For distributor Patrick McGuffey, tags are profitable products that have helped him become the "printer of choice" within accounts. For one of McGuffey's clients, tags have proven lucrative as well.
A large retailer of Western wear has saved significant time in its boot repair business by using a simple 2-part tag. And the firm's loss prevention experts are thrilled with McGuffey's redesigned "price point" tag, which incorporates a tamper-evident feature.
McGuffey, owner of distributorship East Texas Business Printing, Tyler, Texas, was walking through the back room of one of his client's stores one day. A huge seller of boots, the client also runs a shoeshine and repair business. When customers brought boots in for repair, the store's clerks wrote the customers' names and phone numbers on pieces of paper or Post-it notes. Employees inserted the notes in the boots' loops or stuck them to the outside of the boots.
This tracking system was ineffective, to say the least. Notes would fall off and get misplaced, particularly when the retailer outsourced the work to another business. McGuffey showed his client how a simple, 2-part manifold tag could save time and money by providing better tracking. He now supplies the retailer with a yellow repair tag that's imprinted with each of the retailer's store names and locations. Customers receive a numbered receipt displaying the store address and phone number.
Why Tags?
Tags may seem rather ordinary to some distributors, but McGuffey has a different perspective. "Tags can be a process improvement," he says. That was certainly the case when one of the Western wear store's owners confided in him about a serious situation.
At the time, McGuffey was selling the client 2 x 2-inch tags with the word "Special" printed on them. Clerks in each store wrote the sale price on the tags and stapled them to larger tags hanging from the boots. Sometimes the prices were illegible, but that wasn't the biggest problem. Dishonest customers learned they could substitute the tag on an expensive pair of boots with one from a less expensive pair, sometimes cheating the retailer out of hundreds of dollars.
McGuffey now supplies the retailer with 40 different tags preprinted with various price points. All the tags contain the word "Special" and are printed on 10 pt. manila stock. Each 114 x 114-inch tag has a piece of transfer tape on the face that's used to affix the tag to the larger tag. McGuffey tested several types of transfer tape to make sure he used one that provides obvious paper-fiber tear when removed. The new tags look more professional and the number of boots being sold for the wrong price has dropped significantly.
Still think selling tags is not as glamorous as selling annual reports or integrated cards? Think again. "Tags are not so mundane to the people who use them," says Jim Fitzgerald, president of Service Forms and Graphics Inc., a distributorship in Darien, Ill. He should know: He sells custom, multipart tags to a manufacturer of railroad tank cars. His client also leases tank cars, which require cleaning between uses. Because of the dangerous nature of the business, workers must know what previously has been stored in the cars and the oxygen and toxicity levels before entering the cars.
A Niche Worth Hanging Onto
To end users who depend on them for safety and process improvement,
tags are far from mundane.
BY KATHERINE HOUSE
Distributors say tags are profitable products that can help salespeople penetrate accounts or win new business. Many types of businesses need tags for identification, pricing and tracking applications.
Samples courtesy of Special Service Partners,
Neenah, Wis.
4 Tips on Selling Tags
1. Factor in time for testing during the sales
cycle. Testing stocks can be just as critical when selling tags as it is for labels. Jim Fitzgerald, president of Service Forms and Graphics Inc., a distributorship in Darien, Ill., sells to a railroad tank car manufacturer. The client tested and compared laminated stock side by side with a synthetic substrate before deciding on the optimal stock for its warning tags.
2. Educate yourself about manufacturing
capabilities and fastening methods. This will allow you to pick the most cost-effective method for your client, as well as help you choose the best fastening method for the application.
3. Work closely with the end user. Success at selling tags might mean getting to know a new buyer or, at the least, consulting with the ultimate user. Don't be surprised if you work with a store owner or marketing manager in the case of hang tags, price tags and other tags in the retail industry. In situations where danger and warning tags are warranted, seek out the safety manager.
4. Get up to speed on bar coding.
Distributors and their clients need not own special printers to take advantage of bar coding. Variable imaging has opened up bar coding to clients for many applications, including inventory and work-in-process tags.
Fitzgerald sells three custom, multipart
tags to the client: a warning tag, a caution tag and a danger tag. All three
tags are constructed from 15# bond, a blue pencil carbon and 13 pt. CSU. They
feature metal eyelets reinforced with fiber patches and prestrung 26-gauge wire.
Tags can be "an important tool in helping [clients] maintain their
plant-by-plant safety records," Fitzgerald says. Improved safety records are a
source of pride for operations and safety managers, he says.
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The travel/tourism
industry is a hot market for tags. Tour operators, hotels, ski resorts,
airlines and travel agents are ideal prospects. Among the items needed are
luggage tags, parking tags and admission passes.
Samples courtesy of
Special Service Partners, Neenah, Wis.
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Helping Clients Find Better
Ways
Educating customers about tags has
helped distributors penetrate accounts and garner new business. Seven years ago,
Joe Szabo walked into a client's lighting fixture store. The clerk who greeted
customers was looping thin yarn through price tags and knotting it. "I said,
'You've got to be kidding me,'" says Szabo, president of distributorship J&B
Enterprises of SC Inc., Aiken, S.C. "She said, 'If you have a better way, I'd
love to see it.'"
Szabo began supplying the upscale retailer with 2
5/8 x 3 7/8-inch white tags in three lots for each of its three stores.
The tags feature a 3/16-inch metal eyelet and 6 1/2-inch red rayon
string, knotted. On one side is the retailer's logo and store information,
reversed out of a PMS color. The other side features words such as "Item #" and
"Price."
One day while he was looking for new
warehouse space, Szabo stumbled upon another tag application. He went to talk to
a building owner about warehouse space, and he saw someone using a drill to make
holes in "display boards." The display boards, printed on tag stock, were used
to hold belt buckles sold in fabric stores. The company was buying the display
boards from a local printer. No one realized the drilling process could be
automated.
Today, Szabo supplies the firm with 18
different display boards that look considerably more professional than the ones
the employee had to drill. Each one has the company's name, an item number and
price preprinted on it. The firm needs the display boards in multiple sizes with
multiple hole configurations.
When Abe Joseph saw tags in a friend's auto body shop last fall, little did he know they would lead to a major client. Joseph, president of Lakewood, N.J., distributorship J & J Distributors, called the purchasing department of the steel company that supplied to his friend's shop. He got an appointment the following day and learned the prospect was having trouble with its tags. The prospect's continuous tags jammed in its equipment. Joseph redesigned the tags with a Mylar patch instead of tape and won the business. He also sells multipart carbon-interleaved tags to the company to track work in process.
Katherine House, a freelance writer in Iowa City, Iowa, is
a frequent contributor to Print Solutions. Email us your comments at editors@printsolutionsmag.com.
Thanks to manufacturer Special Service Partners, a division of Menasha Corp., Neenah, Wis., for assistance.
14 Questions: A Checklist for Selling Tags
Tag manufacturers can help you determine the right stock, size and fastening method, depending on the client's application. Selling tags is similar to selling labels. Learning as much as possible about the environment and usage of each tag is critical. Getting answers to the following questions will help you collaborate with your manufacturer to produce the best product for your client.
1.Will the tag be used indoors, outdoors or in both environments?
2.Does the tag need to be visible in low lighting?
3.What type of temperature range and humidity will the product be subjected to?
4.Will it need to withstand chemicals, oils or other substances?
5.What is the tag being attached to?
6.What is the longevity of the tag?
7.How critical is it that the tag stay attached to the item, regardless of weather, handling or other special circumstances?
8.How often will the tag be handled?
9.How many copies of the tag need to be retained and by whom?
10.Will the tag be handwritten or processed by machine?
11.Does the application require tamper-evident or other security features?
12.Will numbering be required for tracking?
13.Could bar codes increase the accuracy of your client's tracking system?
14.How important is image to your client?
