Printing, mailing services converge as industries evolve

It’s in the mail

Whether as a strategy to increase profitability or a response to client demand for convenience, Ozarks mailing services and printing services are converging.

Print Group Inc. in Ozark began offering mailing services almost two years ago and now processes about 300,000 pieces of mail per month.

“A lot of the work we were printing was mailing, so why not offer the service?” said owner and President Jay Wacha.

For clients, combining printing and mailing is a matter of convenience. Mailing service “makes us more of a turnkey operation for our end user,” said Robert McCann, president of McCann Printing. “They’re not having to have us print it, and then pick it up and take it to another mailing source.”

Historically, a customer might have to deal with four people – a designer, printer, mailer and possibly a database manager – to put out a mailing, but with a one-stop shop, it’s all under one roof with a single point of contact, and services can be ordered as a package or a la carte.

“More of the customers out there just want to deal with one supplier,” said Daniel Williams, owner of Insight Solutions, which processes 3.7 million pieces of mail per month, according to Springfield Business Journal’s 2008 Book of Lists.

Williams’ business was formerly known as AAA Mailing but changed its name after acquiring Nixa-based OMC Printing in August 2007. Up to that point, AAA had to outsource printing for clients who wanted the company to handle the whole project from design to delivery.

Impact of technology

Technology has turned printing upside down in the new millennium.

“I’m a firm believer – especially in our industry as far as our technology’s changing – we’ve got to reinvent ourselves about every two years,” Wacha said. “I think the guys that are reluctant to change are going to get stuck in some old technology and they’re going to struggle.”

From the impact of e-mail marketing a decade ago to the advent of digital printing and personalized Web-to-print variable imaging, technology has profoundly affected the printing business.

“Printing is a lot easier than it was 20 years ago,” McCann said. “Just about anybody can do it if they’ve got the money to get into the business.”

That means competition.

“There’s a lot less print than there used to be, plus there’s more print shops than we’ve ever had, so the pie is smaller all the time,” McCann added.

And competition is no longer just local or regional, but also national, with huge online printers providing another challenge for the printing industry.

Williams said he sees competition from online providers as a long-term industry trend, with economies of scale allowing large firms to lowball prices.

“The online printers, they specialize in postcards and maybe some simple brochures. Obviously the more complicated tasks, the more detailed ones, those are still mostly locally or regionally supplied,” Williams said. “But these larger companies are providing an unbelievable source of competition on pricing.”

Because of that, “even though we’re consolidating into all the services, we still need to figure out how to provide additional services that create a value-added proposition rather than just price, price, price,” Williams said.

Going digital

Just like mailing, McCann said, digital printing is another major service that commercial printers are considering to enhance profit.

“The digital revolution is not coming; it’s here,” said Williams, whose firm already offers print on-demand. Digital printing isn’t being adopted as quickly in the Springfield market as it is in the big cities, he added, but it has arrived.

In fact, Ozark’s Print Group Inc. is making a significant investment in digital printing equipment that should be up and running by May 1.

“We were chiefly a commercial printer, a mail house, and now we’re going to become a digital printer,” Wacha said.

Digital printing offers a short-run color solution for clients who may have avoided color in the past because of cost, Wacha said. Also, digital printing provides options such as one-to-one marketing personalization and print on-demand.

As part of its print-on-demand services, Print Group Inc. will provide branded storefronts for corporations. For example, if a client company needs specific marketing materials for sales calls, field representatives sign onto the company’s Web site to order supplies, but the order actually goes to Print Group Inc., which prints and ships the order to the field rep. The field rep has a seamless experience that’s branded by the client company, but Print Group Inc. does the actual work.

The investment in digital equipment, however, can be significant, and Williams noted that a state-of-the-art digital color printer can cost $1 million. The key to balancing customer demand and equipment cost, local printers say, is to walk the leading edge – not the bleeding edge – of technology.

And the one thing that is not an option is inertia.

“You can’t stand still,” Wacha said, “and you definitely have to be willing to change.”