32% of Print Pros Shop Their Competitors

QUESTION:

Do you shop your competitors?

YES: 32%

• We do spend time investigating what our competition is doing. Where their pricing is, what services they offer, etc. — Jim Dittmer, JDA Creative Color, Gresham, Oregon

• Just to see quality and timeliness as well as customer experience. — Christine Walsh, Alpha Graphics, Baltimore, Maryland

• We don’t necessarily shop them due to the size of a typical bid. However, we do try to get an understanding of how far off we are if we were to lose a bid. This information is critical to better understand our competition and sometimes make informed decisions to tweak our pricing. — Gary Schellerer, ER2 Image Group, Hanover Park, Illinois

NO: 68%

• My pricing is based on what it costs me to operate my business and provide a profit margin that works for me. I must have confidence in what my company provides in attention to detail, customer service, and the final product and not worry about what the company I know nothing about is doing. Shopping your competitors only gives you a small snippet of information and you don’t want to make financial decisions based on that small amount of information. — Tracy Hiner, Black Crow Studios, Long Beach, California

• We feel our prices are fair for the service and quality we offer. We don’t want to price shop or price gauge. — Kelly Mank, Time4Printing, Windham, Maine

• We are aware of some competitive pricing based on contractual agreements with some clients as well as estimates submitted to us to see if we want to price match or better the price. While market pricing and remaining competitive is critical to the success of the company, our cost of doing business and desired margins ultimately determine our price. — Brian Hite, Image Options, Foothill Ranch, California

YOU’RE INVITED! Own or manage a wide-format printing business? Join the Brain Squad to participate in useful surveys on issues important to wide-format printing professionals: bigpicturemag.com/brainsquad