Blog Posts - Mr Joseph B. Marin


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  • VDP Costing and Pricing: The Fundamentals
    11/01/2011 by Mr Joseph B. Marin

    Generally speaking, static printing—offset or digital—has become more and more of a commodity. Are you looking for some proof? All you have to do is Google “business card printer” and look at the search results. The ability for printers to turn a profit with most static work is mostly based on machine speed (how many sheets of paper can that device print) and operator efficiency (how quickly can the operator finish one job and begin another). This is the way of the static print service provider—become more efficient and lower prices to be more competitive. Following this vicious cycle, the static printer eventually hits the proverbial “wall” where prices can longer be lowered.

    The opportunities to increase profits for printers lie with variable-data printing (VDP). One of the keys to profitability is understanding the difference between estimating and pricing static printing versus VDP. As mentioned previously, offset (or any type of static printing) is a commodity and is typically sold as cost per copy. VDP, however, is a solution. It’s the value of this solution that has to be figured into the cost of the job.

    In a new white paper for the DPC, author Joe Marin explains the fundamental aspects of VDP costing and pricing. All Printing Industries of America members can download this white paper here: VDP Costing and Pricing: The Fundamentals.

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  • QR Codes: Mobile Trends Driving Use
    09/30/2011 by Mr Joseph B. Marin

    Note: This article first appeared on www.integratedprintforum.org, the website for Printing Industries of America's Integrated Print Forum.

    The us of QR codes is mainstream in Japan, growing in Europe, and gaining traction in the U.S. The key to success is that they take advantage of the exploding popularity of a device that many of us always have close by--our smartphones. According to Nielsen, 17% of the U.S. population own a smartphone--a phone that contains(at the very least) a camera and a browser to access the Internet. A few other compelling statistics supporting the popularity of smartphones use are:

    • The number of times we access the Internet daily from our smartphones has almost doubled in the last year (Source: Pew Research Center's Internet and America Life Project 2010 Tracking Survey).
    • 20% of all consumers used their phones to browse and research products (Source: ATG Cross-Channel Commerce: The Consumer View).
    • 37% of U.S. smartphone users have made a purchase on their phones in the last six months (Source: Compete, Inc.).
    • Mobile commerce tripled in the U.S. in 2009 to $1.2 billion (Source: ABI Research).
    • In 2015, $119 billion goods and services will be purchased via mobile phone (Source: ABI Research).
    • eBay m-commerce in 2010 was $2 billion, up from $600 million in 2009
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