Posted by Mark Hannah on Tue, Mar 02, 2010 @ 02:19 PM
Depending on quantity, printing in full color will probably cost little or no more than printing in black & white, so why not? Consider this...
One of my earlier posts was titled 'The Psychology of Color in Printing'. I thought I would list the psychological theory for some primary colors.
RED- Is often where the eye looks first. Red draws attention and creates excitement. No wonder statistics show that more speeding tickets are given to drivers of red cars. Not only do our friendly law enforcement officers see a red car first but the driver is more excited and probably is driving faster. In a marketing piece a little red here and there is good but don't over due it.
BLUE - Is the most popular color in the world. According to wetcanvas.com 42% of americans choose blue as their favorite color. Blue is soothing, non-threatening, and least likely to offend someone. It is no coincidence that many uniforms (police, hotel employees) are blue.
GREEN - Is the color or money ( also a good 1986 movie by the same name starring Paul Newmann and Tom Cruise ), calming, and pleasing to the senses.
YELLOW - Is a happy color. Yellow actually causes the brain to release seratonin, a chemical that makes you feel good. Yellow can cause your creative juices to flow. Legal pads are yellow for a reason. But don't over do it, too much yellow can be obnoxious. Remember, yellow is also the color of flames.
Use your colors wisely and get the most out of your printed materials. As I've heard some place before "unchain the power of full color"!
I'll cover more colors in another post
Posted by Mark Hannah on Thu, Feb 25, 2010 @ 03:13 PM
Once of the most asked questions that I get is "why doesn't the printed piece match the colors I saw on my computer monitor"? Well, I took an entire college course based on the theory of color but I'll do my best to explain it in this short blog post.
Pure white light contains every color in the spectrum, from ultraviolet to infrared. Computer monitors emit red, blue and green light (RGB). While RGB is capable of producing every color in the visible spectrum, computer monitors are only capable of displaying a limited number of visible colors. As shown in figure 1 when red, blue, and green are overlapped they produce white.
CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow & black) are the four colors of ink used in the printing , referred to as process printing. Unlike computer monitors that emit light to your eye, when looking at a full color (process printed) piece the light is reflected off the white paper and the ink (CMYK) filters the light subtracting varying amounts of red, blue and green to produce a limited number of the entire visible spectrum of colors. The gamut of colors that CYMK produces is not the same as the gamut of colors that your computer monitor is capable of producing. When cyan, magenta and yellow are overlapped they filter out all of the white light (wavelengths) producing black which is the absence of light. This is shown in figure 2.
This is why the colors you see on your computer monitor and the printed piece will never be an exact match.
FIG. 1 FIG. 2
Posted by Mark Hannah on Tue, Feb 23, 2010 @ 02:08 PM
One of the first impressions a person may have of you is your business card. You give it out at networking events, to prospects and other people you meet. Don't overlook projecting your brand on your card. Consider that more people will see your business card than will see your brochures or possibly even visit your website.
Considering the immense impact your card can have, you must have it professionally produced. A graphic designer can help create a stunning card, and a printer can select quality paper and print both sides in color at a nominal cost.
Maximize the use of space on the card by using the back of the card for your mission statement or explaining what you do and why people should use your services. On the front print your logo, name and contact information, along with a short tagline highlighting your specialty.
Always carry cards with you and be ready to give them away. When handing out your card, treat it as an important object, holding it with both hands and giving it to the person with the back side of the card facing up (assuming you have had the back printed). The information on the back will often spark additional questions or comments. Ask if the recipient would like extra cards to give to friends or associates.
Read more from Will at http://www.siqualtd.com/
Posted by Mark Hannah on Mon, Oct 19, 2009 @ 09:48 PM
“When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight”
“Like a good neighbor_____ _____ is there”
If you can name the companies that belong to the above Unique Selling Propositions than you can see the importance of having your own, it works!
Simply stated a Unique Selling Proposition differentiates you from your competition. If you don’t have something different to offer, you better find something or save yourself a lot of aggravation and go work for your competition. It tells your prospects why they should do business with you versus the other guys. No, scratch that; it SCREAMS at your prospects why they MUST do business with you. Your prospects are interested in one thing and one thing only, what’s in it for them. Make it easy for them to do business with you, don’t keep them guessing. Tell them why they should do business with you and only you. To be successful in business you don’t have to be the best but you have to be unique. A ‘me too’ business if it survives, survives by price wars. I don’t think this is how you want to run your business. Best of all, a USP costs NOTHING.
Dominos dominated the pizza delivery market by screaming to their prospects "Fresh, hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed". Nowhere in that USP does it tell people that the pizza tastes good but it solves the problem of cold delivery pizza, which, at that time was the industry’s largest problem. Not only did it solve the problem, it GUARANTEED a solution to the customers’ problem. Dominos’ USP did exactly what a good USP is designed to do it differentiated them from the competition.
How do you create a successful USP? Ask yourself how you would answer this question; what do you do for a living? If you can answer this question with a statement about exactly what benefit you offer your customers than you are well on your way to developing a dynamite USP. If you answered ‘I am a _____’, then you have some work to do. For example, if you asked me what I did for a living I wouldn’t say ‘I’m a printer’ I would say ‘I create powerful marketing tools and give you the knowledge to reap their potential – FREE’. That’s what makes Full Color Resources unique and sets us apart from a ‘printer’; we are passionate about good printing that works, and truly interested in helping you be successful.
For more on Unique Selling Propositions and other marketing tips vist our Marketing Tips page.
Posted by Mark Hannah on Fri, Oct 02, 2009 @ 07:58 PM
One of the first impressions a person may have of you is your business card. You give it out at networking events, to prospects and other people you meet. Don't overlook projecting your brand on your card. Consider that more people will see your business card than will see your brochures or possibly even visit your website.
Considering the immense impact your card can have, you must have it professionally produced. A graphic designer can help create a stunning card, and a printer can select quality paper and print both sides in color at a nominal cost.
Maximize the use of space on the card by using the back of the card for your mission statement or explaining what you do and why people should use your services. On the front print your logo, name and contact information, along with a short tagline highlighting your specialty.
Always carry cards with you and be ready to give them away. When handing out your card, treat it as an important object, holding it with both hands and giving it to the person with the back side of the card facing up (assuming you have had the back printed). The information on the back will often spark additional questions or comments. Ask if the recipient would like extra cards to give to friends or associates.
Read more from Will at http://www.siqualtd.com/
Posted by Mark Hannah on Sat, Sep 12, 2009 @ 08:52 AM
Full color printing on your marketing materials is actually produced by using 4 ink colors known as CMYK; Cyan (blue-green), Magenta (reddish-pink), Yellow and black. These colors are known as subtractive color. A common mistake when submitting files for full color printing is not converting the images to the CMYK color space. The other color space is RGB (red, green, blue) which is used by your computer monitor. Images used on the web are in the RGB color space.
The photograph to be printed on your brochure or postcard is converted into a series of round dots of various sizes and angles. Each of the four colors has a different dot pattern and is printed separately. The overlapping layers create a full color picture (diagram 1 below). The smaller and closer together the dots the more intense the created color (diagram 2). A good example of this are black dots. Small dots close together create a solid black, dots printed further apart with white space in between will produce gray.
CMYK inks are translucent meaning if a the color was printed on a clear film you could see through it. When these series of dots are printed on top of each other at varying dot sizes and angles they produce every color imaginable. The best why for you to see this “magic” is to open take a look at a full color postcard, flyer or brochure, preferably with skin tones. Use a magnifer so that you can see the dot pattern. You will find it amazing that the smooth skin tones are actually several dots that when printed fool the eye to thinking it is looking at a continuous tone.
Observe that in diagram 3 CMYK does not produce a 100% pure black. To produce pure black your CMYK color values (your designer will know how to do this) need to be set to C=60 =40 Y=40 K=100.
Posted by Mark Hannah on Thu, Aug 06, 2009 @ 10:48 PM
There is a lot to the psychology of color, color affects shopping habits. Impulse-shoppers respond to red-orange, black, and royal blue. So if the flyers your having printed are targeting impulse shoppers, use these colors. Shoppers who plan to stick to budgets respond to pink, teal, light blue and navy. If your target customers are budget conscience (for example if you are selling home improvement) and you are creating a direct mail postcard, use pink, teal, light blue and navy. Traditionalists respond to pastels. If you're marketing to lower income use bolder brighter colors on your
business card or
postcard because that's what appeals to those customers. Higher incomes are attracted by more subtle colors so design your brochure with subtle color to get the attention of this target market. A good designer that designs to your target market is worth every penny.
Posted by Mark Hannah on Thu, Aug 06, 2009 @ 10:42 PM
You have put too much time and money into your business to take it for granted. But, that is exactly what most of us do when it comes to what is dollar for dollar your most powerful marketing tool, your business card.
A typical business card has name, address, phone number, fax, and email? Guess what? Nobody cares! When it comes down to having to contact you, your prospective customer will find a way. But you haven’t even given them a reason to do business with you yet and you are already set to close the deal. You haven’t conveyed why they should do business with you, what benefit they will receive from doing business with you, why they should do business with you vs. your competition, or why they should trust you.
All anyone wants to know is what you can do for him or her and how he or she will benefit from doing business with you. Period. Does your business card convey that message? The answer is probably no. If a prospect can’t look at your card and tell you exactly what you do, why you’re better than your competition and what benefit they will receive by doing business with you, then it’s not doing it’s job. Get rid of it!
There are two types of people that are going to get your business card. Those that you give it to, which means that you might have 60 seconds to introduce yourself, introduce your business, tell them the benefits of doing business with you, and build trust. The second type of person is he or she that receives your card down the line and doesn't know you from Adam (or Eve). You’re not there to do the talking so you have to depend on seven square inches to generate new business for you. Can you depend on your business card to do that? You can if you have a custom designed full color business card. Not a card designed using a template that makes your business look generic, a custom designed full color business card that makes your business unique.