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The Central Valley Office Supply Company was looking through their product line when they noticed something worrisome: their calendar sales had fallen off. This was unexpected. They had always had a strong calendar line, and there were some customers who had a standing order every year for the new calendar. Nevertheless, there it was: down fifty percent over the last three years. Their problem was that they didn't even know who they were losing all this business to. They hadn't heard of any unusual trends or fads in calendars. To them, it was pretty much a plain vanilla, rather unexciting part of the office supply business. Still, it was good revenue and it was profitable business, and so they wanted to do something about it. They decided to call in the one person who had always been helpful in situations like this: their salesman at the full service printing company which had always printed their calendars. An appointment was made and they met. The salesman explained to them that there was no real mystery to the situation. It was just that people had come to expect more choices in almost everything they bought. The internet had a lot to do with this: the bombardment of information from every side caused people to see so many options and choices that they had not considered before, and so they just expected options in everything. The objective the office supply company should aim for would be to begin to think creatively and to start coming up with options and give people choices. For calendars, this meant choices in the basic design of the calendar itself as well as how it was themed or styled. The traditional twelve page flip and tear calendar was not the only choice anymore. There were calendars which consisted of one long page with all twelve months on them. There were calendars which showed three months at a time, for the bigger picture. As far as themes, anything was a possibility. In this day and age, with the advent of digital printing technology, it really made sense to send people to a site where they could design their own calendars. They could pick the calendar layout they wanted and then pick the color scheme. A calendar could be totally personalized, with the individual putting digitized photos of herself and family on the pages of the calendar, along with photos of family scenes, their daily life, and anything else that came to mind. The salesman suggested that they abandon the past and sail into the new age. If they did so, they would find their profits returning almost overnight. The author, who is associated with Conquest Graphics, is a nationally recognized experton all aspects of printing, print marketing, the internet and social media. Contact Conquest Graphics for a discussion about what kind of calendar styles are available for your marketing program.
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