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Charging Ahead in Retail
Help Stores Increase Their Sales, and You'll Increase Yours
FORM Magazine
November 1995
BY KATHERINE L. HOUSEWhen residents of some Madison, Wis., neighborhoods received a recent promotion from an appliance store, they may have been overwhelmed-by the odor. When recipients scratched the fragrance oil printed on the 4-color door hangers, they were rewarded with a sniff of a moldy, musty basement. The piece, promoting dehumidifiers, asked, "Does Your Basement Smell Like This?"
Doug Tucker, president of Kelty-Best Business Forms Inc. in Madison, Wis., sold an initial run of 50,000 pieces to the retailer's marketing department. His contact asked him if he could do scratch-and-sniff printing, and he called 3M, which carries the musty basement fragrance as a stock item. 3M sent a sample to Tucker, who then found a commercial printer who could do the 4-color work, screen print the oil and die cut the piece.
So it goes in the rewarding, creative and sometimes wacky world of retail markets. The variety of products used by retailers is mind boggling, but that's what makes selling to the market fun, yet challenging. Retailers require everything from traditional unit sets and bar coded labels to ad specialties, sophisticated direct mail pieces and in-store signs, name badges and point-of-purchase displays. And they almost always want their printing done fast and competitively priced.
Ringing Up Success
Mike Weinzierl, CFC, president of Professional Graphic Communications in Cranberry Township, Pa., sells to large department stores, car dealers and small independent retailers. One of his specialties is birthday cards and personalized letters sent by retailers to residents in western Pennsylvania. The cards or letters, sent a few weeks before the recipient's birthday, include a gift certificate or check for store merchandise. Or, the letters may be sent to a spouse and include gift suggestions based on the recipient's previous purchases. Weinzierl, who specializes in direct mail, spends hours hunting down suitable mailing lists for clients. "The No. 1 factor [in direct mail] is the list," says Weinzierl, whose firm also maintains lists for customers.Retailers need all types of direct mail work, especially to promote sales or new store locations. Weinzierl sells one piece to a jeweler for new store openings. Recipients receive a free gift redeemable when the promotion is presented. In one case, 25 percent of recipients visited the new location.
Since the name of the game is building store traffic, retailers need direct mail pieces with special offers or coupons that must be presented in person. Weinzierl helped a car dealership increase its business one weekend by developing a direct mail piece that offered free sun visors to anyone who visited the dealership. Weinzierl also sold the visors, custom printed with the names of the dealership's three locations. Although the dealer gave away 2,500 free visors that weekend, it sold 200 cars. "If you can show [them] how to get customers to come in and spend money, price is not an issue," says Weinzierl.
The Appeal of Plastic
Some of the most popular products needed by retailers are plastic and paper credit cards, courtesy cards or frequency program cards. Professional Graphic Communications sells a laminated die cut corporate discount card to a jeweler. The card allows discounts on most purchases at any of the jeweler's locations. Typically, retailers need a variety of printed products to accompany these cards, including in-store applications, temporary cards, letters mailed with the cards to customers, and custom envelopes.Although large, direct selling card companies often target the credit card business within large stores, there are related opportunities. Larry Bebler, president of Minnesota Business Forms in Edina, Minn., sells a large retailer an in-store credit card application that includes a perfed temporary card valid for a few days. Vernon Reeves, an account executive for Precept Inc. in Dallas, sells another large retailer credit card statements that are preprinted with the company logo. The store's IS department processes the statements on high-speed laser equipment.
Reeves also sells a plastic card with a different application to his retail customer. The retailer converted all its paper gift certificates to 30 mil plastic debit cards with mag stripes. These gift certificates are more secure than paper, Reeves says, and ensure that recipients spend the entire face value of the card within the store. With paper gift certificates, some stores honor them even when inexpensive items are purchased, allowing customers to spend their change elsewhere. Reeves also sells an embossed card carrier containing information about the debit card.
Most retailers offer gift certificates, although volumes may be light in small operations. Bebler sells bar coded paper gift certificates to a retail client. The Code 39 consecutive bar code is an added security feature because pads of the gift certificates are often sold to local businesses. The businesses then use the certificates to reward employees, who can select gifts from a special catalog. With the bar codes, the retailer can keep track of which businesses receive which gift certificates and can ensure that each certificate is cashed only once.
Bountiful Bar Codes
Bar coded forms, labels and tags can mean big business for distributors selling to retailers. Bar codes improve security on gift certificates, merchandise vouchers and cash refund forms Bebler sells. They also can help retailers track items. Many large stores that sell appliances have in-store service departments. Those selling large appliances such as washing machines and dishwashers also may have a road service crew.Bebler sells a 3-part label/form combination to the service department. Customers who need repairs done to stereos and other electronic equipment fill out the form in a store. A blown-on bar coded label with removable adhesive is taken off the form and applied to the merchandise. The consecutive number encoded in the Code 39 bar code matches the consecutive number on the form. The 8-digit number identifies the region and store number. The bar code is scanned at various points in the service process. Customers take one part of the form home as a receipt. Then, when customers phone the store to determine the status of their repair, a clerk can call up the relevant information on a computer. Distributors also sell large quantities of blank labels for retailers to bar code, as well as bar coded labels and tags to track inventory.
Retailers have high turnover and employ a number of seasonal employees. Large retailers thus require quantities of personnel application forms, benefits forms, W-2 forms and employee handbooks. Tucker sells employee handbooks to one retailer. The 150-page handbooks contain custom index tabs and custom printing inside custom poly binders. Kelty-Best works with a local shelter employing disabled workers who assemble the binders.
Distributors selling to retailers never know what types of business will come their way. Reeves has sold a wide variety of products, including table tent cards for shareholders' meetings and in-store posters. He once provided an insert card for a candy bar sold in the gourmet department. The insert required special inks to meet federal health regulations.
Tips for Serving the Retail Market 
Learn about the variety of services offered by the store. Large department stores don't live by shoes and clothes alone. They offer many services, such as a bridal registry, beauty salon, photo studio, travel agency, appliance repair, automotive repair and financial planning. Find out about internal forms, custom brochures, letterhead and envelopes. Bebler sells 8 1/2 x 11-inch saddle-stitched wedding planning handbooks to a bridal registry department and housewares discount coupons for engaged couples. Penetrate the account. Selling to a small retailer, you may work only with a store manager or president. But large department stores have numerous buyers in the advertising, marketing, purchasing, training, and personnel departments. Keep current with the retailer's plans. Grand openings, founder's birthdays and anniversaries are excellent opportunities for commercial printing, direct mail and ad specialties. Make sure you are attuned to expansion plans. When stores announce a new product or unveil a new service such as a beauty salon, be ready. Earlier this year, Reeves' customer opened a new area in its retail operation, but neglected to order printing until the Friday afternoon before the Tuesday grand opening. Reeves sold the store seven different items, from forms to 4-color brochures, and had them printed by Monday afternoon. Retailing is seasonal. Although large department stores hold sales year round, selling to retailers is especially hectic in late summer and fall as they gear up for the holiday season. Be aware of the capabilities and limitations of the store's in-house print shop, forms analysis department or sign printing department. Larger stores may have printing capabilities for flat forms, simple promotional items and signs. The advertising and marketing departments of larger stores may handle copywriting and develop concepts, then rely on you for suggestions about the technical aspects of the job. Reeves says he keeps up with new paper stocks and printing techniques to advise his client on the most efficient way to produce a piece. Conduct credit checks on new customers. Weinzierl says he deals only with established retailers who are growing. Even so, he does credit checks on all new customers, starting with the prospect's bank. Offer suggestions on gimmicks that will increase traffic in the retailer's stores. Some retailers tie promotions to a local event or sports team. For example, a local sporting goods store might give away pins or decals supporting the local hockey team to the first 200 weekend customers. Don't count on the warehousing business. The larger the retailer, the more likely it is to have its own fine tuned warehouse and distribution center and the less likely vendors will handle warehousing. For example, Bebler has all products shipped to a central service center. Tucker maintains an emergency supply of key forms for one retailer, even though the store handles its own distribution. When necessary, Kelty-Best delivers items or has them shipped via Greyhound bus or overnight delivery. Be prepared for rush orders. Fast turnaround is a way of life in the retail market. Sometimes rush delivery is critical because the marketing department wants to get a promotion out quickly. Says Reeves, "Ideas come from fruition to completion in a matter of days." Sometimes the number of forms needed by one store may be underestimated, a bad situation during the holidays. Emphasize forms and systems analysis. Retailers are image conscious and want to convey a consistent look between stores and departments. At the same time, they use many traditional forms that may be completed by hand and/or processed in a point-of-sale terminal. This challenges the forms designer, but also presents opportunities to combine forms or offer label/form or label/tag combinations. Special effects are popular on commercial printed pieces and direct mail packages. Don't forget to help the marketing department comply with postal regulations. Katherine L. House is managing editor of FORM magazine.
Thanks to MIDWEST Business Forms, West St. Paul, Minn.