Most companies have long relied on standard engineering practices to guide their engineers as they work on product and tooling designs. Recent trends indicate that engineering guidelines are no longer relegated to product and tooling functions. Now many companies and industries are expanding these engineering guidelines to include standards for product marking.

As governmental regulations and market forces dictate new product traceability and quality standards, many industries seek out product marking specialists with which to partner. One such marking specialist is Durable Mecco, Inc. based in Franklin Park, Illinois. Durable Mecco’s focus is on industrial marking applications utilizing impact presses, steel stamps, steel type, numbering heads, dot peen markers, and accessories. Durable Mecco’s technical expertise and engineering capabilities were recently enhanced when it acquired traditional marking products specialist Mecco / M.E. Cunningham based in Pittsburgh, PA. Durable Mecco’s value added engineering capability has proven to be a critical resource for many companies and industries with a wide variety of custom marking applications.

Impact Presses Increase Productivity

Durable Mecco’s impact presses, manual or pneumatic, generate force via the compression and release of an impact spring. High volume repetitive indent marking applications are best handled with the use of impact presses which achieve a very short cycle time that cannot be met with any other marking method.

One such customer in need of a marking solution was SPX Filtran. The part to be marked was dome shaped stamped metal. It was specified that marking should occur automatically as the part was inserted into a fixture, like a time card in a time slot. The cycle time had to be short, as the operators were processing a high volume of parts. The shape of the part presented two challenges. First, pressing the mark would deform the part without proper fixturing. Second, the shape of the part required the slot of the marking fixture to be large, so a pinch point hazard needed to be carefully prevented.

Engineering special nesting and fixturing for holding various sizes and shapes of parts is routine for Durable Mecco. To solve this application, Durable Mecco engineers worked with SPX Filtran to create a sliding nest fixture. The dome shaped part is loaded onto the nest, which includes a strategically placed anvil to back-up the part at the marking location. The operator advances the nest through a custom-shaped slot that conforms exactly to the shape of the part. Marking occurs when the nest strikes a proximity switch.

The SPX Filtran system also included a quick-change steel type holder, allowing SPX Filtran to achieve a very high level of productivity in marking their parts.

Impact Presses Are Versatile

In addition to marking, impact presses are also useful for assembly, stamping, forming, punching, and shearing applications. Ted Strother of King Electronics found that an impact is superior to gradual pressing in its application. “Durable Mecco was able to recommend an impact press in our assembly operation to insert one part into another without deforming the part. We used to perform this application by hand but the press provides a quick, easy, repeatable solution.”

Other Techniques

Durable Mecco engineers recommend dot peen markers as an alternative marking technology when the marking application requires a high quality mark but with much variability of information being marked. With a variety of marking heads to choose from, the dot peen technology also allows for sufficient depth of mark to accommodate other processes such as painting and galvanizing.

Portability offers additional flexibility with dot peen marking. Fabricators often times are faced with small batch, unique marking requirements and find it beneficial to take the portable marking unit to the fabrication when the work piece is too large to fit into a bench system.

Don’t Forget Plant Safety

Sometimes lost in the never-ending search for improved productivity is the need to maintain basic safety precautions in all plant operations. Durable Mecco has long been a leader in promoting its “Mecco Safety Tools” in its engineering of marking solutions.

One such recent request came from General Electric to improve the safety of its manual marking applications. In this case, General Electric hand stamp operators were marking large characters with hand stamps and sledge hammers. Per customer request, Durable Mecco designed its newest Safety First Grip for the stamp which provides improved protection to the operator’s hand. The Safety First Grip was designed to be non-intrusive while providing the operator with a much more positive grip on the stamp while still achieving a clean, deep mark.

Another General Electric problem application called for three marks to be made on a steel bracket. The goal in this application was to find a cost effective solution to enhance the consistency and quality of the mark while also improving productivity. Durable Mecco engineered a cost-effective fixture to support the part resulting in improved alignment of mark while also speeding up the marking process. The added benefit of the fixture design was greatly improved operator safety.

Customer Driven One Stop Shop

As marking and identification application requirements have expanded, so to have Durable Mecco’s capabilities and offerings. “A lot of customers use us as a one stop shop and come to us first for marking issues” says Clem Malinowski, General Manager. “More and more we act as marking consultants to help the customer to work through the application and then directing them to the best solution.”

Durable Mecco’s versatility has been showcased as new customer requests have led to an expanded product offering beyond just impact presses, steel stamps, type, roll dies, and dot peen markers. New products include ink jet systems, thermal printers, package date coding type and dies, part marking, tags, I.D. plates, facility signage, and stencils. Durable Mecco has become the “go to” source for many companies seeking marking and identification solutions.

From http://www.buzzle.com/articles/emerging-industry-standards-for-industrial-tool-marking.html

The first and very basic rule of marketing is to catch the attention of the consumer. When talking about the marketing tools, there are many tools which can be used to promote your product. One of these marketing tools is using contests for promoting your products. Contests can be a very easy way of attracting the people to your product, for building your email list and also for building links.

However, one thing that you should understand before presenting your contest is the fact that these contests have mixed reputation with the people. As most of the people believe these contests to be spam so one of the basic considerations before using contests as marketing tool is to attain the trust of the people before persuading them to enter the contest.

The people get to know about your products and your business through contests as the contests give a lot of exposure to your services, brand and your products. Since by holding contest you are bringing a lot of people to your web page, you are actually helping your site to gain the required traffic. Once you implement the contest, it is not a difficult task to convince the people as everyone likes free stuff without doing much of a hard work. It works as a two way motivation; for the people, they get free stuff and for your websites, you get a lot of traffic.

Besides only boosting traffic, another way that these contests benefit you is the fact that they promote your brand by keeping it right in front of people’s eyes and it is one of the best ways of creating list of subscribers. All you need to do is to be smart enough to set the guidelines according to your benefits and needs and then persuade the people to your benefit.

From http://www.buzzle.com/articles/using-contests-as-a-marketing-tool.html

The main aim of writing this type of letter is to compel the targeted customers to go for and try out the goods and services which you or your company are offering. First impression is the last impression. So a nice and catchy couple of sentences in the beginning of the letter will surely encourage the reader to read what goods and services you are offering. A nicely written marketing letter will help determining that “how successful your business is going to be”. Try to keep it short. No one have time to read lengthy letters hence it should be a one-page letter.

While writing a marketing letter, never show that you are doing sales. Pick a particular problem and then try to solve it with your product or services. This is considered to be a most natural way of writing this type of letter. Everything you write in your letter should meet your customer’s needs, wishes, desires, hopes and fear. So always keep in mind what exactly your customers want and prepare a letter according to that. Try to write it in a simple way. It should be like a personal conversation. Avoid using complex sentences. Your main focus should be on the benefits of using your goods and services. In the end never forget to check spelling and grammar.

Here are some marketing letters easily available on internet which can be used while writing an effective letter for your business. Marketing Sales Letter, Insurance Marketing Letter, Product marketing letter, Marketing Proposal Letter, Follow up Marketing Letter, E-marketing letter, Online Marketing Letter, Marketing introduction letter, Real Estate Marketing Letter, Business Marketing Letter, Direct marketing letter, Sample Marketing Letter.

For writing a successful marketing letter, one should use headline which is catchy enough to get readers attention. Then try to create some interest in reader. Once interest is generated then you should turn that interest into his/her desire for the product or services you are offering. Last step is to ask them to take some action.

From http://www.buzzle.com/articles/marketing-letters.html

There is no doubt that traditional marketing strategy like newspaper and radio ads, sponsors, television ads, billboards, internet marketing and even SEO is a great technique of getting information about your products or services across to potential and existing customers . But the distribution of print materials like leaflets, brochures, coupons, circulars, free samples, and magazine has been proven to be very successful and powerful marketing tool to get you message to the doormats of potential customers throughout the UK.

According to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), coverage is growing and now reaches over 26 million UK letterboxes. Expenditure on this type of marketing has also risen in recent time.

Leaflet distribution is an inexpensive and result oriented tool that can be used to stimulate the interest of potential customer particularly because it allows you to prepare a good and eye catching print material which contains details of your product and services and drop them in the doormats of thousands of households.

It is very important to understand the relationship between investment in this type of campaign and ROI. It is commonly argued that a response of 3% from a leaflet distribution is success. I do not totally agree with this because this will of course depends on the price of each item sold, industry, time it takes for a customers to respond to you leaflet campaign etc. Using a practical example, if a plumber gets 3 sales out of 100 leaflets, he/she could make £10,000 and if a Hairdresser gets 3 sales from the same campaign it is highly unlikely he/she will make same amount.

I strongly recommend that you do a good job right from preparing the leaflet to choosing a reputable leaflet distribution company like 4 Seasons Marketing. As an Aberdeen based company, we pride ourselves on our local knowledge and ability of offer guarantee distribution and feedback. Please visit our website as listed below.

Some of the keys to a successful Leaflet Distribution campaign includes ;
1) Planning ahead and making sure print materials are ready on time for distribution
2) Use a good call to action, this could be price reduction, sale, 10% off or CALL NOW for more information
3) Make sure your print material is quality and also staying away from the look of a junk mail
4) Find a way to monitor feedback such as asking customers where they heard about you (if from leaflets distributed, take note of it)
5) Use the service of a reputable leaflet distribution company
From http://www.buzzle.com/articles/leaflet-distribution-aberdeen-a-simple-marketing-tool.html

The promotion of products and services that is carried over the Internet is known as Internet marketing. Lowered marketing costs and distribution of information to a wider range of audience are some of the positive changes brought about by Internet marketing. Websites, emails, forums, blogs and articles are commonly used for Internet advertising and online marketing. Owing to the audio-visual aspects of the Internet media, marketing through the web is more effective. Moreover, web marketing targets a very large audience, thus achieving speedy advertising of products or services. What are the various tools used for web marketing? Which of them are the most effective ones? Let us see.

If you are an Internet marketer, it is necessary for you to understand the importance of putting yourself in the shoes of your prospective customers. In fact, any marketer needs to think from the perspective of his/her potential customers in order to devise the best marketing strategy or apply effective marketing tools. In the literal sense of the term, thinking from the point of view of the customers is not a marketing tool, but it is a marketing tactic. In fact that is the gist of any kind of marketing and web marketing is no exception.

Keywords: Think of what the Internet users do. Yes, they surf the net, browse a number of sites and bookmark their favorite ones. If you want to increase the number of visitors who bookmark your website, it is important to furnish it with authentic content. Do you know who is the first to read your website content? In fact, it is not a human user; it’s a search engine. It is extremely important for a website to rank on leading search engines. Only then can a marketer look forward to increase website traffic, thus achieving business growth. And for a website to rank high, its content needs to contain the most-searched and frequently sought words and phrases known as keywords. Keyword analysis plays a vital role in helping a website rank.

Pay Per Click Advertising: It is an Internet advertising model wherein an advertiser pays if a user clicks on an Internet advertisement. Search engines, advertising networks and websites use this advertising model. In this advertising technique, advertisers bid on keywords. When web page content relevant to the bidden keyword is displayed, advertisements related to it are also displayed, thus creating chances that the web page visitors will click on them. Websites charge advertisers on the basis of the number of clicks the advertisements receive. Google AdWords offers pay-per-click advertising wherein advertisers specify the words and phrases that are likely to trigger their advertisements. Their advertisements are placed in the category of sponsored links on the search results page of Google.

Google AdSense: AdSense is an application run by Google and can be used as an Internet marketing tool by website owners. They can enroll to Google AdSense, whereby they can host text, image or video ads on their websites. The advertisers are charged based on the number of times an advertisement is clicked or on the number of times it appears on the website.

Article Marketing: Articles generated with the application of SEO techniques serve as effective Internet marketing tools. Website owners make use of SEO tips and techniques to search for the most-searched topics and to generate keywords. Articles based on frequently searched topics are generated and published on the websites. The articles often consist of back-links to their website, thus achieving more user visits. Article marketing is often used by small businesses, whereby they submit small articles about their products or services on websites in order to publicize their business.

Blogs and Forums: Blogs and forums give the businesses, an opportunity to interact with their target customers. Through blogs, they can create awareness about their products and services among their customers. Forums serve as platforms for discussions, whereby marketers can interact with their potential customers.

Emails: Small businesses use email marketing to achieve business promotion. Emails sent for the purpose of enhancing or maintaining customer relationship as well as those sent in view of acquiring new customers fall under the category of email marketing. Emails can be made to carry advertisements and commercial messages, whereby, the readers are encouraged to opt for a certain product or service. Emails are one of the most effective Internet marketing tools used today.

Social Networks: Existing social networks are popularly used for business promotion. Businesses aim at increasing brand awareness by spreading their message through social networking websites. The process is known as viral marketing. The use of video clips, Flash games, ebooks as also plain text messages on social networking websites is in wide use today.

These were some of the many effective Internet marketing tools that are used today. For an efficient use of any of the online marketing tools, it is essential for the Internet marketers to devise an effective Internet marketing strategy. The Internet is in itself an effective tool for marketing. Careful planning and an intelligent implementation of some of the best Internet marketing strategies is the key to success over the web.

From http://www.buzzle.com/articles/most-effective-internet-marketing-tools.html