How do you price a variable data job?

Do you do it by the project?

By the fields? Do you break down the fields by text vs images/graphics?

Do you charge a flat rate vs hourly rate?

Please don't post actual costs or rates, unless you publish your rates, just looking for how people price Variable Data Jobs.

Thanks!

I don't sell VI print but I buy it for my projects where I am supplying IT components including VI design and management. I expect to pay the same for the printing as I do not static pieces because the cost to print a page is the same no matter what is on the page. I do pay for value added services but I like to see those costs itemized away fom the printing. It is tough to justify .13-.20 a click to a customer who can go to Kinko and buy copies for 2 1/2 cents a page. It is easy to justify an hourly rate, an order processing fee, a design/setup charge, and a management amount on a project at I can demonstrate the value they bring and document the level of effort involved. But, if you bury these items into a page price, then you raise all sorts of objections about why the costs are 10-20 times higher than what the customer thinks they see in a copy shop.

You wouldn't do any variable projects with me. I charge a substantial setup fee and raise my print prices roughly 25%. If images are changing I will charge even more. The bottom line is it's still hard work and a big risk taking on these projects. A premium must be had because you can do just as well printing static books without the headaches.

vippguy,

I originally read your post and for the most part agreed with it; however, a job recently went through our shop that made me think. All of the variable development was done by our customer. From our prospective it was just a print job...or was it.

Granted, I don't have any development costs to recover. But I don't agree that the production cost is the same as static print. Sure, the click charge (or effective click charge) is the same as static work; however, there are other components of the production cost.

Keeping work in order and packaging in a particular order is more time intensive than printing a run of static work that just gets boxed however it fits as long as it is consistent. Does the boxing need to possibly reflect record numbers? Do mail trays need to be maintained? Reprinting spoilage is more complex. Printing 10 specific records is more time consuming than printing 10 additional of a static piece. Often times with variable print the output needs to be stored in secure areas (premium space) as opposed to tradition printshop staging areas because of confidentiality. These are just some of the reasons that variable print, even without variable application development is more costly.

I agree, it shouldn't impact piece prices by 30, 40, 50% or more, but there is a cost to that type of production.

the activities you are describing I would put in the category of fulfillment. We price fulfillment activities seperate from printing. I have found that the better we describe our work and each component, the better abel we are to sell the value-add of our efforts.

But fullfillment can be effected by Variable data printing, so how do you handle variable data fulfillment? You charge for the variable separate from the fullfillment?

Do you plan that way to and design the workflow that way or is that simply how you price it?

We map out all activities in the workflow for the specifics of the job. This way, we know what will be happening at each stage and we can sell the value added by each step. Printing is printing is printing.

For rew0701, you are correct. I will not be doing any of my project with you. I have many, many printers happy to get the work I can bring them and the expertise that comes along with our projects.

Remember, this is not rocket science and end users now expect (rightfull so) to pay for only what they get.