AM versus FM Screening

After having a recent in-depth discussion on screening, I thought that I’d share the two types of Acme’s screening capabilities:

AM Screening

-Definition: AM screening, or Amplitude Modulation screening, is the conventional screening seen most often in commercial offset printing. In AM screening, the dot pattern is a repeating floret pattern. Tone-density change is seen by amplifying or reducing the size of the dot. Standard AM screening at Acme is 175 LPI (or lines per inch).

-Some of the major benefits are:
1.) Easiest screening type to make color moves on press.
2.) Smoother tones than FM screening.

-Some of the major disadvantages are:
1.) Unwanted patterns and effects (e.g. moiré patterns) are more likely.
2.) Difficulty truly representing very low densities (it will look flat).

-Some of the uses:
1.) Projects that require control of color on press (i.e. typically any product-focused or corporate-focused projects)

FM Screening

-Definition: FM screening, or Frequency Modulation screening, is also referred to as stochastic screening. This screening utilizes one very small dot size (20 microns), in a randomized pattern, with frequency of the dot to create tone-density change (i.e.: the less number of dots, the lighter the density). At Acme, we utilize staccato screening, which uses two a 20 micron dot in the low and high densities and a 25 micron dot in the mid densities, thus allowing for a much smoother mid density range.

-Some of the major benefits are:
1.) Able to capture much greater details.
2.) Very vibrant color.
3.) Reduced moiré dot patterns.
4.) Dot patterning is more similar to Epson proofs than AM Screening (though, the dot shape differs)

-Some of the major disadvantages are:
1.) Get ready…this is THE biggest reason why you might not want to consider FM screening: it is very difficult to make color moves on press.
2.) Clustering due to randomization of dots.

-Some of the uses:
1.) Projects requiring vibrant colors (e.g. outdoor photography, etc.)
2.) Projects with very fine detail.
3.) Projects with objects that have a tendency to moiré.
4.) Projects with objects that have very low densities (e.g. glass/crystal-ware, etc.)

Every project has different requirements, so it’s best to have your favorite print rep (me....if I’m not your favorite, I’ll still help you out!), consult with you prior, to understand the benefits and disadvantages that it will have on your project!

Printing Is A Commodity?...Not My Offering.

I recently read an interesting quote regarding printing being a commodity, that I assume was intended to encapsulate the entire industry. While I agree that there are a great deal of commodity printers (a majority of the industry) who compete solely upon how they can operate as efficiently as possible (often making sacrifices that adversely affect their clients' work), in many cases, I disagree with this claim.

In fact, the most vital trait of the printing industry is by no means a commodity: intellectual property. And what differentiates "Printer A" from "Printer B" is the amount of intellectual property that they have in each operational-field (e.g. sales, estimating, customer-service, pre-press, scheduling, press, bindery, etc.).

Intellectual property is the reason why a client flies or drives by tens…hundreds…perhaps thousands of commercial printers to attend a press-check; intellectual property is the piece-of-mind that a client experiences in not having to attend a press-check, while expecting (and receiving), the color and quality that they anticipate; intellectual property is a production team who’s primary concern is making a client’s project work, regardless of the after-hours they have to put in; intellectual property is the fine-tooth comb that production and pre-press use to groom a project before it goes to press, so that at completion, the project exceeds a client’s expectations.

Surprisingly, I often meet people in the graphic arts community who ask and expect that I offer in-house die-cutting, foil-stamping, embossing, and other trade finishing/bindery functions. It doesn’t surprise me that they expect that; it surprises me that there are other print-reps whose elevator pitch revolves around a piece of equipment that their competitor doesn’t have. And while other printers make small capital investments in equipment, I believe that the most important trait of a printing organization is the tradition, reputation, expertise, and…well…intellectual property that they bring to their clients.

So while some may choose to consider printing a commodity; I do not. Instead I expect that I, and my organization, continue to deliver upon the utmost premium intellectual property.

Banks Utilize Direct Mail In Financial Unrest

An interesting article by Aaron Baar of "Marketing Daily" (11/28/08).
___________________________________

Banks Fight Poor Image With Direct Mail Pieces
by Aaron Baar, Friday, November 28, 2008, 12:52 PM

Banks are fighting bad news headlines with messages of their own in the form of direct marketing.
According to Mintel Comperemedia, the country's banks sent 42% more direct mail solicitations in the third quarter of the year than they did during the second quarter. Moreover, the 53 million offers sent during the third quarter of 2008 was nearly twice the number sent during the same period in 2007.
Much of the increase is from banks looking to assure customers that their money is safe, particularly as ownership of many banks and financial services companies is changing rapidly. "There's an increase in assurance going out to 'current' customers," Pamela McHugh, president of Comperemedia, tells Marketing Daily. "When we're looking at all the mergers and acquisitions taking place, there are new players, and the communication tends to be reassurance to old customers and reassurance to [newly acquired] ones."
Along those lines, the banks have switched their direct-mail messaging from mortgages and loans to more savings-oriented products like CDs and deposit accounts, McHugh said. According to Mintel, banks sent more than 300 times more savings-related direct mail pieces to current customers in the third quarter of the year than the second. Direct mail solicitations for checking accounts were up 90% during the same period.
Although the banks were focusing their efforts on reassuring current customers, they also used the unrest to increase communications to fuel customer acquisition. According to Mintel, new customer direct mailings were up 8% over the previous quarter.
"It's not as significant as the customer communications mail. But banks are trying to take advantage of the uncertainty in the marketplace," McHugh says.
As the turmoil in the bank industry is expected to continue, so will the continued use of direct mail, according to Mintel. "With banking, direct mail is so easy," McHugh says. "I think they'll continue with direct marketing, particularly for retention, but for acquisition as well."

A Storm Is Ahead: Fight the Storm or Turn Back?

There’s no hiding the overt: the national unemployment rate is above 6%, credit is frozen, the Dow is…well…down, and Uncle Sam’s talking about borrowing a few more $100 billion to save other crumbling cornerstones of our country’s economy. The overt is that we’re in a down market.

And while the talking heads are telling us that tomorrow is the end of the world (anyone else getting tired of the doom and gloom?), I’m searching for some much needed optimism. The optimistic truth is that the pillars of our country’s economy are our hard-working citizens. Yes, we’re in a recession. And yes, the media is telling us that there is chaos and strife ahead. But chaos is the catalyst for discovery and creation.

I pulled a section from a great article I read: “Marketers should draw lessons from such examples of charging ahead despite recession, says Ed Rensi, former CEO of McDonald's USA through the early 1990s recession. Unfortunately, he says, companies usually do just the opposite. They cut staff, which he says leaves those left behind overworked and risk-averse. And they cut marketing, which props up profits short term but erodes market share down the road (“Recessions Are Great Times To Be In Marketing”, Thom Forbes, Ad Age).”

We are going to face hard times ahead that will put a strain on our businesses and our consumers, but in the end, the pillars of our nation’s economy (our people, our traditions, and our ethics) will still stand strong. If you position your marketing efforts to “fight the storm”, instead of yielding, you will come out the successor.

What Does GRACoL Mean For Your Print Projects

What is GRACoL? (Hint: regardless of the type of commercial print work you produce, it can have an effect upon your work)

Well, if you’re a graphic designer, to you it may only be a profile that you choose for your profiles. However, the significance behind “GRACoL compliance” is very crucial to how your project is printed. So what is GRACoL compliance?

Well, it’s a continuous improvement process for printers to align their proofers and presses aim towards a specific performance target called grey-balance. Grey-balance is the combination of a specified density of CMYK to create a perfect neutral grey. If a commercial printer is printing in perfect grey-balance, it would mean that regardless of the press and paper, they would achieve the neutral grey if they printed the specified densities of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. This would mean that a printer would have to continually test different paper stocks on different presses to finally achieve grey-balance (and of course paper and press performances are continually evolving).

Think of grey-balance as baking a cake. Regardless of the oven it’s baked in and the types of flour, sugar, milk, etc, the cake would always taste the same, because you had tested all of the types of ingredients and ovens and knew how they would all factor into the final outcome of the cake.

But it’s much more quantitative in the printing world. To test, we continually scan test-sheets and review the variation of expected densities and actual densities of CMYK across the entire sheet. We then tell our plate makers what plate curves will need to made to accommodate for the variation. Our proofers then output a proof that takes into consideration the stock and press it will be printing on.

What does this mean for your project?

It means that the beginning point for accurate color will be easily attained. It means that FAR less compromising on color will have to be made. It means that there is a much finer target that takes into consideration many crucial factors, so that there is a very clear understanding to predicting color accuracy. It means that as long as a file is proofed with our GRACoL profile, then we can match color more accurately.

Acme Printing continues to be one of a select group of GRACoL certified printers in the northeast (we are certified in both sheet-fed and web). Additionally, we employ a GRACoL certified expert on-site to continually test and improve the performance of our presses.

For you, the most important thing, is that GRACoL is another “piece of mind”, knowing that Acme is in the small percentage of premium-quality printers adhering to these color and quality measures.

Understanding Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)

So unless you’ve been under a rock for the past four years, you’re familiar with the term Forest Stewardship Council or FSC Certification. The nickel definition of the FSC employs a few key points:

1.) That the logging, milling, manufacturing, and handling of paper is done so to protect the sustainability of the forest, the waterways, wildlife, and indigenous peoples of the surrounding area, and

2.) That every party that handles FSC certified stock does so to comply with very rigorous handling requirements. The SFI or Sustainable Forestry Initiative follows nearly identical compliance requirements.

Well then, what makes the two different? To start it should be known that some of the key differences are that:

1.) The FSC carries more brand recognition because of their successful global-marketing efforts. Though, I’ve been seeing SFI billboards on the highway lately.

2.) The SFI carries has significantly more options in both premium and low-grade sheets. This is because many of our North American paper forests are owned by small private forest owners, and simply, it costs far less to carry the SFI certification for these private owners.

As Acme is both FSC and SFI certified, I have no partisanship in either. To dig further into this, I was directed to International Paper’s, "Sustainability Update" (June 2007), which provided me with the graphic below (click on picture for a full-sized image):

As I always, I invite any further questions that you have about this topic. It’s certainly a big topic that I’ve tried to compress into a few short paragraphs.

Catalog and Direct-Mail Challenges in 2008: “Overstuffed Mailboxes? Take the JUNK Out of Junk-Mail!”

A Direct Marketing Association surveyed found that consumers responded to direct marketing every 16.4 days. Eight of 10 consumers have made a purchase in the previous 12 months in response to direct marketing (i.e. catalog, direct mail, Internet search, newspapers). Of those surveyed, 28% said that they made purchases based upon direct mail efforts.*


Additionally, 73% of respondents prefer receiving new-product announcements via mail from companies they're already in contact with, versus just 18% for email. And 70% prefer mail for unsolicited information and offers telling them about products and services from companies that they don't engage with.**


The survey also found that 31 percent of consumers are less likely to discard unopened mail, including new product brochures, catalogs or other advertising materials, while 53.2 percent are likely to discard unsolicited e-mails about new products. ** In the same survey, customers made direct marketing purchases based upon:

1.) Attractive Price 35%,

2.) Customer Loyalty 16.3%,

3.) Uniqueness 11.1%,

4.) Special Offers 10.4% .*



The Goal
There are three words to live and die by in the direct-marketing world: CALL...TO...ACTION. There are many who would argue that they utilize direct-marketing efforts for branding purposes only, but the truth of the matter is that this can be accomplished WHILE including a call-to-action.


For those of you unfamiliar with a call-to-action, it refers to the message that relates what you want the consumer to do after reviewing your direct-mailer. For example, a retailer that wants to improve in-store sales may create a call-to-action that drives customers to the stores by offering a 20% in-store discount. Many B2C direct-mailers request consumers to register their information on websites, which are essentially for loyalty programs.


Regardless of the copy, the design, the production, or anything else you read in the following paragraphs, if you don't have a call-to-action, then you don't have an end result.


Effective Design
As you send the direct mail job to your designer, make sure that the creative team knows direct mail. For example, creating and designing a catalog is completely different than designing a direct-mail piece. A catalog is a merchandising tool that is typically solicited by the respondent; whereas a direct-mailer is a "catch your eye and sell the call-to-action in 3.5 seconds" tool. Essentially, the copy of a direct-mailer has to be effective enough to sell the call-to-action in the time it takes to go from the consumer's hand to the trash.


Determining the Specs of the Piece
Now that you know the call-to-action and essential concept of the piece, you will need to determine the hard specs of the job. Typically, this is where we (the printer) are able to offer recommendations to reduce costs and increase overall effectiveness. The first things we'd consider are:
1.) How many can we gang up on the same sheet to reduce waste?
2.) How does the size and weight affect postage? Will we need to seal the piece for postage regulations?
3.) What is the minimum buy on the proposed paper?
4.) Do we have other papers that may generate a better response without adversely affecting the brand integrity?
5.) Do we need to consider varnish or aqueous dropouts for ink-jetting?
6.) If there are die-cuts, unique folds, and/or gluing, will the piece function as planned?
7.) What is the rough proposed cost of this job?


From here, you can determine whether or not the value of the response rate will be higher than the cost of the job.


Some Printing Ideas to Generate Higher Response
Do you ever feel like you depend too heavily upon copy and or overall design, far too often? The printing industry changes on what seems like a daily basis. With that being said, you can utilize paper, printing, or finishing processes to improve the response of your direct-mail job. Here are some ideas to help push the "pop" of your project.
1.) Unique paper stocks - Choose a paper stock that identifies with the message of the direct-mail project. A project printed on an uncoated sheet can emphasize a message of value, quality, or overall warmth. On the other side, there are a number of cover stocks that simply draw attention with unique textures and colors like: Domtar's Feltweave, Mohawk's Via, Neenah's Classic Laid, and Reich Shine (which is a pearlescent stock).
2.) Unusual sizes - Try moving away from the typical 4" X 6" or 5" X 7" postcard. Utilizing a slightly different size will stand out much more than the typical direct mailer. Additionally, a different sized direct-mail piece may fit more cost effectively on a standard sheet size.
3.) Unusual shapes - By testing different shapes you may be able to draw different responses than the typical rectangle. Consider what the message of your direct-mail is, and utilize different shapes to not only grab the consumer's response, but to also reinforce the message. You can use die-cutting to produce unusual shapes or folding and gluing to produce boxes or pockets.
4.) Mounted paper - Mounted paper is the process of gluing two press sheets (the front and the back of a direct mailer) together after printing. Essentially, this produces a thick, board-like direct mail piece, as both sheets are typically cover stocks. This mounted sheet signifies quality and strength and really stands out when a consumer receives this in the mail.
5.) Spot UV varnishing - UV varnishing creates an almost blinding sheen, and utilizing it to contrast with a non-varnished area can really draw some attention to the direct mailer. This is especially the case since I very rarely see UV varnished direct-mail.
6.) Contrast-varnishing - Try printing a gloss varnish with a dull varnish. The effects of contrast-varnishing are similar to the effect mentioned in the UV varnishing section above. Simply put, it completely mutes the sheen in the dull varnished area and enhances the sheen in the gloss varnished area and gives the piece a unique look.
7.) Unique die-cuts - In addition to unique shaped-direct mail pieces, die-cutting can also be a functional tool AND a creative way to catch attention. For example, Acme printed a direct-mail project in which when the piece opened, two simple die-cuts allowed a business card to pop up.
8.) Metallic inks - Metallic inks speak for themselves. Try utilizing metallic ink overprints, in which a mid-tone of metallic inks print over a process-color image. This is a fairly sensitive printing procedure, but when pulled off correctly (which Acme does!), the results are sheer brilliance.
9.) Double PMS hits - Double hits, or printing the same PMS image twice in the same pass creates a very deep and "turn-your-head" noticeable color. Again, so much so, that it draws attention.
10.) Tip-on - A tip-on can be any sort of printed piece that is glued to another piece. You often see this with credit-card mailers or post-it notes on direct mail pieces. There are a number of varying tip-on applications, but ultimately, a tip-on looks and feels different when you receive it in the mail. Additionally, our Pawtucket, RI facility just added tip-on capabilities in their plant.
11.) Gang-runs - A gang-run (in this direct-mail discussion) is the process of running multiple different direct-mail pieces on the same sheet. This can be utilized to create semi-variable direct-mail projects by printing a number of different direct-mail pieces on the same sheet.
Ultimately, all of these ideas may increase the budget of your project, but by no means, break the bank. Remember that it's a number game and if you spend a little more, but cost-justify this with an increased response rate, then you have succeeded!
*This source is from - "Consumers' Response to Direct Marketing: An 8 Part Series"
**This source is from - "Study: Consumers Responsive to Junk Mail" (Sass, 2007)