WhatTheyThink recently offered two great opportunities for print service providers to understand what brand owners are thinking. While these were focused on the packaging industry, they are certainly applicable to any print service provider who sells to brand owners--and that should be everyone!

The first was the recent web session, Building Brands with Digital Packaging, that featured Lewis Goldstein, Vice President of Marketing for Kiss My Face. Goldstein talked about the evolution of the company and its product line, providing great insight into the cultural and market drivers that are important to him in promoting his brand. He talked about why digital printing brings value to the packaging process for the company and what types of consumer product companies can benefit from integrating a digital element into the packaging design and production process.

During the session, one listener complained that Goldstein's presentation was too much of an advertisement and wondered when we would get to information that was useful. This was a strange and surprising remark, perhaps a reflection of why some printing companies are having difficulty, especially in this economic climate. I don't sell printing, but if I did, I would have been glued to my computer and thrilled with the opportunity to better understand how a brand owner thinks. These are the folks that are the future for us. If printers are not calling on the marketers, and providing innovative solutions to the problems these brand owners face, they are likely to be looking for another line of work in the not-too-distant future. If the commodity game is your niche, that is one thing; but otherwise, marketers are the future for you.

Another great learning opportunity is the recent Brand Owners Survey conducted by EskoArtwork. We talked with EskoArtwork's Susie Stitzel, EskoArtwork Solution Manager, Design Lifecycle Management; and Stan Lemmens, EskoArtwork Marketing Manager Packaging to gain some additional insight into the survey and its results. Often research like this is considered proprietary by the company that conducts it, and it was somewhat surprising that EskoArtwork is releasing the results. This is another opportunity to learn what brand owners are thinking, and where they plan to take their businesses in the future, and we should thank EskoArtwork for its generosity in sharing this data.

Much of the research that I and my colleagues in the WhatTheyThink Consulting Service have been doing recently would indicate that the world of print buying is undergoing some pretty dramatic changes. Those changes are reflected in what we see happening relative to printing shipments and profits, which are updated regularly in the Economics & Research Center. There is lots of discussion about the impact of companies using alternative media in lieu of print, but what is not discussed as often is the fact that the decisions about whether or not to even include print in a particular project are being made at the strategy and planning level, quite often without any representation from our industry. We are not there to tell our story or help marketers understand how best to leverage print in the new media mix for improved results. So we get left out, and shipments and profits continue their downward decline. We are not likely to see a sharp upward trend in these metrics no matter what we do, but perhaps we can moderate the decline on an industry level. And individual companies can see healthy growth by changing business models to better reflect today's market reality.

Today, a Fed official said that the recovery would be a very slow slog. I guess the good news is that they are talking about a recovery. But regardless of what happens in the macro economy, we do have the power to take our own future into our hands today and begin to shape it. This is not the time to hunker down and keep our fingers crossed. It is the time for decisive, fact-based action. And spending time understanding the needs and motivations of brand owners is one good place to start.