Editor's note: In the pursuit of perfect printing, reducing the weight of paper is one of the most difficult things to grasp.
No one can deny that 2007 was an eventful event. From the rise in postal tariffs in May last year (the United States may raise postage again in May of this year) to the continued devaluation of the US dollar, these changes have posed severe challenges to directory compiling companies wishing to control production costs.
In addition to postage, paper also created a lot of trouble for most directory writers. The depreciation of the US dollar and the appreciation of the Canadian dollar have accelerated the speed of the closure of paper mills. Last year, there were reports of factory closures from major paper companies such as East Tower, Fraser, Tembec, UPM and Warsaw.
The change in supply and demand is the main reason for the change in the market. Peter Wilson Jr, vice president of paper procurement and supply chain at printing giant Québec World, said: "For a long time in the past, the supply and demand relations in the paper market have basically been able to maintain a balance (for slightly oversupplied), but now everything is changed."
The rise in paper prices also has a certain relationship with the paper companies' long-term lack of sufficient investment returns. Wilson said: "Paper companies are losing money in most cases, and they need to earn a considerable return on investment for their investors. As soon as conditions permit, these companies will continue to increase the price of the product." Therefore, from the current In terms of supply and demand, paper suppliers have enough room for price increases.
Of course, the change in paper prices is not entirely caused by changes in market demand. Michael Wade, vice president of business development at Wade Paper, believes that the main reason for the increase in paper prices is the cyclical change in business, rather than the significant increase in market demand.
Wade said: "On the one hand, the paper mills are unable to make profits through paper production; on the other hand, customers need to rely on paper to solve their current difficulties, such as postal tariff increases."
Cutting, cutting and cutting
In order to keep up with the trend of the times, catalog companies not only reduced the size of catalog products, but also reduced their overall weight. According to Don Wallace, vice president of commercial printing for the paper supplier Abitibi-Baohuate Co., Ltd., as paper prices have risen, they have transformed printing paper from 70-pound and 80-pound Dowling paper. Become a lower-grade coating paste or mechanical pulp products. Of course, not only did Abidib-Bohwat's company choose to reduce the grade of paper. Companies that previously had to print on 40 pounds of coated paper can now also go to Grade A and Grade B supercalendered papers (Supercalendered Papers are referred to as SC Paper for cheap groundwood, chemical mechanical pulp or waste Paper deinking pulp and wheat straw pulp as the main raw materials, together with a small amount of long-fiber chemical pulp, and adding more than 30% of the filler made of, its smoothness of more than 500S, opacity of more than 85%, split length and longitudinal average reached More than 3000m, its quality can be compared with low-quantity coated paper, can be used as advertising, catalogs, inserts and other color printing. Paper does not contain mechanical pulp) to find the right product.
Some cataloging companies prefer to reduce the overall weight of catalog products by replacing some pages of printed paper. For example, some companies may have previously printed ordering forms with 50 pounds of uncoated offset paper. Now, to reduce the weight of the catalog, they can print these pages with a mixture of kraft pulp and mechanical pulp. .
The same feeling, less paper
Jim Colwell, vice president of marketing at Abbeitbi-Baohuate, explained that kraft pulp can bring higher strength and brightness to paper, and the main raw material for mechanical pulp comes from trees, so it is producing the same amount of paper. At the time, the use of blended pulp saves wood more than using mechanical pulp.
Colwell said there is no difference in the feeling of weight between 50 pounds and 45 pounds, but the latter can save you more. For example, if you choose a slightly lighter piece of paper for a job that originally required 1,000 tons of paper, you may end up buying only 900 tons of paper. In addition to the order form, supplemental pages in some catalogue mails can also be printed on low-grade paper.
The customer's response to lightweight catalog paper is mixed. Some directory authoring companies are very clever - or their customers are less sensitive - and they can reduce the weight of the catalog, the brightness of the paper, and the overall quality without affecting the customer response rate.
Some cataloging companies conduct tests by using different grades of paper in different regions of the market. For example, they used a coated paper containing mechanical pulp to print the catalogue to be sent to New York, and A-grade super calendered paper to print the catalogue to be sent to remote areas.
Although customers may not notice the changes in the catalog quality, if cataloging companies reduce the paper specifications, they may be able to get print effects that are completely different from the previous ones. For example, a 40 pound size 5 paper is unlikely to have the same brightness and surface characteristics as a 45 pound size 3 paper. This requires cataloging companies to communicate with the printer to determine how best to achieve the best image quality.
Wade believes cataloging companies are looking for paper mills that can make money from quantitative paper. If the paper you buy is at the root of a loss at a paper mill, its quality is also very doubtful.
Non-paper saving options
Not all paper-related savings should come directly from the paper purchasing process. Well-established mailing lists, more rigorous testing, changes in directory layout and dimensions, co-mailing, combined binding, and other technologies are equally important for saving on production costs. As Wade pointed out, many of his clients have achieved great success by sorting out mailing lists and targeted marketing. He said: “A lot of our customers have reduced the printing of that part of the content that may affect their brand image. The weight of the paper."
White Flower Farm, headquartered in Torrington, Connecticut, USA, is a professional cataloguing company for plants and horticultural products, and they have fully utilized their websites during their work. Lorraine Calder, president and CEO of the company, said: “You have to be sure that all the products you submit are worth printing. After finishing the catalog printing, we also need to observe the sending and recycling of the catalogue. If we can use a small amount The printing space has caused customers' interest in the product and then allowed them to go online to learn more detailed information, which would save a lot of trouble."
Through this method and advertising in the magazines of the Meredith Corporation, White Flower Farm no longer needs to reduce the quality level of paper. In addition, although Calder has not ruled out the possibility of reducing the directory paper, she has already It is clear that doing so will affect the company's brand image.
Calder: "We have found a new marketing method that does not need to send too many prints to our customers. A marketing strategy (print advertising or e-mail) that focuses on directory mailing and supplemented by other promotional activities allows us to Get a higher customer response rate.
Day-Timers, a Pennsylvania-based company that specializes in the writing of business diaries, said that the company's paper purchasing manager, Richard Holben, said: "The cataloging company should adhere to the principle of maintaining the principle of providing suppliers with low prices. Negotiating. We always look for different alternatives for certain papers when we need them, but new papers must be able to meet the quality requirements of each product."
Difficult negotiations
Day-Timers wants to cooperate with reasonably priced paper suppliers, but the negotiation process between them is becoming more and more difficult. Holben said: "The surviving paper mills will be in a more proactive position. If we purchase paper from them, our customers will have to pay more for it." The strategy of Day-Timers is to use standards as much as possible. Paper to avoid special paper manufacturers taking the opportunity to raise prices.
Before comprehensively changing the weight of the paper, Wilson suggested that the directory compiling company first test on the machine, so that they can find a balance between reducing paper quality and achieving desired results.
Of course, the print quality of the image will be affected more or less when replacing high-quality paper with low-quality paper. However, if this change does not have a negative impact on the revenue of the directory customers, then everyone will not have to worry about it.