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– Peter Muir, president of Bizucate
THE EVOLUTION
OF PRINT
I
t has been widely rumored that
Nostradamus predicted 9/11: “In
the year of the new century and
nine months, from the sky will come
a great king of terror. The sky will
burn at 45 degrees… fire approaches
the great new city… there will be
thunder… The third big war will
begin when the city is burning…”
But the truth
ruth is Nostradamus did not make predictions
about the World
World Tr
W
Trade
T
ade Center attack or, at least, none that
could easily be
b understood
und
from his writings. He did not mention “the new
ew century,”
cent
or “nine months” and New York is not
at 45 degrees.
degrees.
Nor did he predict
p
an apocalyptic end to the print industry.
y And it’s
y.
it probably
prob
safe to say that the Mayan Calendar
Prophecy doesn’t
doeesn’t point
poin to the dramatic end of the print era—
in 2012—either.
2012—eith
ither. Yet
Y the epic demise of the print industry has
been the source
sour of much debate and has garnered merit with
arguments ventured
veenture on either side.
With 20/20 hindsight, it’s probably safe to say that
print did not die and is not going away, but the industry is
experiencing a significan
significant shift. In the last two decades, an
industry that has had no significant technological changes
evolution of print
since Gutenberg invented moveable type in the 1400s has gone beyond
adjusting to evolving. What was once a craft industry dependent upon the
skill of the person driving the equipment is emerging as a manufacturing
industry driven by technology. Further, businesses that once provided
just print services are increasingly providing adjunct comprehensive
marketing services. As the adage goes, “What doesn’t kill us makes us
stronger.” And many would contend that this is the case with the print
industry. Savvy printers are reinventing themselves, and increasingly becoming marketing service providers, not just print providers. According
to David Murphy, director of Marketing Americas, HP Graphics Solutions Business, the tipping point is yet to come, but there has been a shift
in the last four years that is gaining momentum.
“There have been a successive series of points—technology, user behavior, economics—that have made it necessary for printers to reinvent
themselves. And many printers have reacted and responded with changes
that will ensure their future success. No longer an ink-on-paper business,
they are evolving, becoming holistic—differentiating their services with
a scope of offerings that compliment print, arming themselves with the
necessary knowledge and skills to become marketing service providers
rather than remaining commodity providers,” Murphy says.
As Peter Muir, president of
Bizucate points out, 20 years ago,
fast turnaround on a quality product at a reasonable rate was all
that printers needed to offer to
survive. “However, 20 years ago,
there were only four primary ways
to communicate—radio, TV, print
and phone. Now there are multiple communication channels and
being seen or heard is harder than
ever. Ads are everywhere and there
are so many more messages. Few of
the companies that continue to do things the way they did them 20
years ago will survive in today’s competitive business climate.”
Fortunately for printers, the technology that led to communication
competition was not the only innovation of the decade. Nearly 20 years ago,
Benny Landa, inventor of the Indigo press and often considered the father of
digital offset printing, predicted, “Everything that can become digital will become digital—and printing is no exception.” Just 15 years ago, printers could
not print a one-off product. But with the development of digital printing, we now have Internet companies that have 100 digital presses printing photo books one-off.
Joe Truncale, NAPL president and CEO, remembers the early predictions about the potential of digital technology to change the game.
“I recall the NAPL (National Association of Printing Leadership) Top
Management Conference in 1995. We had two keynote speakers who
really set the tone for the future. First was Nicholas Negroponte, who
at the time was the director of the Media Lab at MIT. The second was
Don Tapscott, who, even in those early years, did extensive research
on digital communications. Their message was clear. As communication
technology moves from analog to digital, the possibilities are nearly endless. Most of what they predicted has come to pass—though it took a bit
longer than they initially thought.”
Print remains
an essential
part of most
multi-marketing
campaigns
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With digital technology now in place, many industry firms have made
the leap and have become “digital printers.” Truncale says that these firms
are now coming to terms with two undisputable truths. “First, it does not
matter what your process is—in fact, when you describe your business by
your process, you are in the process of going out of business. What matters
most is what you can provide for your customers and how what you provide helps them meet their objectives. Second, the promise of digital
printing is not found in the box—no matter which digital press
you chose—but it is found in the data. More to the point, the
promise of digital printing lies in the ability to understand,
store, manage, measure and analyze data.”
Muir says that printers will not just survive,
but thrive by continuing to add additional services to leverage print services with other
channels. “It’s been proven that multichannel marketing produces the best
results. Five years ago, innovative
printers started offering mailing services, graphic design
services and data-base
analysis, and now they
are adding Web design,
PURLs and QR codes, and
mobile and e-mail marketing
programs. They are not just providing a product; they are helping their
clients communicate more effectively
and efficiently with new capabilities.”
The transition from print providers to marketing service or solution providers is not a tremendous
challenge for many printers. As Murphy points out, many
of the elements needed for printers to become marketing
service providers are already in place. “They are inherently creative, they have problem-solving skills and experience, and they
are communicators at their core with more ways to reach buyers
than ever before. They will have to constantly educate themselves so that they can continue to add value to their services.”
Perhaps the single biggest obstacle for traditional print companies on the path to evolution is a lack of a comprehensive
customer-facing
customer-fac
-f ing strategy.
-fac
strateg
rategy.
y
y.
“In order to become a marmarr
keting services provider,
r you must
r,
mus
begin by knowing
k owing and understanding
kn
ng the
t e
th
customer’s business and what they are try
trying
r ing to
ry
accomplish. This selling meth
method
t od is far diffe
th
dif
different
rent from
m
how sales have been generated in our industry
industr for years,”
affirms Truncale. “That means forgetting what worked in
the past—for the most part, that doesn’t work anymore. Or,
more likely, it means the painful path of implementing a new
business development process while hanging on to what we are
doing—and getting—at least for the near term. Some sales professionals are capable of making the transition, most are not.”
Marketing service providers…marketing solution providers…printers? As the industry works through the process of
redefinition, what is the best name for this evolving print
and marketing services provider? “There is a great deal of
uncertainty over what exactly we should call ourselves,”
acknowledges Truncale. “Clearly, we provide more than
printing alone, and that is a good thing. But that naming
part has emerged as a significant challenge. I recently spoke with one
NAPL member who told me that after struggling with this for some
time, he finally hit on an idea. He asked a few of his best customers
this question: ‘When you leave your place of business to come and
see us, where do you say you are going?’ The majority of his customers
responded, ‘To the printer’s.’ So he decided that if it was good enough
for his best customers it was good enough for him and he kept printing
in his name.”
Regardless of what you call this evolving industry, the fact is that print
remains an essential part of most multi-marketing campaigns. “We can’t forget that print is part of the equation. People are looking for solutions and
print offers more options than ever before,” adds Murphy.