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Equipment leasing offers many printing companies an affordable way to add today’s most requested capabilities to their service offerings, especially in today’s tight lending market. In addition to computers—far and away the equipment leased most frequently by businesses—printers are leasing such industry-specific equipment as presses, copiers, binders/cutters, colorimeters, and graphic cameras. Read More
Last week, I discussed how the common wisdom benefits of print as enumerated as recently as 2006 and 2007, were crumbling because of several trends: l consumer Internet volume had passed business volume in 2008 Read More
Print 09 is shaping up to be an interesting show. The Graphic Arts Show Company has continued to shift the shape of the show based on changing industry dynamics. In case you haven’t visited the show site, it is being billed as myPRINT and has lots of great features to help attendees plan their show experience and navigate once they get there. The show company is even doing a cross-media campaign with mailings linked to personalized URLs. Visitors to the show site can customize their experience there as well, by specifying the type of visitor they are: commercial printer, in-plant printer, print buyer, etc., and being presented with the most relevant content. Read More
The goal of effective hiring is to maximize the return from your organization's human-capital investment and minimize the corresponding financial risks. And as a hiring manager, your task is to assess the potential of job candidates accordingly--in an astute, consistent, legal, fair, and humane manner. Of course, your first task is to determine how closely their technical (or “hard") skills relate to the technical requirements of the specific position you’re trying to fill. But the purpose of this article is to go beyond this initial assessment to discuss the more subtle aspects of candidate assessment and how to go about them. Read More
In today’s challenging economy, a laser focus on the right target market is critical to success. These days, it takes more than leading-edge print and software technologies, products, or competitive prices to be successful. Companies need a focused business-to business-marketing strategy—a way to identify, segment, quantify, locate, and target their most important business-to-business customers and marketing prospects to reach their present and future goals. Read More
Back in 2006 I discussed the benefits of print as they stood at that time. Just think: last year, consumer Internet traffic surpassed business traffic; the iPhone was introduced in mid-2007 and the Kindle in 2008; social media did not exist for all practical purposes, and it now is 10 minutes of every hour consumers spend online. Add the downdraft of a worldwide recession, and you have listed every reason for every B2C, B2B, and all other organizations to re-cast their media plans and expectations. Here is where those some of those benefits now stand and the impact these forces have had on them; this is followed by some discussion about what this all means to our industry: Read More
Each year for the last several years, I have taken the time to speak with Bill Lamparter, who coordinates Executive Outlook and the Must See ‘ems program for Graph Expo/Print, to learn more about what went into the Must See ‘ems panel decision about top technologies. This year was no exception. Read More
A company's general intangibles have a very tangible impact on a company's valuation. Intangibles that are perceived as attractive can greatly enhance a company's value while negative or negligible intangibles can drag it down. To safeguard the worth of their businesses, NAPL Senior Vice President and Consultant John Hyde believes that graphic communications company owners should take proactive steps to protect their intangibles. Read More
The news reports were so predictable. “The government's index of prices paid by consumers was unchanged in July from the previous month, but the closely watched inflation gauge recorded its largest over-the-year decline in 59 years.” That's the way CNN said it on Friday. Read More
Did you know that there is a company whose business is printing, that calls itself a printing company, but which is categorized as a high-growth organization by many organizations like Deloitte and Inc Magazine. The company is Mimeo.com and Deloitte identified it as the 25th fastest growing technology company in the New York region in 2007. Admittedly in 2006 it held the 10th spot on this list so its growth is slowing slightly. However since few companies that call themselves printers ever make it on any list for rapid growth there must be something special about Mimeo. Also very few printing companies have a list of investors including venture capital, private equity funds and innovate leaders in high technology. Read More
The PRINT 09 event is only a few weeks away. A lot of printers are asking if it will be worth a trip. Yes, it will. They should publish Bill Lamparter’s Must-see’um and Worth-a-look lists in advance so youknow what to expect. I think there will also be a few surprises. Read More
Not long ago, futurists believed that we would all be reading our books electronically by now—either on a computer screen or on a handheld electronic book. While I have yet to invest in a Kindle, quite a few of my favorite books are available in one electronic form or another. Even today, though, the reality is that I would rather curl up with the processed corpse of a tree than look at one more display screen. Read More
Yesterday, InfoPrint Solutions and Sinclair Oil announced a TransPromo partnership that has a slightly different twist than the programs we normally hear about. Most of the TransPromo case studies tend to focus on business-to-consumer applications: Companies who place marketing or educational messages on statements, invoices, notifications and other consumer (customer) communications, reducing costs and often converting these mundane documents from a cost center into revenue generators. Read More
There is such a desire for good economic news that the press and others plant the good news at the top of the story and then hide the details in plain sight in paragraph 3, where they know no one will find it. Read More
At the recent IPA Technical Conference, Chromaticity introduced an ink optimization solution that, according to the company, reinvents the way color separations are produced, a process that has remained relatively unchanged for decades. WhatTheyThink spoke to Ian MacKenzie, Chromaticity’s Vice President of Marketing, to get more detail about this bold statement and what it might mean to the industry. Read More
Over the past five years, my columns have espoused the value of variable data and integrated campaign management. While I continue to be a firm believer in relevant messaging and cross-media communications, I am quickly learning that in today’s wired and social media world, the market has taken yet another turn. Marketers are focusing on the importance of social media, and they will start seeking partners that go beyond integrated marketing campaign management. These marketers are hoping to tap into the conversations that are taking place via social networks as they move from a monologue to a true dialogue with customers. As we move into 2010, the rise of social media will require solutions providers to deliver and support a new concept: Integrated multi-channel conversation management™. Read More
If you have decided to add mailing and/or fulfillment services to your offerings, remember that you will not be alone in this dynamic market. Mailing and fulfillment service providers have been around for years, some producing the same types of work they always have, while others recognize the changes wrought by the digital age. Your closest competitors will be: Read More
As far as excitement goes for economy watchers, the first full week of any month is as good as it gets. That's what dull lives we economists lead. Read More
In the previous article on the Kodak event in Dayton I concentrated on the Kodak Stream continuous inkjet technology and the new Kodak Prosper Press platform. At this event Kodak also spent time on covering the Kodak Versamark VL series continuous feed inkjet color presses and the Kodak Nexpress SE and Digimaster EX300 sheet fed digital presses. Read More
Following the drupa event last year the major question that was being asked was what impact the new continuous feed color inkjet presses would have on the offset printing market. The vendors of these new presses took different positions in the areas of the market where they felt their presses were most appropriate. Most of them certainly saw their presses impacting in certain areas of the offset market where moderate quality on uncoated paper was a requirement, for example for newspapers and books. Read More
On August 3, Advertising Age columnist Bob Garfield's book, Chaos Scenario, will be released. The content has been previewed for a quite a while, and I cited it a few years back. Since the time of his first column about it, titled “A Look at the Marketing Industry's Coming Disaster,” much of what he projected has come to pass. Read More
A year ago at drupa, HP announced an OEM relationship with Press-sense to bring to market HP’s SmartStream Director Web-to-fulfillment workflow solution, citing key benefits, components and features including: Read More
Digital press technology for packaging printing and graphics has been around for more than a decade, but momentum is currently building behind end-user investments and hardware developments by technology providers. In today’s market, it is clear that digital package printing represents a recession-proof and profitable market opportunity. With today’s available technologies, the emergence of inkjet, and the needs of brand owners, short run digital technology is truly poised to take off. Read More
Occasionally there are developments within this industry, often referred to as disruptive technology, that have the potential for fundamentally changing the market. The arrival of thermally imaged non-ablative CtP plates that came to market in 1995 is an example of such a disruptive technology. I have just come across another such disruptive technology that could have a similar impact to that of thermal CtP in changing the industry. Read More
