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Christmas Closing
We will be closed from 18th December 2009 till 4th January 2010 | |
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Each month Alice the office dog brings you a very special offer
20% Discount on stationery printing...
Available on any full colour, litho printed headed paper, business cards or compliment slips, and on quantities from 250 to 2500.
Don't have any artwork? let us do that too and we will give you a 20% discount on that as well.
State code: 20Jan10 when ordering.
Offer opens 11th January 2010, ends 28th February 2010. Discount does not apply where Metal FX or Pantone colours are used. Does not include delivery. Design offer does not include design of logo.
Terms & conditions apply
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Issue 13: December 09 |
Month/Year |
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welcome to the Christmas edition of
hot off the press!
We thought we'd ring the changes this month with a selection of Christmas themed articles: one from me on the significance of christmas colours and one from Trevor, "The Twelve Marketing Days of Christmas" (those of you who follow us on Twitter will have seen we have been eeking them out one a day this month!)
Alice is looking forward to her Christmas hols with her mum and sister, and I am looking to a few weeks with my folks in the sun (not a snowflake in sight!).
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support throughout 2009, and wish you all a very merry Christmas and us all a prosperous new year!
As in previous years we have decided not to send cards,
but have instead made a donation to our favourite charity - St Michael's Hospice in Basingstoke.
Very best wishes 
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The colours of Christmas
This month, as t'is the season, I thought I would take a little look at the colours of Christmas and a bit of their history and significance.
The most traditional colours of this time of year are of course red and green, but why should this be so? The most obvious answer to this is that they are the colours of the holly and the ivy, but how did two plants become so important as part of our celebrations?
It started with our pagan ancestors, who lived (and died) by the seasons. To them the depth of winter was a time of deprivation, a time to be survived, and so the coming of spring was of the utmost importance. As an attempt to ensure the sun with its life giving properties returned each year, they held midwinter festivals. Once the shortest day had passed, they knew that from then on the days would become longer, and so they celebrated, using as the centrepiece of their festivities the things that still showed life in the depths of winter - the evergreens - holly with its shiny red berries and the ivy (and of course the mistletoe!). As Christianity took hold, these pagan symbols became a part of the Christmas celebrations, with the green symbolising eternal life and the red representing the blood shed by Christ.
So what about the most obvious symbol of Christmas? Santa Claus with his red suit and white beard? Almost every nation across the world has their own story about who he is and his history, many of them emanating from the death and rebirth ideas of the earliest midwinter festivals, but a few of these have merged to become the jolly figure we know as Father Christmas. He first appeared in his modern form, a big jolly fellow with a white beard in 1882 in the famous poem, "Twas the Night Before Christmas" by Clement C Moore. However even in this he is described as wearing furs from top to toe, and not in the red we recognise now. In fact in many representations he was most often shown in green (another throwback to the green man of pagan times), but not exclusively, as you can see from the images shown below.
The poem was relatively unknown until the famous cartoonist, Thomas Nash created a spread for Harper's Weekly based on the description of Santa in the poem (you can see it here). This helped popularise the image, but Father Christmas wasn't truly as we know him today until Coca Cola used him wearing a red coat in an advertising campaign during the 1930's (this may be a myth though so please don't shoot me - it's all a bit of fun!)
Obviously these days Christmas decorations come in all the colours of the rainbow (even black christmas trees - yuk!) but at least when you're trying to decide on a colour theme for this year, you'll know what's behind the good old fashioned ones. To me though, a bit of holly and ivy gives a bit more meaning to the time of year than pink tinsel.
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The twelve marketing  days of Christmas
Entering into the spirit of the season we would like to offer you our equivalent of that well known carol - without the leaping lords!
On the 1st Day of Christmas. Make sure you have a plan for 2010. It doesn't have to be a 100 page marketing plan but you do need to have your objectives and priorities sorted out, along with a budget. Be realistic in what you want to achieve. And when it comes to deciding how much you should spend, be aware that this is a perennial question for marketeers with the only agreement being that that there is no right answer. Our view is that it is down to getting the right balance for you between realism and ambition.
On the 2nd Day of Christmas. Listen to your customers.
Not only listen but actively ask them what they want, what issues they have in their business and what they think of you. It might be potentially painful, but better you find out and take action then let them tell your competitor or worse other potential clients.
On the 3rd Day of Christmas. If you do not already use email marketing start. However, make sure you do it well otherwise your carefully constructed email will just be content in a spam bin. The best way to gather email addresses from people you have not yet spoken with is via your website or blog! You need to make it as easy as possible for people to give you their email details, (have a "sign up here" box for your newsletter. Better still, offer something in return for giving you their email). Remember though it is all about permission so make sure you have it and make it easy for them to take it away (most people do not unsubscribe but want to know they can).
On the 4th Day of Christmas. Take a long hard look at your website. Does it reflect your brand message? You say you are a "market leader" but your site says home-made. Is it easy to navigate? There's nothing more frustrating than not being able to easily find what you're looking for. Is it being seen by search engines? Your Flash based website may look fantastic but it might be completely invisible where Google is concerned. Is it up to date? "Latest News" items that say "come see us at expo 2005" might give the impression you're no longer around.
On the 5th Day of Christmas. Do some competitor research. It's impossible to succeed in today's market unless you know what your competitors are doing. You need to know what offers, guarantees, prices or fees you are selling against, in order to make YOUR offering the most attractive to potential clients.
On the 6th Day of Christmas. Be consistent in how you present your brand. You've spent a fortune on a brochure but your letter headed paper is printed in the office on 80gsm paper. You say 'we care about what customers say' and then you give them an expensive 0870 number to report a fault. You claim to be a "green company" but post out tons of leaflets when you could email. The list could go on.
read the next 6 days... |
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See you all in the New year!
Sam & the Team
Hot Sand Design! | |
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