Print Solutions Magazine

Print Solutions November 2006

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Table of Contents

COVER STORY

VARIABLE DATA PRINTING, CONTINUED

Case Study

Educating the Customer

CRW Graphics guides Saks Fifth Avenue through the VDP process

By LaShell Stratton

When Horace Saks and Bernard Gimbel opened Saks Fifth Avenue in 1924, they wanted an upscale department store that epitomized fashionable and gracious living. Since then, the company has gone to great lengths to uphold a brand that is synonymous with this lifestyle.

In August 2005, Tom Caputo, VP of Media Operations at Saks Fifth Avenue, contacted CRW Graphics to create a customized web site that would employ variable data printing and allow all Saks Fifth Avenue stores to create trunk show and personal appearance invitations that could mail within 48 hours of approval. “There were 58 stores around the United States with access to this web site, and they wanted to customize the marketing material for their local markets, ” says Dick Weissman, executive VP of the Pennsauken, N.J. manufacturer. “Saks Fifth Avenue also wanted to assure consistency of the product that would go out to its customers. ”

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CRW Graphics created a web site that employed VDP where Saks Fifth Avenue employeees could customize sales pices for their local markets.

Within eight weeks, CRW’s programmers and software engineers created a web site that:

allowed store employees to chose from hundreds of corporate-approved graphic images
offered seven different templates for 2-page, 4-page and postcard invitations
allowed text customization with spell check capability
allowed online soft proofing of high-resolution PDFs of the invitations and envelopes
had a coordinated approval process that notified Saks administrators of store approvals for second quality checks
permitted bulk shipment or mail drop within 48-hours of approval
offered customized billing statements broken down by store location and user that could be reviewed by Saks administrators.

“I just wanted to drop a note and tell you how much I appreciate the effort and support I'm getting from everyone at CRW,” Caputo wrote to the company. “The system looks great and the enhancements are going to be well received. That’s a rave from me.”

Helping Customers Analyze Their Marketing Programs

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Mark Weiss, president of CRW Graphics (left) and Richard Weiss"

The Saks Fifth Avenue program was a great feat, especially considering that CRW had entered the world of digital print only a few years earlier. The company began a decade ago “as a mail shop with black and white capability,” says Mark Weiss, president and CEO. But CRW wanted to enhance its direct mail offerings, so six years ago it purchased a Xerox Docucolor 2060 digital press. This year, CRW Graphics installed the Xerox iGen3 110 digital production press to handle additional 1-to-1 marketing work and to meet growing demand for personalized, short-run, full-color programs.

Now the company, which mostly sells direct, has a client list that includes retail conglomerates like Saks Fifth Avenue and smaller clients like neighboring Rowan University and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. CRW also works for end users like SCI Real Estate Investments.

Years of working with customers in the digital printing arena has shown that the knowledge level of VDP can vary from customer to customer. “It’s sort of a mixed bag,” Weissman says. “Some know a lot about it because they go to seminars or read trade journals, but we can assess early on how much they know, and modify our presentation accordingly. Those who know more about digital printing get a more advanced level of presentation. ”

Customer education and review is a very important part of the sales process, Weissman insists. “We’re introducing a market builder product for customers,” he says. “You can’t really recommend VDP to a customer until you really understand their business.”

With each new customer, CRW performs a structured direct marketing review and evaluation that the manufacturer developed with the aid of an outside company. The assessment determines how the customer can best use these new marketing tools. “This is a face-to-face process,” Weiss explains. “We’re sitting down with the customer. We want to have a baseline to help create better measurements of success. ”

The next step in the process is usually evaluating the customer’s database, an important tool in constructing a 1-to-1 marketing program. “The customer may not have as good of a database as they would like to have, so you may have to help them build it, ” Weissman says. CRW also is careful to explain that the customer should have realistic expectations of what 1-to-1 marketing can do for them. “I believe there is overselling of the technology by some trade journals,” Weissman says. “Stories of programs with 30 to 40 percent response rates give some people elevated expectations. ”

Weissman says the truth is that return on investments can vary greatly from company to company. “It depends on the customer,” he says. “Our customers are in about 12 different industries, but the essential issue for us isn't R.O.I. but helping our customers build their markets. We stress driving more revenue and profits. ”

LaShell Stratton is assistant editor at Print Solutions magazine. Email comments to lstratton@PSDA.org.

Start Selling Digital Printing

Tips for manufacturers:

If you offer mailing and fulfillment, understand the ins and outs of U.S. postal distribution. “A lot of distribution is going through U.S. mail. You have to have someone who really understands postage, ” says Mark Weiss, president and CEO of CRW Graphics. “But it’s also a moving target that can change constantly.”

Digitize your workflow. Take advantage of the economies offered by the digital workflow and be aware of how digital printing can affect your entire plant workflow process. “Even the way you do imposition changes,” Weiss explains. “There’s a cascading effect on production.”

Integrate VDP into your customers’ existing marketing strategies. “We tell our clients that digital printing shouldn’t be a substitute for what you’re already doing,” Weiss says. “Use it in conjunction with what you’re doing, be it your web site or ad marketing.”