Quick Printing

JAN 2015

Quick Printing is the resource for the Commercial printing, visual and graphic arts industries. Since 1977, Quick Printing has focused on improving efficiency and increasing sales and profits in the print shop. Industry experts share their ideas and

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Quick Printing | January 2015 17 MyPRINTResource.com Commercial printers seeking an entrée into this area, take note. Then, however, there is Alibaba, which links distributors to man- ufacturers in the Far East and elsewhere. "It's very simple for customers to go on Alibaba and fnd a supplier who will probably print the products in the Far East at a fraction of the cost," said Rob Hayes, director of Snap Products, a supplier of ad specialty items based in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. "They access the same suppliers that we spent 15 years building up relationships with." Snap Products does four-color digital UV printing and only sells through distributors. There are other reasons why ad specialties folks are not entirely sanguine about that kind of "going direct." "That's a different instance of 'going direct'—distributors going di- rectly to the factories in China to pur- chase promotional items and circum- venting the supplier in the process," said Mittica. "This is also problem- atic because while distributors may get a better price, they have a very hard time guaranteeing quality and open themselves up to a whole host of product safety liability." The traditional ad specialties sup- ply chain model has existed because the barriers to entry have traditional- ly been pretty high. It wasn't just the equipment—screen or pad printing was the usual method used to print many of these items—but also ware- housing, distribution, and the basic knowledge of how to choose and produce effective ad specialty items. The advent of digital fatbed UV printing has removed many of these barriers to entry. "It has opened up promotional merchandise to absolutely any organization," said Hayes. "We still see value in the distributor supply-chain model, but this is the way the world is now. We've got to reinvent our business so we still have relevance and a part to play in the model. It's inevitable." Part of that reinvention was creat- ing a company called Digital Blanks, which supplies blank products and jigs for fatbed UV print- ers. (Jig is the term for the tray or frame that holds the products in place during printing.) "We set up the Digital Blanks business as a little bit of an insurance policy," he said, "so if any of our customers who were previously buying prod- ucts from us decided to buy their own digital UV fatbed printer, we could supply them with the jigs and the [blank] products." The changing model is also in evi- dence at ad specialties trade shows, said Hayes. "You would traditional- ly have your trade suppliers exhib- iting there with their products on display and the distributors would walk around getting new product ideas and building new relation- ships." Now, UV fatbed printer resellers attend these shows and give distributors ideas about buying a machine for $20,000 or 25,000, printing products themselves, and making much higher margins because they are removing a few layers of the golf ball. It's a bit of a disruptive technology, but for the high quantities in which many of these items are printed, the old model is still quite viable. For very small quantities, the digital model can be more effective, and is where the opportunity lies for new- comers to the market. Joanie Loves Tschotchkes There is a reason that ad specialties is a hot are:. These sorts of products work very well at imparting brand awareness. A fact sheet published by the Promotional Products Associa- tion International says that, "Adding a promotional product to the media mix generated favorable attitudes toward a print ad in all cases. The use of a promotional product as the advertising medium alone achieved maximum impact, up to 69 percent increasing brand interest and 84 percent in creating a good impression of the brand." A PPAI study (Effectiveness of Promotional Products as an Advertising Medium) found that "58 percent of respondents keep a promotional product anywhere from one year to more than four years. Even if the recipient uses the item only once per week, that's a minimum of 52 impressions made over the course of a year with the possibility of more than 208 during a fve-year window." There is a caveat here, and that is that not all promotional products are created equal. Indeed, to be effec- tive, said Rob Hayes, "it has to have a use for the end user." This is why pens are toward the top of the promotional popularity chart: everyone can use a pen. Like- wise, smartphone cases, styli (es- pecially pen/stylus combos), thumb drives, coffee mugs, calendars— these are all things most of us would buy anyway, but if a branded version is given to us for free? We'll probably have that brand top of mind every time we use a particular item. "Stylus pens sell very well," said Hayes. "Screen cleaners, mobile phone cases, anything that has an association with touchscreens seems to be fying." Another big trend is personaliz- ing items beyond simply adding a company logo. "People will pay a premium for a personalized product," The Ad Specialties Institute (ASI) breakdown of distributor revenues by specialty product. The shirt is a bit mightier than the pen. Source: "State of the Industry 2014," Ad Specialties Institute (ASI)/Counselor magazine. STATE OF THE INDUSTRY 2014 | COUNSELOR 82 State of the Indus try Product Break down The market share of each product category – shown as the percent of distributor revenues that each accounted for in 2013. Shirts accounted for about $4 billion of distributor revenues in 2013. 19.7 Shirts Product Matrix % of Total Industry Revenue 9.7 Writing Instruments Writing instruments grew from 8.1% of the market in 2012 to 9.7% last year. 8.6 Bags 8.5 Drinkw are (includes ceramic and glassware) 6.8 Other Wearables 5.0 Caps/ Headwear Distributors sold $1.74 billion worth of drinkware products in 2013. 5.0 Desk/Office/ Business Accessories Sales of desk accessories increased by 16% last year. 3.4 Calendars 3.4 USB drives Calendar sales have dropped by 21% over the past five years. 3.2 Health and Safety Products 2.7 But tons/Badges/ Ribbons/Stickers/ Decals/Emblems/ Tranfers/Lanyards 2.6 Housew ares/ Tools 2.6 Electronics Distributor revenues from electronic items grew by 13% over the past two years. 2.0 Computer- Related Products (except USB drives) 2.0 Sporting Goods/Leisure Products 2.5 Recognition Awards/Trophies/ Jewelry Sales of sporting goods and leisure products have jumped by 58% in the past five years. 1.9 Automotive Accessories 1.6 Magnets Magnets accounted for $330 million worth of distributor sales in 2013. 1.6 Books/Cards/ Postcards/ Stationery/ Giftwrap 1.6 Te xtiles 1.5 Food Gifts Distributors sold more than $300 million worth of edible promotional products last year. 0.9 Personal/ Pocket-Purse Products 0.7 Clocks/ Watches 0.7 Games/Toys/ Playing Cards 0.7 Gift Cards 0.8 Other Products

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