Walk into any manufacturing plant or distribution center and you’ll notice the print that’s meant to be noticed. The signage. The branded sell sheets. The trade show graphics. As a distributor, your eye is trained to find that work because that’s the work you’ve always sold.
But the most profitable print in the building just might be the print nobody’s supposed to notice at all.
It’s the label on the side of a returnable tote that’s made 100 trips between a parts supplier and an assembly line. It’s the barcode on a pallet scanned a dozen times before it leaves the dock. It’s the rating plate on a piece of outdoor equipment, the chemical warning on a drum, the asset tag on a forklift. This print isn’t decorative. It’s operational. When it does its job well, it disappears into the background of the business.
That invisibility is exactly why distributors miss it, and exactly why it’s worth your attention.
Function Is a Better Business Than Fashion
It’s not unusual for the print that’s bought for function to be better business than the print that’s bought for looks.
A decorative label competes on price and taste, and taste changes. A new marketing director arrives, the brand gets refreshed, the job goes out to bid. But a label bought because it has to survive a freezer, a chemical wash or a year of UV exposure isn’t going anywhere. The customer doesn’t reorder it because they like it. They reorder it because their operation stops working without it.
That changes the economics in your favor. These labels reorder on a schedule tied to production, not a campaign calendar, so the revenue is steady. They hold up in good economies and bad, because no manufacturer stops labeling their product when the market softens. They’re sold on whether they work, not on whether they’re cheapest, which pulls you out of the race to the bottom.
You’re Closer to This Business Than You Think
There’s more good news! You’re already inside these accounts. You’ve already done the hard work of earning trust. The manufacturer buying your marketing materials, the distributor ordering your forms, the equipment
maker printing spec sheets through you, every one of them is buying operational labels from somebody. And that somebody is rarely a partner. It’s usually just a vendor filling an order.
The business hasn’t come to you because you haven’t asked. The customer assumes you don’t do labels, and you’ve never given them a reason to think otherwise. You don’t have to become a materials engineer to change that. That’s what the right trade manufacturing partner is for. Your job is to recognize the opportunity and ask the question.
So the next time you’re in a customer’s facility, look past the print you came to deliver. Look at what’s stuck to the totes, drums, pallets and equipment. Every label is a job someone is fulfilling. The only question is whether that someone should be you.
Will Prettyman is General Manager of Wise’s Labels Plant in Anderson, SC. Wise manufacturers industrial/prime labels and tags, traditional forms, and digitally printed products and services for resale only. For more information, visit www.wbf.com or email Will at [email protected].
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