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With large retailers taking profit hits in recent months, many industries are scrutinising their marketing budgets and spend to focus more closely on print and direct mail, rather than online marketing. This is the perfect opportunity for visually based companies and brands to re-energise their use of printed lookbooks. 

What is a Lookbook?

A lookbook is a short book or catalogue consisting of a small collection of branded or lifestyle photographs. They are pefrect for those who work within a visually dominated industry. 

For example, lookbooks are excellent for use in the fashion industry as they can be used to show off a designer's latest collection. Within the fashion sector, lookbooks are used primarily to present new designs to buyers and publication editors.

Who can use a Lookbook?

Despite the evolution of everything moving online, although lookbooks fall under tradtional media, physical, printed lookbooks are still extremely popular with brands and industries today. Especially with the focuse moving back to traditional mediums, companies and brands need to cover all marketing options. After all, the famous saying goes, "a picture is worth a thousand words" and here at Entwistle Group we agree.

Companies and brands may decide to release lookbooks to sell products or showcase a new product release. An example of this is the John Lewis Edition Magazine, which consists of a lifestyle photography of products. John Lewis the use a small amount of text to inform the reader what the product is, the price and the URL to direct lookbook recipients to purchase products online. 

The John Lewis example suggests that lookbooks can work in a similar manney to buyer catalogues, as the visual content used in lookbooks can help to drive sales and acquire new customers. However, use of lookbooks isn't restricted to industries who rely heavily on photographs, bu can also be used by a wide range of differing sectors. For instance, a lookbook may be utilised by the marketing department of a construction companies, who can use a high-quality printed lookbook to pitch their construction services and highlight their portfolio of work. 

Types of Lookbook Printing

Since a lookbook is used to sell your brand and products, it is of the upmost importance that they appear professional and to a high standard. Therefore, it is essential o find a trustworthy efficient and specliased printing company, like us, Entwistle Group.

At Entwistle Group we specialise in a wide range of printing and can help create the ideal lookbook. 

As part of our service we provide two methods of lookbook printing:

• Digital Printing: This is ideal for shorter printing run and for personalising or customising each lookbook copy
• Litho Printing: Litho printing requires wet ink and printing plates, and is often used for longer runs and high-volume printing. The process consists of placing imagery onto plates, which are then loaded onto a printing press and transferred to the printing surface

Since digital and litho printing both have numerous advantages, it is necessary to pick tthe right one. Here are some of our tips to choosing which option is right for you:

• Quantitiy: If only a small stock of lookbooks is required or you regularly want to update the content, then we suggest digital printing. This in turn will save you additional costs, because you will not pay for set up costs assosciated with litho printing. However, it becomes cost-effective if you are printing a large number of lookbooks.
• Materials: Both digital and litho printing use the same materials, therefore the finish will be the same quality once printing is complete. 
• Colour payoff: Digital printing is great if vibrant colours are required, as the print resolution is so high and spot colours can be specified. However, if four-colour printing is not needed, then litho printing is the better option
• Turnaround: If lookbook(s) are required within a short space of time, then pick our digital printing service, as it doesn't require as many steps as litho printing when printing your images

Today marketing is a combination of print and digital medias, commonly known as cross medi marketing. Entwistle Group are at teh fore front of cross media marketing and have seen first hand how our customers are increasing their use of traditional print in cross media campaigns. There is still something very special about receiving a beautifully printed lookbook, so contact Entwistle Group now to order your lookbook.

Contact Us

Please feel free to contact us as we have a number of specialists to hand who are happy to provide lookbook printing advice. 

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