Continuously Adding Value--Particularly in Tough Times

Our customers who are most successful are those who continuously add value to their product, while adding very little - if anything - to the price. They upgrade paper, add color, add UV coating, use post-binding inserts, and most importantly, ADD content - don’t skimp on it - and IMPROVE the quality of their content by paying for more and better writing and art.

Even while adding value at every turn, they work very hard to add very little to the price of their product. Instead they work to recover the additional cost by achieving more volume, and thus are able to amortize their overhead better.

Adding value (and cost) while holding the price is undoubtedly counter-intuitive in tough economic times. But these value adding efforts set the successful customers apart from their competition who are simply cutting costs. Once a product is weakened it goes down the slippery slope. There is no way to whittle your way to greatness.

Years ago it was possible to be competitive even if your product wasn’t the best or the cheapest. Consumers didn’t have all the information and often “settled” for what they could most easily purchase. But the Web has changed all that. Today, everything is just a few clicks away, and the wheat is very easily separated from the chaff. Adding value in tough times is particularly apt strategy in the “winner-take-all” world that the Internet is shaping. By adding value they tip the see-saw decisively in their favor.

Obviously it takes very strong discipline and considerable creativity to add quality while incurring minimal additional cost. We are always ready to try to help customers do this and have done so many times. [Needless to say, we have also helped publishers who chose the opposite strategy.]

To help fuel your creativity, we’ve assembled a collection of value-adding techniques in our WOW! Factory. The collection is dynamic, not exhaustive, so check back every so often for additions.

For our part, we regularly improve the value we offer our customers. Ornate covers, post-trim inserting, our Fry Family Network™, and PQA system are some of the investments we have made. But there are many more accommodations, innovations and improvements in products we have negotiated with individual customers. We welcome an opportunity to provide you an opportunity to improve the value you offer your customers.

Henry Fry
Chairman of the Board