What's a better profession--distributor or gambler?
Depends on the day, right? When you gain a respected, well-paying customer, the printing industry seems like a neon wonderland. But drop the ball on a project, and spending the day at the craps table seems fitting.
While attending the Print Solutions 2003 Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, perhaps you'll partake in both professions. After all, even if you don't enjoy yanking slot-machine levers or splitting aces at the blackjack table, you know success in the printing industry involves risk-taking.
But as any gambler knows, the best winning strategy is one that increases your advantage against the casino (or your competitor). In the following story, our annual 10 Hot Products feature, you can read about 10 distributors who are cashing in by understanding clients' needs and offering valuable products. Each page features a successful application, plus bonus insight that can help you make some coin of your own.
Many kids who collect baseball cards grow up to be avid fans of America's favorite pastime. Those who became Pittsburgh Pirates' season-ticket holders are reminded of their childhood collections. The team provides its season-ticket holders with cards--although not lightweight cardboard ones--featuring Pirates icons such as Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell. The Pirates give out plastic cards which, when held vertically like a baseball card, depict leaders on the 2003 team.
Joellen McCoy, account executive with Professional Graphic Communications Inc., a distributorship in Cranberry Township, Pa., provides the 30 mil, laminated cards to the Pirates. "The cards are designed to make season-ticket holders feel special and keep buying their tickets," McCoy says. The fans receive various perks with the cards, such as discounts at PNC Park and any Pirates Outfitters store.
McCoy has worked on the account for four years, helping to enhance the cards each year. For example, the Pirates previously provided the same card to all season-ticket holders. This year, the team divided its season-ticket holders into two groups: full and partial season-ticket holders. Full season-ticket holders then were separated into three categories, based on the number of years they've held their tickets: platinum season-ticket holders (seven or more years), gold (four to six years) and silver (three years or fewer).
All the cards feature the Pirates' logo and a 4-color, full-body shot of a player. The image fades to white at the bottom 1ˇ8-inch of the card. Season-ticket holders' names and account numbers are printed via thermal heat transfer in this space by Professional Graphic Communications. The platinum, gold and silver cards also feature foil stamping in their respective colors. For instance, longtime season ticket holders' cards read "Platinum Season Ticket Holder 2003" on the top of the cards: The word "platinum" is printed in platinum holographic foil.
Platinum cards feature outfielder Brian Giles, gold cards portray pitcher Mike Williams (who was traded in July to the Phillies) and silver cards depict infielder Pokey Reese. Catcher Jason Kendall graces the front of the partial season-ticket holders' cards. The back of the cards includes information about card benefits and usage. The distributorship supplied 9,600 cards, which were placed in die cut slits in personalized letters and mailed in matching envelopes.
Make it personal. Professional Graphic Communications offers in-house personalization, adding variable information such as names and ID numbers to plastic cards. One of its clients, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, orders telephone calling cards as giveaways for new subscribers. The front of the cards features the newspaper's logo and a full-color photo of the city at night. The back includes usage instructions and PIN numbers. The Cranberry Township, Pa., distributorship adds the PINs at its facility.
Pair plastics with other products. Plastic cards are rarely a solo sale. Often they're teamed with letters and envelopes as part of direct mail packages. Professional Graphic Communications offers innovative solutions: The Pennsylvania Sheriff's Association orders 20,000 membership cards annually. The 8 mil cards are affixed to an 8 1/2 x 11-inch cut sheet. The top half of the 2-color cut sheet includes a letter from the association and the cards. Below a perf on the bottom half is a certificate that members can tear off, frame and mount on their walls. The distributorship personalizes the letters, cards and certificates in one pass on a laser printer.
Professional Graphic Communications, a distributorship in Cranberry Township, Pa., provides plastic cards to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The baseball organization gives the cards, which depict leaders on the 2003 team when held vertically, to season-ticket holders.
List the features. Dick Peckels, a print management consultant with Controll Forms Inc., a distributorship in Menomonee Falls, Wis., typically includes warning bands on checks. "List the security features so whoever is cashing the check knows exactly what's supposed to be in there," he says. A common complaint is that bank tellers, retailers and others who accept negotiable documents don't check for authenticity: The first step in the solution is to ensure they know what to look for.
Get "in the field" training. Lots of distributors recommend educating end users about security features and how to spot fraudulent documents. Peckels employs the opposite strategy: He lets end users teach him. Peckels visited banks and asked tellers how they examine checks. "Nobody looks at microprinted signature lines or puts checks under black lights," he says. Peckels tries to sell customers checks with features the banks actually will spot.
Distributors suggest "layering" checks and other security documents with overt and covert features, making them more difficult to dupe. This sample check includes "rub and reveal" protection. Other effective security features include bleedthrough numbering, warning bands and artificial watermarks.
Courtesy of Nocopi Technologies, Wayne, Pa.
One sheriff's department in Wisconsin is adept at roping in robbers and catching car thieves. But the cops were conned by criminals using paper as their weapon. The sheriff's department discovered several of its inmate trust account checks were forged. "They were buying checks on old-fashioned basketweave safety paper with bleedthrough numbers," says Dick Peckels, a print management consultant with Controll Forms Inc., a distributorship in Menomonee Falls, Wis. "They were an easy target."
When a prisoner is incarcerated, money he or she is carrying is placed in an inmate account, along with money the prisoner may receive occasionally from relatives or friends. When an inmate is released, the sheriff's department issues an inmate trust account check. After encountering forgery problems, the sheriff's department called Peckels. He suggested the department bolster its checks with numerous security features to deter newly released prisoners from committing fraud and landing behind bars again.
Peckels provided the sheriff's department with 10,000 checks printed on CheckProtect™ paper from Boise, Idaho-based supplier Boise Paper Solutions. The checks include prismatic printing, a security feature in which two or more colors are printed from a single print unit to create a rainbow effect across the face of a document. In this case, the checks shift from blue to red and back to blue. Because prismatic printing (also called split-fountain printing) is most effective when a complex background pattern is used, Peckels suggested the client incorporate its star logo in the center of the checks. The inmate trust account checks also feature bleedthrough Arabic and MICR numbering, void pantographs and artificial watermarks on the back.
It's ironic that a sheriff's department was a victim of forgery, but a year after the incident, Peckels learned it was a common occurrence. A sheriff's department in Ohio called with the same problem, asking him for advice on increased check security. Peckels was happy to oblige, but prefers helping customers before they're hit by fraud. He did so with the Milwaukee County Registrar of Deeds.
The Registrar of Deeds administers birth certificates. When it bid out the documents, the government department asked for security features, but named only void pantographs in the bid. "They are so easy to drop out with a color copier," Peckels says. "They were fooling themselves that void pantographs would be enough." Peckels convinced the county its birth certificates would be easy to forge. He sold the county 90,000 birth certificates with prismatic printing, warning bands, artificial watermarks on the back--and, yes, void pantographs.
