PrintPlace.com

Variety is the spice of life. More is merrier. Two heads are better than one.

We heard all of these themes before. In fact, we even believe in them. We, as consumers, are made to believe that greater variety equals more sales. And the more choices there are in the market, the more a business would likely to succeed.

However, studies show that the opposite is true. Offering more options to consumers is more likely to create fewer sales, hence less profit. For example, 200 varieties of jeans would give us a much bigger chance of finding what we want and feeling satisfied after, right? On the contrary, researchers have discovered that the principle of the diminishing return affects buying trends. They have a tendency to make consumers more dissatisfied with their purchase because they tend to expect more from the products, thus making them more likely to be disappointed. As a result, consumers buy less of the product in the future.

It was a surprise really for the advocates of this research that during experiments, catalog sales and profit went up for the companies that reduced their variety of products and focused more on selected items. When they increased the choices, the results showed a decline.

For this reason, it is advisable then for business owners to consider offering fewer choices to their target audience, especially in designing their catalog printing projects. Remember, less is more.

Say what! Yes folks, a jewelry design shop came out with a 14 carat, diamond encrusted flash drive with a memory capacity of 4GB. What’s more, the diamonds light up when it’s on work mode. And you could buy the product (if you have money to burn like Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan) for a whopping price of two thousand dollars.

According to the jeweler, the flash drive is handcrafted in 14k solid gold with a key set made of 3 diamonds. And if you’re concerned about it being unique, the said flash drive is crafted by demand only.

By the way, despite its fancy external casing, the USB flash drive works. It has a retractable USB connector; a “brilliant” amber LED; is U3 enabled complete with a synchronization software, password manager, Skype (wow!), and an antivirus software. It is also compatible with programs such as Windows 2000, SP4 and XP.

Who buys these things anyway? Maybe Paris Hilton would when she gets out of prison. Or what about her fancy friends? Maybe they could get together and flash their drives.

Oh I know! Maybe rap artists would want to add this flash drive to their collection of bling-blings.

For more info and availability, you could go to e-jewel.

Like envelopes, Microsoft Word has been in the printing and publishing industry since… well, I can’t remember when it started, but I believe that the program has always been there to assist business owners and printing companies with their marketing materials (brochure printing, envelope printing, etc.).

Microsoft is like the mother of all publishing programs. Without it, I don’t know how business owners got to develop their marketing materials without hassle or stress.

And for your envelope printing project, there’s an easy way to add your return address, as well as your logo by using Microsoft Word through the program’s “return address feature”. All you need is Microsoft Word 95 or higher, and a supply of #10 envelopes. You’re now ready to start.

To add your return address, simply open Microsoft Word and on the Tools Menu, click on Options. When it’s open, click on the User Information Tab. Then open the Mailing address box and hit Enter or Return once on your keyboard. You’re now ready to type your return address. When you finish entering your information, simply click on OK and you’re done.

To add your logo to your return address, you need to scan your logo to convert it to graphic file format. If you don’t have a scanner, you could go to a nearby copy shop and have them scan your image. Once you have your logo graphic file, open your Microsoft Word program then on the Insert Menu, choose Picture, then click From File. From there, choose the file that has your logo then click Insert.

Go to the Insert Menu, then choose Auto Text, then click New. An entry box would appear (Please name your auto text) where you should type, EnvelopeExtra1, then click OK.

Your envelope would now have your logo and return address every time you print a batch.

So I had this one time when I really really need a full color printing company to do my poster for me. I need the print posters for a workshop that I’ll have the week after. I was definitely an ass while talking to this receptionist because I have this much time and time seems to be running out. I had a tirade of sorts because I was really stressed out with all the preparations I made for this particular workshop. (You have to indulge me my release, you know. It’s really been rather stressful for the past weeks.) Finally, I was able to talk with the supervisor that manages the designing and prepress process, so I was able to get my ideas through to someone who understands.

And what do you know, the printing company (by the way, it’s PrintPlace.com) gave me something extraordinary. If you could only see the posters they’ve done for me. They were fabulous! In addition, they had the power to give me my print job in just 2 days turnaround! I was really thrown overboard. Well, you know what happened next. I was very popular that day. Thanks to my printing company, nothing bad ever happened that day that I was made queen of the workshop just because of the great posters I had from this wonderful wonderful poster printing company.

Should the letters be green or orange? Type and size of font? These are the things that confront me right now when I should be worrying about whether I should have popcorns or ‘Baked Lays’ while I empathize with Meredith Grey.

I envy the characters in ‘Grey’s’ because they do not have to be confronted with mundane things like designing posters. I would rather be assisting Dr. Burke and the Nazi on the surgical room or trying to revive a patient with O’Malley. But here I am in my office scrubs working like hell for something that is terrifyingly uninteresting at the moment. Perhaps I have a designer’s block? Come to think of it, I am a person trapped in a body yearning for something more challenging. I think I need a brain surgery myself. Perhaps an hour in front of the TV would suffice.

Alright so maybe I’m just making up petty excuses to go home but hey, what can you do? Don’t act so innocent as if you’ve never entertained such thoughts before? Perhaps a game of innie-minnie-miney-moe might do me some good in choosing the better color for the fonts of this poster I’m doing. Its so frustrating because I already have everything laid out, my 24 x 36 sized image, more than enough 100lb gloss cover to accommodate my poster size and a tried-and-tested poster printing company. But then again, its a common tale. In such ruts, we have nothing left to do but be spontaneous. And so here’s to spotaneity. I hope it doesn’t cost me my job!