Fixing the Local Print Business - The Biggest Target

 
It might be about the local postal store, franchise or independent.  Many years ago someone told me about a company (a start-up at the time) called Mailboxes, Etc. (now The UPS Store)  My original thought was, why use them instead of the post office?  I believed the business concept was flawed - I was way wrong.  Yes, many of these businesses are feeling the strain of the economy and being a franchisee, but the outlook for this group is very positive - just walk into one on any given weekday (especially after 2pm).  The question I have is - can the franchisors bring in higher margin products to more utilize their current foot traffic - and give the franchisee a chance to succeed?

Being a target market for LightsOn Graphics is the wrong phrase; it is much more a prediction. Postal stores provide a convenience that creates foot traffic and business in that it is hyper localized - one stop to send mail, UPS, Fed-X, get the boxes and packing you need to complete your mailing.  They have morphed from a post office box and shipping center to a business center providing copy service, document shredding, limited but critical office supplies, and limited emergency print (copies, business cards).  Just a side note - If you need shredding, buy a shredder.

Offering print and collateral marketing services is a natural expansion to their business; some would say they already do.  I tend to use Postnet in my examples because, not only are they in that postal store target bunch, but they also use a service that, from my research, provides nothing except the satisfaction that they can say, "we have an online print site".  No they don't, but that is just my opinion.  I have interviewed several small printers that use the same system - orderless (like zero) - they stretch to find value in something they pay for every month.  The system they use does provide marketing benefits and a few  convenience tools, but not sales.

Now that the market has been identified, we can start talking about the product and what makes LightsOnGraphics.com different (better) in both product and concept - see our forthcoming blog entries (or see an earlier taste - Fixing the Local Print Business).

In Review - Targets:

1. Postal Stores - because this is where the customers are.
2. Local Quick Printers with poor web presence.
3. Postal Store Franchisors Postnet, Postal Annex, Goin' Postal, etc.)
4. Quick Print Franchisors (AlphaGraphics, Minuteman Press, Sir Speedy)
5. Local Graphic Designers.
6. Vertical Market providers (newly identified)

Thank You For Reading.!.!

Bob

561-371-4113

Localization - Franchising Does Not Mean: "NOT LOCAL"

Too often people think that "franchise" is synonymous with "out-of-town ownership" or "big company ownership".  In some cases this is true, but in most it is not.  The local Dairy Queen, Dunkin' Donuts, Domino's, and KFC are most likely owned by a local resident.  What franchise means to the consumer is consistency and if the consistency is acceptable to us, it also means quality - We know what the "Original Recipe" tastes like whether we are in Arizona, Minnesota or Maine.  Local, in my humble opinion, means local something; either local raw materials and/or local labor and/or local ownership.

ACE Hardware

Think about companies like Ace Hardware. They have made a business of giving the locally owned hardware stores a second life by providing collaborative and cooperative advertising and buying power under one recognizable brand - giving ACE a competitive chance against the big-box stores - without losing that home town ownership, service and feel.  This philosophy is similar to the charter and mission of Time4's Buy.Eat.Live.Local publication and the LightsOnGraphics.com website.

Tinkerbell

What "Buy Local" will need to convey - to be successful is "Net Better"; a combination of a competitive price, quality, service, training, a meeting of expectations, a good economic decision, time to obtain, and last, but not least, the Feel Good Magic Dust that comes from knowing we are part of a better future - "Net Better".

Localization - It's about Much More Than Printing.

Let's make this country a better place and there is no better place to start than in our own hometowns.

As anyone who follows this blog or knows the Time4 and LightsOn initiative; it is quite simple: Make Our Customer Succeed.  We are all about recreating local in a world that knows more about a Jersey Shore celebrity than their own neighbor.  Lets fix this by starting in our own home town.  The following three past articles give some background to this idea.

• Collaborative Marketing Efforts Make The Impossible - Probable. 
• Followup on "Who Me, Who Three - Fixing the Local Print Business" Can the Local Printer Survive?
• The Post Offices (USPS) Encore or the Beginning of the End

Over the last couple months we have been testing our "Buy. Eat. Live. Local." concept with the purpose of moving "Buy Local" from a lip service to a way of life - our lives and our future.  We have made the objective of "Buy. Eat. Live. Local." a product (evolving as it is) to help communities across the country by providing it to local entrepreneurs who, most importantly, live there, work there and buy there.  Have you ever been there?

"Buy. Eat. Live. Local." is the coming together of many environmental, business, social and economic factors.  One of the biggest factors is the forth coming re-urbanization of America over the next 20-30 years which I will be writing about extensively.  For those as old as I, think about it as Megatrends 2013.

How well grasped is this concept?

Here is the Town of Windham Maine's ad - a paid ad - giving 10 reasons why this just makes sense.  So Shop Smart and Shop Local.

 ....and here is what we say:

”Natural Communities Form Around Community and Commerce Centers”.

Buy. Eat. Live. Local

In almost all cases your Windham merchant will provide
Better Service at a Better Price with Less Hassle.

Why?  You know them – They depend on Windham people and they live in Windham.

Buy. Eat. Live. Local and watch Windham grow.

 This is not a concept coming to your home town, it's already there !!!

 

Quality, and How it is Marketed and thus Perceived will Define Success.

There are many definitions of quality in business.  The ISO 9000 definition is the "Degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements". "The standard defines requirement as need or expectation".

Quality is something a product has when it is reproduced the same over and over and over to a defined set of specifications.  Some companies maintain quality by producing the product in one place.  Some companies maintain quality with well defined and well engineered systems.

Consumers buy quality - they know what to expect because of the quality.  This does not mean that the consumer is getting a better product. or even good product; the consumer just knows what they are getting. Having a better hamburger is not enough to compete with McDonald's just as having a better print product is not be enough to compete with Vistaprint.

Collaborative Marketing Efforts Make The Impossible - Probable.

One misconception I have found in talking to prospective partners and affiliates is that they think we are selling them a website - we are not.  We are simply partnering to bring local exposure (everywhere) to LightsOnGraphics.com in exchange for the local exposure of the partner and affiliate resulting in local foot traffic, additional revenues and commissions (commissions from LightsOn Graphics).

LightsOn Graphics' business objective is to increase traffic to the LightsOnGraphics.com website, and the local partner/affiliate to appear when the user traffic is in their locale.  It is not to drive traffic to (or from) a local area. The results and objectives are achieved through collaboration and not brut force.

Taking this approach gives the local printer and postal store a chance to compete for the market which is slowly being lost to the major online printer(s) as described in this past blog entry - Understanding the Changing Print Market. 

Bob Leonard

“Who Four” - The Biggest Target - Fixing the Local Print Business – Part Four

"Who Four":  The local postal store, franchise or independent.  Many years ago someone told me about a company (a start-up at the time) called Mailboxes, Etc. (now The UPS Store)  My original thought was, why use them instead of the post office?  I believed the business concept was flawed - I was way wrong.  Yes, many of these businesses are feeling the strain of the economy and being a franchisee, but the outlook for this group is very positive in my opinion - just walk into one on any given weekday (especially after 2pm).  The question I have is - can the franchisors bring in higher margin products to more utilize their current foot traffic - and give the franchisee a chance to succeed?

Being a target market for LightsOn Graphics is the wrong phrase; it is much more a prediction. Postal stores provide a convenience that creates foot traffic and business in that it is hyper localized - one stop to send mail, UPS, Fed-X, get the boxes and packing you need to complete your mailing.  They have morphed from a post office box and shipping center to a business center providing copy service, document shredding, limited but critical office supplies, and limited emergency print (copies, business cards).  Just a note - If you need shredding, buy a shredder.

Offering print and collateral marketing services is a natural expansion to their business; some would say they already do.  I tend to use Postnet in my examples because, not only are they in that postal store target bunch, but they also use a service that, from my research, provides nothing except the satisfaction that they can say, "we have an online print site".  No they don't, but that is just my opinion.  I have interviewed several small printers that use the same system - orderless (like zero) - they stretch to find value in something they pay for every month.  The system they use does provide marketing benefits and a few  convenience tools, but not sales.

Now that the market has been identified, we can start talking about the product and what makes LightsOnGraphics.com different (better) in both product and concept - see our forthcoming blog entries (or see an an earlier taste - Fixing the Local Print Business).

In Review - Targets:

1. Postal Stores - this is where the customers are..
2. Local Quick Printers with poor web presence.
3. Postal Store Franchisors Postnet, Postal Annex, Goin' Postal, etc.)
4. Quick Print Franchisors (AlphaGraphics, Minuteman Press, Sir Speedy)
5. Local Graphic Designers.
6. Vertical Market providers (newly identified)

Thank You For Reading.!.!

Bob

561-371-4113

Identifying Potential Clients - Those That Have "Bad" and "Really Bad" Web Presence

The "Who's" have been identified.  For the local printer there seems to be only two types of web sites; "Bad" and "Really Bad".  The classifications are limited to printers, but since that is the subject of my white paper / business plan, it is here.  This is obviously going to sound self serving to LightsOn's business model, but identifying these weaknesses and niche / cracks in the market are part of any business and execution plan.

The "Bad"
Several large trade printers provide local printers with branded websites at little to no cost.  The local printer gets a good site that brands themselves.  The trade printer gets many local representations of their products. Why don't theses "Bad" websites work?

• Products are limited to what the trade printer supplies (the trade printer that provided the branded site for the local printer).
• The local printer has limited price control (None IMHO).
• Local printers buy from multiple trade printers.
• Branded sites do not help to promote service nor foot traffic to the local printer.
• Branded sites have failed for the local printer in the market place. 

The "Really Bad".
This one is kind of funny to me because many of these sites are only for the purpose of being able to say: "yea we have a website too" (IMO).  Actually, they are much more, but the much more in about preservation of business rather than growth and new business. Regretfully, when you are in defensive mode, and your competition is on the offense, there is only one direction for the ball to go (there are very few interceptions in business).

Sampling of their customer sites:
A PostNet Site

I am not sure where to begin - what I do know is, the printers that use this product are our target.  They so obviously want more.  I always tell them to ask themselves - Have you ever received an unsolicited online order?  - Not one where you told the customer to go there and upload their files.  Some local printers actually pay for this ....  and wow, I will be asking them all... "who owns your domain name?"

No wonder Vistaprint is winning.

bob

Who Me, “Who Three” - Fixing the Local Print Business – Part Three

Just in case you did not read the last blog entry, “Who Three” is the franchise local printer and the independent local printer.  Forget for a moment that this group is the second of the target markets as the obvious (IMO) is explained here.

Why does the local printer need to collaborate with printers in other local areas?  Then, why do they need to become part of the LightsOn network to do so?

The local printer can't compete alone with the online companies like Vistaprint, PSPrint, Over Night Prints, etc, etc, etc.  Why?  Very simply those companies have invested heavily in Pay-Per-Click and SEO marketing for their online sites.  Pay-Per-Click has lower cost of entry but has costs for every click through to your site.  SEO has high development and maintenance costs but minimal to no cost per click. Both are very complex and expensive and are a game of numbers.  In addition, when many many try alone, they simply end up being noise in the search.

The first step is to collaborate with other companies that are providing copy/print/graphic services; not only local to you, but local everywhere.  Regretfully, this is much more than providing a franchise website - just ask yourself how much business you get from that website; is ZERO the right answer?  Maybe this website thingy doesn't work.  Ask Vistaprint...

LightsOnGraphics.com has been built, from day one, as a site for collaboration with the objective of taking back and to stop the encroachment of that business that Vistaprint is taking from the local print service provider.  Our expertise in print, SEO and collaborative systems will make print local again and make you locally, the printer again.

The second step is to collaborate locally with other service providers.  Local printers need to recruit local graphic designers, web designers and advertising companies; there are many locally everywhere.  Make what you perceive as competition today, your sales rep tomorrow.  Collaborate with them a variety of products and services that let them make more money as well as you make back some of what you are currently losing.  This will take some proactive marketing, sales and networking.  Franchisors - make these non-retail mini-franchises (biz-ops) around your franchises - Please - Steal This Idea.!.!.!

Our objective at LightsOn is not to move your business to our website.  When a client calls you from the our LightsOnGraphics.com website (I include you in "our") we strongly suggest you provide the service and sell that customer directly, bypassing the LightsOn site.  Our objective is not to get your foot traffic, but to get the traffic you are losing to online.

Take a look at our affiliate information, how we protect you, your client and your territory.  We are taking back business, not taking your business.

Next, "Who Four" - why local postal stores may be the local graphics shop of tomorrow.

Thanks again for reading

Bob

561-371-4113

Identifying the Opportunity - Having a Vision - The Cause (not the effect)

I am writing this specific to the local printing market, but the concepts and the decisions apply to business in general as this blog entry demonstrates.

Prior to the 1960s, most home town business was locally owned and managed  - a time long gone.  We remember (some of us) the local pharmacist, the diner, the tailor, the cleaners, the corner store, the local printer, etc...  We then experienced a transformation where enterprising individuals (opportunists) expanded their businesses by packaging their business such that it could be sold to individuals looking for opportunities in distant locations. The 1950s and 1960s were the "Wild-Wild-West" era of franchising - minimal regulation and scams in a "buyer-beware" world.  The boom in franchising began.  Franchising brought us (arguably) consistent quality, business buying power and trusted/recognized brands.  With time, regulations from the FTC and its state equivalents made the purchase of a franchise much more transparent if only by making cost-of-entry so much higher.

The Internet era brought new competition; "local" was redefined as being as close as your computer.  Regulations ended up not being needed, even though they were frequently brought up and discussed.  The Internet (as a market) has evolved into a self-regulated market with minimal government regulation (not making a political argument here).  The 1990s and early 2000s were the Internets "Wild-Wild-West" era; today, we have evolved, like franchising evolved, into a market where we have trusted shopping locations, consistent quality and trusted brands.

The bad side of the Internet, IMHO, is the elimination of local service in business transactions that require service (again IMHO).  I have a story that should hit home pretty hard.  Remember the Hobby Shop?  I was in one in South Florida in, I think around 2002,  I witnessed the owner becoming very upset with a consumer who was a slot car enthusiast.  The consumer, I guess, would frequently come in, evaluate a products quality and suck knowledge and demonstration from the store owner and then buy the product online for the purpose of saving $3 on a $30 item.  What I witnessed was the store owner losing-it and kicking the consumer out of the store.  Who won here?  The store eventually went out of business and the consumer lost their ability to touch and evaluate the product before buying it.  Bought one of those radio-controlled helicopters lately? - Junk.!.!  Even worse, they cost more for the return shipping than original cost of the product... ugh..!!

How is the local printing market similar to this?  Next entry...