Make Sales Entertaining

Distributors can increase sales of printed products by mixing business with pleasure.

Regardless of the economy, the weather or world affairs, people love to be entertained. From sporting events to music and theater, there would be no audience without printed products.

Distributors who aren't pursuing this often-overlooked niche are doing themselves a disfavor, say manufacturers. In addition to big-name national events, there are literally hundreds of entertainment-related activities happening in every community. Some are annual events, such as arts festivals, county fairs, 10K runs, or home and garden shows. Others may be one-shot events to celebrate a town or company anniversary or team championship. Some are open to the public; others are invitation-only affairs. Tickets may or may not be required, but they represent an obvious need.

Secure Ticket Orders

"Security features are big on tickets for sporting events," noted Dave Wandling, vice president of marketing for The Flesh Company, St. Louis. Features such as foil stamping, holograms and printing visible only under ultraviolet light may be necessary to ensure the legitimacy of high-demand tickets, but are only as effective as the ticket-takers.

A simpler and more effective security measure is bar coding, Wandling said. Bar-coded tickets are scanned at the stadium or theater entrance and handed back to the patron. "You'd have to know not only the symbology they were using, but also the sequence of numbers for that day to forge it," he said. "Plus, a bar-coded ticket is easier to verify."

Despite an obvious need, security measures on tickets are often overused, he noted. "Sometimes, an end-user wants security features on tickets when there really isn't a need—for instance, businesses that give tickets away in order to get people in to buy the concessions," Wandling noted. This may be the case for a second-run movie theater with inexpensive seats that profits primarily from snack sales.