2011...a Summer to Remember

July and August are supposed to be fairly slow months for printers and related industries…at least that seems to be the “old” normal. People are on vacation, kids are out of school and since I remember, there was just a little more relaxation associated with those summer months. So as I read an article in WhatTheyThink,  (premiere Print industry news and analysis) by Dr. Joe Webb, he  talked about the changing climate in the industry, and that the summer of 2011 would be a great year to keep our nose to the grindstone and figure out our future strategy. As a matter of fact, he predicted that we will all remember the summer of 2011 in 5 years for either doing something or not doing something when we look back and measure our success in 2016. I’ll come back to this point later, but the reason I’m writing this is to demonstrate how we are learning to integrate new tools into big projects.

So, we do a lot of work for a good sized retirement community in Ohio, and I’ve known for a while that they were going to go through a major re-branding. Well, it finally started to happen this summer. Actually, it was a very subtle re-branding, but they did put all of their divisions under the same name, so the look and feel was consistent throughout the whole company, using just color variations to differentiate the different divisions. At first I didn’t think it was to big a deal, but as I developed a spreadsheet on all the different communities, facilities and so on,  I realized this was a big project. There were over 15 different places (versions as we call them), each with an average of 12 to 15 products, ranging from over 200 different Business Cards (we did all the typesetting) to all sized envelopes to marketing sheets & letterheads. And to make things interesting, they were all printed in 3 or 4 very specific PMS colors.

I don’t want to be boring with technical details, but (just for a saecond) lets look a little deeper at a single product……9 x 12 envelopes, 15 different versions, some 3 colors, some 4 colors, and the colors change throughout. In all, there were a total of 5 different PMS colors used; to keep the colors consistant, we had a 5lb can of each color pre-made. Then we dicided to run everything on the 5 color press. Being on a 5 color, we were able to ink up 5 towers and just use the towers we needed for that specific product, then switch to a different mix when required. 

As stated earlier, we made a spread sheet of all the products and shared it with everybody involved in the sales, production and delivery on Google Docs. Between the spread sheet and our own order system (Printsmith), that allowed everybody involved to look at the project as a whole, or dig down to any specific detail, especially the guys who had to package and deliver everything…it went to so many different people and locations. And the UPS on-line system, along with our own systems delivery function was ultra cool in being able to send out delivery notices prior to the customer receiving them with a tracking number.

Snapshot of a On-Line catalog

Our next step is to build all of these products into an on-line catalog designed specifically for this customer. We will orginize it by division and then by product. If they pickout a 6 x 9 envelope, there will be a drop down menu to pick out the facility that will automatically populate all the fields with the correct information for that facility. They can then look at a proof and place the order and pick out their preference of delivery and payment. These systems do a lot and will become more and more common, especially for features like reviewing order history for diffrent products or replacing a closet full of inventory with just-in-time ordering.

So really, this job was not uncommon at all. But going back to the point at the begining of the story, 2011 is the time to view jobs like this a little differently. The point is not the technical details (boring!), but the  point is that we have to understand our customers needs like never before: eliminate as many un-nessesary customers touchs as possible, understand that everybody is doing more with less, so getting printed or marketing material correctly and at a fair price is Key. This is the new reality, and you know what…it’s not going away, its just coming at us stronger and faster every day.

When jobs flow smooth for us, it saves you money.The easiest orders for us to write up, and the ones with the least chance of mistakes are orders that come in over our Internet storefront.  When we can do something in a lot less time with less of a chance for mistakes, it ends up costing the customer less. So why don’t all of our customers have storefront catalogs set up with us? That’s a good question for 2010. Actually, there’s a fair amount of work on the front end and certain parameters that need to be met, so lets explore the costs and the barriers holding us back.

First, lets look at one basic example of what a catalog on our Internet store front does.When we have a customer that orders certain items a lot, say business cards, that is a good candidate. And with business cards, where certain elements like names, phone numbers and emails change from card to card, they are still perfect. So after we identify the items that you order a regular basis, we make a catalog of them, say business cards, letterheads and envelopes. Then we identify the parameters of the job (ink colors,  correct paper and the usual quantities you order).  After we have identified all of the specifications we apply a cost to the different quantities and now we have a catalog with 3 items in it (letterheads, Envelopes and Business Cards), with the option to order different quantities at different prices.

Next comes the more difficult part of it, adding the variable data (if your product requires it). On your business cards, we will have a part of the page where you can type out the name of the person you want to order the cards for, along with any other variables that we have determined would change on your companies cards. These will usually be things like the phone number and extension, email and title. Of course, since you want your companies business cards to appear consistent, things like the logo and it’s placement, the fonts used are all pre-programed to look the way they always do.After we get it all set up, it’s very easy to order these cards; you open your catalog, pick out business cards, type in the name and variable information, push view proof. You can print out the proof if need be or just approve it from the screen, and then just push place order and fill in where you want them shipped to and how you want to pay for it.

Back at the shop, we receive the order with all the important information, a print file that’s already been proofed, and we just take it right to production. That’s why we can afford to discount these items more than if we had all the order writing and typesetting and proofing to do. Now that said, this is a fairly simple scenario but it really stands as a good example of how these catalogs work. One other cool feature of these catalogs is that you can see a history of what you have ordered. That makes re-orders very simple and if you re-order contains something variable like a business card, you don’t have to re-set and re-proof the information…It’s all there from last time.

Our push for 2010 is to figure out what customer’s catalogs make sense for and talk to them about setting one up. In a very competitive print market, there are 2 things we can control with these catalogs…getting things done correct and offering the best value we each dollar spent. In many cases, there is no better way to achieve that than a catalog on our internet Store Front. Call us and talk about it if we don’t call you first.