Month: July 2018

Creating communications for showrooms and tradeshows have always been an essential part of our business. A large format printer we recently worked with isn’t actually in the industry. They are in the automotive manufacturing business. That fact makes them wildly competitive, with unmatched customer service and an (I assume) incredibly impressive profit margin.

This business model has fascinated me for a long time. You see, they build commercial vehicle fleets around heavy truck chassis. If you need 25 trucks explicitly built for your company, they are your guys. Of course, you need graphics on trucks, right. So, it was good business to bring that expertise and experience in-house. It speeds up the process, and you have total control. There is a big learning curve, and these endeavors don’t always work out – it has to be a good fit.

The fleet portion of the business pays for everything, the building, equipment, materials, and expertise. When the company decided to sell large format printing outside, they had almost $0 overhead for the new division, giving them a tremendous advantage.

Similarly, we brought editorial photography and video production in-house. New and fresh content needs to be continuously created for clients. Now, we have the equipment, expertise, and speed to become more and more relevant and valuable to our clients. We can also occasionally offer a video on a project basis, an income opportunity we were previously missing.

This idea of tapping into existing strengths can go even further. We have a client that is leveraging the needs of business partners to produce marketing materials that can go directly to consumers at a fraction of the price. They already have the visual and romance content created by the needs of a product launch. By taking all the content already paid for and repurposing it in a new and different way they are creating extremely valuable marketing. They blend all the content with “Style Influencer” inspiration and approachable stories from bloggers and articles about the consumer’s needs.

This is a trend we see blending with groups of consumers social media considerations.

Let me know if this ring true in your business.

Photo Credit: ©2018 Crobar | Creative Leverage • Location: High Point Furniture Market, High Point, NC • Purpose: Asset collection for a home furnishings manufacturer