Recently someone asked us about the benefits of buying print from a local supplier vs. buying print from online vendors - who are sometimes, but not always, less expensive.   Thought it was worth sharing:

Hello Mary: Please allow us to introduce ourselves. We are known as Highlight Printing. First off, we want to thank you for contacting us and apologize in advance for the long winded response. We are a small family run company – about 9 fabulous people total – with some of the latest and greatest in printing equipment and technology.  We have weathered the economic ups and downs, and we are proud to say that our sales are in their 3^rd year of incline since the mighty recession.  We love our clients and our clients love us.

The printing world has changed over the past several years and it continues to change.  And part of that change is the whole crop of new internet printers that sell certain “generic” printed pieces at commodity prices by filling up a press sheet with many different clients’ work and setting the press up to “run to the numbers”.  That’s not us. Many of these printers have barely any human intervention from the time the order is placed until it is shipped.  We read that one printer spends an average of 28 seconds per order in customer service.  That’s not us.  Many of the printers don’t give you custom choices – it’s their paper, their size, their ink colors, their finishing option – or they can’t do it.  That’s not us.   Many times re-orders of the same piece look different each time, with color shifts or paper changes that make for an inconsistent product that especially affects clients with specific branding guidelines.  That’s not us. Many of the online printers are hard to get a hold of to get advice about production planning or paper, to check the status of the project, to make last minute changes, or worse to discuss a problem.  That’s not us. Many of those online printers have foreign headquarters so are not paying US taxes.  That’s not us.

Here’s who we are: *Real human beings answer the phones, get to know your projects and expectations, and take responsibility for getting it done right and on time. *Your projects are never ganged with other projects, therefore we can make color adjustments to make sure we are always within your branding guidelines.  In fact, we consider ourselves, your BRANDING POLICE. *We are a CUSTOM PRINTER.  With a wide range of equipment and experience, we can produce even the most unusual of projects.  Your creativity is never limited. *With COMMAND PRINT, our proprietary print management system, we help manage the print ordering ? warehousing / distribution / inventory of the print for our clients with multiple locations. *We have an internal design department.  Right here.  In MN.  Not India. *We are employing good people who are experts in their field.  This is not fast food we are cranking out. *We are large enough to negotiate good pricing on our materials and to pass those discounts along to you.  

See… we told you… long winded. And in case it wasn’t long enough, We’ve included a short blog by another printer that makes some point that I didn’t: http://www.socalgraph.com/hiring-an-online-printing-company-vs-commercial-printing-company/   Long story short:  Not the cheapest, not the most expensive, but really good at what we do.   Highlight Printing is a well-respected Minneapolis printer that focuses on the complete needs of the client from creative to offset printing and digital printing, 3M Post-It notes, bindery, warehousing, fulfillment, mailing, and distribution. Please contact us @ 612.522.7600, sales@highlightprinting.com or www.highlightprinting.com