'Total cost of print' logic says that as much as 30 to 40% of the long run gets thrown away as it becomes redundant before it has been used. There's also the cost of storage and the cost of tied up capital to think about.
As marketers we should be advising our clients to more carefully examine the cost implications of 'buying bulk' and offer solutions to increase their ROI.
Digital printing has the solution, Print on Demand (POD). POD is printing only when you need it, as opposed to printing stock of an item, warehousing bulk and then drawing it down when required. In recent years digital print technology has built the capacity to challenge litho quality - while offering shorter-run printing straight from the disk.
With that flexibility clients can hold a reduced inventory requiring minimal storage space. With the cash released, you could be running a new, more up to date campaign, defending your client's position or entering a new market.
In industries such as financial, legal, medical and publishing where content is extensive, and changes to communications are frequent, POD is the answer we've all been waiting for. And to address anyone's scepticism, indeed, the cost per piece may be higher due to the lower quantity in static prints but that is off-set by the lack of waste, the ability to keep materials up to date, and the saving on storage.
Creda Communications have just installed the market leading HP Indigo 3050 digital printing press. Michael Tame, Business Development and Sales Director at Creda explains his theory, "Print on Demand and Variable Data Printing is more than a technology, it's a business philosophy."
Let the technology do the work for you.
