Print can strongly connect brands with their customers, but why does it matter?
Let’s face it, we are constantly bombarded by marketing messages and for marketing professionals, the issue is no longer about reaching out to customers (technology allows us to do that), but about making sure you’re the one they choose to engage with, and not someone else. You get their time and time is precious.
The rise of digital media was supposedly going to bring the end of print. Yet, the packaging industry is booming, the label industry is thriving, and print is regaining a core position into the marketing media mix.
Why?
Because PRINT connects customers with a brand in a way no other media can. And that is worth big money. https://youtu.be/P1-lC0I6ljg Think about it. Print is more than just colours and graphics. It goes beyond format and number of pages. In the past, Brands primarily thought in two dimensions, visuals and sound. However, in a world where we are continuously exposed to visual and advertising messages, this is no longer enough. To survive, brands need to address more of our senses and a brand that really knows how to engage their customers are those that have mastered the science of touch.
A carefully thought printed marketing piece, where content, print and finishing have been considered from the start, offers a unique and extremely powerful sensory experience, providing the ability to trigger the senses and elicit emotion in the reader. Just have a look at some of the videos on haptics (neuroscience or touch) produced by paper giant SAPPI to fully appreciate the power of touch. Our skin is our biggest organ. As babies, we discover the world through touch. Think about how harnessing the power of touch via print can do for a brand.
Print needs to start to introduce the sense of TOUCH in its conversation. Print shouldn’t be considered as the end process. Print designers in brand agencies need to work with printers in translating a brand promise into a tactile experience for customers. Print allows a company to strategically place its brand in the right place at the right time, in front of the right audience, at home or at work and to create a deeper connection with its reader.
If you still need convincing, how about this: Customer product loyalty may double if a brand can be experienced with several senses, rather than with one*.
Successful marketing campaigns now incorporate print within their marketing strategy. Think about what you’re trying to achieve and work backwards to identify how best you too can harness the power of touch in print to enhance your brand.
If you would like to understand how we can help you transform print into a tactile experience, come and see how our DuSense Sensory Coater can bring high definition and build to print by booking a demo here.
* Jochen Wied, research Cost and Benefit of Value Added Printing
