Frogs That Print

Here’s the theory: typical print shop owners are like frogs. The question is whether that’s a flat, sun-bleached road-killed frog, a steamy hard-boiled frog or a happy, thriving frog. What type of frog are you?

Before we get to the frog thing, we need to take a simple look at the progression of print shop printing: 

• Thirty years ago everyone did only offset printing,
• Twenty years ago, some printers started digital printing, but it was still mostly offset,
• Ten years ago, many printers were doing offset and digital - and many “digital only” quick printers were popping up,
• Now, more and more print shops are dumping their offset equipment and outsourcing their offset printing…keeping the digital printing in-house

Of course, there are always exceptions, but you get the general idea. There's no question that digital printing is overtaking offset printing at an accelerating rate. There’s no question that the face (and location) of the printing competition is rapidly morphing. In the “offset days”, printers could identify virtually all of their competitors. The internet and the “digital” explosion, however, have made the competitive environment much broader and more complex: on-line print providers, office supply stores, mail houses and letter shops, mailing stores, the post office, integrated marketers, quick print shops, and even some customers (doing their own digital printing).

What kind of frog are you?

Flat, sun-bleached road-killed frogs - These are print shop owners offering only (or mainly) offset printing. Running back-and-forth across the highway to chase a shrinking number of offset opportunities, it’s only a matter of time until…splat…offset printing becomes a money-losing proposition (if it isn’t already).  

Steamy hard-boiled frogs - These are digital printers offering only static printing. They sit contentedly in their pan of water…but, they don’t see that the competition has set the burner on “high”. They adjust to the increasing water temperature until one day they find themselves financially boiled.

Happy, thriving frogs - These are digital printers that recognize the result of sitting in water racing to a boil. They realize customers increasingly need and use data to communicate...and to print those communications. They understand that they can get out of the hot water, and into a happier place, by making data and communication easier, more efficient and more profitable for customers. 

OK. Perhaps it’s a silly analogy. We apologize if you don’t like being compared to a frog, but here' the reality check:

• Anybody can have a digital press these days
• The barriers to digital printing are already very low and falling
• Do you sit in boiling water or are you in a happy data-digital place?
• Do web sites, banners, promotional items or email services put much work through your digital press?

See how we can help you out of hot water.

CPrint, Double Wides and Insourcing

We recently met up with John Giles at the CPrint conference. The conference is always great - learning as much from the attendees as the presenters. Moreover, John is the only person we know capable of interjecting doublewide trailers into a discussion about print shops.

John’s epistle in the May 2012 edition of Quick Printing magazine makes a strong argument for outsourcing a variety of work to broaden service offerings, to increase profits or both. However, we suggest there is at least one case where insourcing (the opposite of outsourcing) may be advantageous.

Consider the print shop owner who faces a minimum charge of $120 or more at the mail house. It’s probably hard to do many small (like 350 piece) postcard jobs profitably at that rate. Outsourcing the address presorting and inkjet printing costs the print shop owner $120. Alternatively, the print shop owner could outsource the address presorting and have VDP print files created at the same time for as little as $60. He prints the pre-addressed VDP files, cuts, sorts and delivers the job to the Post Office - “insourcing” the address printing and mailing process and reducing job costs by $60 or more.

You’re probably thinking, “Yeah, but that’s just trading one type of outsourcing for another.” It might seem that way. Outsourcing the address presorting to the mail house or another service company is certainly similar. However, rather than the mail house inkjet printing the addresses, the print shop prints pre-addressed on its own digital press. The print shop also does the sorting of the pieces in to mail trays and delivering to the Post Office. Therefore, the address presorting is a push and the printing and mailing are “insourced”. Two out of three is a majority, and the bottom line is that the print shop saves money by “insourcing” the mailing process.

Insourcing the mailing process has some other advantages including:

- Avoiding “rush” charges

- Better print quality

- No “overs” to print, and

- Not disclosing print customer identities.

Sure hope we didn’t steal the wheels off John’s outsourcing double wide. 

Are You a Redundant Printer?

We don’t mean redundant as in not needed. What we mean by "redundant printer" is one who needlessly prints the same piece twice. Redundancy can be funny (visualize belt and suspenders), it can be good or it can be a waste of time, effort and money. We’ll look at the ways redundancy can be good or funny and then let you decide if there is anything good or funny (or useful) about redundant printing.

You Can Tune a Piano but You Can’t Tuna Fish

Why do people talk about tuna fish? What’s a tuna if not a fish? No one talks about salmon fish or trout fish. This type of redundancy (called Pleonasm) has found its way into everyday usage. Here are a few others:

“…receive your free gift” - We hear this so often, we ignore the silliness of it. How can anything be a gift if it isn’t free?

“hot water heater” - If you have hot water, do you need to heat it more? Perhaps, it would be more precise to call it a cold water heater, or maybe just leave it at water heater.

There’s another type of linguistic redundancy described on the internet as RAS syndrome (or “Repetitive Acronym Syndrome” syndrome). Do you have RAS syndrome? If you are guilty of using any of the following terms, you definitely have it:

“ATM machine” - Automatic Teller Machine machine

“LCD display” - Liquid Crystal Display display

“Pin number” - Personal Identification Number number

“VDP printing” - Variable Data Printing printing (we know we have RAS)

"Please RSVP" - RSVP is French for répondez s'il vous plaît, or "respond if it pleases you". So, we have "Please respond if it pleases you". Maybe sticking with English acronyms would cut down on RAS.

The What Failed?

There are circumstances when redundancy is good or even critical. Commercial airplanes have redundant control systems to avoid becoming expensive falling objects should the primary controls fail. Hospitals have redundant electrical power supplies (such as backup generators) since doctors aren’t too good at operating in the dark. While those are cases of critical redundancy, sometimes redundancy is simply good. Like chocolate cake with chocolate frosting topped by “Death by Chocolate” ice cream type of good. Have you noticed that choco-holics seem to take perverse pleasure in being redundant?

Redundant Printing

Everyday, hundreds of printers use their digital presses to print postcards (or other self-mailers). They then take the already printed postcards (plus the overs) to a mail house to have someone else print addresses on them with an inkjet printer. Digital presses are certainly capable of printing addresses (better than an inkjet), and the printers’ click charge won’t increase due to printing addresses. Therefore, inkjet addressing qualifies as a type of redundant printing. Factor in all the extra handling, the paperwork, transportation, the hassle and so forth, and it’s hard to find anything funny or useful about this type of redundant printing.

How to Stop Being Redundant

Yes. We know exactly why this type of redundant printing occurs everyday... something about creating print files. We also have a solution that permits printers to print, cut and drop off their self-mailers at the post office - skipping the inkjet addressing and the mail house.

It’s the newest addition to our EZ-VDP^SM services…EZ-VDP^SM Addressing.

Designed for small self-mailer jobs, it eliminates the issues (and costs) involved with using a mail house for inkjet addressing. If your mail house has a minimum charge for inkjet addressing that's more than $40, you ought to take a look at this new service.

Read more about EZ-VDP^SM Addressing…

Finally, there is no need to point out our raging affliction from RAS syndrome. We simply refuse to stop using terms such as “VDP printing” and “VDP print files”.

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The Postman Always Rings Twice

It was a historic 1930s murder-love-mystery novel: The Postman Always Rings Twice. In 1946, it was made into a movie of the same name starring Lana Turner and John Garfield. A remake with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange came out in 1981. It seems plausible that this novel  and the movies have traumatized generations of print shop owners about the post office – NOT! However, we continue to find quite a few print shop owners with an inordinate fear of anything to do with business mailing and the post office.

“What if they won’t take my mailing?”

“I’ve heard stories about…”

“I lost a good customer when the lettershop screwed up his mailing.”

The expressions of fear and anxiety about mailing and dealing with the USPS just keep on coming up.

If this fear isn’t caused by the novel or the movies, perhaps it comes from horror stories or rumors perpetuated by lettershops. But, why would lettershops want to do this? Could it be that they want to keep the print shops dependent on them for addressing and mailing? Certainly not!

Perhaps, the fear comes from having tried to get a straight answer from the Domestic Mail Manual or “DMM” – the holy grail of postal regulations. There’s a document that’s clear as mud and as straightforward as the tax code.

But, business mailing isn’t all that difficult…with the right help.

Our EZ-VDP brand services eliminate virtually all the anxiety about business mailing for print shop owners. We help you through the entire process from getting a mail permit to dropping the mail at the post office the first time. Read more about how easy the business mailing process can be…

Just this week, we have helped at least five print shop owners do their own mailings for the first time. They're not only still alive but smiling.

There’s something else to consider about mailing. The USPS is struggling financially. The volume of mail continues to drop. Even the most ferocious of postal employees must see the handwriting on the wall. The USPS is doing everything they can to make the business mailing as friendly and easy as possible. They have just completely revamped their website to make information about mailing easier to find (but perhaps not understand). Besides, a friendly word (or maybe even a doughnut) probably gets you a long way with anyone at the post office.

Finally, no postman ever appears or is even mentioned in The Postman Always Rings Twice. The author, John Cain, explained that the title was related to the 13 times his manuscript was rejected. Obviously, he wasn’t afraid of the post office.

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The Disappearing Lettershop

We speak with many print shop owners, and a recurring complaint, these days, is that the number of lettershops is rapidly dwindling. Moreover, there is an explicit or implied distrust of the remaining lettershops.

Let’s face it: lettershops are having business challenges just like print shops. It’s only natural that lettershops will do what they must to survive…even if that means competing with their customers, the print shops. Many print shops now offer digital printing, for example.

Another byproduct of the new reality for lettershops, and print shop owners, could also be higher prices for lettershop services. At some point, as competition decreases; prices tend to increase.

One customer put it like this, “I know ABC [lettershop] is going out of business, and I don’t trust any of the others any farther than I can throw them.” Using VDP for addressing and in-house mailing solved a large part of the disappearing lettershop problem. It also ended up costing less than the lettershop charged while eliminating the need to disclose customer identities to potential competitors.

If any of this sounds familiar…look into EZ-VDP(SM).