One of Brian Palmer's customers, a supplier of software to credit unions, helps its clients with marketing ideas. Palmer, president of Data-Mation Printing & Graphics Inc., recently had a marketing idea of his own to benefit both the software vendor and its credit union customers. The idea centered around integrated cards.
Palmer suggested that his Buffalo, N.Y.-based distributorship supply the software company with integrated cards for credit unions to give to their members. The challenge: The software company serves more than 400 credit unions, each with approximately 500-4,000 members. How could Data-Mation supply integrated cards customized for each location, with addresses, corporate colors, logos and other personalized information?
Palmer devised a stock card program,
with a few basic designs and options for customization. The blank 8 1/2 x
11-inch stock includes either 1-up or 2-up laminated integrated cards in
different positions on the paper. Credit unions can purchase the blank stock and personalize it in house on laser printers or order custom cards (if they need more than 1,000 sheets).
The software company plans to order approximately 250,000 stock integrated cards from Data-Mation. The distributorship will store the cards, then release blank ones directly to credit unions or send the pre-produced cards to a printer for customization as needed.
Palmer says the application is ideal for the software company's many small credit union customers, for whom 30 mil plastic cards typically are cost-prohibitive. In addition, he says, personalization is easy for the credit unions because most already own laser printers. "It gives them small quantities of a durable card that looks good," Palmer says.
Striking a Chord
Integrated and affixed products can include an array of products such as forms, labels, cards and even promotional products. But their goal is the same: to combine labels, cards and other items with corresponding forms, reducing the possibility of mismatched items. Integrated and affixed products save money and processing time, eliminate transposition errors and increase efficiency.
Distributors can suggest one of three basic products: affixed products, label/form combinations and integrated products. Affixed products are available in several formats, from piggyback labels affixed to release liners to plastic cards affixed to letters. Label/form combinations have three main constructions: labels affixed to forms offline (blown or tipped on), multipart forms in which one ply is a label, and forms and labels assembled side by side (dual web construction). Finally, integrated products are perfed or die cut out of the same stock as the carrier.
Clients' needs dictate which product is best-suited for the application. For example, a video store might require a membership application and card. If the store prefers a plastic card, it might order an affixed membership card. The form would include spaces for customers to fill in their names, addresses and so on. Four-color plastic cards could be attached to the forms using a clean-release adhesive, so when customers complete the applications, they can be issued membership cards immediately. If the video store wants to personalize the cards on site, however, it might opt for integrated cards. The smooth construction of integrated cards helps to prevent them from detaching or jamming in printers.
Warehouses in the manufacturing industry are tried-and-true users of affixed and integrated products. One common application is combination picking/packing slips and shipping labels. But the market is wide open, limited only by the ingenuity of distributors and their customers.
Singing the Blues
One problem with marketing integrated and affixed products is that they're hard to envision. Imagine telling a new employee for a doctor's office that you're going to supply her with 81ˇ2 x 11-inch multipart label/form combinations with six blown-on labels below a perf on the bottom of the form. Sometimes even industry veterans have trouble explaining the constructions of such forms. It's exponentially more difficult for customers to understand. Therefore, it's critical to show your customers samples. Let clients take them apart and explain all the features.
The drawbacks of integrated and affixed products don't end there. It's imperative that such products are compatible with customers' software packages. At times, distributors must be flexible and offer different product designs so products work smoothly through clients' systems. When switching products or systems, it may take time and patience before you identify a final solution.
Finally, distributors who sell affixed and integrated products must be adept at juggling tasks. As you tweak a product design to please a client, you also may work with a manufacturer to provide test paper stocks and adhesives. Once the order is placed, you may coordinate the work of multiple suppliers: one company supplies plastic membership cards, another firm prints 4-color brochures and a third business handles the affixing. To avoid problems and delays, you must be well-organized and communicate with everyone involved.
Thanks to Integrated Labels Corp., Chicago, and Specialty Tape & Label Inc., Lyons, Ill., for assistance.
* Target companies that want to
disperse cards on site.
"[Integrated cards] are a quick fix," says Brian Palmer, president of Buffalo, N.Y.-based distributorship Data-Mation Printing & Graphics Inc. Companies with laser printers can personalize cards on site and distribute them immediately for employee ID badges, temporary building passes and so on. "Anybody can do it, whether they're standing in a security shack or up in administration," Palmer says.
* Market the all-in-one approach.
Integrated and affixed products are ideal because all components are on one product and all personalization is handled simultaneously. While companies have long recognized the benefits of combined labels and forms for applications such as shipping documents, Palmer says there are more innovative applications. For example, he suggests marketing integrated cards to companies exhibiting at trade shows. Companies typically hand attendees product literature and business cards, which easily can get separated in a pile of hand-outs. Why not suggest an integrated card, with product information on the paper and a business card that releases from the stock?
* Understand the product's benefits--and limitations.
No product is perfect, but some are more suited to certain applications. Be sure you understand--and can communicate to clients--the strengths and weaknesses of affixed products, label/form combinations and integrated products.
* Bypass purchasing people.
One drawback to selling integrated and affixed products is justifying the expense of these products. Initial costs may cause sticker shock to purchasing employees. Instead, tout the benefits to marketing departments and CEOs. Marketing professionals will appreciate the dazzling effect of perfectly matching graphics created on integrated forms and cards. Company officers will be happy to hear that integrated products eliminate potentially embarrassing and costly mismatching problems.
* Package products with care.
Proper packaging is essential for integrated and affixed products to ensure they work correctly. For instance, integrated cards and labels need to be wrapped so they can't curl or aren't exposed to moisture. In addition, advise clients to store products in climate-controlled rooms.
