Overview

 

Printing is a price-driven industry. Looking for an unfair advantage? Look no further than in-stock paper. Carefully selected, then ordered in full cartons and always priced that way, in-Stock can give you a significant competitive edge. The fact that it's generally on hand for quick delivery just puts icing on the cake.

Say you want to sell letterheads and envelopes for less than what your competitors are selling them. The most popular paper for stationery in your area is Camelot in white and a couple of off-white colors. Here's the rub: The average quantity on the orders you're getting is less than 5,000. Much less in some cases. More like 500.

That's classic full carton territory. The way to undercut the competition is to add Camelot in the most popular colors to your in-Stock paper list, always buy those colors in full cartons, then enter "full carton" bracket costs into the "less than 1 carton" entry fields and pass the savings on to your customers.

 

Of course, having the lower price, that's just the beginning. Making your customers aware that you have the lower price, that's when the plan comes together and brings results. As it did years ago with our Great Instant Paper Caper, a Unitac promotional campaign when we still ran a retail print shop.

 

The Great Instant Paper Caper

 

 

And, like most good ideas, this one is simple. Most printers wait for the job to come in, then order the paper. That looked peculiar to us from the very beginning, having read that 91% of all printing paper is specified by the printer anyway, and having learned early on that the penalties for buying paper piecemeal can be enormous.

For instance, while the usual press run is under 3,000, even the smallest carton holds 5,000 sheets. Orders for less than that can draw a surcharge of 100% ... One Hundred Percent! That's double, in round numbers, and in effect makes the cost of buying half a carton exactly the same as buying a full one. So it boils down to this. Either we buy half a carton and pay for a full one, or we buy a full carton and hoard what's left over and before we know it we're up to our dimples in old paper.

Comes now our Instant Paper Caper. The secret? Make a list of the most asked for brands and colors, always buy those brands in full cartons ... and then get bigger shelves! True, our caper does tie up money in inventory, but that's a small price to pay when you look at the dividends:

No Penalties for Broken Cartons. Not when you order 2,000 of our in-stock house sheets, not when you need just a few hundred. The money we save by buying paper in full cartons, you save too.

No Excuses about having to wait for the Paper. Because at Unitac, the paper will be waiting for you. Tons of it, from plain bonds to fancy texts, in a whole rainbow of attractive colors.

No Over-Runs to allow for spoilage. When the job develops a few wrinkles, we can go to the shelf for more paper. What we don't need we can put back. This means at Unitac, when you order 10,000 flyers, you'll get 10,000 flyers, not 5% over or under as is trade custom.