Metallic prints

[niksagkram]

Hi fellow Roland users..... we have had our Roland VS540 for about 2 months now, and I have had ONE customer order metallic prints. Other than having samples to show them, how are you "up-selling" people to metallic prints? Are you having a hard time selling it too?

Just curious.

Mark

 

[P Wagner]

I think the real question is, what is the upcharge that is needed to include the silver ink in the job? I believe that the cost per ml for the silver is roughly 4x (~$240 vs ~$65 [for 220ml]) that of the other colors, and would assume that you would need charge accordingly. Is that right?

To my way of thinking, users of silver ink should be looking at markets seperate from traditional signage applications in order to make their value proposition with silver ink. Custom short-run labels for example...

 

[JoshLoring]

I never went metallic because nobody has asked in 6 years. It's hard to sell something that already has clientele that's picky about prices. :/

 

[Custom_Grafx]

Same as Josh. I went with 2xCMYK on the VS640. No market for metallic for me. White - sometimes, metallic, hardly ever.

I'm sure you had your reasons for deciding to go with the W+M option. What were those reasons? Did you have some customers who were asking you about metallic/white? Did you think they would want it if you had it? Was there someone who wanted it but they went out of business and aren't your customer any more? Or... did you feel like maybe it would naturally pick up if you had it and it just didn't? Either way, if you're stuck with it, there are definitely ways to sell more of it - you just need to think different markets.

 

[niksagkram]

Same as Josh. I went with 2xCMYK on the VS640. No market for metallic for me. White - sometimes, metallic, hardly ever.

I'm sure you had your reasons for deciding to go with the W+M option. What were those reasons? Did you have some customers who were asking you about metallic/white? Did you think they would want it if you had it? Was there someone who wanted it but they went out of business and aren't your customer any more? Or... did you feel like maybe it would naturally pick up if you had it and it just didn't? Either way, if you're stuck with it, there are definitely ways to sell more of it - you just need to think different markets.

I was never really part of the decision to go metallic, though I did think it would be a great addition to our other two Roland printers. As for targeting different markets, I think you are right on there, I was just curious about how other people were going about it.

Thanks for all the input, guys.

Mark

 

[Andrew O]

Here's a link to a blog post that Rick recently did regarding the results of a survey we ran:

http://rblog.rolanddga.com/inkjet/making-money-with-metallic-printing/

It might offer some ideas. We have also found that while it is true that the metallic ink is much more expensive than CMYK, users don't have to charge 4x per square foot, since the relative usage of metallic is usually pretty small. If you are flooding huge areas of vinyl with pure silver, then price accordingly, but run some typical jobs through VersaWorks and I think you will be surprised at just how little metallic ink is used when you are creating metallic colors or using small silver highlights.

 

[Roto]

Same as Josh. I went with 2xCMYK on the VS640. No market for metallic for me. White - sometimes, metallic, hardly ever.

I'm sure you had your reasons for deciding to go with the W+M option. What were those reasons? Did you have some customers who were asking you about metallic/white? Did you think they would want it if you had it? Was there someone who wanted it but they went out of business and aren't your customer any more? Or... did you feel like maybe it would naturally pick up if you had it and it just didn't? Either way, if you're stuck with it, there are definitely ways to sell more of it - you just need to think different markets.

Plus a 640 with just CMYK goes like a scalded cat

 

[Custom_Grafx]

I was never really part of the decision to go metallic, though I did think it would be a great addition to our other two Roland printers. As for targeting different markets, I think you are right on there, I was just curious about how other people were going about it.

Thanks for all the input, guys.

Mark

Approach local offset printers and tell them you can proof metallics... they will worship you if you tell them you can do that in 2 hours... just a thought...

Your advantage? Latex can't do it. Aqueous can't do it. Bada boom.

 

[Dakotagrafx]

seem most people find the big up sale on the metallics was by the Roland Rep I know they have a great niche and it is eye popping when used but most printing doesn't use it and it seems most of it would end up in the waste bottle on cleanings- another roland win.

 

[ChadBrown]

can the ink set not be changed for some reason?