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Perception Vs. Reality

Consumers "Way off The Mark" With Direct Mail Receipt

08 Mar 2005 - Consumers believe they receive nearly twice as much Direct Mail as they actually do, according to research by the Direct Mail Information Service.

The DMIS study shows that the average UK consumer believes they receive 6.2 items of Direct Mail a week. The actual number is only 3.3 items.

The figures come from two sets of data. Perceived receipt is taken from the Consumer Trends Survey 2004 – conducted in November 2003, while actual mail receipt comes from the Royal Mail Consumer Panel of the same period.

The statistics show that women are much more accurate at assessing their receipt of Direct Mail. They believe they receive 6 items per week rather than the actual figure of 3.7. Men, on the other hand, claim they receive 6.4 items a week when the real figure is 3.1 items.

The 45-54 age group, generally the heaviest receivers of Direct Mail, over estimate their Direct Mail receipt by 54%, believing they receive 7.1 items when in reality it is 3.8. The 16-24 age group come closest to reality, receiving 1 item and believing they get 2.3.

In socio-economic terms, DEs are the least realistic, estimating receipt at 4.6 items while actually receiving 2.8 items. The C2 group are the most accurate, though even they over estimate by 47%, believing they receive 6.4 items instead of the actual 3.

Commenting on the statistics, DMIS Managing Director, Jo Howard-Brown says:

“The research highlights a perennial problem for Direct Mail - perception against reality. Our research has always shown that perceptions of receipt are way off the mark, perhaps because consumers, correctly, see receipt on the increase but over exaggerate the rate of increase and perhaps partly because consumers can confuse non addressed items with Direct Mail. Whatever the reasons, this research is invaluable in that it dispels myth with hard facts."

She adds “The findings reiterate what the DM industry knows – the consumer is not snowed under with mountains of Direct Mail. It is a flourishing medium and one that will continue to flourish as long as clients and their agencies produce relevant, engaging and well targeted work”.

AIIM ON DEMAND Announces Results for 2005 Event; Following Resounding Success, North America's Largest Business Technology Event Will Return to Philadelphia Next Year

AIIM ON DEMAND 2005

NEWTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 25, 2005--Questex Media Group announced today that due to rave reviews from attendees, exhibitors and media, next year's AIIM ON DEMAND will take place once again at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, May 16-18, 2006. More than 35,000 technology and business professionals registered for this year's event, which included more than 21,000 visitors, 350 exhibiting companies and 250 members of the press and analyst community. The event, which ran from May 17-19, is North America's largest enterprise technology event.

AIIM is the largest enterprise content & document management conference and exposition showcasing the technologies to capture, manage, share, and store documents and digital content that support business processes and comply with government regulations. ON DEMAND, the digital printing & automated production event, is the leading conference and exposition dedicated to the technologies that create, personalize, manage, print, and deliver content. Together, AIIM ON DEMAND represents the synergy of content and data throughout the information life cycle -- from creation to delivery.

"AIIM ON DEMAND proved once again to be the definitive enterprise technology event," said Kerry Gumas, president & CEO of Questex Media Group. "The conferences and exposition were packed with overflow crowds of industry professionals looking to make sound business decisions. The technology suppliers who took part in the event were so pleased with the quality of the audience and the volume of business they generated, a record setting 90% of our 2005 exhibitors signed up to exhibit at next year's event."

"AIIM ON DEMAND's impressive lineup of keynote speakers, Declaration of Education program, innovative technology solutions showcased by exhibiting companies, and the tremendous support of the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors' Bureau as well as the local business community contributed significantly to the success of this year's event," continued Gumas.

AIIM ON DEMAND kicked off its three-day conference and exposition with an opening day keynote presented by Brian L. Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast Corporation. Roberts presented his view of The Future of the On Demand Business to standing-room-only crowds. Other featured keynote sessions and speakers at the show included:

-- The State of the ECM Industry

John Mancini, president, AIIM - the ECM Association

-- The Future of the Document

Gary Kusin, president & CEO, FedEx Kinko's

-- The Transformation of the Print Industry

Charles A. Pesko, Jr., managing director, InfoTrends/CAP
Ventures

-- Tradition & Transformation: The Changing World of Graphic
Communications

Daniel Carp, chairman & CEO, Eastman Kodak Company

-- Capturing the Upside While Avoiding the Downside

Clayton Christensen, author, Seeing What's Next, professor,
Harvard Business School

-- Transforming Creative Communications

Kamar Aulakh, president & CEO, Quark

"The ON DEMAND show brings together two related areas: the graphic arts and the enterprise," said Charles A. Pesko, Managing Director of InfoTrends/CAP Ventures. "Co-locating with the AIIM Conference & Expo has proven to be of great value to all attendees because the combined show unites those with similar interests in document production and provides valuable insight on where the industry is headed in the future."

"The success of this year's AIIM Conference & Expo is an outstanding representation of how important content and document management is to business professionals around the world," said John Mancini, president, AIIM - the ECM Association." This is their once-a-year opportunity to experience the latest technologies first-hand and gain knowledge directly from the industry leaders. We look forward to working with Questex to produce the 2006 event."

This year's event included more than 350 exhibitors and sponsors. IBM, Eastman Kodak Company, and StorageTek served as platinum sponsors for both the AIIM and ON DEMAND conferences and expositions. AIIM was also supported by corporate sponsors Vignette, OnBase, Oracle and EMC Corporation, while FedEx Kinko's, Konica Minolta, Xerox, Toshiba, Quark and Canon U.S.A., Inc. represented ON DEMAND.

Many exhibitors announced new products at this year's show. Hot Product and Case Study submissions are being featured in the print and online versions of the Show Daily. Please visit www.outputlinks.com/today for more details.

"AIIM ON DEMAND is the pulse of what is going on in the industry", said David Gills, vice president, Freedom Imaging Systems. "Just by walking the expo hall floor I could see how many new companies and technologies are emerging in the content and document management industry. I come to AIIM ON DEMAND to gather the information I need in order to make sound business decisions in this competitive industry."

Exhibitors also partnered with AIIM ON DEMAND to offer informative pavilions designed to focus on a specific technological facet within the show's broader scope, providing visitors with an interactive and specialized look at some of the most interesting applications in technology today. Some of the pavilions included: Business Process Management, Data Center On Demand, The Solution Center, and Workflow Automation.

A special feature of the event was the Declaration of Education Program, featuring Books for Kids. The program supplied approximately 10,000 digitally printed books for students of the School District of Philadelphia through a collaborative effort between AIIM ON DEMAND and its exhibiting partners: Weyerhauser, Oce, Lasermax Roll Systems, MBO America and Muller Martini.

Students and representatives of the School District of Philadelphia, as well as Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street, accepted the landmark donation. Players from the Arena Football League's Philadelphia Soul supported the initiative and signed autographs for students and attendees.

For more information, please visit the event website: www.aiimondemand.com. For event photos, please go to http://www.oscareinzig.com/aiimondemandpressroom2005/

About Questex Media Group, Inc.

AIIM ON DEMAND is produced by Questex Media Group, Inc. (www.questex.com), a global, diversified business-to-business integrated media provider, headquartered in Newton, MA. Questex serves multiple industries including technology, beauty, travel, hospitality, leisure, home entertainment, industrial and specialty services through a range of well-established, market-leading publications, events, interactive media and integrated marketing services. The company's properties include 23 trade publications, 50 websites, 25 conferences and tradeshows. Questex has more than 400 employees in offices throughout North America, South America, Asia and Europe.

About AIIM - the ECM Association

AIIM is the international industry association connecting users and suppliers of enterprise content management (ECM) technologies - tools and methods used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content in support of business processes. For more than 60 years, AIIM has been a neutral and unbiased source for education and industry information, standards, advocacy, and community.

About InfoTrends/CAP Ventures

InfoTrends/CAP Ventures is the leading worldwide market research and strategic consulting firm for the digital imaging and document solutions industries. It provides research, analysis, forecasts, and advice to help clients understand market trends, identify opportunities, and develop strategies to grow their businesses.

Contacts

Affect Strategies on behalf of AIIM ON DEMAND
John Taylor, 212-398-9680 x 145
john@affectstrategies.com

Sands Creative Group Opens New World To Short-Run Heavy Stock Paper Color Laser Printing

Cost-effective way to quickly produce small quantities of book covers, folders, postcards, direct mail pieces, and oversized materials such as banners and retail signage, on heavy stock papers.

Boston, MA (PRWEB) May 31, 2005 -- It used to be that in order to print a small quantity of postcards, business cards, folders, brochures, direct mail pieces, table tents and in-store signage on heavy stock paper, you had to use an expensive digital printing process or use thinner paper. Now a new era of short-run color printing is taking shape at Sands Creative Group, which recently became one of the first graphic design firms in the Boston area to purchase a heavy stock-enabled Xante CL30 color laser printer.

“The Xante CL30 HSE is the most exciting color print technology to come along in some time,” said Rick Sands, president of Sands Creative Group. “It offers the speed, versatility and affordability to print flat, easily finished, high-quality materials on thick paper stock at a fraction of the cost of the older digital printing processes.”

Sands Creative Group’s heavy stock enabled CL30 color laser printer prints on cover stock up to a 16pt. Kromekote and includes all of Xante’s award-winning specialized graphic features. Those features include 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution, Adobe PostScript 3, and automatic color recalibration. The Xanté CL30 prints 30 pages per minute of full color and 37 pages per minute in monochrome. It also excels at printing oversized materials, such as banners and retail signage up to 12.9 inches x 47 inches in size on a wide range of paper and cover stock, from light to heavy.

Founded in 1989, XANTÉ is a privately held corporation based in Mobile, Alabama, that develops and markets high performance printing solutions. XANTÉ's product line consists of high resolution color and monochrome laser printers, computer-to-plate and computer-to-film systems, and camera ready output proofing devices.

Sands Creative Group is Boston’s leading visual marketing company. It was recently named one of the area’s top 25 graphic design firms by the Boston Business Journal. Sands Creative Group offers clients a unique set of core design and production competencies essential to their success. Services range from corporate identity and branding to the design and printing of marketing materials, visual displays, fine arts reproduction and large format output.

For more information call 617-536-6660 or visit www.sandscreativegroup.com.

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