The Printing Industry Is a Strong Bet!

Good news...most of the U.S. is panicking because of the new fed interest rate. There is concern that this will cause the U.S. to fall back into recession. Well, this isn't THE good news.

The good news is that many investment analysts are saying that the commercial printing industry is very strong. And although our parent company, Matlet Group, is a privately held company (and the largest minority owned printing company in the U.S.), it is still a great reflection on the market.

Despite the alarming rate of 1,000 printing companies closing their doors every year, Acme Printing has solidly been in business for over 70 years.

So don't panic! We're in this for the long-haul!

The Bearded Lady and The Drunk Model

Do you ever drive by a restaurant, take a brief look at it, and decide that you would never go there? You can’t put your finger on it, but there’s something about the general appearance that makes your stomach uneasy?

That’s how I feel about 70% of the catalogs I get in the mail. Though I know what makes my stomach uneasy. When I open a catalog, I first look for the infamous bearded lady. This is a picture of a woman who looks like she has a 5-o’clock shadow. This is because their printer is pulling back on the cyan, magenta, and yellow to reduce costs, and pushes black to thicken the images up.

Secondly, I compare two of the same products side by side. I am looking at two of the same product shots right now, that are about an inch apart in the catalog. One contains a white dress worn by a rosy-cheeked woman. The other contains what looks like a yellow, aged dress, and the same woman who looks like she’s had one too many cocktails.

I blame this on the CEO/president of the printing company that printed this particular piece. He/she has made it clear that their top priority is driving costs down to either 1.) Drive profits or 2.) Auction their new customers into the door.

Next time you receive a catalog, see if it makes you feel uneasy about the products.

Whichever candidate has the best pitch

I’m breaking, what I’d consider, two of the most important rules of this blog: 1.) Don’t stray from the major topics and, 2.) Don’t talk politics. But I’ve got to; politicians make me laugh.

Regardless of how much I sugar-coat and butter up my official title of Account Executive (maybe someday, I’ll throw a "Senior" in front of it), I’m still a sales person. Fortunately, I consider myself product-smart, and sales-stupid, which I have a feeling most people appreciate (I actually had a customer a couple of years ago call my manager and thank him for my pressure-free attitude…my response: "I dunno’, I wasn’t trying to be pressure-free…I wasn’t trying anything.")

But I have this feeling that most of our politicians for the 2008 election are the opposite: "product"-stupid and sales-smart. Here’s what I mean, I have this feeling that every politician is trying to appease every side of every issue, and in the end, there’s an obscure, vague message that leaves the American people saying, "Wha…what did they say?"

Imagine, I’m a sales rep that walks into your office and I claim that Acme Printing can provide the fastest turnaround, but we’re slow because we spend time on a lot of QA and preparation…we’re the most inexpensive, but we put a lot of money into make-ready materials and the best binding…we’ve got the best customer service, but we also provide low prices because we minimize labor costs…we’ve got a lot of capacity for your project…but we’ll need files 7 weeks prior to the ship-date.

Confused yet? I got vertigo just writing it.

My question is this, who was the first presidential candidate that pitched "I can be everything for the American people"? Because that was the person that opened the floodgates. So next time you pick up the phone, and here my voice or another "sales rep", feel relieved. It could be worse; it could be a presidential candidate.

Same Press...Same Paper...Same Price???

So I’ve become a regular at a local musical instrument store, and was asking advice on a piece of equipment. After much chit-chat, his final conclusion was, “You get what you pay for”. And of course…it got me thinking. The same can be said about nearly everything; including commercial printing. Often times, commercial printers have comparable material costs, but excel by having lower overhead. For example, many long-run book printers in the United States have difficulty competing against China book printers, simply based upon the premise that China book printers have lower labor and overhead costs (and it doesn’t hurt that there are a number of low-cost Asian paper mills on that corner of the globe). BUT, for the most part, Acme Printing buys the same paper as “Commercial Printer ABC” down the road, for the same price, and from the same source. So with that being said, where does the “you get what you pay for” phrase come into play? Well first, we don’t feel comfortable putting a job on our presses without having Kodak approval proofs; which is the highest quality proofing available in commercial printing and is a true representation of the color you have in your files. Unfortunately, this proofing can be costly. BUT it’s well justified when a project exceeds your expectations. We also refuse to reproduce industry “corner-cutting” standards like pushing black ink on press to thicken a (printer-made) weak 4-color image; this is a trick used to save on cyan, magenta, and yellow ink costs. Or substituting quoted paper stock with an obsolete inventory stock. We take the road less traveled by employing higher-than-standard QA policies. In fact, we estimate typically a higher make-ready when ordering materials to insure that the press-sheets we keep are acceptable (and of course, the press-sheets that don’t meet our color standards are recycled). Just some food for thought for the next time you are reviewing the menu at a fine cuisine restaurant, go car-shopping, are choosing a college education for your children, or something a bit smaller in the scope of things…like choosing where to house a commercial print project. Ask yourself, "can our commercial print be better?"