Off the Cuff: Boost Sales with Nontextile Technologies

Selling more by expanding your product arsenal doesn’t require transforming your high-volume shop. In fact, you’re already more prepared than you might think to add alternative decorating processes.
Oct 22, 2007

By Mark L. Venit, M.B.A.

In this era of increased competition and constrained profit margins, is there a way to boost sales and profits — without adding promotional products? My answer is a resounding yes.

Instead of looking at increasing profits in terms of adding product offerings, adopt a view that’s more in keeping with the production resources and the customer base you already have — and the reasons your accounts buy from you, not the other guy. You’re likely to see real results by maintaining the core culture of a production organization, not in attempting to transform your company into a sales organization if it isn’t already. That’s the cultural misunderstanding apparel graphics companies make in competing with promotional products distributors by merely selling the same things they do (See “Promotional Products Aren’t Always the Answer”).

To be sure, I’m not suggesting that you ignore the bountiful benefits of becoming more proactive in selling and marketing, which can only improve your return on investment and growth possibilities. But efforts to reengineer companies with production cultures into sales organizations are inherently limited. On the other hand, reconfiguring firms with a textile production culture to a nontextile production culture is a far easier task.

Specifically, I suggest looking at CAD cutting, laser engraving, digital imaging/sublimation, pad printing and other graphic technologies. There’s a good likelihood you already own some of the resources that’ll enable you to leapfrog your way into these new avenues of opportunity.

Are You Ready?
Let’s take a closer look at how prepared your company is to use these alternative technologies. You almost certainly already have the following:

• Computer graphics software. If you’ve got it, chances are your skills are already sufficient to master graphics for most output devices. Software has come a long way in the past 10 years in terms of speed and ease of operation, even for beginners. The programs are quite user-friendly and make nontextile decorating technologies simpler to master and more affordable than ever.

• Available manpower. Are all your employees busy every hour of every day? In a word, no. Given our industry’s seasonal cycles, keeping your best employees working — and paid — through the soft months can be a challenge. Why not add alternative technology with virtually no additional personnel cost?

• Existing customer bases. Your existing account base can easily add 20% to 40% in additional business and potentially lots more in the first year of adding technology for nonwearables. Your margins will be bigger than those for wearables and your cost for marketing these new capabilities to existing customers is next to nothing.

• Sourcing connections. It’s from wholesalers and manufacturers; the buying process is much the same.

Technologies for Nontextiles
Let’s look at a few technologies with good crossover appeal to your customers, low to moderate entry cost and solid, immediate potential for putting more sales on the books.

CAD cutting. Buy a CAD (computer assisted design) cutter, software and some start-up inventory, and you’re good to go. Within days of getting started you can sell vehicle signage and window banners to radio stations, anyone promoting Web addresses, companies with fleets of cars or trucks, booster clubs, local churches and organizations, etc. You can quickly move into selling hundreds of other products your customers either buy already or would love to buy if they knew where to get it fast and easy.

The margins on this stuff are staggering. A window strip has material costs of $1 to $2 and sells for $10 to $20. Think how many existing customers are good candidates for these products. CAD cutting makes entry into teamwear easier than ever, and it allows embroiderers to cut twill at a fraction of buying outsourced pieces. Your start-up investment is $2,000 to $3,000.

Laser engraving. Any apparel decorator catering to businesses, schools or leagues has a ready-made audience for engraved items. As with CAD-cut materials, the per-unit margins on engraving are huge compared to apparel. Start-up investment: $10,000 to $20,000.
 
Digital imaging/sublimation. You’re probably already familiar with the technology, but with a little learning about key markets and product categories (mouse pads, mugs, banners, etc.), you can quickly build a year-round profit center. You probably know about sublimation transfers for decorating ceramics and glass, too; what a huge opportunity. Healthy margins are there for the asking, and I can assure you that producing decorated mugs quickly ain’t rocket science. Start-up investment: Under $1,000.

Pad printing. Want to get into the lucrative business of custom decorating golf tees and golf balls? With pad printing, which has been around for decades, you can print all kinds of weird surfaces and shapes on a huge variety of small products. Today’s technology enables you to print multicolor work with precise registration. Start-up investment: $3,000 to $10,000.
   
New Profit Centers
Owning additional decorating technology means opportunities for more prospects, better use of staff, more long-term security, better margins and enhanced profitability, improved account loyalty, and increased marketing horsepower. It also means more wearables business from new accounts you land through other decorating portals.
 
The potential crossover selling opportunities are massive for apparel graphics companies that move their enterprises beyond apparel into limited production of signage, awards, mugs, giftware, and a host of other products. And because these products aren’t generally limited by seasonal factors, they provide their masters with year-round work and income — even in first quarter.

Mark L. Venit, MBA, is president of Apparel Graphics Institute Ltd., Ocean Pines, Md., which provides management and marketing consulting and proprietary research to apparel graphics companies throughout the Americas and Europe. He is also the chairman of ShopWorks Software LLC, a provider of industry-specific business software. Venit teaches pricing, strategic marketing, salesmanship and other business management topics at the Imprinted Sportswear Shows. You can reach him at markvenit@cs.com.



For Further Reading:
 
“Adding Cutting Services”
"New Developments on the Sublimation Scene”
“Sublimation on Ceramics”
“Adding Pad Printing”

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