Customer Spotlight: Fascinations Superstore

Whoever said large format printers weren’t sexy is dead wrong. Just stroll into any of the Fascinations Superstores in Phoenix, Tucson, Denver or Portland and you’ll see in-store banners and point-of-purchase (POP) materials that arouse quite a bit of interest.

That’s because the store is billed as “the premier educational romance retailer,” offering exclusive intimacy-inspiring merchandise to help couples and individuals enhance their relationships. Large format in-store banners and POP materials are designed to help sell each store’s carefully refined combination of gift items, apparel and inspirational products.

“We learned about Mutoh printers through a local vendor who was using the equipment to do a lot of our work,” says Michael Ham, spokesperson for Fascinations. “We started researching the cost-benefit ratio of bringing the printer in-house and it made sense.”

The most important factor the retailer looked for in choosing their Mutoh large format printer was quality. “Our stores are designed to be wide open and well-lit, and we look to have bright and crisp images that complement the décor.” Ham explains. “Several of our stores also have high ceilings, so our signage has to have a dramatic impact. Photo realistic images with accurate color matching are key to our visual success.”

“We really look to our large format printer to translate what we do in print through brochures and various media publications. We want those images to match up in our large format printing and Mutoh has delivered that for us,” Ham says.

The company purchased their Mutoh printer in October 2005, and Christmas was their first run at outfitting the stores with vertical banners that matched the theme, “Gift Chest.” Hamm says they used photographic material mixed with vector illustration to showcase offers on hanging banners and perforated window materials.

“Because we specifically used those banners to direct people to gift cards, we sold more gift cards this year than ever before,” Ham says.

Fascinations also appreciates the versatility their large format printer has brought to the company as a whole. Ham said their human resources department needed to do some hiring at one of the retail locations and they wanted to hang a banner on the store’s exterior. With their Mutoh, they were able to produce the banner in-house at their Chandler, Arizona headquarters in just one day – versus having to outsource and go through a process that would normally take about three days, plus production time.

When it comes to customer service, the company has been equally impressed. “Mutoh’s been excellent,” Ham says. “Just last Friday our creative director needed ink for printing over the weekend. He called Mutoh, who gave him a list of resellers who were open over the weekend so he could pick some up. We’ve also received several personal email follow-ups on everything from how the equipment is working to what materials are working best for our graphics.”

For this romance retailer, working with Mutoh has been a highly attractive partnership. You can learn more about Fascinations Superstores at their website: www.fascinationssuperstore.com.