Mr. Decal's Blog

The term decal is the abbreviated form of the word decalcomania. The invention of taking artist rendering from canvas and printing these images onto a medium to decorate ceramic pieces attributed to Simon Francois Ravenet. Simon was from France, he was an engraver who immigrated to England, and after arriving in England circa 1750, he perfected this transfer process he called decalcomania.

In the 1950’s plastic substrates such as vinyl, Mylar’s, polyesters, Lexan, were coated with an adhesive and the pressure sensitive decal was invented. The white and yellow tinted vinyl is used to print decals using the screen printing process. To learn more about screen-printing read my post at http://www.decalfactory.com/wp-index.php/2009/12/  What are water slide-off decals?

There are two types of decals known in the screen-printing industry jargon as face-up and facedown decals. The facedown decals I will explain in another article. The face-up decal refers to a decal that is printed on top of a semi-opaque substrate with adhesive on the underside of the film.

The face-up decal can only be affixed to the outside of windows, doors, lockers, toolboxes, notebooks, or any other surface. The benefit of using vinyl as the medium to print your decal on; the white vinyl saves money because the printer does not have to print white; because they use the color of the vinyl is white.

Why is this important? Because 90% of all decals have white in the design, so using white vinyl reduces the number of colors to be printed. The second most common background color used for decals is yellow. When a decal has a yellow background using a yellow vinyl will save money because the printer does not have to print yellow and white is not a part of the decals design.

Many of you do know that there are many other colors of vinyl, blue, green, red, gold, silver, etc, etc. Most screen-printers do not print decals using these other colors, because the printer would have to back all the printing in white, thereby costing more to print the decal. Most of these other vinyl colors are used to create thermal die cut decals; to learn more about these types of decals read my post on, “What are Thermal Die Cut Decals” http://www.decalfactory.com/wp-index.php/2009/10/ .

Printing spot colors on white and yellow vinyl’s works very well except when printing of a blue on a yellow vinyl will produce a green color not the blue that was designed. When the screen-printer prints a CMYK design, the only color vinyl they can use is white vinyl. Printing CMYK on a yellow vinyl is not advisable because the yellow background will defeat the CMYK effect. For more information on spot and CMYK printing see my article titled” C.M.Y.K. or Spot Colors in Printing” http://www.decalfactory.com/wp-index.php/2010/02/ .

Clear Mylar or clear and white polyesters could be used to print face-up decals, but on the clear substrates, the printer would have to print white. The white polyesters could be used, but is not used very often because the cost of the substrate is higher than white vinyl. White polyesters are used in environment needs the substrates heat resistant properties.

The face-up decal is the most widely used decal construction by far; the distant second is the facedown decal. The reason for using the facedown decal is another article.

Doug Bryant

<br><a href=”http://www.decalfactory.com“>The Decal Factory – The best decals, signs, labels, posters, stickers and banners in the industry for business and hobby.</a> <br>Toll Free – (800) 369-5331

Decals manufactured using various types of materials and each material has unique properties that make the material the right choice for a particular application.

Lexan a brand of hard, practically unbreakable polycarbonate resin, used for shatterproof windows and the like.  Lexan is the brand name of this plastic resin, the generic term is polycarbonate. Polycarbonate used in many industries e.g. windows, but most notability the material is used as bullet resistant shields.

The Lexan material used by banks and convenience store establishments in high crime neighborhoods is the same material utilized by decal manufactures. The bullet resistant shield varieties of Lexan are up to three inches thick. The material properties that allow polycarbonate to stop bullets makes the 5, 10, 15 millimeters thick film a very tuff decal.

The polycarbonate film used by the printing manufacturers to produce decals usually does not come with adhesive. The adhesive applied to the film after the Lexan is printed. The most common polycarbonate known as suede or velvety texture, surface that causes the film not be optically clear. There is also an optically clear version, which is not used very often, in the printing industry, because polycarbonate scratches easily, therefore the suede surface hides any scratches.   

Polycarbonate printing grade films are usually printed using the screen print type of printing. This product can also be printed using other printing methods, when the product is treated to receive the different types of inks that the other printing methods employ.

The screen printing company prints the desired logo, graphic, or other images on the Lexan’s side that does not have the rough texture. When the printing is completed, the manufacture then laminates an adhesive over the printed image thereby sandwiching the printing between the polycarbonate film and the adhesive.  

The adhesive the manufacturer laminates onto the Lexan film known as transfer adhesive. Transfer adhesives come in many different varieties each variety produced with specific application conditions considered. The most widely used transfer adhesive products laminated to the Lexan by the printing manufacturers. These transfer adhesives known by the part numbers 468 and 467 and are manufactured by 3M.

When the polycarbonate decal is mounted to its intended surface the decals image is safely under the Lexan film out of reach of any abrasive forces. This decal once pressed into service will last for years if not decades. This construction allows these types of decals to be used in extreme conditions such as, hot and cold weather, or in abrasive conditions of heavy machinery and on the oily dirty conditions of a factory floor.

Doug Bryant

<br><a href=”http://www.decalfactory.com“>The Decal Factory – The best decals, signs, labels, posters, stickers and banners in the industry for business and hobby.</a> <br>Toll Free – (800) 369-5331

Using decals to build brand awareness is great way to stretch your marketing dollars. The decal once affixed to a conspicuous medium will remind the consumers at large of your brand. In many articles, I have detailed numerous case histories of the effectiveness of decals to build brand awareness years after broadcast, and print media presentations are forgotten.

Decals also employed to drive sales of accessories of a main product line, or product lines that dove tail with your products. We will deal with these two issues one at a time.

First, the idea of using a decal that the retailer distributed to your customer at the time of sale as an additional sales tool to sell other items you sell. Many manufactures have additional products for sales that complement the prime product that sold as an accessory.

To describe how this idea of selling other products with a decal let us consider a not so fictional situation. The fictional part of this example is the company name we will call Heavenly Skis. Heavenly Skis Company manufactures skis and snowboards and sells these products in retail ski outlets nationwide. This winter sports equipment manufacture also sells as accessories clothing, gloves, goggles and crazy designed headwear.

The scenario of a retail sale at a retail outlet of a customer purchasing skis manufactured by Heavenly Skis Company, after the customer pays for the skis, the retailer hands his customer an imprinted decal with the manufacturer’s logo. The customer leaves and immediately affixes the decal to the rear window of the car proud to announce to the world of his/her intelligent purchase. The decal now used by the customer to recommend the purchasing of Heavenly Skis and building brand awareness.

The marketing team at Heavenly Skis is not willing to be as pedestrian as other marketing teams, but work outside the advertising box. This team knows that decals do build brand awareness, but this marketing team knows that this decal can be a vehicle to sell more of their products.

The marketing team works out a viable coupon plan with their retailers using the decal. The plan works like this. Each decal has on the liner a coupon printed on the liner of the decal offering a discount for other items purchased at this retail store. The coupon allows the customer to purchase one of those radical looking ski or snowboarding hats at a discount. The existence of the coupon communicated by the retailer or by signs or banners in the store. The marketing team knows that if 30% of consumers purchase because of the coupon included on the liner of the decal, Heavenly Skis has just increased sales by 30%. Everyone is happy the customer because of the savings, the retail because of the sale of more merchandise, and Heavenly Skis, because of an accessory product sale is always at a higher margin.

The second possibility of using decals to sell products that dove tail with your product. Our same company Heavenly Skis manufactures winter sports equipment, and wants to use decals as building brand awareness, but has a small advertising budget and cannot afford additional cost. Heavenly Skis has a good relationship with Warm and Comfy that manufacturer a winter product known as Warm and Comfy hand warmer and foot warmers. These products placed in the gloves or boots of the skier or snowboarder to keep their hands and feet warm. The Warm and Comfy marketing team advertising budget is robust, so when the marketing team of Heavenly Skis introduces a marketing idea to benefit both companies.

The plan it to print decals with the Heavenly Skis logo imprinted on the decal and on the liner of the decal a coupon is printed to purchase Warm and Comfy products at a discount. The marketing plan works like this Warm and Comfy pays for most of the printing cost for the decal; Heavenly Skis pays for a smaller share of the cost. The Marketing team at Warm and Comfy envisions that this coupon plan can increase their sales by 30% and jumps at the chance to tag along on a main line product. The reason the marketing team of Warm and Comfy is willing to collaborate with Heavenly Skis is that their product is an impulse purchase, and buying skis is not. This coupon will remind the customer they also need Warm and Comfy product, making an impulse product into a must have product.

Does anyone see the value of thinking outside of the marketing box? The problem with most marketing teams is they know too, much. If the marketing team knows, too much they never consider radical new ways to market and advertise their products, or services.

I just have outlined two ways to employ an advertising tool in not so new, but be it very radical way. Is anyone listening? We must envision new ways to make that what we think is impossible, possible.

Doug Bryant

<br><a href=”http://www.decalfactory.com“>The Decal Factory – The best decals, signs, labels, posters, stickers and banners in the industry for business and hobby.</a> <br>Toll Free – (800) 369-5331

Many marketing team in various types of industries has utilized decals as a marketing tool to build brand awareness. Some of these products such as car and truck aftermarket products, auto maintenance service industry and clothing industry.

To use the decal as advertising medium to create brand awareness, the marketing team must find a way to involve the customer to apply the decal to most conspicuous application. Most people today when they purchase a desired product want to tell the world about the product they bought. The vehicle aftermarket industry provides decals for their customers to exhibit that their vehicle has this type of aftermarket product installed.

In the clothing, industry most of us draw a blank when we consider using a decal for a clothing line. In fact, there are many ways to use decals to build brand awareness in the garment industry.

A case history of one way a retail store chain that uses decals to promote their retail store filled with the articles for skate boarders. Such as skate boards, clothing lines, and accessories. This particular retail store chain employs a team of professional shredders that sponsor competition and expositions of skate boarding teams in the larger metropolitan markets. The retail store chain has decals made and distributes the decals from their retail outlets to promote the event. Therefore, all the local shredders in that metropolitan area attend the event. The sponsored competition is nothing more than advertisement to brand their retail outlets of equipment, clothing, and accessories for the skater. The retail outlets also have decals that they sell and hand out promoting the skate industry and their stores. 

Another case history going back into the 1960’s is about a surfing clothing line known as “Hang Ten.” This company did not have any retail outlets, but did sell their clothing line in specialty clothing outlets. This company used broadcast and print media to advertise their brand, but also wanted to utilize decals to complete their advertising blitz. The problem was how to get their kick butt logo design into the hands of their customers the surfers who purchased their surf clothing line.

The problem solved by using the hangtag that each garment had attached to it. The tag on one side had the brand name or sizing, pricing, but on the reverse side there was printed a “Hang Ten” logo as a decal. Now that the decal was in the consumers hands these decals where affixed to many different surfaces by the surfer. They adhered the logos to cars, lockers, notebooks, surfboards, and to the delight of the company, “Hang Ten” became the clothing of the surfing industry.

The success of the decal-branding program to the surf industry was so complete, the line of clothing known as “Hang Ten” went mainstream. The clothing line also marketed in major clothing outlets of the day.

The use of decals as a marketing tool in the clothing industry has been forgotten. Particular clothing lines marketed to the young consumer, in the skiing industry snow as well as water, and we should not neglect the snowboarding industry. Is anybody listening?

Alternatively, most marketing teams out there are only listening to their ad agencies. Ad agencies have no interest using decals because they do not understands or envision the decals worth in building brand awareness.

Sometimes a marketing team envisions the value of using decals as a way to take their brand from a subliminal reminder to a conscience awareness of the brand to buy. Using decals is so inexpensive, costing pennies, lasting years and promoting your product by the best testimony ever your customer. History has many testimonies of the use of the decal that can cause your branding message to go nuclear.

Doug Bryant

<br><a href=”http://www.decalfactory.com“>The Decal Factory – The best decals, signs, labels, posters, stickers and banners in the industry for business and hobby.</a> <br>Toll Free – (800) 369-5331

Destructible And Tamper Evident Decals

Decals, are manufactured with many different materials, each material group is used for specific uses. Materials like white vinyl are used for decals that mount onto outside windows, doors, lockers, notebooks, vehicles. Clear polyester or clear Mylar is utilized to manufacture decals to be mounted on the inside of windows so the graphic message is seen from the outside. Other materials such as, static cling, Lexan, VTP, white Mylar’s, premium vinyl’s, each used to answer a specific need.

Materials are not the only choice, but there are many different types of adhesives, which are used to fill a particular need. The material set known as destructible vinyls also invented to meet a certain need in the market place.     

Destructible vinyl is a vinyl that has low shear strength, meaning the tensile strength of the material is fragile. The amount of shear force e.g. the force exerted on the material when a person tries to remove a decal or label that is affixed to a surface. The shear force to remove the affixed decal or label is greater than the tensile strength of the substrate therefore the substrate breaks.  

Many new materials used to manufacture decals and labels are substrates that had peculiar problems such as a vinyl with a fragile surface tension. When combined with a very strong adhesive when the decal or label is adhered to a surface, after a 24-hour curing time, the adhesive shear strength is higher than the tensile strength of the vinyl substrate.

Who would want a decal or label that destructed when a person tried to remove it? There are a number of industries that wanted a product that could not be removed off a product.

Manufactures that produce electronic components that need to affix a label to the rear of the component informing consumers and repair personal of the products specifications. This asset label must not be removed, because regulations imposed by governments, or inspection companies like U.L.  Underwriters Laboratories Inc. These labels are in place for consumer safety, and product compliance with basic industry standards.

Many manufacturers utilize the destructible decals or labels to keep warranties in force know as tamper evident decals or labels. If the consumer or unauthorized repairperson breaks the destructible label seal then it is evident that someone tampered with the component then the warranty of the product is void.

This product is the high tech application, of the piece of clear tape place on an entrance of a door if the tape was broken it was evident that there was an unauthorized entry. In centuries past letters of government officials were sealed with wax, impressed in the wax was the signet ring or seal of the official. If the seal was broken it was evident to the recipient of the letter the communication was compromised.   

The destructible vinyl decals and labels can be use in many different applications. Case history of the use of destructible decals was chosen because a regular decal did not suffice.

We were contacted by a company that had about a problem. The situation this company along with many other concerns were hired by FEMA for waste cleanup and disposal after a natural disasters. Each company hired was paid by the tonnage of cleanup debris collected and each company had their own containers identified with a decal affixed to the container with the company name.

The dilemma other companies would remove the decal of our client and replace it with their decal stealing their container. Therefore, when FEMA counted the tonnage collected by our client the tonnage was short, according to their records. To solve the problem we came up with the solution of utilizing a destructible decal so the competing companies could not remove the decals.

The epilogue of this story is once the destructible decals where put into service no more containers were lost.      

Decals and labels are not a captivating topic and lets be truthful the subject is a little boring. However, when you need a particular decal or label to fix a problem or a need it is important that you have a resource that can assist you in your search.

Doug Bryant

<br><a href=”http://www.decalfactory.com“>The Decal Factory – The best decals, signs, labels, posters, stickers and banners in the industry for business and hobby.</a> <br>Toll Free – (800) 369-5331

Let begin by asking; what is a printing distributor? The print distributor is much like an insurance broker, the insurance broker is not a captured agent, and another way of saying this is a specific insurance company does not employ these sales people. The print distributor is not employed by a single print manufacture; these sales people have relationships with many print manufactures, which use many different printing methods.

The printing industry is populated with printing manufactures that are usually smaller companies; most have less than 100 employees. The fact that most printing manufacturers are considered a small business and most do not have the funds to have a sales force. Therefore printing manufacturers use independent sales force to sell their products. The printing distributor as a group sells more printing than printing sales rep. employed by a manufacturer. 

The question we need to ask is; why would a purchasing department purchase their decals, labels, and other printed media from a print distributor.

The printing distributors can sell what a company needs not what they sell. I know you are asking yourselves what does that mean. The print distributor does not have a stake in the method of printing or construction make-up of the printed product. The manufacturer sales rep only sells the printing method and construction of the printed product that their company manufactures.

Case history to illustrate this point, a burglar alarm dealer who needed a decal for windows of businesses where they we installing alarm systems, this alarm dealer will call Jack. Jack called a print distributor and asked for a quote on his decals. He continued that he had purchase some decals just recently from an unnamed printing company. He was upset because when he mounted the decals on the outside windows of his customer’s place of business within 2 months the decals had faded to white. Therefore, the sales person asked him a few questions and the questions asked revealed the problem with the fading decals. Jack had order these decals from a roll label printer what he was told was a decal in fact was a label and a label will not last if exposure to sun light. The print distributor informed Jack of the problem and sold him the correct product a decal that would weather all sorts of conditions as well as ultra violet light expose and not fade to white even after 3 years of service. Jack continues to order his decals from the printing distributor. 

The purchasing manager who purchases various kinds of decals, labels, panel overlays, signage, and other types of printing will be better served if the manager buys from a print distributor than a print manufacturer. Not only will the printing distributor sell what a client needs. The purchasing manager will only need to work with this one printing resource. If the manager uses a print manufacturer, they will need several different printing companies, because most printing company usually only employs one method of printing.

The print distributor has relationships with many different print manufacturers and receives special pricing from the printing company. The pricing the print distributor quotes to a client usually is less than the price from a manufacturer.

As a printing distributor, most of our customers are able to purchase all their printing needs from our company. Because of our relationships with many different types of printing manufacturers, we can supply decal, labels, signs, banners, POP, POS, panel overlays, postcards, brochures, catalogs, mouse pads, and counter mats. I have not listed collateral products such as advertising items such as; pens, rulers, and that whole group of products too long to list in this article.

The printing distributor is your most dynamic resource next time you need to purchase printed products call a printing distributor and test if what I say it true or not.

Doug Bryant

<br><a href=”http://www.decalfactory.com“>The Decal Factory – The best decals, signs, labels, posters, stickers and banners in the industry for business and hobby.</a> <br>Toll Free – (800) 369-5331

Decalcomanias (AKA decals) all are not created equal. Our customers do rely on us to inform them what material and printing process is best for their application needs. Some customers ask for a decal manufactured with a particular material using a certain method of printing.

It is our responsibility to ask the question to determine what material and method of printing is needed for each customer need. Just because the customers ask for a particular material and or printing method does not mean this is the best choice for the application. Many times what a customer wants is not what they need.

In our modern society, we are all specialist in our field of study, or vocation. Many times when we need to purchase a product we educate ourselves on the internet and believe we have a clear picture of what to purchase. I hope that we are aware that not all information on the internet is created equal. The information we glean from the internet is not comprehensive or exhaustive information.

Purchasing decals or labels from a printing company should be accomplished with the advice of an expert who prints or sells decals and labels. It has been my experience that many purchasing managers purchase the wrong type of marking product. Let me illustrate this with an example

.

A case history of Arrowhead Water that took place in 1983, Mr. Decal had a sales appointment with the purchasing/warehouse manager will call him Chuck to discuss his decal needs. During the sales interview, Chuck was willing to allow Mr. Decal to quote on a particular decal. The decal was a matte silver polyester decal with one color 1” X 2” and the text read “CAUTION HOT.” The decal was mounted on a water cooler above the hot faucet outlet of the unit. This decal never was outside or exposed to any sun or Ultra Violet light at any time. Therefore, Chuck gave me a sample and wanted a quantity of 50,000 quoted.  

When I returned with the quote I also had made a sample of not a decal, but a label printed on the same material with a lamination. Chuck the purchase/warehouse manager was astounded that the quoted price was 50% less than the price he was currently charged. His question was how did you quote such a great price? Mr. Decal informed Chuck that currently he was purchasing a decal and what he really needed was a label. I continued a decal is usually reversed for outside environments, your application is an inside an office condition, where a label would suffice.

Chuck responded that his current supplier did not educate him about the difference of a decal or a label; they just said this is what I needed. He continued by asking why would they not inform him of this. Since Mr. Decal knew, whom the supplier was I offered this information; your current supplier is a screen-printer and they print decals not labels, so they sold you what they sell not what you needed. The end of this anecdote is Chuck awarded Mr. Decal all of his decal and label business.

Mr. Decal was willing to ask the right question and because I had no stake in how the printing job was done, I got the account because I sold Chuck what he needed, not what I sell, or what he wanted.

There are so many types of materials and printing methods available to us. Purchasing manager need to let the experts in printing and materials inform us of the right material and printing method that is best for your application.

A post scrip; take care who ask, because some experts have a vested interest in the advise they tender to you. 

Mr. Decal’s next post; why should the purchasing manger use a print broker, instead of a printing manufacture?

Doug Bryant

<br><a href=”http://www.decalfactory.com“>The Decal Factory – The best decals, signs, labels, posters, stickers and banners in the industry for business and hobby.</a> <br>Toll Free – (800) 369-5331

Selling a product to a prospective client has a few elements that the clients are concerned about. The first and common element that the corporate purchasing manager desires is a better price for a product they purchase. Therefore, most sales people sell to price.

Quality is also important to the purchasing manager. This is why purchasing manager always wants to see examples of the prospective vendor, so they can review the quality of the products. Some companies demand the vendor produce a first article of their product so as the assess product quality.

The third issue of a vendors worth to a client is service. How does the client weight the vendor’s ability to give attention to service? This is not as easy to measure, because the criteria is as varied because of the expectations of each client is different. Some clients do not consider service important, because price is the over whelming factor; the lowest prices get the order.

What is service and what does it look like? Service can be reframed in another word relationship. If an issue arises in the business relationship the vendors response is predicated on the type of relationship they have with the client.

An example would be a case history of a business relationship I had with a company. The company I interview with so I could supply their entire label and printing needs was a fan manufacture Casablanca Fan Co. In the interview, I gave them samples of our quality and basic pricing. The purchasing manager’s most pressing concern was not only price, but was service. I assured her that I would commit to servicing her needs and concerns to meet her expectations. Therefore, I landed Casablanca Fan as a new client.

The point of this story is what happened after we had been supply product for a couple of years. The purchasing manager’s boss came to her and demanded that she stop doing business with my company. His reason was that this vendor being a print broker could not give Casablanca Fan the lowest price. He wanted her to purchase from a manufacture. She declined to do so and told him this story.

Before I used this print broker, I was using a printing manufacture and was getting the lowest price. When I would call the manufacture because of product problems or late shipments, it took three days for them to respond. Therefore, I changed vendors because of the promise of better responsiveness.

She continued with the story using my name. When the printing broker Doug recently went on vacation to Hawaii, he gave me his number in Hawaii and said if anything comes up please call so he could take care of it.

The day that Doug left for Hawaii, I had a product need I had run out of a certain label. If Casablanca Fan did not receive this label, the next day our production line would have shut down. Therefore, I called Doug as he arrived in his condominium, told him of the problem, and he said he would take care of it. The next day I had the labels our line did not shut down, and she said this is only one story of his company’s stellar service. Then she reiterated that she would not pull the business from Doug’s company and the reason was the relationship. Her boss accepted this and said good job and even he understood that price is not always the best way to purchase product. We continued to manufacture Casablanca’s printed products until Hunter Fan purchased them in the late 1990’s.

 Therefore, if price is the bases for a business relationship, that is what the client will receive, a good price passable quality, with very little responsiveness to customer concerns.

You cannot have high quality, with the lowest price and phenomenal service. Usually the lowest price is at the expense of high quality or a responsive vendor.

When we were first attracted to our wife’s truly physical looks did play a large role. We all do know that physical beauty does not make a good marriage, or a lifelong commitment. The relationship is what keeps a man and woman together over the long haul. In a business relationship price is as looks in a marriage, it may win the bride, but good looks will not keep the bride, as a good price will not keep the client only a good relationship will.

Doug Bryant

<br><a href=”http://www.decalfactory.com“>The Decal Factory – The best decals, signs, labels, posters, stickers and banners in the industry for business and hobby.</a> <br>Toll Free – (800) 369-5331

Typical Decal Salesperson ~Mr. Decal~

Before I was recruited to sell screen-printing in 1978, I never really had a consciousness of what a decal was or how it was printed.  Here is one scenario you will see about as often as a Rush Limbaugh book signing at a Democratic National Convention:   When asked by their grandmother or an interested stranger, “What do you want to be when you grow-up?” a child responding, “ I want to be a decal salesperson!”  No such heart beats in the chest of any child.  You’ll simply never hear one say, “Decals are my desired vocation.   I’ve known it since before I could know!”

Such is the oddity then that is the creation of a decal salesperson…how did we become that which is not desired by anyone seeking business success? 

Some of us likely remember that one twenty something guy who came to your parent’s party’s bearing gifts,  not for the adults, but for the little lads and lasses of the home.  What gifts could this adult bring to wow and keep the attention of these little people long after they’d gone?  This person brought with them iconic images of the day:  “Surf’s Up” decals, a shredder decal of ghastly skulls and bones or the images found on the car of a fast track NASCAR winner.   These kids would gladly grasp these images and slap them onto their bikes, lockers, bike helmets, skis and snowboards.  Even the adult overlords of these giddy children desire some of this persons work.  How about a Mustang logo or a “Not All Who Wander Are Lost” sticker?  Or perhaps the more common and refined bumper image, “My Child is an Honor Student” bumper sticker? 

So some of us do know a person who makes and sells decals, did such people propel those of us who sell from fascinated child into actually choosing this vocation?   No, I don’t think even that caused us to choose a profession that truly gets no respect.  Case in point:  I remember flying one day on a business trip, dressed to the nine’s and seated next to a fellow businessman also in full regalia.  He asked me the question that all businessmen ask each other on a plane:  “What do you do?”  The proud decal salesperson that I am,  I respond (unashamed and with unbridled excitement), “ I sell decals.”  As the words leave my lips I see the anticlimactic reaction of the fellow as he says (undoubtedly trying to deflate my over extended ego), “Is that a hobby?”   I now have to advise him of his incredulous ignorance and I retort by pointing out that the designs decorating the fine china he has at home are in fact decals!  Did I regain my respect?  Maybe not.  But I go on to peddle my no respect decals nonetheless.

It is interesting that many a product cannot ship unless it has a no respect decal affixed to it.  The absence of a no-respect, 5 cent decal can shut down a production line.  It certainly gets respect then!

So why do we who hock decals do it?  It is in our blood!  Screen-print inks, mixed with PVC, course through our veins.  We are hooked!   We love saying to family members and total strangers, “See that XM Satellite Radio decal over there?  I made that.”  With our egos intact and profit margins dancing in our heads, we go on selling into the sunset.

Doug Bryant

<br><a href=”http://www.decalfactory.com“>The Decal Factory – The best decals, signs, labels, posters, stickers and banners in the industry for business and hobby.</a> <br>Toll Free – (800) 369-5331