DAYTON, OH -- Think Patented is proud to announce that it has earned a pair of Gold Awards for excellence in NAPL’s 2008 Management Plus and Marketing Excellence competitions. The awards confirm Think Patented’s growing influence and leadership role as a well managed print media and marketing services company in the Midwest.
 
Think Patented President and CEO Kenneth O. McNerney and Chairman Niels M. Winther, Co-Owners, will accept the awards formally on behalf of the company during the NAPL Top Management Conference in Tucson, Ariz. later this month.
 
Recognition by the NAPL Management Plus Awards Program is based on a comparison of a company’s management performance with prevailing professional and industry standards. Think Patented was cited for its superior financial record, emphasis on employee participation in management, as well as for the consistently high quality of its products and services. Think Patented is one of just four companies nationally chosen to receive a Management Plus Gold Award in this year’s competition, which annually draws hundreds of participants from across the graphic communications industry.
 
Now in its first year, the NAPL Marketing Excellence Program is designed to look at a company’s overall marketing commitment and assess an effort against stated goals and achieved results. The program solicited entries in 10 key marketing categories from Market Research to Digital and Green Marketing initiatives. One of seven companies to win Marketing Excellence Gold, Think Patented was cited for its Simulated Travel campaign, its submission in the Sales Support category.
 
“We are pleased and proud at the same time,” Winther said. “Our customer-centric, people-oriented approach to business is the wellspring of our continued success.”
 
“It is not only a tremendous honor to be selected as one of our industry’s best-managed companies, but also a rare privilege to share this distinction with every member of our dedicated staff,” McNerney said.
 
McNerney was inducted into the prestigious Walter E. Soderstrom Society at the annual meeting of the membership in September 2008, in Chicago. Named for the late Walter E. Soderstrom, one of the founders of NAPL, the Soderstrom Society is an honors organization that recognizes the contributions of industry leaders. Winther was inducted into the Soderstrom Society in 2000.
 
Nex Steps
 
In yet another example of the many ways in which Think Patented closely monitors and acts decisively to leverage market trends for the benefit of its customers, Think Patented recently became one of just six companies in the U.S. to install a Kodak NexPress s2500  digital color press with dimensional printing capabilities. Dimensional Printing gives specified text and images a raised or 3D effect that can help communications stand out in a crowded marketplace. The result is a printed piece where images can have a tactile, dimensional feel that mimics the surface of the items in the image. The machine in use at Think Patented also includes an environmentally friendly, near-line Glosser Unit for high-impact effects.

"After lengthy evaluation of the available technologies, we decided on the NexPress s2500 with Dimensional Printing,” Winther said. “The ORC cost model, combined with the high print quality, larger format imaging and new dimensional ink option, made it the obvious choice for our business."

"The point of differentiation that dimensional printing offers our customers should help create a better awareness and increased response rate to our direct mail offerings,” McNerney added. “The larger sheet size also should help create efficiencies. We believe that as technology in the digital area continues to evolve, the NexPress will prove to be an excellent option for both Think Patented and our customer base."