Images_December_2019_Digital Edition

www.images-magazine.com DECEMBER 2019 images 61 SOFT SIGNAGE S oft signage is a go-to option for businesses wanting to promote their brand with big logos and vibrant colours. For garment decorators wanting to move into this area of the market, it’s the perfect opportunity to expand your customer offering, as well as establish on-going business with local companies and retailers – especially those that need seasonal advertising or regularly change their promotional signage. The term ‘soft signage’ refers to any digitally printed fabric signage, which may include banners, feather flags, gazebos, marquees, wall hangings and coverings, room dividers, backdrops and fabric graphics for modular exhibition stands, as well as free-standing units. Highly visual, soft signage is used as an advertising medium for businesses and brands to help make their brand and campaigns stand out and get noticed. Retail companies, in particular, are increasingly aware of the benefits of using fabric in their window displays and point-of-sale (POS) materials, as it’s lightweight and easy to transport and set up. The popularity of soft signage has also grown due to the environmental benefits of using sustainable fabrics: recyclable and easy to remove, as well as less likely to get damaged, it can help both large retail companies and small business owners to reduce their waste output and improve their eco- credentials. Easy cross-selling for additional revenue So, why should a garment decorator be considering soft signage? Put simply, diversification. The ability to offer soft signage opens up a range of possibilities for garment decorators to expand their business and, more importantly, gain additional revenue through new sales opportunities, explains Grant Cooke, product manager at Xpres. “As well as providing the opportunity to enter a growing market, soft signage is a great means for garment decorators to enhance their printing set-up for generating add-on sales, he explains. “For instance, if your business prints uniforms for car dealerships, there is Banners and gazebos, flags and marquees – soft signage is everywhere! We take a look at how and why garment decorators should get into this growing market Follow the signs a huge opportunity for you to create flags and banners to serve as additional branding on the forecourt.” Soft signage offers many such opportunities for cross-selling to existing customers: a café owner who regularly comes to you for custom polo shirts for their staff may also have a requirement for external signage and internal POS; or the annual fun run organiser who puts in a large order for commemorative T-shirts every year probably also needs signage at the start and finish points of the run as well. Event and exhibition organisers who purchase logoed shirts and jackets are also prospective customers for banners and stand graphics, both inside and outside their events. Leisure centres, sports clubs, pubs and small businesses are other potential customers for outdoor feather flags and banners to help them advertise their business. “The options available in soft signage products are really endless, and the opportunity exists to talk to almost anybody about it,” confirms Brett Newman, chief operations manager at Hybrid Services. “Depending on how you choose to define soft signage, it’s highly possible that customers will have some need within this category.” Similar skill sets and machinery One of the major attractions of soft signage is that it relies on skills that garment decorators already possess, making it easy to try out something different that could take your business in a completely new direction. “Having an understanding of the process – the temperature, pressure and time that will work for a specific job in the garment industry – means this knowledge can be easily applied to soft signage, as many of the principles are the same,” says Phil McMullin, sales manager for Pro Graphics at Epson UK. “The equipment, while often bigger for soft signage, is often effectively just a ‘scaled up’ version of the kit you’re already familiar with, so in terms of up-skilling to deliver additional services, garment decorators are already likely to be most of the way there,” he adds. If you already own a wide-format sublimation printer for decorating Soft signage is in big demand for a wide variety of applications – both outdoors and indoors, as can be seen here in a Mimaki reception area