Everything about the specialty printing market is a challenge...from finding and engaging people who use this equipment to getting surveys completed. Coming up with good sweepstakes prizes is one of those tasks that required lots of discussion among the staff.

Since this is a trade-only promotion -- meaning, we are focusing our recruitment efforts on people in businesses who use specialty printers -- we've looked at our past efforts and have found that many respondents are in medium-sized shops. The prizes have to be good for the business yet good for the individual, too.

In the past we've given away IPAQs, gift certificates for HP Shopping, a $5,000 Rimage CD/DVD printer, pens and mugs too.

This time, the kind folks at Rena-USA offered us one of their most popular and in-demand printers -- the Rena Envelope Imager I -- along with a Rena Ink kit. Our sponsor, Hewlett-Packard is helping us with ink and we've also made sure to get thousands of dollars worth of American Express Reward cards to give to our winners. We've lined up over $18,000 of prizes -- and with such a small segment of printers -- the odds are that you'll have a great shot of winning!

Already, manufacturers are lining up to offer prizes -- in the future we'll be giving away more printers, ink and reward cards to people who help make this community grow by participating in both the surveys AND the community boards. (Hint, hint -- a new program will be unveiled soon....make sure to start posting wherever you are able -- participation counts!)

Bottom line! This is real research, not a sales gimmick. Your answers are aggregated with others that participate. No personal contact information is released to anyone (except the post office -- for delivering your gift!) Not only will you see the results of the survey within a few weeks after we close this, but your comments will help us improve our process. Over time, we will be able to look very closely at the trends that are driving business. We will exchange information that will change the equipment, substrates, media and inks we use to get our messages out -- on cds or dvds, packages, mail, even food.

Make a difference -- here.

Wendy

I can tell you all about pressure-sensitive labels!

As the mother of a 3 1/2 and a nearly 6 year old...we have them everywhere in the house. Sponge Bob, Hello Kitty, various animals, letters and shapes galore. Seems as if every visitor to our house, every birthday party, provided yet another opportunity to have stickers put into the hands of children who know no restraint -- no surface off limits.

That's part of why this caught my eye when I saw this article this morning.

"According to a recent study, U.S. label shipments will grow 5.7 percent annually through the year 2008 based on new label technologies, substrates, adhesives, and coatings. The value of the North American pressure-sensitive label market in 1998 was $3.93 billion. According to the Tag and Label Manufacturers Institute, by 2003, the market reached more than $5 billion with a compounded annual growth of 6.4 percent. More then 98 percent of distributors expect their custom label sales to increase, as well."

Gosh, I could have told you that labeling was destined to be a big business! (She says, peeling off the crumpled Jimmy Neutron sticker off my heel.)

Actually, the article goes on to describe the opportunity....and when you think through the substrate, design, ink, durability options for both business and consumer markets, it makes your head spin with possibility. If your printing business is looking for a new angle -- a little oomph, adding labeling might be a great way to generate interest in your company, and it certainly gives you something to market. I haven't looked much on the web, but I can imagine with photo uploads, letting businesses and customers design their labels own online could be a great entry to additional business.

What do you think? Is this an area you specialize in? What are the challenges of running a traditional printing business with a line of customized labels?

Peeling off and going back to work.... your turn!

Wendy

Specialty Printing Pressure Sensitive Labels

from: Adding value ... specialty imaging: in today's marketplace, where one-stop-shopping and customized pieces are commonplace requirements, specialty printing applications--specifically labels--are one of the most lucrative opportunities available to printers. by Freddo, Chris

source: Printing News, May 1, 2006.

via: HighBeam™ Research

COPYRIGHT 2006 Cygnus Business Media

VIAGRA, anyone?

ThinkPlaza's community director, Chet Geschickter and I have been talking about some upcoming promotions we are doing for the survey and the site -- and have been tossing around ideas for email subject lines. "Professional Printers Survey" and "Specialty Printers, over here!!" don't seem to have the right effect.

While we wrestle with wording I still open up my inbox daily and get more offers for enlarging parts that I don't have! Some days, I am declared a "winner" for international sweeps, and other days I'm just the right person to help the King of Zoombia with a delicate financial transaction. It's enough to drive a market researcher crazy!

Regardless of the subject line, we are excited to let you, our 1000+ Plaza members, know that we're getting ready to unleash something very exciting. We're introducing a big giveaway next week -- and need to let you know that if you've already been in the site and taken the survey, that you're 99% there. When all the procedures have been put in place, we'll send you instructions -- to acknowledge and confirm your eligibility and you'll be good to go.

In the meantime, keep posting those good questions -- and please poke around and answer other members' questions if you are able. We promise, we'll make it worth your while. Over the next two weeks, you'll see lots of activity on this site as we add in Manufacturers information and other informative and dare we say, FUN! features. But no Viagra. :)

IT TAKES one part technology, one part creativity, lots of late nights and bad coffee...but the biggest ingredient is YOU!

This is not a place where in-depth media exposes are created, nor is it a place for super-spun press releases. This is the place for good old-fashioned, non-varnished watercooler talk about specialty printers. I can't promise you that we'll always have the answers, but our intent is to pool together all of the knowledge in this business in a really open format. There's no hidden agenda.

Now who are we to ask you to join our community? Good question! We are a group of problem-solvers who have skill sets in the specialized world of target marketing. We work with our clients to help them get a handle on the market they serve. At Catenate, we sell mailing lists, customer location maps, and lots of demographics by the pound at Catosphere: Data on Demand. We're an ever-evolving group, generally about 10 of us scattered across the country -- linked by cell phones, the internet, email and sometimes, telepathy (!) (Not really, of course, but its amazing how often "great minds" think alike...or so we delude ourselves!!)

In this case, we've been working with a very special group within Hewlett-Packard -- the Specialty Printing Systems division. It's been four years now since we first braved the world of specialty printing..

Our task initially was to determine who is using mail addressing printers, how long they were in production each day, and what kinds of inks were being used. Since HP doesn't actually make these printers (really! they don't) they have OEMS (original equipment manufacturers) build their Thermal Inkjet Technology into their own branded printers. (Like Pitney Bowes, and Rena, and Buskro, and Hasler, MCS, etc.)

Not all OEMS sell direct to end users, they work with dealers and distributors to sell these printers in addition to other equipment. So...HP doesn't actually know much about their end customers, and often, neither does the printer manufacturer. There are hundreds of distributors and thousands of dealers in the US alone....and when you add in the market for used equipment ? Well! You get the picture!

And then there are all the other wonderful printers out there -- cd/dvd printers, transactional printers, barcoders, packaging printers. Some machines designed for one task are used for completely different purposes. And we have to design surveys to capture it all.... (bring on the coffee and the excedrin!)

So, here we are.

We're marketers and researchers. And what we found over the years in doing this work is that people just like you, people who lived to put ink on stuff (!) liked to discuss ink, substrates, media and printers with each other -- but didn't really have any one place to go. Any one manufacturer could have done this, but it wouldn't be as powerful....so we looked around and realized that it had to be us!

So...we created thINK Plaza. Yes, we still do work with HP...and their partner manufacturers -- but we have a deal. We collect the information and keep the personal information confidential. They get to see the trends and comments that help them improve their processes. And, you get to share in the analysis too...and as long as we're contacting you all, we might as well start passing out the beer and making the introductions!

So, in that spirit, we ask you -- help us make this work for you and us. Please post! Make suggestions! Create a poll! Respond to a blog! Do something to help us grow this little idea into a great, thriving community. My email box is always open!

With the greatest respect,

Wendy

We have all this great technology out there, I finally got the kids in bed, and set down to read my 3 inches of mail. Maybe I'm jaded, maybe its the 17 years of digital, but nothing pops out to me. Has anyone been bowled over by a piece in the mail recently?