Comments on: Marketing – 10 Cent Color Sales http://www.socialprintexperiment.com/2010/05/12/marketing-10-cent-color-sales/ Building a digital print company from scratch Mon, 28 Feb 2011 23:08:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Anuraag http://www.socialprintexperiment.com/2010/05/12/marketing-10-cent-color-sales/comment-page-1/#comment-142 Anuraag Sun, 23 May 2010 20:36:33 +0000 http://www.socialprintexperiment.com/?p=202#comment-142 I think it does make sense. As a start up cash flow is key and so far as the 10 cents work doesn't suck away too much time and advertising dollars, it should bring in critical cash to chase higher paying work. It isn't for everyone to try though. Since the social nature of this effort is expected to generate cheap web traffic, this model simply takes advantage of that. Not doing this is leaving money on the table. Overdoing this is pitfall albeit easily avoided. Good luck! I think it does make sense. As a start up cash flow is key and so far as the 10 cents work doesn’t suck away too much time and advertising dollars, it should bring in critical cash to chase higher paying work. It isn’t for everyone to try though. Since the social nature of this effort is expected to generate cheap web traffic, this model simply takes advantage of that. Not doing this is leaving money on the table. Overdoing this is pitfall albeit easily avoided. Good luck!

]]> By: Andrew Simmons http://www.socialprintexperiment.com/2010/05/12/marketing-10-cent-color-sales/comment-page-1/#comment-141 Andrew Simmons Thu, 20 May 2010 08:06:17 +0000 http://www.socialprintexperiment.com/?p=202#comment-141 10centcolor.com is not the site that will bring us sustained, profitable income over the long term, but for now it's a capacity filling proposition for us. It runs independently of our primary business; has no walk-in traffic or even lists an address where you could go to find it. It runs within our daily shift and doesn't extend into overtime or weekends. It's strictly mail order with no frills. And yes, the customers that come through this site are the bottom feeders, but as a PDF file provided workflow where we insert those jobs into idle time workloads, it's at least some income coming into to supplement the better paying work. 10centcolor.com is not the site that will bring us sustained, profitable income over the long term, but for now it’s a capacity filling proposition for us. It runs independently of our primary business; has no walk-in traffic or even lists an address where you could go to find it. It runs within our daily shift and doesn’t extend into overtime or weekends. It’s strictly mail order with no frills.

And yes, the customers that come through this site are the bottom feeders, but as a PDF file provided workflow where we insert those jobs into idle time workloads, it’s at least some income coming into to supplement the better paying work.

]]> By: kristian eyman http://www.socialprintexperiment.com/2010/05/12/marketing-10-cent-color-sales/comment-page-1/#comment-140 kristian eyman Wed, 19 May 2010 13:27:23 +0000 http://www.socialprintexperiment.com/?p=202#comment-140 peter thanks for the words of encouragement! i to am trying to find a way to pull more customers off the street with a low price on 135 gm paper for .40 a sheet. my preliminary thought was to offer this price only to students with a valid ID, and hit up all the campus' with a lot of flyers. I am want to lower my pricing on digital printing to compete with offset (flyer, business cards, letterheads,posters) put keep my single sheet price at the steady at .65. i am looking into contract pricing for the local government to help my profit, and some larger corporations. thanks for all that you do for the printing community, its very aspiring! cheers, kristian. peter thanks for the words of encouragement! i to am trying to find a way to pull more customers off the street with a low price on 135 gm paper for .40 a sheet. my preliminary thought was to offer this price only to students with a valid ID, and hit up all the campus’ with a lot of flyers. I am want to lower my pricing on digital printing to compete with offset (flyer, business cards, letterheads,posters) put keep my single sheet price at the steady at .65. i am looking into contract pricing for the local government to help my profit, and some larger corporations. thanks for all that you do for the printing community, its very aspiring! cheers, kristian.

]]> By: Olujide Ojo http://www.socialprintexperiment.com/2010/05/12/marketing-10-cent-color-sales/comment-page-1/#comment-139 Olujide Ojo Wed, 19 May 2010 07:55:22 +0000 http://www.socialprintexperiment.com/?p=202#comment-139 This is an experiment and it is worth the try. My suggestion is to look for how to lower cost and offer unprecedented value at the same time. I agree with Peter that at this cost without some value that cannot be easily replicated, the volume will come and there will be little to hold the customer down. This seems to be like a rabbit hunting approach, (I understand that you are looking to hunting elk on one side and using rabbit hunting to fill up excess capacity). My real question is this, can you really make 3 cents on the "10centcopy"? Have you factored in all the costs, toner, stock, labour, machinery, etc. 3 cents is 30% profit margin and if it is real, 30% margin with 50% capacity utilisation on your press will bring in a lot of money. I really appreciate what you are doing, I am writing from Africa and looking forward to starting a digital press soon (We had an offset press). Your experiment has been a great help and I hope "10centcopy" delivers because I believe in hunting rabbits primarily and elk on the side. This is an experiment and it is worth the try. My suggestion is to look for how to lower cost and offer unprecedented value at the same time. I agree with Peter that at this cost without some value that cannot be easily replicated, the volume will come and there will be little to hold the customer down. This seems to be like a rabbit hunting approach, (I understand that you are looking to hunting elk on one side and using rabbit hunting to fill up excess capacity). My real question is this, can you really make 3 cents on the “10centcopy”? Have you factored in all the costs, toner, stock, labour, machinery, etc. 3 cents is 30% profit margin and if it is real, 30% margin with 50% capacity utilisation on your press will bring in a lot of money. I really appreciate what you are doing, I am writing from Africa and looking forward to starting a digital press soon (We had an offset press). Your experiment has been a great help and I hope “10centcopy” delivers because I believe in hunting rabbits primarily and elk on the side.

]]> By: Peter Truman http://www.socialprintexperiment.com/2010/05/12/marketing-10-cent-color-sales/comment-page-1/#comment-138 Peter Truman Tue, 18 May 2010 17:00:38 +0000 http://www.socialprintexperiment.com/?p=202#comment-138 Dropping prices to attract customer? This has been tried before. Let's all work 26 hrs a day for pennies. The low price model creates volume, volume means work, more work means less time spent on developing a customer base that actually pays, is long lasting and, above all else, profitable. Loss leaders work for the "costco" or "fedex(kinko)" model because they have economies of scale. They pay minimum wage and have astonomical advertising budgets. The small independant, quick/digital, printer still relies on relationship printing. We have to have the ability to pay ourselves, something this experiment has not yet done, as well as our employees. I realize this is an experiment, however at some point this experiment needs to address real world obstacles. The direction you are going reminds me of the old adage "if you want to make a million $ in this business, just start with 3 million...". Most of us out here don't have the beginning capital to last 6 months with no pay and no sign of a quick recovery in sight. Back to the "10centcopy", bottom feeding prices attracts bottom feeding customers who soon move on to the next lower price. Peter Dropping prices to attract customer? This has been tried before. Let’s all work 26 hrs a day for pennies. The low price model creates volume, volume means work, more work means less time spent on developing a customer base that actually pays, is long lasting and, above all else, profitable. Loss leaders work for the “costco” or “fedex(kinko)” model because they have economies of scale. They pay minimum wage and have astonomical advertising budgets. The small independant, quick/digital, printer still relies on relationship printing. We have to have the ability to pay ourselves, something this experiment has not yet done, as well as our employees. I realize this is an experiment, however at some point this experiment needs to address real world obstacles. The direction you are going reminds me of the old adage “if you want to make a million $ in this business, just start with 3 million…”. Most of us out here don’t have the beginning capital to last 6 months with no pay and no sign of a quick recovery in sight. Back to the “10centcopy”, bottom feeding prices attracts bottom feeding customers who soon move on to the next lower price.

Peter

]]> By: kristian eyman http://www.socialprintexperiment.com/2010/05/12/marketing-10-cent-color-sales/comment-page-1/#comment-136 kristian eyman Fri, 14 May 2010 23:27:04 +0000 http://www.socialprintexperiment.com/?p=202#comment-136 Kudos to you! I also have a small print shop in Mexico with both digital and offset printing. I have been trying to show my business partner how we should lower the price on our digital prints to a lower price to draw more clients. We too are a small start-up, and most printing is people coming off the street. I am thinking about opening up another shop and just trying to blow the competition out of the water with this guerilla tactic. Cheers, Kristian. Kudos to you! I also have a small print shop in Mexico with both digital and offset printing. I have been trying to show my business partner how we should lower the price on our digital prints to a lower price to draw more clients. We too are a small start-up, and most printing is people coming off the street. I am thinking about opening up another shop and just trying to blow the competition out of the water with this guerilla tactic. Cheers, Kristian.

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