Over the past several years, printers have been struggling in a world of economic gloom and shifting customer media preferences. We have seen print service providers of all sizes shut their doors because they couldn't generate enough business or keep up with the pace of change. What can companies do to avoid becoming another sad headline? A number of service providers have used these challenging times to effectively reposition their businesses with value propositions that resonate in today's market. Most print service providers have historically not spent any time positioning-much less re-positioning-their firms. Repositioning a printing company is about more than changing a name and developing new marketing messages. It involves making hard decisions about how the printing market is shifting to new and different media, developing the right product and services, and effectively communicating the transformation to both customers and prospects. This is exactly what the Segerdahl Group (Wheeling, IL) did.

Some service providers have used these challenging times to effectively reposition their businesses with value propositions that resonate in today's market.

Segerdahl was founded in 1956 as a small, family-owned startup. As was the case for many printing companies, Segerdahl focused on offering sheet-fed offset and web offset printing to accommodate the needs of customers for nearly 50 years. Segerdahl offered fair prices, strove for greater print detail and color saturation, and delivered extremely high quality printing. In 2003, Segerdahl acquired Columbia Graphics, a sheet-fed printer. The following year, the firm became an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) company and changed its name to the Segerdahl Group, giving its 400-plus employees a chance to have "skin in the game." In February 2012, Segerdahl added a digital printing dimension with the acquisition of RT Associates. Just last week, Segerdahl redefined its entire operations and repositioned itself as SG360°.