Innovative Options
When we aren’t sniffing out new products, we continually review our clients’ current operations; modifying outdated practices. For instance, we’ve acted on behalf of a client, demonstrating that it’s possible to alter the structure of their sales catalogue from an 8 page brochure to 12 pages, thereby increasing their sales exposure by approximately 35% without incurring extra costs!
We enjoy our clients coming to us with ideas and challenges, it’s then up to us to use our experience, broad supplier base and contacts to turn those concepts into stunning visuals, of the highest specifications, whilst simultaneously remaining commercially competitive; leaving our clients to concentrate on their core activities.
Clients frequently tell us that their current print supplier is adequate, which is sometimes barely average! We believe our approach can make a difference through the choices we offer; if for no other reason than to explore different approaches, options and ideas. Sometimes these are suggestions that the current supplier won’t offer due to limitation in their production capabilities, which suppresses innovation and ultimately means ideas sometimes never leave the drawing board. This conflicts with our mantra of finding a way to produce practically anything. We’re always on the lookout for new products, new production methods and materials, enabling our clients to differentiate themselves from their competitors.
Substrate selection
There are literally thousands of papers and boards to choose from; selecting a suitable substrate for printing is half the job, and generally constitutes roughly 50 percent of the final invoice. Uniformity and consistency are key factors across the board in replicating a print job, therefore it is worth researching the options available, because print substrates (i.e. plastic or paper) are often overlooked or not looked into enough when selecting what to print on. To the untrained eye, things that often appear the same can be very different and all types of paper have different properties that can affect the look and feel of a catalogue, its production cost, and ultimately its effectiveness.
We’re a partner that provides a competitive advantage, a partner that can deliver consistent quality and superior service, a partner that fuels innovation to foster real, sustainable growth.
The solid associations we’ve developed with major substrate and ink specialists over numerous years have been strengthened and corralled, based on their ability to deliver consistency and quality. Conveying their innovative products to our clients is how we’ve progressively functioned at the highest level. For instance, most major printing companies have ‘preferred’ supplier arrangements with their base materials providers. On one hand this may provide slightly improved commercial terms but on the other, and far more importantly, we imagine this will skew the choice of paper being recommended or used for your publication.
These underlying factors, hinders creativity, stifles innovation and places restrictions in your path, as you plot to bring your ideas to life.
In other words, this arrangement favours the printer through the financial benefits and rebates on offer. Conversely, their customers may find that they’re losing out to the competition, simply because the printer isn’t using the most effective paper for their publication. To better illustrate this, using our approach we’re aware of a client who switched their catalogue from printing on a 100 gsm woodfree coated paper to printing on an 80 gsm near woodfree coated paper. The impact of this is that they’ve not lost any bulk or opacity, but in order to produce the same number of copies, they’ve needed 20% less paper. In this case, that represented 10 tonnes less paper which given that paper often represents about 50 percent of the production cost of a magazine or catalogue, having the flexibility to comprehensively research every option is worthwhile and a financially astute move.
Creating Designs
At Reelkomm Print, we encourage our clients to engage with us as early as possible during the design process. This provides a reassurance to our clients that they are printing on the best possible paper for their job. Upon first impressions, this may seem a logical thing to do but in reality, we find that paper selection is often left until the print order is placed.
We’ve collaborated on numerous projects which involved facilitating publishers in saving thousands on projects, simply by becoming involved earlier in the process.
When clients seek to produce brochures using heavier, thicker, and much more durable paper, which was the same specifications they had used previously, we concurrently commence the substrate selection process, looking at considerably lighter and thinner woodfree coated alternatives, from across our suppliers. We examine credible choices that we feel may be cost effectively appropriate for brochures, selecting a flimsier and finer paper with good bulk, whiteness and opacity. Once we’ve done that, we supply a dummy brochure using the alternative substrate for the customer to get an impression of a comparable alternative.
Using this approach, clients’ have been very happy with the alternative and asked for their brochure to be printed using the alternative paper. Although their initial objective hadn’t been to save cost, Reelkomm Print has consistently facilitated them in saving an average of 23% on the highest cost element of their brochure. In financial terms, this represented massive savings which could then be allocated to a future print requirement. The paper selection and sourcing lead time from start to finish amounts to just a few weeks, but as clients engage with us at the early stage of the process, we are able to work parallelly whilst the designs are finalised, without adding any more time to the process.
Print Production
In briefing our clients, we consider the printing market-place and its sectors in terms of the potential to deliver innovative products; cost-effectively. Undoubtedly there is a good deal of overlap between suppliers. The same is true of the different processes and equipment involved in other industries. In order to make an informed choice of printer, we understand the printing capabilities of our suppliers, which means we are far removed from the print managers who often get a bad rap and are frequently accused of driving print prices down. In some cases, that’s absolutely true as printers are played off against each other to achieve the lowest rates. Unfortunately, the lowest rates tend to offer the lowest quality of service, delivery and end product.
At Reelkomm Print there’s a subtle but significant difference. Creating intricately designed packages and displays takes wide-ranging expertise, carefully cultivated insight and a relentless focus on innovation. How we connect these fundamental concepts together is what makes us unique: we foster connections through partnerships that create winning solutions for our customers.
As specialists, we work with both the client and the printer – yes, our objective is to source competitively and get the best prices, but this can also be achieved in the long term, through more sustainable ways. For instance, by selecting the right printer for the job, the one who has the most appropriate equipment to produce the best results at the most competitive price. We also look for efficiencies too; if a catalogue is being mailed, does the current format lend itself to the most efficient postal rate for instance?
Address
371, Borno Way, Spencer St, Alagomeji-Yaba, 100001, Lagos, Nigeria