10_steps for prepress marketing

8/3/2019 10_steps for Prepress Marketing

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How to Write Marketing & SalesPlans for Prepress CompaniesBy Don Belval, Pilothouse Planning Group

The Way it Once Was...

Once, prepress companies and their clients formed special bonds of trust.Customers didn't get involved in the printing process (except for approvals), andthey didn't particularly want their prepress company or printer in their creativeprocess. When a company provided a quality product on time...over and over...theclient developed a certain confidence that his or her work was in good hands. Callit 'peace of mind'. It had value. Clients seldom questioned pricing, and oftenrefused to consider other companies they didn't know well.

It's different now. Clients are in the work process. They create page files, specify

colors electronically...even scan their own images. Yet, because theyreoften new to the industry, they tend to be less knowledgeable about the prepresswork process.

Is that good news...or bad?

It depends. If your company is flexible and responsive enough to meet these newmarket conditions, and if you know how to market yourself, your services and yourcompany, it's great news! Clients are generating more color pages than everbefore. And they're looking for people who can help them convert those pages intoselling tools, entertainment and information that can help them meet their

communications objectives.

This booklet will help you identify the best prospects for your services, understandtheir needs, analyze the competition and build actionable Marketing Programs.

Ten Steps for Marketing Plans that Work(No one said, "Ten EasySteps")

1. Preplanning

Set your objectives. Before you begin your plan, you need to know your businessobjectives. Is it your objective to grow sales, increase profits, gain market share orenter new product or market segments? Objectives should be measurableandtime-related. They'll provide targets for your plan and your organization.

EXAMPLES: Objectives:

1. Grow Sales 8% Annually thru 2000


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2. Achieve Average Pre-Tax Profit of 14%3. Add 10 new High Value Accounts per Year4. Increase Company Productivity by 6% per Year

Form a 'planning team'. Include sales, production, technical and administrativemanagement. Each function needs to be involved in the analysis as well as thedecision-making that follows.

2 . List Your "Billable" Services.

What does your company do? What services do you offer? What areyour specialties? Where do you make money?

What services does your company offer today? List your 'billable' services and theapproximate percentage each represents of the company's total annual sales.Then, list those services you plan to offer in three years. Discuss it with yourplanning team and get agreement on these.

EXAMPLES:

Billable Product/Services Today

Image Capture/Color Seps (18%)Film Output (Value Added) (50%)

Stripping (6%)Page Assembly (11%)Proofing (10%)

Lithoplate Output (2%)Customer Training, Support (3%)

Three Years from Now

Digital Printing (Demand) (10%)Database Management (15%)

Digital Photography (5%)Interactive, Multi-media (10%

Internet, Website Products (5%)Pre-production on-site mgt (5%)

Image Capture/Color Seps (15%)Film Output (Value Added) (30%)Proofing (5%)

(Source: International Prepress Association)

These are the service products you'll price, promote, bundle and sell. As a servicebusiness, prepress companies have a unique set of problems. While you offer aspecific set of services based on your facilities and skills, you're actually sellingyour company's potential! Each time you accept an order, you promise yourcustomers that you can do what they want for the price you have agreed on.

That poses some special considerations for your marketing plan. How can you

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demonstrate a service product you haven't developed yet? Are you willing to sellon spec? Your marketing plan should provide the answers.

3 . Segment Your Markets

So you have a great set of services? So what? Who needs them?

Any group of customers who respond in the same way...to the same appeal...canbe called a market segment. Customers in the same segment tend to have similarexpectations about products. Sometimes they're competitors (with each other), orparts of the same business. In consumer markets, segments are often based ondemographics and behavior... grouped by characteristics that help predict theirresponses.

Market segments in the printing industry are usually described by WHAT thesecustomers do with the materials you produce. A typical prepress company mayserve several market segments:

EXAMPLES: Market Segments

Publishers Corporate AccountsMagazine, special interest Collateral Materials

Magazines, News/Entertainment Annual ReportsCatalogs Packaging

Books/Covers OtherAdvertising Agencies Retailers

Print Ads, all InsertsCollateral Materials Direct MailMulti-media Point-of-Purchase

Designers/Studios

Customers in a segment usually have the same requirements concerning quality,pricing, turnaround times, service needs and delivery. By picking high valueaccounts in market segments with needs that fit your particular skills and work flow,you increase productivity and improve the bottom line.

How do you segment a market? Often by the type of materials you're asked toproduce.

Segments allow you to focus your sales efforts on accounts that need the thingsyour company does well, and accounts that are more profitable. They're also more

defensible.

4 . Define High Value Accounts.

What do your most profitable accounts look like? How will yourecognize the next one?

It won't surprise you to learn that a small percentage of your company's accounts

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produce a high percentage of your sales and profits. But can you predict whichaccounts will be profitable before hand? What characteristics tell you: "Thisaccount's needs will fit our capabilities perfectly. We can make money together."

You have the information you need to define potential 'high value accounts' in yourfiles.

Print a list of your accounts. List accounts with the largest sales and greatestprofitability first, then those with lower volumes and profitability.

Look at the top 10% of your accounts (sales and profits). Do these accounts haveanything in common? Are they all part of the same segment? Do they have similarorganizations? Frequency of orders? Job size? Type of work? Expectations aboutquality and/or turnaround? Process understanding? Financial stability?

If you can answer these questions, you will be able to construct a 'typical' highvalue account profile, one that defines the characteristics of an ideal account for

your specific business. From there, your planning team can identify other potentialaccounts that fit this profile.

The next step is to identify the needs of these accounts, and to prepare a salesstory that will help them understand the benefits of doing business with yourcompany. This is part of the marketing plan you will develop here.

5 . Identify Market Needs

What do they want? What to they expect from you, anyway?

Primary Need: Your clients have needs at two levels. First they have a primarypurpose for printed materials. Normally, it's tied to their overall communicationsobjective.

EXAMPLES: Primary Need or 'Purpose for Printing'

Primary Need Type of Materials Wanted

Persuade/sell Advertising, collateral, p.o.p., direct mailInform/educate Publications, books, multi-media, etc.Entertain Magazines, multi-media, books, other

It's important to understand this need; it often determines the level of their

investment. And it can guide the kind of package you offer (mix of services, qualityand pricing). This is where media decisions are made... print, broadcast, skywriting.You may not be able to influence it, but you will be able to suggest improvementsand enhancements that might improve the client's satisfaction and increaseconfidence in your company if your understand this primary need.

Secondary Needs. Customers have a second set of needs they use to discriminatebetween brands, or vendors. These are the customers selection criteria, the things

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that must be satisfied to meet their primary need.

These often vary by segment. Examples for printing-related services often includethe following:

EXAMPLES:

Segment Primary Need Secondary Needs

Retailers Persuade/Inform Print Quality("More Sales") Turnaround (As promised)

Cost (Price per agreed unit)Convenience (No hassle, solutions)

Reliability (Trust, 'Peace of Mind')

Specialty Entertain/Inform Quality (Critical Color, Adver.)Magazine ("Sell Advertising") Turnaround (Deadline related)

Responsiveness (Flexibility, "whatever it takes")

Breadth of Services (including storage, transmission, etc.)Reliability/Consistency

Price/Value

Once you've identified your customers' needs, put them in order of importance.Then define them in specific terms so you know what targets you have to meet foreach type of customer. For example, turnaround times for clients in one segment

may be 5-7 days. For another, overnight is demanded. Assign a value or quantity toeach need. It will help you understand the benchmarks you have to meet...and toestimate the impact on your costs (and pricing).

By the way, always ask your clients. They may not use the same words, but they'llcertainly separate the 'wish lists' from the real wants.

6 . Identify and compare your competitors.

Who's trying to satisfy the same clients... with the same services? Howdo they stack up?

Now you know the customer's needs. How well are you meeting them? Are yourcompetitors satisfying the customers needs as well as you are? Better? Whichones?

A good marketing plan helps you establish a competitive advantage by capitalizingon the things you do well (strengths) and by neutralizing your weaknesses. Yourgoal in this step: determine which customer needs you satisfy best (better than

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competitors), and where you need to improve.

One way to identify your customer-perceived strengths and weaknesses is todevelop a simple competitive comparison chart. You have most of the information.Here's an example:

Down the left side, list the secondary needs you identified in order of importance (tothe customer). Then, across the top, list your key competitors ...either othertradeshops or printers and service bureaus competing for the same service dollarsin the region(s) you serve. And include your company.

Now, one at a time, using a 1-to-5 rating (5 = excellent), rank the ability of eachcompetitor (and yourself) to meet the customer's most important needs.

Be honest! Better yet, talk with your clients. Ask them how they think you're doing. Ifyou asked them for information on their needs, it's a short step to ask them whatthey like about your company and service...and what they don't like. That will at

least give you the data you need for rating your organization.

Next, rate your competitors. Give each a rating based on what you know about theirability to meet each of the needs.

You may choose not to discuss competitors with your customers, but you need anobjective assessment. If you believe the people on your planning team areobjective, ask them. If you still want information from your customers, you canalways use a 'blind' survey; that is, use a research group to survey customerswithout identifying the source. Businesses do it everyday.

7 . List Your Competitive Strengths, Weaknesses

Why do your clients buy from you? What do they like about yourcompany? What do they hate?

Study the comparison chart you just completed. What does it tell you about your'relative' competitive position? Which needs does your company satisfy better thanyour competition? Where are you vulnerable?

By now, you have a clear picture of your company's competitive strengths andweaknesses. List them on a sheet of paper. On one side, list your apparent

strengths; on the other, your weaknesses.

EXAMPLE:

Strengths Weaknesses

1. Quality color 1. Must improve turnaround to

distant accounts2. Responsive to client's 2. Breadth of line doesn't meet

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special needs. new needs of clients3. Reliability 3. Pricing perceived higher

than competitors.

Some of the issues in this example aren't 'marketing'; they're production andproduct concerns. But the way you present yourself to customers is a marketingissue. A good marketing plan can sometimes turn weaknesses into a positive salesstory. The company in this example might say to their customers:

"We offer the highest quality color anywhere, solutions to all yourprint communications problems, and peace of mind when you dobusiness with us. Isn't that worth a little more?"

The implication is that the benefits are worth a little more money, a little more time.

Or, they might put it another way...

"You know you can trust us with your quality, no matter what (orhow long) it takes. Anything else is too expensive at any price."

What has this company accomplished with these positioning statements?

Simply this: They have built an appeal around their strengths... the things theircompany does well. And they have neutralized weaknesses. Every element of thecompanys marketing plan should be consistent with this positioning -- productoffering, literature and advertising, sales presentations, pricing, even proposalcontent.

If the marketing plan were to be written around today's business conditions, youwould be ready to start developing strategies and programs now.

But your marketing programs are going to take place in the future. You should firstdefine trends in your business that might change the situation you've analyzed.

8 . Define and Analyze Trends

What's the single most important trend affecting your business? Howwill it impact your company?

What changes do your customers see in the future? What type of services will theyneed? How will their objectives change? What about performance requirements?The kind of materials they'll be providing?

List the trends as you see them now. Consider the questions above and two otherareas: 1) external and technical trends such as desktop, digital photography, etc.;and 2) competitive trends including changes in services offered, pricing and otherissues that might impact you directly.

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EXAMPLES:

1. More color pages, shorter runs2. Digital, On-Demand Printing3. Growth Computer-to-Plate systems

4. Remote proofing5. Internet expansion, website growth

6. Multi-media production

Once listed, look at each trend and ask: "If this trend continues, what will it mean tomy business? Will it force me to change my product offering? Pricing? Otherthings?"

What's the probability, anyway? On a scale of 1 to 100, how would you rate the

likelihood that each trend will continue or have a direct impact on your business?When? Remember, people tend to overestimate the short term impact of atrend...and often underestimate the long term results.

Where do you learn about trends? Talk with your customers, again. What do theyexpect to include in their print and related communications programs in the future?Read management information reports from the IPA. Scan the agendas of industrymeetings. Talk with your peers. Discuss important changes in your business withyour planning team.

If you find a trend that seems particularly threatening, you can analyze it further with

'force field analysis'. Ask which forces are fostering the trend, and which arehindering it. Identify the greatest forces...those that are having the strongestinfluence on the trend, and watch them closely. It's like an early warning system.

Don't try to write solutions yet. Just define the impacts and probabilities.

Which trends represent opportunities for your business? Which represent threats?List the opportunities and threats associated with the trends you identified.

9 . Select Marketing Strategies to Match Your Business

How can you cash in on your strengths and opportunities...andneutralize the rest?

Selecting strategies is easy when you've completed a reasonable analysis of yourmarkets, your key accounts and your competitive situation. You simply decide whatyou have to do to capitalize on the strengths you've identified, and how toneutralize your weaknesses.

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By this point in the planning process, you have a reasonably good understandingof your company's market segments, target accounts, and your relative strengthsand weaknesses.If you had endless resources, lots of free time and some assurance that theconditions you had identified were stable, you could try to do everything... enternew markets, add new products, experiment with different programs...until you got it

right. But you work in a different world than that. So, like everything else, goodmarketing plans are based on choices. Which opportunities or problems shouldyou address in your plan? Which should you emphasize?

It's one of the truths of marketing that you can get more impact when you selectstrategies that build on your strengths....rather than trying to correct voids orproblems. If your prime capability is handling high volumes of images and pagefiles, you want to seek out accounts that need this (catalog houses, directmarketing, color publications, etc.). Collateral work and annual reports may begood businesses, but they may not play to your strengths.

Look at the list of strengths and weaknesses, threats and opportunities you'veprepared, and select those with the greatest potential impact...and select strategiesto address these.

What is a strategy? Strategies are really "what"you want to do. Programs are"how"you plan to do it.

Writing strategies begins by answering the question: What do we have to do tocapitalize on this strength or opportunity? Or to fix this problem?

Keep it general. List as many options as possible (including your current strategy).

One caution: try to avoid writing down 'Things to do'.

There are five categories for strategies in a basic marketing plan:

1. Product2. Pricing3. Marketing Communications and Promotion4. Sales Coverage and Distribution5. Information

Plans may include all, or a few. But essentially the goal of all marketing is to

accomplish three things: 1) Create awareness of your services and uniquecapabilities among potential high value accounts; 2) Induce trial of your services inthose accounts; or 3) Expand demand for your services in existing accounts.

EXAMPLES: Marketing Strategy Options

1. Expand file management and distribution services.2. Focus on high value accounts, established market segments

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3. Introduce remote file approval and proofing options.4. Develop transaction-based pricing for digital services5. Create awareness of new digital services. Focus on target high value accounts.

6. Improve sales productivity with new interactive sales tools (pricing models, demonstrationprograms and proposal forms).

7. Develop ongoing customer satisfaction measurement and feedback programs.

When you've completed your list of optional strategies, ask the following questions:

Which options are most likely to help you achieve your marketing objectives?

Which options best provide a sustainable competitive advantage?

Which strategies appear to counter competitor strengths...and actions...mosteffectively?

Which strategies appear to minimize your vulnerability to competitive response?

Which are most consistent with your strategic plan (have you written one yet)?

10. Develop Programs to Carry Out Each Strategy.

How will you carry out the strategies you've selected? What actions will you take?Tactics or programs are the things you plan to do in your plan.

Brainstorming is one way to develop a list of workable programs. Get your planningteam together and review the problems, opportunities and the strategies you'veselected. Ask them: "Knowing what you know today about our services andcapabilities, what are the best ideas you can imagine to address this issue

(problem/opportunity) or implement this strategy?" List the ideas, group them bysimilarities, and prioritize them.

Review the programs you've listed for each strategy. Are they consistent with otherssupporting the strategy? Given your strengths, which ones have the greatestprobability of success? And which programs are likely to have the greatest impacton your top and bottom lines? Let your planning team decide.

When you've completed this step, you have the key elements of your plan.

The final steps are these:

1. Assign responsibility for each program (to a member of your team).

2. Determine when the program must be completed to achieve your goals.

3. Estimate the 'scope' of each program (how much, how many, how often, etc.) toachieve the goals you've set.

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4. Calculate the cost of each program.

5. Estimate the sales impact. What additional sales do you expect from theprogram? What improvements in profits do you expect?

When you've completed these steps, you can create a budget and forecast for yourmarketing plan. And you'll have the tools in place to measure and control results.

Two Steps to Success...

1. Prepare the plan.

2. Do it!

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