What is the right paper for your business stationery?
Selecting the best paper line for your project can increase sales, customer expectation, satisfaction and communicate value. Paper appeals to our human sense of touch enhancing the relationship between what our eyes see and what we feel with our fingertips. When using two human senses together we dial into a deeper emotional connection, which can enhance the perception of your product or business. While paper is such a subtle detail, it can differentiate your product from the masses by introducing textures that are not commonly used by the masses.
There are five aspects to paper to consider eco-friendliness, finish, texture, color, and weight or thickness of the paper. There are many options in paper available that printing shops have access too. They access their papers from a paper distributor and those papers come from the paper mill. Paper Mills are increasingly aware of making papers more accessible for business. In some cases the consumer can purchase paper directly from the mill through their online web stores. Unique papers used to be only available if you bought a huge carton or more. Now you can buy it in sheet sizes that are easy to manage in non-commercial printers in smaller quantity. So if you printer says they can't get a special paper line check online you might be pleasantly surprised that you don't have to sacrifice opportunities to use wonderful choices to capture the attention of your customers or increase their satisfaction. Let's say for example that you sell a high price high value item like sterling silver jewelry that has semi-precious stones in the designs. The jewelry has natural texture and has organic patterns in it. The jewelry is hand-made with no two designs ever exactly the same nor the stones. Could you mimic that same essence of style from your jewelry into the tags that your jewelry is presented on? Yes, you can.  The paper selection is one step toward this goal of being unique to convey value contributing to a custom user experience. This choice in paper while intentional is a decision that also affects the "brand perception" in the mind of your customer. This would be considered a strategic decision.
KEY POINTS: Life is full of choices. How do you choose the right paper for your stationery? - Know whether your item is a high price high value item or a low price high value item
- Use consistency in paper color to compliment or support the logo identity
- Which perceived paper texture (smooth, rough, silky, visual texture) adds value
- Will the paper be readily available for the time period needed
- Will you need matching pre-made envelopes or will you use custom envelopes
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