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Tips on how to diversify your store layouts, products, and sales in order to increase customer sales
Tips on how to promote in-store sales as well as how to focus marketing, which allows management to target specific audiences and increase revenue
Package designes, structured, printed and converted.
The next generation of CENTUM distributed control system (DCS)
Major advances in UV digital flatbed inkjet printing technology has opened up new opportunities in the wide-format printing market to more diverse print providers such as commercial offset shops and quick printers.
The next generation of CENTUM distributed control system (DCS)
Wide-format is everywhere—or so it seems.
Your constant challenge as a direct mail copywriter is to
effectively communicate with target markets in their language.
Many writers specialize in one or two niche areas. It doesn't
matter. Even seasoned writers sometimes drop the ball and make
easily avoidable mistakes.
Writing and submitting articles can take you from a relative
unknown marketer to an expert in your field literally overnight.
One great thing about copywriting is it's a never-ending
discovery. There's literally no end to your copywriting
education. That sentiment has been echoed by all the great
copywriters through the years. And quite often an experienced
writer will re-discover things learned before.
As March rolls in the door, things in the printing industry begin to pick up.
Does going green mean the end of aggressive solvent inks and printers?
Seeks to Improve AutoCAD-to-PDF Conversion
It's one thing to purchase new equipment to help grow your business, it's quite another to have purchase new equipment to rebuild it after a fire.
I wrote a series of columns in 2005 about protecting yourself from your salespeople, specifically from the situation where a salesperson leaves and takes customers along.
We all know that aqueous inkjet printers have their limitations.
With the deadline fast approaching, LSC turned to Thorofare, NJ-based Art Guild, Inc.
Most shop owners have experienced machines that are almost like grumpy old men with an attitude, giving output that is awry or clogging up printheads with headstrikes if pushed too hard.
The Neutrality of Black and White with Digital Inkjet Printers
In my seminars, I often ask salespeople how they view their priorities.
Smaller, growing businesses avoid business-management systems as long as possible, said Gerald Walsh, director of product marketing and strategy for the Advanced Professional Printing Software Groups division of EFI.
Package designes, structured, printed and converted.
More advertising agencies and Fortune 500 corporations are moving towards city skylines to brand their products and kick off mega marketing campaigns in a more dramatic fashion.
Refining and streamlining in 2007
In part two of this article we will focus on test different products and different brands when selecting digital inkjet canvas.
Last month I wrote that a wide-format printing salesperson's top priority should be taking good care of current important customers, followed at a close second should be developing new important customers.
Having already experienced enormous change in the last few years, billboard printing is primed to undergo another wholesale transformation in the near future.
According to the industry experts I spoke with for our annual State of the Industry Report, the market is healthy and growing, with more opportunities opening up for new and old shops alike.
While the product names have changed, and the technology has advanced in leaps and bounds, some of the issues are still the same.
Wide-format imaging professionals have been getting the hang of the wall coverings market for several years.
Wide-format personnel sometimes joke about almost mystical events involved to migrate precise color from a brochure to a banner or trade-show graphic.
Name withheld because that takes the prize as the dumbest statement I've heard to date in my travels as the Johnny Appleseed of wide-format color management.
I have to say that I think this is the issue I really look forward to every year.
I have to admit getting laryngitis is not the best way to start a major trade show—the first wide-format one of the year, too.
The digital fine art (DFA) market continues to grow, driven by the creative inspiration of end users and enabled by the continuous development of new printing systems, inks, media products, and the Internet.
Elevator wraps are fast becoming an effective medium that many corporations are using as an advertising vehicle for their messages.
Wide-formt print providers who look at printers or various media when seeking "value-adds" for wide-format services should also look at the end of workflow.
Textile printing, the generic name for all woven fabrics and the art of ornamenting such fabrics by printing on designs or patterns in color, is very ancient and an art form that originated in the Far East.
As competition in the wide-format graphics market increases, entrepreneurial PFP shops are looking at new markets, such as digitally printing decorative products, for growth.
Baldev Duggal has been described as the quintessential New York success story.
The Cromalin Largo 4406 is being touted by DuPont as a "plug and play" solution which can dramatically improve your turnaround times and proof-to-press accuracy.
When Mike Levitsky of FASTSIGNS Delaware was looking for a new a flatbed printer for his business, he researched a number of models on the market.
As we have seen over past few years, direct digital printing has become cutting edge printing technology and Minneapolis-based Graphic Systems is one output provider that is on the cusp of that development.
When Scott Minette, president of Image Mill Inc.
Although it was widely believed that the dye sublimation printing industry would lose market share to direct printing, the current state of the industry proves that dye sublimation remains the preferred method of print.
Some see digital dynamic signage, featuring digitally-driven screens networked from a central location, as a wave of the future.
New environmentally-friendly legislation is continuing to change the way most wide-format print providers run their businesses.
Chris Underwood, co-owner of Oregon Blue Print Co.
If you specify, design, or build exhibits, you want to create a booth design that looks great, will stand out in a crowd, and can be used multiple times without looking the worse-for-wear.
Wide-format technology provides unlimited opportunities for designers and print providers
I had a really weird dream the other night.
Climbing the corporate ladder" is a phrase that's long meant ascending from an entry-level position to top management of a major multinational company.
A market on the rise
Specialty applications can raise finishing profits
Floor graphics, sometimes called floor wraps, are moving outside.
DECO Productions turned around a sumptuous feast featuring hundreds of graphics applications in one giant South Beach venue.
Maybe you're one of the few who never suffer from writer's
block. But since you're reading this then I'm guessing you're
not one of the few. It's ok. As you gain more experience you'll
naturally figure out what works best for you. What follows is a
technique to get you writing that never fails to work. And it
doesn't really matter where you begin your next killer sales
letter.
Opportunities for digitally printed POP/POS
As a leader and top innovator in the sign and graphics industry, Signs Now has more than 230 franchise locations across the US, Canada and the UK.
When Michael Rahban of Evolve Imaging wanted to add a grand-format UV printer to his small shop, he really needed to do his accounting homework.
This September, MACtac partnered with Portraits of Hope to wrap as many as 13,000 New York City taxi cabs with MACtac IMAGin B-Free vinyl, which was painted by children across the country.
For most people, August signals the beginning of the end—for the summer at least.
Bold new roll and flatbed print technologies, major advancements in ink, and inventive substrate innovations are all blending to make this a grand era for wide-format imaging shops specializing in grand-format outdoor applications.
Output Providers Looking at Greener Pastures
It is estimated that there are more than 70,000 print shops in the US.
Tips on how to diversify your store layouts, products, and sales in order to increase customer sales
Everyone knows outdoor environments are brutal on graphics and images.
When Graphic System Group (GSG) in New York City was looking to take its output options to a grander scale, they looked far and wide at their choices.
It's one thing when you are testing equipment for one location, try testing for 180.
I'll make an exception to that rule, though, as long as we're talking about companies that buy a lot of the kind of printing you're best equipped to sell.
The starting point for today is that you can't sell to everyone.
How's your German? "Ich bin ein Berliner.
Tips on how to promote in-store sales as well as how to focus marketing, which allows management to target specific audiences and increase revenue
Last April, Inca Digital Printers made headlines with the launch of the Inca Onset, said to offer a breakthrough in wide-format UV digital flatbed printing.
for many wide-format imaging companies, installation is a large and crucial part of the overall job of producing graphics.
The International Reprographic Association must be meaningful to everyone in the individual segments of the industry, says Mike Carter, new board president of the International Reprographic Association.
Green has become the new buzzword, the new "black" so to speak.
Capital Ideas: Equipment Financing For Wide-Format Printers
Macy's is probably one of the most recognized retail brands in America.
I've observed quite a few great salespeople over the years.
Talk about floor graphics to Sheldon Hurst III, chief executive officer of Georgia Printco in Valdosta, GA, and a degree of amazement seems to enter his voice.
It takes a special kind of company to succeed in business these days.
One of my clients said something interesting the other day.
Last month I wrote about taking an hour every day to examine the problems that you and your staff encountered the previous day.
POP/POS brings opportunities to more than just consumers
Printer/cutter solutions are helping ease workflows bottlenecks
Digital color management is sort of like mapping where you are and where you're going in the color-printing arena.
"What it really does is benefits the architect because they can share their designs with more people, more quickly," Honn said.
Figorol was established in 1978 as an industrial print shop providing output for advertising agencies.
Last month I started writing about the 7-Hour Selling Plan, a proven approach to a "selling owner" gaining maximum sales growth in a minimum of hours.
Pat Pennington, owner of Tel-M-Off is a little like Howard Cosell in that he likes to 'tell it like it is.
Mounting & laminating (image finishing) is the production step that takes wide-format digital prints and turns them into working signs and displays.
When asked if he is pleased with his most recent printer purchase, Mark Brown, owner of Mark's Quick Printing, St.
When Brad Adamic, art director at West Coast Customs, got a call from their client that they needed to wrap four huge RVs in time for the 2007 X-Games, he didn't panic but did sweat a little bit.
Major advances in UV digital flatbed inkjet printing technology has opened up new opportunities in the wide-format printing market to more diverse print providers such as commercial offset shops and quick printers.
The adoption of solvent and eco-solvent inkjet printers—not only for outdoor durable signs and banners, but also for indoor photorealistic applications—has evolved significantly over the past few years.
People will lather gallons of sunscreen on themselves during summer to protect themselves from ultraviolet rays.
There are many criteria that can be used to select a photopaper for any given application.
Triangle Reprographics helps FL museum put on a photo show
I wrote last month about the early planning considerations for a successful open house, and I promised to write more about the "major" expenses you're likely to incur.
One of the first key issues in the planning stage is to determine a budget.
Point-of-sale, or POS, signage is becoming an ever-more critical factor in the world of advertising and promotion.
For print providers, there are few more challenging and competitive fields in which to ply their trade than the retail industry.
When it comes to printers and printing equipment, the general thought about new products has always been focused on "faster, bigger, better" and for good reason.
Take the time to plan your direction for 2008
I'm one of those people who enjoys shopping at Ikea.
There was a time when the production of trade show and exhibit graphics was constrained by narrowly-defined parameters.
The votes are in and the readers have spoken.
Achieving the same results with different digital print jobs has long been a major problem for output providers.
From the beginning of workflow to cutting and finishing, how prints are rasterized can mean the difference between smooth and glitch-free processing or wasted time and media.
No one in the industry has failed to note rising wide-format consumables costs over the past couple years.
In the giant inflatable marketplace, Above and Beyond clearly rules the blue skies.
UV roll-to-roll inkjet printers are taking on a life of their own
More than a decade after they burst on the scene, online plan room products are proliferating.
Anyone who has searched a local government's musty-smelling document library or the back of the engineer's office is looking at potential revenue for the scanner.
Scanning is an indispensable part of the modern reprographic digital workflow, whether used for scan-to-print, scan-to-archive, scan-to-e-mail, raster-to-vector conversion, or a walk-up kiosk.
Not 1 in 10 business owners understand the power of a headline.
If you doubt me, just Flick through your local paper and notice
how many company names you see at the top of ads. Or weak
headings which don't grab your attention.
SkyTag, a Beverly Hills, CA-based outdoor media company specializing in building spectaculars, helped the Flamingo Las Vegas get their message across using some stunning mega-graphics.
Last month I wrote about having reasonable expectations when you're trying to land a whale-sized customer.
With the advances in solvent printing technology and the growing demand for longer-lasting, outdoor-durable graphics, vinyl has gotten a new lease on life for outdoor graphics projects—banners, fleet graphics, and others—providing shops with another "weapon" in their arsenal of products.
A healthy market opens up many varied opportunities
According to industry pundits, the wide- and grand-format market is experiencing continued growth that all industry pundits predict will continue.
I'm pretty ruthless about qualifying decisions, and I encourage my clients to operate in the same way.
A stunning marriage of fine art and corporate space crafted by a master photographer and printer with perfect precision.
Between the two definitions, similarities emerge.
My recent trip to Israel for the HP pre-drupa meeting, got me thinking about a few things.
Partnership helps "Green" companies move forward
First2Print helps Extreme Makeover team save the day
If you believe the TV commercials, you can lose weight and build muscle and look just like those ultra-buff hardbodies on the screen with only two or three 20-minute workouts each week.
Fine art and photographic digital printing has come a long way in just a decade.
This is the third and final installment in my little series on the kind of excuses I hear from underperforming salespeople.
Last month, I wrote about one of the most common excuses I hear from wide-format printing salespeople who are just not doing very well.
During the course of the "model" event I wrote about last month, my client made it a point to talk personally with as many attendees as she could.
The most powerful skill you can have as a copywriter is getting
inside your prospects head and talking to them in their language.
When you do that, and do it well, they'll listen to you. When
you're talking to them about their most pressing problems, their
most dire needs, and deepest desires...in their language...magic
happens.
No matter what industry you're in, everyone wants to know what the next big thing is going to be.
Healthy competition gives wide-format print providers a lot to choose from
Ink and media are linked because neither serves a purpose without the other.
For busy wide-format imaging professionals, outsourcing work to a trusted partner can make a great deal of sense.
Wide-format engineering printers continue to faithfully serve the high-volume technical document printing industries such as architecture, engineering, and construction.
Don't worry, all the articles and news you've come to expect is still here, but you'll have access to much more relevant and timely content as well as monthly online-only features.
The presidential elections are still 18 months off, but already many Americans are sizing up potential candidates.
Today, running a family-owned business presents unique challenges over and above the usual problems a large or small business faces.
One of the most significant product developments hit the wide-format marketplace has been the introduction of UV flatbed inkjet systems.
With more than 350,000 (estimated) wide-format print-for-pay providers worldwide that have the potential to have or to buy a wide-format inkjet printer (as reported by a recent I.
It has often been said that copywriting is science and art. And
the best copywriters will be the first to tell you it's an
endeavor with a life-long education. You can set your copy apart,
be unique, and find your own personal style by going within.
Forget books for a while.
Few industries have been more affected by the digital age than the reprographic industry.
When it comes to introducing new materials, formats, and textures, companies serving the banner market show an unflagging passion for innovation.
When is it a good thing to be stuck in traffic or have to feed the meter of a city parking slot? When the vehicle you're driving is wrapped in advertisements for your very own business.
businesses of all sizes are increasingly turning to vehicle wrap advertising to get their message out.
Rosencrantz admitted he has been a lifelong veteran in the wrap business.
If you're wondering what value there is in discussing family business as a concept per se, you're not alone.
The debate rages on
In last month's column, I wrote that talking good care of current important customers should be a wide-format printing salesperson's top priority.
If you own a shop in the middle of the desert, and nobody walks
past... obviously you're not going to attract many customers. If
you own a vegetarian café in the middle of a meat-eating
suburb... you could get very skinny... very fast. And if you run
ads where...
One of the members of The Business Oasis was struggling with
getting her first book written. We gave her all kinds of helpful
support around it, ('it really helped!' she told us). And then
came the suggestion with the biggest 'fear' factor: "Why
don't you pre-sell your book to your customers before you're
finished?"
Growth and business opportunities on the rise
Sign-a-Rama has been one of the top franchises to come out of the sign graphics industry.
Each year, the primary focus in any professional sport is the race for a championship.
Even though this is the last editorial I'll write for the 2007 calendar year, I've only just returned from the SGIA show in Orlando and there's still more than eight weeks of 2007 left in the year.
Winding Down, Looking Forward