Have you noticed that more of your mail seems to have elements of personal communication? Sure, it has your address on it, but have you noticed that more of your mail seems to be targeted to you? One way that marketers are creating that more personal and targeted communication is through more use of hybrid printing techniques!

Hybrid? Like a Prius?

In a way, yes! Hybrid is the combination of two or more technologies. As we use the term, it's the combination of an analogue and a digital printing technology. It could be an offset shell imprinted with a Kodak Digimaster , an offset shell imprinted with a Kodak Versamark PROSPER S10 print head, or even a combination of offset printing combined with digital full color to add variable components!

Why is hybrid printing important for printers? Because it can save time, streamline processes, and save money! Printers often think of hybrid printing solutions to add addresses to postcards or self mailers, or to insert a variable like a name or an interest rate. These are great applications, but not the only applications.

In fact, hybrid isn't just for addresses or field replacement - it can be a great solution for jobs that require multiple changes for black text. It can open the option to provide more targeting and personalization in solicitation, customer care and regulatory notice printing.

Wondering if it can work on your glossy paper? Yes, it can! Talk to us about options for adding PROPSER S10 printing to offset print to create high impact, high ROI options to your customer communication! Wondering how it can work for you? Just ask us! We have all types of examples that we would be happy to share!

Have you walked this path? Have a story to share? Drop me a note: pat.mcgrew@kodak.com - we'd love to share your success story!

It's time to dust off the strategy from the beginning of the year, re-evaluate the tactics we applied to challenges that rose up during the year, and lay a course for 2010.

Let's start with the basics. Have you scheduled a review of the 2009 strategy? While many organizations spend hours, days, weeks and months on building strategies, fewer schedule the year end de-briefing before they launch into developing the next edition of the strategy for winning new customers, taking care of existing customers, and growing the business. It's never too late! Take some time this month to take a look at your plans and see how you rate against your expectations. Make a list; check it twice. Rate your successes and your misses.

Now let's move on to a trickier area. How many strategies do you have? Is it a single strategy meant to cover all sides of growing the business, or have you identified different strategies for different products, different types of customers, or different locations. If you have multiple strategies, do you have a strategy for managing all of your strategies!

A few years back Elizabeth Gooding and I did a presentation on the topic and it made us think through the number of strategies that organizations create and manage. For many companies the number of strategies in play during the year evolves from the needs of the different parts of the business, but if no one is charged with managing the coordination of these strategies you can end up with a mess. How is coordinating your strategies?

And then there are your tactics. Seth Godin hit the nail on the head when he noted that tactics that have been successful do not prove that you have defined a successful strategy. Even after two years his blog rings true. Can you identify your tactics for growing your business and map them back to your strategy? How do they look?

At this time of year, as we try to look ahead to the next twelve, twenty four and thirty six month time frames to forecast market trends, customer needs, and required product updates, our hope is that you will develop a corporate strategy that guides you and tactics that will aid you. Don't forget to look for all of strategies in play in your organization and arrange that year end debrief!

Have you walked this path? Have a story to share? Drop me a note: pat.mcgrew@kodak.com - we'd love to share your success story!

The post features content from Thomas Wimmer, Marie-Luce Delaune & Erwin Busselot - EAMER Data-Driven Communication Team, Kodak Business to Business Solutions

The Kodak European customer base are the vanguard of change in the production of customer-facing transaction and direct mail communication. We see our solutions from three perspectives:

• The end customer receiving an invoice
• The enterprise sending out the invoice
• The print service provider or internal print production operation

Our experience across the many European regions shows us that the end customers, those who receive invoices, bills, statements and other regulatory documents in their post box, are taking more care of their money due to the state of the economy. That means that they are reading their invoices more carefully.

These consumers are realizing that many of the documents they receive are hard to read, hard to understand and that there is nothing that links them to the company they do business with. While the logo may be on the top, there is nothing that positions the invoice as part of the relationship between them and the brand. Because these documents are hard to read and understand, the default reaction is to call the help line to understand payment information, understand charges, and resolve confusion.

The lack of connection to the brand and the organization that serves the brand impacts customer loyalty - it causes it to decline. Customers become more willing to listen to offers from other vendors of similar products and services. And that leads us to why the adoption of TransPromo techniques in customer communication forms the perfect platform for re-engaging those customers.

From the perspective of the enterprise there is an understanding that their end customer is much more sensitive to costs and to services. It is becoming harder to keep the existing customer base. That leads savvy marketers in the enterprise to look closely at new ways to increase customer loyalty and to increase revenues to strengthen the market position, even as they are facing marketing budget cuts.

For these enterprises this is the ideal starting point for adding TransPromo techniques. Bills, statements and invoices must be sent to the customer so the costs are already well known. Customers open and read their essential mail. So, to leverage the power of that communication, many companies are shifting some of marketing budget to invoices to cover the additional costs for a more personalized and colorful approach.

The third group who have print volumes are the print service providers. They are thinking of making investments to enable the types of services, including full color digital solutions and TransPromo solutions, that their customers are requesting.

In the German-speaking market in Europe this is gaining momentum. With our customer T-Systems, Kodak will deliver even more of these types of success stories in the near future!

Have a story to share? Drop me a note: pat.mcgrew@kodak.com - we'd love to share your success story!

This post features content from Thomas Wimmer, Marie-Luce Delaune & Erwin Busselot - EAMER Data-Driven Communication Team, Kodak Business to Business Solutions.

There are so many reasons that Kodak digital color printing solutions should be at the top of any shopping list for hardware to enable a TransPromo strategy!

Since drupa 2008, Kodak has been successfully selling the Kodak Versamark VL-Series (drop-on-demand inkjet) solutions across Europe to address full colour Transaction and TransPromo applications. A key to our success is the flexibility of the VL-Series systems; they enable smooth transition from B&W to colour.

The success of the VL-Series also shows that colour productions within the transactional market space are a hot topic. The clients of our print service provider customers are not only evaluating the benefits of colour variable data printing (transaction and direct mail), but also driving these projects. In Europe, with its vast array of cultures and marketing requirements, not to mention different laws to guide marketing operations, the opportunity to tune data-driven customer communication to those cultures is enhanced when we add the power of digital full colour variable data printing.

One thing worth remembering is that Kodak customers have been at the front of the TransPromo application market in Europe. In Spain, Italy, Finland and the UK Kodak customers have been adding targeted marketing messages to their transaction communication. Having made the investments needed to use their data to drive their marketing messages, they have seen significant returns on the investment to support the application. These early adopters are part of the vanguard adopting the next generation of inkjet hardware.

When Kodak introduced the VL to the market, demand for this new level of image quality rose immediately. With resolution at 600 dpi and running at more than 100 meters per minute, speed and quality are no longer an concern. Marketing people are considering digital colour print for transactional documents as an interesting and viable option for customer communications within their marketing mix.

Have a story to share? Drop me a note: pat.mcgrew@kodak.com - we'd love to share your success story!

Run a quick check of the internet using your favorite search or decision engine and you will find that strategies for using data in customer-facing communication are the buzz. The role model success stories for both direct mail marketers and transaction print producers have been rolling out in blogs, articles, and in conference presentations for the past several years. The question: Is data-driven communication integrated into your 2010 customer communication strategy?

Let's start with a definition of data-driven communication. The baseline is the use of data in communication to your customer. In the case of transaction communication the data flows from customer transaction data bases and may be directly placed in the customer document (what you bought and what you paid). It may also be used to trigger formatting changes or the insertion of informational, educational or marketing messages. In direct mail the database provides the address, but in the best of situations is also being used to trigger different offers to different targets.

These are simple definitions, as current practitioners of data-driven communication will tell you. They do, however, lay the baseline. Once we agree about what is included in the definition of data-driven communication, the next step is to understand that it is a multi-channel communication technique. In the best of integrated customer communication strategies, the use of data to tune offers, alter formatting based on the gender or age of the recipient, and track trends is customer interaction is part of the plan.

That brings us to the question: what are you planning for 2010? Have you brainstormed with your Kodak team to see how we can help you communicate more effectively with your customers? We have team members ready to come and talk to you about how adding a data-driven communication strategy can add value to the services you offer (internal or external clients) and maintain your status as a partner to your clients.

If you haven't talked to us recently, come talk to us now!

Have a story to share? Drop me a note: pat.mcgrew@kodak.com - we'd love toshare your success story!