Business Management - Marketing/Sales

“DON’T MOVE, or both of us will die,” shouted Wesley Autrey as he pinned a fallen commuter between the subway tracks before an onrushing subway train in Manhattan.

Wesley had been waiting for his train on the station platform with his two young daughters when a young man suffered a seizure and fell about eight feet to the tracks below. Wesley jumped down to the track bed, rolled the man between the tracks and lay on top of him as the train passed over them with two inches to spare.

Wesley is just a 50-year-old construction worker.

He is just a good father who

LAST MONTH, I suggested some ways that you can put public relations to work and get the word out about your business. This month, the topic is self-promotion—a subset of PR in which you can showcase the skills, expertise and capabilities of your organization. The two go hand in hand. In November, for the third year in a row, I had the pleasure of judging the DICE Awards. DICE, the Digital Imaging Customer Exchange (www.dicegroup.org, formerly the Indigo Customer Exchange), has been around for more than a decade and just reached the 300-member mark. The group has expanded beyond owners of Indigo presses

DON’T BELIEVE the pundits. The U.S. economy will expand, not contract, in 2007-2008, and to an annual growth rate of nearly 4 percent in GDP. This will reverse the downward adjusted 3.2 percent in 2006 and 2005. Our industry should makeready to run forward at near the GDP rate. The reason: print growth is tied to the “knowledge economy,” which is not calculated into GDP while government, an outlay, is. Research and development, if treated as a capital investment rather than as an intermediate expense, boosts GDP by 3 percent and the national savings rate by more than 2 percent. The U.S. accounts

I GUESS you all saw that Mister Hot Shot George Clooney won People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive!” competition.

This is twice for Clooney.

Brad Pitt won twice.

Last year I called People magazine to inquire about my ranking in the competition. I wasn’t even in their database.

This year I called People again and inquired about my standing in the ranking. A kind and very patient researcher performed an in-depth search while I held on the phone. No luck.

I suggested that just maybe she would find me in the “M’s” as the “Mañana Man.” Yep. She found me. The People researcher said I was in the Hispanic Sexy

ALPHARETTA, GA—December 21, 2006—Neenah Paper, which pioneered the development of premium recycled papers nearly 20 years ago, will again help elevate the profile of its industry with a coveted appearance on the History Channel’s “Modern Marvels” program. Neenah’s innovative application of sustainable technology will be featured in a segment about recycling during the “Environmental Tech” episode on Wednesday, January 24, 2007. More than one million viewers tune in every week to watch new episodes of the hit show. “At Neenah Paper, located along the Fox River in Wisconsin, they’re recycling a lot more than paper,” the narrator says, as the program follows

LOUISVILLE, KY—12/07/06—After 118 years in business, Fetter Printing Company has completely overhauled its management structure as well as its vision for the future, walking away from some of its traditional lines of business in order to focus on others in which it can be a market leader. Fetter plans to focus primarily on two highly specialized markets. The first is printing labels and creating information management and logistic solutions for the paint and coatings industry, a category in which the company already is the number-two national supplier with 15% of total U.S. market share. Fetter has developed highly sophisticated systems that are custom-made

THE ANNUAL Printing Impressions 400 list can be used as a gauge of the health of the printing industry. Of the 400 companies on the 2006 edition, 287 have seen an increase in sales for the past fiscal year. Additionally, 153 of those 287 have seen double-digit increases. These are the stories of how some firms that experienced a successful year have bolstered their sales numbers. Dubbed “fast-track firms,” these industry stalwarts are leading the way though innovation, technology and a vision for the future. Southeastern Printing Stuart, FL Most Recent Fiscal Year Sales: $31.71 million Previous Fiscal Year Sales: $26.64 million Percentage Change:

ONE OF the most neglected, yet cost-effective, ways to market yourself is public relations. According to the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) definition of public relations, “Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.” In your business, you have several “publics” that PR activities will help you address, including: • customers/potential customers; • employees/potential employees; • the business community; and • the media. The key to public relations activities is to build awareness about your firm and what you can offer. The most-often considered tool in the PR toolbag is a press release. Perhaps you have hired a new salesperson, bought a

IT’S ELECTION Day evening. I’m sitting here trying to get inspired to write my 244th column and my 24th Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Holiday column.

There. I’ve gotten the political correctness thing behind me. But my depression lingers. I’m not depressed by the election outcome. We all knew long before now what the results would be.

I’m depressed at being inundated for months by all the phone calls, the multitude of negative television commercials, the handful of positive TV commercials and all of the road signs stretching around highways of America.

I want all that stuff banned and the political money in future elections redirected to the printing

THE WORLD of commercial printing is still quite a big nut. Even with the growing threat of outsourced print and other traditional ink-on-paper products migrating to digital land, there are enough emerging applications to keep most printers fat and happy. Operative term of the day: Most printers. There is, however, a contradiction of terms floating about our grand industry that may never be reconciled—after all, it has lasted for quite a while. Some say we are in an era of specialization that plays into the hands of niche players, those who excel in a market segment that is not being fully addressed on a