BY SARAH WASSNER
Cortan Industries Inc. recently has helped add a little more color to the world--shades of cyan, magenta, yellow and black, to be exact.
Although the Redmond, Wash.-based distributorship has been a growing presence in the printing and graphic arts industry for more than 20 years, the addition of a state-of-the-art, digital full-color press has brought the company to a new level--it now offers short run digital printing.
Nestled within Seattle's high-tech haven, Cortan Industries is no stranger to innovative products and services. At the height of the dot-com boom, the distributorship developed its own e-commerce system, even though it lacked a web site of its own at the time. "Keeping up with the latest technology lets our customers know we're at the cutting edge instead of just selling a commodity product," says Roger Courson, the distributorship's founder, president and CEO.
Experiencing Exponential Growth
In the mid-1970s, Courson relocated to the Seattle area from Las Vegas in pursuit of owning his own business. "I started the hard way--from scratch," says Courson, who founded Cortan Industries in 1979 after culling experience as a district sales manager for UARCO. "I pounded the pavement."
Four years later, Courson opened subsidiary Cedar Graphics Inc. in response to client need for quality commercial printing. After purchasing quick printer Bellevue Printing & Graphics in 1988, Courson moved all three businesses from a rented space in Bellevue, Wash., to a 12,000-square-foot facility in Redmond.
Today, Cortan Industries offers clients--many of whom hail from the Pacific Northwest--a virtual smorgasbord of products and services. While the distributorship continues to provide its core products of business forms and labels, it also provides promotional printing ranging from personalized Post-it® Note pads to binders and
tab sets. Cedar Graphics strives to produce top-quality print solutions with services such as full-service graphic design, 4-color commercial printing and on-site warehousing. Bellevue Printing & Graphics allows clients to select more economical products, including quick printing of letterhead, envelopes, fliers and business cards, to supplement their color printing orders.
"Our impetus is that we are able to handle every kind of product to enhance and improve the business communication abilities of our clients," Courson says. "From online ordering to our in-house graphics department to our customer service, we are a one-stop operation."
Secret Weapon: Networking
Cortan Industries offers an expansive menu of products and services, but Courson admits most clients don't take advantage of its cross platform services--yet. "That's something we are working on," Courson says.
To augment further company growth, Courson is active in groups such as LeTip International Inc., a professional networking organization with more than 400 chapters in the United States and Canada, and International Business Solutions Alliance (IBSA), an alliance of distributorships that aims to give distributors a new business model to help them grow, reduce costs and compete against the majors. He hopes his involvement in these groups will bring Cortan Industries to the forefront of the printing industry.
Additionally, Cortan Industries has served as a beta test site for Redmond neighbor Microsoft Corporation's Publisher program for the past six years. Cortan employees report to Microsoft any problems that occur when they're working with Publisher files, thereby alerting the tech giant to any program shortcomings. This unique partnership allows Courson and his employees to take classes at Microsoft's headquarters, and Microsoft in turn has purchased printed products from Cortan Industries.
Short Run for the Long Haul
Earlier this year, Cortan Industries acquired a Xerox DocuColor™ 6060 digital color press, a machine Courson says represents the "wave of the future" in short run digital printing. The press enables the company to offer personalized marketing pieces as well as quick turnaround on short to medium runs of high-page-count books and manuals. The press has elicited a "very excellent response" from clients, Courson says. "The other day we were able to successfully fulfill an order placed at 1 p.m. that had to be in Cleveland at 10 a.m. the next day," he says.
Recently, Cortan Industries used the Xerox DocuColor to print post cards for a major mortgage company in the Pacific Northwest. Initially, the distributorship's two in-house graphic designers met with representatives of the mortgage company on three occasions to conceptualize, then decide on a specific design for the piece. The piece targeted prospective home buyers who visited new home construction sites. It promoted the mortgage company's loan programs by offering incentives.
When visiting the new home construction sites, potential buyers passed through an office where real estate agents asked them for their contact information. Visitors also evaluated the tours afterward. The agents input visitors' information as well as their preferences regarding the homes into a database. For example, agents recorded whether a visitor liked the model home, but preferred a stucco exterior instead of vinyl siding. The agents then uploaded a picture of a sample home and enhanced it to match each visitor's preferences, creating each person's "ideal" home. The real estate agents submitted the information to the mortgage company, which then sent it to Cortan Industries.
The distributorship provided the mortgage company with 4 x 6-inch and 51ˇ2 x 81ˇ2-inch, full-color post cards. Printed entirely on the Xerox DocuColor press, each card included the "ideal" home image on the front as well as variable data (the name of each recipient appeared on a mailbox outside of the home). The front of each card also offered incentives such as free air conditioning or free swimming pools with messages such as "This is your dream home...You can have all of this plus a free pool, and we can finance it at this low cost." The back of each card included a personalized note from the mortgage company as well as pertinent information such as interest rates and final home costs. For example, a card may have included a message such as "With 10 percent down, your house will cost only $200,000." Hundreds of people in the Seattle area received the cards.
In addition to allowing Cortan Industries to provide very short runs of high-quality color pieces, Courson believes the addition of the Xerox DocuColor press is improving customer relations. Because this printing process allows clients to see and touch proofs on stock--as opposed to seeing them on computer screens or on low-quality paper--the end product yields no surprises.
Additionally, Courson says, clients are elated that variable imaging saves them time and money and offers a
44-percent response rate, while non-personalized mailings often generate a 1-percent response rate, Courson says.
"Roger is very committed to being able to give his customers the best possible value," says Cheryl Hartley, Xerox's production marketing manager for North American Agent Operations. "He focuses on finding money while also saving it."
Courson says, "Other companies do not have the grasp on the industry that we do. With all that we offer, we're able to respond to our customers' individual needs and respond to them on an individual basis."
Now, you could color Cortan Industries--and its clients--happy.
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