Short run, the big disrupter

If you’re a large brand more often than not, you’ll be ordering a significant number of cards based on forecasts and the volumes that drive lower production costs. But have you ever considered the true overall cost?

If you purchase 2 million cards based on an annual or even biannual forecast, your card printer is going to give a very competitive quote. So, consider this, you’re prepaying for cards that may not be used for months or even a few years as they get called off over time from stock. You’re also restricted to very 'safe' or limited design variations within those volumes unless of course you’re paying for multiple plate changes. You’ve paid the card printer, some of the cards go straight to stores and the large balance goes into storage. What’s the cost of storage, insurance, pick, pack and distribution? And what if there is a legislation change or a brand refresh, the cards are retired early….then the cost of responsibly recycling them.

And, the potential lost income or uptick in sales if you could have cards designs that were ‘in the moment’, more dynamic in design or even designed to leverage consumer sales data from different regions across your estate.

Hold that thought…

As well as working with the big brands, processors and distributors, we receive lots of enquiries from single site retailers, start-ups and SMEs who only want a few thousand cards, sometimes even hundreds to get their programme up and running. It’s a challenge for them to go down the green route when the only current method to service the short run printed cards is to digitally print them on plastic or to wait to batch the together for traditional litho runs where you’ll probably wait longer than you want.

Hold that thought too…

Our first mission was to drive the change from plastic cards to paperboard cards…this is happening. The next step for us was the challenge the actual production of the cards. The normal model does not offer much flexibility to produce short run of variable designs in smaller quantities.

So, we can now print short runs. print on demand cards on paperboard for all our card formats, with fast turnaround times, multiple variable data, both in terms of transactional data as well as designs. 

For both big brands and smaller business alike, we have a totally new and unique solution to help reduce costs, be more environmentally responsible and be ‘in the moment’ or have multiple unique designs in the same print run.

We have been working with HP for over a year to adapt one of their digital presses to print on our 660 micron Invercote paperboard.  It’s installed at our fellow eco pioneers supersite in Wales. Transcend Packaging is the brand behind the paper straws and completely recyclable paper coffee cups. Partnering with them makes complete sense. This initiative is supported by HP and Iggesund’s Invercote is the only material approved to run on this one of a kind press.

The HP offers superior print quality with a range of ground break additional security applications such as microtext and micro-barcodes for brand protection.

The cards can still be personalised in the tradition way if required – with a magnetic strip, PIN and scratch off panel etc, but we’d always encourage dropping the magnetic stripe in favour of barcodes or QR codes, it helps speed up production and reduce costs. No magnetic stripe also means the variable data on the card can be printed on the fly at the same time as the designs so a single process rather than multiple production processes.

So, we can now print on demand cards for short runs on paperboard for all our card formats, for gift cards, custom memebrship cards and loyalty cards with fast turnaround times, multiple variable data, both in terms of transactional data as well as designs. 

You can now kick off your card programme with as few as 1,000 cards or you can just print what you need to launch or fill your channels then print what you need to replace sold cards rather than prepaying for cards that sit in a warehouse. It’s on demand card printing and just in time for the gift card industry. How much will you be able to save? How can you use the ability to make every card look different? 

Onlyt print what you need, when you need it.

More info:

HP SmartStream Designer makes it possible to personalize any job with images, text and designs, for maximum impact.

HP SmartStream Mosaic is variable design technology software provided with HP that enables the creation of one-of-a-kind products for a memorable customer experience.
Since its launch in 2014, this technology has helped renowned brands like Coca-Cola, Planters Peanuts and Budweiser create millions of colourful designs, each one of them unique.

Using a patent-pending algorithm, HP Mosaic can generate virtually unlimited variations of a seed pattern by using scaling, transposition and rotation. Harness the power of variable data printing (VDP). Create one-of-a-kind products for a memorable customer experience. Produce mass customization and personalized campaigns.Enable unique, engaging experiences for your customers.

Another major benefit to printing digitally is it’s even more environmentally friendly - HP Indigo presses are manufactured CO2 neutral.

It’s a whole new world of possibilities and unique to us.
 

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