Bragging About Our Brochure

Sometimes it's timing. Sometimes it's luck. Whatever it was, this opportunity was as great as the Bundle brochure itself, and our new matching calico door banners matching the "invitation." Here's the scoop.

In 2011 we printed a two-fold version of a new brochure. The color was right -soft yellow background with lavender lettering. The two come-on girls, Gretchen and Emily, were on the cover and the garden shot of eight dolls on the inside was a natural. The copy needed improvement, but we repeated the calico map of Vermont with our

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glass logo sign on the back. We printed just what we needed locally; but it still needed help. We had some ideas. When our AZ girls were here last fall we ran it by them, but there was too much other fun stuff to do - camp and visit the nieces and nephews were the priorities, not Bundles! Well, it happens that one of their nephews (our grandson William) was the mover and shaker.

Now comes home schooling and there's a lull. I pulled out my draft of a new three-fold brochure and Will hopped right on it. He liked the colors, the cover girls and Poppy's great picture of the eight winners. Lew took only two shots that day and one was as perfect as the other. What luck, you say. Well, he is a great photographer. They liked everything about the three-fold presentation. But...Will and Mom are reading the copy. We had assorted eye enlargements on either side of the girls and the copy beneath. The copy read, "Some creations have expressive real eyes while the other half of the family has motif eyes like rainbows, flowers, bugs and animals." So William suggests why don't you separate the motif eyes (from those in the picture) on one side and the real eyes on the other, using the dolls in the picture like Agatha plusKimberly. Brilliant. Additional copy clarity and we're off to the presses. Maybe Will is headed to Madison Avenue!

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Wanting to buy local, we researched a number of New England printers. Too costly for short runs. We came across PrintRunner in California. They gang jobs together and print multiple orders on Heidelberg Presses. Lew and I polished the PDF and we signed off on the proof. Ten days later, 2,000 beautiful brochures for 11 cents each plus ground shipping arrived. We went through them like crazy at four Vermont Welcome Centers in six months, plus B & B's and handouts at craft fairs. The dandy brochure is included as a "catalog" piece for Yankee Magazine inquirers, especially as it features nearly 20 best sellers. Visitors come in the door with our gem in their hand. It is THE ticket.

More good luck. The printing company emailed customers about a 30% discount. We changed one word, OPEN flag tosign, and for an additional $58 and change we had 1,000 more than the original order. And the color and sharpness are even better on this go-round. A graphics designer friend was impressed by the quality and finish of the stock. One sweet customer came with it in her hand and has returned four times for more Bundles. They even took a handful for the campground where they spend their Vermont vacation time. Like Sherry, this marketing bonanza is a keeper. So is William!