Another advantage to the customer of using a printer-cum-designer is that creative work is underpinned by production, craft and cost. Every printer knows the horror story of working for a designer who can make things look pretty on screen, but can’t tell their feeder from their delivery.
Production people ten to throw their hands up in the ait whenever these customers send in poorly outlined job specs or ask for high-quality posters from a PowerPoint document. “As a policy, we used to put everything right,” says Harrison. But now he sees an opportunity.” About two years ago, we changed. We tell them we can fix it for £40 or give them advice on how to fix it.”
Rather than deter clients, this more hard lines stance to on-the-fly artworking actually gives The Printing House an excuse to pitch its design services. “We tell our customers you can get agency-quality design at printers’ prices, and we can look after your print job while we’re at it”, adds Harrison. “You become a one stop shop.”
There’s a definite trend for customers to look for production and design skills out-of-house, says Peter Wise, managing director of franchise Minuteman Bristol. “The idea of large marketing department has really moved away.” Wise comes from a predominantly marketing communications background, including stints as such firms, as Jaguar and Nasdaq-listed furniture company Herman Miller.
Wise says that running a print shop is extension of this.” The attraction for me is this business is it’s like having a marketing department but you’ve got the production inside,” says Wise. He has found that SME customers in particular aren’t used to dealing with design houses-or paying their prices- and find a printer to be a more cost-effective option. One such client, independent vehicle finance form Mulberry Financial Services, brought Minuteman in on the ground level to develop its corporate image. This ranged from producing printed and online marketing communications, from stationery, such as A4 letterheads, compliment slips and business cards to, designing the Mulberry company website.” How you’re perceived as a business by the client is just elevated by that,” adds Wise.
To be continued…
Peter Harrison is Joint Managing Director of The Printing House Ltd of Crewe, Cheshire, UK.
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