Sublimation for the baby market

Sublimation is the perfect technology for helping people capture life’s most precious memories. Among them, the birth of a child offers a great deal of room for creativity and possibilities. Robin Kavanagh, Sawgrass’ public relations manager,

explains.

Whether it’s the new parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends or extended family, everyone wants to help start a new life off with both fun and practical gifts.

That’s where you as a product decorator can really shine. Here is a look at some ideas for targeting and selling to this evergreen market.

Why sublimation is perfect for this market

If there is any print technology that is suited for on-demand, custom print demands, it’s sublimation. Because sublimation prints are digital, all you need is creative ideas and the specifications from your customer to create vibrant, full-colour designs and photos that transform ordinary products into keepsakes.

With sublimation, you can offer customers custom mugs, bodysuits, beanies, blankets, changing bags, stuffed animals, picture frames, photo panels, ornaments and more. Adding a name, birth date and photo of a newborn transforms a simple pillow into a treasured moment in time.

And the easy workflow of create, print and press makes customisation fast. Start out with some basic designs that appeal to a variety of customers and can be quickly adapted for colour preferences, adding text or images and other edits. All you need is a source of graphics, fonts and a favourite design program. Once your designs are fine tuned to each order, all you have to do is print and press. The finished products will return high margins because they mean much more to your customers.

Baby photo fever

Babies are born year-round, and it is inevitable that those closest to the family will be shooting pictures of the new bundle of joy – not only in the newborn days, but throughout the first year and beyond. Parents, especially want to remember their child’s every moment and milestone.

As a sublimator, you can offer unique products that can showcase these photos in ways that your competitors may not. For example, you can create custom photo panels with the baby’s name, birth date and statistics, as well as pictures of the newborn, as a kind of digital birth announcement. This can also be applied to minky soft blankets, pillow and stuffed animals. You can also apply the same type of design content to a photo frame that can hold an actual photo print.

These are just a few of the products you can sell to families with new arrivals. Bodysuits imprinted with the number of each month for the entire first year, as well as blankets with a cute design, the numbers of each month printed and a space for baby to lay down are both very trendy right now. People take pictures to mark their baby’s growth and post online, share with friends and family and even collect in albums.

Baby firsts are also great opportunities for photo products. Think first steps, bath, smiles, solid foods, holidays, etc. Baby pictures make great ornaments, mugs, keychains, coasters, phone cases, checkbook covers… the list goes on and on.

Monogram it

Adults love monograms, not only for themselves, but for their little ones. Monogram designs have been in demand for the last few years, and their popularity doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Baby gifts and gear with initials, full names and even word clusters have two-fold appeal. First, it provides some identification for the item, marking it as yours when going out with other families that may have similar items. Second, it lets people express their individual style with favorite colours, images, fonts and the like.

With monograms, you can put together entire packages of gift items, boosting your sales and profits at the same time you’re fulfilling a need for your customer. How about offering a baby shower gift package, complete with a monogrammed blanket, changing bag, stuffed animal, picture frame and set of monthly bodysuits?

Think outside the maximum width

Larger products, such as baby blankets, may seem out of reach if you have a desktop sublimation printer. The optimal solution would be to upgrade your system to a wider printer. Another is to think more modularly.

Many sublimators with desktop systems are pressing several prints onto a single blanket, one by one, and delivering unique designs as a result. Measure out your blanket and break it down into sections that fit with the maximum paper size you can print to with your existing printer. Then develop a design and several variations that can be laid out into a pattern. You can also create one large design that can be sectioned out into sheets. Then place them out on your blanket and press one by one.

With all of these ideas, products and possibilities, there is no reason you can’t join in the baby market with your sublimation business. It offers sales opportunities year-round, lots of room to upsell and bundle products for maximum profit and challenges you to get creative. And when you’re using one of the most versatile and affordable product decorating methods available, moving into this arena is a breeze.

Do some research, make some samples, talk to prospects. You’ll find these products virtually sell themselves.