Press Release

DHL DELIVERS THE SPIRIT OF THE HOLIDAY SEASON TO U.S. TROOPS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Express Delivery Company Partners with New York Communities for Annual Trees for Troops Charitable Program    DHL is partnering with local communities in New York to deliver live holiday trees and decorations to U.S. troops stationed in the Middle East through DHL's annual Trees for Troops charitable program. This program has collected and shipped thousands of holiday trees, lights, ornaments, menorahs and messages of support to the brave men and women serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bahrain and Kuwait since 2004.    Local businesses, organizations, private citizens and nurseries have joined forces with DHL in donating and delivering 750 trees and holiday decorations overseas. THE NEW YORK official send-off events hosted by DHL in New York was on December 3rd.    Some of the companies that teamed up with DHL for this send off included Dee's Nursery in Oceanside, New York, the New York State Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and other members of the local New York metro community who donated hundreds of trees and holiday decorations to the program. "Santa Sacks" filled with thousands of holiday cards written by local school children were sent along with the shipment. The December 3rd send-off began at Dee's Nursery followed by the movement of the shipment to DHL's gateway at John F. Kennedy International Airport.  The event moved inside to a room adorned with Holiday Decorations.  WL Concepts & Production, Inc. a Signage, Graphics and Display firm provided full holiday regala for this event.  Their expertise in visual merchandising paid off with a beautifully decorated Large Christmas Tree.  This one large tree was decorated with specially displayed Teddy Bears, unusal ornaments, and an attention popping display of DHL Trucks with loads set up on a track around the tree to highlight DHL.  Five smaller trees included DHL model planes as part of the decorations.  Several Wreaths and Garland also adorned the room.  These visual displays and holiday decorations are just one of the many projects completed by the gifted and talented team members of WL Concepts & Production for DHL. DHL launched its annual Trees for Troops program in December 2004, when Jim Adelis, a New York businessman whose son was stationed in Iraq at the time, reached out to DHL to assist in transporting a shipment of trees to the Middle East. In November and December 2004, with the help of the U.S. Army Reserve 77th Regional Readiness Command, Dee's Nursery and the local New York metro community, DHL delivered two shipments featuring a total of 135 trees and holiday decorations from JFK to troops stationed at Camp Anaconda in Balad, Iraq.

Highlights, Excerpts and literary license taken from DHL press release Written by:  Marian Keilson of WL Concepts & Production, Inc

Customer tastes change quickly and organizations that don't regularly update their look may get left behind. The balance between staying fresh and alienating loyal customers is a tricky one, but a challenge WL Concepts is prepared to help with.

Create a Fresh Public Face

Organizations may not realize how detrimental an outdated look can be. Often the problem is not obvious. Instead it amounts to a steady drop in revenues as customers turn to more modern rivals for their needs. A company that doesn't revise its visual displays now and then is going to seem old fashioned to the buying public.

Invigorate your organization by giving your visual displays a face-lift. A bold new image for your organization sends the message that you are an industry leader. It attracts a generation of new customers and drives up traffic in your business. This lucrative business investment has the added benefit of giving new energy to your employees as you create a more pleasant and attractive working environment.

Maintain Your Current Image of Quality

Consider carefully what kinds of changes you want to implement. If you make revolutionary alterations to your business's visual displays, it may not seem like the same organization even to loyal customers. You run the risk of endangering client loyalty as they lose touch with the familiar aspects of your company.

Determine what aspects of your organization's visual identity must be preserved. Your company logo is an obvious one but there are likely to be others. It might be the fonts used on your signs, the decor's color scheme or any number of other possibilities. Keeping these elements in your redesigned image appeals to existing customers on an unconscious level, making them feel comfortable with the changes.

Let WL Concepts Design Your New Look

Our many years of designing and manufacturing visual displays has taught us a lot about the subtle effects of even small changes to a company's decor. It is amazing how much another color, a change in lettering, or a slightly different arrangement of elements in a display completely change the feeling it creates in observers. These are concepts that must be learned through extensive experience.

WL Concepts brings our experience to your design project. If you aren't sure what type of visual displays you need to accomplish your goal, we can create the entire design from scratch. On the other hand if you already have a complete concept developed, we will be happy to manufacture it as directed or to offer you advice to make your great design even better.

Now is the ideal time to revitalize your business. As our country moves out of this economic downturn, an updated company image sends the message that your organization is poised to enter a new era of success.

Internet shopping has become a serious threat to some types of brick and mortar stores. Although some pundits predict the doom of the neighborhood shop, there are techniques stores can use to remain competitive. An important part of that strategy is WL Concepts' display signage.

Signage and Decor Are Key

Successful retail outlets know impulse shopping is a vital part of a store's profitability. This doesn't just mean a shopper who adds a candy bar to his basket at the checkout counter. It also means attracting walk-by customers who had planned to buy online. The look of your business, inside and out, is a large part of drawing in new customers.

Imagine a shopper who is planning to buy a DVD player from a store on the web. As he's walking along on another errand, he sees the display signage for an electronics store. He realizes if he buys that DVD player from the store, he can start using it right away instead of waiting for delivery. That instant gratification is something online stores will never be able to offer.

Educate Customers on Shopping Locally

If you want customers to shop in your store, you need to tell them why they should do so before they even ask themselves the question. Display signage should remind shoppers why buying from you is better than buying online.

Shopping locally stimulates the economy. Why should shoppers fill the pockets of storeowners who live on the other side of the world when their money can go right back into their own community? If your business is involved with a local charity organization, be sure to advertise that on your display signage so shoppers can see a direct connection between the money they spend at your store and helping people in need.

Provide Exceptional Service

Although display signage is a vital part of a store's success, it's essential to success to back up high quality signage with good service. Online stores are limited as to how much personal service they can offer. Being able to chat with a representative online or over the phone is nothing like face-to-face service.

Brick and mortar stores have higher expenses than online shops, so trying to compete in price is not always an option. Instead, offer a greater value than internet stores can. Friendly attitudes, assistance before and after the sale, and genuine interest in your customers will be remembered long after customers forget whether they got something on sale or not.

Despite what some pundits might say, traditional brick and mortar stores aren't going anywhere. They may need to adopt new strategies, but customers will always want the intangible benefits of shopping in local stores.

Marketing can be the difference between success and failure for your business, but that doesn't mean you have to spend a lot of money on it. Display signage by WL Concepts is an inexpensive way to reach new customers.

Get a Lot of Promotion at a Low Cost

Display signage is a marketing technology as old as business itself. For all the advances we have made, no marketing technique has been discovered that matches the promotional power of a simple sign. One of its advantages is that once you reach a customer, all that person has to do is open the door and walk in. Customers who see a television commercial or newspaper ad don't have that immediate access to your services.

Unlike other marketing methods, you don't have to keep paying for the advertising you get from WL Concepts signs. You don't have monthly leasing costs like billboards or spot fees on radio or television ads. Your company's sign keeps your business in the eye of the public year after year.

Tips for Great Signage Design

Display signage might seem simple, but you need to be sure your sign is saying what you want it to. A bad sign is going to do more harm than good to your business.

The main consideration is who your audience is. The visual displays we design for pedestrian traffic are very different from displays for automobile traffic. If a passing motorist has only a second to see your display signage, you need something simple and clean. Foot traffic has more time to read the sign so you can use a more complex design.

We've found plain lettering to be more effective on signs than complex, busy fonts. The fancy fonts look nice but can be hard to read. If the customer can't make out the name of your business, the sign isn't very effective.

Display Signage Position Options

Great display signage won't work if it faces out on an empty alley. Positioning your new sign is another important factor in using your signs effectively. Many businesses use signs perpendicular to their storefronts to catch the eyes of passing pedestrians, while others would use wall-mounted displays to grab the attention of traffic approaching from the front.

Lighting is another key component. Even if your business isn't typically open after dark, your sign continues to announce your company's presence to passing traffic even if your doors are closed for the night. Many city areas have different populations in the evenings than during the work day, so a well-lit sign reaches a whole new segment of the consumer population.

Don't give customers a chance to get bored with your display signage. Our brains have a way of filtering out things we see all the time, and that means you aren't getting the promotional capability you need out of your sign. Change the sign now and then to draw people's attention back to your business.

Modern computer technologies allow WL Concepts to produce large format printing products such as vinyl banners easily and inexpensively. Our banners provide a level of visibility to your business that other types of display signage can't match.

Using Banners Outdoors

Some customers use our large format printing to produce outdoor displays. WL Concepts uses only the best weather-resistant materials and inks to produce banners that are durable even in harsh conditions. Banners allow you expand on messages being sent by your company's architectural signage.

One advantage of banners over other types of signage is placement. Banners can be mounted on surfaces or poles that can't handle the weight of a more substantial sign. Many cities allow businesses to mount banners on locations such as light poles and locations where other types of signage would not be allowed.

Clients who order other types of large signage often order banner signs as well. Since banners can be produced quickly, they are effective temporary signs while the primary signage is being produced. Other customers use inexpensive WL Concepts banners as their main signage, forgoing traditional signage altogether.

Banners Are Valuable Indoor Signage

Our large format printing works even better inside your business, where the smaller space focuses customer attention on the banner's message. These large displays can be used as decorative accents or as functional signs, labeling each department or announcing sales inside the store.

Clients come to us looking for alternatives to painted decor. Our quick turnaround on large format printing and the ease of installation means your company's walls can be decorated more quickly than a painting contractor can manage. Banners can be moved to keep the look of the business fresh, or can be taken down and put up as seasons or customer tastes change. Making these changes with painted decor would be prohibitively expensive, but WL Concepts banners can be used over and over.

Using Banners as Promotional Gifts

Rather than just using our large format printing to create signs, some customers have us produce promotional artwork they will give as gifts to clients or business partners. Once we have a design we can easily produce as many copies as needed. These giant posters make unusual and memorable souvenirs, standing out from the usual keychains and coffee mugs.

We recommend banners intended as promotional gifts to be designed as artwork first and marketing products second. If the product is too overtly promotional, it will just end up in the trash. You want to create a beautiful piece that recipients will be proud to hang up, but with a subtle promotional message such as your company logo.

WL Concepts large format printing services make a great supplement to your organization's existing signage and promotional efforts. 

Marketing can be the difference between success and failure for your business, but that doesn't mean you have to spend a lot of money on it. Display signage by WL Concepts is an inexpensive way to reach new customers.

Get a Lot of Promotion at a Low Cost

Display signage is a marketing technology as old as business itself. For all the advances we have made, no marketing technique has been discovered that matches the promotional power of a simple sign. One of its advantages is that once you reach a customer, all that person has to do is open the door and walk in. Customers who see a television commercial or newspaper ad don't have that immediate access to your services.

Unlike other marketing methods, you don't have to keep paying for the advertising you get from WL Concepts signs. You don't have monthly leasing costs like billboards or spot fees on radio or television ads. Your company's sign keeps your business in the eye of the public year after year.

Tips for Great Signage Design

Display signage might seem simple, but you need to be sure your sign is saying what you want it to. A bad sign is going to do more harm than good to your business.

The main consideration is who your audience is. The visual displays we design for pedestrian traffic are very different from displays for automobile traffic. If a passing motorist has only a second to see your display signage, you need something simple and clean. Foot traffic has more time to read the sign so you can use a more complex design.

We've found plain lettering to be more effective on signs than complex, busy fonts. The fancy fonts look nice but can be hard to read. If the customer can't make out the name of your business, the sign isn't very effective.

Display Signage Position Options

Great display signage won't work if it faces out on an empty alley. Positioning your new sign is another important factor in using your signs effectively. Many businesses use signs perpendicular to their storefronts to catch the eyes of passing pedestrians, while others would use wall-mounted displays to grab the attention of traffic approaching from the front.

Lighting is another key component. Even if your business isn't typically open after dark, your sign continues to announce your company's presence to passing traffic even if your doors are closed for the night. Many city areas have different populations in the evenings than during the work day, so a well-lit sign reaches a whole new segment of the consumer population.

Don't give customers a chance to get bored with your display signage. Our brains have a way of filtering out things we see all the time, and that means you aren't getting the promotional capability you need out of your sign. Change the sign now and then to draw people's attention back to your business.