Americans age 45+ earn more than 50% of U.S. discretionary income That amounts to $756 billion. They make from 45% to 75% of annual purchases of new cars and trucks … non-business computers … personal-care products … food … and airline travel, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The fastest-growing U.S. demographic segment is age 50+ Every seven seconds, an American turns 50, according to the Census Bureau. Most older Americans experience vision deficits They have difficulty

Here are 9 tips from Ted Kikoler for Making Graphics Sell: Zoom in on the product Use large-as-possible photos and illustrations Crop them to cut away unnecessary material Show the product in use—by a human being, if possible Control eye flow Most readers naturally shift their attention from dark to light areas, and from large to small objects The eye focuses on things that look out of place Use copy captions and call-outs with graphic elements Use “handwritten” copy—but disc

“Good copywriters are not usually the most imaginative people,” writes nationally respected marketing consultant Terry Dean. “They don’t just instantly dream up winning headlines out of thin air.”Research, he says, is the key to at least 75% of copywriting success. It makes you sound as if you know what you are talking about— which goes a long way toward neutralizing the BS-detector that most of your customers use to screen out marketing-ese. And it is easier to accomplish th

K*I*S*S — “Keep It Simple, Stupid” — long have been watchwords in direct mail. Now, research by Daniel M. Oppenheimer, a Princeton University psychologist, shows scientifically that texts using hifalutin language and unusual graphics actually diminish the reader’s perception of the writer’s intelligence and, by extension, the value of paying attention to his offer. Oppenheimer, then at Stanford, polled 110 undergraduates and found that a vast majority purposely used million-

“Each product or service has natural strengths and weaknesses” to stress or downplay in your advertising, New Jersey consultant Robert W. Bly observes. He says, that advertising success hinges on eight factors when writing effective copy: Grabs Attention You must win your sales prospect’s attention in the fraction of a second after the instant he glances at your advertising, he writes. The all-time attention-winner is highly specific copy. As a good example, Bly cites a lette

A Creative Brief establishes goals and objectives for your marketing efforts. It helps bring clarity to all participates and ends ambiguity. The preparation of a Creative Brief always saves time, money and lowers everyone’s stress level. Who is the target audience for this campaign? Are we communicating with present customers or prospects? If customers, what did they buy and when? For direct mail, what data can we use from the mailing list to personalize the direct mail packa

Furniture Store Reminder Campaign When a shopper visits an American Signature home furnishings store and does not make a purchase, they receive a personalized brochure within 48 to 72 hours. Information captured by the sales representative during their visit is used to create the brochure. The sales representative greets the shopper, asks for permission to gather the information and enters it into a computer. A professional variable digital printer downloads the information a

Meher Montessori School case study Client information Founded in 1972 by Executive Director John Page, Meher Montessori School is an AMI accredited Montessori school serving children from 2 1/2-12 years of age. It is located in Altadena, adjacent to Los Angeles. The AMI accreditation is of special significance because of the estimated 3,800 schools in the United States that call themselves "Montessori" only about 190 or a slim 5% are formally recognized by AMI. AMI, which sta

Marketing Basics With modern variable printing, the text and graphics on each sheet of a press run can change to reflect the characteristics of its intended recipient. Such personalization has proved that it can generate many times the responses of non-variable printed pieces. To be effective, however, variable printing involves preparation starting from a project’s earliest stages. Variable information printing is a highly effective marketing tool. It gives you the ability t

Standard drilling is 3-hole, but size and position of holes can be customized Standing dies can save you money During the design process, show the print representative the possible design to determine if there is an existing die. If it is decided to use the standing die, $75 to $450 can be saved. Presentation folders have a standard die with one 4-inch pocket A standard presentation folder has 4-pages and a 4-inch flat pocket. Adding an additional pocket will increase costs b

Die cut tab dividers can assist readers through sections of a binder Tab dividers have an approximate half inch section that extends past the face of a book or multi-page document. The purpose of the divider is to assist the reader to easily find a particular section of the book. The type of binding that allows the greatest flexibility and lowest relative cost of tab dividers would be loose leaf binding such as ring, Wire-O, or spiral binding. The tabs are inserted by hand at

Anyone who has used Photoshop long enough is familiar with the Clone Stamp tool. This little gem has been a favorite for many a photographer or artist. But, how do you improve on something that is so great to begin with? Well, you may have noticed that using the Clone Stamp with a hard edge brush can result in obvious dot shapes. You can soften the edge, but you may see differences between the source and destination backgrounds. Also, making precise point source selections ca

Using 100% black on small objects such as body copy text and fine keyline borders is recommended. But if you have a large background of solid black or very large black type, then the solid black may look washed out when printed. Process inks are translucent. They allow light to pass through them, much like a color filter. The light is then reflected back to our eyes and the result is a washed out looking black. To increase the “richness” of the black it is necessary to add ad

Getting your file imaged onto the printing plate at the lowest cost Desktop Publishing Desktop publishing is the process of using the computer and specific types of software to combine text and graphics to produce documents such as newsletters, brochures, books, etc. Which Platform? Both Macintosh and PC platforms are is acceptable. Industry standard software is available for both the Macintosh and PC. Industry Standard Software Applications Page layout: Adobe InDesign Illust

One of the first things to think about when creating a brochure is how it will fold. Making a plain paper folding dummy can help you determine accurate sizes for the panels. A few of the more common folds are roll fold, accordion fold and gate fold. The panel sizes are determined by the fold you want to use. An accordion fold is one of the easiest because all of the panels are the same size because of the zig-zag. The roll and gate folds fold in on each other. To make the bro

Use the latest version of a page layout software — some programs require additional prepress steps Using the latest version of standard page layout software will cause the fewest problems for your printer. The reason for this is that the digital technician who prepares your digital files for printing has a high level of expertise. The standard page layout program is InDesign. Photoshop and Illustrator are not page layout programs. You can build pages using these programs, but

In InDesign, crafting well-formed documents will not only look better, but save you money in unexpected production costs. l. Images. Before you place images in your file, make sure to first save them as CMYK TIFF files. The final resolution after sizing in InDesign should be 300 dpi. Select the linked file in the InDesign Links Panel, and in the link info, check the "Effective PPI" to see the resolution after sizing. 2. Bleed . If anything creeps over the edge on your page,

Digital printing — which affords mail advertisers almost infinite opportunities for highly persuasive personalization — demands careful preparation. Sylvia Konkel of EU Services of Rockville, Maryland, offers these six tips on digital production: TIFF, EPS, and similar image files work best in digital reproduction. TIFF files take up a lot of computer capacity, but produce higher resolution, with more precise detail and color than JPG and GIF files, which may save capacity bu

Red, green, and blue (RGB) are the primary colors of light. Cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK) are the primary colors of printing. RGB color is used to display on your computer screen. RGB is called additive color. The more light you add the lighter your color becomes. When equal amounts of the RGB primary colors are at their highest level, the resulting color is white. CMYK color is used for printing. Dots of ink are printed on paper for each color: cyan, magenta, yellow