About a year ago, a retail customer approached Angela Kiani with a problem. It purchased signs from an East Coast company and was unhappy with the service. The retailer asked Kiani, a sales representative with Lincoln, Neb.-based Professional Business Products, if she could supply the 2 x 4-foot signs, which hang from store ceilings and depict department names.
"I said yes and took a sample sign," Kiani says. "But I had no idea how to do it!" She called DMIA for sources, talked to several vendors and narrowed the list to five. Then Kiani cut the sign into five pieces, shipped the pieces to different manufacturers and asked them if they could handle the project. Digigraph Xpress, a manufacturer in Kansas City, Mo., that specializes in large-format printing, landed the order.
A Big, Bold Market
Large-format printing can bring big results for customers and big profits for distributors.
Here's a snapshot of the market.
BY SUSAN KEEN FLYNN
Eye-catching vehicle printing is a popular application in the large-format market, which reached $19 billion in 2002, according to I.T. Strategies Inc., a Hanover, Mass.-based consulting, research and business implementation services firm specializing in digital printing. The most common large-format applications are point-of-purchase signs and trade-show graphics.
Courtesy of Digigraph Xpress, Kansas City, Mo.
The retailer, which has approximately 150 locations nationwide, opens two to three new stores monthly. It orders 7 to 12 departmental signs from Kiani for each new store. The 4-color signs are printed digitally, then laminated to black, rigid foam core boards. The signs include eye hooks and screws at the top to hang from the ceiling. Kiani says large-format printing is ideal for this application because the client doesn't want to order a year's supply. "It wouldn't be cost-competitive if they needed 100 signs," she says.
Finding a source to manufacture a quality product wasn't Kiani's only challenge. "Because these signs are so large, shipping is difficult," she says. Initially, the distributorship shipped them the same way as the East Coast supplier: The company created a crate from two pallets, wrapping the signs in bubble wrap and placing them between the pallets. Then a truck transported the crates to stores across the country. "The shipping itself adds to the price, then there's the cost of creating the crate," Kiani says. Now Professional Business Products wraps the signs in bubble wrap and ships them in a heavy-duty box. The distributorship delivers them locally to the store's headquarters, and the retailer ships the signs nationwide.
Kiani, who sells a range of products, including checks and commercial printing, is enthusiastic about the opportunities for large-format printing. She says some distributors shy away from large-format digital printing because the order sizes are small. But the potential profits aren't: "These may be onesie- and twosie-type stuff, but you can get huge margins," Kiani says. She hopes to make a big impact in this market targeting banks, credit unions and retailers.
The Size and Scope
So how big is big? Large-format printing typically refers to images printed in widths from 24 inches to approximately 16 feet. Large-format applications are printed using ink jet or solvent-based processes on a variety of flexible and rigid substrates, including paper, vinyl, canvas, polyester film, synthetic fibers, metal and plastics.
The worldwide retail value of large-format printing (also called wide-format, grand-format and supergraphics) reached $19 billion in 2002, according to I.T. Strategies Inc., a Hanover, Mass.-based consulting, research and business implementation services firm specializing in digital printing. It predicts the market will grow to nearly $30 billion by 2007.
Larger-than-Life Applications
By now, you've probably seen large murals on museums and buses wrapped with advertisements. But here are two large-format applications that point to the power--and potential--of the market:
Application: Building wrap
Size: 142 x 163 feet
Substrate: Window vinyl
Details: In its report "Large-Format Graphics: Supersizing the Market," TrendWatch Graphic Arts (TWGA) features the story of a mural that startled drivers on a freeway in West Los Angeles. Touchstone Pictures promoted its movie "Armageddon" by placing a full-color, vinyl mural on a building to create the illusion that a huge, fiery hole blasted through the building. (This was before Sept. 11, 2001.) The graphics of the blast were output in 280 sections, each measuring 20 x 5 feet, then aligned precisely on the building. The seams were airbrushed to create the realistic, scary view of a bombed building. (To purchase a copy of TWGA's report, visit its web site at www.trendwatchgraphicarts.com.)
Application: Maps
Size: 30 x 43 inches
Substrate: Heavy paper stock with film lamination or other custom finish
Details: Maps Worldwide Ltd. in England offers a custom map-printing service. Customers specify the exact boundaries of the area they want mapped, and the company prints the custom wall map at a flat price of 55 pounds (approximately $100). Maps Worldwide produces the maps using cartographic data from a variety of continually updated databases. Customers can request specific style maps, the center points, the scale and more. For more information, check out the company's web site at www.mapsworldwide.com.
Storefront windows, signs and interior graphics enhance visual identity for retailers.
The most common applications for wide-format printing are point-of-purchase signs and trade-show graphics. Point-of-purchase signs represent about 40 percent of the marketshare, according to Marco Boer, a consulting partner with I.T. Strategies. Demand for trade-show graphics has slowed since the U.S. economy has struggled.
Point-of-purchase advertising includes displays, signs and other media that attract shoppers. Considered "the last three feet of the marketing plan," it's the point where 70 percent of all brand purchase decisions are made. About three-quarters of all point-of-purchase advertising is still analog printed (screen, offset, flexo, gravure and photo); the remainder is produced via digital printing (ink jet or electrophotography).
Valid reasons explain the disproportionate figures, says Patti Williams, consulting partner with I.T. Strategies. "Ink jet technology has been somewhat restricted in the point-of-purchase market because of its inability to print high volumes with consistent quality compared to analog print technology," she says. But as ink jet technology advances in speed and quality, it has the opportunity to take marketshare away from screen, flexo and offset, Williams says. The shift is occurring already, as digital printers, screen printers and packaging companies install ink jet flatbed printers to produce point-of-purchase materials.
A report by I.T. Strategies says that point-of-purchase and trade-show displays "were among the first wide-format graphics applications and are now becoming commodities, forcing print providers to look at new areas for growth." One potential area is outdoor advertising, including billboards; transit signs on vehicles and at bus and subway stations; and street furniture such as benches, bus shelters, newspaper vending machines, trash cans, map stands, information booths and more. Outdoor advertising has benefits: It can't be turned off like a television or thrown away like direct mail. It's a constant presence in consumers' faces. According to I.T. Strategies, print expenditures for outdoor advertising in 2002 were $16.7 billion. Digital printing accounted for 13 percent of the total.
The Printers
While banner shops and entrepreneurial specialty shops seem to lead the surge into large-format printing, commercial printers and other traditional printers are beginning to show interest. According to I.T. Strategies, eight main types of companies pursue large-format printing: reprographic firms, digital color print shops, sign shops, quick printers, color photo labs, service bureaus, exhibit builders and screen printers. But the market is ripe for distributors looking for new, eye-catching ways to help customers promote their products and services.
Overall, wide-format ink jet printing is used primarily by "small print-for-pay shops to print local advertising," Boer says. "There is no national coverage." The main reason, he adds, is that current printing technology is too slow. Companies are waiting for the next generation of technology with faster drying ink.
Boer says equipment maintenance is another important issue. "These machines require significant maintenance if they're not run constantly," he says. For example, if a printing plant shuts down its equipment during the weekend, press operators spend time on Monday getting it running again. "Service will remain a prerequisite" for companies looking to enter ink jet printing in the future, Boer says.
Still, equipment has come a long way in the decade or so since large-format machines hit the market. Ink jet printers, especially piezoelectric ones, have surpassed thermal and electrostatic processes for large-application production. Today, ink jet printers are distinguished by the kinds of ink they use--aqueous or solvent-based--and their ink jet head technologies. Major equipment suppliers include Epson (www.epson.com), Scitex Vision (www.scitex.com), Mutoh (www.mutoh.com), NUR Macroprinters (www.nur.com), Vutek (www.vutek.com) and Zund (www.zund.com).
The Future
According to Digital Output magazine, 435 million square feet of large-format media will be consumed annually by 2006. That's almost 15 1/2 square miles of bus wraps, murals, banners, trade-show displays, signs, flags and more. Put another way, you could cover approximately two-thirds of Manhattan with printing. Now that's a big market. Will you be part of it?
Susan Keen Flynn, a freelance writer in Cleveland, is a frequent contributor to Print Solutions. Email us your comments at bholt@printsolutionsmag.com.
Thanks to Digigraph Xpress, Kansas City, Mo., for assistance.
