I attended a Meet & Greet event this past week sponsored by the DFW American Marketing Association, and its location was at one of our members Blanks Printing & Imaging. Now we have all been to many an open house and this one was as good as any I’ve seen – but it was the audience which was key.
Marketing professionals are a different breed of cat from your typical print buyer – as many in our industry have discovered over the years. They play in the world of brands and market strategy. Which printer will be used or what type of paper is best for a project is not in their wheel house. Thus, why did Blanks spend all the time and money to host this party?
I think I saw the reason while participating in a plant tour. There were about eight of us and most of them had never been in a printing company – or it had been years. Our tour guide was extremely well prepared (yes, I’m a bit biased since it was Jan Thornton, long-time friend and past co-worker), but as we walked through the plant they were able to see the power of print. Point-of-purchase pieces; short-run collateral; wide-format projects; and in Blank’s sample room a variety of unique pieces including lenticular. It wasn’t newspapers and magazines which everyone links with printers. That was the eye opener for these folks. From Blanks perspective, they hope it will translate into additional clients, but what I saw were individuals who will see print through a different perspective and begin to realize that print has a substantial role in marketing and communication. Which is great for all of us!
Job well done, and my hat is off to the folks at Blanks and their marketing director Tom Dennis for their vision.
