I was driving in to work when an ad came on the radio selling 25 cent color copies. This company has gone so far as to put up a web site http://www25centcolorcopies.com . Here users can get a minimum of 100 prints, 8 ½” x 11” on 27 lb text weight (70 lb offset) for 25 cents per print. Prices are clearly stated for heavier stock as well. For this company it’s all about price, there was no mention of quality, but they did mention they would get the prints to you quickly.
Does this pricing strategy remind you of offset pricing? Nothing like telling the users that all print is a commodity and you just need to find the lowest price. Do you suppose someone will come out with a website offering 24 cent color copies
About 2 years ago I was at a high volume digital printer out in Long Island. Their president described a strategy similar to the one above, whereby he’d be a high volume shop with click charges so low and volume so high he could price at or below the cost of competitors. A few months later the president was gone and shortly thereafter the company was sold.
Now I’m not saying that being the low cost producer can’t be an effective strategy. It certainly can be if it is implemented properly.
About a month ago I was visiting quick print shops in the Boston area and ran into a shop that was an order of magnitude bigger than most quick printers. Their strategy was to sell to the trade and their success was built around 3 partners that all “Sell-Sell-Sell”. One of the owners told me that pricing was a key success factor. He knew when to price high and when to price low to get a job. His competitors all know him and they all know that occasionally he’ll quote a job for 9 cent per color page, which is, of course, lower than the cost for the local competitors. At least in this case the customer is the trade and not end user, and low pricing is done selectively and not broadcast to the entire market.
Being the low cost high volume producer is a viable strategy for some, but it’s a risky strategy as in tough times there’s always someone else who’s willing to offer a lower price. Isn’t it better to harness the unique capabilities of digital print and digital technology to create new solutions that deliver new value and enable higher margins?
With digital print you can create value by improving response rates and sales or you can create value by creating systems to manage collateral and other printed and non-printed items. Quantitative measures of the improvement in response rates is documented in Caslon’s Response Rate report [ResponseRateReport] and determining just how much value digital print can add can be determined using the S3 Value Calculators [ValueCalculators]. Both are free for PODi members.
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