The Print Marketing Renaissance

One topic we bring up from time to time, here, is the idea that print marketing is all about standing out from the pack. I know, it sounds ridiculous. But things have changed. The days of opening a mailbox to a flood of junk mail are over. Print marketing today is about risk. It’s about creativity, and it’s about trying something different. We’re not here to talk about junk mail, or sending out millions of generic postcards. It’s time to treat print as a non-traditional marketing source.

Business2Community has recently published an article showing 7 major events in marketing, and why they all point toward a return to the print medium. It’s a great article (which you may have seen on our Facebook page), but we’re going to go one step further. We’re going to give you a few ideas that may inspire you to take B2C’s list to heart.

Broad-Interest Publications are Leaving Print

Newsweek announced earlier this month that they would be ceasing all print publications. Dozens more general interest magazines are leaving print behind, and that means that a huge opportunity for marketers is opening up.

Does your business cater to a niche audience? Send out a brief magazine appealing to their interest. It doesn’t need to be a weekly, or even a quarterly, thing, but what could make you stand out from the crowd of catalogs better than this?

Changes in Consumer Usage Open the Door for Digital Integration

Digital integration is no longer an option for marketing – it’s a requirement. Today’s consumer demands more from marketing materials. More information, more detail, more interesting content, and more bells and whistles. For your next campaign, try including a print component that plays off of your digital efforts. Push consumers to your social media pages, or direct them to your other digital resources. Just don’t rely on QR codes to do the job for you. Innovate!

The Social Web is Crowded, Make Things Personal

Print has always been the most personal form of marketing communication. What do you think makes a better impression with a new client: A direct message on Twitter, or a hand-written ‘Thank You’ note?

Our print solutions can make all of these things possible, and print has not seen consumer interest like this in several years. Take advantage of the possibilities, and give us a call.

The Tray Way is the blog for Tray, experts in the printing, mailing, logistics and promotional products. You can learn more about our capabilities by visiting our website, as well as our Facebook and Twitter pages. For information about the company and its successes, visit www.trayinc.com

Learning From Mistakes

In today’s digital world, all eyes are on you, all the time. The critical eye of the consumer never closes, and the world of social media has created a place where even the smallest branding faux pas is a recipe for complete financial disaster. There are cases of poor taste, such as this May advertisement for Belvedere Vodka. Even worse, there are times when brands can be persecuted for things they have absolutely no control of, or involvement in.

What can you do when your brand is thrust into the spotlight of consumer criticism? Can either of those examples serve as a template for escaping a PR nightmare?

The Skittles Strategy

When details about the tragic Trayvon Martin shooting went public, Skittles and Arizona Iced Tea became unintentional icons of lost innocence. The brands were spoken of almost as often as the investigation itself. Consumers, invested in the horrific details of the killing, began to accuse both brands of profiting off of the tragedy and media exposure. Neither brand had anything to do with Martin’s death, but both were being ripped to shreds on social media for failing to respond.

 Image from Ad Week

What did they do?

Skittles and Arizona Iced Tea were forced to act, and responded with letters of condolence to Martin’s family. They said it would be the last word on the matter, and both brands stuck to their guns, refusing to give in to the public outcry.

What went wrong?

Consumers were convinced that both brands were pulling in record profits from the media hype, and demanded financial recompense. It was a bizarre and unfounded complaint, born from a collective desire for closure that court proceedings was not providing. Arizona and Skittles did their best to avoid further scrutiny by keeping silent, and they ended up being seen as uncaring and cold.

The Belvedere Vodka Strategy

In early March, Belvedere began a commendable social media effort, relying on a strategy of casual humor, and easily shared jokes, each one a clever ad for their product. Unfortunately, the casual attitude went too far, and an ad that never should have made it past editing wound up on their public-facing Facebook page.

Image from Huffington Post

What did they do?

The ad was a clear misstep, and the backlash was fast and fierce. Belvedere pulled the ad once the blogosphere had gotten wind of it, and issued a series of apologies. They attempted to save face with a donation to an anti-sexual violence non-profit, but the move was seen as a shady PR stunt, and the brand has still not fully recovered.

What went wrong?

By the time Belvedere had responded to the complaints, any response they made would have been too little, too late. Unfortunately, once that ad was made public, there was nothing they could really do to make up for the damage it caused. Even though Belvedere went one step further than Skittles and Arizona, they were still seen as a corporation saving face, instead of an apologetic brand. They owned their mistake, but it wasn’t enough.

So, what can you do differently?

Any brand of reasonable age and size is in danger of falling into an inescapable faux pas like those above. It’s an unfortunate – but unavoidable – aspect of business. The solution lies in relying on the expertise of a branding agency, and using all of the available tools you have to protect your investment. If the worst happens, you need to be able to rely on a team that is flexible enough, fast enough, and smart enough, to turn the situation around.

The Tray PML Way is the blog for Tray, experts in the printing, mailing, logistics and promotional products. You can learn more about our capabilities by visiting our website, as well as our Facebook and Twitter pages. For information about the company and its successes, visit www.traypml.com

The Tray Way: Does Social Media Presence = Individual Business Success?

The statistics on social media popularity continue to grow and grow. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn set new benchmarks on a monthly basis, and with the rise of sites like G+, Pinterest, Yammer and others, you might think that there is a social networking site for EVERYONE that could ever want one.

Well, one demographic has apparently stayed away from the fray: Fortune 500 CEOs.

A new, fascinating study by the consulting company Domo indicates that approximately 70% of the heads of the world's largest companies choose not to participate in the marketing juggernaut that is social media. In addition:

• 38 Fortune 500 CEOs are on Facebook (Michael Rapino of Live Nation Entertainment has the most friends with 1,723).
• 20 Fortune 500 CEOs who have opened Twitter accounts (5 have never tweeted).
• The average number of followers for Fortune 500 CEOs with Twitter accounts is 33,250 (Rupert Murdoch has the most with 249,000 followers)
• 10 Fortune 500 CEOs have more than 500 LinkedIn connections, while 36 CEOs have 1 LinkedIn connection or none.
• Six Fortune 500 CEOs contribute to blogs
• Zero Fortune 500 CEOs are on Pinterest.

As an organization that covers all sides of the marketing world, three thoughts came to our minds after reading this:

1. You can "observe" social media without "participating" - CEOs may not have social media accounts for personal or professional reasons, but having a wife/husband that has an account to keep in touch with friends and family, and a staff member maintain one concerning the business serves the same purpose.
2. A CEO's fame is different than a celebrity's fame - A Fortune 500 CEO is famous for the mere fact that they head their company, but unlike the Hollywood mantra that "all press is good press," a CEO not only doesn't need to saturate the internet with their every thought to gain fame, but if they do, it can cause unexpected repercussions (e.g. a swing in stock price).
3. Over the next 5 years, this statistic will inevitably and drastically change - For all that is said about the ability social media has as a marketing tool, the platform started as a communications tool for college students, and then branched out from there. When measured against the fact that well over 60% of current Fortune 500 CEOs are over 50, it shouldn't be a surprise that a majority of these executives have chosen to use more established means to communicate. However, the next generation of CEOs are being groomed right now, and they have made their way up the career ladder partially due to networking, both in-person and online.

This survey, while intriguing from a biographical perspective, is missing a truth. While all these individuals may not be utilizing social media, they understand that others are. So, they are making sure that their companies are using it as a listening tool, a customer service tool, a branding tool, etc. So, while you might not see status updates or family vacation pictures of some of the most well-known business men and women on earth, you can be sure that they know that is how you use social media, and they want to use that to their company's advantage.

The Tray PML Way is the blog for Tray, experts in the printing, mailing, logistics and promotional products. You can learn more about our capabilities by visiting our website, as well as our Facebook and Twitter pages. For information about the company and its successes, visit www.traypml.com