Quality speaks for itself, but just in case...

I had a valuable conversation with a printing client the other day. We were discussing funding she had received for a second printing of a brochure her non-profit had developed with the State of Florida. The brochure helps victims of sexual violence obtain local assistance, and is distributed through 31 different organizations statewide.

She said, "They really love the brochures".

I wasn't sure exactly what she meant, so asked who she was referring to...(certainly a crime victim has other things on her mind beside a laudable printing product). I assumed she meant her collaborators at FL DOH (Dept of Health). Her answer surprised me.

She said, "The law enforcement officers".

She went on to explain that the police personnel working with victims were glad to have complete information, localized for their area, in a professional, high quality format. Prior to this they had been giving out third generation photocopies, or, worse yet, saying, 'here, jot down the phone number', or, 'go to this website'. They felt, in a way, this was an additional burden on the victim; to track down the help they were entitled to.

Of course, our brochure lists the local phone numbers and websites...that's not the point. The point is that the brochure contains a lot of information, and sets it forth in a credible, coherent, and and compassionate way. There is nothing ad hoc about it because the layout was professionally prepared (with the cost split 31 ways).

These brochures cost about a dime each. The key was to pull together a lot of entities to get the quantity up, and therefore the unit cost down. Ordered individually by the 31 groups, the cost would have been two to three times that amount. We're hoping for another batch to be printed in September...that's how fast they're being distributed.

I have been writing a lot about short run, digital printing, because that's where the growth is. It's also the segment of our market which is relatively unknown to our clients. Don't think for a minute, though, that conventional offset printing is down and out.

Overall printing quantities may be down, but the argument for quality is holding it's own. Particularly in the non-profit sector, where there is always a fine balance between professional presentation and budget, quality can be cost effective, and an imperative part of message credibility. Remember, yours isn't the only item in the mailbox that day.

For printing buyers, this is an absolutely golden age. I've been in this business since "Boogie Oogie, Oogie" was #1 on the Billboard charts, and I can say with certainty there has never been so much quality and so much speed available for such reasonable costs. Be sure to take a look!

Looking forward to your comments online,

Hugh Butler
Your friend in the printing business