One to One Printing

In the beginning was the word. And the word was printed by Gutenberg. Before 1436 there were only 300 books in the world. Then Johann Gutenberg invented the Press and by 1457 there were over 11 million. For the next 500 years or so, print became the main means of communicating images, words and pictures.

People wanted things in print, and printers produced them. But now the process is changing. Digital technology has introduced electronic communication, which is revolutionising the way we work.

Digital technology enables images to be stored as digital files. Digital printing is any printing completed via digital files. It can combine pictures and words and offer true one-to-one personalisation.

In today's ultra competitive market place ensuring that your message gets in front of the right person not only gives a distinct advantage over your competitors but also ensures that your marketing budget is being wisely spent.

So what steps can you take to try to ensure that this is the case? One answer is to use variable data printing for your marketing initiatives.

Of course variable data printing is nothing new. For as long as printers have been linked to computers there has been the ability to produce personalised documents such as quotations, statements and direct mail, but these would mainly appear in black and white, changing only names and addresses.

Full colour personalised direct mail literature has also been available but has involved using a traditional litho printing process to produce the generic full colour content before overprinting the variable data on either a laser or ink jet printer.

But now, with the advent of full colour digital presses this need no longer be the case. The new technology enables you to address your customers personally with a fully individualised colour mailer at a cost that need not be prohibitive. Due to the extremely flexible capabilities of digital printing, you no longer need to order a large print run in order for it to be economical. Shorter run lengths are really where this type of machine comes into its own allowing you to tailor your marketing initiatives to target more specific people or groups, and with the personalised data this results in you addressing each and every potential customer as an audience of one.

Are we fully aware yet of the implications of fully-variable print?

Remember the days of the old fashioned local shop? The shopkeeper knew you, you told him what you wanted, he supplied it and remembered your preferences for the future. Today, companies can use the same successful formula to market themselves on a much larger scale in exactly the same way.

It is well known that personalised communications deliver higher response rates than non-personalised. Addressing customers directly through one-to-one personalisation increases customer loyalty. Personalised marketing communications have been proven to increase response rates up to 30% (Mission Pharmaceutical). Customising content increases clarity and understanding.

Databases are being segmented as the ever-increasing information on consumer purchasing habits and lifestyle information is collated and stored. Databases are now a corporate asset as masses of knowledge on your customers, their products, their preferences and their information can be stored.

This data can then be transformed to create effective marketing focused towards a tightly targeted audience.

This allows you to tailor the information on every page of a printed communication to match the needs and preferences of different individuals.

This means that the print run of the future will be not one thousand or one hundred - but just one.

There is a shift in marketing from a 'stack it high and sell it cheap' strategy to the more targeted approach, with the use of the conversion to digital methods of working.

Digital printing technology has made the print run of one possible. Variable data printing has made the print run of one an effective and commercially viable marketing tool.

You visit your local pizza store every Friday night. Your favourite pizza is deep pan pepperoni. Now and again you feel lazy and get it delivered instead. Then you go on a diet and cut out pizza for a while.

A month later you receive a personally addressed voucher showing a mouth watering picture of your favourite pizza, offering you a free deep pan pepperoni on the Friday night of your choice at the local pizza store. How come? They have a database of all their customers and addresses. Through their computerised till and ordering system they know when you visit and what you have. They decide to do a lapsed customer mailing. They can access the relevant information for each customer and vary personal details accordingly on every voucher printed.

You get your free pizza. They get your continued custom.

So today's full colour variable data presses can make your marketing campaigns more customer specific but don't be fooled into thinking that this is the only application that this technology can be utilised for. The added value of personalisation and short runs include:

• Easy modification and regular changing of designs.
• Opportunity to target niche markets with different material.
• Opportunity to print a variety of different cards at no extra cost.
• Easily modified to adapt to changes in consumer tastes, the market place, services and products offered, seasonal products.
• New product development.

Personalisation can be used to enhance the effectiveness of all the following printed items:

• Leaflets, brochures, fliers
• Point of sale material and merchandising layouts
• Educational literature and school prospectus
• Property details
• Proofs/approvals
• Corporate hospitality and events material, passes, IDs
• Video, CD and Cassette sleeves
• Security passes
• Greetings cards and calendars
• Corporate presentations, training manuals and materials
• Human Resources pamphlets, guides and manuals
• Corporate sales and marketing tools, including folders
• Newsletters. Variable data printing allows every single print to be tailored to a given customer.
• Product catalogues

Differentiate yourself. It's about placing yourself in an entirely new league, one above your competition.

Colin Jones has worked in a sales and marketing capacity within the print and media industry for 20 years and is currently PPL's sales and marketing director. PPL currently employs over 100 staff at its locations along the M4 corridor and is one of the most innovative companies within the digital print market. www.ppl-online.co.uk