Henry’s Model T

Most of us remember reading somewhere Henry Ford’s famous line, “the consumer can have any color cover he wants, as long as it’s black.” But you probably do not know that when the car was introduced in 1908, in addition to black you could also buy it in red, green, or blue. Black only became the standard when Henry Ford realized he could save costs by eliminating the other colors.

Ford created a standard that is with us to this day. Businesses either eliminate choice from us or give us a wide variety of choice. We usually have no choice in the color of Cabinet of a new HDTV. But look at the choices we have for an iPod Nano. Businesses pick a niche in which to market.

Printers, like your humble blogger, are generally in the choice business. We don’t dictate what the customer is going to get, the customer tells us what she wants. Virtually nothing we print looks exactly like any other thing we print. Sure, the paper size may stay the same, there are only a couple thousand fonts to choose from (two or three of these make up over 90% of everything printed in the U.S.), and layout typically follows some pattern. But inside those limits, the choices are endless.

For years I’ve tried to come up with a niche product. Something that I can produce that would almost be off the shelf. So far, no luck. It is been far easier for us to market Allegra Print & Imaging of Rolling Meadows like a standard print shop.

That is beginning to change though. Customers are pushing us to offer more services to them. At the same time we are looking to expand our service choices to stay ahead of them. We are starting to test the definition of what a print shop is. So far, it’s going well.

By the way, the Model T was introduced the same year my beloved Cubs last won the World Series.