How will the audible gasp on Wall Street heard round the world last month further impact the beleagured business form? What could the current fundamental financial funk mean for sales professionals trying to offer business forms to customers scrounging for business band aids? It’s the nature of forms to correct business woes, and many manufacturers are confident forms will simply continue to morph into marketplace-relevant products as needs are reevaluated. Here, two forms manufacturers offer their insights on evolving product lines.
At Harleysville, Pennsylvania-based Alcom Printing, web offset work is holding its own, reported Sal Caimano, director of business development, but digital capabilities are the key to the future. “Growth is definitely in digital and direct mail,” he observed. “This seems like a contradiction, since digital and direct mail often don’t equate to the dollar volume that a big web job would bring in, but we realize the industry is changing and those big web jobs are not what they used to be. So, we’ve adjusted and are positioned pretty well.”
Industry professionals are helping their customers adjust, also, which means suggesting digital alternatives to some traditional form solutions. Consider the popular 81⁄2x11” letter formats folded three times into a #10 envelope along with a business reply envelope used in direct mail applications, or the 81⁄2x141⁄2” letter with a tear-off bre. Alcom Printing offers a one component product instead, which is meeting with great success.
The product involves two 81⁄2x11” forms joined together and folded twice to create a self mailer featuring an integrated business reply card. “It’s very concise and [end-users] easily grasp the concept,” said Caimano. “They can see at once, ‘okay, this is my message, my call to action, my reply mechanism and the envelope all tied into one.’ They don’t have to worry so much about the individual components and all the other decisions that would normally go into [the project]. Their focus can remain on objectives and expectations. It makes for a simple sale and the product is easy for recipients to use, which helps drive up the response rate.”
Alcom Printing is encouraging distributors to present the product as part of a program sell, predominantly to non-profits and educational facilities, and opportunities are opening up in the healthcare arena. “It can be utilized anywhere there is an appeal to go to subscribers, patients or affiliates to ask for their participation [or donations],” added Caimano.
Brian Bradley, vice president of sales for Bradley Graphics, headquartered in Bensalem, Pa., said direct mail is helping breathe new life into his company’s form offerings, as well.
“Our multi-part and continuous forms business has remained consistent. Although the market is shrinking, we’ve been able to find little niches of business to keep the carbonless market and the collators up and running,” he noted. “Some of that growth is in direct mail pieces, where [a company] is trying to get recipients to fill out one part and return it, perhaps with a donation, and keep the other part as a receipt. Some of the jobs are simple, one over one pieces while others are four-color process. We definitely see more color being added to business forms.”
Bradley said the company is getting pretty decent quantities on its offset jobs. “We tend to get more competitive over 50 thousand forms, but many of these projects are a million and a half a month type-runs,” he continued.
Bradley Graphics has a new eight-color press and recently installed an integrated card and label machine. “With the multiple forms business, we are seeing a demand for a label on one part. We can now print the forms, create an integrated label on one part and collate the other two or three parts together, all in one pass,” said Bradley. “We were doing integrated cards and labels before, but we couldn’t create the label on a multi-part form the way we can now. This is an area where we expect to grow on the forms end.”
Bradley acknowledged there is a reluctance among many distributors today to pitch forms, but some sales professionals are currently finding profitability serving multi-part forms needs at mail houses. “As an added benefit, this is helping us keep our collators running which, in my opinion, is one of the hardest things to do with the decline of multi-part forms,” he ascertained. “We seem to be able to keep our presses busy with other work, but if you can keep those collators running, there is very little maintenance or expense to keep a collator. [However], it is getting harder finding the multi-part work for them.”
Taking advantage of environmental initiatives is also helping some companies find new sources of business. Camino said Alcom Printing has already obtained FSC certification, and Bradley Graphics is currently in the process of obtaining its certification. Forms professionals—those who produce and sell the products—seem determined to continue to fight the good fight.
“I admit, it’s a battle [selling] forms, but [the work] is out there,” said Bradley. “Business seems slower, but at the end of the month we’re still making our sales numbers, although margins are getting tighter. As to the current financial situation, it’s something as a business owner you are always concerned with, but so far so good. Like everyone else, I’m curious to see what happens.”
- People:
- Brian Bradley
- Sal Caimano
- Places:
- Harleysville
- Pennsylvania