Why You Need to Get into VDP

[Dramatic pause.]

Get it? Do you see why you need to get into variable data printing? You just endured 357 words of my telling a seemingly pointless story. Hopefully, you can see the connection between it and the point I am trying to make. If so, skip to the witty ending. If not, let me ’splain it for you, Lucy...

The biggest issue with VDP is the data. Companies typically have horrible databases. They are either outdated or just plain wrong. (Case in point, I received a letter addressed to an employee who worked for me during the Bush administration. That Bush, the father!)

Massaging and correcting those files would certainly be a lot of work. Getting them to flow into a printed document successfully adds an additional challenge and more time. But after all that is said and done—and the customer sees the power of printing to the needs and preferences of the individual and gone through the headaches of trial and error—after all of that, they will not want to go anywhere else for their printing. You now own their data. You now have staked out the intellectual territory of being THE Expert in their minds. You now own the customer.

The process of, well, processing variable data printed piece is tedious and time-consuming. The vendors lied to us when they said there was an untapped market. I began talking about it in 1992 and I knew that it was going to take a long time to catch on. Here we are 18 years later and it is still like sex in high school—everyone thinks everyone else is doing it, but in reality not many are and those who are, aren’t doing it very well.

But...

Those who are have an advantage over those who aren’t and this, too, can be summed up in three words: