PrintingNews.com

Before the much-anticipated walk down the aisle, a man and woman must be confident that they can complement each other and be certain they are meant to be united in marriage. The same concept applies when deciding to add products to your existing line. Most printing businesses have the potential to increase sales simply by selling more to their existing customers.

One product line many printers and brokers are adding to their existing product line is pressure-sensitive labels. For printers already providing business cards, magazines, stationery portfolios, and other printed products it is a no-brainier to offer labels as well. These customers have characteristics similar to those of existing customers.

According to a recent study, U.S. label shipments will grow 5.7 percent annually through 2008, based on new label technologies, substrates, adhesives, and coatings. The value of the North American pressure-sensitive label market in 1998 was $3.93 billion. According to the Tag and Label Manufacturers Institute, by 2003 the market reached more than five billion, with a CAGR of 6.4 percent.

Label printing is no longer a crafty industry. Continuously developing and evolving, it is a sophisticated collection of technologies, using a wide range of papers, films and foil substrates, complex adhesive and ink formulations, sophisticated digital designs and reproduction formats, printed by many different processes in both sheet and web formats, complex die-cutting solutions, and ever more creative methods of label application.

Add to that the many different methods of producing decorative and informative labels for application to products and packs by adhesives, wraparound sleeving, in mold, or the many different solutions for providing brand protection or logistics solutions from holograms to electronic article surveillance and RFID, and it is obvious why adding labels to your already existing line of products can be truly beneficial.

Many print applications are considered commodities by your customers. That means that the product is acquired by purchasing personnel whose main goal is to get the lowest price from a reliable vendor. Labels are typically considered critical to a product's success, or an important requirement for meeting federal, state, or local regulations. Your customers will be looking for a value-added product from a knowledgeable and reliable vendor, not just the lowest price. The average wholesale order of forms, stationery, or business cards is approximately $200. The average wholesale order for labels is more than $1,000.

Tips To Sell Labels

1. Study labels—Market yourself as a label specialist. What questions do you need to ask? What recommendations can you make? Ask to see the label in action, watching the label move throughout the organization so you can make recommendations. Who is using the label? What is it used for? What is the surface? What environmental factors exist? Today's labels are versatile and dynamic but selling them requires a detail-oriented mind set. Although you can rely on manufacturers for help, you will need extensive knowledge of label stocks, adhesives, and secondary printing methods. Determining the label's use and conditions it will be exposed to is paramount.
2. Keep an eye on new technologies—What areas of the market are new? Which areas are growing? Are there any new substrates and adhesives? Labels are usually used for informational purposes, but don't forget the potential for using labels as marketing tools.
3. Avoid complacency—Be a salesperson who makes the effort to research new ideas for your customers, look for new face stocks, adhesives, and constructions that will improve the label. Become a consultant to your customer, not just a sales person. Pitch yourself to the right person; some purchasing agents do not like to change vendors but a manufacturing director or someone who uses the labels will.
4. Test, test, test—Once you have chosen a label, test it and observe its performance during every step of the process. Make sure you have the right label type and the right adhesive. Get samples and test them at the customer's facility on the customer's equipment so they feel comfortable with the choice. Some clients who do not understand the label selection process may rush you. Help them to understand that a rushed job usually creates expensive blunders. Label projects can be time consuming but once the project is up and running, all you have to do is worry about supplying the order.
5. Provide great customer service and add value—Sell a label that your customers can "stick with." Label end users often need fast answers to label dilemmas. A plant nursery owner whose price labels fade in the sunlight is likely to treat his label customers like a weed, but if you understand your clients' label needs you can prevent problems from occurring.
6. Team up with reliable manufacturers—If you are going to risk the reputation you have with your customers, a reputation that may have taken you years to build, you need to do it with a great supplier of pressure-sensitive labels. Partner with a manufacturer that specializes in great quality and service.

In all, you will need to speak to your customers and do some research to make the proper evaluation if adding labels to your product line. If you do your homework and proceed with an analytical eye, adding labels to your present product line will increase your sales, help you reach new markets, and build market share.

If you are interested in adding labels, I suggest you attend one of New York Labels' seminars. Starting in April, they are offered the first Thursday of each month in the Manhattan sales office, 555 Eighth Ave. at 38th St., Suite 1102, New York City.

Chris Freddo is the vice president of New York Label & Box Works. Contact him at chris@nylabel.com.