Increasingly, marketers are gathering more data. But do they know what to do with it once they have it?

According to a research study by the Aberdeen Group last year (and now being offered a free download by Adobe), best in class marketing organizations are gathering loads of data through techniques like website visitor tracking; tracking, measurement, and reporting on all marketing campaign results; and testing effectiveness of campaign content; but too few are taking the critical, additional steps to understand exactly what these data mean or how to use them.

For example, do CMOs know what these data tell them about the identity, behavior, and potential spend of their prospects and customers? Are they using this data to build unique customer profiles and personas to match specific campaign goals? Do they know who is spending the most money, when, and why?

Not enough of them.

Likewise, too few have campaign dashboards that allow them to coordinate what they know and what they are learning on the ground across their various channels. As the report notes:

As the volume of customer-related data (transactional, behavioral, and unstructured) continues to grow, marketing organizations are in danger of becoming increasingly data-rich but insight-poor.

In other words, it’s great to have data, but if you’re not using it properly, it’s like having a full toolkit but only taking the hammer out of the box.

As service providers, this leads to an interesting question. Are you focused on encouraging customers to gather data? Or are you encouraging them to dig deep to figure out how to use that data once they have it? Finally, are you prepared — really prepared — to help them do that?

This research includes profiles of best-in-class strategies for managing data (including process, technology, knowledge management, organization, and benchmarking performance), along with illustrative case studies. Best of all, it’s free. Check it out.

How does a company’s internal business communication organization, often referred to as “In-Plants”, go about adjusting to “today’s new reality?”  Reading In-Plants: “The Times They Are A-Changin’” by Barb Pellow in the April 12^th “What They Think?” caused me to reflect.  The article did a great job defining the market dynamics that internal business communication organizations must adjust to.  The breadth and detail of the changes seem overwhelming. Furthermore, the details and statistics shown seem to indicate that the in-plants are either resisting, or unable to embrace the changes required.

Business Process Improvement, (BPI), utilized by many outsource and commercial business communication resources to improve their performance and competitiveness, can also help In-Plants by using a structured approach to embracing the changes needed to meet market demands. Taking inventory of the current business process, work flows, and organization’s skills, BPI defines the internal company current state.  Part of this methodology involves engaging the participation of a cross-functional team of internal business customers, from marketing, to IT, and through other critical functions, providing a vehicle to collect valuable inputs to define the requirements and priorities which the in-plant uses to build a future state definition.  Once the future state is drafted, the same cross- functional team provides feedback and suggests changes.  By focusing on the end-to-end process, and not an isolated area or individuals, the methodology is non-threatening and encourages open and candid collaboration.

With the future state clearly defined, the organization can identify gaps and overlaps between current and future state in the process, workflow, and staff skills.  This data can be formatted into a step-by-step plan of action, with priorities and interconnectivities defined for the transition.  BPI can also assist in defining the key metrics to measure ongoing performance progress in making the In-Plants more competitive in capabilities, cycle time, and quality.

Thanks to Barb for the thought provoking article and sobering statistics to help us see the big picture. I hope you all see BPI as I do, as a tool to help respond to the “changin’ times”.

Next time you’re having a conversation with a client about the value of continuing to use print in their media mix, you might want to throw in some data from Harris Interactive. Its Harris Poll, conducted of 2056 adults in February 6-13 2012, found that while smartphones could be used to replace many print-related activities, such as carrying airline tickets or using printed coupon, they aren’t.

Only 5% of Americans say that they have scanned their phone for admission to a movie or as an airline ticket, and fewer say they have done so to pay for clothing or electronics (3%), admission to a concert, live theater or performance (3%), to pay for a convenience item such as coffee (3%) or something else (7%). Two in five say they have never scanned their mobile or smart phone for any reason (40%) and slightly more say they do not have a mobile or smart phone with this capability (45%). Although Echo Boomers, aged 18-35, are most likely to have scanned their phone for all of the items listed, even they are not doing this at remarkable rates (between 5% and 10% for each item). [1]

Harris Interactive also asked these adults, not just what behaviors they were willing to engage in with their smartphones, but also their comfort levels with using their phones this way (whether they had actually done so or not). Levels of discomfort using phones for purchases, scanning tickets, and a variety of other activities remains quite high.

When the research firm looked at those who are comfortable with the various items, it noticed several trends:

• There is comfort in youth – younger adults are more comfortable than those older with each item listed;
• Men are more comfortable with each item than are women; and
• Those who have scanned their smart phone for any one of a number of reasons are more comfortable with each capability than are those who have never scanned their phone, or do not have a phone with that technology.

The last one is particularly interesting for those pushing QR Codes and other 2d mobile barcodes, especially to boost the relevance and interest in print. If you can get them to scan the code just once, people are much more likely to continue to do it. That means really focusing on the incentive and call to action, especially the first time out.

Do you know which stock is the top performer of the past 25 years? Guess again. (You said Apple, didn’t you?) After you’ve exhausted your list of high-tech guesses, I will point you in the opposite direction. Think nuts and bolts. Fastenal, a hardware supplier founded in 1967, is up a staggering 38,565 percent since the market crash of 1987. Lagging far behind at 9,906% and 5,542% respectively, are Microsoft and Apple.

So why, in The Digital Nirvana, am I talking about a hardware company? Like the printing companies and mailers of all sizes striving to become “marketing services providers”, Fastenal’s products are not in the least bit exciting, but are necessary, just as printing and mailing are still important components of marketing communications strategies. Unlike many of those printers and mailers, Fastenal, with its low-tech products, is consistently growing revenue and is consistently, respectably, profitable – the stock market does not respond with such enthusiasm to “just okay” companies.

For printers and mailers challenged to transition to being marketing services providers, presumably requiring less big hardware, (and square footage), and more robust software technology and new skills, here is a very successful company to examine and compare to.

If you are unfamiliar with Fastenal, as I was, much of what we believe we know about successful businesses today would compel us to make some assumptions. Surely it is internet-based with strategically placed warehouses and sophisticated inventory and distribution management software and systems, right? The reality is the opposite, at least the “internet-based” part; we’re talking serious brick and mortar – stores in all 50 states and internationally, and several manufacturing sites around the country. The company focuses on the customer, and being close to them. Its innovations, quality, and process improvement efforts are customer-centric. It has enjoyed consistent revenue and profit growth and is as efficient as it’s ever been. The robust continuous improvement culture even includes providing process mapping and process improvement support to customers, as well as being a key part of internal operations.

So, do printers and mailers have to completely abandon their roots in favor of new marketing communication channels in order to be relevant in this age of declining paper-based communications? It would seem not – nuts and bolts are not sexy. But this example would suggest that there must be a continuous commitment to understanding what the customer needs, a vision of solutions to meet those needs, investment in appropriate technology, and a structured ongoing process improvement effort to achieve the necessary efficiencies to be cost competitive and profitable over the long haul.

There are certainly no big surprises here, but it’s good to be reminded that there is no silver bullet, and a successful company is the sum of many parts. Being a process person myself, I was very happy to see how important and integral process improvement appears to be for this company. Process improvement drives efficiency, eliminates waste, streamlines operations, and supports effective integration of new systems and technology, resulting in lower costs. It can be an integral component of greater success for the companies that embrace and commit to it.

As you’re likely well-aware, the mobile channel continues to experience significant levels of growth. According to the CTIA Wireless association, mobile subscription penetration in the United States exceeds 100% of the population; many people own and use more than one mobile device. Furthermore, CTIA estimates that that close to 30% of U.S. households are “wireless-only,” meaning they subscribe to wireless phone services but not landline services (myself and many of my friends are part of this population). The pervasiveness of mobile technology has led to increased time spent by consumers in the mobile channel, making it a prime platform for marketing and advertising.

To that point, research firm eMarketer estimates that U.S. mobile ad spending topped $1 billion in 2011, and expects spending in this channel to grow to over $4 billion by 2015. While various forms of mobile marketing have been around for well over a decade, only in the past few years have marketers started dedicating a more substantial percentage of their budgets to mobile in conjunction with other shifts to digital spending. Despite growth in these newer channels, it is important to remember that marketers are still dedicating a substantial percentage of their budgets to traditional media, including print, television, radio, sponsorships, and much more. Even so, marketers are focused on return-on-investment more than ever before, and they are constantly looking at ways to make their marketing across all media types more measureable and impactful.

In particular, a slew of mobile technologies are now being employed to integrate print and other media types with mobile and online channels, including mobile response codes, short code prompts for mobile messaging, augmented reality, and much more. InfoTrends recently completed a study entitled Mobile Technology: Making Print Interactive, which  investigates how mobile is being integrated with print and other media types. In this study, we captured consumer, marketer, and service provider perspectives to understand how mobile technology can be effectively utilized within traditional, offline media to drive audiences to engaging online experiences.

One key finding from our study highlights that, especially for mobile response codes, marketers are turning to their print service provider partners to help them create, deploy, and manage integrated mobile campaigns. Print service providers have a tremendous opportunity to develop domain expertise in the mobile channel through integrated campaigns and programs, but they need to make sure they have the right strategy, provide the right mix of services, and have the tools and technology to support their efforts. Below are some key considerations for service providers looking to build out mobile marketing services:

1. The mobile channel is still relatively new for many marketers and advertisers, and they are looking for guidance how they should approach mobile in a way that will meet their goals and resonate with their target audience. Providers need to take a consultative approach to mobile, capturing key characteristics of the client, its products and services, and the audience it is trying to reach to make recommendations. For instance, mobile apps are hot right now, and many clients may ask for them, but it’s up to the service provider to help guide clients to solutions that fit their specific needs… and then execute appropriately.
2. Understanding how to design, deliver, and manage digital content designed for mobile devices is a requirement, not an option. There have been too many times where a QR code is slapped on a printed piece that links to content that doesn’t render well on mobile devices, ultimately delivering a bad user experience. In our study, we found that once consumers interact with mobile response codes and other mobile technologies, they tend to interact again and again. The end-to-end user experience is a critical component of any mobile marketing campaign; a good experience will help drive future interaction and engagement in the mobile channel.
3. To that point, when you’re getting into mobile, it is important to note that a wide range of tools and technologies are on the market that help companies create and deliver mobile content, generate and track mobile response codes, perform campaign management, and much more. In other words, don’t start from scratch! Many software platforms allow service providers and agencies to whitelabel their solutions to use as the backbone for their integrated mobile campaigns. Technology from the likes of 3Seventy, Blink Capture, iFlyMobi, NetBiscuits, Print2D, ScanBuy, ShareSquare, SumoText, Tatango, and many others can be utilized to help power your mobile marketing services.
4. As mentioned, marketers don’t want to have to wait for sales figures to see if their marketing investment paid off. They need actionable insights that can help them optimize campaigns in real time to have maximum impact. As such, measurement and optimization are table stakes when it comes to mobile marketing (and digital marketing in general). Mobile technology can provide marketers with a wealth of data, including location information, which can help personalize content and also influence campaign optimization to ensure that campaigns meet defined objectives.
5. Finally, don’t just limit yourself to mobile response codes. The ease at which people can generate QR codes has been a catalyst for substantial growth in marketers and service providers integrating them across different media types. Nevertheless, mobile message marketing, mobile advertising, and more are becoming much easier to get involved with; providers need to consider these types of services when developing their mobile services strategy.

Mobile will undoubtedly continue its upward trajectory in terms of adoption and share of ad spend. Service providers need to, at a minimum, investigate if and how they should include the mobile channel within their existing suite of product and service offerings. While the aforementioned considerations only scratch the surface, they can help guide you and your clients to success with mobile.

Has your company expanded its service offerings to include mobile marketing and advertising? Share your experiences and your own key considerations in the comments!

I’ve been a fan of “trendwatching” for a long time. For example, check out their “12 Crucial Consumer Trends for 2012” here.

Of most immediate significance to marketers would be the last paragraph of the landing page. This section offers readers – and marketers – four ways to apply consumer trends. In other words, here’s the lens marketers and fundraisers need to filter macro trends into on-the-job action.

Consider how the trend can:

1. Influence or shape your company’s vision.
2. Inspire a new business concept, an entirely new venture, or a new brand.
3. Add a new product, service or experience for a certain customer segment.
4. Speak the language of those consumers already ‘living’ a trend.

To refine our individual efforts even further, trendwatching offers “15 Trend Tips” that specify practical, contextual ways to use trends data to shape your own marketing program.

My favorite strategy? Don’t worry about timing or life cycles or regional suitability or [any confining feature] … Simply look at trends as opportunities, not threats.

How else can marketers integrate macro trends into every day situations? How about working trends data into the conversation at professional gatherings or planting predictions as a fertile seed in brainstorming with colleagues?

Personally, I’m drawn to the potential of trend No. 6 on the 2012 list — aiming at the “bottom of the urban pyramid.” This vantage point envisions the under-tapped potential of “hundreds of millions of lower-income CITYSUMERS” who represent a new market for many products and services. Make this one work and 2012 could trend to the terrific.

Happy New Year!

A recent InfoTrends study entitled The Evolution of the Cross-Media and Marketing Services Provider reveals 58% of the 280 print service providers surveyed are offering cross-media services. There’s no doubt that the cross-media market is dynamic, growth-oriented, and a major contributor to the future of the printing industry.

The marketing executive is the key decision-maker in cross-media services. These marketers are facing a number of challenges in the transition to cross-channel marketing, from strategy to design and deployment to tracking and measurement. The sheer scope of the cross-channel marketing model, and the new innovations that continue to appear, make it difficult for marketers to keep up.

The opportunity is that marketers are reaching out to their traditional print service provider and agency partners for assistance. During an October 2010 study entitled Capturing the Cross-Media Direct Marketing Opportunity, InfoTrends surveyed more than 500 marketers to find out answers to questions such as: What selection criteria are essential to the marketer? How does that service provider move to the top of the list so they can participate in the more lucrative marketing value chain and the incremental digital print revenue associated with cross-media services?

You can download the full white paper for free here. (Click in the bottom, left corner). Find out the answers to what Marketers are looking for and how YOU can participate in the lucrative cross-media revenue stream!

My first reaction after listening to Dr. Joe Webb’s economic webinar last week was to go out and slit my wrists. The forecast for the economy in general continues to be poor and for print there seems to be no hope.

• GDP is still sluggish
• 2012 unemployment to “improve” – for the wrong reasons
• CPI “moderating” – but prices too high when real wages keep falling
• 2011 Inflation Adjusted Print and Print Services Shipments continue to be at or below 2010 and lowest in 5 years
• Forecast for US Commercial Print Shipments from 2011 to 2017 by WTT ERC drops from $85 B to $ 52 B

However, when I thought about many of the companies I know in the industry, they continue to actually thrive and not just survive, so what is their secret and how do we increase the number of companies being successful in the industry?

We all need to realize that continuous change is going to be a part of the way we do business for the near term, and will be required for long term survival. We depend on technology, and the equipment and software rate of change continues to increase. Channels and methods of communicating are expanding, and customers’ preferences evolving, and after all, we are really in the communication business.

Think about the conservative banking industry, which took a long time to move from personal banking to ATM’s and online services, and now have gone mobile, allowing checks to be deposited from a smart phone by taking a picture. Balances can be checked, and even transfers from account to account take place any time and from anywhere. The successful companies I know and read about are listening to their customers and are open to modifying their business models to accommodate customer demands. This is not a surefire solution and certainly not easy, as it means moving from our areas of comfort and experience.

What I think the industry needs more than anything now is to find ways to help each other make the industry strong, and to establish networks and resources to accelerate change. Companies should focus on customer service, putting the customer needs first, and find ways to diversify and differentiate themselves as partners in selective service areas complementing their core offerings. Companies and owners need to choose an area of expertise, and then utilize all the resources available including supplier expertise, associations, and consultants to fill in gaps and build upon their own expertise. Organizations need to resist the temptation to do everything themselves and build partnership relationships with other service providers in providing a complete solution set.

As we end this year we should not view the position as hopeless but rather recommit ourselves to working together and to embracing the change around us. Let us each and every one commit ourselves to staying relevant to the changing needs of our customer base. As General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U. S. Army said “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”

 Looking to grow your print business? Visit MyPressGo for your personalized business development program created by and for digital printers.

Two things I read last week hit me with a one-two punch: first I read about Warren Buffet’s investment in IBM, and then I read information from a Gartner report on leveraging customer loyalty.

The AP article on Buffet’s investment says: Warren Buffett said Monday that his company has spent $10.7 billion to buy more than 5 percent of IBM’s stock this year, a surprising move by the billionaire investor who has long shied away from investing in high technology companies.”

Why the change is a kicker!
“Buffett has long refused to invest in high-tech companies because he has said it’s too difficult to predict which technology businesses will prosper in the long run.
“But he said he recently realized his view of IBM was wrong based on what he read in the company’s annual reports and what he learned by talking to information-technology departments at Berkshire subsidiaries. He said he should have realized years sooner that hardware is no longer the heart of IBM’s business.
“”Now they’re very much a services company, and they’re very intertwined with their customers,” Buffett said. And he said IBM’s customers are reluctant to change once they start working with IBM.”

Now for the Gartner quote on loyalty and customer experience:
“”I don’t think it’s ever too late,” said Adam Sarner, principal research analyst with Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc. “Long-term loyalty initiatives depend on building trust and affinity. The more relevant you are to the customer, the more likely they will be loyal to you.””

So what does this mean to us in the world of Print, or Print and Mail? What can we learn from these two seemingly unrelated pieces of information?

For some time now, everywhere we turn we see studies, reports, and market recommendations about how moving from a Print Service provider to a Marketing Services provider is the way to expand and grow our business. However, it is certainly a complex transition to make, and maybe even too costly. It is hard to figure out where to begin and even if to begin.

What I take away from the Gartner information is that for our industry, and for us as companies or individuals, to compete and succeed we must stay relevant to our customers. Communication channels and technology are changing fast, and some say Print, and Print and Mail are becoming irrelevant. We need to adopt a customer-centric view and prioritize discovering what our customers need, and change our organizations to meet those needs. We are experiencing changes, but so are our customers. There are new regulations and changing demographics impacting how our customers communicate to their customers. We cannot afford to take a product or technology only view, and ignore the changes impacting our customers. We must stay relevant to them.

My take away from the Buffet article relating to our business and our industry is that some very smart investors have stayed away from high tech companies because of the difficulty in picking a product or technology with long lasting impact. They are instead placing their bets on companies that are service providers because a good service provider becomes very involved with their customers and it becomes difficult for the customer to change. The technologies and the tools supporting our industry in producing communications have never been more widely varied and in flux. However, if we focus on the needs of the clients and their communication requirements with an outside-in view instead of inside-out, we, like the giant IBM, can change how we are perceived and increase our value, longevity, and profitability.

So in the end what does it mean? Listen carefully to the clients, learn and understand their needs and even what is driving those needs, and then no matter what you call it, offer service solutions that meet those needs.

Are you interested in learning how some printing companies have accomplished just this? Visit OceWow to watch best practice videos. Watch as we highlight what makes print operations like i3Logix, Yurchak Printing Inc., and Ideal Printers Inc. successful.

Newmark Print is one of the premier full-service commercial printers in the Denver area, providing turnkey corporate printing, mail, distribution, and digital media services. Its services include one- through four-color sheet-fed printing; specialty substrate printing; one- through four-color digital offset and variable data printing; and sophisticated prepress, bindery, kitting, direct mail, and fulfilment. Founder and President Aquiles LaGrave stated, “In 2006, I moved an old banged-up press into a garage in Denver. My dream at the time stretched no further than putting in a full day’s labor, and was borne out of my love for the printed word and ink pressing onto paper. Today, Newmark Print is a solutions-driven digital offset imaging and mailing services company in the Rocky Mountains region. Running two shifts daily, our employees oversee an operation that has over 250 years of shared experience. We run work on our five digital presses, fulfilling tens of thousands of orders and mailing tens of millions of pieces yearly as far afield as Asia, or as close to home as your own mailbox.”

CEO Jim Albany noted, “We have always been a digital shop. We service a myriad of industries and handle extensive direct mail campaigns, newsletters, and label work. In addition, about 25% of our business comes from being a trade printer. We work with other providers to supplement their digital capabilities. We leverage the Océ VarioPrint® 4000 for our black & white work. It has been a real workhorse for us. We also have a Canon imagePRESS C7000VP from Océ for digital color work.”

The environment is very important to Newmark. LaGrave explained, “The commercial lithographic printing on traditional offset presses is an incredibly wasteful and dirty process, regardless of the types of ink you use. Whether it be during set-up, clean-up, or imaging, traditional offset presses waste incredible amounts of paper, chemical solvents, and energy before the first deliverable sheet is even printed. This means that traditional offset outputs ‘Volatile Organic Compounds’ (the stuff responsible for global warming) at rates exponentially higher than that of new offset technologies. This was a driver for our focus on using digital technologies.”

CEO Jim Albany reported, “Instead of a traditional offset press, Newmark chose to invest in print engines that are a quantum leap ahead of older technologies in terms of quality and direct environmental impact. Our state-of-the-art digital printing technology offers offset quality while increasing energy efficiency, dramatically cutting down on waste, and eliminating the chemical baths associated with traditional offset.”

Beyond that, most if not all of Newmark’s paper stock comes from non-bleached, post-consumer recycled paper and/or from renewable resources produced on farms as close to its warehouse as possible. The company refuses to use paper from any company that does not comply with the highest standards of clean air and water or aim to create a truly sustainable product.

Albany concluded by saying, “In the end, engaging in sustainable business practices are not about buzzwords, marketing, or image. It’s about creating a world where we work to first limit, then eliminate the negative ways in which we impact it and reduce the strains we place upon out natural resources. This is why we do it, and why we invite you to engage in a conversation with us about the steps we are taking to help that future become a reality.”

For more articles like this, visit OceWow.com to sign up for the monthly newsletter!

While many companies compete to do business with large companies that can deliver sizeable long-term contracts for print and marketing services, a trend has emerged over the past few years related to targeting small and medium sized businesses across a wide range vertical markets. Many point to providers like Vistaprint on the print marketing side and Constant Contact on the digital marketing side to paving the way for the so-called Long Tail of services for SMBs.

Indeed, by offering self-service tools and a broad array of vertically-focused templates, these companies have grown tremendously and their services are used by millions of businesses worldwide to do everything from buy business cards and manage e-mail newsletters to launching full-blown direct marketing campaigns. While we often talk in terms of business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumers (B2C) models, these types of services have blurred these lines by making businesses buy more like consumers, while keeping the systems open enough to even attract consumer users.

Why are these services popularized and still growing? According to the Small Business Administration, there are over 27 million small and medium businesses in the United States, accounting for between 60% and 80% of all U.S. jobs. SMBs are typically characterized as establishments with fewer than 500 full-time employees. Thus, the market opportunity is tremendous, even if you are only able to reach a fraction of SMBs in the country. The power and flexibility of the Web, and in the case of Vistaprint and other online print businesses, the power of a highly-automated production environment, have enabled companies to service large volumes of small orders, something which is becoming more common even in larger organizations.

InfoTrends saw this trend becoming prominent and in 2009, conducted an in-depth study on the topic entitled Capturing the SMB Business Communication Services Opportunity, which surveyed over 2,000 small and medium business across 13 major vertical markets to understand how these companies were utilizing some of the very services just mentioned. We found that just like larger companies, SMBs were diversifying their marketing mix, with traditional media still being an important component but also heavily emphasizing the use of the Web and e-mail to reach their target audiences. Social media was also increasing in importance. At the time, 32.1% of SMBs indicated using Facebook to promote their businesses, while 16.9% indicated using Twitter to do the same. We hypothesize that these numbers have increased substantially in just the last few years.

Furthermore, we found that SMBs had a preference for a “one stop shop” type of experience for printing needs, and we feel that also translates into marketing services, as well. There are a number of vertically-focused services and service providers on the market that cater to a specific set of small and medium businesses. For instance, GuestEngine and Fishbowl provide turnkey marketing services and tools to restaurant owners. Demandforce originally focused on automotive services and dentists, but has expanded its marketing platform to personal services and other healthcare specialists. SharperAgent provides self-service, cross-media marketing campaigns to independent real estate agents, and was recently acquired by real estate software developer Market Leader.

These types of vertical-focused platforms are the next step in the evolution of SMB marketing services. InfoTrends is referring to them as SMB marketing automation services, as many of them aim to automate various aspects of the marketing process for companies while tailoring the services to meet the intricate needs of a particular market. Focusing on one or a particular set of vertical markets also equals more replicable applications. We are currently conducting a follow-up study to our 2009 research on this topic with a study entitled Capturing the SMB Marketing Automation Opportunity, which will be sure to glean valuable insight into how this market continues to evolve.

As it is often said, small and medium businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy, and they want to succeed and be effective in their marketing just as much as a large enterprise corporation does. Through the power of the Web, many SMBs now have the tools to market smarter. Nevertheless, there is always room for improvement and plenty of opportunity exists for service providers that want to take on the task of making print and marketing services more effective for a particular market.

Several years ago, Rob Carter, CIO of FedEx, looked out at the web of mind-numbingly complex systems around the company, and knew they were not sustainable. Some came from mergers and acquisitions, some were developed internally, and all were “necessary” to various business silos around the company. He knew it would be a tough job to demonstrate the seriousness of the problem, gain the support of business executives, and create urgency. In a “Mastermind” interview at last week’s Gartner Symposium ITxpo, Mr. Carter spoke about the transformation of IT at FedEx.

The difficult challenge he faced captured my attention, especially his comment that “I’m a big fan of ugly pictures”, to explain complex problems. From experience, I am a big proponent of mapping processes, (which generally results in a pretty ugly picture), as a basis for identifying and prioritizing opportunities for business improvement, as well as being a catalyst for generating creative solutions and high-level support for resources. Would the “ugly pictures” help Mr. Carter to show all the business executives at this very large organization the ramifications and future consequences of continuing down their silo’d paths?

The “ugly pictures” he created were maps of the spaghetti bowl of the entire FedEx IT infrastructure, including the total counts of all the applications, platforms, databases, HR systems, interfaces, tracking entities . . . you get the idea. He used the attention-getting ugly pictures and compelling stories behind them to get agreement and support from the top that a lot of time and money were necessary investments to avoid the time bomb lurking in the increasing system complexity.

FedEx proceeded to create a completely new IT strategy by “. . . decomposing the business into foundational services. Who is a customer? What is an address?” All the businesses had their ideas of an “address”, and had their own address databases, so instead of “knocking heads” trying to choose which of the existing systems is best, the company started over. They identified and solved for 22 core services, such as label services, address services, and location services, that really matter to the “simple” business of “picking them up and putting them down”, as Mr. Carter described their transportation business. Over time, interfaces fell away, some apps were no longer necessary, and a simpler, services-focused IT infrastructure resulted.

Have you or someone in your company created your own “ugly pictures” to help to re-focus, and simplify systems or processes? What did you focus on? What were the results?

Two weeks ago on The Digital Nirvana, I covered the DMA2011 conference & exhibition, highlighting how DMA is making a clear shift to embrace more digital, real-time forms of media and marketing. It’s clear that these areas are where marketers are gravitating toward. While print is still an important component in a more diverse marketing mix, it is becoming a much more targeted touchpoint in a broader, more complex marketing lifecycle.

According to a recently released study by IBM, complexity is a top challenge for the world’s CMOs, largely driven by the explosion of data,  social media platforms, the proliferation of channels & devices available, and the shifting nature of consumer demographics. For this study, IBM conducted face-to-face interviews with over 1,700 marketing executives from around the world as part of series on understanding C-level challenges and opportunities. The resulting report, entitled “From Stretched to Strengthened”, paints a picture of chief marketers that need to do more with less, deal with technology on a more intimate level, and ensure that the marketing strategies and tactics they use are effective and measurable.

Regarding the topic of complexity, IBM found that CMOs face a a “complexity gap”; almost 80% of CMOs believe that the world will become more complex over the next five years, but only 48% feel that they are prepared to handle this increase in complexity. Other important insights from the study include:

• CMOs and their marketing organizations are making strategic decisions based on broad market information versus information from individual customers. For instance, 74% of CMOs reported using customer analytics to understand their individual customers, but other sources like consumer-generated reviews, third-party reviews/ratings, and online communications fell below the 50% mark. Marketers need to be more customer-focused, and leveraging these types of data sources can help them do that.
• Technology is a much more important factor in marketing organizations these days, but there are two primary barriers to leveraging technology more effectively: cost and lack of ROI certainty. Furthermore, end-user skill sets and marketing’s alignment with IT are key concerns for CMOs looking to make greater use of technology.

IBM, of course, has made significant investments in acquiring data and marketing technology providers over the last few years, including Cognos, Coremetrics, and Unica, so this research fits quite nicely into the company’s narrative of helping marketers conquer some of these challenges through IBM’s technology. That being said, this also means that there is a substantial opportunity for service providers to help marketers solve some of these problems by utilizing data, making marketing more measurable, and ultimately simplifying the complex nature of this new world of marketing and communications. What are you doing to help your clients simplify the complex while driving strong return on marketing investment?

I came across this great article last week in the PINE newsletter written by Dr. Ronnie H. Davis, Vice President and Chief Economist. The article offers speculation on the future of print and print markets – something we all wish we could look into a crystal ball to see.

We tend to talk a lot about marketing service providers and how they are critical to the future of print. But this article presents an idea discussed less, especially on this blog. The article states that print logistics – things like packaging, labels, wrappers, and product user manuals – is the only industry segment not susceptible to competition from digital media. Though still a relatively smaller part of total industry sales, a series of graphs illustrates how print logistics sales have increased the most over the past 10 years and the number of print establishments who specialize in logistics has decreased the least when compared to other print segments.

Perhaps this is one untapped area of opportunity for the printing industry. Could your operation capture some of the print logistics market?

 Looking for other ideas to help grow your business? Check out the only business development program created by and created for digital printers.