If you want your publication to stand out. We’ve got you covered

OPUS work closely with their customers to provide binding and foiling products. We will help your communication materials to stand out, be durable and reinforce the quality of your brand, products, and services. Our comprehensive range of products, supported by experience and expertise, enables an emotional connection between your merchandise and your customers. Underpinned by our commitment to quality, our applications, and innovative designs, OPUS can help you to increase the attraction, retention, and perceived value of your products.

About Binding and Foiling

Bookbinding

The process of physically assembling a book of codex format from an ordered stack of paper sheets that are folded together into sections called signatures or sometimes left as a stack of individual sheets. Several signatures are then bound together along one edge with a thick needle and sturdy thread. Alternative methods of binding that are cheaper but less permanent include loose-leaf rings, individual screw posts or binding posts, twin loop spine coils, plastic spiral coils, and plastic spine combs. For protection, the bound stack is either wrapped in a flexible cover or attached to stiff boards. Finally, an attractive cover is adhered to the boards, including identifying information and decoration. Book artists or specialists in book decoration can also greatly enhance a book’s content by creating book-like objects with the artistic merit of exceptional quality.

Foiling

Foiling is a finishing technique where heat, pressure and glossy UV are used to bind a thin film of metal (foil) to paper or card. Foiling is generally used to create a memorable and high-quality finish. It’s applied to specific sections of a design rather than the whole design, making it ideal for highlighting text or logos against a contrasting matt background.

  • To stand out from the competition or on a desk/table/display
  • Premium branding
  • Highlight key details
  • Celebratory
  • Personalised gifting

About OPUS

Based in Verwood – OPUS UK Binding and Foiling Limited  is a small but highly productive and innovative company specialising in binding and foiling services. With a team of 6, each employee brings skills and expertise to the delivery of their products.

OPUS also sells printing and foiling goods and consumables, offering excellent service, choice and value without compromising quality or customer care.

OPUS provides its services to many UK household brands, print shops, businesses and educational establishments.

OPUS delivers its services by:

  • Producing quality covers and bindings that enable our customers’ products and services to stand out and reflect the quality and value of the pages inside.
  • Providing choice, speed, and value for money without compromising the quality of our products and services.
  • Offering information, advice, and practical assistance, built on our many years of experience and expertise in the industry.
  • Putting the customer at the heart of what we do:   by listening, hearing, understanding, and responding to their needs, we have built our business on providing a personal approach.
  • Constantly innovating and developing new solutions to ensure our customers demonstrate a remarkable difference, have a competitive edge, and ensure their goods and services stand out.
  • Consistently treating our customers with respect, ensuring we maintain confidentiality and always protecting their brand.
  • Considering the environmental impact across all our services and providing a range of environmentally friendly and ethically sourced products.
  • Valuing and respecting our staff. “We are OPUS” is exactly that: each member of our team has a critical role in ensuring our customer satisfaction.

We have:

  • A range of over 2500 stock-keeping units from machines to consumable’s
  • OPUS sales and services used machines
  • 30 years of expertise and experience

 The Emotional Connection:

What makes OPUS unique is the ability to take a customer’s product, and through covering, binding and foiling, create an emotional connection with their customers. But what does this emotional connection mean?

We buy with their eyes. When making a significant purchase, we do not make decisions purely by a description online or a piece of paper. We like to touch, feel, smell, hold, interact and see the product. Every day we make decisions subconsciously. Watch anybody buying clothing, picking up items in a supermarket, buying a new car or choosing items for the home. You will see these actions.

Making a tangible connection is what is going to separate you from the competition. Companies and organisations will spend thousands of pounds, many hours of work, employing marketing expertise and then crafting a proposition or brand message to be sent out over the Internet or by email straight, hoping that it will stand out in a wall of digital “noise”.

Globally it is estimated that 316 billion emails will be sent each day. On average, a business person can receive over a hundred emails per day that have to be navigated on top of the day job. Globally, it is estimated that there are 1.86 billion websites.  Work schedules become busier and more challenging every day. Therefore, putting your product into a digital arena may mean that all the effort in preparing it comes to nothing.

With our binding and foiling services, we know we can make your products or services stand out.  This approach will take your offer out of the crowded digital space and place it firmly on desks, coffee tables, bookshelves, public areas where they will be picked up, providing an interactive experience for the consumer.

By offering publications finished by OPUS products,  you offer your customers the opportunity to take a break, stop staring at a computer screen and provide them with a relaxed, sensory experience through a printed medium.

But it’s just not having a printed item to share with your customers.  It is even more essential to provide publications with finishings that say something about the quality of the content inside. If it looks and feels great, there is an increased chance that it will be picked up, read and retained.

As human beings, we often have the following traits.

  • We like a deal
     (OPUS – we don’t do cheap, we provide value)
  • We care a lot about what others think
    (OPUS – be seen with a quality product)
  • We care a lot about our identity
    (OPUS – personalisation of products)
  • We love stories
    ( OPUS – the history of print and how the binding and foiling works) 
  • We care more about transformation than information
     (OPUS – the ability to innovate and apply new concepts e.g. Tea Pigs)
  • We buy when we trust
    ( OPUS – the people, team and the under promise and over deliver approach key to trust and confidence)
  • We think with our eyes
    (OPUS – we are all magpies liking shiny things and foiling looks great)
  • We choose the amount of information we want
    ( OPUS – less is more, so let the quality and design do the talking)
  • Decisions are often made connected to our heart
    (OPUS – creating that emotional connection through feel, touch and visuals)
  • We associate more effort with more value
    ( OPUS – if it looks like a lot of care has been taken, it will have perceived value)
  • We use past feelings to make future decisions
    ( OPUS – we can all remember books from when we were young those that have stayed in our memories – from the cover)
  • We love an underdog
    ( OPUS – small enough to care but big enough to cope)
  • We love a free gift
    ( OPUS – we do samples )
  • We like the authentic and unique
    ( OPUS – our 35+ years of experience and expertise will ensure you will not be a “Me Too” company product or brand)
  • We like new features
    ( OPUS – so do we, that’s why we bring the latest products and opportunities to our customers)

Quality binding and foiling products from OPUS can support many of the above and increase the chances that your customer will pick up, read, and retain product or service information.

The case for print v’s digital

Competing with digital

Over the last 20 years, we have seen increasing growth in digital technology to form the backbone of our communication, from emails, websites, social media postings, blogs and reviews.

The space has become increasingly crowded, and knowing what to believe and what to trust becomes more challenging. For example, how can we be sure that customer reviews are genuine? Are the products truly as described? Are the comments made unbiased? How do I trust the source?

The ability to pick up, hold, and read a document negates all of the above. By having the item in your hand, you can decide about the product, the company behind the product, and its commitment to quality.

Digital is NOT always the preferred means of communication.  Many consumers still value paper-based communication.  Many organisations are now increasingly going online or charging if their customers wish to receive paper-based communication. But switching to digital is not always welcome.  Often it is the most vulnerable members of society that depend on traditional, postal, transactional mail.

The move to an online-only society risks leaving older people, the disabled, rural dwellers and those on low incomes disconnected. Organisations need to acknowledge that information on paper is preferred by many consumers and often receives more attention.

Consumers wish to retain the flexibility of postal and electronic communications. However, in reality, we live in an increasingly digital world where electronic and paper-based communications co-exist and are often complementary. Therefore, communication strategies must not only be cost-effective but also recognise consumer choice.

People like engaging with print materials

Although digital seems to offer many benefits, like being immediately adjustable, free to access and interactive, print media is still very much ingrained in consumers’ collective memory. This means that people continue to be attracted to, and willing to read, print media, regardless of its form (e.g. magazines and newspapers, leaflets, brochures, catalogues etc.)

Print stimulates more senses

One exclusive quality that print has and which digital media can never match is how tangible it is. Consumers can browse through pages, feel the paper and even distinguish between specific paper densities and compositions.  For example, a printed item may be printed on a thicker, more porous paper that is easy to notice when compared to the rest of the glossy sheets in a brochure.  Embossing or debossing of materials can help the printed item stand out.  The smell of ink on paper adds to the overall experience of reading something printed. These are important senses that cannot be stimulated in the digital environment – or not yet, at least.

Complex information is better absorbed

Complex information is also better absorbed in print than in digital because people need to locate themselves in the text when looking at complex ideas – and that’s much easier to do in print than in digital.   The tangibility that print has to offer also makes readers pay more attention to the content than digital. This is because readers have to read it; they have to engage with printed content actively.  They have to pick up the printed item, hold it and read it. With digital content, they can passively scroll through it without having to focus too much.

Print can truly captivate readers.

What does print offer that digital certainly doesn’t? An uninterrupted reading experience. This means that there are no distractions for someone who is committed to finish reading physically printed items. Once they start reading, there are no other bits of news, auto-playing videos or pop-ups taking the spotlight off the article. Instead, a reader’s full attention is oriented to that specific content, which guarantees greater engagement with the brand since it is more likely to impact the customer and be remembered by them long-term.

Print is a significant benefit during face-to-face interaction

Many organisations operate within sectors that appreciate face-to-face interaction, relationships and a personal touch. Digital is striving towards more and more personalisation but is still quite some way behind the real thing.  When an organisation or an organisation’s team members come face-to-face with other people, print becomes hugely important. And there are plenty of opportunities for face-to-face physical interaction, such as in events and trade shows, where print media (in its many forms) can be used to an organisation’s advantage.

But print doesn’t allow for personalisation – yes, it does, and OPUS can do this

Personalisation has been shown to increase the relevance of any digital communication, meaning that communications become more effective. Customers also want this personal touch and are willing to part with data to achieve it. However, as we strive for efficiency and provide dynamic content for the here and now, print will fall behind if there isn’t a cost-effective way of personalising it. For example, publishers have attempted to personalise elements of the magazine’s packaging, including its inserts, but it generally becomes a costly process and is abandoned with time.  OPUS can offer a value for money approach to personalising your printed content.

Digital is noisy and crowded

Where print falls short in the personalisation department, it makes up for it in its outright ability to generate awareness and engage the consumer. Print stands out compared to the environment that digital content operates within – a cluttered and noisy place.  Print can rise above the digital noise and reach those who are sometimes protected from the clutter. In addition, print reaches a highly focused audience, where more people will read and see content (including ads) and remember them.

But Digital Focuses On The Content (And Audience)

There’s no getting away from it: printing and delivery costs can be higher regardless of a publication’s readership. So whilst print has some outright benefits, the quality of the overall print product comes down to its quality and content.

Digital Can Demonstrate ROI More Clearly

First of all, digital content is usually easy to create, distribute and, more importantly, measure. It’s this demonstration of Return on Investment (ROI) that marketers have had to address over the past few years: the ability to attribute expenditure to results.  All digital content formats, including ads, can show marketers and publishers the performance of that content, whether it is page views, engagements, impressions, conversations and Click-Through Rates, almost ROI can be measured immediately. But of course, these sorts of metrics can be manipulated, intentionally and unintentionally.

But print feels more legitimate… And secure

Print media is more trustworthy because it cannot be modified or deleted once the news is published. Whereas in digital media, we can change or delete the contents. So, those who run the newspapers and magazines will be extra careful while publishing the news or articles. Hence printed media is more trustworthy than digital media. However, many still have trust issues regarding digital advertising (and sometimes “digital” in general). Security is a big concern for internet users, and if the option is available, some will still prefer a physical copy instead of a digital version.

Some may also value the intimate look and feel of a physical print magazine, which is assigned more value as a product compared to its digital counterpart. The result is that the messages and content presented are more powerful.

OPUS believe that the real gains can come from combining both print and digital media

For many sectors, there will always be a place for traditional printed media. But there is no doubt that the industry isn’t the same as just five years ago.  Print and digital media, in their broadest definitions, can and have thrived without each other. However, they perform best in tandem. The key is understanding what that balance looks like and how to engage readers using both platforms creatively.

Digital has emerged alongside print, and together, both mediums can engage the customers.  By combining channels and media types and adopting a variety of channels for communications, an organisation can reach its audience at a time and place where its customers feel comfortable consuming the content.