The Bindery - From Print to the Doorstep (1,069 words)

Take a look inside the bindery to understand what really goes on

By Tom Benedict

The success of a consumer or business-to-business catalog is greatly enhanced through the ability to develop strategies that target specific customers.

At the core of these strategies is the mailing list. A tremendous amount of research and cost comes into play in determining which customers should receive what offer and how to direct that customer to a specific merchandise offering.

Once the appropriate list analysis has been completed and the list contains vital marketing data designed to reach these customers, the printing, binding and mailing of this targeted catalog become the responsibility of the printer.

Having a thorough understanding of your printer's capabilities and depth of capacity is necessary to the process of personalizing catalogs.

The production process of personalization primarily revolves around the use of both print and bindery technology. At press, various signatures may be printed which may each contain multiple offers. For example, two different versions of the same 16-page form may be produced.

The same is true of covers. Many direct marketers will version the cover to reflect multiple offerings or additional mail drops. A typical offer may be for free shipping sent to repeat buyers only.

The printed material alone, however, does not complete the personalization process. At this point, the attention is focused on the capabilities of the bindery. The bindery offers an array of personalization capabilities to produce individual catalogs.

Demographic Binding Capabilities

Demographic binding uses bindery technology to develop specific offers, and use different signatures, order forms, bind-in cards and dot whacks when mailing to selected market segments, while maximizing postal discounts.

The process works like this. The bindery has a number of pockets that hold the printed material. Each pocket that contains printed material to be selectively bound is programmed so that when the list information is fed into the bindery, it will know whether to include the offer or not.

For example, we just mentioned the use of versioned covers for multiple offerings. If we were to demographically bind this catalog, one pocket would contain the cover with the discount, while another pocket would contain the cover without the offer. Using demographic bindery technology, a repeat customer's catalog would be bound with the free shipping offer and a prospective customer's catalog would be bound without the offer.

All this happens as the catalogs travel through the bindery sequentially. The same process could also be extended to include the order form, or any of the printed items mentioned.

The advantages of demographic binding technology are especially important to direct marketers who wish to increase their segmentation offerings. Some of the most important reasons for using demographic binding include the following:

• It allows for targeted offerings to specific list segments;

• The mail sorting level is not compromised while targeting offers;

• Multiple titles can be co-mailed together to increase mail penetration; and

• It allows for segmentation testing before major rollouts.

Inkjet Imaging Technology

Inkjet imaging is the process of applying individual droplets of ink through an imaging device onto the catalog while it is traveling through the bindery, to create mail labels, messages or images.

The inkjet equipment is located at the bindery. Depending on the equipment's sophistication, there may be up to four inkjet stations, or places where the inkjet is applied.

The two primary inkjet systems used in the bindery are Video Jet 9416 and SR 50 Array Imaging. In general, these systems produce 100 x 100-pixel resolution. While both are widely used, it is the SR 50 Array Imaging that provides graphic capabilities for logos, maps and illustrations.

Utilizing binding equipment with two stations for inkjet applications allows direct marketers to address the catalog on the back cover and inside order form. It also will apply a message as long as it has been programmed within the list information. While there are limitations to the extent of messaging, such as length or font sizes, two-station inkjet is the most widely utilized today.

For expanded personalization capabilities, three-station inkjet application permits personalization to the front cover, with vertical and horizontal design options for type and graphics.

Some recent examples of direct marketers using three-station inkjet include a catalog's front cover displaying a bottle of wine with a label that contained a personalized message. Another displayed the customer's name on a scoreboard to advertise its product, a personalized arena scoreboard.

Enhancements to Personalization

Wide-area inkjet imaging, the next generation of personalization technology, allows direct marketers to apply up to 81⁄2˝-wide, full-page, front and back inkjetting messages, where previously messages were restricted to a 2˝ or 4˝ message area.

The system uses two 4 1⁄4˝ inkjet heads that can be used individually or in tandem to image. Both text and images can be printed right side up, upside down and at an angle. The selection of fonts is virtually unlimited.

Perhaps the most exciting feature of wide-area inkjet is that it delivers 240x240 dots-per-inch (DPI), letter-quality resolution for clear, sharp imaging. That is an improvement of 140 percent over traditional inkjet technology, and allows direct marketers to choose from black, green, red and blue water-based inks.

Potential uses of wide-area inkjet are generating retail store maps, logos, coupons, color starbursts and highlighted product offerings. Additionally, the system lowers distribution costs by utilizing the database to create demographically personalized catalogs, which were mentioned earlier.

Benefits of wide-area inkjet technology include:

• Enhancing direct marketers' print collateral with high-resolution inkjet text and images;

• Increasing response rates with personalized messages in a wide range of fonts and pictures;

• Ensuring postal discounts with sharp, accurate inkjet bar codes;

• Lowering print costs with inkjet versioning; and

• Targeting individuals and groups with special offers, product and promotions.

Better Response

Though at the moment the number of machines capable of advanced personalization is limited, the advances of wide-area inkjet as well as digital print will continue to enhance personalization.

The use of personalization technology creates effective and profitable returns for direct marketers. Several studies have suggested that response rates are greatly improved through personalization.

Direct marketers who have a solid understanding of the use of personalization as it relates to production capabilities will be better able to maximize marketing opportunities.

Tom Benedict is vice president of sales, Western region at Banta Catalog Group, a division of Banta Corp. He can be reached by e-mail at tbenedict@banta.com.