This morning I received my business-cards. I made them print-on-demand from Moo.com . Since my activity deals with customization each of my cards is unique and illustrated by a photo of a personalized product.
In the large quantity of online printing suppliers available (hotcards, tasteofinkstudios, premiumcards, alltimeprint, vistaprint), why do I use the service Moo ???
First of all, because this company understand their targeted customers. An audience which is openly creative people, who are now used to represent themselves graphically with avatars and ready to extend this experience in the « real life » with pictures of them at work (business cards)… . 
Imagine the good impression at a meeting where we would be able to choose and give a personal card visually adapted to the contents of the project or the profile of the caller … a mini portfolio always in the pocket … it’s called scoring good points 
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But also because Moo applies « state of the art » of mass-customization theory described in a previous post, taking care of several key success points of this method which goals to provide customized product on the basis of standard one:
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Quality: upon receipt of delivery the first impression received is positive: :
the envelopes and packaging are friendly (slogan: ‘exited? We are’), and the quality of the packaging, in a box that reminds old school slides containers, is beautiful … (The brand, with testimonial and surveys on its blog, takes a true creative common reflection on the importance of packaging for e-business) -
Branding : becoming a Moo customer is to become friend that you will follow on facebook or twitter to have fun or share nice news regularly. Moo adopted a method of direct communication, full of color and images with a constant good mood you’d like to share widely. Sensation supported by the brand that offers 3 codes that can be given to friends to enjoy 20% discount for their first order (Psst! Pass it on!). In marketing it’s called « viral”, but this technique is so often poorly supported by customer satisfaction that it works very rarely. Here the image and the service of the company is consistent with the intent, so it works …
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Innovation :
As soon as the configurator software is flexible and intuitive enough, it is quite possible for the user to make room for his creativity. As this engineer
who decided to print its own QRCode on stickers ready to be applied on its packaging.Innovation supported by Moo since a 2D Datamatrix code is available on a document from the brand. Using a decoder like this for mobile phone, I had a recognition of the original message:
In marketing it is called a positive valuation of the client, but when it’s done, like most of the time, via a fake handwritten letter it is far less fun and rewarding -
Prices and time: I ordered my pack on 13th of May, it was sent on 15th and I received it the 25th … not huge, but given that the printing is done in England and that the French delivery service is not linked to the brand, this delivery period is not too bad. The price is 13 euros for 100 unique and personalized cards, meaning 13 cents per card printed on 300 grammes quality paper … The price for quality service that values your own creativity and personality in an original and effective way. The so-called « personal branding” but in a dynamic and friendly manner.
If you want to make your customized cards you can find inspiration resources on the two best business-cards « trends observatory »:
The web site cardobserver.com : which presents a database of designs with information like manufacturing specifications and the manufacturer for each model, or this site that ranks the card designs by category.
You know of others? Thank you for sharing your experience and comments.
P.S : I will offer my codes 20% discount for moo.com to my 3 next newsletter subscribers to UnSigne
