en•ovation group

July 27th, 2009

Source: Appleton Paper

Print comes to your door and takes you places. It becomes part of your landscape. A place where you can spend time gathering information and pondering purchases.

With the explosion of products, media choices, and the dwindling attention span of today’s consumer, your brand’s ability to connect is more critical than ever.

It’s why print should be an indispensable part of the marketing mix. After all, brands are built on emotional connections. And nothing creates those deep connections like print.

According to Wharton Marketing Professor Eric Bradlow, print offers clear advantages over other media, such as email. “Many people see email as impersonal and costless to write,” he says. “People want to feel special. Email is transactional, paper is relational.”

The biggest factor, however, is that people read print to the degree they don’t read email.

Here are the facts:

> 80% read or skim direct mail, 38% find direct mail interesting.

> 82% agree: “I like getting direct catalogs in the mail from the stores I patronize.”

> 70% have renewed a relationship with a company as a result of receiving direct mail.

The Connection Factor extends beyond consumer engagement. It is also key in cementing business-to-business relationships. According to a recent Doremus & Financial Times Study, 59% of senior executives prefer printed resources over online resources for information. 60% of these executives turn to print for in-depth analysis.

Print, ideas, and information continue to be the bonds that bring people together. You can’t replicate the connection or the quality of time spent with any other media.

Entry Filed under: Articles of Interest