Using Digital Printing Technology to Light Up Customer’s Sales at Big-Box Retailer

When Trend Makers caught the attention of a major U.S. retailer for its Sight Bulb Pro, a Wi-Fi-enabled security camera plus LED light combination that screws into standard light bulb sockets, the manufacturer of premier direct-to-consumer brands knew it was a colossal opportunity for the new product.

Of its many appealing features, Sight Bulb Pro offers two-way audio communication to both speak and listen, along with 360-degree motion tracking and infrared night-vision. | Credit: Sutherland Packaging

This big-box retailer wanted Sight Bulb Pro in display cases in its nearly 2,000 U.S. stores. As with any retail product launch, this would require an eye-catching display — one that would raise brand awareness, generate excitement, and ultimately help spark ample in-store sales despite its highly competitive niche.

The catch? The project would require Trend Makers to get the product shipped from its overseas manufacturer – all 48,000 of them – in just 21 days. Further, retail packaging and display cases were required to be delivered to the stores’ distribution centers in that same narrow window. This was no small task, especially since retail boxes and point-of-purchase displays would need to be reconfigured to fit the retailer’s specifications before being printed and assembled for the national rollout.

Having worked with Sutherland Packaging on smaller projects for a number of years, Trend Makers turned to the longtime expert designer, printer, and manufacturer of corrugated point-of-purchase (POP) retail displays. Sutherland specializes in digital printing, custom packaging, structural and graphic design, and full-color, direct-print POP displays.

Sutherland was able to ensure expedited, accurate turnaround on digitally printed, four-color, quarter-pallet corrugated floor display cases with head pieces, in addition to printing all individual unit packaging and instruction manuals. Given the time crunch, Sutherland also would assume responsibility for assembling the 2,000 display cases and shipping directly to the retailer’s distribution centers. This streamlined process allowed Trend Makers to consolidate its vendors, with Sutherland alone handling all aspects of the project from inception to completion.

To Sutherland’s advantage, the converter has half a century in business under its belt and is no stranger to the retail rollout process. However, an even greater advantage sprung from a recent equipment investment. Earlier this year, Sutherland installed a state-of-the-art HP Pagewide C550 Digital Press; in fact, when it commenced operations, it was only the second of its kind in the world. The single-pass digital press features razor-sharp offset-quality printing in more than 16,000 vibrant colors, at speeds comparable to conventional presses.

Notably, the new press shines brightest when speed to market is mission critical. Sutherland’s C550 Digital Press offers minimized set up time and no downtime for changeovers. This allows for quick last-minute changes, flexible print runs and on-demand printing.

“Our new HP press was a significant asset to us throughout this project,” said Manny DeBarros, chief revenue officer at Sutherland. “We had 48,000 of the Sight Bulb Pro units arrive in four separate shipments. We were able to print on demand as they arrived, employing a ‘just in time’ approach to turn them around and ship out ASAP. That helped exponentially expedite production time for such a large-scale, time-sensitive rollout.”

In addition to the press, Sutherland employed an “all hands-on deck” approach for the project. “The Sutherland team was top notch,” said Adam Levy, vice president of strategic initiatives at Trend Makers. “We had multiple points of contact, each with designated areas of expertise and responsibilities - from print to assembly to quality assurance. Each team member worked in tandem, not missing a beat, to ensure production was as seamless as possible.”

In just 21 days, Sutherland had the job completed in full. In total, 10,000 sheets were printed for 48,000 Sight Bulb Pro retail packages and 2,000 quarter-pallet display cases for the nationwide rollout.

“We were quite impressed with how quickly the project progressed,” said Levy. “From kickoff to completion, the entire project with the Sutherland team took just three weeks. We’d been accustomed to printed materials alone requiring a 6-8-week lead time.”

To date, all 2,000 stores across the U.S. have received the Sight Bulb Pro displays cases, and Trend Makers has reported impressive initial sales figures.

“For projects like this one, we are always telling our clients to trust us, that our team has vast retail experience and we have done this many times before,” said DeBarros. “However, when our team successfully delivers on a project of this magnitude in such a short time frame, that trust is really solidified. We’re thrilled to have done just that.”