Super-Size Me
“Super-sizing” may have negative connotations since the release of a certain documentary a few years ago, but that doesn’t mean everything that’s been super-sized is potentially lethal. Offering traditional form/label combinations and affixed and integrated products is a healthy way for manufacturers to expand the variety of their services and products base. Even manufacturers of integrated labels may overlook everyday uses for such products. But, as consumers, we use form/label combinations and integrated products so often, they’ve become as ubiquitous as McDonald’s signature golden arches—well, without the same level of product recognition.
First developed by Gary Stewart of Trade Printers, Phoenix, in 1980, the form/label combination is now a concept consumers encounter most often in retail or mail adventures. Considering the amount of labels, cards and forms and all of the combinations thereof, integrated and affixed products are everywhere. Online companies such as Amazon.com use form/label combinations for their purchase receipts, offering a return shipping label to their customers. Credit companies, non-profit organizations and consumer advertisers intrepidly flood mailboxes with personalized cards, letters and labels each day. Even McDonald’s sweepstakes stickers are a kind of affixed product when they’re applied to french fry containers and beverage cups. As a result, your expired library card or that greasy bag containing the remnants of a drive-through lunch might not be mere trash—everyday items might hold untapped client opportunities or offer a tangible example of combination products for customers who
are unclear about their myriad functions.
Fredericksburg, Virginia-based Newtown Labels has been producing integrated labels for five years. Gwynne Brown, sales and marketing manager of the forms manufacturing plant and mail shop, said demand for the product encouraged Newtown to offer it. “The demand for the product occurred from the growth of the laser printer market,” she explained. “Distributors wanted to be able to sell to their end-users a product that could be personalized in-house and on demand.” On the other hand, Jeff Russell, president of Major Business Systems in Hillsborough, N.C., said distributors have a low interest in combination products. “Our experience is that less than 30 percent of distributor representatives are informed enough or are willing to sell combination products, even though the majority probably have great potential within their existing client base.”
The reasons are varied for why distributors resist selling combination products. Russell suggested “limited avenues of product education” contribute to a lack of awareness. “This also creates a lack of security within [salespeople],” he continued. “They are not going to sell something they know little about and risk failure with their client. This stigma of a difficult or risky sale must be overcome by the manufacturing arena through enhanced educational and marketing pieces because in reality, it is a very uncomplicated product from a construction standpoint.” But with a wide variety of features, including, according to Russell, “foils, security holograms and removable adhesives,” the possibilities for what can be done with them are seemingly endless.
“For labels, the end-users might be retailers with online ordering in any industry—medical forms, distribution companies and direct mail companies,” Brown stated. “We have found that associations and insurance companies use integrated card[s] for membership cards, gift cards and customer loyalty cards. Integrated decals may be acquired for parking and entrance access for communities, schools and businesses for vehicle window display. Magnets are mostly used for marketing purposes ... and are also used for calendars.”
Other markets inclined to super-size their products include the health-care industry, laboratories, mail order industries and universities, Russell noted. Not only are the many uses for integrated and affixed products unsung, he added that their uses are more efficient overall than most clients realize. Large numbers of distributors, however, aren’t highlighting the long-term advantages of integrated products to their customers.
“Specifically,” said Brown, “an integrated label is more cost-effective and provides a more timely turn-around than printing a label separately from the form. You also get an exact printing match between the form and label.” Russell mentioned their added efficiency in packing technologies, not to mention how they affect production and quality control for matching information printed on both pieces of the product.
Adding integrated products to manufacturing services means marketing the advantages of the products to customers. “The manufacturer must focus on marketing the benefits of these products through media, educational pieces, seminars and hands-on demonstrable samples,” added Russell. Offering consumer examples, perhaps items received in the mail, might help customers understand which of their products could benefit from combining production.
Overall cost must be focused on, too. “If end-user[s] truly measure the cost of all activities within their business system [and] not just the per-unit cost of integrated product[s], they will find they can be extremely cost-effective in eliminating a lot of redundancy,” he continued. “Certainly, having the security of eliminating costly mix-and-match scenarios is a great [system of checks and balances], as well.” He mentioned that both the salesperson and the customer must be willing to look at the big picture of cost and savings due to the initial blow of higher production costs. “They must understand the long-term value in such a product investment,” he said.
Unfortunately, the plusses of product flexibility and efficiency are balanced by the usual set of challenges accompanying the manufacture of any product. Brown mentioned that communicating the flexibility of the integrated form to end-users is often difficult. “There has been some erosion of integrated products in certain applications,” Russell acknowledged, “where a pressure-sensitive thermal transfer label with multiple die cuts can be more cost effective. Generally, this would be in lower volume, slower speed environments. One aspect of form/label combinations that is often overlooked, from a sales standpoint, is that this type of product will be extremely difficult—if not impossible—to reproduce in an electronic format.” Even with the added adversity of updated technology, manufacturers have advantages to offer potential customers of integrated products.
Super-sizing an order might take extra research, persistence and marketing. But with the necessary tools delivered right to your door, the up-sell might not be as unnatural as it initially appears.
- Companies:
- Major Business Systems
- Newtown