Things Your Sign Maker Won’t Tell You
Apr 6th 2010DrewAdvertising & Business & Marketing & Signage
Get More Than You Bargained For… At the Same Price
I was talking to the owner of another sign shop recently and he was telling me how he charges much more for a full-colour, printed banner, than a single colour vinyl-on-banner model. He was shocked that some sign shops charge the same amount for either process. I didn’t offer my opinion. I just smiled as enigmatically as I could.
Yes, the perceived value of a full-colour printed banner is much higher. It’s more exciting, can be vibrant and eye-catching compared to a plain old one-colour-of-vinyl-on-a-white-background banner. But the truth is, it costs about the same amount to produce either banner.
I was a bit surprised by this fact but I ran the numbers several times and after taking into consideration the labour cost for processing the vinyl and applying it to the banner, we can produce a full-colour banner for the same price! That’s why we only have one price for banners whether they be full colour or spot colour. In fact, if there is more than one colour on a banner, we would print it anyway.
I’ve spoken of the advances of technology before and how they’ve allowed us to offer better products for the same or less. In fact, looking back over the last 20 years, here at ICSigns, our prices have held quite steady.
What other industry can boast that fact ? !
Ten years ago, we produced most of our signs on computer-cut vinyl, laying one colour down at a time, only deferring to the large format printer if too many colours were involved. Now the reverse is true. Over 90% of the signs we produce are printed. One reason for this is that designers are aware of the capabilities of sign makers who have the right equipment. They send us files that are choc-full of colour, knowing we can reproduce them with a level of accuracy not possible 10 years ago.
We get excited about the signs we produce. Just this week we made a huge banner for a customer that we thought was exceptional in design. A picture of it is here at the top of the post. It sits on a wall outside his boutique and looks dynamic. You can’t help but notice this banner if you are in the area. It’s a lifestyle image and the colours are spectacular! And the cost was very reasonable compared to the alternative of layers of coloured vinyl on a white background. It’s a far superior product at a very reasonable price!
The full-colour print extends to most other signs we produce as well. We now have materials that we can use on back-lit signs, POP signs, awnings, even parking signs (ever wish you could have a reserved parking spot for your customers with your logo or a life-style picture on it? You CAN!). The possibilities are endless and it doesn’t have to cost any more.
I would love to hear about your experiences and get your comments. Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv. That’s great for you bloggers out there. By leaving a comment, you can leave a link back to your own blog. But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment. I’d like to hear from all of you!
Happy signing,
Drew.
Vanessa on 07 Apr 2010 at 10:46 am #
That was very good for ICSigns. Creating vinyl banner is one of the best tools for marketing, maybe for some reason, some companies took advantage of that.
admin on 08 Apr 2010 at 1:45 pm #
Thanks for reading and responding to my blog. It was great to work with these clients. They know how to create an eye-catching layout. Clean, colourful and to the point. No extras thrown in just because they have the space to play with. We loved this image!
Drew.