My heartfelt thanks go to Boden for brightening up my morning by providing some welcome giggles.
The mail order clothing specialist has turned to the power of personalisation combined with the power of the information held its customer database in a clever bid to reignite interest from lapsed customers. The result being a cheerfully designed postcard-style mailing that arrived at Francis Towers this morning addressed to ‘im indoors.
It’s a rare company indeed that doesn’t have some sort of web presence nowadays. Even if it’s not an all-singing all-dancing web-to-print setup a website is still an important shop window, as well as a brand-building opportunity that says a lot about a company.
I’ve been paying particular attention to the post of late, and my conclusion is that savvy brands are achieving some real stand-out with print at the moment.
Recent examples include a perky sub-A5 format 8pp “brighter driving” loose insert from Honda, printed on uncoated stock and featuring clever lift-up flaps inside that excited the toddler in me, as did the prospect of winning a Civic Hybrid.
“The union must see what’s going on in the trade – membership has halved in our area”.
As it turns out, this quote was made by the frustrated owner of a printing company six years ago, but it could just as easily have been voiced this week. If it had, the “halved” aspect would probably have become a quarter. That there’s no National Agreement this year isn’t a surprise. What’s more surprising is that the parties actually got so far as to attempt to agree on one.
The Royal Mail’s new Mailshots Online service is further evidence that it is targeting SMEs in a big way, as the “Partner for Growth” campaign attests. This latest development is noteworthy because it seems to me that this, and services such as the Unity Hybrid Mail and ViaPost offerings, have the potential to open up a whole new market for print that could be truly enormous.
The story about the longevity of chequebooks caught my eye, not least because I’d just emerged from a foray to the back of the string and paperclips drawer to find mine so I could fulfil a cheque payment request. Examining the stubs, I see this particular book is now into its seventh year of operation, and I’m still only about a third of the way through it.
A short update to a blog from last month about photobooks. In it I mentioned the upcoming sale of the kit at Alexander Kennedy & Sons, and described it as effectively being a complete photo business in a box.
Couldn’t agree more with the sentiments expressed by credit checking specialist ICSM in yesterday’s news story. The issue of supposedly top-notch clients who end up not being able to pay has been bothering me for the best part of six months now, to the extent that I’m of the view that effectively there’s no such thing as a blue-chip client anymore.
I’m enjoying the current BBC Money Programme series on the media, and thought the Janet Street-Porter show on the challenges facing newspapers was excellent – and not just because it had lots of nice footage of the presses at Broxbourne hammering away.
… and on the page.
Step away from the e-card, people, it’s our collective mission to spread some love this weekend using the romantic power of print.
A beautiful card is, of course, essential for the object of your affection. The Caroline Gardner range fits the bill nicely.
© MA Business & Leisure Limited 2013. Published by MA Business & Leisure Limited, Jesses Farm, Snow Hill, Dinton, SP3 5HN, a company registered in England and Wales no. 02923699. MA Business & Leisure is part of the Mark Allen Group.