Modern companies and brands have a huge array of different marketing materials to choose from, and sometimes making a consistent message across all different forms of media can be a challenge. Modern digital and traditional methods of promotion not only require special attention to get them right in isolation but also extra thought needs to be paid to making sure that your websites and online presence match your business cards, brochures and off-line material.
The process starts at design. When you design your brand guidelines, set colour schemes, and pick a logo for your company, you need to take into account the fact that this brand is going to have to be replicated in a number of places. If you have chosen a dark website theme or template which uses a huge palette of colours, will this affect your brochure printing costs for example? The potential to manipulate an on-screen image is never-ending, whereas the potential to manipulate the printed image is affected by factors such as the availability of different inks, the ability of paper to be folded and manipulated in different ways, and cost.
As companies and brands struggle to find a voice in the busy marketplace, the following traditional method of marketing remains one of the most popular in the off-line world. Leaflets or booklet printing. A good booklet will not only grab the attention of a passer-by, but it can also be something tangible to pick up and take home. Sure we can all bookmark the website, but it’s not quite the same as having a well-considered pamphlet or leaflet sitting on your coffee table.
Print-Print.co.uk Booklet Printingexperts have some great advice on booklet printing and some of the pitfalls to be aware of. For example, there’s not much sense in printing a physical leaflet or brochure to promote a show or business where in reality, there’s not a lot of activity to write about. That’s not to say that the printed format wouldn’t work for you, but if you’re looking at a mainly graphic or image-based presentation, then perhaps large format posters or simply flyers could be a better option.
The way we consume information has changed dramatically since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 15th century and unlocked the power of information to reach the masses. Although the technology around printing has changed since then, the fundamentals of creating an attention grabbing piece of printed material haven’t.
Grab the reader’s attention, get your message across, and sanity check anything you produce to make sure that it follows the theme of the rest of your brand, and ties in with the other marketing activities. It sounds obvious but making sure that you get the little things right, like consistency of the colours you are using can make all the difference. We all know and recognise Coca-Cola red, without having to read or see the logo. That’s because we always seen exactly the same red whether it be on their television adverts, printed in the on bottle, or on the website.
