Perfection In Practice: INX International’s Custom-Branded Publication
At the Drucker Group, one of our specialties is creating custom branded publications for our B2B clients.
For the past five years, we've published Color Perfection for INX International, a leading manufacturer of inks and coatings in the packaging sector. It showcases the people, resources, and technologies that make the company a world leader in sustainable chemistry and innovation.
Color Perfection focuses on the market segment of decorating on metal.
Establishing leadership there has elevated the brand image of the entire company by highlighting innovative solutions for metal decoration, brand packaging and design, and color management at scale. The magazine also brings recognition to customers achieving exceptional results using INX solutions with regular features on new product introductions and an annual can design contest. In addition, Color Perfection reports on news and trends affecting the industry in a way that makes the news relevant to INX audiences.
Educating & Engaging Experienced CPG Professionals
The success of Color Perfection grows from the Drucker Group’s and INX’s deep understanding of the packaging audience - their needs, the challenges they’re facing, and the opportunities they’re pursuing.
Color Perfection’s audiences are unique groups of professionals. For them, maintaining brand integrity is as important as increasing productivity. When new products are introduced with their own distinctive design, they still have to fit with the rest of the brand family. Their canned beverages have to be eye-catching and efficient to produce. And as competition is fierce, the outside of the can has to be as memorable as what’s inside.
Color Perfection educates these professionals about the often unseen contributions of metal decorating inks and related technologies. This education process helps bridge the gap between complex metal decoration processes and their tangible benefits. Color Perfection has something for everyone. Addressing wide-ranging topics relevant to brand package design and decoration issues in metal packaging, the magazine engages a diverse global customer base.
Demonstrating the benefits means showing the outstanding results of INX solutions. Rather than listing the technical specifications of inks and equipment, we emphasize the creative potential and visual appeal of metal decorating. This engagement is crucial for maintaining strong relationships with existing customers and attracting new ones by showcasing INX capabilities and thought leadership.
Color Perfection’s status as a knowledge resource is made possible by the insights of INX’s marketing team and the Drucker Group. Our deep understanding of the industry, based on Voice of Customer research, ensures every article published is relevant and helpful to professionals. We also regularly interview INX employees from other departments to share unique perspectives with our customers.
Print Powers Through The Marketing Clutter
Though Color Perfection is available both in print and online, the magazine’s print edition is key to its effectiveness. Professionals spend all day looking at screens, multitasking with several windows open. Digital marketing is constantly competing for attention in that environment. Contrast that with holding a printed magazine and reading through it. It’s a relaxed, non-distracted experience. The brand experience of INX International reaches its full potential in print. Photography of the canned beverages is an important element to this knowledge resource, and photos make more of an impact in print. In addition, the colors used for the magazine’s designs are the same as INX metal decorating inks. Our audiences are directly experiencing the colors that bring brands to life.
Vibrant & Engaging Creative Is A Team Effort
Color Perfection isn’t just a runof-the-mill business publication. Every issue has to inspire as much as it informs. Thanks to Drucker Group’s deep understanding of the metal decorating business and our productive collaboration with INX’s team, Color Perfection has become a valued knowledge resource for brand teams and package designers. Equally important is the design-conscious layout. Photography, typography, and illustration flow together to stimulate the creative mind.
The Results Of Color Perfection For INX
After publishing eight issues of Color Perfection, our recent Voice of Customer survey shows this custom content strategy is having a real impact.
Driving Website
Traffic Research surveys show the magazine is one of the primary reasons customers visit INX’s website regularly. This consistent driver of digital engagement is invaluable to sales lead generation.
A Trusted Resource
The magazine is more than just a marketing tool. It's become a go-to knowledge resource for INX customers.
Broad and Diverse Audience Reach
The content has something for everyone, and resonates with executive management and brand managers as strongly as it does with designers, sales teams, and technical and plant production staff. This broad appeal ensures the client's message reaches decisionmakers at multiple levels.
Enhancing Customer Loyalty Research also shows customers receiving the publication showed significantly higher Net Promoter Scores compared to those that didn't. This stark contrast in NPS scores is a clear indicator of the publication's role in fostering customer loyalty, brand appeal and engagement.
Establishing Brand Authority
With Color Perfection, INX has solidified its position as a thought leader in the metal packaging industry. This nurtures customer relationships and opens doors to new business opportunities.
Print Boosts Digital Engagement
The physical magazine has been a hit, but readers also enjoy online versions and related web content as well. This creates a synergy between print and digital mediums, and facilitates sharing of content more widely among an international brand audience.
Stories that celebrate growing brands and outstanding package designs
Bringing the Vision to Life
Yorke Printing is a high quality environmentally-responsible printer based in Lombard, Illinois. Their precision makes them ideal for this magazine, because our audience of brand designers notices every detail. When a new issue is shipped, it’s been as meticulously produced as it was designed. Here’s the production process:
1. Prepress ensures the design files have the correct CMYK color model, bleeds, and margins.
2. After prepress, dlyux and oris proofs are printed. Proofs verify the colors, photos, and type look correct.
3. Proofs are trimmed down and put into a mock-up of the completed job.
4. When the proof is correct, plates are created. This is what the plates look like before we expose the image.
5. Plates are loaded into the press, and the print job is started.
6. The print job is allowed to dry for a day, and then is placed on the cutter.
7. This step ensures the prints are lining up correctly.
8. Pages have to be tightly together with minimal movement for a more accurate cut.
9. At this stage, cutting and trimming is complete, and its ready to go into the saddle stitcher. The saddle stitcher is what folds the pages of the magazine together and staples them.
10. Stitched magazines come out in a neat line, ready to be boxed up.
11. Prints lined up on the saddle stitcher.
Custom-Branded Publishing Could Work For You, Too
Creating a custom publication is a highly effective tactic for reaching professionals directly and establishing industry leadership. These days, reaching decisionmakers is often a challenge for B2B marketing teams in all industry sectors. They are consumed with allocating dollars around a multitude of tactics and options, inbound vs. outbound, nurturing leads, and managing the tech stack, all to reach buyers in a professional and persuasive manner.
Even for relatively straightforward organizational purchases, say, for business services, consumables, or a piece of capital equipment, there could be an average of six to eight individuals involved as influencers on a buying team. Our clients are challenged by the fact that many of these buying influences in a customer organization cannot be reached very easily through personal selling. They don’t get many chances to meet these decisionmakers, let alone understand their specific purchase criteria.
The custom-branded publication is a solution. It informs, differentiates, and educates these buying teams and individuals, providing effective support for sales teams in the field. It also works to retain existing customers and build customer loyalty through stories that take them beyond the equipment purchase, identify valuable support services, highlight new services, introduce parts programs, address areas of customer operating problems, and more.
Bring your Content Marketing to Life with Us
From Voice of Customer research to strategic brand positioning and communications, we work to bring B2B brands to life. For 20 years, Drucker Group has helped clients manage their customer experience programs and execute winning insights-driven marketing campaigns.
Learn more about our services at druckergroup.com
