How Important Should Price be in Choosing A Printer?

They argue that our parent organization should send its business to commercial printers because it’s CHEAPER, although there may be some legitimate debate on that point as well. Still, that’s the claim.

What I heard in this blog was validation of what a lot of us have been saying for years. If upper management followed the advice of this print broker, it would look past the price claims and think seriously about all of the other contributions (i.e. features) in-plants are expected to provide, but can’t charge for. Things like catching mistakes that might embarrass the organization if printed and distributed or, even worse, cause an expensive re-run. Or making decisions that line up with the parent organization’s mission, vision, goals and values. Or protecting the brand. Or helping designers plan a mail piece that avoids postal penalties. Or helping customers set up a job. Or recommending a less expensive paper. Or...you get the idea. It’s what you do everyday.