Holmes attending PODi AppForum 2012

Holmes will be attending the PODi AppForum 2012 in Las Vegas January 23-25. The AppForum is the industry’s leading international digital printing conference.

We are committed to finding new and innovative ways to help our clients creatively market their business. By attending the AppForum we gain the knowledge of the latest exciting ideas and tactics in marketing. Our team thrives on continual learning and the AppForum provides a power packed 3 day event to not only introduce and educate on the latest technology but how to utilize best practices for implementation.

We are very aware that in today’s world you have many options for connecting with your clients or prospective clients. Direct mail, Email, Broadcast, Print, Web, Mobile and more can be combined, tracked and measured for accurate determination of ROI.

We would love the opportunity to assist you with improving your marketing efforts and share with you why tracking and measuring your results is so important in these times.

From the PODi Website:The annual AppForum is the only digital printing conference dedicated exclusively to marketing applications powered by digital print with a truly independent, vendor-neutral, unbiased agenda. All of PODi’s extensive research, resources, industry contacts, and expertise come together once a year to make the AppForum the cornerstone of what’s new and what’s next in digital print applications.

Holmes Gives Back

Once again that time of year came upon us so quickly…the time in October when we start brainstorming what we would like to do as a token of our appreciation for our clients. We have given away so many different gifts over our 37 year history…gift baskets with goodies from local vendors, candies, cookies, calendars, mugs, pens, books…the list goes on and on. This year more than ever before, the feeling came over us that if we took the efforts that went into the various gifts we have given to our clients and we reallocate in order to make a donation to one or a few charities, what a difference we could make in the lives of those that are struggling or dealing with adversity. The holiday season is meant to enlighten us once again about what is most important in our lives. Certainly we would not include “things” at the top of our lists. You would find family, friends, faith, and health to name a few.

So, we are very happy to announce our 1st annual Holmes Gives Back campaign, where we will select a few local and national deserving charities and allow you to cast your vote for your favorite charity, for which we will make a donation to. Once we compile the results, we will make the donations and you will know that you had a part in making a difference in all those lives that will be impacted.  We appreciate you just as much as ever before and we thank you for your loyal patronage over the last 37 years and we welcome those that are learning about the new Holmes for the first time as we just completed our rebranding campaign. Without the relationships we have built with our clients, none of this would be possible and so we are very grateful. We hope this inspires others to think about all the little things we could do to make a big difference.

Look for our Christmas card coming your way soon with your personal invitation to cast your vote!

“From a little spark may burst a mighty flame.” Dante Alighieri

Holmes Launches New Marketing Minute

New Ideas in Just 60 Seconds from Holmes – Tried and True and Bright and New

(Springfield, Ohio November 2, 2011) Carisa Holmes-Peters, co-owner of Holmes, announced today the launch of a new client communication, the Holmes Marketing Minute.

Distributed twice a month, the Holmes Marketing Minute is a personalized and relevant communication for senior executives and marketing professionals that can be read in less than a minute, yet provoke strategic thinking about business development and marketing objectives.

“The Holmes Marketing Minute focuses on innovative strategies used by a wide variety of organizations to grow and solve specific strategic challenges. With our move into more cross-media services, it’s a very exciting time for us to share best practices that can help our clients grow. The design is short and sweet so leaders can quickly and easily gather great ideas for their organizations. We hope it will help people think about what they could be doing and not the limitations they are living with during this sluggish economy,” said Holmes-Peters. The new Holmes Marketing Minute will be distributed twice a month via email and available through www.thinkholmes.com beginning this month.

Founded in 1974 as a printing company, Holmes has developed into a cross-channel marketing and technology solutions provider. Holmes offers branding and concept design, relevant direct mail, print procurement, and promotional marketing. Clients include national franchises in the health and medical industry, as well as regional clients in Springfield, Dayton, Urbana, and others near its Springfield headquarters.

What is tried and true bright & new? WE ARE!!!

Your brand is your company’s face to the world. It is the name, how the name is expressed within your logo and how that name and logo speak throughout an organization’s communications. Your brand is also how the company is viewed by your customers. A brand also reinforces your mission statement and makes the fundamental principles of your company understood by anyone that comes in contact with your company.

We are proud to say that we just unveiled our new brand at the end of September. This was a journey started many many months ago. It started within the organization, explaining to the members of the team what this change would mean, how we would talk differently and engage in new conversations with our customers. Then comes the creative part where you start to picture what the name, the logo and the colors will speak about your company. This was actually a fun process to do for ourselves.

What does our new brand mean to you? With the same dedication and commitment Holmes can now help you plan, execute and track your marketing strategies. We improve your results for campaigns done via websites, postcards, smart phones, or all of the above.

Think you may need help with your brand? We have a creative design team with a passion for company branding ready to assist you on this journey.

In times of economic difficulty many success stories arise from those that took the opportunity to fill a need and reinvent themselves. Are you holding on to your old brand just because it has always been that way. Maybe it is time to freshen up your brand and feel the rejuvenation and passion that can be created by going through this process all the while helping you get noticed by your customers.

Check out our new website at thinkholmes.com!

The evolution of Holmes….

    

Holmes is proud to give back to the Springfield community.

At HOLMES, we love to support our local events!  Fundraisers, concerts, art & music.  It all makes SPRINGFIELD a wonderful place to live and work. We want to support your efforts by providing you FREE posters to promote your performances and events. The website will be launched soon. Stay tuned to find out more about this opportunity!

Stay Positive and Persevere!

We have all been there. It’s so easy for business owners to fall prey to negative thinking. It seems more difficult to find the positive under lining in a situation when the negative thoughts can so easily fill your mind. It’s important to work on the skill of staying positive. Many entrepreneurs have found success in utilizing the failures they experienced to thrust them upward. Take Frederick W. Smith for example, the founder of Fed-Ex. It was quite a process for what started as an idea to provide overnight delivery service, he was met by opposition and setbacks all along his journey. Over time it exploded into the company that it is today. What would have happened if he gave up and listened to the negativity? Likely someone else would have came along after him with the very same idea.

Many times it all starts with an idea, a need, a way to help someone else. Try and remember what it was that started you on your career journey and find that passion once again to overcome any obstacle put before you….and look at those obstacles as challenges. If we can retrain our minds to think positive rather than negative we have a start on the path to greatness!  America needs to get back to what made us what we are….our optimism and ideals make this country great!

Here are some tips to retrain that negative voice in your head….

• Surround yourself with positive people. The ideas that can be shared between professionals is limitless!

• Make note of the positive things that have happened for you and keep that list in front of you. Recall what success felt like, so you stay motivated to feel it again.

• Find a symbol that keeps your eye on the goal and post it in your work space to serve as a constant reminder to stay positive in everything that you do.

• Focus on the opportunities that lie in front of you.  Too often we think only about what we can’t do or our own limitations we set for ourself. Instead make a list of the opportunities that you do have and set mini goals to try and achieve 1 of those at a time. One step forward is better than two steps back.

• Try to picture yourself succeeding again. Any success you have had can be a catalyst for another. Always try to envision what success will feel like if it happens again. This will help keep you focused on the positive images rather than negative ones we create in our minds of failure.

• Lastly…never ever give up! Sometimes you are one failure away from a success and how would you ever know if you gave up too soon.

Sometimes asking for help is a good thing!

It’s not always a terrible thing to look for help outside your organization. The fact is that you will only be as good as the people that surround you and who can’t use a little outsider influence sometimes. There are so many professionals out there that have made a career of helping others and often times you can achieve an end result faster by utilizing those resources. Why reinvent the wheel if you can learn from the trials and mistakes and successes of others.

Here at Holmes we have always been open minded to seek out professionals in our industry that will push us and challenge us to constantly strive to be better. Can you honestly look at your organization and say that you need to change NOTHING? If so, then most likely your not pushing yourself to be better.

Sometimes seeking help and advice from outsiders is a good thing!