Yes, we have written about the benefits of social networking. And yet we neglected to tell you how to find us. So without further ado…
Or you can find us on Facebook and look through a few more galleries of our work and of course be a fan so you can receive regular updates.
Offset Lithography has long been the preferred method of printing for the past one hundred years. Most everything we see today whether it be a newspaper, magazine or a piece of business stationery has been offset. However, quite often you don’t need 5000 pieces or more of a printed piece to really constitute the price of a 4 color press run. So what do you do? Well, with the new printing technology you have two choices, pay for the wash-up and printing time of a 4-color offset job; or you can find a digital offset printer.
A Digital Offset Press is not a standard offset press with some sort of computerized modification made to it. No, a digital press does not use the traditional plates like offset presses. In the interest of explaining the differences, I should first explain an offset press and how it works briefly. A typical Offset press, 4 stations of ink, Cyan (Blue), Magenta, Yellow and Black or (CMYK, K stands for Black). At each ink station, the ink is applied to the plate which is transfered to a blanked which is then transfered to the paper. Once the plate has been made there is almost nothing you can do to change it’s color values or image on the plate. You can, of course, raise the amount of ink applied to the page, thus upping you color intensity to some extent. Why did I go into that? Well the fundamental difference between Standard Offset Lithography and Digital Offset Lithography lies in the concept of the printing plate. As previously mentioned, the standard offset plate in most cases is a sheet of etched metal wrapped around a drum that transfers the image to a blanket and is then applied to the paper being printed. That is great for most printing jobs, very accurate, good color range, and innumerable presses worldwide. Great, so what’s the difference with digital offset. Well Digital offset has no plates. It has an imaging cylinder. Ok, so how is that different from a plate wrapped about an imaging cylinder? Well there’s a electromagnetic charge applied to the imaging cylinder that has an image laser-etched onto it and then toner (digital offset) ink is attracted to the magneticly charged laser-etched image on to the plate. The magnatized toner is then transfered to the sheet of paper which has been been given an opposite charge. And this process is repeated 4 times (CMYK). And everytime the image charge is wipped away and re-edged with every rotation. Ok, great. Why is all that important?
The importance of this difference is that no wet ink is used (ie. you don’t pay any wash-up fees associated with cleaning press blankets), no metal plate is used (ie. making edits to files on press easier and making variable printing possible). The later idea of variable printing is for another entry. But because you don’t have set-up charges with blankets and metal plates and issues with registration you have less press time to pay for and with almost zero wasted paper you have less consumption, couple that with the ability to print on demand or lower quantities you have less wasted materials, less press time and less clean-up time. Give you cost savings as a client. And a greener print run because of less waste with digital offset.
I know you’re thinking, “Ok, lets go digital with every print job”. Hold on there, digital offset is great for print jobs from 1-5000. Generally speaking, it it is typically lower cost than offset but due to the speed of the machines anything over 5000 pieces is better to be printed on standard offset. The other issue with digital offset is that it’s toner does not actually bond with the paper to give you deep color saturation which is the beauty of uncoated paper (non -glossy paper) printed with wet ink on an offset press. On one hand this is a disadvantage and the other it is a benefit. The benefit is that on most paper the image quality is usually better because it is not soaking into the paper. And it sits ontop of the paper, so any defects in on the image surface will not show thru. However if you enjoy the uniqueness of the defects, saturation of the ink or a surface texture then digital may not be the best fit. But since it is a water-based ink it will withstand weather and the USPS mail stream a little better.
These are the main differences of standard offset printing and digital offset printing. If you have any further questions or if we can help you choose the right printing techniques for your print job, feel free to email, me, ryan@thegbrand.com.
At G, we love to know our audience and love to engage you, the reader. After all, the whole point of this blog is to talk about useful information so we can serve you better. With that said, I came across a small article from our favorite folks that we’ve partnered with at Panorama Public Relations and wanted to pull a small piece from it and post it for you to read and ponder.
So how do you deliver audience-focused communication? Here are five tips:
1. Make your mantra: “It’s not about me; it’s about you.” Chant this dozens of time a day.
2. Love your audience. “Know your audience” is one of the oldest tenets of communication. The concept is that the better you understand the needs and preferences of the people you’re trying to reach, the better you can design communication that will get through to them.
But in these crazy times, you need to go further than just collecting data about your audience; you need to get really, really close to them. You can’t connect with your audience if you see them only as a bunch of statistics. Find out what they care about, and pledge to provide it.
3. Aim carefully to hit your target. Ever buy one of those “one-size-fits-all” tee shirts? It’s meant to work for everyone, but it’s too small for Uncle Phil and looks like a tent on Cousin Sue. “It never ceases to amaze me,” says Darlene Rotch, CEO of Panorama Public Relations, “how often companies try to do the same thing with communication. Unless you develop the specific message that meets the need of a particular audience, it just won’t fit.”
4. Convey a single message. Once you’ve figured out what a particular audience needs to know, capture your message in a single sentence of 10 words or less. Your audience doesn’t have the time or attention span for a complicated pitch. They need to instantly know—in the space of an e-mail subject line or an ad headline—what it is and what it means to them.
5. Provide a recipe. What are the most powerful words in any headline? The single word that packs the most punch is “you” and the phrase that draws people in is “how to.” Especially these days, people are hungry for help. If you can give them information that makes their lives easier, they’ll be so grateful that they’ll reward you with the greatest gift of all: their attention.
Let G Branding and Design be your team to help your business speak to your audience. We have great partnerships so that we can voice your messages in a multitude of mediums and ultimately open a dialog between you and your audience.
Read the full story, Money-Making Messages.
It’s an odd marketplace we are currently living in. There are countless statements and quotes from people that say, the old way doesn’t always work anymore, and many more that say, there are no new ideas, just rethought old ones. But the new idea that is sweeping through the design and marketing world is that those little websites that people use to connect are actually one of the most dynamic ways to reach your audience. Sure - we’ve all heard of, and most have even tried, Facebook or Myspace or even Twitter. But how many of have thought, “G, my business could really benefit from these online communities”. As larger companies begin to test the social networking waters, the question remains why aren’t you? Well, here is a quick tutorial on your first steps to take your business to the online social masses.
Before we go any further, we have two simple questions to ask you, to whom do you market? and why? Or rather, are you marketing to the general public or a business? And, is your intent to inform? to sell? or to keep yourself in-front of the general public? These are important questions to ask. Because they determine a)how you use these and b) which tools are most likely going to work for your business.
a) Facebook - Is the standard when it comes to online social networking. Facebook is a great tool for getting your name out to masses. Instead of spending your day connecting with your friends, family, schoolmates and that old roomate, you could instead spend your time pushing your message and let people become “fans” of your business and virally spread your message and name. The downside of all social media is that, you cannot control who pushes your name and if your own mother doesn’t want to become a “fan” of your business then she doesn’t have to. You can also now-a-days become buy advertising on Facebook much like other websites. And with over 175,000,000 users and the ability to target and track the ads. You may well reach your audience more effectively than with the more conventional media outlets. To start your own business fan page on Facebook just follow this link.
b) Twitter - If you’re asking what is that? Then, we might tell you a surprising fact, 1 in 10 American adults with an average age of 31 are using Twitter to broadcast their voice. American adults with a mean age of 31… does that sound like your target audience? Well, Twitter may be one of the single best ways G has ever seen to track your brand’s position in today’s marketplace. And, as you broadcast your short and sweet blog posts people can begin to “follow you”. Then you have an audience who are listening and possibly rebroadcasting your message. Not to mention, there are many useful tools that can allow you to monitor, what people are posting about you which you could use to open a direct dialog with your customers or potential customer. Quick suggestion, Twitter is extra handy for providing great customer service, if someone has a complaint about your product you can know instantly, if they blog about it, and then you can respond and become their knight in shining armor.
c) Blogs - Aren’t those just for people who write about their kids or dogs at 3am? Not so anymore, a blog is a great way to keep customers up-to-date on what’s happening at your business. Do you have a new product that’s just come out? and you want to tell the world? “Blog” about it and why you’re enthusiastic about it. A blog is a great way to tell your audience why you’re passionate about your products. We prefer Wordpress for our blog needs. We at the G Brand have set up about 5 blogs in the past two months alone. The ease of adding and editing content coupled with the ease of designing a custom Wordpress blog makes it our favorite.
These are just a few of the ideas that you can use further your marketing effort. This is definitely still the wild west in the marketing industry. If you are unsure or would rather have someone else lead you through the jungle that is Social Networking then pickup the phone and call 205-329-7023, or email us at G Branding and Design and let up show you how effective reaching the masses through social media can be.
*Special thanks to AIGA Birmingham for a great meeting on the subject of Social Networking.
