WOOD DALE, Ill. & ROCHESTER, N.Y.--Jan. 28, 2004-- Madden Communications has purchased a DocuColor iGen3(TM) Digital Production Press from Xerox Corporation to produce high-quality customized point-of-purchase display materials, such as signs and price cards, faster and more economically for its retail and packaged-goods customers. Madden expects its print volume on the DocuColor iGen3 to be 800,000 pages per month. According to Emily Farley, manager of prepress and production at Madden Communications, digital technology enables customers to have an automated process and replace the tedious and time-consuming tasks of applying vinyl lettering or handwritten messages on point-of-purchase materials. "We run variable information jobs for our clients that have complex data, so we needed a press that could process that data and produce the output quickly," said Farley. "The DocuColor iGen3 has incredible speed, can handle a wide range and size of paper, and produces the image quality that our retail customers demand." Farley said Madden Communications had been interested in digital printing for about four years, but it wasn't until they evaluated the DocuColor iGen3 technology that they decided to make the investment. The 100 page-per-minute digital press offers capabilities that traditional offset presses can't, including short print runs, quick job turnarounds and personalized printing. Madden is using the DocuColor iGen3 to produce a variety of point-of-purchase materials including: Full-color customized price cards for more than 4,500 retailers for a major hardware company. Madden receives store-specific product pricing information monthly and produces 300-400 cards for each section of the monthly sales circular per store, including photos and sale date. Before Madden purchased the DocuColor iGen3, cards were either handwritten at the stores or produced in black-and-white with no photo. In a 1999 study, POPAI (Point of Purchase Advertising Institute) concluded that in convenience stores, photos on POP materials increased pick-up by 13 percent. Customized promotional materials, such as stickers, display cards and table-tent cards typically used as menus or to promote drink specials, working with a major beverage manufacturer. According to POPAI, customized beverage signage increases sales by up to 28 percent. Madden also developed a Web-based custom POP template for the beverage manufacturer that allows individual distributors to customize retail marketing materials. Using the online tool, distributors can have approved, color-matched materials customized and delivered to them, maintaining brand equity with consistent colors and logos, rather than trying to replicate the materials themselves. A Xerox SmartPress Consultant, part of Xerox's customer business development team, spent time on-site at Madden to ensure the company took maximum advantage of the DocuColor iGen3's capabilities, and to assist in identifying volume-building and revenue-generating opportunities. Madden Communications applies the principles of supply chain management to the job-by-job world of in-store advertising and sales communication. Their operations include on-site account service, prepress, creative services, database management, information services, digital and offset printing, distribution, logistics, and customer service.