Marketing communication are messages and related media used to communicate with a certain market.

Whether you use Internet advertising, direct mail, newspapers or radio, consider these steps.

Step 1:

As you think about advertising that will make a prospective customer aware of your business, remember AIDA principle for your ad:

• Attract Attention.
• Interest.
• Desire.
• Action.

Step 2:

The advertising piece should also create an expectation.

Now that you have made others aware of your product, you must tell how they will benefit from buying it. Remember, they will ask, “How will I benefit from this?” Your ad must provide a good answer to that question before customers will move on to the next step.

Step 3:

Encourage a trial purchase. A sales promotion that is included in the advertising gives customers an incentive to buy right now, says Terence Shimp in his book, Advertising Promotion and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communication.

Step 4:

Help the customer form a positive belief and attitude about your company. When they buy from you for the first time, you have this one opportunity to impress.

The initial contact people have with your business, be it a restaurant, a lawn service or a maker of products, will determine whether the they will come back to buy from you again.

Work with your people so they know how to talk with a customer, be it in person or on the telephone.

Step 5:

Reinforce a customer’s positive belief and attitude.

Be sure to keep the promises made in your advertising.

Your marketing strategy should target a specific type of customer and satisfy a particular customer objective. It should accomplish this while staying within a a budget you have allowed for it.

Joe Kern  is Vice President of  Marketing/Customer Service at PagePath Technologies. PagePath was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Plano, Illinois. PagePath’s MyOrderDesk is an eCommerce solution that combines, Web-to-Print, automated proofing, pricing, reordering and more. It seamlessly integrates into a printing organization’s existing website or can be used as a standalone site. MyOrderDesk is known throughout the printing industry as the leader in Web-to-Print software.

Being “PCI Compliant” is industry lingo for following the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). This standard was developed by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, an independent council originally formed by American Express, Discover, JCB, MasterCard and Visa. They developed a set of policies and procedures intended to optimize the security of credit and debit card transactions and to protect cardholders against misuse of their personal information.

Before the Internet became mainstream in the 90’s, credit and debit cards were mainly used at Point of Sale. Now, almost all online purchases require a credit card in some way. It is estimated that there are 10,000 payment card transactions made every second around the world.

If providing a storefront online, it is essential that you follow PCI Compliance guidelines for both you and your customers’ benefit. Your storefront should implement the following security features as outlined in the PCI-DSS standard:

• Build and Maintain a Secure Network (Set up firewalls and strong password protection)
• Protect Cardholder Data (Cardholder data must be encrypted when stored or transmitted)
• Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program (Run anti-virus/spyware software and keep all other software patched and up to date)
• Implement Strong Access Control Measures (Restrict cardholder data on a need-to-know basis)
• Regularly Monitor and Test Networks (Test your system and monitor access)
• Maintain an Information Security Policy (Build a security policy and maintain it)

Organizations that fail to comply face fines of up to $500,000 if card data is lost or stolen and risk not being allowed to handle cardholder data. These details can be found in your merchant bank agreement.

More information can be found at https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org

Phillip Grandsard  is a Software Developer at PagePath Technologies. PagePath was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Plano, Illinois. PagePath’s MyOrderDesk is an eCommerce solution that combines, Web-to-Print, automated proofing, pricing, reordering and more. It seamlessly integrates into a printing organization’s existing website or can be used as a standalone site. MyOrderDesk is known throughout the printing industry as the leader in Web-to-Print software.

How are you transforming  your company to keep up with technology? Do you have an online store rather than just brick and morter? Are you advertising your business using modern outlets such as Twitter and Facebook instead of just newspapers or flyers? Did you register your company with Internet search engines rather than just the Yellow Pages? Keeping up with the times is key to a business’s success. Don’t let lack of technology retire your business.

Phillip Grandsard  is a Software Developer at PagePath Technologies. PagePath was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Plano, Illinois. PagePath’s MyOrderDesk is an eCommerce solution that combines, Web-to-Print, automated proofing, pricing, reordering and more. It seamlessly integrates into a printing organization’s existing website or can be used as a standalone site. MyOrderDesk is known throughout the printing industry as the leader in Web-to-Print software.

Today’s post is a guest post from Jack Perry. Jack is Vice President of Product Management at Onpoint On Demand. Jack’s role is to help commercial print companies become POD profit leaders through practical application of JDF-enabled technology.

Value stream mapping is a great way to find the waste in any manufacturing process. It provides an illustration of your current workflow along with important data about customer value-added steps, business value-added steps, and customer non value-added steps. Let’s define each of these categories. The best way to categorize the steps in your process is to ask a series of questions for each category. We’ll start with customer non value-added steps because that is typically where most of the waste is.

Customer non value-added steps (CNVA):
Does our process include any of the following: wait time, re-keying of job information, temporary storage, unnecessary movement, redundant inspections or rework, counting or inventory analysis, rushes due to poor planning?
By removing some of these steps, how much lead time (total time to deliver finished goods) could we eliminate from our process?
If we reduce our lead times, how much increased capacity do we yield from existing equipment and personnel?

Ask yourself why you take the non value-added steps you currently take in your workflow. Then ask yourself if each step is really required. Does it contribute to reduced risk? Does it make your company more competitive? Or, is it likely that these superfluous steps simply make you feel better? A common theme I see at commercial print facilities is redundant steps in an effort to quality control the process. Rather than add more steps to the QC effort, error-proof it by applying lean manufacturing disciplines.

Business value-added steps (BVA):
Does this process include any of the following: steps required by regulation, certification or program compliance, steps that reduce business risk, steps that include management visibility into the process, steps that keep the process flowing?

Recognize that these steps are really non-value added, but may be necessary. Do your best to reduce the costs associated with these steps.

Customer value-added steps (CVA):
Does this process include any of the following: steps that add features or functions to the product, steps that contribute directly to manufacturing and delivery, steps that reduce price?

Ask yourself if your customer expects to pay for this step. Often in a manufacturing environment we tend to over produce. In other words, we try to deliver more than the customer expects or will pay for in an effort to please the customer. This is nothing more than waste. Ask yourself is your customer willing to pay extra for the steps you take to over deliver. If the answer is no, stop doing it. Good quality is what the customer expects and nothing more. Having a good understanding of what the client expects is an easy way for your company to be more competitive. By asking simple questions up front, you can eliminate over production and unnecessary cost which will make your pricing and margins better than the printer down the street who hasn’t asked the questions.

How to build a value stream map:
There are different methods of doing this. I like to start with a simple list of steps in the process. It is also standard practice to start building your map from delivery to customer working backwards through the process. But because our industry is so reactive – we jump into action when an order shows up – I like to start from the beginning of the process. Build a simple list of the foundational steps of the process. Here is an example of a list for workflow associated with a web2print production process:

1. receive order notification via email
2. retrieve job ticket and production file
3. re-key job ticket into MIS system
4. schedule job
5. send job ticket and production file into production
6. impose production file.
7. print job
8. finish job
9. ship job
10. update systems
11. invoice

These are just the high level steps in the process. Each step has a number of customer value-added steps, business value-added steps, and customer non-value added steps that must still be identified and documented.

Convert your list to a basic diagram:

Begin to add workflow details to each step:
Example 1: Receive Order Step

1. view email notification
2. click link to job ticket and asset

How long does each step take? Which category does each step belong in? CNVA, BVA, CVA? Is it task time (time it takes to add value to the job) or is it lead time (time it takes to deliver the job but no add value to it)?

Example 2: Retrieve Job Step

1. log into dashboard
2. open job
3. download job ticket
4. download production file[s]
5. log out of dashboard
6. close browser

How long does each step take? Again, which category does each step belong in? And so on…

Begin to add workflow data to your value stream map:

view email: (task time: 15 seconds) CNVA
click link to job ticket and asset: (task time: 3 seconds) CNVA

log into dashboard: (task time: 8 seconds) CNVA
open job: (task time: 15 seconds) CNVA
download job ticket: (task time: 30 seconds) CNVA
download production file: (task time: 1.25 minutes) CNVA
log out of dashboard: (task time: 3 seconds) CNVA
close browser: (task time: 2 seconds) CNVA

For each step, document the wait time, waste, unnecessary movement and effort, rework, counting of inventory, etc. All these items contribute to the total lead time it takes to get the job from receipt to delivery.

You begin to get a visceral understanding of the waste in your workflow. Just in two steps of a very basic process we have found 2.5 minutes of task time and perhaps hours of lead time depending on when the order came in. And none of the time spent contributes to value-added time the customer expects to pay for. Value stream mapping is a great tool for illustrating waste in the process. It also provides wonderful data that can be used to measure costs.  Assume that you process 2,300 web2print orders for 8.5X11 sell sheets each year. In your current process you identify 11 minutes of waste. That’s 421 hours. And at $30 per fully-burdened hour it adds up to $12,630 per year. Ouch! Remove the waste and put the money into your pocket.

How to Improve:
Begin to build a new value stream map that reflects your future state goals. Follow the same steps. Begin with a list of the new steps in the process. Map them at a high level. Fill in the details. Now compare the data for the two maps and you have what you need to begin your process improvement initiative.

Great questions to ask yourself while building a future state map:
Does our customer expect to pay for this step?
Are we overproducing?
Do we really need this quality control step or is it redundant?
How can we error-proof this step so we don’t have to check it again downstream?
Can we use technology to automate what humans do over and over again?

Use value stream mapping often in your lean initiative. You’ll be glad you did.

That was the income in 1969 when John S. Barry took over operations. He immediately decided to eliminate all but one company product, WD-40, and he renamed the company after it.

Soon after, he introduced the trademarked blue and yellow aerosol can. For the next 25 years, the company’s single product, packaging, and sales strategy remained virtually unchanged, according to the editors of INC. magazine.

Others in the company wanted to advertise WD-40 as an industrial, automotive or hardware product. But Barry wanted to keep the product in the public domain so both individuals and companies would buy it, use it and keep it on hand.

It must have been a good idea, because by 2008, sales of WD-40 hit $317 million. The product was sold through almost 70 different channels.

Barry would find out what worked and keep on doing it. And though he retired from the board in 1999, his formula still works.

When WD-40 was rolled out in China, it was with essentially the program that was introduced in 1972.

In Leigh Buchanan’s story for Inc on Barry, she notes that John Barry was a simple and humble man. If anyone asked him what he did, he would say he worked in a warehouse.

And he saved money. When he had meetings outside of the office, they were often held at Denny’s. He believed in his product and wanted everyone who worked for the company to believe in it too. When he visited the home of a man from his ad agency, he noticed a squeaky gate.

He was not happy and wondered how, if his ad people weren’t convinced they should stop squeaks, how could they know how to convince America?

The man who stopped the squeaks died in July at the age of 84.

What is your advertising strategy?

Users can post to questions to organized forums, search solutions or just interact with their peers as well as the PagePath team. Here are some of the added benefits the New IdeaExchange offers.

* Organized Forums
* Searchable Content
* Training Videos
* Ability to Post and Read Blog Articles
* Constant Updates from PagePath Technologies
* Customizable Profiles to Better Know Your Peers
* Ability for All Your Employees to Join (not just Admins)
* Subscribe to email or RSS Updates (Really Simple Syndication)
* Post and Rate Ideas for MyOrderDesk Product Improvement
* Access to Training Calendar
* Designed as a Social Network Specific to Printers

To join the New IdeaExchange go to http://IdeaExchange.MyOrderDesk.com.

PagePath Technologies announced today the first in a series of Social Media Marketing Classes for Printers. Classes are designed to train print companies and individuals how to connect and drive business using the latest in social networking techniques. Classes are one-on-one with a personal coach. The first class to be offered in the series is Twitter for Printers 101.

Twitter for Printers is designed to introduce the printing company to the marketing benefits of using Twitter. This class includes but is not limited to the following:

> Setting up a Twitter Account
> Learning the basic Twitter Web Interface
> Learning how and who to follow
> Generating Followers
> Tweeting with a Purpose
> The Power of Retweets
> Using Productive Twitter Tools

Registration Bonus:

Free SIGNED copy of the book World Wide Rave by renowned marketer David Meerman Scott

To register for this class click on the link below, or you can call Joe Kern with questions at 630-689-4119.

I want to Register!

PagePath Technologies, Inc. today announced the release of TwitterPrint.net

TwitterPrint.net is a website that was created for the Print Industry to research and view live trending topics on Twitter. “Industries need to embrace Social Media if they want to be competitive.” stated Joe Kern, Marketing Coordinator for PagePath. “We recognize that, and we want to help. PagePath built TwitterPrint.net to introduce our industry to Social Media.”

TwitterPrint.net captures all “tweets” that contain the words #TwitterPrint. The site streams the live discussions and allows visitors to navigate to any links or conversations they are interested in. Topics range from simple questions, to industry news and general information. To post to TwitterPrint.net simply put the word #TwitterPrint in your print related posts on Twitter.

If you are like me, these days are filled with a weird mixture of frustration and excitement.  Frustration because everywhere I look there is another report about the difficulties our industry is facing.  Even the so-called industry experts have nothing but bad to say – so much so, in fact, that one is tempted to believe them.  Excitement because personal experience is showing that opportunity is everywhere – so much so, in fact, that I am not sure which is the very best way to turn, because they all seem so filled with potential!

Allow me to take a step back to tell you a little not-so-secret tidbit about me:  I LOVE printing.  I have loved it since the first week I entered this wonderful biz.  Have you ever seen that YouTube video from Pizzazz Printing?  I AM that guy in every way…except I’m a girl, and I’m an American, and I don’t swear as much, and…well you get the idea.

Really…I want to yell it from the rooftops:  I LOVE printing!  In my passion for it, I choose to basically ignore the “cup-is-half-empty” folks.  Sure, I skim the articles to make sure I am up on trends and whatnot and to make sure there is nothing earth-shattering coming my way.  But after that I look for the influence of forward thinkers (including my rockin’ staff), combine that with what I already know…and then blaze my own trail.

Just yesterday I was excitedly talking to our bookkeeper, Becky, about all of the opportunity that is out there.  In an effort to help me get direction (what, me…scattered?), she asked me for a quick list of where I saw that opportunity.  Then she asked me, in her bookkeeper-y, sensible way, to quantify them – to put them in order of priority of which will make the most impact the quickest.  Dang!  She’s holding me back with all the sensible-ness!  I just wanted to be passionate and yell from the rooftops!

OK, ok…I get it – I see the value in what she wants me to do, but it still is like pulling teeth to get me to do it, partially because I don’t have the priority part figured out for myself.  (There’s something else you don’t know – Karen Hall, the editor from Quick Printing magazine, after hearing about our lofty growth goals this year, has asked me to write an article every other month for the on-line version of Quick Printing Magazine tracking my progress…so I guess it would be smart of me to do what Becky the bookkeeper has asked – at least I won’t appear quite so scattered.)

So here’s my blurted out list to Becky the bookkeeper…in no particular order…remember, I don’t have that pesky priority part figured out yet:

Direct sales

• Direct Mail
• Trade shows
• Customer Events
• Community Service
• On-line marketing and communications
• On-line networking
• In person networking
• PR

OK – so that’s a list of all of the getting-in-front-of-people opportunities.  But what if we work our tail off on all of these things and nobody is buying printing?  (Yikes!  Say it ain’t so!)  OK…It ain’s so!  I am here as personal testimony that they ARE still buying printing.  I will say it again, even in these crummy economic times in which we live, businesses still need a reliable, quality conscious printer they can develop a great relationship with.  (I can also give you arguments about why printing is a BETTER marketing and communications vehicle and why I see it perhaps becoming the premier form of marketing communications, but that will have to be for another blog.)

So how do I pick and choose and juggle between all of the getting-in-front-of-people options listed above?  THAT is my next challenge – to put focus on my drive and desire.  When I finally perfect my technique of going completely without sleep while still not biting my kids’ heads off, THEN I’ll be able to do all of it at once!

As one of my very first sales managers used to tell me, “Success in selling is all luck…being at the right place at the right time.  Hard work is how you create that luck.”  I would say exactly the same thing is true these 20 some-odd-years later.  Yes, people are buying printing.  Yes, we work in a fun, active, satisfying, wonderful industry.  And yes, we have to work hard to make those sales.  Would we really want it any other way?

Yell it with me:  I LOVE Printing!

View Lisa’s Blog, Lisa’s Website, Lisa’s Twitter

Customer satisfaction is key in a slowing economy. But the question that is often asked, is how do I know if my customer is truly satisfied with the work I have produced? Often times customers are leary of giving us true feedback face-to-face, or over the phone. Gathering accurate data is the challenge that is faced in making sure our quality and service are up to the standards our customers demand.

The best way to gather this data is by using the web to your advantage. PollDaddy.com is a free service that allows you to create custom surveys that your clients can complete online. With the flexibility that MyOrderDesk offers you, there are several ways to integrate PollDaddy surveys into your workflow. PagePath has produced a short 5 minute video that instructs you how to add this functionality to your site.

1. Who played Eliza Doolittle in the original Broadway production of My Fair Lady?

a-Mary Martin, b-Audrey Hepburn, c-Julie Andrews, d-Wendy Hiller.

2. Which composer’s last original Broadway production was Silk Stockings?

a-Cole Porter, b-George Gershwin, c-Eubie Blake, d-Irving Berlin.

3. In 1997, Cats became the longest-running show on Broadway, surpassing the previous record set by what show?

a-A Chorus Line, b-The Fantasticks, c-Oh Calcutta, d-Hair.

4. Which Broadway musical featured the songs “You Can’t Get A Man With A Gun,” “Anything You Can Do” and “Show Business”?

a-Kismet, b-Gypsy, c-Calamity Jane, d-Annie Get Your Gun

5. What Pulitzer-Prize winning play, satirizing big business and the U.S. government, ran for 837 performances on Broadway in the 1930s?

a-Annie, b-You Can’t Take It With You, c-The More the Merrier, d-Of Thee I Sing.

6.Which 1994 Broadway play was the first live stage production by Disney?

a-Aida, b-Aladdin, c-The Lion King, d-Beauty and the Beast.

7. Anthony Rapp, Idina Menzel, Taye Diggs and Adam Pascal were among the original cast members of which Tony-winning Broadway musical?

a-The Producers, b-Rent, c-Gypsy, d-Chicago.

8. Which playwright’s first work to appear on Broadway was Come Blow Your Horn in 1961?

a-Christopher Durang, b-Cole Porter, c-Neil Simon, d-Sid Caesar.

9. Which actress starred on Broadway in the one-woman show I’m Still Here…Damn It!?

a-Lily Tomlin, b-Sandra Bernhard, c-Patti LuPone, d-Elaine Stritch.

10. Who played Willy Loman in the Broadway debut of Death of a Salesman?

a-Humphrey Bogart, b-Lee J. Cobb, c-Marlon Brando, d-E.G. Marshall.

Join us for a Webinar on February 20, 2009

Step up your marketing tactics by using the Internet to direct traffic to your business and website.

Learn how to harness the power of the social mediasphere – blogging, digg, del.icio.us, Twitter, and many others – to get found by more potential customers, develop meaningful relationships with others in your industry, and position yourself as an expert in your field.

This Webinar is intended for print professionals and business owners who wish to learn about leveraging social media marketing for their business. The Webinar will cover:

• Why use social media channels for marketing.
• What are inbound links and how do the affect my search engine rankings
• How to engage and market in social media sites, including digg, blogging, Twitter, and many others.

Title: Social Media Marketing for Printers
Date: Friday, February 20, 2009
Time: 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM CST

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista
Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/814439577

If you have any questions about PagePath Technologies, or the Webinar, please contact Joe Kern at JKern@PagePath.com.

Business Week’s Frank Lutz says that in his research for a new book, he has discovered the most powerful words that business leaders use today.

The number one word is “consequences.” There can be good consequences and bad ones, but the word instantly personalizes and dramatizes the potential result of an action.

Next comes “impact.” Lutz says it makes people pay attention and causes them to assume they can make a measurable difference. People want results. They aren’t interested in hearing about efforts or solutions. They want to know how well they can execute.

“Reliability” increasingly has great resonance in business, especially with customers. Whether it’s a product or service, reliability is a factor in price. It adds value.

“Mission” and “commitment” should be part of your business vocabulary. The old words, pledges and promises, don’t carry much weight. Leaders now have to put their credibility on the line to achieve a successful outcome.

A mission is a window into the soul of your business. Along with commitment, it shows a desire to be authentic.

These words are positive and proactive. Leaders can only use them if they are speaking candidly and truthfully.

Plano, IL Janaury 30, 2009: PagePath Technologies, Inc. today announced the creation of #TwitterPrint for the Printing Industry.

It’s no secret that Social Networks are on the rise in 2009. It’s beyond a simple “buzz”, and has now become common place for many professionals seeking new business or connections. To aid printers in embracing Social Media, PagePath has created #TwitterPrint.

#TwitterPrint is a hashtag group posted through Twitter that allows printers to follow and search pertinent content that will assist them in social media, blogging, industry news and marketing tips. Access to this social media tool is as simple as navigating to Search.Twitter.com and typing in #TwitterPrint. With an RSS reader, follows can also subscribe to the feed and receive alerts when a new “tweet” is sent.

Printers, publications and industry leaders can also add content by creating a Twitter account and adding the words #TwitterPrint in their posts.

“We are dedicated to helping the industry in any way we can,” commented Steve Ciesemier, Sales Rep at PagePath. “By creating #TwitterPrint, we can share information with others, connect as an industry and embrace social network as a tool for the future.”

For more information on #TwitterPrint or how PagePath can assist in embracing Social Media, contact Joe Kern at 866-770-7569, JKern@PagePath.com, or follow him on Twitter at @JKern_MOD.

#TwitterPrint is a hashtag group posted through Twitter that allows printers to follow and search pertinent content that will assist them in social media, blogging, industry news and marketing tips. Access to this social media tool is as simple as navigating to Search.Twitter.com and typing in #TwitterPrint. With an RSS reader, follows can also subscribe to the feed and receive alerts when a new “tweet” is sent.

Printers, publications and industry leaders can also add content by creating a Twitter account and adding the words #TwitterPrint in their posts.

“We are dedicated to helping the industry in any way we can,” commented Steve Ciesemier, Sales Rep at PagePath. “By creating #TwitterPrint, we can share information with others, connect as an industry and embrace social network as a tool for the future.”

For more information on #TwitterPrint or how PagePath can assist in embracing Social Media, contact Joe Kern at 866-770-7569, JKern@PagePath.com, or follow him on Twitter at @JKern_MOD.

About MyOrderDesk
PagePath’s MyOrderDesk is an eCommerce solution that combines, Web-to-Print, automated proofing, automated pricing, reordering and more. It seamlessly integrates into a printing organization’s existing website or can be used as a standalone site. MyOrderDesk is known throughout the printing industry as the leader in Web-to-Print software.

With MyOrderDesk, a print shop can provide its customers with time savings and convenient 24×7 ordering while the print shop enjoys increased production efficiency, reduced turnaround times, and increased profitability. A demonstration site of MyOrderDesk’s capabilities is available at www.PrintVia.com

About PagePath Technologies
PagePath Technologies, Inc. was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Plano, Illinois. The firm pioneered the use of the Internet to place orders and transmit documents with an easy to use “point & click” system in 1996. MyOrderDesk was twice named “Product of the Year” by PrintImage International & “Best of Breed” by Xerox.

More information on PagePath’s MyOrderDesk is available at http://www.PagePath.com, or by calling 866-770-7561.
###
Joe Kern
PagePath Technologies
Marketing Manager
jkern@pagepath.com
866-770-7569
Twitter @JKern_MOD

Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.

Global issues like poverty are extremely complex. There is no simple, clear answer. By asking thousands of different people to give their viewpoints and opinions, Blog Action Day creates an extraordinary lens through which to view these issues. Each blogger brings their own perspective and ideas. Each blogger posts relating to their own blog topic. And each blogger engages their audience differently.

Poverty is this year’s discussion, and I feel very passionate about this topic. As I have said before in this blog, I volunteer as a High School Youth Minister at my local church. We have studied helping those in need, and our first few projects of the school year have addressed the issue of poverty. Here are some of the charities we have supported or volunteered work:

• Society of St. Vincent De Paul Walk for the Poor (http://www.walkforthepoor.com)
• We will be spending Halloween Reverse-Trick-or-Treating (going house to house asking for donations of money or non-perishable food for our local food pantry)
• Participating in the SouperBowl of Caring (http://www.souperbowl.org)
• Donated money to KidsCaring4Kids. Any amazing charity lead by a 16 year old girl (Steve Ciesemier’s niece) that has raised over 1/2 million dollars for Aids Orphans in Africa (http://www.kidscaring4kids.org)

I would like to encourage you today to make a donation to one of the above charities, or find one of your own that helps to stamp out poverty in our world. Together, we can all make a difference!

It’s too soon to write off the print industry, which has many advantages — including the touch and feel factor. When virtual trade shows became the rage in the late ’90s, many said that trade shows were on their way out. However, trade shows survived because they offer tangible value. People like to demo products, meet company repre­sentatives and get a feel for the culture.

Still, the industry faces hurdles. The costs are rising and, while there are inexpensive options — such as digital printing — the quality is not the same. I think we will see a trend toward smaller, higher-quality runs. I envision printers morphing into boutique-like shops offering specialized services such as color, die cutting or high-output work such as six- to eight-color jobs.

Fulfillment houses have different issues. They need to look toward the future. The Web is the clear choice for dissemination of information. But com­panies, especially large ones, still need a way to reply to requests for more information.

Fulfillment houses should embrace technology and look for ways to move their business to the Web. They could migrate the customer base from a paper-based system to a white-labeled portal, which integrates seamlessly within a corporate site, can automati­cally route the requested e-mail as well as input the data into the sales data­base. Given the public’s enthusiasm for the Internet, this should be considered.

Also contributing was Jeremy Knauff, CEO of Wildfire Marketing Group:

Since the days of the Gutenberg press, printing has evolved, which makes me optimistic about the sector’s ability to survive modern challenges.

Technology has reduced the need for print jobs. Web sites and e-mail do what used to be accomplished by brochures and direct mail. Further­more, online advertising offers equal exposure to print advertising with the added benefit of being highly trackable. Nevertheless, there are tremendous opportunities for printing.

I see marketers using print in differ­ent ways. Take advantage of short-run digital and variable data printing to personalize their message. Print market­ing materials tailored for specific clients — people love tangible products geared specifically to their business.

Don’t just track your e-mail market­ing campaign. Use direct mail to follow up with those that clicked through to your Web site. Thank them for visiting and offer them a special promotion.

Print your catalogs in bulk, but per­sonalize the cover with a few items that particular customers may be interested in based on their buying history. When they purchase a product, send them a postcard recommending a related product. These strategies will produce greater ROI and less waste.

The printing industry is not dying — it is simply adapting to the new world of marketing. It’s up to innovative companies, designers and vendors to lead the revolution.

DMNews’ DECISION

Adapting is the key to both responses: Girardin suggests that printers and fulfillment houses use digital to streamline order process and avail­ability; while Knauff takes a broader approach and tackles the issue of print’s role in integrated marketing. His suggestions to tie print marketing and digital together embrace the innovative nature of the industry.

What you do need is sleep. If you don’t get enough, you will tend to have higher blood pressure. High BP can lead to heart problems and your overall health could decline. Doctors at the University of Chicago even found that the flu shot worked better for people who get enough sleep.

* Want to look good? Encourage your growth hormone by getting enough sleep. That’s the number one way to do it. Growth hormone brings better-looking skin and more muscle mass.

* Reduce stress to increase good feelings. Half of adults surveyed by the National Sleep Foundation said they have insomnia a few nights a week. Do what you can to solve this problem. It can make you feel stressed, depressed, forgetful and less able to concentrate.

* Have a healthier weight. Michael Beus, author of Good Night: The Sleep Doctor’s 4-Week Program to Better Sleep and Better Health, says sleep loss leads to a lower level of leptin, the hormone that makes you feel full, and increases ghrelin, the hormone that make you feel hungry.

Not everyone needs a full eight hours of sleep, but some people need a little more. A Washington State University study suggests the need may be determined by genetics.

Get what you need to feel bright and properly rested each day.

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If your overhead is lower than a competitor’s, you might consider selling a product for less. But be careful. Underpricing for the market is the most common mistake companies make.

According to Money, the sweet spot above costs depends on factors that include the area in which you do business, what the competition is charging, and even the state of the economy.

Don’t forget to add the cost of advertising. Conventional wisdom dictates 2 percent to 4 percent of sales for advertising, say advisors writing in INC. Magazine. In retail, however, it’s higher. A motorcycle shop, for example, should spend 5.8 percent of gross sales for advertising and promotions, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council.

Direct mail and Web

* If you are selling over the Internet or by mail, getting to know your market and your prospective customers can help you determine pricing.

* Getting to know your competitors is even more important. Know who they are, the quality of their products and what extra services they provide.

* When your product is new, different or unique, you might try testing various prices.

In some markets, people are willing to pay more for the same item because they attach more value to it. One advertiser offered a product for $29, $59, and $95. There were more orders at the $95 price, so that was the advertised price thereafter.

* Survey your ideal customers to decide what features make your product attractive and what other features they would like to have.

Pitfall: Studies have determined that it’s more profitable to spend money attracting new customers than pleasing present customers, because there are many more prospective customers. Present customers’ input, however, could make your products more pleasing to all.

* Create urgency in your advertising. Offer a limited-time discounted price, which will encourage bargain shoppers to buy before the price goes back up.

Here’s a small sample of what you’ll find:

• Accounting – Pro forma balance sheet, profit & loss statement, cash flow statements & more.
• Admin – Credit check, fax cover, wire transfer, purchase order, invoice template, expense report template & more.
• Finance – Lease or buy comparison, calculating present value & more.
• HR – Job description, application for employment, offer letter, employee termination report & more.
• Legal – Consulting agreement, confidentiality agreement & more.
• Marketing – Marketing plan, creative brief, press release template, marketing budget & more.
• Strategy – Strategic plan outline, SWOT analysis, executive summary & more.

So have fun with them but remember, the forms are to be used only as a starting point. VerticalResponse makes no claim that these forms are legally binding in your state, country or part of the world so first consult your attorney!

He and Knerr still had Wham-O, and after several other ill-fated endeavors, they bought the rights for a plastic flying disk in 1955. They called it the Plato Platter. It wasn’t much of a hit until the following year when they changed the name to the Frisbee.

One of Melin’s next ideas was the plastic Hula Hoop. It was a big success but faded fast. Wham-O took a big loss on its huge unsold inventory.

A couple of years later, they made the SuperBall, which did well. Melin’s two-handed tennis racket, however, was not a success. But Silly String and Slip ‘n Slide did OK. He and Kerr sold Wham-O in 1982.

Melin’s life proves again that all ideas aren’t winners, but if you keep coming up with them, you’ll find some that are. Lots of people told him his ideas weren’t realistic, but he kept on trying.

Keep his example in mind when you have an idea and someone says it’s not a good one. Maybe it is. You probably won’t make a lot of money on it, (it took Melin 34 years to do that) but you could help your organization save a buck or change something for the better. That always counts.

Back in the early 1990s, email was a privilege granted only to those who could prove they needed it. Now it has turned into a nuisance that’s costing companies millions. We may feel that we have it under control, but not only do we check email more often than we realize, but the interruptions are more detrimental than was previously thought.

In a study last year, Dr Thomas Jackson of Loughborough University, England, found that it takes an average of 64 seconds to recover your train of thought after interruption by email (bit.ly/email2). So people who check their email every five minutes waste 81/2hours a week figuring out what they were doing moments before.

It had been assumed that email doesn’t cause interruptions because the recipient chooses when to check for and respond to email (bit.ly/email3). But Dr Jackson found that people tend to respond to email as it arrives, taking an average of only one minute and 44 seconds to act upon a new email notification; 70% of alerts got a reaction within six seconds. That’s faster than letting the phone ring three times.

Added to this is the time people spend with their inbox. A July 2006 study by ClearContext, an email management tools vendor, surveyed 250 users and discovered that 56% spent more than two hours a day in their inbox (bit.ly/email4). Most felt they got too much email – by January 2008, 38% of respondents received more than 100 emails a day – and that it stopped them from doing other things.

Karen Renaud, a lecturer at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and her colleagues at the University of the West of Scotland discovered that email users fall into three categories: relaxed, driven and stressed. “The relaxed group don’t let email exert any pressure on their lives,” Dr Renaud says. “They treat it exactly the way that one would treat the mail: ‘I’ll fetch it, I’ll deal with it in my own time, but I’m not going to let it upset me’.”

The second group felt “driven” to keep on top of email, but also felt that they could cope with it. The third group, however, reacted negatively to the pressure of email. “That causes stress,” says Dr Renaud, “and stress causes all sorts of health problems.”

Dr Renaud’s team discovered that while 64% of respondents claimed to check their email once an hour, and 35% said they checked every 15minutes, they were actually checking it much more frequently – about every five minutes. For some people, checking email is no longer a conscious and deliberate act, but a compulsion they are barely aware of (bit.ly/email5).

Tom Stafford, a lecturer at the University of Sheffield, England, and co-author of the book Mind Hacks, believes that the same fundamental learning mechanisms that drive gambling addicts are also at work in email users. “Both slot machines and email follow something called a ‘variable interval reinforcement schedule’ which has been established as the way to train in the strongest habits,” he says.

“This means that rather than reward an action every time it is performed, you reward it sometimes, but not in a predictable way. So with email, usually when I check it there is nothing interesting, but every so often there’s something wonderful – an invite out or maybe some juicy gossip – and I get a reward.” This is enough to make it difficult for us to resist checking email, even when we’ve only just looked. The obvious solution is to process email in batches, but this is difficult. One company delayed delivery by five minutes, but had so many complaints that they had to revert to instantaneous delivery. People knew that there were emails there and chafed at the bit to get hold of them.

Another solution might be the notification system Growl (growl.info), which puts up a brief message on the screen with details such as the sender and subject line while the user is in other programs. Presently only available for Mac OS X, a version is being tested for Windows though this, of course, causes the interruptions you are trying to avoid. Companies are beginning to take these problems seriously, although the “no email days” favoured by Deloitte and Intel have not proved effective. Deloitte’s “no email Wednesday” was abandoned after a month (bit.ly/email6) and Intel found that there was a “clear incompatibility” between the need of the pilot group to communicate asynchronously with colleagues and the avoidance of email for a whole day (bit.ly/email7). No-email days don’t work, says Dr Stafford, “because they don’t help people to change their behaviour while they are actually using email. Once your email is back, you’re going to respond to it in the same old ways unless you replace your bad habits.”

It’s better to replace email with more appropriate tools. Roo Reynolds, a “metaverse evangelist” who is joining the BBC to work with social media, has moved away from email for everything but the most formal communications. “I use other tools … I’ve got a whole set of contacts who love Twitter and if I want to reach them quickly then that’s where they’ll be.”

Mr Reynolds has even begun to think of email as rude and invasive, preferring to use tools such as Twitter and Flickr. He also uses social networking sites such as Dopplr, which tracks people’s travel, to find out if they are away before he contacts them, and status alerts from instant messenger or Twitter to help him decide if now is a good time to interrupt them. Other tools, such as blogs and wikis, have decreased the amount of email that he sends and receives, while RSS feeds and recommendations from friends and colleagues allow him to keep abreast of the most important news.

For a tool that business depends so heavily on, we put little thought into how we use email. Dr Karol Szlichcinski, a business psychologist, recommends providing guidelines and training to give people “ways of reducing the disruption caused by email, ways of managing email so that it doesn’t run your day. Organisational norms build up, and people come to expect others to answer emails within a given timeframe, whether that email is important or not.”

We may think email is simple, but its ease of use is deceptive. For many, it’s a boon, but for an increasing majority it’s the tail that wags the dog.

Keeping control of the inbox

If you find your mouse straying towards the “check email” button far too often, try these tactics:

- Turn off intrusive alerts. Anything that pops up, flashes, or goes “ding!” will interrupt you when you’re trying to focus and will trigger a response to check your email.

- Set your email client to display just the title and first few lines of the email, so you can easily decide if it is important enough to deal with right now.

- Use other tools. Twitter and instant messaging (IM) are better for asking short questions of chosen groups. Wikis are better for collaborating on documents. Blogs are better for publishing information and having informal conversations.

- Send fewer emails. Do you need to hit “reply to all”?

- Schedule your email. Set aside time each day to deal with your inbox and ignore it for the rest of the day. Most people check first thing in the morning and late afternoon.

Suw Charman-Anderson is an expert in collaboration and communications

There has been a lot written about the power of attitude. And when it comes to leadership and management, attitude means a lot.

Positive mental attitude often gets a bad wrap. It often gets attached to cheesy people who love cheesy slogans. But be careful not to through out the true content with the cheese. Being a leader in management who has a positive attitude is certainly better than one who sees the glass half empty. A positive attitude in leadership:

• helps you overcome leadership challenges and difficulties.
• causes you to take responsibility for your actions and life.
• creates energy–a negative attitude zaps it.
• leads to action.
• helps you learn and absorb more.
• causes you to look for opportunities and potential, not just problems.
• helps you believe positive outcomes can occur in almost any situation.
• attracts other positive thinking people into your business and life.
• helps you discover and focus on your strengths instead of your weaknesses.
• leads to developing good habits.

Ask yourself this one simple question: How will having a positive mental attitude in management improve your business? Then decide whether it is too cheesy to have a PMA.

The Danger of Settling for Mediocrity

As business owners and leaders we cannot let good employees at any level get away from us. People leave for many reasons, some external ones we can control, but all internal reasons we must beware of and work hard to mitigate.

One such internal reason for employees leaving happens when mediocrity is allowed to become pervasive in organizations. The best people want to work for great leaders and will not tolerate mediocrity at any level.

Never Settle for Mediocrity in Your People Especially Team Leaders

Recently, a company hired a manager to take over and lead a very high performing team. This manager’s credentials were solid. They had the experience and, seemingly, the leadership qualifications the company needed.

Unfortunately, this manager did not strive for excellence, and did only what they had to do – not what their staff and the business needed them to do to be successful. This manager’s subordinates realized this first, and the ones that appreciated strong leadership, high standards, and wanted to succeed, all started to quit. Those who that had lower standards, or those who did not understand the hard work and organization it takes to be successful, remained.

With this transition to mediocrity, the business showed signs of decline with basic things not getting done, customer count dropping and the best team members leaving.

The company coached and retrained the new manager, but good team members still quit and the people they were being replaced with were not qualified. In addition, other managers in the company were demotivated by the presence of a peer who did not have the same level of accountability and excellence. It was feared they too would leave.

Be Decisive and Quick

Even though a vacancy in this key position would put stress on other associates, and could leave business at risk by being short handed, the choice was made to terminate the new manager quickly and decisively. Along with the obvious short term problems this manager was causing, the reputation of the business externally and the internal culture built in the company was deteriorating which could take months and years to repair.

Allowing the mediocrity to continue would erode the company’s culture of excellence and accountability, which had made the business successful. Externally the company suffered an injured reputation in two ways.

First, the best people that quit were the ones the company wanted to hire more of. Their peers knew of the problems with the new manager so an excellent source of talent diminished.

Second, customers noticed the loss of quality employees because the level of service they came to expect deteriorated over a short time period, resulting in a loss of customers. Worse yet, customers stopped talking about the business positively and told negative things to prospective customers. This hurt critical word of mouth advertising.

Mistakes Happen – Remedy Them

Obviously the company did a poor job hiring, but that is another topic of discussion. Mistakes happen and the company remedied the situation by not tolerating the mediocrity of the now former manager. The company’s quick and decisive action stopped the mediocrity from hurting the business deeply long term.

If you have managers that consistently have high turnover, or are always complaining about how their staff underperforms, look closely at that manager’s behavior toward their staff and in how they hire and train their workers. Usually when this consistency exists, the manager needs to be coached and retrained and hopefully reformed. This will enable their team to become stronger so your company can grow and not wallow in mediocrity.

When that happens, everyone in the building should feel involved in the process. Management has to have the required paperwork in order, but that’s just the beginning.

How each person treats the inspector can make a difference in his appraisal of our operation. Treat the inspector like the VIP that he is. Smile and be cooperative. That can go a long way toward his view of the business. Never be rude or defensive.

The inspector could pick you at random to ask questions about your training and its effectiveness. For example, you might be asked to locate the solution you use in your portable eyewash station.

If you are selected, be sure you understand each question. Think a minute before replying. Answer briefly and give only the information that was asked for without rambling on. Don’t answer questions that have not been asked.

Generally, the inspector will want to inspect only one or two parts of the operation, but the inspection is not limited in scope. The inspector can and will inspect whatever OSHA wants to inspect.

Make the inspector’s visit as pleasant as you can. Be polite and respectful. He is not an intruder but someone doing the job he was hired to do.

This only applies to those people who:
– Have checked the box for “Remember my password on this computer” that displays on the My Jobs page, or
– Have checked the box for “Remember my password on this computer” that displays on the My Account sign in pages, or
– Have turned on this option in their Contact Info page.

Again, this option will now apply only to the website where it was set.
Visiting another MyOrderDesk website will not result in you being auto-logged in to that second site unless you specifically select that option on the second website as well.

For example, if your customer uses the auto-login option on your website, and they then visit another website that uses MyOrderDesk, they will NOT be auto-logged into the second website. They can select auto-login as an option for the second website, but it will be their decision, not something MyOrderDesk does automatically.

A survey by Zogby International asked people why they ordered pearls from The Pearl Outlet (the pearloutlet.com). Often the gift was given as an apology to a wife or girlfriend. The survey discovered one other fact.

People who were more willing to say they’re sorry earned more money than those who didn’t. It seems that apologizing is a factor in maintaining good relationships

About 90 percent of those who earned $100,000 or more apologize when they believe they are wrong. Only 84 percent of those earning $75,000 to $100,000 did the same. About 52 percent of those earning $25,000 or less would apologize. The survey was reported by Ann Fisher in Fortune magazine.

Even when they felt completely blameless, 25 percent of high earners apologized compared with 13 percent in the lowest income group.

Those who say they’re sorry now and then are viewed more positively. Others think they are willing to learn from mistakes and mend relationships.

Another explanation may be that high earners feel more secure and are less likely to go on the defensive when challenged says Marty Nemko, author of Cool Careers for Dummies (2001).

Maybe next time we are reluctant to apologize, we should remember that high earners do it pretty often.

It helps the work run smoothly.

Many in the iPod generation are buying new turntables specifically for LPs. The new fans like the warm sound, but they also appreciate the elaborate album covers and liner notes that come with albums. They especially like sharing their music with friends as opposed to listening alone though earbuds.

Young people often rediscover LPs when they look through their parents’ collections and listen to one or two, only to discover music they may not have heard before.

Baby boomers are coming back to vinyl records as well. They’re not only rediscovering the sound but capturing a nostalgia for their youth.

Suggestions for Creating a Strong Password:

• Should be at least eight characters long
• Contain Uppercase letters
• Contain Lowercase letters
• Contain Numbers
• Contain Characters
• Does not contain your user name, real name, or company name.
• Does not contain a complete dictionary word.
• Is significantly different from previous passwords.

Avoid the following in creating your passwords

• Name of family members, friends or pets.
• Personal information about yourself or family members.
• This includes the generic information that can be obtained about you very easily, such as birth date, phone number, vehicle license plate number, street name, apartment/house number etc.
• Sequences. i.e consecutive alphabets, numbers or keys on the keyboard. for e.g. abcde, 12345, qwert.
• Real word from any language
• Word found in dictionary with number substitution for word look alike. for e.g. Replacing the letter O with number 0. i.e passw0rd.
• Any of the above in reverse sequence
• Any of the above with a number in front or back.
• Empty password
• Do NOT use single “hacker phrases” as passwords e.g. “M1cr0$0ft” or “P@ssw0rd”
• Do NOT write down the password on a post-it and stick it on the monitor.

So how do I create a strong password that I can remember?

Creating a strong password is a challenge. Creating a strong password that you can remember is even more of a challenge. A true strong password should could be part of a “passphrase”. A passphrase consists of a phrase that has special meaning to you, therefore making it easier to remember. For example:

Michael Phelps is the greatest swimmer, ever!

One simple approach to create a better password is to take the first letter of each word in your passphrase, giving you:

mpitgse

That looks seemingly random, and it’s a fairly hard password to crack. But it is only 7 characters. We could make it stronger by using the punctuation from the sentence.

mpitgs,e!

That is a much harder password to crack. Let’s step it up a bit more by capitalizing some letters and adding some numbers, say, the year he broke the record for the gold.

MPitgs,e!08

Feel free to liberally salt it with non-alphanumeric character replacements for greater difficulty. For example, replacing “s” with a “$”, leaving us with:

MPitg$,e!08

This is a unique and strong password, and it is easy to remember.

You can reach people without having to find them first. You don’t have to bother with initial pleasantries, and everyone knows that your brief message doesn’t have to be nice. It just has to be factual.

But email has taken over business communication in ways that would be better handled by face-to-face contact. Telephone contact works almost as well. How many times have you changed the tenor of what you will say next because of the reaction to your last statement.

Would a problem with a customer be handled more quickly if the customer’s response was immediate? The nuance of the spoken voice includes information you would miss with electronic communication.

One major organization has initiated “no-email Fridays” and encourages people to pick up the phone for a conversation on any day of the week or to see others in person.

The company says that within a few months’ time, they experienced better problem-solving, better teamwork, and happier customers.

According to New York University’s Stern School of Business, as few as half of recipients get the tone or intent of an email. And most people “vastly overestimate” their ability to relay and comprehend messages accurately.

At Syracuse University, they say misinterpretation is highest when the email comes from a boss.