How to Make Your Products Stand Out

Brands like Kleenex, Coke and Corona are using creative, unique designs to stand out and generate sales this summer. From ice-cream cone shaped tissue boxes to soda cans with painted sunglass designs, companies are finding innovative ideas to capture consumers’ attention.

So, why do products like ice-cream shaped Kleenex boxes have such success? These four explanations from an article in The Journal of Marketing help give reason to creatively designed products:

• The design can allow you to stand out in a cluttered market and grab consumers’ attention. Yoplait yogurt made a splash in a competitive market by using a container that was narrow at the top rather than the bottom, opposite of every other yogurt package.
• The design is a means of communicating to the consumer. It creates an initial impression and statement.
• The design can affect the quality of life. The perception and usage of pleasantly designed products may provide sensory satisfaction and stimulation.
• The design can have long lasting effects by bringing delight to consumers decades afterwards. Pepsi proved this through their launch of the “throw back” soda bottles.

If that’s not convincing enough, take a look at suggestions that have been given in Advertising Age based on the research of eye tracking. Through eye tracking, marketers are able to determine what shoppers first look at, where on the specific packages they look and how long they look at it. The following tips have been compiled based on the results of eye tracking studies:

Color: If you can find an unused color within the product category it can be a powerful tool.
Packaging: Don’t let your packaging blend in with the rest. Shoppers view only half the brands displayed within a category.
Shape/Structure: Experts say that different shapes and structure are consistently strong in generating attention.
Shelf Placement: Placing your product at arm level is ideal. Studies have also shown that products placed to the right of the dominant brand have more success than others. When shoppers find an initial focal point within the product category, they will either scan right or downward in a reading pattern.
White Space: Don’t overwhelm the shopper. Important claims can be overlooked among the clutter of too many messages.

Now that you have your packaging strategy in place, join industry leaders like Coca-Cola and Kleenex by making sure your packaging images and associated data is available for any selling situation—via kwikeesystems.com. Find out more about getting your products in Kwikee now.

The Growth of Consumer Packaged Goods Online Sales

As technology advances, people are finding fewer reasons to leave their computer. The internet allows people to talk to family and friends, take college courses and even grocery shop. In 2010 the percent of consumers who purchased packaged goods online doubled from 2009. According to the following articles on Mashable and AdAge the variety of online retailers and products is ever-growing.

So, what is the benefit to offering customers the option to purchase your packaged goods online?

•  People like convenient and time-saving options. Online purchasing allows them get to their grocery shopping done while at work, home or on the go via their computers, smartphones and tablets.
• Brand loyalty can be developed quickly through various options given to the shopper, such as the search box and saved shopping list. Consumers are therefore less distracted by competitors’ products.
• Online shopping is a way for your company to increase sales. E-commerce of packaged goods is now a $12 billion business and is expected to more than double by 2014.
• Studies focusing on the habits of online shoppers of packaged goods have found that the average online shopping cart is three times the value of an offline cart.
• Shopping online allows users to choose their method of selection. The can shop through online “aisles,” use search boxes to look up categories/brands or use auto-replenishment lists/saved shopping lists.

To find out how your company can obtain free product images from manufacturers such as Unilever, ConAgra and Coca-Cola, visit kwikeesystems.com and start building your database of consumer packaged-goods images and associated data.

MultiAd and the Sports Industry

MultiAd has reach in numerous industries including Consumer Packaged Goods, Franchises, Service and more, but one of our more unique niches includes printing and marketing support for the sports industry.

Years ago, MultiAd got it’s first opportunity at printing for a local University’s athletic program and hasn’t looked back since.

Check out this great article about the MultiAd Sports division and the amazing things they do within this exciting industry.

Link: http://bit.ly/mcAJze

It’s a Summer Celebration

Summer is about relaxing and enjoying the nice weather. It’s not the time to be overly concerned about budgets and deadlines. Well, at least that’s what we’d like to think!

In the spirit of summer celebration, we’ve decided to reduce the prices of all royalty-free artwork on CreativeOutlet.com by 80% for the month of June.

Prices range from $5–$15 depending on whether you’re downloading a low-resolution image, stock photography, vectored artwork or ad templates.

This promotion has us very excited, as we want graphic designers and ad professionals to continue to discover Creative Outlet. It hosts a vast library of quality artwork that is competitive with other providers.

Be sure to check out the site before June is over! Summer doesn’t last long.

http://www.prweb.com//releases/2011/6/prweb8516772.htm

Finding the Perfect Stock Image

Looking for a stock photo or illustration for your ad, marketing piece or website? It’s easy to lose track of time when searching the seemingly endless options. Next thing you know you’ve spent days scouring every stock image site and every possible keyword combination to find the perfect image. If you start your image search with a little planning, it could go much more smoothly. Here are some questions to help you get started.

• How long do you plan to use the image? Is it for a one-time promotion or a newspaper ad that’s running weekly? Obviously the more limited the life, the less it’s worth your search time.
• How much exposure do you expect it to get? A one-time football ad might get more exposure than every issue of your newsletter (depending on your newsletter size of course). Then again if everyone in your town of 800 reads your weekly paper, that’s pretty important exposure even if it’s only 800 people. You have to decide relative to your audience what’s significant.
• What is the role of the image in your marketing message? Grabbing attention is a given, so dig deeper. Do you want to add humor? Help people visualize your key selling point? You get the picture…there’s a lot of variety out there and you need to be looking for the right style.
• What is your brand image? If you have a sophisticated wealthy clientele, cartoon clip art probably won’t help you keep that audience; unless that’s your fun sophisticated niche of course. Even if the image fits this need perfectly, it also needs to fit your overall image.
• What’s your budget? Most sites charge according to a variety of factors, so knowing what you need and how much you can spend means you can skip options that don’t work.
• What media will you use and how big will the image be? This will help you decide if the large 300 dpi photo is worth the extra money. Think long term though. It’s not as cost effective to buy the 72 dpi PNG for your website today and then realize a month later you need high resolution for an upcoming magazine ad.

Based on this information, you can determine how important the “perfect” image is and set a time limit for searching. Save every image with potential in your library so when you hit your time limit you can quickly revisit the images you liked and pick the most effective one.

MultiAd gives back to the local community by donating over 33 tons of food, household items and pet food thus far in 2009.

Since January, MultiAd has donated over 24 tons of food, almost eight tons of household goods (including nine lift chairs) and about two tons of pet food to the local community. This well exceeds the amount donated in 2008, which was approximately 18 tons total.

MultiAd acquires large amounts of food and products through their business relationships with consumer goods companies such as Kraft, Coca-Cola and Unilever. These companies, as well as hundreds of others, send products to MultiAd for high quality photography, data collection and asset management services. Upon completion of the contracted services, MultiAd donates all items to the local community.

Partnering with organizations such as the Heart of Illinois Harvest and the Dream Center Peoria, MultiAd is able to distribute these massive amounts of donations to not-for-profit organizations that rely on such donations to help those in need locally.

“We selected these organizations to work with because of their history with us, and because of their ability to get this food to the people who need it,” says Sandi Baietto, Studio Lead of MultiAd. “It’s a great thing, and I’m so happy we have been able to do this for so many years.”

MultiAd also works with other non-profit organizations to receive and distribute these donations, including, Dress for Success, The Esther House, Peoria Rescue Ministries, Center for Prevention of Abuse, Central Illinois Riding Therapy, Neighborhood House, P.A.W.S. (Peoria Animal Welfare Shelter), and T.A.P.S. (Tazewell Animal Protective Society).

Budget Cut Impacts on Your Marketing Strategy

“Successful companies do not abandon their marketing strategies in a recession; they adapt them.”— John Quelch, Senior Associate Dean and Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School

In an environment where budgets are shrinking and the workforce is spread thin, we are all faced with a challenge on how to increase sales on a dime. Reduced budgets often equate to reduced marketing efforts, and reduced marketing efforts typically result in lost market share.

Losing market share is not an option if a business is to survive a recession. So to combat these concerns, MultiAd has developed new solutions that help organizations in many industries get their marketing message out more frequently, even with minimized spending limitations in place. By integrating MultiAd’s solutions into existing marketing processes, organizations realize a more streamlined and economical way of doing business.

One of MultiAd’s newest product offerings, Creator Select, provides the opportunity to customize marketing collateral instantly. This allows for more fluid marketing without the high costs of recreating materials. This also provides the opportunity to localize documents—clients can change their imagery, pricing or contact information based on the market they are communicating with. Because Creator Select was developed leveraging our 10 years experience in developing custom solutions, it is an affordable tool that can be launched within a few weeks.

Just as important as the collateral created, is printing and distributing that content. With localized materials, mass quantities are not an option and printing small quantities is typically expensive. So often, organizations must print over what’s necessary in order to get that price break.

MultiAd’s expanded digital print solutions make printing reduced quantities affordable. They not only save money, but also help companies working to become more eco-friendly reduce their waste.

Within the publishing industry, many are faced with decreased advertising dollars and fewer subscriptions. Maintaining readership is necessary for acquiring advertising dollars, but again, shrinking expenditures make it difficult to accomplish.

With MultiAd’s new ePublish product, publishers can extend their readership online. ePublish creates an interactive reading experience for subscribers, allowing them to click on ads embedded in the publication, directing them to an advertiser’s website or even to a shopping cart. Furthermore, ePublish provides detailed statistics on reader behavior, which are beneficial not only to the advertisers within the publication, but also to the publisher to tailor future publications based on reader behavior.

Another MultiAd solution, SpeedyAd, provides the opportunity to reach new advertisers within the newspaper industry. It allows for self-service advertising so individuals can quickly create, place and pay for their ad all in one interface. It guarantees payment to the publication and streamlines the process of placing ads.

Between Creator Select, Digital Print, ePublish, SpeedyAd and our other valuable solutions, MultiAd is helping organizations save money while increasing exposure in a challenging economical environment.

Branding Goes Real Time

Instant access has always been one of the most powerful and alluring aspects of the Internet. Some companies have begun to deliver updated information so effectively that it can be deemed “real-time.” An article by Brian Morrissey of Adweek entitled Branding Goes Real Time offers some interesting insights into modern information exchange.

The capacity for constant communication flow has created challenges for advertisers—the key challenge being the need to create messages on the fly and in anticipation of change. Successful advertisers must consider all angles they want to test for their various campaigns during the planning phase. Variations can then be made in “real time” as needed.

Having a variety of easy-to-access templates and ideas can ensure quick responses to market changes or individual consumer preferences. Today, more than ever, a strong brand isn’t just consistent but responsive.

Conversely, customers also expect “real time” outlets to respond to issues. Having the means aids both companies and customers, creating a higher service standard.  Companies are reducing bureaucratic “red tape” and establishing open communication lines such as Twitter and live chats to keep “real time” information flowing from both ends.

Lisa Bradner, a senior analyst at Forrester Research, summarizes: “There’s the opportunity to enhance your brand relevance in real time and respond to problems before they’re intractable.” The power of the brand can be protected and renewed on a constant basis through the use of real time advertising and information flow.

Read the full article here.

Mobile Shopping Poised for Growth

 

-By Mike Shields, Mediaweek

Americans are gradually warming up to the idea of buying things via their mobile phones, particularly young adults and men, found a new study conducted by Harris Interactive for the mobile credit card security firm Billing Revolution.

Harris surveyed 2,029 adults from April 29 to May 1; 1,883 of those surveyed were cell phone owners (93 percent). Close to half (45 percent) said they think that shopping via cell phones is “somewhat safe,” though just over a quarter (26 percent) feel that mobile shopping is completely safe.

Regardless, fewer than half of those surveyed (46 percent) said they would be willing to shop using their cell phones even if safety was not an issue. But attitudes vary based on age and sex, according to Harris. As with many emerging technology-driven habits, younger adults appear more willing to embrace change; 59 percent of the 18-34 crowd feels that mobile shopping is somewhat safe, versus just 34 percent of adults over 55. Also, half of men find the concept of cell phone shopping somewhat safe versus 39 percent of women.

The relative youth, as well as the male-skewing nature of the potential mobile shopping audience seems to influence the sort of purchases respondents indicated they would be willing to make. Harris found that entertainment is likely to emerge as a key mobile commerce category, as willing mobile shoppers said they would be most interested in purchases such as movie tickets, music, mobile video and games.

Officials at Billing Revolution said the survey results indicated that mobile shopping is poised for growth in the near term, as more and more Americans purchase sophisticated smart phones like Apple’s iPhone and spend more time accessing the Internet via these devices. “There’s clearly a large U.S. population of consumers open to the idea of making purchases via their cell phones,” said Andy Kleitsch, CEO Billing Revolution. “With consumers getting more comfortable navigating the Web from mobile phones, mobile commerce is poised for explosive growth, and consumers are very much leading the charge in this direction.”