Art Post
In recent weeks I’ve had a couple of blogs referencing a Kyocera dealer in California that was or is going to start advertising for full service and supplies for color pages @ .02 cents per page. The kicker of course, is the coverage. How much color coverage will you, the dealer allow on the page to charge .02 cents?
A few days ago I received an e-mail from a Print4Pay Hotel member that asked me to forward him any information that I had about the color coverage amounts. After a few e-mails I found out that the Print4Pay Hotel member also sold Kyocera, and that they had been doing some research on other Kyocera dealers that are advertising the customizable tiered pricing for color. I was sent a dealers advertising document (clicking the link will take you the file on the Print4Pay Hotel forums), KYOTIER, now I’m not sure if this is the name the dealer gave the pricing plan or if it’s Kyocera’s but I’m thinking it’s the dealers.
This dealer’s flyer (dealer’s advertising document) is stating three tiers of color. The first tier useful color, which states “all black and pages with useful color”. To the right on the document is a sample of useful color stated 5 percent coverage. Basically it’s two color images maybe a little bit bigger than a quarter and the cost per page for useful color is .01 or same cost as black based on a monthly volume of 12,500 pages of black and useful color.
The second tier is everyday color, which states “pages with a little more color”. To the right on the document is a sample of everyday color stated at 15 percent coverage. So, color coverage from 5.1 percent to 15 percent will cost .025 per page. The sample coverage shows a color photo that I estimate takes up 20 percent of the page and then two more color logos that look like they are about a half dollar in size, along with some black large header fonts and some very small black fonts.
The third tier is expressive color, which states “pages with normal color”. To the right on the document is a sample of normal color stated at 35 percent coverage. So, color coverage from 15.1 percent to 35 percent will cost .05 per page. Since there is too much to describe the color coverage in this document, go here and take a look at what Les Olson Company states is 35 percent coverage for a color document.
Now for the juicy stuff, on the bottom of the flyer from the dealer there is a disclaimer stating that “color coverage in excess of 35% may result in an additional charge”. There’s nothing stated as to what the charge is, so it’s pretty open ended, at least on the flyer. I’m sure the order/MA document will have the overage coverage charge.
All of this tiered pricing is troubling to me (and it’s not because I don’t have it). I blogged about the ColorQube’s tiered billing when it first came out. I thought the idea was interesting, however I was not and still am not a fan of the ColorQube’s image process. When I look at other samples of color page coverage and all you have to do is Google “color page coverage” to find a few of these. Well, it seems that none of them are close. Let me explain, the 35 percent color coverage document from Les Olson Company seems that it has much more color on it than what the dealer’s flyer has. Les Olson’s 15 percent coverage documents seems like it has the same amount of color coverage that the dealers flyer states is 5 percent or useful color.
I viewed additional documents as well and all seem to conflict with color coverage. I did find software that you can use to calculate color coverage named APFill. There’s a 30-day free trial on this software. I downloaded this and then tried a few documents to see how they rate in color coverage. The app is cool, however I’m not so sure of the numbers they represented were right either, especially when I took documents that stated they had “x” amount of coverage and the app came out with something different. I’m chalking this up to my inexperience with color coverage.
There’s so many questions to be answered with tiered billing, as one dealer stated that they are concerned that they may be lowering their profit margin on service and supplies. Will the day come when we (sales) have scanners or software and we’ll have to evaluate every ones color usage and the consult on what percentage they’ll use of each tier? What’s stops someone from showing a customer that this page is 5 percent coverage when it’s actually 15 percent, and 35 percent when it 50 percent coverage? Plus how about the additional billing time to break down the tiers, and then answer all of the questions that may arise from the tiered color billing. Is it all worth it?
Hey, I’ll admit, I’d like to have it because the ‘Jones’’ have it. But I’m not sure I’m ready for the learning curve, and then the sales questions that will come out of this, like, well XYZ company told me this a 5 percent coverage and you’re telling me it’s 10 pecent coverage. It’s a nice FAB (feature, advantage, benefit) to have, but I’m not sure if it’s right for our industry. Just because Xerox jumped off a bridge would you also jump off one?
Good selling.
