Quality is Key for Pride In Print Awards

Pride In Print media release (November 13, 2012)

Quality is Key for Pride In Print Awards

“Quality-based” decisions have been endorsed as the basis on which the winners of the Pride In Print Awards are selected, says Awards chairman Scott Porter.

Mr Porter said the Pride In Print Committee had reviewed feedback on last year’s successful campaign and had debated the issue of whether the number of award recipients should be reduced.

However, that would defeat the whole concept of Pride In Print.

“The basis upon which the Awards were founded was to raise the levels of quality in the New Zealand printing industry, to bring greater customer satisfaction to domestic print buyers and to allow our printers to compete successfully on the international stage. Over the years, Pride In Print has been extraordinarily successful in that goal.

“We can only achieve that by setting the quality bar within each print sector and then giving printers the incentive to get to that level, and recognising them when they do. Each job entered in Pride In Print is judged on its own merit. The entrant must demonstrate they have the skills and ability to get over the bar.

“If we changed the basis of the awards, and selected only one recipient in each category, we would not be recognising the efforts of everyone who had upped their performance and attained the goals we had set.”

Mr Porter said the quality-based targets should be regarded in the same way as Olympic qualifying times.

“With the Olympics, if you get over the line, you earn qualification. It doesn’t mean you will be the best-in-category, but it does mean you are recognised as being in the top echelon in terms of quality.

“That is how the Pride In Print Awards work. Golds go to those who attain the quality standards we have set, and those companies can then celebrate by taking their achievement on to the marketing stage, using it to advance their relationships with existing and potential customers.”

Mr Porter said that the quality bar has been rising year on year, and the quality achievements have leaped ahead, particularly in the last year, which was reflected in the number of companies who earned gold.

“The other major benefit of a quality-based approach is that it has encouraged the successes of companies who are smaller or in niches. Some of the major awards in Pride In Print 2012 went to either niche companies working in cities, or to the regions. All of these major winners say that they feel confident taking on bigger companies and are encouraging other small guys to do the same next year.

“The feedback we received was that Pride In Print has become part of the small company culture. They understand that ‘quality’ starts internally first at their workplace.

“Quality can come from any print shop, big or small. By rewarding ‘quality’ we are allowing those smaller companies to compete – and often beat – the big players in the industry.”

Now is the time to get entries together for next year’s Awards.

Early bird entries for close on December 21 and regular entries close on January 31. Close off for late entries is February 28.

Awards Night is May 3 at the TSB Arena in Wellington.

© Scoop Media