Archive for ‘Pre-Printed Cards’

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September 16, 2010

Client FAQ: I want a card that my clients will feel special having. How can I make my membership card special?

Client FAQ:
I want a card that my clients will feel special having. How can I make my membership card special?

We love the new designs that are coming out this summer!

What’s IN?

 

· Embossed lettering with silver tipping— An attractive solution for adding some serious dimension to a card



· Colour! Vibrant colours make your card stand out from all the others in your client’s wallet.


· Foil stamped designs offer a touch of class and sophistication!

 

What’s OUT?

· Platinum, silver and gold cards—Trends sway towards fabulous designs over the clichéd gold/silver card

· Large blocks of a single colour– with the photographic quality of digital offset– companies are choosing ‘big message’ images for backgrounds instead!

· Boring typeface—As seen in FIFA’s 2010 logo, fun and funky fonts are making a come back

Thanks for asking & Print on!

image via looneybeancoffee & hardware wholesalers

Posted in Design, FAQ, Industry News, Plastic Cards, Pre-Printed Cards, Pre-Printing 101 | Leave a Comment »

September 4, 2010

ICMA welcomes CardsPlus with open arms


CardsPlus is proud to join the International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA) this year!

Joining the select few of the world’s finest card manufacturers is a great kudos to our team who has worked hard to ensure that the cards leaving our factory is only of the highest international standard.
What is the ICMA?

According to ICMA, “The International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA) serves the dynamic card industry and the various companies and organizations involved in manufacturing and personalizing these cards. Billions of cards now fill pockets and purses throughout the world. As the complexity of card manufacturing and applications has increased, so have the production, standards, quality, security and environmental issues surrounding the cards. The need to bring together these diverse elements of the card industry led to the formation of the ICMA.”

What does this mean to our clients?

If your preferred plastic card supplier is a member of the ICMA you can rest assured that the provider has met and exceeded the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) standards. The ICMA ensures that all of it’s members adheres to a strict set of guidelines that consistently provides high standards and excellent quality.

We are very excited to add the ICMA’s recommendation to our printed plastic cards! Want to see you for yourself what all the fuss is about? Why not drop us an email?

Posted in CardsPlus Services, Gift Cards, Industry News, Loyalty Cards, Plastic Cards, Pre-Printed Cards, Pre-Printing 101, PVC cards | Leave a Comment »

May 14, 2010

Client FAQ: What makes a Printed Card “High Quality”?

Good Question! Using printed cards for branding in a loyalty, membership or access control programmes speaks volumes your company. Ensure that the card in your user’s hand will uphold the name you have carefully established.

These are a few features to look for in your offset cards to indicate their quality:

· Print Quality Are your colours crisp and sharp? Or do they bleed into each other? Colours shouldn’t bleed into other colours (unless your design requires it!)

· Lamination Does the top lamination bubble or peel straight out of the box? This is called de-lamination and occurs when the plastic isn’t given enough time or pressure for the molecules to bond sufficiently.

· Gloss Are the cards are reflective and glossy? A glossy card indicates the quality of plates used to bond your card.

Thanks for asking & Print on!

Posted in Design, FAQ, Plastic Cards, Pre-Printed Cards, Pre-Printing 101, Printing 101, PVC cards | 1 Comment »

September 16, 2009

A Different Angle on Recycled Plastic PVC Cards

In the ever growing environmentally conscious world we live in, awareness as to how we are impacting the world is taking a forefront in our consumerism. Because of this awareness, there is a very strong marketing strategy taking place which urges consumers to “think green” and make choices as to how their purchases impact the world.

Companies, on all fronts, are using this angle to market themselves anew – pushing products that are considered “environmentally friendly” and “green”. This designation, however is ambiguous (see our recent post on the “corn card”). In addition, it can be narrow minded, not taking into consideration the overall impact.

A new article has been posted by CR80 News regarding one aspect of the “green movement” in plastic card printing – using recycled pvc plastic-gives a balanced glance at many of the issues involved. Using recycled materials is of course, a responsible approach to good consumerism – “reduce, reuse, recycle”, however to make a truly educated decision as to whether to chose recycled plastic over “virgin pvc”, one must take into full consideration all angles and implications, then base a decision on these facts. Being bullied and guilted into spending more money for the sake of one companies new marketing angle, is not a responsible way to move the world into thoughtful consumerism.

At Cards Plus, it is our desire to be responsible citizens. We offer a range of plastics to choose from – some more environmentally friendly than others. We also recycle our waste material whenever possible. However, it is not our desire to jump on the newest environmental bandwagon, for the sake of seeming to be “green” when in fact, it is not. Yes, we must be responsible. Yes, we must take care of the world we have been blessed with – but our clients will never be guilted or bullied into putting their hard earned money into a product that does not fit their needs and requirements. This is our committment to them, and to you.

Posted in ID Card Technology, Plastic Cards, Pre-Printed Cards | Leave a Comment »

November 1, 2008

Giving your Membership the Personal Touch

Business in today’s economy demands creative thinking. When prices must be raised, how does a company maintain its customer base – adding value to its services-without it costing a fortune? Advertising has always been an option, but this can be a pricey venture.

One solution is to offer your clients a sense of belonging and additional value to continuing their relationship with your business. Membership cards and Loyalty cards are a simple, cost effective solution. The plastic card is a minature billboard and helps to build your brand – and shows your client that you value their business or membership.

The standard membership card or loyalty card can be amped up a notch (and be made more secure) by adding features such as signature panels, personalization and magnetic encoding.

At Cards Plus we offer a variety of solutions for our clients to add that personal touch to their plastic cards. Full service printing – printing each batch of cards, large or small quantities, complete with personalized details and encoding if needed; Pre-printed cards with batch printing personalization; or perhaps purchasing an affordable printer to print your own cards at the point of service – all of these options, and more are part of the portfolio we offer to our clients.

Making our clients look good is our goal. And we would love the opportunity to speak to you to see if one of our solutions might fit your needs.

You can contact us at Cards Plus by calling 086 16 CARDS (in South Africa) or +27 11 894 3914 and one of our friendly staff will be happy to assist you.

Posted in Plastic Card Printers, Pre-Printed Cards | 1 Comment »

June 27, 2008

Gift Cards – Marketing Tool Extraordinaire

At Cards Plus, we have always believed that something as seemingly simple as a small plastic card could carry benefits far and above its diminutive size.

Aside from the obvious durability over the old fashioned paper issued gift certificates of old and the advantage of full colour advertisment, custom printed gift cards carry benefits for both the retailer and the purchaser, offering the perfect “Win-Win” situation that every business desires.

In a recent article by Fastmoving, editor Karen Naude lists the reasons that gift cards have become an invaluable marketing tool,
“The benefits of what effectively boils down to a pre-selling of revenue lie in an exchange of small investment for good return. And that return is not purely monetary. Earning money in advance of the card being redeemed translates into a double whammy winning. Indeed, customers in Europe and the US spend between 40% and 140% more than the face value of the card. And, because they’re buying a gift for themselves, and because part of that cost is already covered, they also tend to select more expensive items.

But the gift card scheme also serves the retailer in less tangible, less measurable ways. It simultaneously procures for the retailer a peripheral marketing system whereby store customers transform others into same-store customers – at no extra cost to the retailer. Retailers also have the option of using the gift card as an employee incentive. And what’s in it for the bestower of the gift? Supreme convenience!

In South Africa, nearly every major retailer offers gift cards, and the offering is proving popular. Top end retailer Woolworths, for instance, launched its gift card last October, and celebrated the issue of its millionth card after just seven months. The Pick n Pay Gift Card was launched in December. With its focus on convenience and safety, this card is designed to be as much a gift to oneself as to another.

At CardsPlus, we are pleased to offer solutions to our clients, offering not only the pre-printed card itself, but a software for small to medium size retail establishments that enables them to institute their own gift card program.

Our helpful staff assist our clients in determining exactly which card features available would be best suited for their needs and budget. No minimum orders as well as our QuickCards -less than 10 day turn around time makes launching such a program a less daunting task.

Contact us at 086 16 CARDS or +27 11 894 3915 for more information and a personalized quote on your preprinted card needs. You can also check out our company at http://www.cardsplus.co.za

Posted in Gift Cards, Industry News, Pre-Printed Cards, Pre-Printing 101, PVC cards | 1 Comment »

August 28, 2007

Pre-Printing of Cards- an Introduction

At CardsPlus, we believe there are two key ingredients to a successful Pre-Printed card project:

  •     Project Management
  •     Card Printing Technology

Project Management
Cards Plus has many years of experience project managing large and small projects. We treat every Pre-Printed card job as a project. We assign a project manager that will be involved in every step of the process with you and work diligently from the art preparation to making sure all your specifications are correctly met. We ensure that you get you proof within 24 hours (in digital format) to ensure that the project does not sit unnoticed. We  work diligently to service you and our goal is to exceed your expectations in every step of the project.

Card Printing Technology

We offer a couple of ways to produce pre-printed cards. For the lower volume of cards, we suggest dye-sublimation Retransfer printing. This type of technology is suitable for ID Cards and card orders of 100 cards or less. We can print full colour on the front and full colour on the back. We also offer a cheaper option that allows for monochrome print (black, blue, green, red, white, gold and silver) on a standard white credit card size card.

Our standard lead-time for these types of cards are 5 days.

We also offer an option for larger volume of cards which also offers better print quality. This option offers a lower cost. We can print full colour on the front and back, we also offer guilloche printing, foil stamping, UV Ink printing just to name a few. Our standard lead-time for these types of cards are 2-4 weeks.

There are many advantages of a Cards Plus Pre-Printed card, including:

  •     Durability

1.0 mil overlay to provide an extremely durable card

  •     Resolution

This high printing resolution will make your images dramatically sharper and if you require security printing i.e guilloche or micro printing we can accommodate those needs

  •     Speed

A Pre-Printed card allows you to just print the data that is varying on the card, since the background image is already printed. This can sharply increase your productivity of your card printing process.

Card Plus’  technology for producing your card is state of the art and includes the following:

  •     The process includes a fully digital pre-press, which allows for the litho plates to be 100% digitally created (many plants still use film). The digital litho plates will ensure highest quality images. What that means at the end of the day, there are NO SETUP COSTS.
  •     The Litho offset printing equipment is also fully digital and uses the most advanced technology available for plastic card printing. The colour, density and litho plates are computer controlled, which will ensure an exact reproduction of your cards.
  •     The cards are cut using an optical registration system that checks for accuracy on three axes to guarantee accurate cuts.
  •     The cards are inspected using a fully computer controlled optical inspection system that accurately assures the highest card quality.
  •     The plant has achieved the highest quality designation – ISO 9001.
  •     The plant produces cards for American Express, Visa and MasterCard with a huge capacity of cards per year.

{edited: We now offer fully digital offet printed cards!}

We can accomodate almost any size and type of pre-printed card. We work with worldwide industry leaders from financial institutions, casinos, loyalty card managers, retailers, restaurants, hotels, airlines, schools, governments, libraries, and more.

It doesn’t matter if you currently have a paper based, laminated plastic or even no membership cards at all, we are sure that Cards Plus can assist you in shaping your card requirements.

You demand the quality, innovation and creativity to make your card stand out above the rest. It is a relationship, touch point, or communication piece to your customer.

Cards Plus is the company to meet your needs. Our streamlined process gives customers competitively priced products without sacrificing the quality and technology needed to succeed in business today.

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Posted in Pre-Printed Cards, Pre-Printing 101, PVC cards | Leave a Comment »

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