The distributorship didn't offer commercial printing and Mentzer began to wonder why. He realized that the industry was changing and traditional forms were losing ground. Mentzer, who received a bachelor's degree in marketing from Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, was attracted to commercial printing because of the potential for large orders and the frequent use of commercial printing in marketing programs.
In 2000, Mentzer started his own Indianapolis distributorship, Mentzer Printing Ink. While his company offers traditional business forms, promotional products, digital printing, envelopes, labels, graphic design services, fulfillment and online forms management, commercial printing accounts for 50 percent of the firm's sales.
The Coordination
On a recent sales call, Mentzer asked an Indianapolis investment bank about its commercial printing needs. The client was planning a direct mail campaign to 25,000 clients and prospective stock market investors with more than $500,000 in investible income. The investment bank had asked other printing firms to take on the project, but none of them could handle the required 2-week turnaround. Though his distributorship had handled other direct mail and digital printing projects for the investment bank, Mentzer saw this as his opportunity to shine.
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ATC Print Consultants, a 3-year-old distributorship in Herndon, Va., provided 150,000 4-color, 32-page, saddle-stitched booklets printed on 60# coated stock to a company that works as a liaison between technology firms and the government. The booklets promoted the firm's largest annual trade show.
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Mentzer Printing Ink provided the investment bank with 25,000 12 x 12-inch, 4-color envelopes and 11 x 11-inch, 4-color brochures describing the investment bank's services. The brochure also described how the bank could help investors succeed in the volatile stock market. The bank worked with a graphic design firm to create 11 different brochures using Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and QuarkXPress. The brochures featured contact information for 11 different bank branches. Mentzer Printing Ink typeset the brochure's text, and the investment bank provided its own mailing list.
Like many other commercial printing distributors, Mentzer knows firsthand that customer expectations can cause problems. Initially, the investment bank asked his distributorship to produce one 12 x 12-inch, 4-color envelope, which would be used to mail the 11 different brochures. During the first press check, however, the bank's marketing director expressed her disappointment with the envelope. "She said, 'This isn't what the envelope is supposed to look like,'" Mentzer recalls. "She said it was supposed to have full 4-color coverage."
Due to communication problems with the investment bank, the marketing firm had designed the piece with a 4-color graphic image and return address in the upper-left corner, rather than covering the entire envelope with the 4-color image. The marketing director also said that the mailing needed envelopes printed with six different return addresses for the different bank branches that would mail the pieces.
Part of Mentzer's problem was that the digital artwork the customer supplied was too small to cover the envelope. The artwork, a marbleized yellow pattern, was also too complicated for Mentzer to match correctly on the envelope flap and the rest of the front side. Mentzer solved the problem by asking the manufacturer to use a smaller die to cut the envelope so that the flap would appear on the back of the envelope instead.
Mentzer also faced the problem of how to print envelopes with six different return addresses. The job was originally set to run on a 5-color press because the investment bank wanted an aqueous coating over the return addresses. But the customer decided not to use an aqueous coating. Mentzer Printing Ink removed the return addresses from the 4-color plates and added a PMS color in the press' fifth ink tower to print the addresses. This solution required only six additional plates, rather than the 24 that would have been needed had the addresses been printed with four colors.
| Mentzer Printing Ink, a 1-year old distributorship in Indianapolis,
provided an investment bank with 25,000 12 x 12-inch, 4-color envelopes and 11 x
11-inch, 4-color brochures describing the bank's services. The direct mail
project included 11 different brochures featuring contact information for 11
different bank branches, and six envelopes printed with different return
addresses. The pieces were mailed to 25,000 clients and prospective stock market
investors with more than $500,000 in investable income.
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"If you're going to sell commercial printing, you have to be able to deal with all kinds of problems," Mentzer says. "You have to keep a cool head." Distributors who can solve problems are rewarded, he says. "We did as much business with this order as we might do with one or two regular customer in the whole year," he says. The order was valued at $40,000.
The Lure
When Innovative Resource Group opened its doors more than 10 years ago, it seemed only natural that the distributorship's president was drawn to commercial printing. "I'm an artist at heart," says Joanne Irving, president of the Wakefield, Mass., firm. After spending Saturdays during her youth in classes at the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, Irving spent some of her college years studying drawing, perspective and psychology of color at Boston's Vesper George School of Art. "I just have a love of color and design," she says.
Innovative Resource Group, which prides itself on its graphic design and commercial printing work, employs its own designer. Commercial printing accounts for 35 to 40 percent of the distributorship's sales. Its walls are covered with framed commercial printing work--creative success stories that leave Irving and her employees with a sense of satisfaction and pride.
The distributorship plays the role of project manager for most of its commercial printing customers, offering in-house design and copywriting services, as well as mailing and fulfillment services through vendors. "I love going into an account and telling them how we can make them look better," Irving says. "We sell a total service."
Recently, a real estate agent called Innovative Resource Group looking for help marketing three new condominium developments in Essex County, Mass. The agent wanted marketing pieces to distribute to prospective buyers. The agent also asked the distributorship for help in naming the properties, which the condominium architects wanted to tie to English golf courses. The agent wanted total service.
Innovative Resource Group searched the internet for information about golf courses in Essex, England. After compiling a list of possible names, the distributorship presented the list to the real estate agent, who then chose three final names.
The distributorship provided the real estate agent with 5,000 9 x 12-inch, 4-color trifold folders. Each folder included an 8
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4
x 10
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2
-inch, 4-color brochure, which introduced the properties and included condominium drawings, floor plans and property descriptions. Innovative Resource Group supplied the brochure's text and modified the architects' floor plans and drawings to make them more visually appealing. The folder also included property specification sheets, an application to buy a condo and a business card-sized appointment card inserted into a die-cut slot in the folder. The distributorship also designed 4-color newspaper ads for the real estate agent. The commercial printing piece now hangs among other successful projects in the distributorship's office.
The Need
"There's always going to be a need for some sort of commercial printing," says Keith Crane, a 15-year industry veteran and president of ATC Print Consultants Inc., Herndon, Va. When he started his distributorship three years ago, Crane was lured to commercial printing by its plentiful applications. "Companies are always going to need publications and sales literature," he says. When he prospects now, he promotes commercial printing, not business forms. Commercial printing accounts for 85 percent of the distributorship's sales.
Recently, ATC Print Consultants provided commercial printing for a company that works as a liaison between technology firms and the government. Crane had been supplying the firm with letterhead, envelopes and small commercial printing pieces for approximately three years, but he couldn't land the firm's biggest commercial printing jobs--4-color directories and show guides for its six annual trade shows. After the electronic government firm realized it had placed all of its eggs in one basket by using one direct manufacturer to print all the pieces for its largest trade show, it decided to give ATC Print Consultants a shot.
ATC Print Consultants presented the customer with 150,000 4-color,
32-page, saddle-stitched, pre-show booklets printed on 60# coated stock. The booklets included the trade show schedule and highlighted speakers, exhibitors and more. After the electronic government firm provided photos and text, one of the distributorship's freelance graphic designers designed the booklet using QuarkXPress. The booklet showcased a theme and logo, created by the designer, that will be used in all of the electronic government firm's directories and show guides this year. Mailing addresses, provided on disk by the electronic government firm's service bureau, were ink jetted directly onto the booklet covers. Approximately one month before the show, the booklets were printed on a heat-set web press and mailed to 140,000 businesses nationwide.
Crane knows distributors often have a lot at stake with commercial printing jobs. "You've got more risk because it's a higher-priced item," he says. "You have to make sure you have checks and balances in place so you're not left holding the bag if there's a problem. I don't want a customer questioning a commercial printing job when it's time to pay the bill."
ATC Print Consultants required the customer to approve a PDF proof, a color laser proof, an Iris proof and a dylux proof. Prior to printing the booklets, the distributorship produced a dummy booklet for the electronic government firm's approval and to ensure that the booklets could be mailed at standard postal rates. ATC Print Consultants also ink jetted addresses onto six booklets, then faxed copies to the customer and the service bureau to ensure the addresses were printed correctly. After the pieces were printed, the distributorship instructed the manufacturer to mail 25 samples overnight to the customer for a last check before the pieces were mailed. ATC Print Consultants' extensive check-and-balance system has paid off. The distributorship beat out the direct-selling manufacturer for the electronic government firm's next pre-show booklet.
Kara S. Carpenter is an assistant editor at Print Solutions. Email her your comments at kcarpenter@PSDA.org.
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