Many companies use 4-color prime labels for eye-catching marketing and product packaging, but distributors say functionality--not flashiness--is driving growth in the label market. Efficient distribution and inventory control are important to end users, especially manufacturing firms looking for ways to increase efficiency and save money during the economic slowdown. Such firms crave labels with low applied cost and life-cycle cost.
When employees at a plastic bag manufacturing plant applied dry gum labels to corrugated boxes, Pat Merrell suggested a change. The plant's inventory-control labels contained information about the boxes' contents, including types and sizes of bags for janitorial use. Unlike pressure sensitive adhesives with release liners, dry gum labels don't appear to have gummed backings. When moisture is applied to the backs of dry gum labels, the glue reacts immediately and the labels are ready for application.
"The process was inefficient for the client because workers had to get the adhesive wet every time," says Merrell, sales representative at Newport Printing Systems, a distributorship in Newport Beach, Calif., that specializes in print management, warehousing and distribution, and variable imaging for small and medium-sized companies. "It took them too much time, and those labels weren't very fun to work with."
Merrell, who has sold labels for two years, replaced the plastic bag firm's dry gum labels with 2- and 4-color, custom-sheeted, pressure-sensitive labels with peel tabs. The 41ˇ4 x 31ˇ2-inch labels are "much easier to use," he says, and they helped the client achieve a lower applied cost. Newport Printing Systems also offers a proprietary online ordering system, which the client uses to access real-time inventory and generate usage reports.
--Darin Painter
Keep an eye on RFID and integrated labels. "The capabilities of quality label manufacturers are increasing rapidly," says Pat Merrell, sales representative at Newport Printing Systems, a distributorship in Newport Beach, Calif. One interesting, seldom-used technology is smart labels, which rely on radio frequency identification (RFID) for automatic data capture. Smart labels include RFID transponder inlays that users can read without line of sight and in any orientation (unlike bar codes). Companies with high-value products often use smart labels for parcel tracking and product authentication.
Also, integrated labels remain popular among many end users. All components are on one product, and personalization is handled simultaneously. Integrated labels save clients processing time and eliminate transposition errors.
Invite manufacturers on joint sales calls. Rely on the expertise of your label vendors for insight about face stocks, adhesives, liners, printing equipment, usage environments and more. Let them partner with you to offer creative suggestions to end users.
Consider custom label kits. Picture a stepladder covered with 10 warning labels. Chances are, the 10 labels came from 10 different rolls. People assembling the ladder picked one label off each roll and applied them separately. Instead, a distributor could have provided a sheet that included all 10 labels. That would have improved the client's quality control, and the client could have saved money (after paying a tooling expense) because the labels would have been produced in one run. And the client would be far more likely to reorder because of the custom solution.
Test your labels. Surfaces are highly unpredictable. Manufacturers know what label stocks and adhesives should do, but testing always is recommended.
Distributors use bar coding to add value to product identification, sales and shipping labels. Courtesy of Paxar Corp., White Plains, N.Y.
Mailers aren't as trendy as digital printing or commercial printing, but this workhorse product has withstood the test of time. "Mailers could be buggy whips in the Space Age," says Bob Morris. "But there are still buggies. There's still Amish country out there." Morris, president of TECHNIFORM, a distributorship in Mission Viejo, Calif., has sold mailers for three decades.
Morris says just when he thinks mailers have outlived their usefulness, a wave of orders comes his way. In the forms heyday of the 1980s, Morris sold numerous 2-way continuous applications, mostly to medical clients such as an anesthesiologist and an ambulance group. They used mailers for billing. That business declined when laser printers became popular. "When the laser printer became the big thing, everybody thought it was the panacea," Morris says.
Apparently laser printers weren't a cure-all, because TECHNIFORM experienced a resurgence of continuous mailer orders in the mid-1990s. The distributorship targeted mortgage companies that sent direct mail packages to homeowners and potential buyers. "Folks that buy direct mail are fickle," Morris says. "They get on one idea, mail it for a while, then move on."
For a couple years, Morris says the idea du jour was 1-way, peel apart mailers encouraging homeowners to refinance. Part 1, the front of the outgoing envelope, was a 20# CB stock. Part 2, the back of the envelope, was constructed of 33# white ledger paper. The CF stock included information on refinancing. TECHNIFORM sold the mailers to five mortgage companies, two of which ordered 4 million at a time.
Like the medical mailers, TECHNIFORM's business with the mortgage companies faded. So how's the distributorship's mailer business now? Recently, a data-processing firm approached Morris to provide bounce-back mailers to several of its customers. "They had the clients, but didn't have the expertise to do mailers," he says. One order Morris supplied was a 3-part insert mailer for a Southern California college. Parts 1 and 3 were the outgoing envelope; Part 2 was a 4 x 77ˇ8-inch post card on ledger stock. The college uses the mailer for fund-raising and asks recipients to return the post cards with updated contact information.
Resurrect your forms design roots. "Developing and designing mailers is kind of a lost art," says Bob Morris, president of TECHNIFORM, a distributorship in Mission Viejo, Calif. "A lot of my contemporaries don't know how to design mailers." This makes Morris the go-to guy for continuous mailers. And although mailers account for only a small percentage of his business, he enjoys working on them. "They're fun to do," Morris says. "It brings back the days of true forms design."
Don't knock stock. Stock mailers remain important, Morris says. He recently received a timely call from a company that frames pictures. The company, which found TECHNIFORM in the yellow pages, asked for a stock 2-way billing mailer. The distributorship had received a sample packet with 15 stock mailers from a manufacturer, and Morris told the prospect he could show him numerous samples.
Target direct mailers. Morris says direct mailers sometimes use traditional mailers to notify consumers of new offers. "But companies in direct mail don't have the expertise in mailers that a seasoned distributor does," he says. TECHNIFORM partners with a data-processing company and a mailhouse to provide mailer solutions.
Unlike separate bills and envelopes, mailers are self-contained, reducing the likelihood that recipients will misplace the printed envelope. This sample Doc-u-fold/ps® pressure seal mailer is for a mock city water district.
Courtesy of Goodwin Graphics, Carrollton, Texas
Talk of a paperless society that once made distributors shudder now makes them smile: Despite electronic advancements, we're nowhere near a paperless world. Similarly, distributors like Don Sanford who sell offset printing know that the growth of digital printing doesn't spell the former's demise. There's a time and place for both technologies, says Sanford, owner of Advocate Print and Label, a distributorship in Forth Worth, Texas.
"If customers just need a few of a full-color piece, or if the information in their piece changes frequently, then digital is the way to go," Sanford says. One of his customers sells printed paper bags, such as the ones some fast-food restaurants use for french fries. Its price catalog is a perfect application for digital printing. "Paper pricing is volatile," Sanford says. "They don't want to print even 1,000 catalogs because things change."
The client orders 250 saddle-stitched catalogs a few times a year from Advocate Print and Label. The inside pages of the 24-page catalog are printed black-and-white on a Xerox DocuTech™ digital press. The 1-color coated stock cover is printed on Canon equipment and features the company's name, logo and phone number in reflex blue. "The cost per unit is higher than offset, but the company doesn't throw any catalogs away," Sanford says.
Economically, digital printing makes sense for the paper bag manufacturer. And cost is the hinge factor for most applications, Sanford says. "The kicker is crunching the numbers," he says. "Some projects are ideal for digital printing; some aren't." Sanford has helped numerous clients weigh options, then opt for digitally produced brochures, fliers, catalogs and labels.
Look local. if you're new to digital printing, says Don Sanford, owner of Advocate Print and Label, a distributorship in Forth Worth, Texas. "Find a printer in the neighborhood to partner with," he says. "Sit down with the production manager, find out the company's capabilities and get familiar with digital printing." Distributors can work with digital printing manufacturers anywhere in the country, but "I can't sit down in Orlando and roll up my sleeves with the digital printer," Sanford says.
Show, don't tell. Using quality samples helps distributors sell digital printing. One of Sanford's customers is an oil exploration and investment company. He took the company's full-color brochure and had it produced digitally. He paid $50 for one brochure to market the distributorship's offerings. Not only did he show the oil company the side-by-side comparison of the offset and digital brochures, but he showed the samples to a bank, an engineering company and the marketing department of a hospital. "Customers are astonished at how good the quality is on the digital version," Sanford says.
Understand that quality may deteriorate over time, Sanford says. For example, some digital printing begins to crack after a while, he says. This is particularly true with heavy solids on folds, he says.
Market digital printing for test runs. Because digital printing is ideal for short runs, it's a great application for trials of direct mail and marketing campaigns. Clients that send large mailings can test the packages on select recipients first. For instance, if a customer plans to mail 20,000 pieces that will be printed offset, the company could mail 300 to 500 digitally printed pieces first to gauge the response.
A credit company that solicits loans mailed this digitally printed post card. Digital printing saved the company time and money.
Courtesy of Clark Graphics, Greenville, N.C., and AccuCopy/Quicktabs, Greenville, N.C.
