MSP: Now Leading, Not Bleeding

Lonely at the top describes some of the pressure associated with being in a leading position. And, in the commercial printing industry, it can be lonely AND painful at the top when you climb on board with bleeding-edge technology.

Love hurts? Try running at the front of the pack with a technology that may be fairly developed, but is serving a market that's not quite ready for prime time. That's pain. Just ask Richard Bushee III, president of MSP (formerly Mailing Services of Pittsburgh), who eight years ago led MSP's charge into the modern digital revolution by purchasing an HP Indigo press.

"Some people questioned my sanity for bringing Indigo technology aboard back then," Bushee remarks. "They call it bleeding edge...yes, we bled really well the first four years that we had it, because there wasn't a market for its sophisticated personalization capabilities. We had to develop the market while we had the expense of the equipment. But, today, we are positioned far ahead of our competitors."

The HP Indigo 7000 press that MSP added at the end of last spring, which joins a pair of Indigo 5000s at the Freedom, PA-based plant, provides more capacity and enables the printer to better handle its clients' highly personalized, data-driven marketing campaigns. MSP's digital division meets the needs of the customer base with direct mail production, Web-to-print programs, print-on-demand applications and general commercial work, including brochures, sales sheets, training materials and manuals.

What changed the most for Bushee, and allowed him to get more bang (and impressions) out of his Indigo investment? The market; in particular, his customers caught on with the capabilities—and potential—offered by one-to-one communications. They also became more comfortable with the technology, enabling MSP to bolster annual sales to the $40 million level.

Developing Detailed Data

"What's really evolved the most is the customers themselves. Back then, clients lacked the database structures and the wherewithal to mine the data that they had. We've been helping to build the market for variable data printing by teaching clients how to mine the data and better understand their software."

The company was founded by Richard Bushee and his son, Richard Jr., in 1954, as a lettershop side venture serving mainly not-for-
profit entities such as the Pittsburgh Catholic diocese. MSP became a full-time concern in the 1960s and aided charities such as the Salvation Army with its mailing and fund-raising endeavors. Printing joined the menu in 1986. In recent years, the firm has turned into a three-pronged business: MSP offers lettershop, laser personalization and printing; Thornhill Printing (THP), acquired in 2008, provides printing services to the trade; and the digital division, founded in 2002, has its own infrastructure.

MSP's employee ranks have swelled to 410 in its 150,000-square-foot facility. While MSP has a diverse client base, including ad agency, association, healthcare, software and financial sectors, it still boasts a loyal not-for-profit following.

Bushee is quick to point out that MSP has been in the digital personalization business—black only—for 25 years. The world of color and sophisticated variable data has opened doors. "Personalization gets a marketing message across better," he says. "It helps clients target and talk to their audiences. They can mail less and their response rates are much improved."

When the company started offering Web-to-print platforms to clients seven years ago, MSP built storefronts on the Pageflex M-Power platform and custom-designed them to spec for each of its clients. Pageflex's storefront software now allows MSP to deploy sites quicker and more efficiently.

"Pageflex comes with the most popular features used, but it also provides the ability to develop our own custom programs or APIs that hang off of that storefront," Bushee says. "Programs that automate the direct mail aspects of a site or programs custom-designed to manage our clients co-op programs."

Multi-channel distribution companies—financial, retail, software, etc.—are the most common MSP storefront clients. Even so, any firm that has the need for tweaking a national brand's message for a local branch is an ideal target for Web-to-print applications.

While on the subject of printing ancillaries, MSP has added a few wrinkles in the last three years to differentiate itself from competitors. One such offering is coin affixing. As it usually does, this opportunity arose out of a request by a specific client. Now, says Douglas Wright, senior vice president of operations at MSP, the company has four production lines for affixing and a strict, standard-operating procedure for running such jobs.

"We've segregated the area 
where we do that work. It's a locked down, caged facility with armed guards onsite when we're running those jobs," Wright says, noting that aside from coins, MSP also inserts paper money for the direct mailings. "It was something we'd never done before, but the client had a need and asked what we could do for them. In 30 days, we had cameras and procedures in place."

Personalized note pads have also been a hit with customers. The specialty product combines 10 to 40 personalized note pad sheets with a donation form, which acts as a reply device and addressing panel. It's been particularly effective for non-profits looking to bolster their fund-raising initiatives. MSP has installed three such lines in the past year.

Foils Draw Attention

Another key offering going forward for MSP is foil fusion, which enables foil personalization in gold, silver, blue or green. The foil provides an added focus to clients' personalization efforts via spot foiling. MSP's newest production capability launched last November in time for the holiday season.

Don't misunderstand Bushee; he isn't forecasting the doom of offset printing. He points out that 98 percent of the marketing spend for traditional direct mail is on traditional printing and lettershop services. A million-piece mailing is not going to be paraded through the Indigo 7000 digital press and, at least for now, both disciplines have their place in the printing realm.

Bushee feels the new four-color inkjet systems entering the market provide more of a threat to offset, but only to a degree. Still, MSP has inkjet technology jotted down on its wish list for 2011, and one or both of the 5000s should yield to another 7000.

THP was the result of an asset purchase by MSP, and Bushee isn't ruling out future growth via acquisition if the right opportunity presents itself, particularly on the digital side. However, Bushee isn't a fan of "growing just for growth's sake." He'll be happy to listen to the needs of his clients and act upon them where necessary.

"We're nimble, focused and diversified in our offerings," he says. "This allows us to react quickly in good times and difficult times. When the market took a dive two years ago, the really big players suffered more than we did because they weren't able to react as quickly as us. We were able to shift focus quickly and take advantage of new opportunities." PI