The effectiveness of print as a communication tool is an important issue to many at the moment, especially with the popularity of the Internet looming over print material. 

How one measures a print’s effectiveness is usually pretty straightforward depending on which medium you’re discussing.  For example, in a newspaper or magazine print advertisement one would measure the print’s effectiveness by the number of people who show up for the advertised item and how many items were sold during the advertised time allowed. 

For a Washington, DC printer of books, the prints effectiveness is also straightforward, book publishers track sales or the number of printed books, while magazine publishers track subscription and circulation through newsstands as well, this also includes library, doctor and dentist subscriptions.

Catalog publishers track the sale of catalog items and now most catalogs have ID codes printed on the backs which are required when placing an order to help track the catalog.  Millions more catalogs are printed every day than are looked at or ordered from.  The catalog industry is the one print material that is suffering the most because of the Internet.  Many former catalogs are now online and every real-world brick-and-mortar store seems to have an online store as well.

However graphic designers, whose work appears on many print products typically, leave the effectiveness and tracking of the print material up to their clients.  The gauge of a print’s effectiveness is generally an indirect method such as retaining a client versus losing a client.

A Virginia printing company may specialize in printing promotional products in which case tracking the popularity of re-orders would be a good gauge of the print’s effectiveness.  Printed promotional items such as gift boxes, cup holders, name patches, sportswear, sports bottles, lanyards, golf items, key holders, caps and even glitter gel for face and body, each item with a company’s logo prominently printed where everyone could see it as the item is being used by employees, customers and every day people who might have happen to pick up the promotional item at a trade show.