Heidelberg Top Brand In the Industry, Others Have Work to Do

Lexington, Kentucky, USA - July 16, 2001 - WhatTheyThink.com, a leading on-line community and research firm, surveyed print vendors about their awareness and favorability of major equipment suppliers and manufacturers serving the graphic arts industry. This survey took place with 522 print vendors located throughout the United States.

The goal of the survey was to determine brand awareness and favorability on a national scale. We included 26 suppliers in this survey including: AB Dick, AGFA, Akiyama, Canon, CreoScitex, Dupont, Epson, Fuji Film, General Binding Corp, Heidelberg, Hewlett Packard, Ikon, KBA - Koenig & Bauer AG, Kodak Polychrome Graphics, Komori, MAN Roland, Mitsubishi, Oce, Pitney Bowes, Polaroid, Presstek, RISO, Sakurai, Scitex, Xeikon and Xerox.

This survey reached printers all over the United States. 34% of these printers described their revenue as under $1 million, 30% described their annual revenue between $1 and $5 million and 36% said they had annual revenue over $5 million. (Next week, we will break out the results by annual revenue.)

The question asked:

Select your perception of the below major equipment suppliers/manufacturers to the industry.

Favorable
Neutral
Unfavorable
Never heard of the company

Nine companies tied for the top spot with 99% selecting an answer other than “Never heard of the company.” Those companies included: Canon, Dupont, Epson, Fuji Film, Heidelberg, Hewlett Packard, Mitsubishi, Polaroid and Xerox.

The company with the lowest brand awareness was KBA - Koenig & Bauer AG with only 57% having knowledge of the company. Akiyama followed with 60%, Sakurai with 67% and RISO with a 75% rating.

In terms of favorability, Heidelberg was number one. Not only does the company have a 99% brand awareness rating, but 84% of printers have a favorable view of the firm. Hewlett Packard was a distant second with a 68% favorable rating, then Epson with 56%. Competitors CreoScitex and Fuji Film tied with a 52% favorable rating - Agfa followed with 50%.

The company with the lowest favorable rating was RISO with only 9% of printers having a favorable view of the business. Only 10% of printers rated KBA - Koenig & Bauer AG favorably followed by Sakurai (11%), Akiyama (13%) and Polaroid (16%). Presstek and Ikon tied with 17% of printers rating them as favorable.

Not only did RISO have the lowest favorable rating, the company also had the highest unfavorable rating by far with 26% of printers having a negative perception of the company. Pitney Bowes and Ikon tied for second with a 20% unfavorable rating followed by Akiyama and Xerox with 14%.

MAN Roland and Heidelberg were least likely to draw unfavorable ratings from these printers with only 3% having a negative perception of the press manufacturers. CreoScitex, Epson, Fuji Film and Hewlett Packard followed the leaders with a 4% rating. Also following with a low 5% unfavorable rating was Dupont, Kodak Polychrome Graphics, Komori and Mitsubishi.