Market Opportunities: Pumping Up Your Business

Gyms and sports facilities can be a lucrative client for print service providers (PSPs). The types of work can range from wide-format graphics that span walls, to locker wraps, to signage, and more. And because gyms are high-visibility locations, they are also great showcases for exactly what the shop is capable of producing.

The term “gyms” can be applied to a variety of situations; traditional gyms that are open to the public, university gyms, which cater to both the student population and the campus sports teams, and professional sports team gyms. All of these require the same types of capabilities, and all of them are great opportunities.

Getting Started

Getting a foot in the door can be the hardest part of winning this type of business. It’s all about getting in front of the right people, at the right time and having the samples and information to back up any claims.

Steve Moran-Cassese, the principal at SpeedPro Imaging – Marin in San Rafael, CA. (a suburb of San Francisco), noted that his shop got lucky with their timing. San Francisco State University was getting ready to rebrand their athletics department, and planned to launch a marketing campaign as well to raise awareness of the program. “College campuses offer great opportunity to visually communicate with students,” he noted, pointing out that this was a segment they had already been looking to target. “My client service manager reached out to the athletics dept. and got the athletics director on the phone, and the timing was right.”

Moran-Cassese went on to note that winning the business wasn’t a walk in the park. There were already other bids for the job, which was going to require expertise at printing and installing graphics on a wide range of surfaces, including glass, interior concrete walls, exterior cinderblock walls and low energy surfaces.

“The biggest challenge has been getting in the door,” he said. “We had a bit of luck getting to the athletic director’s ear as he was already in the market. I believe we probably won the business on our service and solutions-minded approach, and by taking the time and knowing the questions to ask in order to get the project rolling with the least amount of headache for him. Athletic directors shouldn’t be worrying about all the details of a graphics initiative.”

Littie Brown, president of SpeedPro Imaging Marietta, in Marietta, GA, took a different approach. She noted that their people are big sports fans, and were season ticket holders for the WNBA team the Atlanta Dream. She developed a relationship with her account executive, and used that to get an introduction to the director of marketing and the vice president of revenue generation for the team.

“Knowing how visual sports is, we felt it would be a great market for our business,” she noted. She went on to point out that once they were in front of the right people, “we demonstrated the quality of our work and quick turnaround time, and we were in.”

It all comes back to networking. Every successful case of winning gym business comes back to the printer taking the time to get to know the decision makers of the business. It’s not just about shaking a few hands, however. Getting in the door is only the first step Having a deep knowledge of your own capabilities and how they can be applied — and having the samples and portfolio to back that up — is what will win the business.

The Challenges

One of the biggest challenges to working with gyms can be the tight timelines. Whether it’s a grand opening of a new location, or graphics that need to be changed between games, it can sometimes come down to a few hours.

Scot Demmer, president of the Corona, CA-based PMG Wraps, landed UFC Gyms as their client. They won the business for the national chain through a referral by a previous customer who loved their work and print quality. The deadlines can be tough, he noted. “Working around a busy gym and the timelines we are faced with for grand openings [are a challenge.]. Also these locations have been all across the United States, so finding installers that we can get the same type of installation quality can sometimes be difficult.”

Brown noted that for her, the tough deadlines started right out of the gate. “Like most marketing organizations, ‘needing it now’ is the name of the game,” she said. “The first big job we did for them was to wrap the locker doors for each player. They wanted them installed on a Friday, prior to the first game, between the end of practice and before the team came back to the arena — between 11:00 am –4:00 pm. More important, they did not have artwork for us to print until Wednesday late night late. We were able to complete the job by 3:30pm and they were ecstatic.”

Because gyms often need outdoor signage as well as interior graphics, city ordinances and height requirements can be another challenge printers need to be aware of, noted, Borg Siburg, president of SpeedPro Imaging of Scottsdale, AZ. However, he noted, the payoff is that gyms often understand the value in large-format graphics, so while they are often cost-sensitive, they are also willing to invest in graphics that will make their location stand out.

The Benefits

One of the biggest benefits to having gyms on the client list is the exposure. “Because the graphics are large and visible people are always asking who did the work,” noted Brown. “We have gained customers and built great relationships because of the work we have done with the Dream. We are now corporate partners with them, and we expect to gain new customers with our level of participation with the organization.”

“The exposure to our interior vinyl segment has been terrific,” agreed Demmer. “it has been very beneficial in highlighting our capabilities for interior and exterior wraps.” He went on to note that the gym projects have been some of their largest print and install projects to date, giving them a challenge they enjoy. And by doing them right, he noted, the customer satisfaction leads to not only more work with that company, but more referrals. “That has been our single most beneficial way to increase our business month after month,” he said.

Having this wide range of work for a single client in the shop’s portfolio is another way doing work for gyms can help expand the business in other areas as well. “The ability to show a broad array of large format graphics for a single client” is a great sales tool, noted Siburg.

“When we share our client list with prospects, we always tout that SF State is a big client of ours,” agreed Moran-Cassese. “I believe this also show other potential clients a bit about Speedpro, in that we can work with large organizations and large projects.”

Sharing the work is an important part of the process, as well. Marketing the fact that the shop has completed complex jobs like this is crucial for landing business with additional companies — both in the fitness center market and outside of it.

“I’ve seen a number of customers have a lot of success with having websites,” noted Heather Roden, the associate product marketing manager for Fujifilm Holdings America Corp. She went on to note that gyms — like any vertical — can be a great customer to start small with and then build the business with them as they grow. “I always advocate that you want to get out there with your existing customer base and secure them with you as their only print partner,” she said. “Whenever they have anything they want done, even if its off the wall, you want them to come to you first. Any time you give them an opportunity to quote elsewhere, you’re opening a window that they may go away and find another partner who serves them better. Build a fence around your customers and be all encompassing in what you can offer them.”

Use the gym work as a jumping-off point to increase your business in the fitness center market, but also to help showcase the wide range of printed products and signage your shop excels at. At the end of the day, it’s all about securing new clients and increasing the work you do for existing clients, and gyms are a fantastic vertical to kick-start both of those activities.

A Learning Experience

Campus Banner + Design is a student-run facility that is part of Clemson University, and they also do quite a bit of work in and around their campus. With a staff that ranges from 22-30 students at any given time, some of the projects they have completed rival any of the big shops and allow them to showcase what the students are capable of completing.

One of the biggest projects the group completed was more than 500 square feet of wall graphics for the campus’ Olympic weight room. The team also produced wall graphics, banners and signage for the university’s tennis, soccer and baseball teams, and they recently created enhancements for the golf team’s practice facility, including a wide-format graphic featuring a pair of tiger eyes — the school’s mascot — to cover the garage doors of the facility where the team’s equipment is stored.

The students don’t just complete projects on campus, either. They recently completed a job for Jervey Gym, which included several large wall murals. This was the single largest project to date that was entirely student-run.

“Everyone had a hand in it, and it came out really well,” said Clemson Master of Business degree candidate Alex Taylor, who manages the shop. “Jervey Gym is both a popular venue and a showplace for the University and it was important to make this job a success. We look forward to more projects like it.”

To complete all of their jobs, Campus Banner + Design runs a Roland SOLJET large-format inkjet printer, and recently added a Roland Pro 4 XR-640 printer/cutter with metallic and white ink. The like the equipment in part because of the great image quality, but also because it is easy to use and has fairly low maintenance, which is important for a facility that has frequent turn-over as students move in and out of the program.