Hopefully this past summer represents more than great vacations, and marks an inflection point for our industry from the hunkering-down strategies during the recession to optimism and planning for future opportunities.

The timing is perfect to explore these opportunities as the conference and trade show season starts to heat up. While webinars are a great way to take an intensive look into specific topics, the trade shows allow you to take a deep dive and learn best practices from your peers, explore new technologies and new and exciting business models. Some events are more invested in conference sessions while others focus on the show floor – some do a pretty good job of balancing both.

For example, print providers and application owners alike may consider attending the Document Strategy Forum in Chicago (September 13th – 15^th). This show will help you understand the changing requirements for mission critical business communication – mostly oriented to transaction printing with some multi-channel communications sessions. This event is more conference and less tradeshow and is a good place to network without being overwhelmed.

The favorite in the printing industry is Graph Expo, which is being held October 3^rd through 6^th at the McCormick Place in Chicago. Most of our industry segments are represented at this show, including graphic arts, books, newspapers, direct mail, transaction, display graphics, and labels and packaging. The event has a big conference and a big tradeshow – there is a lot to see and learn across all of these segments.

For a deeper dive into the specialty market, SGIA 10 in Las Vegas might be the right show for you (October 12^th through 15^th). If you want to learn how to produce images that end up on retail floors, vehicles, textiles, ceramics, and bathroom sinks, then this is definitely a must attend show.  If you want to take an even deeper dive into the textile market, perhaps you should attend the IFAI Expo Americas 2010 show in Orlando.

Or, the photography market might be beckoning you. PhotoPlus Expo will be held in NYC (October 28^th – 30^th). This is a perennial favorite for the professional photography industry.

Many of our industry associations also have niche conferences and I suspect that attendance at these events will be much higher than prior years. Often attending these conferences enables discounts on membership and future events and webinars. Supporting these industry associations also tends to pay dividends for our industry. That’s one of the many reasons that Oce supports them. For example, Oce is sponsoring the Pacific Printing and Imaging Association’s fall conference (www.pacprinting.org), and the PINE (www.pine.org) Print Management Conference in Newport, RI (October 16^th – 19^th). Printing Industries of America (PIA) will be hosting their Converge conference (November 6^th – 9^th). This is a good show to explore the latest in new technologies and cross-media trends.

These are just some of the industry events that I’m considering attending. If you haven’t been to any of these events before, I highly encourage you to look into them. For those of you who are regulars, I look forward to reconnecting. I’d also be interested in hearing feedback on these shows and recommendations of others that do a particularly good job on either the educational or tradeshow aspects of the event.

The CARD Act is spawning new changes as Elizabeth Gooding predicted in a post earlier this year on the topic. Regulation is one of the main drivers of programming work at any company producing customer communications. In addition to the credit card industry, there are changes afoot across lending, brokerage, mutual funds, annuities and retirement.

What process changes and technology investments is your company making in order to respond quickly to ongoing regulatory changes?

Last week the Columbia Daily Tribune (Missouri) published an article  about Kelly Press Inc., a 78 year old commercial printing company that recognized that their print business was changing. Kelly Press responded by both investing in updated printing equipment (Kodak Nexpress 2100) and by diversifying well beyond print. It is a great tale that clearly illustrates the message that analysts from InfoTrends and NAPL have been shouting from the rooftops – the need for printers to transform themselves into “Marketing Services Providers.”

Lost in the dialogue about Marketing Services Providers (MSPs) is the transition from general commercial print to specialization, from ad hoc jobs to programs. While Kelly Press is a transformation success story, I wouldn’t call them an MSP- rather they became a specialized publisher, developed focused services for specific verticals (radio stations, college sports, etc.) and even purchased the rights to the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association for a period of time. Their diversification of services and focus on specific verticals has helped to drive print … and more specifically digital print.

I particularly like the final quote in the story. “For a while we’ve recognized that print is dying,” said Colin See. “So to just try to sell more printed stuff wasn’t a good long-term solution. But to try to incorporate print into what the world is becoming makes sense.”

So, when we hear terms like MSP or business communications service providers – let’s keep in mind that often the challenge is simply to move to strategically packaged services as Kelly Press did. In most of these cases, print is a core service and actually enhances the total offering.

This type of transformation story is playing out in many segments of the printing industry. For example, there is a heated discussion about the role of transaction documents incorporating marketing messages and whether this is a threat to direct mailers. The underlying discussion has focused on who has the capabilities to manage data and provide complex services to help address new applications. Managing data is often cited as the key to becoming a Marketing Services Provider. My question to the Digital Nirvana community is this:

Is “Marketing Services Provider” the right term for what today’s printers should aspire to be?

Barb Pellow posted an interesting article (free access) on WhatTheyThink last week that provides insight into marketing trends related to metrics and measurement. She highlights several case examples of companies that are integrating print into campaigns that include additional, digital channels. This multi-channel convergence is an important topic for our industry and this article helps to put the issues into perspective.

In addition, Barb points us to the Marketing Outlook 2010 from the CMO Council. I reviewed the executive summary (available for FREE) and found a few very useful insights. I then decided to purchase the full report.

Much of the report confirms Barb’s assertion about the importance of metrics and measurement. It also points to some key trends that impact agencies. Finally, the report supports the position that print service providers are, or should be, transforming into marketing services providers. Key points include:

1. Agencies are struggling to evolve as marketing and traditional media go digital in all areas of campaign execution and audience activation;
2. There is a power shift from master agency control of accounts to control by a more digitally empowered client wielding new partner and provider connections and resources;
3. The agency model is also threatened by new service providers such as IT integrators, consultants, and offshore business process outsourcing firms providing marketing data integration, customer analytics, predictive modeling, and performance measurement.

The study indicates that senior marketers expect to recruit more data analytics, strategic planning, interactive design, online advertising, and digital marketing competencies in house as well. There are changes coming in the way that companies conduct and measure multi-channel campaigns. You may find the full study worth the investment of $200 – I certainly did.

Navigating print services through the uncharted territory of integrated communications is the topic du jour for our industry. The goal is to keep print relevant as part of the marketing mix, while delivering higher levels of ROI. It is a print centric view that is evolving to “marketing centric” and dare we say transforming to “customer centric.” This is where The Container Store (www.containerstore.com) got it right with this consumer.

 My wife and I have been customers of The Container Store for at least 15 years and have always been impressed with their innovative products and outstanding customer service. If you need organization products, they are the place to shop.

 One of their product lines is “Elfa”, a premium modular shelving system for closets, pantries, office work spaces, etc… We have used Elfa for several of our closets and have found the system to be easy to configure and simple to install. The Container Store frequently keeps in touch with us and sends us a variety of small catalogs and sale announcements throughout the year. Remember, we shop there frequently and consider these mailings to be informative and not junk mail.

 Recently, they sent us a mailer that was targeted to their “best customers” and included two 25% off discount cards to purchase Elfa (one for us, and one to refer a friend). My wife usually keeps these discount type coupons in the car – just in case! I can’t tell you whether it was this mailing, previous mailings, or our general great customer experience that got us in the door, but what sold us was our experience once we started shopping for our next closet system.

 Why don’t people buy a product such as a modular closet system? Not enough information? Too expensive? Don’t know how to configure it? Don’t know how to install it? There are many objections that can lead to risk aversion and impact sales of complex customizable solutions.  So what did they do so well that I decided to blog about my experience? First, the sales person was exceedingly friendly (a common trait for their employees), and did an outstanding job and gathering our requirements (even when we weren’t sure what they were). They have a custom built computer aided design and ordering system that allows the employee to quickly design the closet to any custom configuration. This includes a variety of shelf sizes, types, and accessories. You can view the configuration from different angles while also taking into account items such as vacuum cleaners and other types of objects that you might have to configure around.

 Next, they submit the order to the production environment. They cut the shelving units to the size(s) you need for your custom configuration, and collect all of the parts you need to install it yourself (you can opt in for a separate installation service). Did I mention “while you are waiting”? Every part is labeled to match a custom build document that shows you exactly how to install the configuration. Yes, let me repeat this. Every part is labeled (variable data printing) to match a custom build document (variable data printing) that shows you exactly how to install your configuration.

 Furthermore, the company also sent us an email summarizing the order and providing us a link to a micro site that offers a variety of documents and videos demonstrating how to install their product. Have they thought of everything!

 How did they get my business?

 1)     Outstanding customer service

2)     A focus on lifetime value of customer

3)     Generous and useful incentives

4)     Periodic reminders of their new products and offers

5)     Well planned objection handling

6)     Ability to deliver a custom solution, quickly, accurately, and with clear and concise instructions

7)     Every customer skill set was considered

8)     … and must I mention again “outstanding customer service”

 Did I mention that all of the parts are returnable, even the ones that are custom cut to your closet?

 The Container Store certainly uses print aggressively as part of their marketing arsenal. They should be applauded for their print strategy. But this isn’t what took me from impulse to purchase. It was the whole package, integrated communications, their sales process and tools, the strength of their brand, and our consistent experience over the last 15 years. Print certainly played an important role, but it was a supporting role.

 We need to remember this point and consider how we re-position print services when making the transformation to marketing services and integrated communications. You can’t engage a marketer with a print-centric posture and claim that VDP can deliver great results and expect the marketer to sign up as a client. In the case above, VDP was covert and subtle. It gently nudged us along into a sales cycle.

 A savvy marketing service provider will help the marketer with a package of integrated solutions that should include print based direct mail (catalogs, letters, gift cards, coupons), email marketing, traditional and mobile websites, micro-sites, social media, and let’s not forget sign and display graphics. They will offer solutions not only focused on customer acquisition, but customer satisfaction and lifetime customer relationship.

 This is a comprehensive solution set that may be too complex for many print providers to fulfill. However, this doesn’t mean that you are out of the game if you can’t deliver all parts of the solution. Understanding the value of print as part of integrated communications will help you secure a seat at the table. But, asking for ad-hoc print jobs and talking about VDP and digital printing will most likely not keep you around for lunch. This is where we tell you that it is critical to be a partner to your customers and truly understand how you can support their goals and objectives.  

 It really is all about the customer, right?

The Gilbane Group web-based survey of book publishing professionals has just gone live.

This “Blueprint” survey is one of the research mechanisms for our upcoming study A Blueprint for Book Publishing Transformation: Seven Essential Processes to Re-Invent Publishing. The study will be published in June 2010, and all participants in this survey will have full access to the full-length study posted on The Gilbane Group website and through the websites of the sponsors of the report. (Océ is a sponsor of the study)

This survey, which will take most participants between 10-to-15 minutes to complete, seeks to gain a clearer picture of ebook and related digital publishing efforts underway among the full spectrum of book publishers. Furthermore, the analyst team at The Gilbane Group (a division of OutSell, Inc.) seeks to identify a number of “pain points” or barriers encountered by book publishers when it comes to developing or expanding digital publishing programs, including areas such as royalties, digital format choices, and distribution problems.

Broadly speaking, A Blueprint for Book Publishing Transformation: Seven Essential Systems to Re-Invent Publishing is a professional education effort, and its utility will rely, in large part, on the active and open participation of the book professionals on the front lines of the digital transformation of books.

Please note: This survey is for high- and mid-level book publishing professionals. If this does not describe you, please do not take this survey.

http://Publishing.questionpro.com

Thank you for your participation!

I kept two pieces of direct mail last week and got so excited that I wanted to share it with the world! As a print industry junkie, I am always on the lookout for mail that is compelling and interesting (guess that skews my observations). Honestly, I don’t keep too much of my mail. I keep the bills and statements, often keep the catalogs, hold onto some coupons, and generally shred indiscriminate direct mail like credit card solicitations.

But last week, I received two pieces of mail that seemed unique and compelling enough to at least hold onto for awhile to research and spend more time with the documents.

The first piece came from VISA. It was an invitation to apply for its Black card. I was already aware of this card and quite frankly I am not a big fan of paying higher fees for concierge services. That said, the mail piece was unique enough to capture my attention. Essentially, it was an oversized replica of the Black credit card with a generic name on the card. Attached was a simple application form. No, my name was not personalized on the card, nor on the rest of the application. However, a separate, cleanly designed note card was personalized. It started off “Dear Mr. Gordon” and was signed in blue ink (pre-printed) by the VISA director of customer experience. All in all, it was a simple but effective direct mail piece. It used very limited personalization, but did so tastefully with impact—in other words, they didn’t overdo it.

Even without a personalized URL, I visited the Visa Black Card website to conduct my own research. The site was as easy to understand as the direct mail piece, indicating that VISA did a good job synchronizing its print and online channels. As a geeky print guy, I would have loved to have seen a personalized URL – maybe next time! 

The second direct mail piece was my first issue of “mine,” a pilot collaboration between Time Inc. and Lexus. I am certain that Time would like to call this a magazine, but the document had only one sponsor, came wrapped with a Lexus ad which stated “We Couldn’t Have Made It Without You,” and was peppered with a few ads highlighting the new Lexus 2010 RX. In my opinion, it was a sophisticated opt-in direct mail campaign that did a good job of combining a high-quality design with relevant content and personalized marketing.

The graphic design throughout the document was exceptional. Honestly it’s much cleaner than Time’s other publications. As most of you know by now, subscribers to “mine.” can choose the content they want to be featured in the publication.

You can select content from specific Time publications like Real Simple, Food & Wine, InStyle, Money, Time, Sports Illustrated, Golf, and Travel+Leisure. The publication structure comprises five content sections with one or two articles per section. A few well-placed ads are scattered throughout the document. In the beginning of the document, the advertising seems generic, but upon closer inspection, it starts out with a regional focus “…the John Hanson Highway can be tricky on your way to Annapolis” and then at the end of the document “…your fellow neighbors in Rockville.” On the last page of the document it gets bolder and more direct, ‘The ALL-NEW 2010 RX. NOW WITH MORE ANDREW GORDON.

If you really are interested in content from Time Magazine (or any of the other affiliated publications), then mine. isn’t going to satisfy your requirements. However, the articles are interesting. The layout is clean and well done (more like what you would expect in a special Life edition). The advertising is effective but not offensive. It gave me enough exposure to Time’s publications that I might be tempted to subscribe to some of the publications. Honestly, it is a pleasant document to read and Lexus owns my time as I sit and enjoy reading. I am really interested to see how Lexus builds on this over the pilot program and what additional personalized messaging they will convey.

What Do These Documents Have in Common?

What does a credit card solicitation and an opt-in custom publication/direct mail document have in common? They are both well thought-out and offer a sense of exclusivity and trust. Both are well designed, which makes them stand out from the pack. Both employ personalization and variable data printing. The use of VDP is subtle, non-offensive, and not gimmicky.

Lessons Learned

We don’t know how successful mine. will be and how Time will use the feedback to develop new products in the future. However, they appear to have developed an effective formula for creating a personalized experience funded by advertisers trying to cut through the clutter, keep the attention of their prospects and develop relationships founded on trust. In addition, mine is an effective way for Time Inc. to cross-sell its own publications.

As for the Visa Black Card, I probably won’t spend the $495 for the privilege of using the card. However, I think VISA has done a good job developing its campaign and I certainly will speak highly of the offering.

Finally, I think there is plenty of room for exceptionally designed printed documents that are well thought-out and use personalization, opt-in mechanisms, and cross media. But great creative and personalization isn’t enough if the targeting and segmenting isn’t tightly done to the profile of those likely to purchase. So, let’s encourage the industry to continue to experiment and innovate, leading to transformational applications that help drive new customer relationships. This is how print will survive in the future.

Now let’s see these same principles applied to newspapers, catalogs, other magazines and publications etc…

Whenever new technology is introduced, adoption typically takes place in predictable phases—first in value-added high-margin niches. Once it gains a foothold, it eventually goes mainstream. Such is the case with digital printing technology. In every segment where digital printing technology has enjoyed success, there is a recurring theme: print producers want technology vendors to show them that
the new product can produce print quality that is equal to or surpasses the incumbent
technology.

The 8X loupe test

This practice, which can be called the “8x loupe” test, maintains that you must be able to replace the dominant, existing technology with something that delivers comparable performance and quality. In most cases, digital print technology vendors have done exactly that and have successfully met print quality criteria.

However, when you look at the offset-to-digital-migration, there are exceptions where digital has successfully ousted offset. Most notably, this has been when digital does not threaten core high volume market segments, where the focus is more on lowering production costs and improving productivity and less on quality or where there is a requirement for higher value personalization.

In these cases, the tradeoff clearly favors digital. Consequently, digital print has tended to thrive in environments and applications that require short runs, versioning, distribute-and-print, and printing of variable data intensive documents like direct mail, personalized collateral and invoices and statements.

However, digital printing technology vendors have thrown down the gauntlet, introducing digital technology that is more mature, delivers better quality and is advancing to the point where it can compete in the higher-volume territories of commercial offset printing.

Digital technology becomes a viable option for the newspaper industry

Given recent advances in digital technology, and changing requirements in the newspaper industry, it’s not surprising that the case is building for printing newspapers digitally. Océ, and other vendors have developed systems that are suitable for this very application. And, while digital printing platforms may not yet meet the productivity and cost requirements for producing large-circulation newspaper runs, there are significant opportunities in printing niche products and local and smaller circulation papers.

Certainly the newspaper industry faces significant challenges—dwindling readership and circulation, high costs, competition from alternate media like cable TV and the Internet. One way to address these issues is considering how digital printing technology can help newspapers generate new business and revenue streams. Digital technology offers unmatched flexibility for printing color on demand, without incurring the costs of additional plates, while enabling all content and advertising to be dynamic. What’s more, with digital technology, run length is less of an issue—print runs of one are as cost-effective as run lengths of 1,000.

Leveraging core strengths to create a new business model

Clearly, a perfect storm is gathering in the newspaper industry. The Internet has wrought havoc on publishers, weakening the underpinnings of the industry. Taking an “if-you-can’t beat-’em, join-em approach” many newspapers have successfully adopted Internet strategies and have been able to capture an increasing share of the Internet advertising spend. However, simply adding a web version of the paper isn’t enough to staunch the bleeding or halt the erosion in circulation and advertising.

Still, there is reason to be optimistic. Core strengths, like local knowledge, rich content, market research, advertising and distribution are significant competitive differentiators that newspapers can use to compete against other forms of media. However, publishers must find new ground: they must simultaneously embrace change and work to leverage these strengths while fundamentally transforming their businesses.

Surviving this period of transition requires developing strategies that move away from the broad-reach circulations dictated by underutilized fixed assets. Instead, newspapers must move towards desirable and relevant content products that deliver significantly higher performance to advertisers (higher margin as well). Obviously, this won’t happen overnight and most publishers won’t concede their broad-reach positions. However, at some time in the future, there will be an inflection point where broad-reach, highly rich and relevant content meets high-performance advertising. This is already occurring with electronic communications and will evolve in print as well.

Innovating new business models and working collaboratively with customers is a key element of the Océ business ethos. Our strengths in high-volume automated print manufacturing, expertise in data-intensive applications, and a fiercely customer-first culture, position us to partner with the newspaper industry to facilitate this transformation. In fact, Océ has been engaged with the newspaper industry all the way back to the turn of this century with the development of the Océ Digital Newspaper Network. Today, we are actively engaged in dialogues with major newspaper publishers to help them overcome the challenges they face, to explore new business models and opportunities by leveraging technology to change the way they do business. We look forward to continuing this path of innovation and transformation as today’s newspapers evolve into tomorrow’s highly personalized information delivery media.

Within our industry, there is an interesting debate about the definition of TransPromo documents. Is it a bill/statement that has promotional messages embedded? Does it have to be promoting a product, service, or just a call to action? How about simply educating the customer and cultivating the relationship? At the other end of the spectrum, there are proponents that have gone as far as to extend TransPromo to primarily promotional documents that are composed based on transactional data and a lot of business logic. Think of these documents as one to one marketing on steroids. So who is right? And how does this impact print volumes? And, why is it relevant?

It is relevant for those that are trying to defend the paper-statement, or the paper direct mail letter, or even the static brochure. The concept of TransPromo shouldn’t be paper centric.. It should be to nurture and cultivate a stronger relationship between supplier and customer, while improving retention rates, keeping the customer actively engaged in the relationship, and hopefully building enough trust that the customer chooses to grow the relationship over time. In this sense, using transaction information helps to engage the customer in a dialogue and improve the lifetime value of the relationship.

So, does this have to occur on a printed statement? Of course not. The best approach to nurturing the supplier/customer relationship is many coordinated and ad hoc touch points, driven by business logic, common sense, and a determination to develop mutual trust and respect. Remember the old adage that every employee is a salesperson? Well, perhaps we should rewrite this and say that every touch point is an opportunity to cultivate the relationship.

Can TransPromo save the paper-statement? Honestly, it doesn’t have to save the paper-statement. But by effectively implementing a comprehensive TransPromo strategy, the supplier gains a strategic strength that will link the print room to the board room. This might not save the paper-statement, but it will certainly drive many new print applications that will be tightly coordinated and integrated into the supplier’s business strategy.

Here is an example for the potential of TransPromo. When was the last time you received a coupon in the mail as part of an affinity program? You probably receive these all the time. I am willing to bet that you don’t always remember to bring them with you to the retail store. Am I right? But, the coupon did, in fact, “get you in the door”. After you pick out the product you want to purchase, and go to the counter and tell them you received a coupon, but didn’t have it with you, what is their answer (yes, I know some do this better than others)? Most likely, they tell you that you can’t use the coupon if you don’t have it with you. Seriously? Their promotion got you to change your behavior and come back to the store when they wanted you to be there and you decided to buy something. This is complete success! They aren’t going to reward you for that? Why not implement a registered coupon that is produced using variable data. It is tagged in their retail system and only you can redeem the coupon. You can do this on the phone, in person, or by mail. It doesn’t matter. The point is that you tell them you received a coupon. They look it up in their retail system and surprise!!! I bet you would be thrilled to have a positive experience where you know that the coupon wasn’t just another indiscriminate offer.

I think the lesson here is that we shouldn’t get fixated on the medium. Customers must come first and strategy should drive how they are engaged and cultivated. If we do it right, print will thrive. If we don’t, then the supplier may falter either way.