You Had Me At Hello: Creating Great First Impressions

Contributed by Dayna Neumann

How do you know you made a great first impression?

They remember your name.  They take your calls.  They buy from you.  They buy from you again.  They send a shout-out Tweet recommending you to their network.  The uncomfortable truth is, in business, we may not know the quality of our first impression in time to do anything meaningful about it.

So how do you guarantee the best possible first impression?  For me, it’s all about the experience.  No matter the channel – sales reps, customer service, websites, packaging, products, signage, business cards – you must be prepared to make the best possible first impression.

That Sounds Expensive

Managing good first impressions does not require a Lebron James PR budget.  Orchestrating consistent, impressive first impressions starts with awareness.  Be aware of your communication channels and all the ways potential clients interact with your company.  If you start with awareness you may reveal areas for improvement and missed opportunities.

Help Me Help You

Do you make it easy for customers to socialize?  Do you give them a simple way to tell you what they like, what they don’t like and to share all of these feelings with their network?  If you answered no, you are missing a major opportunity to capture new market share.  Again, this doesn’t have to be a major investment.  Slap a QR (quick response) code on a portion of your next label run and have it point to your Twitter page.  Ask your customers to give you instant feedback on why they chose your product.  Test an incentive like a discount coupon or a product give away and see if people need a little extra encouragement to engage the campaign.  Capture the metrics, read the posts, react accordingly, repeat the parts that worked, get lots of new customers, make buckets of money.  Creating ways for your existing customers to help you attract new customers does not have to break your marketing budget and you will have entered a brave new world of first impressions.

Channel Surfing

Let’s consider another scenario where your product is the channel to create a first impression.  For many companies, a web-based application like a storefront is the first interaction someone has with your company.  For us, we have cloud, or hosted products that our customers make available to their employees to help them do their job – like initiating marketing campaigns or managing label inventories.  In these situations it is your product that establishes the first impression with an entire user community.  Again, you must be aware of the customer experience and continue to ask yourself if the experience is the best it can possibly be.  Do you allow your customers to socialize about the experience and the product?  Are you listening and reacting?  Are your channels working hard for you and each other?

You Had Me At Hello

So who is killing the product-based first impression and who is nailing the internet first impression?  37 Signals and Prezi are two companies doing both incredibly well.  I won’t cloud your judgment with my opinions here.  So go out to their sites, have your own first impression and report back in the comments on what your first impressions are of these two companies and their products.  Are they giving a firm handshake or a limp fish?

It’s About Time

Contributed by Ted Hagler

It’s 5am and the alarm goes off.  Today is the big day!  Not the day we put our “large  sheet” digital press on the floor, no, today is the day we take one of our “large 40 inch security blankets” off the floor.  Today a crew is coming to Fetter to remove a litho press we bought over twenty years ago.

Why the change?  It’s about time.

In this new world of complexity, high quality and mass customization, this well-built, carefully engineered, lithographic press has become obsolete due to time; the time it takes to set up one job.

In this world, job quantities are reducing and job diversity is proliferating.  Fetter recognizes the need to change jobs quickly and often.    In the time it takes to set up a job on the old 40 inch litho press, we could have the job complete on the new digital press.  Because time is typically money in the press room, the time we save with digital translates into lower waste and increased yield.

Arrival time.

For Fetter this transition process started over two years ago with an exploratory investigation into the needs of our label customers, moved into the building of one of the most comprehensive cost-analyzing databases and culminated into the testing of four very different digital presses and three of the latest sheet-fed  lithographic presses.  It involved labor changes, space consideration, process change and customer cooperation.

Time for change.

From a business operations standpoint we were able to quickly adapt many of the same quality requirements, productivity goals and job specifications from our current system.  This was a plus considering the additional time and cost it could have taken to change numerous practices and measurements at the same time we were asking so many employees to learn a new technology.  Another benefit was our ability to support this digital press with all the same finishing equipment we already had – and that our customers were comfortable with this tactic.  The finishing connection is significant because some digital presses force you to have different finishing equipment and processes, when coupled with the change in printing, creates additional stress in the plant and with our customers.

Remember, it’s all about time!

We are in the beginning of our second month of experiencing the dynamic capabilities of our new NexPress and the positive impact it is having on our plant.  Time will tell, but all indications point to exceeding our time efficiency expectations while delivering the product our customers need to succeed.

How is digital print changing the delivery of your products?

Because if you’re not moving forward, you’re falling behind

Contributed by Hannah Beasley

Simply stated, innovation drives progress. Even if the innovations aren’t your own.

Take a look at these top innovations and trends in packaging that we’ve spotted lately for an instant rejuvenation of your own imagination and your weekly dose of in-the-know.

Innovation: Products Reinvented

1 – Mario Olives has taken a classic garnish and reinvented it as a snack food, brilliantly marketed as snack size – “Packed loose without the juice!” [Packaging World]

2 – Picture a product with packaging so compelling that consumers buy it simply for the packaging. Canned Air, available for sale on Etsy.com for just $4.99 is exactly that. [The Dieline]

The Look: Clean & Simple Package Design

3 – Good Co. simply states the idea of Good Coffee & Good Company with a simple and elegant look. [Lovely Package]

4 – Vale Ale sets itself apart by entering the marketplace as a chic and contemporary Australian beer. [The Dieline]

Lead Innovator: PepsiCo

5 – Pepsi’s new 100% plant based bottle is breaking new grounds in the world of sustainable packaging, proving that a label and the package wearing it can both go green. [Greener Package]

6 – QR codes are sweeping the nation, and it’s no surprise that PepsiCo is a thought-leader by implementing QR codes to promote their loyalty programs and drive consumers toward more brand engagement.

Labels, packages, and the world of consumer packaged goods is constantly evolving. So which packaging innovations are shaking the way you do business?

Let’s take a closer look at QR codes and how you can use them effectively on your labels. QR codes are designed to bridge the gap from print to the web, allowing companies to measure and increase consumer engagement. Not sure exactly what this means for you? Here’s our best rundown:

When QR codes are scanned, they take consumers to links on the web – this means you can direct your consumers to additional content that won’t fit directly on the package, or you can send them to a page where they can take an action such as participating in a rewards program. You could also direct them to your social media presence, display a promotional page, or point to a contest entry form. The possibilities are really endless, but the most important thing is to make sure that the landing page is mobile friendly. Since you already know that the page is being visited on a mobile phone, pointing a consumer to your standard desktop-friendly-only webpage is bound to cause frustration and will be highly ineffective.

Still not sure how you can make QR codes work for your label? Find a partner who can help you get started, and use these ideas to begin thinking forward!

• Add a QR code to your paint label that directs consumers to online videos with tips and tricks for painting
• Include a QR code on your distilled spirits bottle and let ambassadors earn rewards for brand loyalty
• Use a QR code on canned goods labels to direct grocery shoppers to online recipes and cooking tips

Be inspired. Be innovative.

Contributed by Hannah Beasley