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Printer Finds Success Through Market Specialization and Digital Color
By: David Murphy
Every print service provider wants to grow, but actually achieving it is another thing entirely. But without a specific objective and course of action, many become frustrated as they spread themselves too thin trying to be everything to everyone.
Think about this: Is a doctor who specializes in one specific area of high-demand healthcare likely to earn more about that medical discipline than a general practitioner? Of course. How about an attorney specializing in a particular area of law who develops a reputation as the expert or the master of that field? You bet. The same basic principle applies to print service providers who specialize in a particular market segment and invest in the ability to serve it better than their competitors.
San Diego-based BPI Custom Printing, for instance, has pursued the path of specialization very successfully. BPI has grown to become a leading printer/supplier of automotive forms and promotional materials for new and used auto dealerships across the United States. The auto retail industry is print intensive, with dealers requiring everything from DMV forms and finance forms to parts/service forms and business forms. The long list of print applications includes buyer guides, due bills, contracts, credit applications, addendums, repair orders, bills of sale, vouchers, law posters, and more. To serve the needs of a market like this, it definitely helps when a printer understands the demanding needs, applications and buying motivations of its clients. This knowledge and understanding comes from experience and specialization.
The business that would become BPI Custom Printing was started by Bob Augustine in his garage in 1957. Bob soon began developing a reputation among his local auto dealership clients for offering great printing output and top-quality customer service. After just a short period of time, he needed to move his operations out of his garage and into his first office building. Over the following decades, the company would complete a series of major expansions by opening several offices across the Western US. Throughout this geographic expansion, the company always maintained strong ties with its auto dealer community. Today Bob’s daughter, Debbie Augustine is President and CEO of BPI Custom Printing and her goal is to maintain BPI as a family business with a reputation for quality and a focus on the auto dealer market.
In 2006, BPI purchased a high-speed piezo inkjet printer for some of its full color applications and a digital duplicator for spot color applications. “These printers have been an invaluable addition to our other printing equipment including printing presses,” says Debbie Augustine. “Before acquiring this high-speed inkjet printer, we had to outsource our full-color print jobs. Now we can save time and money and produce many of our print jobs in-house.”
BPI prints a variety of applications on the inkjet, mostly full color print jobs like calendars, cards, letterhead, and forms. At a speed of 120 color pages per minute, the inkjet printer provides BPI with the quality they need and their customers demand. It also allows them to maintain total control of their work with faster turnaround than would be available through lithography. Also unlike offset, digital technology allows for more profitable shorter runs, as well as personalization and customization for each dealer or dealer employee.
Almost all the financial, business, sales and other forms that BPI produces for its auto dealers are printed on its digital duplicator, which can print either one or two spot colors in a single pass. “Before 2006, we printed most large volume runs on a press, today we very simply use the duplicator,” says Augustine. Volume on BPI’s duplicator averages about 40,000 copies a month.
Low-cost spot color and full color are attractive and profitable options for BPI to offer its clients. A two-color job costs about $8 per thousand and, at speeds of up to 150 impressions per minute, a thousand sheets can be printed in about eight minutes. “With over a million copies printed on these machines so far, and countless dollars saved, both the inkjet and the digital duplicator have proven to be the fastest and most reliable printers we use,” says Augustine.
BPI Custom Printing’s success is evidenced by it 50-plus years in business, its continued expansion, and its solid reputation in the market. Would the company be as successful if it had no market specialization or digital color technology to offer its clients? It is difficult to determine here, but it is highly logical to see that these factors certainly play a part in BPI’s winning formula.
For this printer, the focus is auto dealerships, but what market segment is being underserved by printers in your space? What printers are focusing on healthcare, finance, real estate, utilities or manufacturing in your market? How about retail, government or non-profits?
To move your business above the crowd of commodities sellers, find a niche, learn it, master it, and serve it like no other printer around. Do something no one else is doing. If you can’t, then you can certainly find a way to do it better. Do something different. Be unique. BPI invested in high-speed inkjet and digital duplicator technology while other competitors use offset and toner. What can you do differently?
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David Murphy is the Vice President of Marketing for RISO, Inc, having held sales and marketing positions with the company for the last 17 years. RISO manufactures and sells the ComColor series of inkjet printers, the fastest cut-sheet full color inkjet printers on the market. David is responsible for the entire scope of product marketing for North America. He holds an MBA and a BS degree in marketing and has conducted field research on user applications for ink-based printing systems in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
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