A while back one of my LinkedIn group members, Ashely Horton, shared a really cool VDP campaign his printing company created and executed. I reached out to him immediately in hopes of sharing his story as an inspiration to Printers, and while the story is still inspiring, it definitely took a turn I didn’t see coming, even factoring in that Ashley lives in New Zealand.
Is there a danger to Printers who offer marketing services to be shunned by their marketing customers? If Printers focus on marketing services, do they lose sight of their prime directive which in this case is to provide printing services? I am not a printer so I’m just tossing those questions out there and invite you to use the comment feature below to state your case. Here is Ashley’s story…
DC: Who Is Ashley Horton and what does he do?
AH: I’m futuristic, an opportunist and I enjoy maximizing results. In my spare time I love to surf, practice martial arts & have a best mate (my dog) called Jasper. I started my Print business when I was 19 through frustration, I worked for a few print companies in sales but I found that I couldn’t trust their reliability and I had a reputation to create. I tried outsourcing but again found that reliability was a real challenge. Eventually, I said ‘screw it’, I’ll do it myself. So imagine this, a pumped up, little, ambitious teenager dressed in an old suit that the trousers didn’t match the jacket and was far too big for me, holding an old leather briefcase, door knocking & convincing 50 year old businessmen to put their trust in me. It worked….
DC: I know nothing about the print market in New Zealand. Can you give us a brief overview of the last few years and how it compares with the US if you are aware?
AH: The print market in NZ is a little different to the rest of the world, we just don’t have the volume of customers that USA has for example. Our population is 4 million spread across 8 main cities so the importance of extremely high service levels is crucial to survival. My business is in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Christchurch suffered 7.4 sized earthquakes in 2011. These quakes devastated the city and closed our CBD. Many lives and livelihoods were lost. My thoughts, ‘Wow, have I just lost everything that I’ve ever worked for?’
It was an emotional time, and uncertainty was the stress but the Kiwi spirit saw people helping their neighbors, picking up shovels, cleaning the liquefaction that covered our roads and gave determination that helped the city recover. I’m proud of those who stood by their city and picked up the pieces. Many people left and I’m happy that I really didn’t have any choice. Owning a business comes with responsibilities. Sticking around taught me consistency and how you can compound your experience and skills.
I’m happy to report that Printable Solutions, two years on from the quakes, is stronger than ever before and we’re only just getting started.
New Zealand operates in small volumes due to the small population and the free trade agreement with China. This results in most manufacturing occurring offshore. As mentioned earlier, we need to treat every customer as if they are the difference in us succeeding or not. Repeat business is key.
DC: Do you consider Printable Solutions as a printer or a marketing company?
AH: We consider ourselves a print company. We were introduced to variable data many years ago. In-fact the videos you watched (www.printable.co.nz/vdp) we made when I was 23, so we’ve advanced a lot since then. Personalized marketing for our company was a great way to differentiate, adding efficiencies as well as adding the personalized marketing aspect but there’s a limit to the level that you should engage in as a printer. I personally have a passion for this level of personalized marketing but it’s extremely time consuming and distracted me for many years of what I has set out to do… Running a quality print company. The reason I took variable data to this level is because I can see the potential in it’s effectiveness and although I promoted this to agencies, none of them were interested in trialing it.
I don’t offer these marketing services any more because I need to protect my focus and these creative skills are not scalable. I would consider working with the right kind of ‘like-minded’ companies that had reasonable budgets, but I don’t promote my services at all. Instead I use these skills for our own business. I’ve also found that the agencies were weary of whether Printable Solutions was a print company or if we were an ad agency ourselves. As a print company, we want those agencies to like us and as alliances.
DC: Do you have staff dedicated to the marketing side of things?
AH: Our sales people used to offer our customers marketing ideas on how to use their print and although some of this is still present, we’ve learned to pull those opinions back, and only offer when invited. We are a print company, not a marketing service. Many customers don’t want marketing services and offering this has potential to damage the simple print relationship.
DC: Your last two responses are going to send some ripples through the US market. Many voices here are suggesting Print Service Providers need to evolve into Marketing Service Providers to remain relevant, and in business. Do you agree with that, and under what circumstances, if any, do you think it could work?
If you were to diversify and offer marketing services, I’d recommend opening an entirely new entity with no association to the print company AND, charge an engagement fee. Why? We’ve all heard the saying 50% of my marketing works, I just don’t know which 50%’ So in the past we’ve had marketing companies take a 360 degree, shot gun approach. While this approach somewhat works, the effectiveness is diluting and as budgets tighten, measurement is becoming popular.
Print is on the decline because print advertising is expensive to print, distribute and difficult to measure in comparison to a series of banner-ads on the web. If you were mix your services and offer Variable data printing, that’s measurable.
Measurement holds you accountable so if you were to not achieve the results that your customer expects, then you risk the print relationship you have. Campaigns sometimes fail, that’s reality and in the era of measurement, why have all your eggs in one basket?
Besides, a marketing service or web service is a completely different business model; you need a different strategy and focus. So a question to ask yourself is ‘Where is my focus?’ if it’s diversification to survive then … that sounds like desperation.
Instead, how can you meet the markets demands? Extreme efficiency?
As I said in my first sentence, I’d recommend creating a new entity and having your print business refer leads to this new entity. Don’t mix your brand message, specialize and give your customers the confidence that you’re highly focused, extremely efficient and stable print provider in an unstable market.
Print will remain, it’s not dead, it’s just a case of how and what.
DC: You attended Air New Zealand Aeronautical Engineering School. How has that training helped you in the print and marketing world?
It hasn’t, but it taught me where my strengths are. Those strengths are in creativity and aviation doesn’t allow that. It’s a good thing too! We don’t want planes dropping from the sky.
DC: From your side of the Earth, how are you making the “case for print” in our digital world?
We all know we can bump phones together and exchange details but this trend really hasn’t taken off. Why? Print is a perception of quality. People judge you on that little piece of card you hand over. It states your professionalism. Tangible means emotional appeal. You can’t achieve the same emotional appeal from an e-voucher that you can from a foiled voucher inserted into a quality envelope, UV over-glossed and sealed with a personalized sticker.
Connect with Ashley on LinkedIn
