Here are the headlining results....

 2/3    Almost two-thirds of buyers and marketers surveyed say electronic media is greener than print

79.7%  More than three-quarters of respondents believe that print marcomms is as effective or more effective than email

53%  More than half of respondents say that print offers best ROI

75% Three-quarters of those buyers who do not currently use cross-media, plan to

91% The vast majority of respondents recognise the value of cross-media marketing campaigns

Read the article below....

Why print needs to be less modest and more mouthy

By Jon Severs Wednesday, 07 December 2011

For such a boisterously noisy industry in terms of processes, it's frustrating that, when it comes to self-promotion, print tends to lapse into a rather unhelpful bout of modesty. Admirable as this is as a personality trait, it does little to help print assert itself in an increasingly digital world. It also means untruths are allowed to take root in the minds of print's customer base.

Take the environment as a prime example. Despite another year of pushing the boundaries to achieve some incredible environmental performance statistics, the print buyer and marketer respondents to our survey question on whether print or electronic media was greener still favour the latter, albeit in a slightly smaller percentage of 65.2% as opposed to 68.6% last year. That is still a hefty proportion considering print’s environmental story is one of the most admirable in the manufacturing sector, while electronic media has done nothing to answer questions about its own carbon footprint.

This discrepancy is partly down to a lack of environmental concern from buyers and marketers; while 65.9% of respondents consider the environment in print purchasing decisions, 60.9% of respondents do not consider the environmental impact of electronic media when purchasing. And efforts to turn this around by the likes of Two Sides and Print Power are seemingly not having as much impact as hoped, with a fall in the number of respondents recognising the former’s work, compared with last year, and just 17.9% recognising the latter.

Thankfully, the cross-media message seems to be getting through. More buyers this year than last see print and electronic media as complementary rather than rival media. Likewise, while last year just 23% of respondents were planning on upping their print spend in the next five years, this year the figure is 26%.

There is comparatively good news when you look at the proportion of marketing budgets spent on print, too. While print has admittedly dropped by a percentage point from last year to 52% of budgets, the internet has dropped 3% to 25%, radio from 3% to 1% and TV from 6% to 4%. The winners are of course social media and event marketing, but it is print that seems to have lost least.

And it seems print gives you more bang for your buck too. A healthy 52.9% say print is the most cost-effective marketing medium, while the internet and email poll just 16.4% and 17.1% respectively. More surprising, perhaps, considering the low cost, is the performance of social media campaigns: just 4.3% of respondents say social media is the most effective ROI medium.

To see the results of PrintWeek's survey, click here

You can read the article online at Print Week - The Power of Print - 'Why Print needs to be less modest and more mouthy'

The hidden pitfalls of creating your brand

You have decided that you are going to start your own business, or even rebrand, so now you have decisions to make. What name are you going to use? What colour? Modern look or classic? How can your ethos and vision can be embodied? (sound of record player scratching to a halt)

Sorry to burst your bubble but there are some majorly important points to think of before getting to the fluffy stuff that costs you good money - what about the things that could seriously cost you money and possibly your brand and business?

When setting up your business it is very important that you do a lot of research regarding existing companies, brands, traders and trademarks. Intellectual property and passing off is a very dangerous area to stumble into by mistake. There are no prisoners as it matters not where you are based geographically, what size your business is or its future potential, what you do or don't sell, if someone thinks you are trying to pass off or profit from their brand success you may have a serious fight on your hands. This is even more important now that many new businesses are internet based and service the UK.

So what should you check out before deciding on your business name?

Companies House

The link here takes you straight to the WebCheck service where you can enter your chosen name and see who else has a business registered with the same or similar. If you have any questions about the availability of dissolved name or how similar you can be, just call through to them and they will help you out.

http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/84b32cd37c7ad46a65c9d5c3191aa8cc/wcframe?name=accessCompanyInfo

Domain registrars

Use someone like 123reg to find out who owns domain names similar to your choice, again this can give you the heads up on whose toes you might step on.

Intellectual Property Office

The link will take you straight the relevant page where you can type in the name of your business or products and find out who has any claim on that mark or mark text. A mark may exist even where no obvious company does because companies will trademark products unrelated to their company name. If you have any questions, again call the IPO and someone will answer your questions.

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tm/t-find/t-find-text/

Google

You don't need me to give you the address so go right ahead and do a thorough search on Google for any business with your name or similar or any similar products or services.

Remember - It is not so important to get a suite of domain name, limited company name etc because you can trade as 'a name' in order to match them. Also consider using a descriptive domain name rather than your company name which can often be more successful.

Why have I taken this opportunity to share this with you?

Just before Christmas I was expecting to receive a certificate from the IPO (above) for my very own trademarked logo of 'Fidelity'. Were now past January and things have got very stressful following an opposition to our mark submission. I rebranded my company in June 2009 when I joined my print business and agency together. I did lots of research to find out what URL's were available, limited company names to change to, existing businesses and trademarks. In 2010 I proceeded with trade marking via a Trademark Attorney, who happens to be a client, and did so thinking that as no other Fidelity existed within the area of business I am in. Unfortunately, and probably not for me in the long run, I fell foul of a very large corporate who considered that they owned the word Fidelity. This company opposed my mark and took more of my money getting it sorted out. Although we do not cross in services, them being finance, they still tried to have my variation stopped because we had one 'class' in common although not the same services within that class. Still they persevered. I am currently waiting to see if removing the 'class' in common gets us through. I will update this article when I know the outcome.

With the best will in the world and plenty of research you can still get caught out, so don't ignore it even if you do intend to stay under the radar. If you envisage growing into a big brand please give this advice some serious thought.

At long last!

We finally received our trademark in December 2011. It has cost us a lot more than anticipated due to the unnecessary opposition which, to my mind, could have been avoided if we had used a more suitable company with which to go through the system. No previous searches were carried out to check if we would clash. In hindsight I would have used an online trademarking service because they won't even process your application if they do not think they can get it through - an early warning that all may not be well. This conclusion is arrived at due to them carrying out a search!