Survey Unwraps Costs for 1:1 File Prep

Everybody knows that when you create a 1:1 (personalized) printing job it requires a greater investment in the database and file prep than a static job. But just how much extra is it really? Nobody talks about that. Digital Printing Reports decided to find out.

As part of the December 2009 update to “1:1 (Personalized) Printing: Boosting Profits Through Relevance,” a training and educational report for printers and marketers, Digital Printing Reports surveyed more than a dozen 1:1 print providers from around the country. It asked questions about mailing lists, demographic appends, mapping of variables, RIP costs and more. The survey assumed an initial list of 1,000 names. Costs did not include campaign development, design, production or mailing. The survey is ongoing, but as of Dec. 3, results were as follows:

List Acquisition: Among respondents, the average pricing was around $100 for the initial list (responses ranged from $25 to $500). For each variable appended (such as age, gender, income, home ownership and special interests), they ranged anywhere from $5–$60 per thousand.

List Clean-Up: Once the list has been purchased, it needs to be “scrubbed” or “cleaned,” which includes removing duplicates. For this, pricing ranged from $15 to $150. Some respondents (although in the minority) preferred to charge based on an hourly rate.

Variable Mapping: From the client perspective, one surprise fee can be the cost to map the variable fields to each of the templates (say gender, age and income range). Every 1:1 printing respondent charged for this step. In most cases, pricing ranged from $25–$250, depending on the number of variables mapped. Some printers built this cost into other fees, such as list charges.

RIP charge: Some 1:1 printers may assess a RIP charge, although most respondents to the Digital Printing Reports survey did not. Of those that did, the cost was nominal—$4 to $25.

Survey Analysis

What was so interesting about this survey was the incredible variation in pricing. While most respondents fell between $75 – $100 for an initial mailing list, for example, one respondent charged $500. That’s a spread of 2000 percent.

The same issue exists for variables appended. Pricing ranged from $5 to $60 per variable. Some 1:1 printers had minimums ($25–$35) for set-up. Others charged hourly. Based on responses to other questions, it appears that the hourly charge encompasses both the additional demographic appends (since these additional variables will cost more from the list company) and the time required to map them to the 1:1 document.

Pricing for scrubbing was similarly diverse—from $15 to $150. That’s a range of 1000 percent. Clearly, this is a market still feeling its way. Printers are figuring out how to price, what the file prep services are worth and what the market will bear. Should these services be priced on an a la carte basis? Charged hourly? Or built into a final campaign price?

Especially for printers just starting out with 1:1 jobs, campaign pricing can be deadly. It only takes one or two disasters to drive home the risk of pricing too low—trying to win the job, only to find out that the campaign took five times as long as you estimated. It’s no wonder that campaign pricing is less common. Yet, a la carte risks commoditization.

It is also interesting to note how—on a percentage basis—additional variables impact the cost of the list. According to this survey, 1:1 printers price so that demographic qualifiers can increase the cost of the list anywhere from 35 to 75 percent. By the time the printer scrubs the list, the cost can more than double. In some cases, the client may end up paying more to scrub a list than to actually purchase it. (It would be interesting to find out whether, in these cases, the list scrubbing was handled by a third party and therefore included an additional vendor mark-up.)

This is why is so critical for 1:1 printers to emphasize to clients that list acquisition is (hopefully) a one-time cost. Once the client has purchased the list, they own it. It’s not a recurring cost—although continual list building should be.

Certainly, many questions remain about pricing for 1:1 file prep, and without the larger context of knowing how printers are charging for print production, the pre-production costs stand in a vacuum. Yet this survey is an important contribution to an area of 1:1 print production that has remained publicly in the dark until now.

Heidi Tolliver-Nigro is an industry writer, an analyst specializing in digital workflow and technologies.