Heidelberg will take to the HEI wire for Graph Expo 2012 to present a simulated retail promotion campaign designed to deliver the best product to the print buyer by means of a production process that takes the "digital or offset" question off the table, and makes cross-platform color matching its centerpiece. 
  
It sounds ambitious because it is. As the only print technology vendor that can take a file from web-to-print input and move it seamlessly through all subsequent stages of production, gathering and updating cost data at every stage, Heidelberg will encourage printers to look beyond individual machine specifications to grasp the bigger picture and bottom-line benefits of end-to-end production integration. Visitors to the booth will see these benefits clearly demonstrated, not only to the printer, but also-and equally as important-to their clients. 
  
The Problem 
The client in the hypothetical promotion is a high-end clothing retailer with a small marketing department and big plans for a targeted print marketing campaign aimed at boosting its market share and customer loyalty. The retailer needs a service provider that can manage its database, print its marketing collateral using offset, digital, and wide-format inkjet equipment, all while managing its corporate color across multiple platforms. 
  
The Solution 
Market research comes first. The service provider begins by developing a custom storefront using Heidelberg's Prinect Web-to-Print Manager to conduct in-store and on-line surveys of 500 participants. The surveys are designed to collect data on the company's customer base by gender, age, buying power, and clothing preferences. As an incentive, participants receive an accessories brochure with an instantly redeemable, 50 percent-off coupon. The high-quality, coated brochure covers are printed on a Speedmaster SM 52 Anicolor press, and glued and finished on the Stahlfolder TH 56. The coupon also is tipped in-line on the Stahlfolder. 
  
Next, the service provider utilizes data from the Prinect Web-to-Print Manager storefront to create a multi-touch, targeted campaign with variable data. In the first mailing, the customer receives a personalized thank-you letter with an invitation to visit their local store for a fashion consultation and to receive a thank-you gift. To save money on the letter, the customer chooses existing, pre-printed letterhead that can easily be imprinted on the Linoprint C901 with contacts and addresses. Mailed with the letter is a personalized, eight-page catalog based on the customers' initial survey answers. The front cover of the catalog will be printed static offset on a Speedmaster SM 52 with Anicolor. The inside pages will be variable, based on participants' survey responses, and printed digitally on the Linoprint C901. Finally, the contents are combined and stitched in-line on the Linoprint's Bookletmaker accessory. 
  
When the customer arrives for their one-on-one personal fashion consultation, the consultant uses the customer's original survey answers to make fashion recommendations based on the customer's personal preferences, fashion trends, and body type. Customers also pick up a free gift: men's cologne or women's eye shadow in a high-end carton produced on a Speedmaster XL 105 with UV drip-off coating, die-cut on a KAMA ProCut, then folded and glued on a KAMA ProFold. 
  
Based on the in-store consultation, each participant receives a customized consultation via tri-fold mailer, produced digitally on the Linoprint C901, then folded and perfed on the Stahlfolder TH 56. Customers earn 25 percent off their total purchase by selecting an item or items from the consultation. 
  
The Benefits 
With color management via Prinect Color Toolbox, the customer reinforces its brand identity through the pitch-perfect reproduction of its corporate colors on everything from large-format in-store signage and point-of-purchase displays (produced on a Rastek H652 UV flatbed inkjet printer), to high-quality tags and packages used for clothing and accessories, regardless of the printing process used. 
  
Thanks to flexible integration and process standardization via Prinect, the marketing story this promotion tells is greater than the sum of its individual components. Across-the-board integration means that all work processes-whether offset, electrophotographic or digital inkjet-are set up for maximum verifiable efficiency and cost control. Best of all, the service provider that made it happen not only gains a satisfied customer, but locks in a major competitive advantage, along with higher profits.