Leading the Pack
The wide-format market keeps on growing. According to a Specialty Graphics Imaging Association (SGIA) survey, median sales growth was 16 percent in 2012 (nearly four points higher than expected) and 67.5 percent of surveyed companies thought 2014 would be more profitable than 2013. InfoTrends predicts that the wide-format industry, currently valued at $17 billion, will grow 7.9 percent per year and reach $23.6 billion by 2016.
If the numbers aren't swaying you, maybe a look around will. Jeffrey Stadelman, marketing manager for Stow, Ohio-based MACtac, noted that nearly every market uses wide format printing in some capacity. "[It] can be found everywhere, such as sports arenas, automotive applications, transit, commercial interest, long-term interior and exterior applications, and promotional applications," he said. "Wide format is everywhere you look."
That's good for distributors, but it also brings a new set of challenges. In a big market that keeps getting bigger, competition is fierce—how do you sell wide format when everyone else is selling it, too? You've got to know the best ways to separate yourself from the pack.
What to Look for in Materials
There's only so much you can do with signage to keep things fresh. You can offer lots of colors and high definition, but that's not exactly hard to find now that digital printers are so prevalent. You can go big—real big—but businesses that need 50x100' signs are a fairly small subset of the overall wide-format market. Your best bet? Sign materials beyond the standard paper and vinyl.
Sharon, Pennsylvania-based Victor Printing Inc. is one printer experimenting with different substrates, especially wood. "We're doing a lot of unique construction and printing on wooden substrates," said Craig Belcik, Victor Printing's national sales manager. "We do build wooden plank signs that have an old, retro look, that are going into breweries, brewpubs, restaurants and wineries. [...] The clients like the look of the wood, they like that the gaps between the boards open up, the knots, if there are any defects in the wood—there's just a lot of character and warmth to the nature of what these look like."
Belcik explained that Victor Printing's wood signs use medium-density fiberboard (MDF) plywood, which has a smooth finish and takes well to ink or paint. It's also easy to cut, allowing for a variety of shapes and sizes. Combined with Victor Printing's digital print capabilities, this makes the signs highly customizable. "Bottles, wine bottles—basically anything the customer wants—we can have the shape cut and then printed. That's all print direct," stated Belcik. "So the uniqueness of it is the ability to be competitive either on short quantities, or to personalize the signs because they're digitally printed and not mass-manufacture screen printed.
"If a beer manufacturer wanted signage into a specific city, they could print the city name on the sign or they could even take it down and print the name of a bar or restaurant within the city that sign is going to go to," he continued. "So, it gives the client the ability to personalize its signage."
It might also help to look for substrates that are domestically produced. If two products are similar in quality, but one is USA-made and the other is not, there's a good chance buyers will choose the former. Victor Printing's wood signs, for example, are manufactured in-house at the company's Pennsylvania facility. "The other thing is that we're able to put a 'made in the USA' sticker on the back of these signs, and that's a huge help to many of our customers because end-clients are really looking for made-in-the-USA product," mentioned Belcik.
Selling Smarter
For Harvey Meister, owner of GDS Retail & Display Graphics, Bloomington, Ill., there's more to differentiating yourself from the competition than simply having a compelling product offering. It's about selling smart. "Eliminate the mistakes and you have a better chance of success," he said. "Selling is still the same as ever and all the same sales processes may apply."
One major mistake that could hurt sales for distributors? Not having enough stock on hand, or having the wrong stock altogether. In a market where fast turnaround times are the standard rather than the exception, an inability to quickly fulfill orders is a surefire way to lose business. "End-users have a choice of distributors to choose from. If one distributor does not have stock on the floor, but another one does, they will usually make them the new first choice to call in the future," Stadelman explained. "As we have all heard for the graphic provider, most jobs need to be done 'yesterday'—there typically is no time to wait for the distributor to order stock."
Still, Stadelman noted, this problem is easy to fix with preparation and research. "Distributors can avoid mistakes by understanding their customers' needs and buying habits, as well as keeping plenty of the general purpose stock on the floor, such as three- to five-year general purpose print media and laminates," he said. "Keeping the lines of communication open can also position a distributor as a valuable source of information for their customers."
Meister pointed to several other challenges distributors will likely face when selling wide format products, including lack of product knowledge or training, unsustainable mark-ups, and deals involving more than three parties. "If a distributor pursues a sale that involves a reseller, the chances of failure go way up and the chances of making a profit go way down," he noted. But the biggest challenge? Not thinking big enough. "This sounds simple but is a constant issue," Meister said. "Trade printers are geared up for volume business. While the whole world of large format digital is about speed, on-demand, fast turns and low quantities, the reality is that the capital equipment needed to sustain those services is large and won't sustain small jobs or one-offs for most shops."
"The trade printer will be able to provide significant discounts on volume," he added. "They will rightfully need to charge a lot for one-offs and small jobs, and then the shipping, which is a major factor in large format, may be more than the cost of the job itself. As a distributor, the small job is a killer. No one can make any money."
In other words, selling wide format shouldn't be viewed as a side job, a way to supplement your main source of sales. If you want to succeed in the market, you've got to be all-in. "If you don't have a vision as a distributor to sell significant dollars and contribute significantly to your company's bottom line, you are better off leaving it alone and not selling large format at all, as you will more than likely do some disservice to your customers and possibly mar a healthy relationship," Meister advised. "I think this is where many distributors are sitting today."