Neenah Paper Introduces “Do You Love Linen?” Website for Designers

Neenah Paper has introduced a new website for designers - “Do You Love Linen?” - to celebrate the paper maker’s updated CLASSIC Linen papers line.

"We encourage designers to be inspired and experiment with the colors, textures and tones showcased on the Web site," says Kristin Carpenter, assistant advertising and design manager at Neenah Paper. "They can upload a design of their own or grab one from Neenah’s image library and see what a world of difference the right paper makes. And, if they like what they see, with just a few keystrokes, their own Neenah Personal Proof(SM) will be on its way to their office."

The Neenah Personal Proof is the only program of its kind offered by a paper company. Designers can order up to three free printed samples of a single design on different CLASSIC Linen papers. Once they submit their Personal Proof order, the samples will be custom printed and sent to them within two weeks.

"Both the Web site and the Neenah Personal Proof are revolutionary for our industry," says Carpenter. "We believe the ability to digitally view the color and texture of paper online and then receive a printed sample of your personal work is really going to amaze designers."

"Our goal at Neenah is to continue to inspire our customers," sums up Carpenter. "By creating tools to make their jobs easier and providing them with premium uncoated papers that turn ordinary applications into extraordinary projects, we want to continue to surprise and inspire them."

Millcraft launches Improved AmeriGloss Sheet

Over the years, customers have come to rely on the Millcraft Paper Company to provide them with an American made, cost effective alternative to foreign coated papers. As an independent paper merchant, Millcraft continues to build relationships with their mill partners that provide the best value product for their customers.

AmeriGloss is manufactured, produced and serviced in the USA.

As one of the best value added coated sheets in the market, AmeriGloss remains a solid performer for printing and bindery requirements. While maintaining its excellent bulk, opacity and smoothness, AmeriGloss is now FSC certified. As an FSC certified product, the fiber used to manufacture AmeriGloss comes from responsibly managed forests in the United States, as such you can be assured both Millcraft and AmeriGloss adhere to the strict requirements necessary to obtain this independent, third party certification.

Another added benefit to using the new-improved AmeriGloss, is that it now contains 10% Post Consumer Waste.

AmeriGloss features five basis weights from 70# Text to 100# Cover and stocked in over 30 different sizes. Available in both carton and skids. To request your copy of the new AmeriGloss swatch book, click here.

Collateral and Content Make an Impact

How valuable is marketing collateral in driving sales? What types of collateral have the greatest influence on purchasing decisions? What types of collateral are most widely used by prospective buyers? These were some of the questions that Eccolo Media sought to answer in a recent study of collateral usage by US technology buyers.

The Eccolo Media 2008 B2B Technology Collateral Survey was based on a survey of technology buyers in US companies. Two-thirds of the 155 survey respondents described themselves as purchase decision-makers, and the balance of the respondents called themselves purchase influencers. While this study focused on technology buyers, the findings are relevant for any B2B company that sells complex products or services, including marketing services firms. This study included five types of marketing collateral:

White papers
Case studies/success stories
Product brochures/data sheets
Podcasts
Videos

Here are some of the most important findings:

White papers have the greatest influence on purchasing decisions. Thirty-one percent of survey respondents ranked white papers as the most influential type of marketing collateral in terms of purchasing decisions. White papers were followed by product brochures (23%), case studies (17%), videos (8%), and podcasts (5%). Product brochures were also ranked as the least influential type of marketing collateral by 34% of respondents. Forty-four percent of respondents said that white papers were “very” or “extremely” influential.

Product brochures, white papers, and case studies are the most frequently used types of marketing collateral. The survey asked what types of collateral respondents had seen, read, or listened to within six months prior to making a purchase. Seventy percent of respondents identified product brochures, 68% said white papers, and 59% said case studies. Podcasts and videos trailed with 28% each.

Buyers use marketing collateral very early in the buying process. Overall 56% of survey respondents said they review marketing collateral for the first time during the “pre-sale” stage of the buying process, that is, when they are beginning to consider solutions and before they initiate discussions with specific vendors.

Buyers read collateral materials online before they download and print. At least 70% of survey respondents said they view white papers, case studies, and product brochures online before they download and print them. The survey doesn’t address how much collateral consumption is online only.
Marketing collateral is highly viral. Sixty-seven percent of survey respondents said they share white papers with colleagues, while 66% share podcasts, 65% share case studies, 64% share product brochures, and 60% share videos. Forty-four percent of respondents said they share white papers with four or more people.

These findings show that marketing collateral remains a powerful selling tool. Other research has shown that B2B buyers are increasingly using the Internet to research and gather information regarding prospective purchases, in many cases long before they contact potential sellers. This means that the collateral you make available online plays a huge role in creating that critical “first impression” of your company with potential customers. If you provide compelling marketing collateral online, you stand a good chance of being invited to begin a meaningful sales conversation.

Tips on Designing for Variable Information Printing

The following tips were excerpted from Create Relevant Direct Marketing That Gets Results: More Ways to Profit with Digital Printing, by Xerox Corporation.

The biggest difference between designing for variable and static pieces is accommodating the different sizes of art and text that are called upon to populate variable pieces. In variable work, designers need to ensure that their designs work with all of the content that can possibly appear from piece to piece in a variable run.

In other words, you need to know what's in the database.

Varying the images in a design is fairly straightforward, because you size and scale images in advance to fit the available space.

Text is another story. You need text blocks that accommodate the longest possible copy, while still looking visually appealing when the segment is short. Even the simplest personalization by name presents this challenge. Consider accommodating both "Al Ho" and "Margaret-Frances Davidson-Smith."

In accommodating the highest possible character count, your design options include:

Centering names and keeping them all on one line.

Letting long names wrap to the next line, provided your variable information program supports word wrap. Also recognize that when names don't wrap, you'll have an extra blank line at the bottom of the page. One alternative is to use an "if-then" programming scenario to select a layout on the fly, one for names with more than 20 characters, one for names with fewer characters. Here again, check to see that your variable information program supports this capability.

Redesigning the piece may become necessary if some names don't fit. One solution: permit names that are too long to bleed into the margin.
Accommodations must be made for copy to fit from the top to the bottom of the page, as well. Options include:

Incorporating sufficient white space at the bottom of each page to account for the deepest possible columns.

Bouncing overflow copy to the next page. However, this has a ripple effect throughout all of the remaining pages.

Reducing the point size, the leading or both.

Changing to a condensed font.

Scaling the font horizontally.

Changing the space between letters.

Some of these solutions may prove to be less than aesthetically pleasing. The best way to judge that and to refine a variable layout is to proof every possible page that can be created. Some variable information programs include tools that simplify that proofing process.

Such digital tools help ensure that your designs are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also accurate, functional and ready for production.

Logo Trends 2009

These are austere times, but the logos recently loaded onto Logo Lounge.com–nearly 35,000 since 2008 – certainly do not reflect it. And that is how it should be. Wary homage may be paid to marketing in lean times, but not to identity design. These are two wholly different efforts with differ­ent goals. Identities should set a long-term course for clients, not fall into the pits carved out by economic phases.

The seventh annual logo trend report is as much a forecast as it is a study of the past 12 months. The past informs the future, and the recent past has such momentum that designers would be well-advised to stay this course, even when clients are only maintaining the brands they have, not creating new ones. Business may be slow, but it does not have to be dull.

Here are a few trends emerging in this year's report:

The increased use of text in logo design. People are busy; money is tight. Logos must be interpreted, and inter­pretation takes time. Words deliver their message immediately.

The increased chroma of colour. Everywhere, there is a brave use of hue, even in the most unexpected places, such as in the identities of very large and conservative clients.

The favicon. There’s another very small item on the horizon that may have a gigantic effect on logo design in the future. When Google introduced its new favicon at the start of 2009, it was a very visible reminder of how powerful that tiny piece of real estate really is. The favicon may turn out to be a measur­ing stick against which the success of any new logo might be measured – as in, can this logo be made to fit in a 15 × 15-pixel square?

To read the full report, click here.

Are Pixels Greener Than Paper?

More and more people are communicating with electronic media. But are electronic devices more environmentally friendly than paper? To address this important question, International Paper ( has launched a new brochure in its Down to Earth environmental series, "Pixels vs. Paper: Are pixels greener than paper?" To request a copy of the Down to Earth brochure, click here.

For Effective Marketing, Think Pull

In a recent Print CEO article, David Dodd highlights the trend towards pull marketing techniques to attract propsects. Outsell, Inc., a media research firm, recently estimated that U.S. marketers will spend $65 billion in 2009 on their Websites (a pull marketing channel). MediaPost recently reported that U.S. spending on search engine marketing (another pull marketing technique) will grow from $12.2 billion in 2008 to $22.4 billion in 2013.

Strictly speaking, pull marketing refers to marketing communications that are initiated by the prospective customer. In a broader sense, though, pull marketing is a distinct approach to marketing that relies heavily on using entertaining or informational communications to engage with potential customers. The defining characteristic of good pull marketing communications is that the content is not overtly promotional. The primary focus of most pull marketing efforts in B2B companies is on providing information that prospective customers will consider to be valuable. So, for example, a marketing services firm might develop a series of white papers or recorded Webinars that address a variety of important marketing issues and make those resources available to potential clients at the firm’s Website.

The basic objective of pull marketing is to demonstrate your expertise and thereby establish your company as a credible and trusted source of information about a particular subject matter area. When potential customers go looking for solutions that fall within your area of expertise (when they are ready to actively consider making a purchase), your company is more likely to receive favorable consideration because you have already established your “bona fides.”

The use of pull marketing is growing because traditional push marketing is losing effectiveness. One reason is that the number of marketing messages has exploded. Various marketing gurus have estimated that the average U.S. consumer is exposed to between 500 and 3,000 marketing messages every day. And the more we are bombarded by marketing messages, the less attention we pay to any of them. At best, they become part of the “noise” that surrounds us, and we will often take active steps to avoid them (think spam filters, TiVo, and Do-Not-Call).

The Internet has also contributed to the diminished effectiveness of traditional push marketing. We have become confident that we can use the Web to find information about almost any product or service. More importantly, we are confident that we can obtain that information whenever we want or need it. Therefore, we rarely pay attention to marketing messages that aren’t relevant to our immediate interests or priorities.

Pull marketing is growing because marketers have recognized that potential customers are determined to control when and how they will access marketing information. Rather than fighting this mindset, savvy marketers are using pull marketing techniques to build credibility and trust and then to enable potential customers to obtain the information they want when they want it. Pull marketing will never completely replace push marketing, but it has become an essential marketing tactic for many companies. Today’s most effective marketing programs are often a combination of push and pull. For example, I frequently receive e-mails (push) that invite me to attend a Webinar (pull) or download a white paper (pull).

If you are a marketing service provider, you should be thinking about how you can incorporate pull marketing into you own marketing efforts and about how you can help your clients leverage the benefits of pull marketing.

Who's Ed, and What Does He Know About Print?

Ed is a continuing education series sponsored by NewPage. Ed is dedicated to delivering technical wisdom to a broad range of communication specialists, that is to say, people who spend the better part of their days designing with, specifying, buying, or printing on paper. Ed is available to help you understand the amazing things that paper can do as well as all things print related: coatings, inks, retouching, prepress, embossing and more.

The entire promotional series of Ed is available through Millcraft Paper. For those just beginning, or seasoned veterans looking for a refresher, these are definitely keepers for any print pro's files.

Can North American Coated Paper Mills Keep Imports at Bay?

In a recent post on the RISI blog, John Maine questions whether North American coated paper mills can keep imports at bay to avoid closures.

The demand/supply outlook for coated paper in North America looks very grim. Mills operated at only 72% of capacity through May, and while there will be some rebound in demand as the recession recedes, there is no way that a demand rebound will even come close to absorbing this excess capacity. Most of the high-cost inefficient mills have already been closed over the past few years, and producers have been taking roving downtime and delaying the hard decision to shut reasonably efficient and up-to-date facilities.

One option being pursued by some producers is to try and reverse a longstanding trend of increased offshore supply to the North American market. In the final quarter of 2008, offshore imports supplied 22% of US coated paper demand, more than any other paper or board product. This was split almost equally with an 11% market share for Europe and an 11% share for Asia. The European share of the US market has been flat or trending down as its share five years ago was 12%. However, the Asian share, which was only 5% five years ago, has been sharply increasing.

The imported tonnage was quite large in 2008 and represents a sizable opportunity for North American mills to take back some market share. North American buyers imported 1.1 million tons of coated freesheet and 900,000 tons of coated mechanical paper from offshore suppliers in 2008.

In the short term, US producers have been more successful than expected at combating imports. With the influence of a stronger euro and substantial capacity closures, European producers have cut back sharply on their sales into the US market. European coated paper exports to the USA through April had dropped 46% below year-ago levels, and the European share of the US market hit a lowly 6.5%in April, nearly half of its peak level. Yet despite this decline in European supply, US mills still operated at only 72% of capacity.

Surprisingly, US mills have also been successful at displacing some low-cost Asian tonnage in 2009. US mills have become more aggressive on pricing to meet the level of low-cost imports and have also touted environmental certification, customer service, payment terms, local warehousing and "Made in America" sentimentality whenever possible. One program with a US merchant representing about 100,000 tons has been switched from an Asian supplier to a US supplier and will likely result in lower offshore imports in the coming months.

The effort to reduce Asian imports will be increasingly difficult over the next few years due to the large amount of new Asian capacity coming on-line. Between 2009 and 2011, over 2.0 million tonnes of new coated paper capacity will come on-line in Asia with major expansions by APP, Chenming and Oji underway in China. While the Asian market is growing rapidly, it will not absorb all of this new capacity and Asian producers will be fighting aggressively to increase exports all over the world.

While there has been some surprising success at reducing offshore imports in 2009, we do not believe that US producers can solve the coated paper oversupply issue entirely by reducing imports. The battle to replace imports amid world oversupply and capacity expansion in Asia will result in lower coated paper prices in the market and will ultimately force more mill closures in North America as prices approach cash cost levels of some of the higher cost mills.

National Geographic Measures It's Carbon Footprint

National Geographic, along with Verso Paper, Quad/Graphics and Harmony Environmental, recently completed a "cradle-to-grave" study to measure the magazine's carbon footprint.

The study caps a process initiated two years ago when National Geographic approached Verso to explore the idea. A year's worth of planning between 2007 and 2008 was retooled to initiate a new test specifically for the plant that makes the paper for the magazine.

"We were reluctant to wait for a new study to be completed," said Hans Wegner, VP of production services at National Geographic, in a statement. "However, we were convinced there were enough significant differences mill-to-mill and grade-to-grade to warrant the undertaking of a separate study of our paper made at Verso's Androscoggin, Maine mill in order to obtain accurate information."

Not content to simply measure the emissions from the paper mill, National Geograhic and Verso brought in the magazine's printer, Quad/Graphics, to participate as well, giving the study a broader and more detailed look at the entire production process.

The study measured the planting and harvesting of trees, paper manufacturing and printing, and the magazine's delivery and disposal.

Harmony Environmental independently compiled and analyzed the data, which revealed that 1.27 pounds of CO2 equivalents are emitted to produce the paper for one issue of National Geographic. Add in printing, distribution and the rest of the steps necessary to bring an issue to market and the total bumps up to 1.82 pounds. That, according to Verso, is the same amount of CO2 emitted by driving about two miles in a 20-mpg car.

With a total paid and verified circ of just over 5,000,000 according to the magazine's December 2008 publisher's statement, that equates to about 9.1 million pounds of CO2 emissions.

Backpacker released a similar study in March 2008, and discovered it produced 500,000 pounds per issue in 2007. That magazine has a total paid and verified circ of about 346,000.