RRD Facility Spotlight: RRD Chanhassen – Twin Cities
4/24/2024
A full-service producer of high-impact, full-color marketing communications, RRD’s Chanhassen – Twin Cities facility in Minnesota offers web, sheetfed, and digital printing. They also provide prepress, bindery, and fulfillment services in their 263,000-square-foot facility, with products ranging from direct mail, brochures, signage, and POP displays to pocket folders, catalogs, inserts, postcards, and more.
“We’re a one-stop shop. We can take a client’s ideas from start to finish by utilizing our internal resources and assets,” says RRD Twin Cities President Mike Snyder. “This makes it easier for the customer if they want to come in and do a press check and then hang around to also do a bindery check. It's all sitting right here — we don't have to hop in the car and drive to an outsourced partner for any part of the project’s production process.”
Mike Snyder described how his RRD Twin Cities team is making a difference in the Land of 10,000 Lakes — and how they’re helping the next generation become more aware of the power of marketing communications.
What about this facility makes it unique in the marketplace?
Mike Snyder (MS): Of course, I have to start with our team. They’re a special and talented bunch of coworkers, and I’m fortunate to work alongside them. They care about our customers — and although many companies might say that, our team goes beyond just saying it and actually demonstrates it on a daily basis. The level of TLC that they provide our customers is top-notch.
Something else that makes us unique is our ability to take a customer’s project and turn it into “magic on paper” — all without it having to leave the building. Within our four walls, we can take a concept from a customer, provide them with a proof, print it, and mail it — doing everything here in-house until it’s completed and out the door. Most of our competitors, on the other hand, will have to outsource at least part of the project or work with their vendor partners to complete projects.
If you had to narrow it down to one thing, what do you consider your facility’s forte?
MS: We specialize in medium to large production volumes of high-quality print work. We are able to provide very competitive pricing for bigger jobs because our high-speed presses are specifically geared toward large output. If a customer is interested in a smaller project, we can of course accommodate it. But if a customer wants us to produce, say, 200,000 brochures for an upcoming convention here in the Twin Cities — well, now we’re talking.
Can you share a success story that showcases your facility?
MS: There are many, but a customer that stands out is one of our large retailers. They have put their faith in our abilities to serve them for many years and they’ve always done a lot of mailings out of our facility.
However, in examining their mailing strategy and processes, we realized they weren't getting a lot of bang for their buck in that regard. For example, they would canvas the market and then have us print and mail 200,000 postcards for their brand. But they were only getting about a 1% response rate with this kind of blank canvassing.
To improve their response rate, we utilized RRD technology to focus on their target audience. Instead of just blank canvassing 200,000 recipients, we streamlined their list using demographics, whittling it down to 100,000, and also helped personalize their messaging. By doing so, we were able to increase their response rate to 6% while also saving them money on the print side of the equation.
What role do you see RRD Twin Cities playing in your clients' evolution? How do you help clients evolve to keep pace with their own customers' demands?
MS: Although we’re one of the largest facilities in the RRD commercial print platform, we have learned to be nimble for our customers and their needs — which is extremely rare for a facility of our size. Based on our quality and speed, most customers wouldn’t realize how large our facility is, nor be aware of the extent of our equipment.
We have an advantage because of the number of presses we have onsite. If a customer wants a quick turnaround for their project, we have various presses at our disposal that can accommodate it. In addition, because of our range of presses, we can lay out a plan that will allow us to run their project most efficiently and meet their targeted deadline.
When talking about RRD Twin Cities to an associate or a potential customer, what’s the one thing you find yourself repeating time and time again?
MS: Something I say often — and I recently said it yet again during a student tour we hosted from a local college — is: “I love my job and the team that I get to work with.”
We've done outreach to a lot of the local colleges in schools with graphic arts programs, letting them know that we're willing to host their students on a facility tour. Last week, we had 18 students from a local college here — I think the students were very impressed with our facility and our team.
I'm in my element when I talk about our facility and our team — it really energizes me. And, more often than not, several students will follow up with me following the tour to ask about a career in this industry. In fact, we’re fortunate to have four people here who are currently in the RRD Associate Program — and all of them are doing exceptionally well.
For more information about this facility, visit our RRD Chanhassen – Twin Cities facility location page.