Source: Direct Marketing Association, 2012 Statistical Fact Book.

Flurry Analytics delivers powerful insight into how consumers interact with your mobile applications in real-time. Flurry believes in leveraging its data set for the benefit of the mobile application community. If you make an app, and you use Flurry Analytics, you are already harnessing the power of our aggregated data-set. Here are some examples of how the power of the data set works for you:

App Usage Benchmarks

See how your app usage performance compares to your category and the market. We expose averages that allow you to benchmark how often and how long consumers use your application, as well as how well your app retains your audience over time.

Consumer Category Interests

Similar to understanding what types of magazines or TV shows your app users enjoy, we reveal your app audience’s affinity to other app categories. This feature provides insights into interests of your users for segmentation, marketing campaigns and more.

Demographic Estimations

Understanding the composition of your audience by age and gender allows you to package your app audience to advertisers. In turn, you can then plan marketing programs that target specific demos that show interest in your app.

Targeting & Recommendation Engines

Bring Back your Best Users

Powering AppCircle, our CPI app cross-selling network, is an intelligent recommendation and targeting engine that takes into account combinations of applications used most often, category affinities and more. This feature helps drive the most efficient, ROI-focused acquisition in the market.

Until now, your main option was to buy large, untargeted ad campaigns which you hoped might rank your app in the App Store. But more than two-thirds of newly acquired users disappear within two months. What if there was a way to bring back your best users? Now there is, with AppCircle Re-Engagement.

Start with Flurry Analytics, which is completely free. Identify your most valuable users, any way you want to measure them – spenders, your key demo, heavy users – you name it. Then, with its reach across tens of millions of unique devices per day, Flurry finds these users across other apps and brings them back to your app.

AppCircle Re-Engagement empowers you to focus on building relationships with the consumers that matter most to your app business. Stop spending on one-night stands, and start asking the right consumers on second dates.

Let Arandell Create Your Apps on the iPad

The iPad is the newest marketing venue available to market to your customers. With so many channels already on your radar, though, how can you devote the necessary time to developing and marketing your app(s)? With the ever-increasing usage of iPad technology, it is crucial that your business employ an app to further engage your customers and Arandell is here to help you do just that. We’ll work with you to repurpose your digital assets to create an app that will expand your brand’s exposure and increase conversion rates.

Benefits of Developing an iPad App

• Access to extensive product information
• Ability to link multiple channels – mobile, social, print, email, web and retail
• High resolution display of your products
• Portable – your brand goes wherever the iPad goes
• Multimedia – incorporates both sight and touch
• Serves as another extension of your printed catalog
• Green via digital distribution
• Content changes can be made in the app store, keeping your information current

Core Features of Arandell iPad Apps

• Single-page or two-page spread view via iPad rotation
• Pinch Zoom Thumbnails of individual pages for quick reference
• Hot link products to your website, detailed product info, ratings & reviews, etc.
• Link to any URL, i.e. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, website landing pages, etc.
• Shopping Cart/Check-out bookmarks
• Sharing via social media, email
• Email registration

So why wait? Your customers are on the iPad, so you should be too! Some statistics have shown that conversion rates are five times greater through the iPad than through other traditional marketing channels. Make your channels work together. The iPad version of your catalog can be built differently than your printed catalog, so that the iPad user is enticed to subscribe to your print catalog for additional information…or is driven to your website to read more detailed product descriptions…or is even prompted to come to your store to see a product in person. If leveraged correctly, all of these channels can work together to grow your bottom line.

Surveying 400 U.S. adults online panel participants, they found:

Of those who receive direct mail from businesses:

When it comes to making purchases:

Contact Arandell today to see how we can assist with your direct mailing efforts.

Print and on-line marketing efforts go hand in hand with each other to reach potential customers through a wide variety of channels.

Print marketing offers capabilities that on-line marketing can not. Print will always be tangible, touchable and portable.

Print and on-line marketing efforts should never be in competition with each another.

Stay connected with your customers and hit it out of the park with Arandell’s multi-channel solutions.

Whatever you need to succeed, we can tailor the playing field to fit you and your business like a glove.

• Circulation Planning and Management
• Mailing Strategies
• Paper Management
• Digital Catalog’s / Interactive PDF’s / iPad App’s
• Mobile Marketing

Approximately 1,800 consumers in Germany and the United States participated in the study, which employed marketing mailings form a fictitious travel agency. The direct mailings tested: standard envelope, printed envelope, self-mailer, wrapper, and email. Using these various marketing vehicles, the effectiveness of a personalized vacation offer was tested amongst two groups of recipients—interested and not interested.

The results confirm the unique advertising effects of the envelope — that an envelope reinforces marketing efforts and messaging, that personalization is an effective technique to get the envelope opened, and that consumers value physical mail, even in this digital era.
Select findings:

• Printed envelopes — manufactured custom to marketers’ specifications — were opened and their contents read by 84.5% of recipients, making them the most opened advertising tested. Standard envelopes were opened and read by 75.6% of respondents, self-mailers 71.4%, and wrappers read and opened by 71.2%. Email had an 80% open rate, making it second to the physical envelope in open rate.
• The Nielsen study demonstrates that “a high-value direct mailing in a creatively designed and printed envelope alone is still not enough to guarantee the success of a direct marketing campaign.” Personalization of the envelope proved key:Recipients who received non-personalized marketing mailings were three times more likely to throw the mail in the trash or delete it, compared to recipients who received an individualized mailing. In addition, individually tailored messages played a key role in the consumer purchase decision funnel — 44% of interested recipients of an individualized direct mailing said they would investigate the travel offer further online, compared to the 36.6% of recipients of non-individualized mailings.
• Recommendations have proven to be the most important factors of influence when making a purchase decision. According to the survey, in general, marketing messages mailed via a personalized printed envelope are more apt to be passed along to friends and family — in fact, twice as often as emails (14.2% v. 7.8%). The testing of the fictitious travel offer proved this true: 13.1% of the interested recipients said that they would pass on content they read in the individualized offers to friends and family —while just 9.1% who received generic offerings said they would do the same.
• Interestingly, older respondents (55–65 years) valued an email advertisement more than the younger target group (16–34 years). Nielsen states that 63.2% of 16–34 year olds see emails “disappearing in the flood of advertisements they receive,” and thus the individually addressed printed envelope is valued very highly by the younger target group. Younger target groups want the best of both worlds: a real envelope and the flexibility of individualized emails.

Our Green Tier Committee was very proud of the successes we had in 2011. Green Tier as a process has evolved into a culture that asks “why?” Our associates are constantly looking for ways to reduce our waste streams. This reduction is beneficial to the environment and good for business.

Environmental sustainability has become an excuse to look outside the box. The word “can’t”, no longer stops people from trying new methods to reduce a waste; “can’t” is replaced with “why not”.

Our successes this year has come from people studying a process until a valid change can be found. These changes may not come over night but they happen because our staff is engaged in the process. Green Tier is more than just an environmental process to fulfill a WDNR requirement. It is the tool that focuses people to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Waste reduction ideas have not only come just from the company’s environmental aspects, but from an employee culture change. Who would have thought a safety concern would not only lead to a waste reduction method but also create a job that can support an alternative position for associates. People get excited about looking for ways they can turn events into Green Tier projects.

Economic Trends

The most common trend in the industry is fierce pricing pressures that demand doing more with less.

• Finding resin based wrapping material that is thinner and stronger
• Working with suppliers to reduce VOC’s without increasing another waste
• Making sure certain high energy processes are done after peak hours of the day are areas of constant study

All these aspects create a need for Green Tier. As raw material costs continue to grow, our market prices take the opposite path. This unfortunate trend aspires our team to continuously look for ways to maximize efficiency and reduce costs.

Another fast growing trend in printing continues to be from those in the electronic media. Many outside the printing industry still argue printing is a major contributor to carbon pollution and that the digital revolution is the more environmentally responsible media. Nothing is further from the truth. Printing is and will remain one of the “greenest” forms of communication. Printed paper is made from a renewable resource (trees can be planted in places where they were harvested and places where they don’t currently grow). As much as we love our electronic devices, electronic devices are expensive to recycle and recover, and many components have a toxic nature whereas print grows trees. No medium is “greener” than printing. (Print Grows Trees) The bulk of materials used in the printing process have a petroleum aspect that makes recycling very appealing and renewable.

Waste Reduction

2011 had several projects that came to very positive conclusions. Our culture has changed to the point that people are not satisfied with the answer “because”. They want to push until they hear “can do”.

Three of these projects focused on solid waste recycling:

• Core & blanket plugs – These plastic devices are used to keep core tubes from crushing during transportation. This product was rejected as a non-recyclable plastic for years. Each year we review all of the environmental aspects in all departments. Every year this aspect would be listed. Had it not been for our press supervisors that pushed the issue, someone who asked the question of why we don’t we recycle these plugs, we would not have learned that they are now able to be recycled. Over the past year we have recycled over 600 pounds of cores.
• Metal and plastic strapping – These plastic and metal bands are used in all aspects of the printing process. The web room will use them to secure the product while it waits to be bound. The bindery receives much of customer supplied product strapped and must dispose of it quickly. This product cannot be bailed, so recycling was next to impossible for our plant. The loose banding does not compact so storage consumes a lot of floor space. This space issue led to the strapping ending in the trash. This caused a twofold problem, not only was the banding going to the landfill, but because it does not compact well it was costly to dispose of
• The right questions did not get asked until this item became a safety topic. These straps, if not immediately picked up and disposed of, are a slip/fall hazard. Our bindery workers asked at an injury review why this product cannot be recycled and removed from our bindery in a more efficient and environmentally friendly fashion. They felt it was a safety issue and the disposal into a landfill was not true to our environmental mission. The solution came when we made this a green tier project to find a solution. Searching the web for ideas, a team member found a device that could chip metal and plastic strap. This was a great discovery because we now have the ability to recycle 100% of our banding waste and the work can be performed by a temporarily restricted-duty employee. This project was a win-win for safety, production and the environment. As a result our team was able to recycle approximately eight tons in 2011.
• Copy machine toner cartridges – The office copier used print cartages that could not be recycled. This past year the contract expired for these machines. One of the goals after the contract expired was to find a supplier that had a machine that had cartridges that could be recycled. This past year we were successful in finding a copier platform that had a cartridge that could be recycled. Another waste stream eliminated.

Future 2012

Arandell is studying how our current processes can be made more energy efficient. We have production processes that, through certain modifications, can greatly reduce the electrical demands of the company. We are reviewing if motors in certain applications can be staggered or on by demand. We are also reviewing how job functions on high load equipment can be can be run on off peak time of day. These changes and others should make 2012 a very remarkable year.

The remaining projects also focused on KW reduction. One of these projects from 2011 should complete in 2012. We are engineering a method of reducing the energy used during our production process.

Our objective is to eliminate one 400hp mechanical chiller. Our production chilling has three major chilling rooms that use mechanical chillers to cool water for the printing process. One of our technicians on the team studied the water flow between the three systems. He came to the conclusion that some valve and pipe modifications would allow the entire system to be sustained with only two chill stations much of the year. Our mechanical contractor agreed, so a formal engineering study is being completed to quantify the true savings potential.

Total Recycled Products

This past year we have placed a focus on some of the small waste streams that find their way into the landfills. Total recycled waste was 34 million pounds.

Arandell also continues its commitment to properly manage forests through the Forest Management Certification Program.

Our Green Tier Committee was successful in finding environmental aspects and figuring out a way to lessen their impact on our internal and external environment.  The year 2010 was everywhere as challenging as 2008 and 2009.  Our markets have not changed.  If anything, they have become more competitive.  This makes the work of the Green Tier/EMS Committee all the more important.  The process that the committee goes through is to look at our environmental aspects and challenge ourselves with finding a way to reduce the waste.  All of the projects may not lead to large bottom line savings, but all contribute to reducing our environmental impact.  This becomes more important due to our customers demanding that we meet their green initiatives.

Our committee reviewed six projects this past year.  The projects were derived from our yearly audit of our environmental aspect report.  This audit reviews human health effects, effects on wildlife (air-water-land) and worker safety.  These aspects are scored on a scale of one to four (four being the high).

Five of the six projects came to a positive conclusion.  The following projects were executed in 2010.

New vending – saving in power and solid waste.

• New plate technology that will reduce chemical usage in pre-press.
• York chiller Winter/Spring start-up and Spring air-conditioning preventative maintenance.
• RTU Spring air-conditioning preventative maintenance in 2010.
• Repair broken pallets.
• Using plastic air pillows to replace corrugated.

An Environmental Aspect that the Team has tried to deal with over the years is consumer waste.  A potential solution was presented by our vending company.  They have new machines that can dispense beverages with or without automatically dispensing paper cups.  This new system will save over seventeen thousand discarded paper cups.  The machines also use LED lighting that will save approximately $1,200.00 in the course of a year versus the old units.  Employees using their own cups are also rewarded with less expensive coffee for going paperless. This process was a true win-win.

The next target was to remove the chemistry from the process of developing our digital plates.  This process will reduce the usage of chemicals and remove two 480 volt ovens from the production line, a
potential yearly savings of $10,000.  This project needed to be tabled until a new plate is available from the supplier in late 2011.  An update on this project will be in the 2012 report.

The third and fourth projects were our York chiller Spring preventative maintenance projects.  Both projects were completed with the help of Focus on Energy.  This helps to make sure the chillers are able to run at peak efficiency.  This rebate program allows the company to do additional cleanings that would otherwise not be done on a yearly basis.

The Team explored the issue of broken pallets for the next project.  They investigated the option of repairing the pallets in-house versus sending them for scrap. The serious environmental aspect, worker safety, was the catalyst for this project.  The company has always staged broken pallets in several areas of the plant.  These broken pallets were a safety hazard that needed to be addressed.  The Team reviewed what could be done to repair the pallets at Arandell.  The initial study showed that not only could we resolve a safety hazard, but could realize a substantial savings by doing the repairs on-sight versus buying a new pallet.  A savings was realized, after all labor and materials were subtracted out, showing a gain of over $200,000.

The handling of broken pallets made workers very susceptible to slivers and lacerations from broken board and rails.  These broken pallets had staging areas where they were then shipped back to the supplier – a process that is now eliminated.

Our last project was developing a way to reduce the amount of cardboard (8”x10½”x1/8” thick) packaging from our shipping process.  Boxes of catalogs that are shipped have cardboard slip sheets to keep the contents from shifting.  These slip sheets were replaced with plastic air pillows.  The air pillows have reduced the amount of cardboard stuffers by 85%, or 65,000 units.  The cost of the plastic versus the cardboard is almost a break even expense but is a much more efficient process. 

Outside of our Green Tier Projects, Arandell strives to recycle all possible waste streams.  We are very proud of the accomplishments we have made to better the environment.

Reducing Hazardous Material

Arandell strives to recycle 100 percent of the process wastes it creates. The most important area of concern in this endeavor is hazardous materials. All hazardous materials are very closely monitored and stored in specially controlled rooms. Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) are all scanned and available online for employee quick reference. We continually search for and use chemicals that are the least harmful to the environment but when we cannot identify them to satisfy our manufacturing needs, we work with our partners, who come in to pump chemicals and solvents out of some equipment and haul it away for thermal incineration or recycling. Over 99% percent of the recovered chemicals and solvents are thermally incinerated. In addition, 100 percent of the ink recovered is collected and remanufactured by our suppliers. Nothing is sent to the landfill.

Recycled Oil

We realize that oil is a diminishing, non-renewable energy resource, and oils make up 99% of our non-hazardous wastes. All of the oils are fuel blended. The collection of these is closely managed and controlled, and every effort is made to recycle the waste into other products, such as fuel for the building materials industry.

Recycled Paper

Waste paper from all of our presses is separated, shredded, and baled on site for recycling. White waste is delivered directly to a paper mill and processed back to reusable pulp. The mill converts the pulp into paper towels, napkins, facial tissues, or other recycled papers.
White and mixed recycled paper bins and boxes are located throughout our offices and we encourage all employees to recycle paper. We also use e-mail whenever possible to cut down on paper usage. Waste such as corrugated cartons and roll & skid wraps are collected and sold for recycling into bags, wrapped paper, placemats and chipboard.

Recycled Paper Roll Cores

Arandell does not throw away paper roll cores. We recycle the cores from every roll of paper that we run.

Recycled Saddle Wire Cores

We save every core that the saddle stitch wire comes on and return them back to the manufacturer for reuse. None of them end up in the waste stream.

Recycled Bands, Shrink and Stretch Wrap

A program has been developed to sort and bale plastic bands, shrink wrap and stretch wraps. These materials are returned to manufacturers for recycling.

Recycled Aluminum

Bins are located throughout our plant and office to collect aluminum cans for recycling. All aluminum and nickel press plates are collected and recycled as well.

Operating Resources

Arandell has installed thermal incinerating dryers that are the most gas-efficient models available. These incinerators are built into the dryers and use the ink solvent as fuel. Wisconsin Gas has rewarded the company with rebates for using such efficient units. These thermal incinerating dryers have heat recovery systems that provide an additional source of heat that can be used in the manufacturing process, thus reducing consumption and conserving other energy resources. The radiant heat that is generated from the press dryers is also used to warm the pressroom. The dryers are also equipped with energy-efficient motors, which we purchase for all of our equipment whenever it is available.

Arandell recently finished a building re-lighting project that saves 17 million kilowatts of energy – enough power to light a small town.

Air Pollution

Arandell continues to invest in state-of-the-art pollution control equipment: Goss Contiweb and MegTec Thermal Incinerating Dryers. These dryers destroy 99.99 percent of all VOCs from ink vapors generated in the production process to help keep the air clean. The air we send out is actually cleaner than the air brought in.
Arandell’s total process recycling efforts saw 31,319,285 pounds of scrap recycled. The bulk of the scrap is made up of paper, cardboard, plastic and metal.

Forest Management Certification

Adding to our already renowned sustainability practices, Arandell is certified by three of the world’s most distinguished forest management programs: the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). Passing an intense third party audit of our purchasing behavior and environmental practices made these forestry certifications possible

Drama is the technique used to motivate a retail-friendly audience to take action. There is less emphasis on the product and related copy. Stronger luxury companies like Godiva, Neiman Marcus and Sephora place greater focus on brand development and imagery. More moderate companies like Staples, Pottery Barn and Container Store put more emphasis on price point and promotion.

What’s too much?
Can trying to do too much with a catalog dilute the entire effort? The answer can be yes if insight and strategy are not involved. Equally weighted goals and silo’d departments can create disastrous results, since there are many activities that enhance one objective but undermine another.

An example would be trying to accomplish the diverse goals of generating immediate sales and driving store traffic. Catalogs that focus on generating a direct response must offer a broader selection of merchandise and provide adequate information for product purchase. Conversely, a traffic-generating catalog must be less about product copy and more about drama and promotional messaging that generates action.

Megalogs, or catalogs with expanded roles, require leadership and foresight. They are strategic in nature and are most effective when objectives are prioritized from the start. Each participant in the development process must understand the key goals and the tactics that will be employed to accomplish them. Megalogs are much more strategic than the catalogs of the past; they sell, build brand, drive traffic and unite media. They are our foot in the door to the future.

Contact Arandell to learn more about successful multi-channel solutions.

The use of drivers to a URL is only the starting place for catalogs. The underlying reasons for a consumer to go to the web must be compelling and diverse. Williams-Sonoma does a great job by offering and calling out, throughout its catalog, recipes, wine pairings, sign-ups for free technique classes, gift cards, catalog quick shop, ratings and reviews, discounts, gifts with purchases, its Visa credit card and more.

And it’s just as important that all media reflect the look and feel of the brand. What prospects see on the page should be easily recognizable in other media. Colors, type, configuration, photography, voice, graphics and more—all must give customers the feeling that they’re still within the brand. Style guides for companies should reflect all the media they utilize.

Tablet commerce and mobile commerce represent the fastest growing commerce opportunities. QR codes are being used more frequently, and time will determine their effectiveness and consumer adaptation. Meanwhile, it’s imperative that we evaluate how best to use them in our media and how to measure their effectiveness.

The focus on multimedia becomes all the more important as catalog pages reduce in number. The cost of mailing a full-size catalog has become prohibitive for many, so we’ve got to provide the content our consumers need in different locations. Encouraging consumers to use other media effectively is our responsibility, and doing so will lead to the continued value of the catalog as a marketing tool—not its demise.

An interesting observation here is that those who started as Internet-based businesses are often the least effective in driving customers there using other media. When an organization has been web-only all along, there is usually a lack of experience and internal intelligence about the effectiveness of a catalog, so those companies often get it wrong and quit before they get it right.

Contact Arandell to learn more about effective multi-channel solutions.

Luckily, we’ve been doing this for a long time, and catalog best practices are evident in those that are best of class. As a result, there are many more new, small companies entering the marketplace doing a better job on initial catalogs than ever before, simply because there are so many great examples for them to follow.

Companies doing a superior job of selling within strongly branded catalogs exist at every price point and in every product category. Much has been written on what it takes to make a catalog an effective selling vehicle. It is the product selection and the applications (photography, copy, illustrations, etc.) that present those products in an easily digestible, quickly understandable manner, that make purchasing easy.

At Arandell, our ultimate goal is your success.