CANVAS - December 2018 - Divide and Conquer

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Bank on ‘em (really, you should)

DECEMBER 2018

Transparency Night moves

The two sides of content strategy

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DECEMBER VOLUME 12 • ISSUE 6

24 CANVAS P1

Inside this issue

BOILERPLATE

28 22 32 36

ALSO INSIDE

TRANSPARENCY

CREATIVE CORNER

Why consumers need to know everything about your brand

Founder and chief creative officer at Good Omen, Jeff Oehmen

04

Publisher’s Note

Fruit of Your Labor

STAT PACK

06

BEHIND THE CURTAIN

12

MAKERS’ CORNER

CORNER OFFICE

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5 ways to leave a positive leadership legacy Let’s Get Honest... or Naked

CANVAS DECEMBER 2018

Industry news & awards

Shifting the conversation from Price to Value

14

NIGHT MOVES

Are you planning without a strategy?

CANVAS Buyer’s Guide

16 17 18

Leading the way (again) Book it Simply stunning

CHANGE MANAGEMENT

20

Beyond codes

Q&A

40

Where the trends are

Inside this issue| Publisher’s Note

BOILERPLATE

Fruit of Your Labor

I

f you have ever picked fruit, you know that there is a specific time to pluck it from its vine or tree. Grab it too early and it doesn’t taste quite right. In many cases, all you have to do is touch an apple or blackberry and it will drop into your basket. In other words, it lets you know when it is ripe and ready for consumption.

Picking fruit reminds us to be patient and trust the work we have put in. We can get frustrated about our jobs or campaigns and make knee jerk reactions. The lack of “ripeness” is often too much for us to bear and we seek short-term relief by pulling out or even quitting.

Trying to force things to be a certain way is like pulling the fruit off the vine prematurely. Instead, if we patiently persevere, we can become less consumed with wanting more and focus on the sweet fruit that will come from our passion and empathy.

Success never comes easy and it always seems to take longer than what we expect.

Our industry has been immersed in change for at least the past 10 years. We have seen print shrink, new technologies and a completely new generation of buyers emerge. Many of us have tried to adapt and invest in fresh ideas, concepts and even strategic recipes. Not all have borne fruit.

Where there is a love of customer, and a dedication to hard work and faith, there will be rewards. In other words, a little trust goes a long way. Believing in the process shows your clients you don’t just exist for the almighty buck and the immediacy of the moment.

In addition to patience, growing the best fruit requires a high level of nurturing and care.

The analogy is obvious but often forgotten or cast aside. The bottom line—or low hanging fruit if you will—is that success requires investment of your time, effort and patience. Do this and your basket will be full.

Enjoy the last issue of 2018. Our cover story, “Divide and Conquer,” examines the divide and conquer aspect of marketing and details how to properly nurture your content strategy in order to enjoy the fruits of success.

Where there is a love of customer, and a dedication to hard work and faith, there will be rewards. Believing in the process shows your clients you don’t just exist for the almighty buck and the immediacy of the moment.

Have a wonderful holiday season, embrace the New Year and “be the buffalo.”

Warmest regards,

Mark Potter, Publisher @MarkRicePotter

CONTRIBUTORS

Justin Ahrens Founder & Principal Rule29 @justinahrens

Linda Bishop, President, Thought Transformation @Linda_Bishop Greg Chambers Founder Chambers Pivot Industries LLC @ChambersPivot Jeff Foley Executive Leadership Coach Marshall Goldsmith’s Stakeholder Centered Coaching @JeffreyWFoley1 Chris Harrold, VP Creative Director, Mohawk Fine Papers @tweet_convert

GET IN TOUCH WITH US @THECANVASMAG

2009 Mackenzie Way, Suite 100 Cranberry Township, PA 16066 WWW.THECANVASMAG.COM

THE CANVAS TEAM MANAGING EDITOR michael j. pallerino ART DIRECTOR brent cashman SALES/MARKETING mark potter

EDITORIAL BOARD tom moe Daily Printing gina danner NextPage david bennett Bennett Graphics scott hudson Worth Higgins

PUBLISHED BY CANVAS, Volume 12, Issue 6. copyright 2018 CANVAS, All rights reserved. CANVAS is published bi-monthly for $39.00 per year by Conduit, Inc., 2009 Machenzie Way, Suite 100, Cranberry Township, PA 16066. Periodicals postage pending at Duluth, GA and additional mailings offices. Periodical Publication 25493. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CANVAS, 2009 Machenzie Way, Suite 100, Cranberry Township, PA 16066. Please note: The acceptance of advertising or products mentioned by contributing authors does not constitute endorsement by the publisher.

Publisher cannot accept responsibility for the correctness of an opinion expressed by contributing authors.

CANVAS magazine is dedicated to environmentally and socially responsible operations. We are proud to print this magazine on Opus® Dull Cover 80lb/216gsm and Opus Dull Text 80lb/118gsm, an industry-leading, environmentally responsible paper. Opus contains 10% recycled fiber and SFI and FSC chain of custody certification.

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STAT PACK

Crowded house

How many decision-makers were involved in your last purchase? Did you make a full assessment of who told whom what to do? According to Showpad’s “The B2B Buyer Experience Report,” the path to purchase is getting longer, which means it’s becoming more important than ever before to deliver the right content to customers at the right time—all of them. The report queried 656 buyers across the globe.

Here’s a look at how many people B2B buyers say are involved in the process:

Report defines the buying process and who’s involved

33.2

16.4

%

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CANVAS DECEMBER 2018

%

16.4

%

16.4

%

I am sole person responsible

%

Insights

THE NUMBER GAME

89 85 The percent of marketing professionals who say that data quality is important to achieving their marketing and sales goals.

(Dun & Bradstreet’s “Sixth Annual B2B Data Marketing Report”)

Survey delves into quest to update buyer personas There’s no getting around it today—buyer personas are a core element for framing content and identifying the right channels for delivery. But creating a full customer profile isn’t easy. And according to PAN Communications’ “2018 Content Fitness Report,” the journey is becoming more and more complex. Among other things, the report, which surveyed 200-plus marketing leaders nationally, spotlighted what marketers are saying about the assessment and reassessment of their buyer personas and overall brand positioning:

46.5%

say they frequently update their buyer personas and have tailored content strategies mapped to each profile

54% say they are constantly reassessing their brand messaging and positioning

46.5%

say their content marketing program is fully integrated with their overall communication strategy

The percent of B2B vendors who say they are open and honest about their products during the sales process. Interestingly, only 36 percent of B2B buyers believe they get the full picture from the vendor. (TrustRadius’ “The 2018 B2B Buying Disconnect”)

47 33 The percent of marketers who say email is among the most effective tactics for achieving their leadnurturing priorities, followed by 45 percent who say content or video marketing works. (Ascend2’ “Generating and Nurturing Leads to Create Demand”)

The percent of companies that say their biggest barrier to content personalization is time investment, with another 20 percent stating it is cost. (Adobe’s “State of Creative and Marketing Collaborations”)

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Perspective | Leadership | Insights

CORNER OFFICE

BY JEFFREY W. FOLEY

5 ways to leave a positive leadership legacy

H

ow do you want to be remembered? Many successful business people have pondered their leadership legacy. Many struggle to find the answer.

Your legacy is defined by the impact you have on the lives of others after you're gone. That's how you will be remembered. We are all leaving a legacy; there is no escaping it. If asked, how would you respond to the question?

Whether old or young, you have an opportunity to raise the bar on the legacy you are leaving. Whether you're a senior executive or in a new position, you can choose your legacy. Being a person of character is at the foundation of building trust with others. Character is who we are and what we stand for.

The most effective business leaders are people who ultimately pursue five separate but related behaviors.

Here are five ways you can provide the framework in your pursuit of creating a positive leadership legacy in life: No. 1

CHARACTER

Being a person of character is at the foundation of building trust with others.

Character is who we are and what we stand for. It is comprised of many things but its foundation is values— those deep beliefs like integrity, loyalty, and respect. Values do not change overnight; rather they're forged in one’s heart and soul over time.

They ultimately drive how we behave.

When you think of those people who left a wonderful legacy for you, was not character the essence of the memory?

No. 2

ATTITUDE

Your attitude can change everything you do and everyone you meet. No one enjoys hanging out with chronic complainers or naysayers. A positive attitude can be a force multiplier in daily interactions or long-term strategies.

A positive attitude creates passion, enthusiasm, and a call to action. It can change outcomes.

You have a choice in your attitude. Make it positive.

No. 3

VISION

We all need a vision, or a plan, for our future.

The great Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you are going, you are likely to end up someplace else.” A vision provides clear direction for your future. Create your future by putting a mark on the wall of where you want to be one, two, or five years from now. Craft an action plan that identifies your objectives and critical decision points.

Establish a set of milestones that will help you achieve your objectives, and then celebrate each of your achievements as you progress along the way.

These five keys will provide a framework for establishing a positive leadership legacy in your life. On a scale of one to five, with one being not so good, and five being great, how would you assess your behavior in each of the five areas? An action plan should follow your assessment that enables you to grow where needed.

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CANVAS DECEMBER 2018

No. 4

EXCELLENCE

Championship teams and successful businesses do not drift to greatness; they commit themselves to excellence. Commitment means tireless pursuit of doing your absolute best, every day, all the time.

Excellence matters in everything you do.

If you don’t commit to excellence for yourself and demand it from others, you will create a culture of mediocrity. Most people are not interested in mediocrity.

No. 5

RELATIONSHIPS Building trusted relationships with others trumps everything else when it comes to leaving a positive leadership legacy in your world. Serving the needs of others builds trust in relationships. Knowing your people, genuinely caring for them, reaching out to those in need, sacrificing and celebrating with them, exercising humility, are all important aspects enabling strong relationships.

Jeff Foley is a recognized speaker, executive leadership coach and author of “Rules and Tools for Leaders.” The West Point graduate is a retired brigadier general, with 32 years of service in the Army. For more information on Jeff Foley, visit www.loralmountain.com.

Perspective | Leadership | Insights

CORNER OFFICE

BY JUSTIN AHRENS

Let’s Get Honest... or Naked

W

hen you’re naked, it’s hard to hide who you are. You require that kind of stark honesty with yourself about what you want from your career.

This may seem straightforward enough, but take a moment and remember this morning. When you hopped out of the shower (I admit it, I hop), what was the first thing you did after you grabbed your towel?

Most likely, you checked out what was going on in the mirror. Now, you may very much like what you see— which means you are either extremely blessed with a great metabolism or you have an excellent track record of clean living and self-denial. Or, you don’t like what you see all that much, meaning you gave up on your workout regimen halfway through January (again) and have some work to do.

Either way, what you see is reality. No black T-shirts or vertical stripes to create a mirage. If you don't look at the content of this column with that type of naked transparency, then let me thank you in advance for the investment of time you made, but you aren't going to get anywhere. Until you fully admit and accept your areas of weakness and strength, you can't make great decisions. Don't let pride rear its ugly head—be willing to understand the factors that motivate you.

I'm not sure why it’s so easy to ignore that little voice inside of us that tells us the truth and then continually reminds us of it. But if we refuse to admit that we really want that promotion, that new house, that expensive car (so we can look cool driving to work), more money or trendy gear, we really can't refine or tweak why we feel bitter, tired or unsatisfied. Wanting those things is not

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“bad"; even wanting them for the “cool factor” or “status symbol” reasons isn’t bad if we admit how crazy or out of whack that can make our life, and how much work it will take to achieve them.

Until we truly admit why we want certain things, we are never going to be able to effectively deal with the results or actions needed to attain those desires. It’s vital that we stay on top of those inner desires and reasons.

I grew up with just enough materially, and my family moved around a ton. I think in one two-year stint, I attended four different grade schools and I missed a lot of the school year. When I looked around at each new scenario I found myself in, it seemed to me that most of my friends had more than I did. This made me very ambitious as a young lad.

Even still, I often struggled with shortcomings in school due to having moved so much in such Until we truly admit a short period of time. I always felt like I had to why we want certain work harder than most of my classmates. I never really excelled at anything—except when it came things, we are never to drawing and sports. going to be able to I’m not sure why I felt like being better than others was important, but I did. Early in my effectively deal with career I was hungry, very hungry. Remember the the results or actions Cookie Monster on Sesame Street? I became the “Design Monster.” I worked myself into a needed to attain nice little workaholic lifestyle. And then, when those desires. It’s I reached some of the peaks in my career that I had dreamed about, I found myself feeling vital that we stay on empty, sad and underwhelmed. Luckily for me, I top of those inner took a time out. Why did I feel this way?

desires and reasons.

The short answer was that I had never really been honest about why I wanted certain things. I hadn’t faced what those desires really meant to my soul—to my life. I never got real about what I would need to sacrifice in order to pursue those goals.

You are never too young (or too old) to learn this lesson. Do you really look at yourself honestly? Ambition is not bad if it is filtered properly. You are wonderful no matter what you see, and you have the power to choose and change, but be honest (get naked) first… then we can go from there.

Justin Ahrens is founder and principal of Rule29, an award winning suburban Chicago-based strategic creative firm. He is a frequent guest blogger, national speaker and author of “Life Kerning: Creative Ways to Fine Tune Your Perspective on Career and Life” (Wiley). Follow him and Rule29 on Twitter –­ @justinahrens and @rule29.

Perspective | Technology | Insights

CORNER OFFICE

I

f you use content, and use it correctly, your customers will trust you. That is one of the overriding findings in the "2019 B2B Content Marketing 2019: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America" report by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs. According to the survey, 96 percent of content marketers say audiences view their company as a trusted resource, with 77 percent doing so with educational content and 61 percent via in-person events.

The report queried 1,947 marketers from around the world.

Here's a look at how B2B marketers are increasing their use of the following content types/formats:

Where you can put your content (really) Survey dissects all things information and distribution

Audio/visual content

In-person content

Written digital content

Audio-only digital content

Images

Written print content

64% 41%

61% 38%

56% 27% CANVAS P11

BEHIND THE CURTAIN

Around the industry The Printing Association of Florida has rebranded itself as the Florida Graphics Alliance. The change comes after years of evolution of the organization’s members, who now provide a wide range of marketing solutions outside the print medium.

The Florida Graphics Alliance will help lead the efforts to promote the interests of Florida graphics professionals and companies. After the rebrand, the not-for-profit organization will continue to offer all the benefits and services it has for years, and expand their organization to non-printing professionals and companies. The organization’s new tagline is: “Be Profitable. Be Connected. Be a Member.”

The International Converting Exhibition and InPrint USA: The Exhibition of Print Technology for Industrial Manufacturing have announced a partnership with the National Association of Printing Ink Manufacturers (NAPIM). The partnership will benefit both the association’s members and the shows’ exhibitors by bringing all parties together to explore what opportunities new ink technologies can bring to the industrial digital print and converting industries. ICE USA and InPrint USA will be co-located and held April 9-11, 2019, at the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville. InPrint USA is the leading exhibition for new technological breakthroughs across many industrial printing fields, while ICE USA is North America’s leading converting exhibition. NAPIM is the only national trade association for the printing ink industry, manufacturers of printing inks and supplier industries.

Printing Industries of America (PIA) recently launched a new Color Management Fundamentals course to the iLearning Center. Presented by Joe Marin, VP of Education and Training, the course is available to PIA printer members as a free benefit of membership. The course will cover the fundamentals of color management, the requirements for success, and how it works— all while giving students a solid foundation of terminology and workflow. Students will learn color management basics, terminology and workflow; why we need color management; what it can and cannot do; basic requirements for creating ICC profiles; amut compression and rendering intent; Delta E, color tolerances; and what’s possible and what’s not. For more information, visit www.printing.org/ilearning.

Partnerships Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. Inc. has entered into a strategic partnership with Memjet to produce digital inkjet print and labeling solutions. The Konica Minolta products featuring Memjet print and packaging solutions include the Digital Packaging Printer PKG-675i, Digital Label Press PLS475i, WEBJet™ 100D and Digital Packaging Printer PKG-675i.

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Personnel Moves Electronics For Imaging Inc. has named William (Bill) D. Muir as its new CEO and board member. Muir succeeds Guy Gecht, who will remain a member of the board of directors and serve as an advisor to the CEO. Most recently, Muir was COO of Jabil, a product solutions company.

Heidelberg North America has named Chris Brooks as its VP of Label Products. Brooks will focus directly on the integration of Gallus into Heidelberg North America. He also is responsible for expanding the Gallus product line in the United States and Canada. Brooks will report directly to Felix Mueller, president of Heidelberg Americas.

As it pursues its digital transformation, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) also made several organizational changes, including Sonja Mechling as CMO and managing director of the Heidelberg Digital Unit, Dr. Stefan Heizmann, CIO in charge of IT, and Robert Franz, who will lead global sales in the Sales Operations unit.

Memjet has hired Dave Gelvin as senior VP of customer success. In this newly created role, Gelvin will oversee the training and support of Memjet OEM partners. Gelvin will connect Memjet’s OEM partners with the resources they need to facilitate fast and efficient product development.

He also will lead a team of mechanical, electrical and software engineers who provide application support for Memjet partners worldwide.

The Specialty Graphic Imaging Association (SGIA) has named environmental, health and safety (EHS) expert Gary A. Jones as director of Environmental, Health and Safety Affairs. As a primary resource for printers and printing industry suppliers investigating EHS issues, Jones will represent the printing industry to federal, state and local agencies, and provide technical support on EHS compliance requirements and sustainability programs directly to SGIA member companies. In addition, he will continue to provide support on EHS compliance and other matters to members of the Printing Industries of America (PIA) through its national network of affiliates.

Idealliance has named globally recognized technology and standards expert Jeff Collins as its director of Print Technologies. Prior to joining Idealliance, Collins served as National Integration Manager-Color Solutions and Workflow for Konica Minolta. He has had extensive international experience and input into the company’s technology design and integration. Collins is a certified Rochester Institute of Technology Print Standards Audit (PSA) Consultant, a G7 Expert and a BrandQ Expert.

Industry news & more

Awards & Recognition Lourdes Coss, business development executive, Strategic Accounts, for Canon Solutions America Inc. received the “2018 Integrity Award” from NIGP: The Institute for Public Procurement. Coss sits on the board of The Global Council for the Advancement of Women in Procurement (@GCAWP), which provides an information exchange, a discussion forum and a voice for all women involved in the professions of procurement, sourcing and supply chain. The organization provides insights, counsel and awareness for the purpose of improving career opportunities, and eliminating gender unfairness and mistreatment in the profession.

Sappi North America has named the recipients of the “2018 Ideas that Matter” grant program, which provides funds to support the production and distribution of printed social impact projects proposed by designer applicants.

Using paper, print, integrated digital and social media, as well as exhibitions and events, the winning grants address a wide range of topics including youth literacy, sustainability and waste reduction, prevention campaigns addressing disaster preparedness, and sexual harassment, among many others. The program is open to North American

designers, design firms and students who are partnered with a nonprofit organization and have developed a communication campaign that is ready for implementation. This year’s winners include: • Brian Singer, Altitude, (BasicSafety.net) •E sther Pearl Watson, Mark Todd, Elizabeth Chin and students, Designmatters, ArtCenter College of Design (Let’s Read Together: Supporting Early Literacy in Rural Haiti) • A bby Chen and Flora Chan, The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) (It’s Not Just Personal Poster Distribution Campaign) • Sam Aquillano, Design Museum Foundation (Inspiring Careers: Diversity in Design) • Marcos Chavez and Sage Smith, TODA, (Read To Me!) • Justin Ahrens, Gage Mitchell, Lennie Mowris, Laurel Webster and Laetitia Wolff, AIGA Design for Good Task Force (Path to Impact) • Andrew Shea and John Roach, The New School (Sound the Mound) • Omar N. Lopez and Cayla McCrea, Peace Over Violence (Sexual Harassment Prevention Initiative) • Allyson Lack, Principal (Brighter Bites Cookbook)

Mergers & Acquisitons Modern Litho, a full-service commercial, catalog and publication printer in Jefferson City, Missouri, has acquired Trio Printing of St. Louis. Jim Bowe and Chris Kuhl, both former vice presidents of Trio Printing, will continue on with Modern Litho. Trio Printing will cease operations at its current facility in St. Louis. Employees and operations will move to the recently expanded Modern Litho in St. Louis.

The Specialty Graphic Imaging Association (SGIA) has purchased the printing trade show Graphics of the Americas (GOA) from the Florida Graphics Alliance (FGA), formerly the Printing Association of Florida. Following a transition period, GOA will relaunch in Feb. 13-15, 2020, at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Over the next 18 months, SGIA and FGA will transition GOA to its new ownership and redefine it as an integral part of the calendar of events in the printing industry with high value for attendees and exhibitors. More details will be available in early 2019.

WHAT’S LET US GOING KNOW! GET YOUR NEWS HERE. ON?

People news. New products. Trends shaping the way our industry does business. If you have a news item, CANVAS wants to hear about it. All you have to do is email us the information and a photograph, and we’ll do the rest.

Send your information to michael@thecanvasmag.com

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Makers’ Corner

Shifting the conversation from Price to Value

I

n today’s competitive market, printers of all types face strong price pressure.

Historically, paper is the default place to cut costs and relieve the pressure. But before you recommend a less-expensive stock to your customer, consider this: By habitually offering the cheapest solution without question or conversation, you train your customers to shop on price.

A remedy to this frustrating, downward spiral is hiding in plain sight: the paper you print on. By offering clients new paper choices, you position yourself as a valued, expert resource. When you offer choice and recommend looking at textured, colored or upgraded papers, you shift the conversation away from price to the perceived object quality of the end result.

And in the process, you may just help move the job from simply acceptable to truly exceptional.

By focusing on materials, you not only begin to speak to your customers’ need to make an impression, but you also prevent them from looking at your competition. This is an easy way to add value— by doing more than the average printer and not by simply dropping your price to get the job.

When you offer choice and recommend looking at textured, colored or upgraded papers, you shift the conversation away from price to the perceived object quality of the end result.

Here are a few ways you can begin this practice: • With your quote, also offer an upgrade—a textured, colored or 100 percent cotton paper—to help amplify the design intent and add value.

• Present a choice of papers at the proofing stage and include those upgrades in the estimate so they don’t have to wait to compare options.

• If they don’t choose the upgrade, tail in the upgraded paper(s) and present as a follow-up. It might just win you their next job.

• When you deliver the job, include a few examples of their files on several different stocks for future reference. Show them that you are interested in their work and how materials play a role.

None of these solutions involve lowering your margin. When customers experience the difference paper can make, they’ll think about it for future projects and consider how materials affect their work. This virtuous circle of positive results can help foster a strong relationship with your client and help them see you as a collaborative partner and not merely a vendor.

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By Chris Harrold VP, Business Development & Creative Director Mohawk Fine Papers

>> Visit Mohawk Connects.com

43 Colors 2 Weights 1 Finish Stocked and ready to ship.

Say hello to Keaykolour, our newest line of colored papers.

Using colored paper has never been so easy and fun. Simply choose from 43 fresh colors in text or cover weight, we will pack it and have it on your doorstep in just a few days. And with low minimums, Keaykolour is right for just about any kind of project.

mohawkconnects.com/ products/paper/keaykolour

CANVAS BUYER’S GUIDE

PAPERBOARD

Leading the way (again)

Sappi North America unveils two innovative, sustainable paperboard packaging product lines

Proto and Spectro. That is the name of two new paperboard packaging lines from Sappi North America Inc. The innovative lines come on the heels of a year-long rebuild of Sappi’s Paper Machine 1 and modernization of the wood yard, both at its Somerset Mill in Skowhegan, Maine. Together, Sappi invested over $200 million in the two projects.

Building on its groundbreaking history of setting standards for graphics paper, Sappi continues to lead the way with the Proto and Spectro lines. Both lines will provide convertors with superior color consistency, printability and downstream performance. In addition,

For more information about Sappi and its new sustainable paperboard packaging line, visit www.sappi.com.

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Sappi will continue to expand its new paperboard product line to meet customer needs around the globe.

Here’s a breakdown of the two new lines: Proto: A sturdy, single-ply SBS capable of meeting a breadth of applications from general folding carton and food packaging to pharmaceutical and OTC. It’s the paperboard for everyday jobs, providing an unmatched yield advantage, and superior surface and printability for a lasting impact.

Spectro: A single-ply SBS with enhanced optics, making it ideal for premium applications that call for dynamic and vibrant images.

Whether using UV, aqueous, or specialty coatings, hot foil stamping, embossing, special effects, or varnishes, Spectro has the surface for the most demanding applications.

Download the CANVAS Buyer’s Guide app Products and resources just a tap away

Book it Second edition of ‘Designer’s Guide to Inkjet’ discusses different processes and options It's out. The second edition of the "Designer's Guide to Inkjet" by thINK and Canon Solutions America, gives today's designers even more unprecedented access to the latest and greatest that production inkjet has to offer. The updated and expanded guide discusses the different processes and options within production inkjet to meet the needs of each of the application segments.

The book's original authors, Elizabeth Gooding and Mary Schilling of Inkjet Insight, returned to share their expertise on how advances in technology of inkjet presses, ink, and media options are affecting the creative process and design potential with inkjet.

The first edition was published in 2014.

The latest installment builds upon the dominant role and expanding presence inkjet is taking in today's print industry. The guide offers the latest on the state of the industry with new guiding principles, best practices and real-world recommendations. Included in the book is valuable information regarding advances in printheads, inkjet technology, media options, and much more.

"As the largest network of production inkjet users, we are dedicated to finding new ways to provide all the tools necessary to help our community thrive with their business investments," says Bob Radzis, president of thINK, an independent community of Canon Solutions America production print customers.

The guide, printed on the Océ VarioPrint i300 sheet-fed inkjet press available from Canon Solutions America and using Glatfelter Pixelle Superior Matter paper, offers direction on the advances in technology including software, hardware, inks, and in particular, paper. Additionally, the book is packed with intriguing developments surrounding substrates. Many substrates that are available today and that have opened the doors for new applications and new markets did not exist at the time the first book was published.

DESIGNER’S GUIDE TO INKJET

To order your copy, visit www.thinkforum.com/bookstore.

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CANVAS BUYER’S GUIDE

SIRIO PEARL COLOR PAPERS

Simply stunning

GPA introduces two new alluring color offerings to its pearlescent paper collection

Printers, designers and brand owners just picked up two new resources for their creative initiatives. GPA's new Sirio Pearl color papers—Shiny Blue and Coal Mine—will help open up a world of premium opportunities.

The decadent shimmering papers must be seen firsthand to appreciate their breathtaking appearance. Shiny Blue offers the look of a sparkling sapphire, while Coal Mine presents the impression of glimmering quartz. Both are a perfect complement to the growing demand for print embellishments, paring exceptionally well with white and metallic inks and toners for truly dramatic designs.

Thanks to their rich color and luminescent appearance, Sirio Pearl papers

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are ideal for creating luxury business cards, invitations, holiday cards, packaging, promotions, and more.

Sirio Pearl papers can be transformed through a variety of finishing processes, including folding, scoring, gluing, die cutting, blind embossing, laminating, and hot-foil stamping, and offer compatibility with today’s top white-ink enabled dry toner presses, including Xerox iGen 5, Kodak NexPress, and Ricoh Pro C7110. They are engineered to offer stunning image reproduction and superior ink hold-out, allowing designs to reach their full brilliance.

And because they are FSC-certified and acid free with archival properties, these papers provide added assurance that they are made from responsible

sources and will look beautiful for years to come. They are also completely biodegradable and recyclable.

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CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Ricoh USA, Inc., 70 Valley Stream Parkway, Malvern, PA 19355, 1 ©2018 Ricoh USA, Inc. All rights reserved. Ricoh® and the Ricoh l of Ricoh Company, Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of

Beyond codes How Clickable Paper continues to change the content game

M

agazines. Newspapers. Books. Flyers. Posters.

Letters. Company brochures. Product packaging. They are some of the ways we tell our brand’s stories. They are how we connect and interact with our communities. In the age of content marketing, finding innovative ways to keep the stories flowing is critical. Do that and you’re on to something.

That’s where technologies like RICOH’s Clickable Paper comes in. A Clickable Paper enabled page doesn’t require any editing or reformatting, so it won’t interrupt the branding look or feel of the piece. Each piece can have several invisible hotspots, each with up to six rich links such as video/multimedia, websites, e-commerce portals and social networks.

Heading into Similar to QR codes, Clickable 2019, there’s a Paper is an augmented reality (AR) strong emphasis tool. By simply snapping an image in the market with a smartphone or tablet, you get on making print access to a range of digital content. more eye-catching But unlike QR codes, there is no and adding more code to scan—just the printed item. value to it. That Clickable Paper is the bridge that can come from links printed materials with digital higher quality content. It’s the shining, welcoming beacon in the new age of conprint and specialty tent. For example, in 2016, the most applications. recent year for which information of this kind can be tracked, USPS drove more than 13.5 billion mail pieces that took advantage of AR promotions. For a relatively new technology, that’s an encouraging adoption rate.

Jonathan Harman of the UK’s Royal Mail service recently said that in the never-ending stream of two-way virtual communication, sending a direct sensory experience of your brand can mark a pivotal moment in the customer journey.

To get a glimpse of what lies ahead in the world of AR and Clickable Paper, CANVAS sat down with Ryan Kiley, director of Strategic Production Services for Ricoh USA Inc.

What are you seeing in the marketplace as we head into 2019?

Communicators are increasingly looking for ways to extend the value of print because it has a lot of advantages: It’s tactile, harder to ignore than an email, and incredibly effective when done right. So, heading into 2019, there’s a strong emphasis on making print more eye-catching and adding more value. That can come from higher quality print and specialty applications.

But it can also come from technological advancements, such as introducing augmented reality aspects to print applications.

AR can deliver the kind of interactive, in-depth experiences modern audiences often want, with all of the inherent advantages of boosting engagement.

With the success Ricoh has experienced with Clickable Paper, what's new in 2019?

We plan to continue to build on Clickable Paper’s strong foundation. One of its strongest selling points is that it empowers communicators to make campaign updates based on realtime feedback. That’s an approach we also take with Clickable Paper itself. We’ve been listening to our users and have created an aggressive development plan based on customer feedback and our vision for the future of communication. You can expect

P20 CANVAS DECEMBER 2018

quality-of-life improvements, making Clickable Paper even easier to use and faster to deploy, as well as new and enhanced features.

One exciting example we unveiled earlier this year was slot machine “gamification” content. When users interact with slot machine-enabled clickable content, it brings up a digitized version of the classic casino game, offering a chance to win prizes. Ultimately, these new gamification applications enable marketers to see additional ROI and engagement from existing and future campaigns.

Can you share an example of how a printer/agency is using the technology to their advantage?

Recently, a printer that works with a local university recommended leveraging Clickable Paper, which, in addition to providing further information for curious alumni, would significantly streamline the journey from receiving a brochure to getting to the donation website. To help ensure the interactivity would be as intuitive and effective as possible, the printer worked closely with the college throughout the planning, execution and analysis stages. This not only helped make the campaign more effective, but it also further established the PSP’s role as a strategic partner for the college.

What are three reasons Clickable Paper can be an ally for today's printers and marketers?

1. C lickable Paper delivers the interactivity and tight feedback loops of digital communications with the eyecatching potential and staying power of print.

2. It provides audiences with good reason to hold on to (and continue to look at) AR-enabled printed collateral, such as postcards, books, catalogs, signage and wraps.

3. It establishes a reputation as a forward-thinking, creative partner, backed up by strong results driven by updateable, interactive AR campaigns.

Why is Clickable Paper the advantage every marketer should have in 2019?

It can help drive higher response rates. It doesn’t require any special markings, allowing users to retain complete design freedom while reaping the benefits of AR-enabled interactivity. It significantly streamlines movement down the sales funnel, taking a process that previously required manual typing and navigation and replacing it with a few simple taps.

But, perhaps most important, Clickable Paper allows marketers to analyze a print campaign’s effectiveness in nearreal-time and make updates on the fly, without having to reprint. For data-driven marketers, this is a dream come true.

What advice can you offer printers for next year? What are the things that will give them an advantage in their marketplaces?

Content is king. And when content can drive ROI—the king can be unstoppable. Customers want to know how their campaigns are performing, and just how well they are performing against costs. If you can provide granular, near-real-time data and analysis—ideally in a visualized, digestible way—it can go a long way in demonstrating value. Furthermore, transparency helps build the kind of trust that can lead to lasting partnerships—and the repeat business those partnerships bring. Ricoh is committed to partnering with our customers to take advantage of technologies available to grow their businesses. AR is a prime example.

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CREATIVE CORNER

Jeff Oehmen

Founder and chief creative officer at Good Omen

Lyrics for Literacy for the Greenville literacy association.

It was a concert to benefit GLA. We printed posters for the band to sign and you could purchase on site.

Good Omen’s Jeff Oehmen on why every project matters today It’s all about the relationships. Without great clients, you cannot have great work. That’s where Jeff Oehmen says the foundation of great design begins. As the founder and chief creative officer at Good Omen, a Greenville, South Carolinabased branding and advertising firm, Oehmen wanted to create an agency that didn’t just focus on the work.

Taking a play on his last name, pronounced “omen,” he set out to create a team that would represent how they collectively wanted to conduct themselves: “Good in the work we do, in the people we are, and in the relationships we build.”

The name, Oehmen says, just made sense in light of what he always wanted to accomplish for himself and his clients. We sat down with him to get his thoughts on why being good is good for business and how creatives can build for the future.

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Creative corner sponsored by:

Give us a snapshot of today’s graphic design market? What are you seeing out there?

We’re seeing that design matters more and more each day. From amazing illustrations, thoughtful ideas to amazing execution. It all matters. People are inundated with images, videos, illustrations constantly, and if something isn’t well designed, it gets overlooked and becomes noise. Social media, for instance, is pushing for everyone to love design. Apps like Snapchat and Instagram have added animated .GIFs, different fonts for filters in order to make a simple photo of coffee cup feel like an ad or poster about your life.

What are your clients looking for today?

Simple ideas that work. It’s that simple.

(Pun intended). Clients want to know that the money they spend on marketing, design and advertising will give them a ROI. They are also looking for trust and a relationship they can count on. They don’t just want the stuff anymore; they want a partner who understands them and their business. The need to know you’re there for them and care.

Parallel financial: Printed mini book/ brochure and corp. package.

What’s the one quality every art director must have today?

Be nice. Seriously. You can be the most talented art director in the building, but if you’re an egotistical maniac who is difficult to work with, you quickly become replaceable, even with someone less talented. Be a thinker and a doer. You need to be able to wear a lot of hats today. The days of an art director just having ideas with no skill to execute them are gone. Hone your craft and be great at it. Be humble. Even if it’s your idea, it takes a team to get it done.

Recognize that and give glory to the team and to the client for letting the idea live. You’re not a one-person show.

Why is it important for graphic artists to embrace the power of each project?

Because every project matters. No matter how small or large the project may be, they are all important.

What’s the best piece of advice you can offer today’s designers?

Know your audience, develop your craft, stay humble, work hard and put thought into every piece you create, because it truly matters.

What’s the biggest thing on your to-do list right now?

Developing strategies that work across multiple platforms. We are in the middle of trying to launch a product with multiple audiences all while on a budget. The trickiest thing we do is to reach and engage audiences through meaningful work and relationships. How will the audience react to this on mobile, social, while walking to the train or bus, and will they engage with it long enough to care and respond?

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PERSPECTIVE

P24 CANVAS DECEMBER 2018

Cover Story: By Michael J. Pallerino

The two W sides of content strategy

hat defines the perfect content experience? While the question seems simple enough, there is a lot more to the answer than meets the eye. Why? Well, that’s another good question and, if you truly understood the intricacies of the content development process, the answer would be right in front of you.

Content strategies are built upon two succinct premises: the front-end and the back-end. If you’re a marketer who treats your brand’s content as an asset, learning how both of these strategies complement each other is critical.

So back to the question: What defines the perfect content experience? Ann Rockley admits that she is asked this a lot. As one of the foremost experts in organizing and presenting content online, Rockley says that content done right is managed behind the scenes. “A front-end strategist tells me what’s needed, and I develop the back-end strategy to support those needs.”

As the founder and president of The Rockley Group, she helped introduce the concept of content strategy with the groundbreaking book, “Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy.” The Toronto-based company coined the term intelligent content, founded the Intelligent Content Conference and defined the methodologies and best practices for intelligent content, which kind of makes Rockley a world leader in the development and implementation of intelligent content strategies and structured content management solutions.

In today’s content-driven marketing landscape, brands need to employ both front-end content and back-end strategies. Doing so means they can deliver content that wins over customers and achieves their business goals.

As an example, Rockley remembers a large bank that was running a campaign to help its customers put the right investment and credit strategies in place. The bank had multiple customer personas ranging from single millennials, to families, to those soon contemplating retirement. While each persona had different requirements, many of the product offerings were the same.

The front-end content strategists developed the messages and identified the customer journey, while the back-end content strategist determined the core reuse strategy and identified how the different persona messages could be layered on top of the reusable content. This ensured that the personalized messages were seamlessly delivered to each customer.

“It was the most successful campaign they had to that date,” Rockley recalls. “There can be no front-end without the back-end. The best ideas for content strategy have to be supported by structured templates,

CANVAS P25

Divide and Conquer metadata for search and retrieval and, of course, technology to deliver the content. Without coordination and alignment, the front-end may fail.

Two strategies, two mindsets, one goal

strategist envisions the solution; the back-end content strategist makes it happen.

To help you understand who’s who in the content strategist game, Rockley offers the following tips: • Front-end content strategists have a deep understanding of customer needs and optimum communication strategies. They are the ones asking who are the customers, what need are we trying to fulfill, what methods and channels do they use for information discovery, how can we help satisfy their need by providing the content that supports their decision-making or purchasing decisions?

If you’re looking to develop a content marketing strategy that works, you have to be able to coordinate the front-end and back-end strategies. When they connect, your message will perform the way you want it to with your customers and take advantage of automation.

But this only works if you understand that front-end and back-end roles require different mindsets, both of which are equally important. Front-end content strategists typically love content and customer experiences, and make recommendations about the content itself. The front-end is where all of the business planning starts.

On the other hand, back-end strategists are driven by structure, scalability and technology. They make recommendations about how to use technology—all of that hardware and software—to handle the content in efficient and powerful ways.

“Front-end content strategy is all about the customer needs, customer personas, the customer journey and SEO strategies,” Rockley says. “This requires an individual who is visionary and can strategize an optimum communication plan for the customer. The back-end content strategy is all about how the content should be structured, determining content reuse strategies for content consistency, metadata for retrieval and methods for dynamic personalized delivery. This requires an individual who is analytical and has a strong understanding of structured content best practices and technology.”

When marketers truly understand how these two roles work together, it is a perfect synergy: The front-end content

In the end, it’s all about finding the right talent for the task at hand. That means creating a space where the creative and tech-savvy warrior can build a program that enables your content to sing and dance its way into your customers hearts.

your you need in t a h w to in ists A deep dive ck-end content strateg d ba front-end an

When it comes to content marketing, having the right people in the right place is critical.

That means building a team of content strategists that include front-end and back-end specialists. And to be honest, both roles are important, and they must coordinate. To give you a snapshot of what each specialist handles, here’s the type of information they will be procuring for your content marketing strategy:

» Front-end tasks: • Define customer personas • Define customer journeys • Analyze and map customer needs to the business strategy • Determine what topics to address when, including content marketing offerings, to support the customer at multiple points in the customer journey • Choose the best content types (text, visuals, video) • Develop SEO guidelines to ensure that people searching online can find the content • Develop style guidelines (on how to write for the audience)

•B ack-end strategists are analytical, problem solvers, and have the ability to understand the front-end content strategy, and determine how to support it on the back-end for effective authoring development and content delivery.

• “Ideas and vision are terrific, but you need someone who can turn that vision into a viable, cost-effective, solution for success,” Rockley says. “Both roles—the front-end and the back-end—are important, and they must coordinate. If they don’t, front-end strategy without back-end strategy can lead to solutions that are effective for the customer, but don’t scale or cost a lot to create and maintain. Similarly, back-end strategy alone may lead to technologically elegant solutions that fail to resonate with customers.”

» Back-end tasks: • Identify how content varies based on customer needs and where each need arises in the customer journey • Identify how content can be modularized so that it can be automatically reused (mixed and matched) to meet customer needs • Develop format-free structured content models so that content can be written in a consistent way and automatically published to any channel (mobile, web, print)

• Define the structure of the CMS repository so that it supports authoring and content retrieval • Develop metadata to tag all content modules for dynamic content retrieval • Develop business rules to identify how content should be assembled automatically upon customer request • Define structured-writing guidelines (on how to write for each content model)

Source: The Rockley Group (rockley.com) / The Content Marketing Institute (contentmarketinginstitute.com)

P26 CANVAS DECEMBER 2018

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BUSINESS

Bank on ‘em

(really, you should)

I

Five predictions printers and marketing service providers can embrace

say with confidence that the 2019 predictions I’m about to lay in front of you will come true. How confident am I? About 40 percent, because as I read in a recent Wall Street Journal article, pundits say it’s the magic number for never having to say you were wrong. My advice is to choose 40 percent of what I write and take it to the bank. To make it easy for you, I have five 2019 predictions, so pick two.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) will create immediate new opportunities.

• Low unemployment will force you to develop talent via modern apprenticeships.

• Your next best sales professionals will come from content experts learning sales skills versus sales professionals learning content.

P28 CANVAS DECEMBER 2018

• Printers and marketing service providers will absorb clients’ key marketing functions.

•C ustomer service managers will turn away from tech companies for inspiration, going back to consumer giants like Disney, Four Seasons and Starbucks.

Feature Story: By Greg Chambers

If you’re looking to make a leap in 2019, start with a clear vision of the future and your place in it. Technology will continue making our jobs easier, but it will also put pressure on us to upgrade our skills.

CANVAS P29

Bank on ‘em (really, you should) 1. AI and IoT starts to pay off

When I think of AI and IoT advances, this past summer’s viral hit featuring two dog-like robots comes to mind. The video shows one creature confused by a closed door until a second one arrives, grabs the door handle with a metal arm, and opens the door. It lets the first creature through, then exits itself.

I'm not predicting robot dogs will be in your facility next year, but I will say when making a list of activities happening between a client's request for printing and the final product, most can be done by smart machines. This will provide companies with a short-term advantage because there will be a knowledge gap. This gap gives clever organizations the opportunity to capture value before the market catches up.

In 2019, the gap will show up anywhere technology makes you more efficient without changing retail pricing. It won't last forever, but use it in the short term to re-approach business you've lost, win businesses from a competitor, or take on outsourced projects profitably.

2. The new apprenticeships

Technology will also produce changes in employment. We’ve experienced labor market pressure for a few years now, and clients are dedicating resources to recruiting. The headlines scream, "No qualified workers for open positions," but forward-thinking companies are plowing ahead by creating their own qualified workers.

While it's tempting to imagine the return of guild era apprenticeships, the new labor force isn't interested in long-term employment commitments.

What’s left is a new apprenticeship model, and the advantage I see is the way it forces my clients to get very specific about skills and techniques, especially in companies under 500 employees who have been hiring for expertise.

When they're forced to develop their own experts, time spent defining their best way of working is providing more value to the organization than any experienced hire can be reasonably expected to provide.

3. The geniuses learn to sell

A variation of training trends is teaching content experts how to sell versus hiring experienced industry sales people. This mind shift occurs because the internet has flipped the flow of information from sellers to buyers. Where buyers used to rely on sales people for information, today’s buyer assumes they have access to all the information needed to make a decision.

That means today’s seller must be expert in working with a hyperinformed buyer and guiding them through piles of information to arrive at a decision. Guiding is easier when the seller is a content expert. It's like going to the doctor. There's a good chance today’s patient has used Dr. Google for research and it's up to the real doctor to sort through the clutter and help the patient make sense of everything. The push in med school is to improve doctor's communication skills, and we’ll see that same

approach drifting into the business world as buyers rely more on self-guided research.

4. Rent out your CMO

Hidden in my comments about buyers relying more on selfguided research is the fact that organizations are thinning out their ranks. This flattening of the organization, combined with investing in smarter machines, will push marketing functions further toward printers and marketing service providers.

Printers want savvier customers and customers want the printers to do more of the work. While smarter machines will help, the trend in 2019 is that companies will force their providers to take on more responsibility for what the company’s marketing department used to do.

As a provider, it’s time to add partial Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) services to clients. In 2019 it makes sense for you to spread a single CMO function across multiple clients because clients will reward you for it.

5. Human first customer service

Finally, in the coming year we're going to shift from looking to tech companies for customer service examples back to our biggest and best consumer brands. Disney, Four Seasons, Southwest and Starbucks are built on human-first customer service concepts that are easier for us to emulate than the practices from tech-laden companies like Amazon, Netflix and Apple.

The good news for most of us is gains in customer service are only a phone call or handwritten note away.

Persona-driven automated drip campaigns are impressive but managing our people's reluctance to pick up the phone or handwrite a note of thanks pays greater dividends. Those two activities combined with a Disneyesque attention to delighting the customer will pay off faster than ever, because while your competitor is designing the world's best email drip campaign, you'll be on the phone with their customers. A little more humanto-human interaction makes you stand out in 2019.

While it’s tempting to imagine the return of guild era apprenticeships, the new labor force isn’t interested in long-term employment commitments.

What’s left is a new apprenticeship model.

What has happened, will happen

Let me leave you with this thought.

Your 2019 gains will come from regular incremental improvements on what you're doing right now. Your fourth-grade school desk was only slightly larger than your secondgrade one, but over time these changes added up to the point where you marvel at how small your kid’s classroom looks.

If you're looking to make a leap in 2019, start with a clear vision of the future and your place in it. Technology will continue making our jobs easier, but it will also put pressure on us to upgrade our skills. Imagine the market you're selling into in 2025 and imagine how your company will provide value. In 2019, take the first steps toward that vision.

My guess is those first steps will include 40 percent of my predictions.

Greg Chambers is a sales and marketing consultant. Companies hire him to help design sales and marketing practices that are an exact fit for their organizations. His latest book, “The Human Being’s Guide to Business Growth” from BEP is on Amazon. He can be reached at chamberspivot.com.

P30 CANVAS DECEMBER 2018

FEATURES ONLINE

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT FROM THE INDUSTRY'S MOST READ MAGAZINE. Empowering marketing service providers

WWW.THECANVASMAG.COM

BRANDING

Transparency

P32 CANVAS DECEMBER 2018

Feature Story: By Feature Jamar Laster Story

Why consumers need to know everything about your brand

F

eb. 14, 2007. It’s a day that always will stand out in JetBlue Airways founder and CEO David Neeleman’s mind—and not because it’s Valentine’s Day. Rather, that day represented the impetus for significant changes at his popular low-fare airline and also forced him to take a look in the proverbial mirror to honestly evaluate the company’s operations and its shortcomings.

That day, an ice storm hit the East Coast, prompting a multitude of canceled flights among several national carriers.

What separated JetBlue from other affected airlines was that the others responded by canceling flights early in the process and sending passengers home so that when conditions became more acceptable, they could resume schedules within a day or two. But JetBlue kept its ticket counters and airport gates open, leading to compounded problems that lasted into the following week.

The storm had negatively impacted the airline’s communication system, meaning a large portion of the airline’s pilots and flight attendants were out of position. Also, its reservation system was undersized and ill-equipped to handle the increased volume of customers the company had grown to serve.

The result was about 1,000 canceled flights during a five-day period, and plenty of angry exchanges between confused, weary customers and employees, prompting the airline to call security personnel, according to The New York Times. At the peak of the problem, nine JetBlue planes full of passengers sat for six hours or more on the John F. Kennedy International Airport tarmac.

Shifting into crisis mode, Neeleman didn’t try to hide his company’s shortcomings or make excuses about the airline’s failures during the storm. Instead, he fessed up, took responsibility and vowed to make changes in the wake of the embarrassing episode. In fact, in a video message to customers, which can be seen on YouTube, he outlined a plan of action that included more training for non-airport crew members to provide assistance during emergencies; and making provisions for reservations agents to be more quickly accessed when customers have travel questions or difficulties.

Moreover, Neeleman concluded by asserting the entire February experience would be an aberration because JetBlue would change its organization to ensure such occurrences would never happen again.

That Neeleman was not only honest about the failures of his company during the February storm, but also that he apologized and told customers how JetBlue had learned from the incident and what it would do better were positive steps, says Blake Morgan, a customer experience futurist and author of “More is More: How the Best Companies Go Farther and Work Harder

Storytelling is essential for brands today because if they don’t, others will tell their stories and essential elements may get lost.

CANVAS P33

5

Channel Crossing

ways brands can be more transparent

1. Talk to your front line employees regularly. These employees know exactly what is happening with customers and products, and they are your best defense in preventing corporate blunders.

2. Executives should experience the front lines. Senior executives should know what goes on everywhere in the company, from the factory floor to the call center. These experiences will make them better understand the company.

3. Talk to customers to discover what you can do better. What is your customers’ impression of your brand? How could you make customers’ lives easier and better?

4. Don’t oversell products and experiences. Too many companies exaggerate or lie about the benefits of their products and services. Using old marketing gimmicks to trick customers into buying from you will make them resent you. They will feel tricked and won’t be a repeat customer.

5. H ave a communications plan in place for emergencies.

If you have an emergency response strategy in place already when something goes wrong, you will find your company better equipped to handle problems should they arise. Incorporate humility and honesty into that strategy.

P34 CANVAS DECEMBER 2018

to Create Knock-Your-Socks-Off Customer Experiences.” And it likely helped that he used video tied to a social site to convey such transparency.

According to a recent report from Sprout Social, 53 percent of consumers say they would be more likely to consider brands that are transparent on social media for their next pur-

Clearly, brand or corporate transparency is on the list of important factors that consumers consider in the purchasing process, along with traditional factors like product quality or customer service. But how did this need for transparency come to be? Moreover, given its importance, how can brands ensure they’re taking the correct steps to establish transparency, and what is the best way to do this?

According to a recent report from Sprout Social, 53 percent of consumers say they would be more likely to consider brands that are transparent on social media for their next purchase. chase. The same report found that nine in 10 consumers say they are willing to give brands a second chance after a bad experience, and 85 percent say they will stick with brands during a crisis when they are more transparent overall.

The need to know

The Enron collapse. The Volkswagen emissions scandal.

Facebook’s data breach involving Cambridge Analytica.

Morgan says public deception by corporations and big businesses has fueled the demand for brand transparency from today’s consumers.

“There is a new demand from consumers to know what’s in our food, where it was made and more,” she says. “Millennials watched their parents lose their life savings after the 2008 [economic recession], and now millennials and other generations are tired of big business doing only what is in big business’

Transparency during storytelling requires first knowing your brand’s story and why it’s compelling. This can be done by analyzing the story’s tent poles and why they will resonate.

best interest, no matter what communities it impacts.”

Research by branding, digital and experiential agency Moosylvania shows that quality and trust are the primary characteristics consumers care most about when choosing and interacting with their favorite brands.

What’s more, these characteristics are key pillars of successful brand transparency. “Transparency should extend to how products are manufactured, sourcing of materials, employee experience, brand mission and activation,” says Meggie Petersen, assistant media planner at Moosylvania and co-author of “Join the Brand.” “This transparency supports quality and builds trust.”

Consumers demand this transparency, thus tying it to a company’s bottom line.

Gone are the days of information being kept behind closed doors or C-suite executives being shielded from consumer engagement or scrutiny. Because of tools such as social media, employees and consumers alike have a platform.

Moreover, consumers can force businesses that ignore the transparency demand to face dire consequences, Morgan says. “Social media has given consumers a powerful

voice, and if they feel they are being mistreated by a brand, they have no qualms about letting their voices be heard,” she says.

Telling a story

Storytelling is essential for brands today because if they don’t, others will tell their stories and essential elements may get lost, Morgan says. “Consumers want to connect with people they can relate to—they don’t want perfectly manicured and scripted executives,” she says. “Brands today can make employees and customers the hero of their stories.”

Social media has become an ideal way for a brand to tell stories because of ease of access and its direct link to consumers. This helps brands establish humanity in their customers’ eyes.

“When something goes wrong, [companies] send out their CEO to make a public apology on YouTube and Twitter,” Morgan says. “These senior executives talk directly to us rather than a carefully scripted and manicured PR message clearly written by someone else. Customers today demand humanity and connection from the brands they do business with.”

Did somebody say, “JetBlue?”

Elements of transparency

Jillian Flores, director of brand planning at Moosylvania and co-author of “Join the Brand,” says she and Petersen discovered during research for the book that transparency is so effective— almost necessary—for brands because it can help fulfill people’s innate desire to belong.

“We recognized that as more consumers find a sense of belonging in non-traditional communities, it was opening the opportunity for brands to not only evolve to act like friends through providing a greater sense of transparency, but also to play a key role in fulfilling that need to belong— turning ‘fandom’ into ‘super fandom,’" Flores says.

Transparency during storytelling requires first knowing your brand’s story and why it’s compelling. Morgan says this can be done by analyzing the story’s tent poles and why they will resonate.

“Think about what you look for in a good story and create something you would find captivating,” she says.

“Then, test [the story’s effectiveness] with people you trust.”

CANVAS P35

MARKETING

Night

moves Are you planning without a strategy?

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Feature Story: ByFeature Andy Slipher Story

T

hey're legitimate questions: What's the plan?

How do we get it done?

What’s our next move?

Now that we know what we want and why we’re here, where do we begin?

Admit it—you’ve likely heard variations of these questions in your organization, particularly if you’re at any level of planning how to achieve favorable outcomes.

But here's the thing—it’s one thing to know why you’re doing something, who you’re selling to, or even what makes your product or service better than the next brand. But until you can adequately and effectively define the "how," your idea, product, sales or whatever you endeavor to achieve may not become all you hope for.

The biggest "how" you can ask begs for a coherent approach. It means building a distinct advantage toward a favorable end. This level of “how” is best answered with strategy.

Strategy exists to solve problems.

More often than not, calling upon strategic planning means that your problem is big—significant, complex and with higher-than-average stakes.

That’s why we call upon strategy. It is the means to simplify and unify activity to get from your Point A to Point B with greater clarity, effectiveness, confidence and efficiency.

Planning without strategy is like feeling around in the dark. You may eventually find what you’re looking for, but it will most certainly be unpredictable, take longer than anticipated and you run a greater risk of falling on your face along the way.

Here are three things you need to know about strategy in order to adequately answer any big “how” questions and to improve your planning process, no matter the challenge.

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Night moves

1

Strategy is about choice

2

Strategy is a word and concept that is abused today.

People love to use it because it sounds, well, strategic. Unfortunately, calling something a strategy doesn’t make it one. Strategy, in order to function as it’s intended, means choosing—making significant choices throughout the planning process.

In any complex or challenging situation, such choices are hard. Something must be sacrificed in order to move in a true and distinct direction. If you’re not making hard choices in your planning, you need to ask yourself and others how distinct, clear and achievable is your approach?

Consider this example: When Steve Jobs returned to a struggling Apple in 1997, one of the first things he chose to do was to stop selling so many products. He literally put an end to more than 70 percent of Apple’s products (laying off more than 3,000 employees in the process) in order to focus on a handful of truly innovative products. This hard choice allowed Apple to focus its resources on innovation— developing something truly game-changing.

The result? The Apple iPod. There’s little doubt that Jobs’ efforts would have been significantly more difficult and unclear if he had not made this critical strategic choice.

3

Strategy fits between your goals and plans

Strategy is not the most important thing. But good strategy is necessary and often critical in order to be successful. Once you’ve defined your goals, strategy comes next.

To delineate between goals, strategy and plans: • Goals answer, “What is the end for the effort?”

• Plans, which follow strategy, answer, “What are the blueprints for success?”

• Strategy is the point in between that answers, “In what way are we going to coordinate our efforts to get there?”

A good example of this hierarchy can be seen in the successful approach of the Allies in WWII. The goal (the end for the effort) was clearly to win the war—to defeat the Axis powers (Germany, Japan and Italy). At the time, the United States was faced with the prospect of a two-front war. Without a clear strategy, plans would undoubtedly be murky.

But the overwhelmingly critical factor was the clear and growing threat of Germany to Europe and Russia. Therefore, the Allies made the critical strategic decision to focus first on taking back Europe and defeating Germany.

The resulting plans included the D-Day invasion of Normandy (effectively thwarting a German invasion of Britain) by the United States, the Allied movement upward from Northern Africa and the Russian forces fighting the German army to the east.

Strategy marries strength with opportunity

The beauty of strategy is that it coordinates and integrates activities around a common goal. What’s more, good strategy finds the sweet spot where strengths meet opportunity. If you identify an opportunity, yet have no strengths to take advantage, how effective will you be? Likewise, if your strengths abound in a certain area, yet no opportunities exist, your strategy could come up short.

Know that in order to improve the odds of achieving your goals, your strategy will need to amplify your strengths, while playing to the opportunities at hand. A great example of this can be seen in the way Procter & Gamble (P&G) has nearly cornered the consumer package goods market.

With its humble beginnings in soap and candles in the 1800s, P&G slowly and methodically built a strength producing, packaging, marketing and selling package dry goods of all types. Over the years, the company has taken advantage of opportunities to both develop new products and acquire new product categories.

Today, the company’s product holdings cover close to 80 products spanning roughly seven categories of products we buy every day. P&G has employed different business strategies over the years, but has always weighed opportunity in light of the company’s inherent strengths.

Whatever your challenge, follow these three fundamental principles for better strategic planning. Your strategy will be both clearer and more coherent.

What’s more, you will be incrementally farther down the road toward more successful outcomes sooner.

Andy Slipher is the author of “The Big How: Where Strategy Meets Success” and founder of Slipher Marketing, a consultancy where strategy comes first, followed by tangible marketing results. He also is marketing lecturer for SMU’s accredited Bank Operations Institute for professional bankers, and for the Independent Bankers Association of Texas (IBAT). For more information, visit TheBigHow.com.

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Andy Paparozzi: SGIA

Q&A

Where the trends are SGIA's Andy Paparozzi on what you should know about 2019 (and beyond)

A

ndy knows. If you want to get a bead on the trends and challenges impacting the ever-changing commercial print industry, just ask him. These days, Andrew D. Paparozzi spends his days as the chief economist, SGIA (Specialty Graphic Imaging Association), keeping his eye on everything commercial print, packaging, garment, graphic and industrial printing.

The 30-plus-year veteran joined the SGIA team in 2018, continuing his work on such projects as the long-running annual "State of the Industry Report" and "Capital Expenditures Report," and developing panels that extend the models to the broadest range of printing markets. His work continues to help the industry navigate changes through a combination of data-driven insights and indepth, qualitative observations from a range of industry executives (you can follow him on Twitter @ADPaparozzi84).

Throughout the course of his career, Paparozzi's goal has always been to keep the industry ahead of the curve on the many innovative and critical trends impacting the marketplace. To help you plan for the next round of industry changes, CANVAS sat down with him to see what the road ahead holds.

When you look at 2019 coming up, what do you see?

client demands for distinctive printing—or the “wow factor,” as one member of the SGIA Commercial Printing Panel put it.

What should industry leaders put on their radar?

Watch inflation carefully. If it is moving significantly above their 2 percent target, the Fed will have to change the objective of interest rate hikes from normalizing rates to slowing the economy. Will they tighten too aggressively? Also, watch the trend toward personalized, integrated (print-and/multimedia approaches), and interactive/mobile (embedding augmented reality markers in print) communication.

Don’t dismiss any of the three because they affect communication and anything that affects communication eventually affects print. And don’t jump in—no matter how much buzz they are creating—because of the challenges and complexities they carry.

Instead, ask questions such as: How important are those services to our clients and prospects? Are they must-haves or nice but not essential? What’s really necessary to offer them profitably? How will we price, market, and sell them? Do we have the personnel to offer them profitably? When we do, we minimize the likelihood that we miss an opportunity or chase something that, our resources, capabilities, and cirThe intense pressure given cumstances, would never be one.

The intense pressure on profitability is our on profitability industry's biggest immediate challenge. The pressure is coming from a number of sources, What are the keys to is our industry’s according to the SGIA Commercial Printing sustainability in the road ahead? biggest immediate Panel. Rising paper prices/supply shortages Think in terms of building sticky relationchallenge. The are cited most frequently, followed by a lack ships that lock clients in—make it painful for of sales/excess capacity, rising healthcare them to leave—by providing value they can’t pressure is coming benefits, rising wages, labor shortages that easily get anywhere else. The "SGIA Critical from a number force the hiring of less skilled, less productive Trends Report: Commercial Printing" has a personnel, workflow inefficiencies and higher number of tips for building and maintainof sources. That tariffs. The pressure is not likely to ease in 2019. ing sticky relationships drawn from sources pressure is not likely Convergence and diversification will also such as "Creating Competitive Advantage" to ease in 2019. continue. More than 47 percent of our panel

by Jaynie Smith; “Why Satisfied Customers now define themselves as a combination of Defect” by Thomas O. Jones and W. Earl company types rather than a single company type. And they Sasser, Jr.; and "Outside In, The Power of Putting Customers expect something other than print to provide, on average, at the Center of Your Business" by Harley Manning and Kerry 25.6 percent of their revenue by 2020, up from 20.2 percent Bodine. today and 16.2 percent two years ago.

What technologies and innovations do you expect to take hold?

Technologies that combat the profit squeeze by maximizing efficiency, removing steps, minimizing touches, etc. Technologies that help satisfy client demands for faster turns and a broader range of services. In commercial printing it’s not just about getting faster on vanilla jobs anymore; it’s about quickly pulling together services, from database management to support personalization, to the design of standout direct mail, to the creation of multimedia communications programs while minimizing the friction all the moving parts create. And technologies, particularly finishing technologies, that help satisfy

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Based on what you have seen in 2018, what will you do differently next year?

I would double down on efforts to maximize efficiency and speed. As mentioned, the intense pressure on margins is not likely to ease in 2019. And client demands for a broader range of services delivered faster definitely will not. If we can’t meet client needs, we don’t get top-line growth.

Many are creating top-line growth: Sales were up an average of 16.7 percent through midyear 2018 for the top quintile of the SGIA Commercial Printing Panel, compared to a 1.5 percent increase for the industry at large. And if we can’t maximize efficiency—especially with cost inflation accelerating—we don’t get growth to the bottom line.

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