I have always believed that this industry doesn’t advertise enough. For an industry that depends on our customers’ use of print to advertise their products, you would think we would follow suit. I have often said that almost any form of advertising by our industry is better than no advertising. I was dead wrong.

Recently, I received a brochure from a printer that stopped me cold. Its appearance was fairly ordinary—four-colour, 8.5"x11", folded in half, on 8 pt. coated stock. It was the copy that I found unbelievable. Jumping off the front page were the words, “Lies your printer told you...” On the inside, there was an even more disconcerting line: “Truth: most companies pay more for printing than they should. Do you?” It then went on to say that this printer did everything from business cards to annual reports, without inflated prices.

Trust is what gets repeat business and repeat business is the only way to make a profit

To suggest that most printers are lying and gouging their customers is just plain bad for business. Sales in this industry are built on trust. No matter how low your prices are, if the customer doesn’t trust you, you’re history. Printers who lie to their customers are committing sales suicide. Trust is what gets repeat business and repeat business is the only way to make a profit.

Secondly, to imply that most printers are over-charging their clients and that profits are too high in this industry is simply to be out of touch with reality. Printing Industries of America studies indicate the average profit margin, from the smallest to the largest shop, is about 4% to 5%. So, if everyone dropped their prices by a whopping 5% there would be no profits at all. The reality is prices and margins are so low that it’s hard to justify the high capital cost of equipment. In fact, return on investment has to increase, not decrease.

Not only are most of the statements in this brochure wrong, they’re also incredibly self-defeating. How many people would want to deal with a lawyer that said all other lawyers are crooks? For that matter, who would want to deal with any lawyer at all when one of their own says they are all cheats? By downgrading the competition, you’re also downgrading yourself.

The brochure also says customers are paying too much for printing. By talking only about price, you get the customer thinking only about price, turning print into a commodity. You should remember that price is not the most important thing for the majority of customers. It is what print accomplishes that counts—the message it delivers, the products it sells. Print that does not accomplish the customer’s objectives is not worth much at any price, even if it is the lowest price in town.

As this “Lies your printer told you” brochure does, we all too often lose sight of why our our customers choose print. It’s one of the most effective communication tools there is. We should set an example with our own advertising and show them what can be done with print.