How much? revisited

[CGVGinc]

I've read several times Barrys post from last Oct. "How much do you charge per sq. ft.?) with great interest.
My question is, doesn't it also depend on the coverage? In other words shouldn't a printed sign that consist of only text with a white background be less expensive than full color?
For example, a 12in. x 18in. on 080 metal substrate, reading,"No Parking". Based on what I've read here on the forum, as a digitally printed sign most of us would charge about $32. But as a cut vinyl sign it would only go for about $19. (in a decent quantity of say 25)
How can you charge more for one of two signs that look basically the same?
And the cut vinyl sign is more durable.

[bob]

In my shop printing is printing. I don't care how many colors or what coverage, the price is the same. The cost component of ink on any particular job is minuscule. The substrate and the cost and time spent in set-up, media, and dealing with the output is the same regardless of just what might be printed on the media.

Moreover the cost for cut vinyl vice print is pretty close to the same. I agree that two products that are functionally the same should pack pretty much the same price. Leaving the choice to print or cut up to me and not the client.

But then my pricing model is a taste more sophisticated than most. Especially the rather primitive 'Estimate'.

[juan452]

I charge more for printed graphics for two reasons. Perceived value by the customer is one. The other is that printer cost 10 times more than my cutter.

[eye4clr]

I do my pricing philosophy as bob does.

As far as cut vs. print pricing, i find the cut vinyl jobs take about as long to produce and require far more hands on time than do most print jobs. But that may be my inexperience with cut jobs showing some. As a result, we'll charge the same or more for a cut job.

[ScottyDoo]

We don't charge much difference with ours. For a 12x18 UV printed with a qty of 25 it comes to about $18.20/sign and cut vinyl would be about $17.75/sign.

I don't setup any of the pricing in my shop, but they used to price everything based on ink saturation and it was just a pain in the butt to do it that way. They finally came to the realization of what Bob has, that the cost is minuscule and not worth the headache of pricing it out that way.

We also finally split out our design as a separate line item and that has made all the difference. They used to have design built into the product and we lost money that way by allowing ridiculous amounts of revisions and sending proofs, etc. That's all charged separately so we are able to have more standard pricing across the board on the actual products, so that way the design and time involved is the deciding factor on the difference in cost.

Most of the time we don't even offer the customer the option of cut vs print, we leave that decision up to us on how we want to produce the product. Sometimes we prefer cut over print, it just depends.

[gabagoo]

In many cases 1 colour signs are far better to just cut in vinyl if your set up for it. They will last longer and in reality they look better. On many jobs I sit there thinking of which way to go on them but more and more I seem to be going digital simply because I only need to stock white vinyl. If speed is a concern then vinyl cut again may be the way to go as you dont have to wait to outgas and laminate. Why not just price signs the way YOU think they should be priced incorporating overhead and the time it takes to produce.

[ScottyDoo]

Originally Posted by gabagoo

...as you dont have to wait to outgas and laminate.

That's the beauty of having a flatbed UV. It's MUCH faster than cutting vinyl, and there's no dry time or lamination needed in most cases...I can run 25 no parking signs in less than an hour and be done.

[ianwake]

Pricing has got nothing to do with cost it's what the market will accept.
Managing costs is about profitability and efficiency not about pricing. I do a market survey every few months to check my pricing and see if I am in line with the competition. This is the best way to stay competitive on pricing.

For banners I charge a different sq ft price depending on colors not because my cost is different but the customer will pay a higher price for a full color banner than a one color. I do not charge set up fees or design fees and have found that that works to my advantage.

If I am doing parking signs on aluminum then I mostly do vinyl. Real Estate signs always digital. Choice depends on the sign and the application. If I had a UV Flatbed, maybe soon, then I would reduce my vinyl usage dramatically.