Your banner pricing

[ams]

I was curious to know what price everyone is charging for banners and the size of their town. I charge per square foot and am in a medium size town.
I understand that Washington D.C. and A backwoods town in a remote area is going to have way different pricing.

The other shops around me is $7 / $11 per sq. ft. For the past 3 years I've been charging $5 / sq. ft. Most of the time I get jobs, but then people compare my prices to the online stores and don't use me. Of course many of those online stores have bad quality and a DPI of 360 - 600, whereas mine is 720 - 1440 depending on the banner.

Banners have one of the highest mark ups, but I feel if I increase it more I will lose more jobs and if I decrease the price I will hurt myself.

 

[nashvillesigns]

banner pricing

Bannermiester,

number one rule:
do not become attached emotionally to your pricing. it doesn't have feelings, so neither should you.

number two rule:
the lower the price, the lower the perceived value. people are going to think your product is cheap. Since this is a negative view, they will think you are offering a bad product. they will also more likely than not go somewhere else when that want to spend REAL money.
the higher the price, within market reason, will offer a better viewpoint in terms of value. and the customer will trust you far better. Banners can be printed on everyone's machines, but keeping them in one piece is important. you don't want to over-engineer the product so it lasts longer than it needs to. you don't want to just print it and hand it over with grommetted. the labor with hemming and taping must be done right.

my final viewpoint is the marketing aspect to the banner.
that banner is advertising 365/24/7. there is a intrinsic value that cannot be priced. Banners are the cheapest way to tell anyone where your business is. The issues is, they do not last long. Banners are for "short-term" and "Temporary" advertising.

Thank goodness for that.
we would all be out of business.

Christopher Mosher

 

[Gino]

Our pricing will/should have no bearing on what you should charge or try to get. It seems by your own words, you have figured out a way to beat your competition....... by price. That's about the worst way, anyone can try to stay in business. There's always someone cheaper, but now you're creating a reputation for being cheap, but they are now finding cheaper and then some.

You managed to create a niche of a go-to shop when you want something cheap, while the other shops have kept their integrity and quality in the long run. It's not easy to dig yourself out a hole being known as a bottom-feeder. Reputations are hard to build , but very easy to ruin.

Since, you're not getting anymore banner orders, what do you want to tackle, next ??

 

[Fred Weiss]

Have you tested your pricing in your market? This post explains how to do it:

http://www.signs101.com/forums/show...do-you-use-to-quote-a-job&p=673880#post673880

So, for example, quote the next 20 banners at $5 a foot, then up it to $6, then $7, then $8, then $9, and finally $10. Track the number of each that are accepted and turn into orders. If, in any price bracket, you close more than 14 orders, that would indicate your price was perceived as a very good value and may be too low. Conversely, if you receive less than 14 orders, then your quote was perceived as less of a valueand may be too high.

 

[ams]

Our pricing will/should have no bearing on what you should charge or try to get. It seems by your own words, you have figured out a way to beat your competition....... by price. That's about the worst way, anyone can try to stay in business. There's always someone cheaper, but now you're creating a reputation for being cheap, but they are now finding cheaper and then some.

You managed to create a niche of a go-to shop when you want something cheap, while the other shops have kept their integrity and quality in the long run. It's not easy to dig yourself out a hole being known as a bottom-feeder. Reputations are hard to build , but very easy to ruin.

Since, you're not getting anymore banner orders, what do you want to tackle, next ??

No I am still getting banner orders, just saying problem 8 out of 10 orders maybe 7 out of 10. I'd like to make that 9 out of 10 if possible.
I don't feel I am the cheapest and I certainly don't produce a cheap quality product.

It's just a hard thing to figure out. I always believed that pricing is by far the hardest thing in the sign business. I've been making signs for 9 years now and I still struggle with pricing, mostly because I don't know the market and am always getting into making a new kind of sign that I am unfamiliar with.

 

[ams]

Have you tested your pricing in your market? This post explains how to do it:

http://www.signs101.com/forums/show...do-you-use-to-quote-a-job&p=673880#post673880

So, for example, quote the next 20 banners at $5 a foot, then up it to $6, then $7, then $8, then $9, and finally $10. Track the number of each that are accepted and turn into orders. If, in any price bracket, you close more than 14 orders, that would indicate your price was perceived as a very good value and may be too low. Conversely, if you receive less than 14 orders, then your quote was perceived as less of a valueand may be too high.

I haven't seen or done that, but it's good advice. Some of my prices are way too low and some are way too high, I am having trouble adjusting it perfectly.
Lately I've had really weird projects such as wrapping a bicycle frame, building an indoor waterfall and do signage on it, put tiny decals on a model car, sandblasting an image on a wine barrel. I mean how do you even begin to price that?

 

[Gino]

No I am still getting banner orders, just saying problem 8 out of 10 orders maybe 7 out of 10. I'd like to make that 9 out of 10 if possible.
I don't feel I am the cheapest and I certainly don't produce a cheap quality product.

It's just a hard thing to figure out. I always believed that pricing is by far the hardest thing in the sign business. I've been making signs for 9 years now and I still struggle with pricing, mostly because I don't know the market and am always getting into making a new kind of sign that I am unfamiliar with.

If you're getting 70% of your quotes, then you are working too cheap. That's any business.

I haven't seen or done that, but it's good advice. Some of my prices are way too low and some are way too high, I am having trouble adjusting it perfectly.
Lately I've had really weird projects such as wrapping a bicycle frame, building an indoor waterfall and do signage on it, put tiny decals on a model car, sandblasting an image on a wine barrel. I mean how do you even begin to price that?

It's hard to put a justified price on oddball stuff like. Try to create shop minimum and stick to it.

 

[ExecuPrintGS]

No I am still getting banner orders, just saying problem 8 out of 10 orders maybe 7 out of 10. I'd like to make that 9 out of 10 if possible.
I don't feel I am the cheapest and I certainly don't produce a cheap quality product.

It's just a hard thing to figure out. I always believed that pricing is by far the hardest thing in the sign business. I've been making signs for 9 years now and I still struggle with pricing, mostly because I don't know the market and am always getting into making a new kind of sign that I am unfamiliar with.

sounds like you might not be "selling" the customers on the banners (though 7 or 8 of 10 isnt bad numbers for closing a sale)
Are these phone quotes or in store?
We are by far the most expensive place in our area for banners, yet we had a record year for banner sales. Customers come to us for the quality and we show them exactly what they can expect of our product when they are here. Even though its a banner order i always try to get the customers in the door, if they are here i can show them the different banner weights, and we have a display with different finishing options (cut, cut and power taped, cut and folded hem, hemmed with webbing and sewn).
I fell if they can see and touch and know the quality they are going to get we can sell them every time( or atleast thats the goal) You will always have someone who wants it as cheap as possible, we just don't bother with those. we dont do cheap.

 

[chester215]

Our price is whatever signs2trade charges us (and purchase it from them) , add in shipping and multiply X ?.
? = depends on the customer and quantity.