Treat your Customer like your Valentine

Would you rather get a Valentine’s card or a text this February? Of course it depends on the card and it depends on the text but getting a card does show some extra thought and effort. Plus you also have the tangible, human experience of opening, touching, maybe even smelling the printed card, putting it on the mantlepiece, ripping it to pieces or hiding it in the drawer.

The role of print is equally as important in courting your customer base as your object of desire. Now in its ninth year, the annual Power of Print seminar gathered a mix of experts and industry leaders from the worlds of advertising, marketing, publishing, packaging and the environment to provide a broad view of the print and paper industry. If there was one unifying theme to come out of the event, it was that in a digital world, print retains the ability to offer trust, credibility and valuable engagement for readers and customers.

28% of people feel they are suffering from a ‘digital overload’, with a clear preference to enjoy the offline world. 69% say print is the most enjoyable way to read books, 61% prefer magazines in print and 54% love to read news in print.

From an advertiser’s viewpoint, print offers a brand something that digital cannot: meaningful engagement. Nick Vale, Worldwide Head of Creative Strategy at Wavemaker, described a customer’s interaction with print as having ‘moments with meaning’, compared to the ‘micro-moments’ they have with digital media. Whilst micro-moments have the advantage of being measurable and monetised, moments with meaning provide greater engagement, higher quality content and a shared experience, ultimately leading to greater brand success.

Rory Sutherland, The Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK, author and all-round advertising guru put it very simply: “Spending money on print makes sense”, explaining that brands should put more of their marketing budgets into print because it offers a tangible, human experience.

“To hold something in your hands that is physical has a certain importance, will give it a flavour and extra touch” Nats Sijanta, Global Marketing Communications Director, Mercedes-Benz