September 2007-A Marketing Tool with Magnetic Appeal

It’s likely your customers need economical marketing tools that help them get noticed. They need to create promotional pieces that don’t get lost in the direct-mail clutter. One popular item in the marketing toolbox has helped elevate the profile of a wide variety of businesses and professionals, just by being useful to the end-user.

Pliable promotional magnets can be found on the refrigerators of most households, whether they’re touting the name of a good dentist or displaying the phone number for the local pizzeria. Once a magnet finds its way to the refrigerator door or metal file cabinet, it’s likely to stay there awhile continuing to hawk its message.

Attaching and Gluing Magnets
Promotional or informational magnets can be affixed to mailers, postcards, phone books, coupons and other pieces of marketing collateral. The magnets are attached using fugitive glue, a secure but non-permanent adhesive that is easily peeled off by the end-user. Products with this adhesive travel well through the mail and are cost-effective.

Fugitive glue works best on paper stock that is penetration-resistant, to ensure “easy-release” and avoid fiber tearing when the attached item is removed. The design of a piece is important, since space must be allowed for affixing the magnet without obscuring other text and images.

A Phone Book Project Leads to a New Service at Muscle Bound
A customer approached Muscle Bound Bindery with a request to attach magnets to the front cover of some phone books. It was something the customer’s competitors were doing, and they wanted to follow suit. Phone book publishers can sell a portion of cover space to a business, and in addition to cover space a business can have their magnet placed in that spot.

Muscle Bound saw an opportunity to expand services for their customers and decided to capitalize on it. Instead of sending the phone books back to the publisher where the magnets would be applied by hand, then returned to the bindery again for shrink-wrapping and shipping, it made more sense to do it all in-house. This cut freight costs for the customer by eliminating extra shipping, and reducing the job turnaround time by at least three or four days.

Muscle Bound looked at developing an application for magnets in response to a need. The Muscle Bound team jumped on this opportunity and purchased equipment for attaching and gluing, knowing it would benefit other customers in the future. We began testing samples of magnets from a supplier used by the publisher, as well as other local suppliers for magnets of different weights.

With the equipment now in place and operating, Muscle Bound can perform the attaching process in-line between the binding and trimming, saving customers time and money. The application process runs at speeds of 2,000 to 3,000 cycles per hour with good placement accuracy.

At this point, magnet application on books is for the outside front cover only. In planning a project with magnet attachment, customers should consider the paper stock as well as the shape and thickness of the magnet to be applied. Involve your bindery in the planning process so they can help you choose a magnet and carrier substrate with the right properties for your project.

Obviously, the gluing and attaching process is not just for magnets. It’s frequently used for attaching other items to marketing collateral such as gift cards and credit cards. Contact your friends at Muscle Bound for more information about how you can use this versatile solution.

The Muscle Bound Advantage
Located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Muscle Bound Bindery has combined state-of-the-art technology with exceptional craftsmanship for more than 40 years. Muscle Bound offers a full range of bookbinding services, including side-sewn case, Otabind layflat adhesive and perfect binding. The company also provides folding, cutting drilling, shrink-wrapping, laminating and, of course, gluing and attaching services. Contact us today to plan your next post press project.