InfoTrends has announced the launch of a new multi-client study entitled Packaging and the Brand Owner. Within the total package printing market, a contest between digital and analog press technology is well under way in the prime label application. That contest is just beginning in two adjacent applications, folding cartons and flexible packaging.

"Packaging is critical to brand management," said Bob Leahey, an Associate Director at InfoTrends, "So meeting the needs of brands is the core objective of package printing. It's brand owners who decide print strategies--digital has to please brand owners in order to advance."

Packaging and the Brand Owner will reveal insights into brand owners' opinions and preferences regarding print, with a particular focus on the label, folding carton, and flexible packaging applications where the main contest exists between analog and digital press technology. The research for this study will include a structured Web survey of brand owners and converters, augmented by personal interviews with brand owners in food and beverage, health and beauty, and other verticals. The broad goals of the study include:

Assessing brand owners' understanding and perception of digital printing technologies

Capturing the needs and requirements of the brand owner, now and in the future

Identifying the pillars for success in meeting brand owners' needs

Steering equipment vendors' product development efforts to match coming market needs

Through this research, InfoTrends will obtain brand owners' opinions about issues that affect market demand for color digital printing and even analog printing such as:

- Awareness of technology
- Availability of color digital printing
- Incidence of use of that technology
- Concerns about digital vs. conventional
- Role of short runs in their business
- Role & potential role of variable printing
- Who or what influences brand to choose digital or analog
- Understanding of basic technology-flexo, EP, IJ, wide format
- Wishes for future technology-what they want converters to offer

Packaging and the Brand Owner will reveal the value brand owners associate with the ability of digital printing devices to deliver shorter runs, versioning, and efficiency while delivering a high-quality piece that stands out on the shelf. It will also pinpoint investments and technology innovations that will help catapult growth.

For more information on the study or to sign up as a participant, contact Scott Phinney at +1 781 616 2100 ext. 123 or e-mail [email protected]. Early subscriber discounts are available until April 1, 2011.