How, you ask, could banner possibly be like a potato? In more ways than you might imagine. Think about the last time you went to the grocery store, and spent some time in the produce department. Close your eyes and imagine pushing your cart past bright yellow bananas, vibrant red apples, and purple eggplant. You realize your local produce department is a dazzling collection of color, shape, and texture. And then you come upon the lowly potato. A brown, shapeless lump of a vegetable, that would easily be overlooked by someone seeing fresh produce for the first time. But the potato is mighty. And versatile. And everywhere! How many french-fries, hash browns, mashed potatoes, or tater tots are made every single day? There is a reason they are sold in 20 lb. bags instead of one at a time.
Banner is the potato of the graphics industry. It is easy to overlook, and underestimate. It is the opposite of glamorous, and very close to boring, but it is used everywhere, to advertise just about everything. Billboards, trade shows, pole banners, construction barricades, building wraps, pop up stands, and birthday parties; applications are everywhere! And like a potato, banner is versatile; it can be hemmed, sewn, grommeted welded, and glued. It can be single sided, double sided, or mesh. It can come as narrow as 38” or as wide as 197”, and oh, by the way, almost every sign shop with a printer is using it right now.
Let’s not forget that banner is temporary signage. And everyone likes temporary signs! Billboards are changed out every few weeks. Trade shows are only up for a few days. Museum exhibitions, sporting events, building projects and directional signage is all designed to be low cost, and temporary. Banner is like a potato because it is the perfect choice for so many applications.
You may be surprised to know that at Piedmont, we do banner well. We have the right mills making the right products for our clients and customers. We are more competitive and sophisticated than we have ever been, and well on our way to becoming the Ore-Ida of the banner world. But most importantly, banner is like a potato, in that customers don’t buy just one!