out its Landsbanki debt back in 2008).

The group then secured further funding from RBS to execute the acquisition of St Ives’ magazine printing ops.

They’ve borrowed  a load of money, their own money is on the line too, and that debt has got to be paid down.

How encouraging, then, to see Walstead’s bankers at RBS publicly praising the group’s performance, in what we in the industry know only too well is a very challenging part of the market.

A printing group featuring as a banking case study whereby things are going according to plan, shock!

In the face of rather too many examples where millions of investor pounds have gone down the gurgler, that is no mean feat and should be duly lauded.

What unexpectedly upbeat reading the Queen’s Awards listing made for those of us in print.

No less than 12 print- and paper-related businesses featured. Well done all.

I was particularly interested to see the number of awards received for international trade. Just the other day someone was bending my ear about a perceived lack of desire in UK print when it comes to exports.

Well, it clearly can be done. It’s fascinating to learn, for example, that 42% of Charterhouse PM’s sales now come from overseas, in part thanks to its policy of embedding a team within client marketing departments.

And small manufacturers are making international gains too, such as 35-employee Easypack which exports to 18 countries.

I was chatting to a print boss just the other day who has developed a strong pipeline of business in Africa, who knows he may even feature in this list in future. I’d like to hope so.

Those in search of inspiration could do worse than have a good read of the many and various companies lauded, and not just in print.