Brittany Bolenbaugh  It’s no secret that printers are always on the lookout for enterprising young professionals who can help their companies stay ahead of the curve in a constantly evolving industry. That’s why, over the next several weeks, we’ll be profiling some talented students who are about to enter the workforce. All of the students we’re profiling have received monetary awards from the Print and Graphic Scholarship Foundation (PGSF), a not-for-profit, private, industry-directed organization that dispenses undergraduate college scholarships and graduate fellowship assistance to talented men and women interested in graphic communication careers. Housed under the same roof as Printing Industries of America, PGSF has coordinated the printing industry’s largest scholarship program since its inception in 1956. Our first interviewee, Brittany Bolenbaugh, is currently a senior at Ball State University. Brittany was kind enough to share with us a little bit about her university experience, her goals for a graphic arts career, and her thoughts on the future of the industry. 1. What area of the graphic arts do you consider your primary focus (design, print production, digital media, etc.)? I would say that my primary focus in the graphic arts would be the design as I have a great passion and love for being creative. Although through my classes at Ball State University and my experiences I have grown to love all aspects of the graphic arts. 2. Have you started job searching? If so, what has been your experience? I have begun the job search since I will be graduating this May and I have found that my school career center and professors have been my biggest resource. I have had many opportunities to pursue and I just hope that I am able to find the right one for me. 3. What will be your top considerations when looking for a job in the graphic arts field? (In other words, what characteristics are you looking for in potential employer?) As I look for a job in the graphic arts field, it is important to me that I come into a position where I can not only utilize my skill sets, but also enhance them and grow with a company. It is important to me to have that opportunity to move forward and gain responsibility as I further my career. 4. What are one or two interesting graphic arts projects you’ve completed at school? There are so many! I love to create things and learn new techniques, but I think the process that was the most fun to learn and explore was screen-printing. There are so many possibilities with screen-printing that I wish I had time to do even more with it. I also have been able to...

Joy GendusaFounder and CEO PostcardMania Joy Gendusa is the Founder and CEO of PostcardMania. After more than twelve years of leading one of the most innovative and successful postcard marketing companies in the industry, Joy has obtained a level of marketing expertise that is sought after for counsel and speaking engagements all over the country. We are delighted that Joy will joining us as a speaker in May for the Integrated Print Forum and we recently had the opportunity to speak with her about her business, direct mail, and the value of integrated marketing strategies. Along with speaking engagements, Joy also regularly shares her knowledge and expertise on her blog Maniac Marketing. How has your personal experience as an entrepreneur shaped your approach to business and your relationship with your clients? I feel like entrepreneurs are “my people”(if you know what I mean)! I know what it’s like to have to make a payroll despite a lousy month and what it feels like to have lay off good people that just aren’t cutting it at their job (heartache). We entrepreneurs have a certain camaraderie that can only be experienced. With that said—being that my customer base consists mainly of entrepreneurs—I feel like I really understand what they need and what their pain is. It takes my personal care factor for them to a level I don’t see often enough. For instance we just had our third client appreciation event where we had 100 attendees. These folks REALLY want help growing their businesses and are hungry for the information! I love these guys! So, my relationship with my clients is at the forefront; they are not considered numbers in a database or CRM, they are my people. Why is direct mail still an effective marketing and communications tool? These days, people are so inundated with online advertisements that when they receive a postcard in the mail regarding something that is relevant to them, they take notice. Postcards are also an effective way to drive people to your website or get them to call your business—they get people to reach out for more information about your products and services. Plus there are loads of businesses out there that folks are not searching for online—direct mail is a GREAT way to enlighten the market and truly target. This cannot be done with paid search to the same degree. In the video above, Joy shares the 10 elements of a successful postcard. What are the main benefits of an integrated marketing strategy? They hit the prospect from many channels. Prospects see the message over and over and you get the benefit of repetition for a low cost. They give credibility to the marketer/business—meaning...

We recently had the opportunity to speak with Paul Strack, President of CustomXM, about how his company has dealt with the rapid transformations in the printing industry. CustomXM, formerly Custom Printing Company, is a family-owned operation in North Little Rock, Arkansas that has successfully transitioned from a traditional offset printing company to a provider of integrated printing and marketing services. Paul will be one of the speakers at the 2013 Integrated Print Forum in May, where he’ll share the story of his company’s successful transition. When and why did the company change its name? Do you still consider yourself a “printer” today? The name change occurred in 2007/2008. Our company had been evolving over the years and we wanted to highlight more of our new capabilities. Based on where we thought the industry and our work was going, we felt that we needed to communicate our ability to provide cross-media marketing. Print is still the main engine driving our company and it makes up probably 30-40% of our revenue. However, we are seeing significant growth in other areas like fulfillment and marketing services. How did your existing customers react to the name change? Did the new name help in attracting new customers? It’s funny because existing customers were somewhat confused when they received their invoices and the company name and logo had changed. In hindsight, perhaps we could have provided more advance communication about the change. But in a way the change was a door opening opportunity, because it gave us a chance to explain to existing customers that we could do more than they thought. I think new customers started to become aware of our marketing services when we got involved in social media. Whether it was Twitter or Facebook, it opened us up to a whole new audience who didn’t know us from our “print-only” days. At first, I handled most of the social media outreach. But recently one of our newer hires (a sales rep) has gotten involved on Twitter and Facebook. How has your work changed over the past five years? We’ve been doing more and more integrated campaigns for clients. These are primarily direct mail campaigns that incorporate PURLs, landing pages, emails, and social media. We have seen quite a bit of growth in these campaigns over the last two years. Early on, it seemed like we were doing more one-off campaigns for clients. But I felt that this defeated the purpose, because one of the strengths of integrated marketing campaigns is that you gather information about your clients’ customers, which in turn allows you to refine the process in subsequent campaigns. Over the past few years, we have had success with providing multiple...

We recently posed the following question to the members of our LinkedIn group (Digital Printing Council): How do you distinguish between “convenience printing” or office digital copying equipment and “production” digital presses. In our post, we asked if anyone made this distinction solely on the basis of speed or pages per minute (PPM). We received a couple of in-depth responses that explained why simple PPM is not an effective means of distinguishing production equipment from office equipment. John Conley, Vice President Commercial Print and Publishing, Xerox Corporation The nomenclature of “production” versus “office is not driven by speed. It is driven by durability. Equipment that goes into a production environment needs to have the ability be up and running for the time frame the associated printer has designated as his working production period. This could be one, two, or three shifts. A production piece of equipment must be able to run billable work at rated speed over a sustained period of time with predictable outcomes and for the economic life of the equipment. A 100 PPM machine that is not built to produce 2.5 million+ pages a month of billable output over the 5 or more years of expected product life would not be a production device. Said another way, office equipment is used on demand. It is not scheduled and has an expected usage of the average office work day, which is usually 8 to 10 hours and not potentially three 8 hour shifts as you could have in a production plant. Karen Kimerer, Business Development Consultant, Xerox Corporation I agree with John, PPM is not a qualifier. The question isn’t how many pages it can print over a minute, hour, or shift; it’s how many pages it can print over the course of a month—pages that may be unique job to job and that require make-ready and finishing. Along that line, a production press is differentiated by registration—image to page registration as well as front to back registration. Without consistent registration the print can’t be finished and subsequently becomes waste. Media flexibility or substrate range also distinguishes a digital press from a fast copier. With the growth of eligible digital pages comes the growth of media types. a production press will have paper feeding, paper handling, turn radius and fusing elements designed and manufactured to address the challenges of heavier weight paper, synthetics, and even mixed media within a job. Reliability and uptime that withstand the volumes and various media types clearly separates a production press from high-speed office...

Marketers are always looking for ways to get more from their print budgets. Historically, printers have responded through the use of customized print, and more recently, quick response (QR) codes. One of the latest innovations in print is augmented reality, which allows for the creation of unique 3-D experiences that add another dimension to print. Printing Industries of America’s Joe Marin has updated a popular Digital Printing Council white paper on augmented reality.  This white paper, which is free to all Printing Industries of America members, provides an overview of augmented reality technologies and highlights their relevance to print. New information includes an updated tutorial and additional resources. Members can download the new white paper here. Additionally, Marin has created a series of video tutorials to accompany his white paper. The first three videos of a planned six-part series are currently up on the Digital Printing Council website. The topics explained include how to download and install augmented reality software applications, how to use some basic tools to create and navigate around a 3-D object, and how to trace a 2-D object and turn it into a 3-D object for augmented reality software. Members can view the new videos...

The official word came out today that the USPS is planning to move to a five-day delivery schedule beginning in August, eliminating carrier routes on Saturdays. This does not mean that the USPS will be completely dormant on Saturdays. Package delivery will continue, P.O. boxes will be filled, and Post Offices that are currently open on Saturdays will remain open. The package delivery element of the plan is noteworthy, because this part of the agency’s business has increased 14% since 2010. Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe stated that the elimination of Saturday carrier routes should save around $2 billion annually. There is some question on the authority of the USPS to make the move to five-day delivery. Congress previously has nixed the idea in appropriations bills; however, the temporary spending measure under which the federal government is currently operating may allow for the USPS to make the switch without Congressional...