Among a great number of vinyl billboard printing companies, a certain amount of vinyl sign productions is done by digital printers, screen printers, and electric sign companies. This is due to the fact that the vinyl billboard printing equipment is common. All industries have variations in pricing, and so does the vinyl billboard printing industry. In the vinyl billboard printing industry; however, the reasons for the variations are not as obvious. The prices for vinyl signs are influenced by the entire local marketplace more than by any one location. If you are a vinyl billboard printing producer, you know for sure that the prices for vinyl signs do not tend to tie as directly to the producer (you) as in many segments.
In vinyl banner printing pricing, the most common technique is market pricing. This is the main difference from other sign segments, where production and sales costs are the dominant factor in pricing. You may ask why most vinyl billboard printing companies refuse to use cost-based approaches. The reason is that the investment in a vinyl sign company is relatively small (a single large-format digital printer usually costs more than all of the equipment in a vinyl sign company).
Material costs are not a major concern either. Around eighteen percent and twenty four percent of revenues is spent on materials like vinyl, coroplast, and other hard-costs by an average vinyl billboard printing company. This fact is really important; however, the correlation between costs and prices is less than you may think. For instance, in most markets vinyl on aluminum requires a smaller price than vinyl lettering. In fact, vinyl billboard printing may be cheaper than MDO signage. Thus, the difference in price is not proportional to the difference in costs.
Therefore, labor costs and overhead are the remaining costs. They, however depend greatly on the vinyl billboard printing company.
How market pricing is determined?
According to the definition, if you know your market pricing then you sample the market place. 'Calling the competition and getting a price' - this is the way most people think about this fact - and that is a great idea (though caller ID makes it harder today than it used to be). However, there are numerous other sources of competitive pricing information.
Asking for the information directly is perhaps the most effective way to get it. One of the easiest methods is, for instance, to ask for a copy of the competitors' estimates when following up on estimates. You may tell that all you want is to understand where you stand in the market. Tell that it does not have anything to do with this specific estimate. They usually share this information. And do not forget that you should do this for each estimate - it does not matter whether you win or lose the job. When you win - the customer will be more willing to share this information; and if you obtain this information only when you loose an estimate, you will have a tendency to only move your prices downward.