It’s Friday so I admit the thought I just had after reading this article MIGHT be a bit out there, but using myself and my online behavior as a focus group of one, it also could possibly be a cool idea… so here it goes…
I have many times, spent more time than I had planned, configuring cars online. As a matter of fact I configured the car I leased and eventually purchased. These days however, I do it because like Mt. Everest, it’s there and quite frankly its fun. So that got me to thinking, what if there was a configurator for print?
Let’s leave all the technical stuff aside for now since Im not a programmer and just focus on creating users. There are sites where you can create business cards and brochures online and using templates you can build your materials (using build here vs design since the templates are usually set). Other systems and sites allow you to “order” from a Printer, but you have to know what you want… but what if you didnt know, or knew but before getting a quote you wanted to make sure the concept worked within your budget… and could do this by yourself.
Enter the PMC Printerator (I did a search and couldnt find one online so Im branding it!). A user, who would need to be a print producer, designer or speccing professional logs in and enters what ever details they know – qty, size, pages, maybe even is able to upload a pdf of the layout. Then, you can start configuring! Add some spot varnishes, PMS colors, fold it different ways, emboss the cover, change the paper… the usual stuff we have to go back and forth in design and pricing for. And each time we make changes, we can see how it effects the price – with some +/- % caveat of course, but this is for ballparking. And once I have my ballpark, I cant print out the specs to bid with my own Printer, or send them from the program to Printers who have joined the system and proceed to get a formal quote and place the order… turning the user into a customer!
This would be an awesome industry tool! As a matter of fact, if you tie in Paper Merchants to the system, you can even get a comp of the piece you configured on the correct stock – minus the fancy stuff of course.
Regardless of the possible technical obstacles and current holes in my thought since I just had it, the author of the article below states, “In fact, all the configurators aim for the same result: Drive the dreamer to the dealer.” Wouldn’t it be nice for the Print and Marketing Industry to dream again? And hey, even if you dont plan to order anything you can still go and play around and have FUN with Print.
How ‘Car Configurators’ Are Helping Steer the Dreamer to the Dealer
Auto Brands Driving Home Virtual Shopping
By: Stephen Williams
In the dark ages of automobile marketing — before the mid-1990s — buyers researching cars actually had to go to a dealership, get the “If-you-buy-today-it’s-cheaper” treatment and walk a lot for inspiration. That process was called “kicking the tires.” And rare was the salesman who offered prospects a cappuccino. More likely they got a business card stapled to a brochure.
For more than a decade, however, kicking the tires is increasingly a matter of virtual shopping and personalizing your car online. In 2012, a visit to the dealer often marks the end of the sales chain.
Besides acting as a marketing tool, the “car configurator” has become an important element in a brand’s digital campaign and social-media assets. For example, your best friend 1,000 miles away can check out the Mojave Metallic 3 series you just “built” on BMW’s site by clicking a Facebook button on the summary page.
BMW’s site (nearly all automakers have something similar) gets an average of more than 3 million hits monthly, said Alex Schmuck, the company’s internet communications manager. Twenty-five percent of those visitors click through the configuration process (there are 56 models to build in the brand’s U.S. market).
“At the end of the process, you have the ability to forward your configuration to a BMW dealer directly to get a quote,” Mr. Schmuck said. That’s key to a sale, he said, adding that 25% of people “who contact the dealer end up buying a car.”
continues at: How ‘Car Configurators’ Are Helping Steer the Dreamer to the Dealer | Digital – Advertising Age.
