On Tuesday, the announcement of the new Kodak Creative Network came across my computer screen. It wasn't the name that caught my attention, it was the headline: Kodak Launches Online Printing Service ... Kodak is launching a printing service?
A closer examination - and phone call to Jeff Hayzlett, CMO, Kodak Graphic Communications Group - cleared up a few things. No, Kodak isn't getting into the printing business; yes, Kodak is getting into networking printing businesses. "We are looking for printers with Nexpress devices to create a production network," Jeff told me. "Our goal is to send more business into those workflows. We expect to have dozens of printers who will produce the items from the Creative Network on Kodak equipment."
I understand the press release was more of a "soft launch" of the new service. The site has been live for about 8 months in a "test mode." And there are advertising tests, direct mail tests, and e-mail tests going on to judge the response of the target market - small office/home office businesses. The model Kodak is following is their rollout of the EasyShare Gallery - baby steps to test the market and the site.
If you want to take a test run of the site, go to: Kodak Creative Network and try your hand at designing a business card or postcard. There are other sites out there where you can "walk up to the web," design something, and buy it, like VistaPrint, AmazingPrint, and a host of others. VistaPrint is, of course, the grand daddy of them all, but the Creative Network holds its own. Pretty amazing for a site that is "a test, only a test," according to Hayzlett.
I only gave the site a short test run, but can report some good news and some bad news. First the bad - it took a while to load up the first time. I almost thought that the whole site was frozen, but then when everything was up and running it turned out to be pretty snappy. The selection of designs - for those who are graphically-challenged - is pretty sorry. However, the "design it yourself" feature is nice. You can upload logos and images, stretch them, crop them, move them around... Nice!
The price is right! I ordered 150 4/0 square business cards (never saw them offered on a web store before) and even got a 20% discount for a new user. You too can get a discount - 100 standard business cards for $2 - what a deal!
Watch for a complete site review in the next week or so...
UPDATE
Kodak released the following statement which clarifies the press release from yesterday. As noted above, but not clearly in the company's official press release, the printing is done by customers of Kodak - not Kodak. "KODAK Creative Network is in response to requests from our customers to drive more demand for print business. Production for the KODAK Creative Network, KODAK EASYSHARE Gallery and other independent online services is done by Kodak customers utilizing KODAK NEXPRESS solutions. Our customers are asking for more business, and we're doing everything we can to get more of it to them." - Jeff Hayzlett, Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President, Graphic Communications Group.
Discussion
By Dr Joe Webb on Mar 14, 2007
The Agfa Chromapress Users Group attempted something similar in 1995ish and ran into all kinds of problems, especially when they attempted to offer a single price to a national customer who was to be served by multiple members of the group. Things can be quite different now... first of all, such a network has a "standardized" job submission infrastructure called "the Internet." Second, there is an acceptance of file format standards today, and those standards actually work; PDF was not as reliable nor as rich then as it is now. Third, the mental barriers to web2print have finally fallen. It's of course too early to tell if Kodak will be successful at this, but market conditions are much more favorable for this kind of offering than they have ever been.
By Gene Hayes on Mar 14, 2007
Who bills the customer? I take it's central billing by Kodak? If I have a Nexpress and decide to buy an iGen3 will I still be a member of the network? Problem: it might build volume for Nexpress users but who controls the end user? If it's Kodak they are in the printing business no matter what they say... Are they setting prices for everyone? Not sure that will fly with the regulators.
By Chris Smith on Mar 14, 2007
We are printers/engravers who are considering getting into the digital game. We just paid a TRADE printer $66.50 for an order of 500 4/4 standard sized business cards. There is no way on planet earth that the printer who did your business cards for $2.00 made any money at all on the job. This is a powerful argument for NOT joining the Kodak network if we get one of their machines.By Randy Davidson on Mar 14, 2007
See the clarification in the post by Gail. I think it is clear that Kodak is doing this to help their customers drive more business to Kodak equipment. Of course there are more questions as pointed out in the above posts. We had over a dozen emails today at WhatTheyThink.com from printers wondering what was going on. An example: "I just read the article on Kodak launching on-line printing services for small business. Having owned a smaller commercial print shop in northern Vermont for over thirty years and using primarily Kodak graphic films (from years ago tray developing to imagesetting) as well as other Kodak materials I find it appalling at least that Kodak enters directly into the user base market that all small printers have had for years. Seems like more corporate greed to me. You can bet that I will not buy Kodak products just to compete for the same work they are at a higher level. Companies today are not satisfied with a piece of the action... they want it ALL!" Malcolm Baker, President, Regal Art Press, Inc. I wrote back to Malcolm and told him that the release did not explain that the printing would be done by Kodak customers and in fact, to my knowledge, all Kodak customers are invited to participate. I think all vendors have learned that they can't compete with their customers if they want printers to be loyal to their company. In this case, I think there was just a mis-communication in the press release.
By John Panetta on Mar 14, 2007
Well, they may help some customers, but I know we will not sign up for it. We have not heard anything about it til now. We have our own internet store front for people to buy print on through the web and don't need Kodak or their "network users" competing with us for this work. They should take this money they are putting in this project and invest it in marketing Nexpress output to ad agencies.
By John Roberds on Mar 15, 2007
If Kodak is setting prices for a group of independent businesses the Federal Trade Commission should have something to say about their plan. Price collusion is still price collusion even if it's done in a sexy manner over the internet instead of in some private backroom. Either Kodak didn't do their homework or they have figured out a new way around the law.
By Noel on Mar 15, 2007
The jury will be out on this for a while. Some Kodak NexPress customers will see the extra clicks as found money. But others will see it as a threat and view it as competition. See some of the above comments. Anyway... Kodak already drives business to some NexPress owners via photo books created on Kodak Gallery. That's a great way to put more high-value clicks on the machines, especially given Kodak's legacy in photography. Where the actual printing is done is invisible to the buyer of the photo book, who doesn't care anyway. With the Kodak Creative Network, at least for basic commodity print like business cards, it also appears that the initial job submission is done through Kodak, not the print provider doing the job. While I don't think this puts Kodak into direct competition with customers because Kodak doesn't own the production capacity, it can create the perception of competition and it does put the Kodak brand up front, rather than that of the actual print provider. This probably doesn't matter for commodity jobs: after all, people don't know (or care) where their VistaPrint order is printed. However, most NexPress owners probably want to do more than basic work, and seek to build relationships with customers. It's not clear to me whether these extra lower-end jobs can lead to something more substantial and profitable (such as marketing collateral and targeted direct mail programs), because the actual print provider is invisible. Given that some of the small businesses the service is targeting might value a relationship with a specific (rather than anonymous) NexPress owner, I hope there is a way to connect an end-user with a specific print provider. That could make this approach really rock. I do question the value of another player entering the web-to-print market for commodity printing and what Kodak brings to the party that VistaPrint and similar companies do not. But hey, it's capitalism--let the market sort it out. And if I get a hankering for square business cards I may try it out when the last of my cards from VistaPrint are used up.
By Chris Smith on Mar 15, 2007
As someone who is considering the possibility of a Nexpress (or some other manufacturer's equipment), why is it that Kodak's customers feel the need for Kodak to drive end user customers their way? Is it a question of printers who have made the jump not knowing how to sell digital solutions, or is it that the demand for digital solutions simply isn't there? And if the endgame is to transform printers into VDP marketing specialists, why is Kodak pushing the "low hanging fruit" approach of short run color? Any insight would be appreciated.By Sam I. on Mar 15, 2007
Gail, thank you for your input. Kodak, I believe is creating bad PR by standardizing pricing and methods of how NexPress users can make money by streamlining processes. I thought JDF was supposed to help us, not Kodak. But wait…Mark Wilton of Kodak is on CIP4’s board. I smell a bit of cross pollination there. Kodak should have partnered up with existing vendors of web to print software instead of designing their own solution in house. Now Kodak will constantly need to update, upgrade, invest but not INVENT. Invention will be left to the other guys Gail mentioned as that’s where I see all of Kodak’s ideas are from. By partnering with one of the companies that you have mentioned above, Kodak could have avoided the issues of price fixing, unified checkout and de-branding and competing against it’s own user base. If the aim is to compete with the giants of online web to print space and redirect some of that volume to Kodak shops, a question I would have - Vistaprint does presentation folders… Can NexPress users support anything that large?
By Chris Smith on Mar 15, 2007
Sam I. said:
No, they can't... but they can sell the heck out of $2.00 business cards.By Eric Vessels on Mar 15, 2007
Hi everyone. I just found out that Cary Sherburne, Senior Editor of WhatTheyThink.com, is conducting an interview with Kodak's Jeff Hayzlett tomorrow. She will ask many of the questions posed here and some others we have seen and plans to have the interview up perhaps as early as Monday. Plus, as Gail indicated, she is doing a further look into how the site operates from a functionality perspective. So more info is coming soon and we will post it here too.
By Henry Freedman on Mar 17, 2007
Many question the wisdom of allowing others to be involved with their customer's customer. Also...highly integrated, wide area coveraged systems with growing processing volumes tend to generate a kind of "dynamic intertension" that could cause disruption of production. Service provider shut off of services (better read that contract and amend) akin to the "Collabria Problem" where customers were informed of shut off of services without sufficient time or options to keep running until a last second reprieve via "white knight" Printable came along and saved them. These are examples of lessons not learned or too quickly forgotten.