| A
Grit Success Story |
In 1989, a young and promising New York Educational
publisher walked off the rainy streets of downtown
Williamsport, Pennsylvania and into the offices of
Grit Commercial Printing and the Grit Newspaper in
search of a business partner to print and mail five
brochures, totaling a few hundred thousand pieces.
|
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Twice
each year Grit prints and mails over 6.2 million
brochures for a New York Education Publisher. |
After
reviewing his printing and mailing needs with Richard
Shaffer, Grit Sales Representative, the publisher selected
Grit to print its very first direct mail campaign and
has continued to print and mail exclusively with Grit.
Today,
the Grit mails over 6.2 million pieces of 79 different
brochures twice each year for this publisher. The publisher
has experienced astonishing growth, from two employees
to 36 and now features close to 13,000 product titles
in its catalog.
Each
year the publisher ramps up for 2 main mailing seasons.
Grit works to help them design pieces, select the right
grade and weight of paper, and process their mail lists
to maximize their postal discounts. Each Spring a sample
printing is done for an actual brochure on 4 to 5 different
paper stocks and sent to the publisher to choose the paper
they feel best represents them and produces the best printing
results. Once the paper is selected, Grit leverages a
large volume paper purchase, ten truckloads, to the client’s
advantage.
Brochures
are designed in QuarkXpress by the publisher and uploaded
to the Grit FTP Site. Grit’s prepress technicians
convert their files to postscript and RIP the files into
separations. Files are visually checked against hard copies
to check type reflow, and font/art inclusion. Grit has
delivered so many error-free proofs that today proofs
are no longer required by the customer. Once the files
are reviewed in-house, Grit Prepress produces printing
plates on a Fuji Javelin CTP state-of-the-art platemaker.
Depending
on the design, each piece is then printed, folded, cut,
stitched and warehoused. Each brochure is given a unique
job number to track its progress through the process.
After each printing, 18 samples are hand-trimmed, folded
and bound. These pre-bind samples are approved by the
publisher before the entire job is completed. Upon approval,
the binding/finishing is completed and 200 samples are
also sent to the publisher before the mailing takes place.
| Mail
lists are packaged by the publisher and sent to Grit
via FTP. Grit saves them money by adding “plus
4” zip which lowers their postage, and CASS
certifies each list to remove undeliverable addresses
before the mailing even takes place. Grit estimates
their postage needs for every mailing and tracks their
incoming and outgoing postage expenditures. This information
is communicated back to the publisher at every step
of the process. Grit prepares all the USPS postage
paperwork and documentation and delivers to the post
office. |
|
Multiple
mail lists are used for each title and Grit prints the
total needed per title, per mail season. As each mailing
is completed, Grit counts and restocks the unmailed portion
of the title and communicates the stocking levels back
to the publisher. This allows the publisher to make cost-effective
decisions for compiling future mailing lists and maximizes
their print dollar. Each and every piece is utilized and
sent to a potential customer – not one brochure
is wasted.
The
publisher’s growth is the result of constantly researching
its customer’s needs and refreshing its product
lines accordingly, carefully targeting its mailings and
mailing lists, and running a very efficient operation.
Nearly one-third of all its titles change annually to
meet the new trends in the educational marketplace.
Effective
communication between the client and the printer/mail
house of mailing lists is required to successfully manage,
print and mail this volume of materials. “Grit has
worked very closely with us to keep our operation efficient”
said the publisher. “It takes a tight, close-working
relationship to make it work”.
Grit
Printing and Direct Mail is proud to have been a part
of this publisher’s astonishing growth for the last
15 years. Today, Grit is working to help explore new ways
of controlling or reducing their print and mail costs
– ensuring this publisher much more success in the
future.
To
learn more about what Grit can do for you, e-mail us at
grit@gritprinting.com
or call us
at 1-800-872-0409.
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