Plan More Effective
Print Marketing for 2010

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So how do you make print a more effective marketing tool? Consider these ideas for creating print marketing materials that are more up-to-date and indispensible:

• Make it collaborative. Print must work along side and in concert with your website and other online marketing tools. Make sure your catalogs drive customers to your website and vice versa. Studies have shown that most consumers research home furnishings purchases online and in magazines before visiting stores and asking for sales assistance. So every place they see your products should present a visually consistent image.
• Make it personal. Personalized direct mail can help drive traffic into your dealers’ stores. Personalized direct mail can also help drive dealer traffic into your showroom at market. Today’s digital presses can even allow you to add a personalized dealer message on the cover of product catalogs.
• Make it green. If you are touting an eco-friendly product line, make sure your marketing materials are equally eco-friendly. Specify an FSC-(Forest Stewardship Council) or SFI-(Sustainable Forestry Initiative) certified paper. Then, make sure you add the on-product label to indicate the paper adheres to the defined certification standards. Also consider using an uncoated paper. Uncoated papers communicate a sense of fiscal and environmental responsibility without sacrificing quality.
• Print with UV offset inks. The UV offset printing process produces clean, rich color with less dot gain than traditional offset inks, making your images come alive, especially on uncoated papers.
• Consider specialty coatings. There are some trendy tactile effects that can give your images extra pop, including spot UV gloss (has the highest gloss of any coating that can be applied to specific details on press), UV reticulation dull varnish (a unique combination of a dull varnish with an overall gloss UV coating that creates a sharp contrast in the finish) and Soft Touch Aqueous coatings (a unique aqueous coating that gives a printed piece a velvet/leathery feel to the touch).

Neil Underdown and Bob Bush examine Hickory Springs' newest product, flexible polyurethane foam (1960).

When interviewed for Hickory Springs’ 60th anniversary oral history, Bob W. Bush Sr., who retired as vice president-sales in 2002 and died in January at age 78, remembered the company’s early efforts to develop a plastic foam that would compete with latex foam, which dominated the market in the 1950s. After much failed experimentation, Hickory Springs began buying urethane foam from companies like General Tire and Sheller Globe around 1957.

As Bush remembered, “DuPont was the big maker of one of the ingredients at that time, so we called for their salesman, who came in and said, ‘Well, y’all aren’t big enough to be in the business.’” The elder Bush said that was like waving a red flag in front of the Hickory Springs team. Shortly thereafter, they began purchasing flexible slabstock polyurethane from an Allied Chemical salesman in Charlotte, who then recommended a chemist from Miami. They hired the chemist, Ken Fontaine, who claimed he could make the foam within 90 days.

“It actually took only 87 days,” Bush recalled, “and he did it under budget. And that put us in the urethane foam business, around May of 1960.” Fontaine made “pretty good foam,” according to Bush, but it took the company several years to figure out how to make a profit on it. Once they figured it out, they quickly became the third largest supplier in the industry.

Hickory Springs now has foam production plants in Arkansas, Georgia, California, Oregon, Mississippi and North Carolina, where it is one of the state’s largest employers. In addition to foam, the company manufactures other component parts for the upholstered furniture, bedding, automotive and packaging industries in a total of 50 plants in 16 states and China.

Weyerhaeuser now offers Northwest Hardwoods’ brand Western Alder in 12-foot lengths. Alder has the visual appeal of cherry, maple and other expensive, fine-grained species. It accepts a wide variety of stains, has excellent machining properties and comes in thicknesses from 4/4 to -12/4. To ensure less waste, Northwest Hardwoods Western Alder is available in many custom grades designed with specific applications in mind, including rustic grades for a knotty/distressed look. It is certified to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) standard, as is Pacific Coast Maple, Western Hemlock and a number of eastern species. Other hardwood lumber species available are hard and soft maple, red and white oak, hickory, ash, walnut, basswood and yellow poplar. Weyerhaeuser Hardwoods also can supply a wide range of hardwood and softwood plywood panels.

Leggett & Platt Launches iPhone™ Application for Power Chairs
Leggett & Platt continues its tradition of providing innovative new products to the marketplace by announcing the release of Omega™ Power Motion, the premier iPhone application for the operation of compatible power recliners, rockers, gliders, and motion furniture. The technology will be officially introduced in April at the High Point Market in High Point, N.C. The application enables consumers to control their Omega Power Motion products with their iPhone and iPod Touch™. The application can be easily downloaded at an Apple® iTunes™ store.

Weyerhaeuser recently established a partnership with Renaissance Specialty Veneer Products (RSVP), Columbus, Ind., to expand the distribution of Lyptus® veneer. Lyptus is produced from rapidly regenerating plantations. The veneer features a fine grain and dramatic figure similar to mahogany. It is finish-friendly, able to take stains evenly and has a broad color range, from light pink to dark earth tones. Lyptus veneer is suited for cabinets, furniture and architectural millwork. Veneers are available as flitches for custom applications and layons for plywood, either plain or quarter sliced, with a limited availability of special flitches, including quartered figured or Pommele.

H. Behlen & Bros., a division of RPM Wood Finishes Group, announces new environmentally-friendly Solar-Lux™ Waterborne Wiping Stains featuring an ultra low VOC solvent system. These water-reducible, pigmented stains add vivid color while accenting the grain pattern to enhance the natural beauty of wood. They are designed for staining cabinets, millwork, furniture, and other fine interior wood surfaces. Solar-Lux™ Waterborne Wiping Stains are available in 12 stock colors and may be mixed together to achieve custom colors. Founded in 1888 by a German-born chemist, H. Behlen & Bros. was first to manufacture finishing products used by European master craftsmen for American woodworkers. Based in Hickory, North Carolina, Behlen offers its top quality finishing products through distributors, see our website for a list of distributors at www.HBehlen.com or call 1-866-785-7781.