Do you think Printers have a hard time with commoditization? Consider the design studio.

Advertising Agencies Being Shafted by Low-Bid Process? - Small Agency Diary - Advertising Age:
"Mind you, we weren't offended by the fact that these services went to RFP; we've been working for this company for over nine years, and we have been through the centralized procurement cycle before. But this time it was different. This time it was fully automated -- no personal contact, just data into a machine. And this time it wasn't an RFP for creative production (the routine cycles of content updates and template building).

This time, they needed strategic web consulting and design services -- not exactly a commodity, at least in my mind. And they needed these services line-itemed out by role, by hourly rate (reduced by a required percentage below any prior rate we had given them). The rate reduction was required for continued consideration in the RFP. Samples of our 'strategic web designs' and documentation of our processes had to be submitted into this implacable piece of RFP software."