NEW YORK -- August 14, 2002 -- TrendWatch Graphic Arts, a leading research firm in the graphic communications industry, today announced the results and availability of a landmark benchmark study that objectively determines market share and penetration rates for key prepress, publishing and printing manufacturing products. The report, titled "TrendWatch Graphic Arts Installed Base/Market Share Benchmark Study" also provides subscribers with market share and sizing data for various product segments, as well as analysis across the principal markets. For more information about the study, please visit the TrendWatch website (www.trendwatchgraphicarts.com). "According to famed marketing gurus Al Ries and Jack Trout, more money is wasted in marketing than any other business discipline, except for government," noted Vince Naselli, TrendWatch Director. "This is mostly due to marketing and sales decision-makers not having readily accessible and reliable marketing data. Thus they tend to waste valuable resources -- people and dollars -- marketing to segments that have minimal sales prospects or into saturated markets where growth is limited. It was our goal with this study to be able to provide industry managers with data that will help better target their efforts. And in times of tightening budgets, proper targeting and penetration is critical to a business' success." According to the Benchmark Study... -- DIGITAL PRESS USES: 40% of a commercial printers' jobs, run on a digital color press (i.e. Indigo), are under 100 copies (brochures and business cards are the top applications for digital printing); -- VARIABLE PRINTING: 60% of a commercial printers' jobs run on a digital color press are not variable, while 25% are variable with both changing text and graphics; -- DIGITAL PLATE CRAZE: 37% of commercial printers say they expect to use fewer conventional offset plates in the next 12 months; 39% plan to either start using or use more digital plates; -- ANALOG PROOFING DECLINE: 27% of commercial printers say they did not do any "analog" proofing from films (i.e. Matchprint) in the last 12 months; 28% reported that their use of analog proofs has declined in the last year; 10% of publishing firms say they are decreasing or eliminating "analog" proofing from film; -- CROSSMEDIA IN VOGUE: 53% of design and production firms, and 61% of publishing firms, consistently work on cross-media projects; -- DIGITAL CAMERA vs. SCANNERS: 35% of design and production firms, who own a digital camera, say their use of color scanners has decreased as a result of owning a digital camera; About the Study... The 674-page study features primary research data that includes market share, installed base, and 5-year projections for 16 segmented categories. For example, the study includes the estimated number of seats of graphic production computers by operating system. In addition to the estimated number of installed units of each product category, TWGA also surveyed to determine the market shares specific to manufacturers. The TrendWatch Graphic Arts Installed Base/Market Share Benchmark Study also includes the hallmark of TWGA's research: trending information about those product categories and the markets covered in the study. Graphic Arts Segments Targeted... TrendWatch has examined the industry's most prominent market segments: -- Small Commercial and Quick Printers; -- Sheetfed Commercial Printers; -- Web and Gravure Printers; -- Digital Printing Businesses; -- Inplant Printing Departments; -- Newspapers; -- Prepress Service Bureaus ; -- Package Converting Operations; -- Book and Magazine Publishing; -- Catalog Publishing; -- Graphic Design Agencies; -- Advertising Agencies; -- Corporate Design Departments. Product Segmentation... TrendWatch has segmented the study into 16 product categories. For example, one such category is "Graphics Software". This category includes graphic arts software for applications such as Desktop Publishing, Photo Manipulation, Illustration, Web Development, and Impositioning. The other 15 category segment are: -- Color Scanners; -- Imagesetters; -- Traditional Film-Based Proofing; -- Digital Proofing; -- Offset Presses; -- Wide-Format Printers; -- High-Speed Digital Black-And-White Printers; -- Direct-To-Plate Equipment; -- Digital Color Presses; -- Direct-Imaging (-Di) Offset Presses; -- Inks And Toners; -- Offset Plates; -- Imagesetter Film; -- Digital Plates; -- Operating System/Platform. Study Pricing... The price for "TrendWatch Graphic Arts Installed Base/Market Share Benchmark Study" is $20,000 per company. TrendWatch will work with purchasers who need to meet unique budget cycles. For more information, please contact Vince Naselli directly via email ([email protected]) or phone 646-746-7304