A printing brokerage seeks a strategy

Nation's Business, May, 1997 by Stephen Blakeley

Our small printing-services brokerage is trying to create a marketing plan for the Miami area. Where can I get information on the printing-brokerage industry? J.C., Miami

Try the industry's trade group, the Printing Brokerage Buyers Association, based in Palm Beach, Fla. 1-800-448-8952. Vincent Mallardi, executive director of the association, says the 9,000 printing brokers in the United States generate a total of about $5 billion in annual revenue. (Printing overall is a $96 billion industry.)

Printing brokers help customers locate printers and also assist with the design, copy preparation, and other details of a printing job.

Mallardi says about 500 large printers, each with $5 million or more in annual sales, dominate the business, and the remaining 8,500 printers are small firms, most with $100,000 or less in annual revenue.

A brokerage's marketing strategy, he says, usually starts with the December issue of American Printer, which provides a forecast of printing demand for the year ahead for major business sectors, broken down by geographic markets across the country. The magazine is available for $50 a year from Intertec Inc. of North Brook, Ill.; 1-800-811-3255.

The forecasts are compared with county-level "standard industry classification" (SIC) codes to identify the kinds of businesses in an area that are likely to need printing services in the coming year, Mallardi says. You can use your phone book to find companies in each category, or you can use a mailing-list firm to reach your targeted audience.