How to elevate your brand through print
As the world increasingly heads towards complete digitisation it can be an easy mistake to think that print is now irrelevant. The phrase ‘print is dead’ is often uttered by those who feel they are at the cutting edge of tech, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. Similar to clothing trends, everything comes back around and as people grow weary of AI generated digital content, now is a perfect time to rally against that and promote your brand with hand crafted physical media.
First impressions count
In the AI dominated age we now live in, people have a new found appreciation for time and effort. Low effort digital content is often referred to as ‘AI slop’ and brands that use it are often labelled similarly as low effort. What might be saving you some time now to generate yourself, could be costing you a lot down the line, both in revenue and brand reputation.
Print can work in a similar way. Picking cheap paper (stock) and a rushed AI generated design littered with errors says so much about your business, and often ends up straight in the bin, along with your first impression on that potential client or consumer. That’s why it’s so important to get it right and make the best first-time impression, because you often don’t get a chance to make another.
People value quality
A great example of the impact that print can have on people is the design of Apple’s iPhone boxes. It’s a running joke that iPhone users often keep the boxes for their phones for no real reason, this isn’t by accident. Apple has designed them in such a way that people value what should be a throwaway item. From the way that perfectly fitted lid glides off, to the spot UV highlights on the box, all of it creates a feeling of luxury and purpose and that makes people want to hang on to them. Think how many iPhone boxes you have at home that you can’t quite bring yourself to throw away. Apple has built a brand around that feeling of quality. If the phone came in a cheap plastic box it would almost certainly be thrown away once opened.
A feeling of luxury
We can add this same level of value to your print marketing to achieve similar effects. How many times have you been handed a cheap, flimsy business card and immediately dismissed the services on offer. All it takes is picking a thicker stock, maybe using an uncoated or textured paper. You could pick a non-standard sizing which helps keep things memorable, maybe a square or vertical format? You could even go for a bespoke shape to really shake things up. Add a gloss, matte or soft-touch lamination to
This principle can be applied to many different products. At your next event maybe you don’t take that same old A4 brochure. Try resizing it to a more convenient square, or B size that attendees can fit more easily into their bags. Add some Spot UV if using high quality images on the cover, or maybe some foiling if the aesthetic requires a more typographic design to make it stand out.
Small changes can lead to a large impact on consumers, suddenly your company feels valuable and aspirational.
People get used to seeing the same thing. A great example of this is flyers and leaflets. Instead of the industry standard A5, maybe try a folded flyer that requires some engagement from the viewer. The change in format can also help with creativity, it gives you more opportunities to do something different and memorable.
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