3/6/01 (WhatTheyThink) Each month, WhatTheyThink will publish trends from print buyers. This data will be gathered from at least 500 print buyers located throughout the United States. The buyers range in volume size and industry type. Overall, confidence remains high in March with 39% of print buyers saying they expect to spend more in the coming six months. Only 8% said they would spend less and a majority (53%) said their spending would remain the same. The overall results were the same as February’s numbers with a slight decrease in confidence BY INDUSTRY SEGMENT We selected certain segments that stood out in the results. This month, 35% of print buyers at manufacturing firms said they would spend more on print in the coming six months. That number is up from 33% in February. Ad agency confidence declined from 59% to 56%. Of note, professional service firms had a confidence decrease of 5% in March. BY AMOUNT SPENT Again, large buyers of print services clearly carried the confidence level. Buyers describing their spending on print as “over $50,000” annually had a confidence rise of 8% to 46%. Nearly half (45%) of buyers describing their spending as “over $500,000” said they will spend more in the coming six months. Smaller buyers of print services (spending under $25,000) had the greatest change in March with only 26% saying they would spend more - down from 32% in February. BONUS QUESTION - Tour of Print Facility This month’s bonus question asked buyers if they had ever been invited to tour the facility of their primary print vendor. 33% said they had never been asked while 64% said they had been invited for a tour. BY AMOUNT SPENT Buyers spending more on print services were more likely to be invited for a tour. 88% of buyers spending over $500,000 said they had been asked while only 39% of buyers spending less than $25,000 were asked. The complete results are available at www.whattheythink.com/press.html WhatTheyThink provides news, interviews and research daily at their web site. The portal has nearly 15,000 subscribers who get valuable information about print buyers, printers and suppliers to the industry. For more information, visit www.whattheythink.com.