Getting a good deal and driving price down. What is wrong with that? Well nothing as long as you know what you are buying and importantly why!
A typical scenario; a local business man calls up the printing company and asks, "I need some colour leaflets." Salesman replies "What kind of leaflets are you looking for?" Print buyer confirms, "I need your cheapest A5 colour leaflets. And I've got my own artwork I've done in Word."
You may asking what's wrong with that? On the face of it not much but delve a little deeper and there are some gaping holes in the logic of this approach to buying printing.
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The leaflets are to promote a business. Buying cheap will almost mean lighter paper making the final product feel cheaper. Not that this is wrong if that's what is intended here. But what is the final product/service? A leaflet handout for an exhibition, that's sounds fine. A colour leaflets to sell the services of a skilled cabinet joiner probably not. Perhaps a high quality laminated postcard might be more help here.
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Why colour leaflets at A5? Is this decision made on leaflet content and how and where and why it's being used or simply, it's a size the print buyer knows of?
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Why seek the lowest printing price of leaflet dismissing every other option? We're making a business decision here. It's all about getting the best return on investment rather than cheapest print cost. To put it at its very simplest it's how much money you make not what you save.
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Why is the print buyer using his own artwork for his printing when it's done in the wrong format and most definitely produce a poor result? Modern print designers can produce print artwork to a very high standard and at a reasonable cost. Almost certainly saving the time the print buyer took to produce his Word artwork. If he costed his own time it's cheaper to allow a designer do the work. More importantly the print designer knows how to make the colour leaflets look professional and visually market the client products. Thus increasing the likelihood of a sale and make a profit which is the whole reason why the project exists in the first place!
To summarise:
- Decide on a budget for the job.
- Talk to the print company about print options to get the best out of this budget.
- Decide on function (how the printing is to be handled or distributed) before choosing a size.
- Discuss if you have a design/artwork service and ask how the design can be improved to create a better response.
- Don't skimp on the design! Remember it's the printed design/image that the most important part.
David Owen
(David is responsible for client marketing and preparing designs for printing and web sites).
