FREE Special report: Efforts to keep print from being obsolete

By Cary Sherburne, Senior Editor

November 30, 2005 -- There is no question that the printing industry, the second largest manufacturing industry in the United States and the third largest industry overall, is under pressure. In the “good old days” of printing, our primary competition came from each other. While printers certainly continue to compete with each other, other printers are not the real competition today—the availability of alternative business communications media and a lack of knowledge on the part of buyers as to how print can be most effectively used in a multichannel media mix is the real competition.

One thing is certain in this time of uncertainty for our industry: alternative media won’t be going away. If you read Dr. Joe Webb’s column every Friday on WhatTheyThink and listen to his quarterly WhatTheyThink economic outlook webinars, you will certainly have seen which way the trend lines are going—and it isn’t up. According to PIA data, the number of printing establishments started declining at the rate of about 1,000 per year in 1995—not surprisingly, the year that use of the Internet began to gain broad-based support. And between 2003 and 2004, that number jumped to 1,538—a 50% increase.

Part of the issue for our industry lies in what might have been considered a strength in the past—its fragmentation. As Frank Romano said in a talk recently, “We don’t speak with one voice.” We have too many associations, too many trade shows, and too much focus on underpricing each other. We need a way to unite this fragmented industry to ensure that print remains a viable business communications alternative in this rapidly changing world. And we need to reinvent ourselves—perhaps into what Dr. Webb calls the business of managing multichannel communications logistics.

Seen and Appreciated

Enter The Print Council (www.ThePrintCouncil.org), originally the brain child of PIA’s Ben Cooper and now largely supported by suppliers to the industry, although gaining ground among the printer community. The stated objective of The Print Council, according to its Executive Director, Marty Maloney, is to raise the awareness of print, which is “nearly invisible, taken for granted, and with a dire lack of information on its value among decision makers.”

In its first 18 months, The Print Council has gotten a lot done. The organization has been formed, including all of the legalities associated with establishing a non-profit organization. The membership has doubled over the last year. And a number of resources, including funding and pro bono services, have been assembled. But what seems sadly lacking is the articulation of a clear strategic direction as to where the Council should go from here.

The biggest effort so far seems to have been the development of a series of print ads touting the value of print and placed in publications like AdWeek, BrandWeek and DM News. Ads have also been placed in print trade magazines to raise awareness among printers about the work the Council is doing on their behalf. And work is underway to add other high-profile partnerships to the existing alliance that the organization has with the United States Postal Service.

But now we are at a point where the rubber needs to meet the road, so to speak. Building awareness is all well and good, but as any good marketer knows, awareness is not easily translated into a marketing return on investment (ROI), the rallying cry of today’s marketers as they strive to defend large budgets. There is no way to measure whether buyers and influencers are reading the ads, and it is difficult to quantify any action they may have taken as a result. So what’s next?

Maloney points to a key initiative in the works that will provide printers with tools and education to help them better position the value of print with their customers. The initiative has two parts:

A Volume To Speak Volumes

First, Frank Romano has agreed to write a book, The Power of Print in an Electronic Age, in conjunction with graduate students from Cal Poly, Clemson, NYU and RIT, and in collaboration with The Print Council and the Electronic Document Systems Foundation (www.edsf.org). The book, containing both primary and secondary research, will be a useful tool in educating buyers and influencers about how print fits in a blended communications environment.

Second, The Print Council will produce what Maloney describes as “a high-powered presentation” that will be launched in six cities in the middle of next year. The materials will be presented to printers at sessions in these cities, including one in conjunction with Graph Expo in Chicago (Oct. 15-18). The presentation will feature a toolbox of leave-behind materials including a video, scripted PowerPoint slides, and more. Says Maloney, “We are going to empower printers, so that instead of knocking on doors saying, ‘I would like to sell you some printing,’ they can ask customers and prospects for a half-hour meeting with executives on media and print’s role in media going forward.”

Maloney also speaks of a plan to use direct mail to distribute copies of The Print Council ads and press releases, and to tell printers about the presentation materials.

Too Little, Too Late?

According to Maloney, it will be eight to ten months before these materials are available to the printing community. By that time, we will have lost another 1,538 printing establishments—or more. And we will have lost more ground in terms of the position of print relative to alternative media. Print is already being called, in some circles, “Offline Media.” That’s bad enough—it doesn’t need to be relegated to “Obsolete Media” as well.

In researching this special report, I spoke to a number of Print Council board members and other industry influencers, and the consensus seems to be that The Print Council needs to seriously pick up the pace of its activities. But, perhaps even more importantly, there needs to be a well-thought-out strategic plan in place that will guide its activities over the next couple of years.

I asked Maloney how he planned to measure the results of the Council’s efforts. He said, “I wish there was a magic way to do that.” He went on to point out that while print has roughly a two-thirds share of advertising revenue in the U.S. today, with the Internet at about 2.8%, the Internet share is growing at 20-25% while print remains relatively flat.

Maloney commented, “If I picked that measurement to measure our success, I would have to understand when the Internet is going to level off. Forrester Research probably had the most aggressive number, saying the Internet would reach 30% share before it leveled off. But my job is not to make that level off; it is to take print for what it is, show its inherent value, and encourage people to use it when it makes sense.”

The Choir Needs Some Preaching

The other consensus was that outreach to buyers alone would not solve the problem. There needs to be more involvement on the part of printers. Roy Grossman, co-chair of The Print Council Board and CEO of New Jersey printing firm Sandy Alexander, said, “I think the Council has two primary objectives over the next year. The first is to initiate a broad-based, grass roots campaign to attract as large a percentage of the 30,000 or so U.S. printers as members to support, contribute financially and evangelize. If we are going to be meaningful, we must have broad-based support.

“Secondly, and equally important, we need to create tools that printers can use with media influencers to tell the story of print in a much more fact-based way than we have heretofore. We don’t intend for our efforts to be about print in exclusion of other media, but rather, in conjunction with them. Print is most powerful when used as a response vehicle as part of a multichannel communications strategy.”

Xerox’s Gina Testa, who spearheads marketing for the group, added, “The Print Council has made a great start, but because it is being done on a volunteer basis by everyone except our Executive Director, who was hired on a part-time basis, it has taken longer than we thought to get things going. We need to make a decision to invest more dedicated resources. The Print Council is well-positioned to operate as a neutral market and business development venue that is focused on this industry that we all love. Let’s step up the pace and help our people be prepared.”

The printing community should support The Print Council, but more importantly, printers need to reconsider the way they think about and approach their customers, their markets, and even the very essence of the way their businesses are structured. That will require both a willingness on the part of printers to make the necessary investments and changes as well as a concerted educational effort to help them make that transition.

The presentation and Romano’s book are great ideas. But surely there is something that could be delivered into the hands of the printing community by The Print Council in less than eight to ten months! There is so much material available. Let’s get it packaged up and rolled out. Let’s—dare I say it—deliver training over the Web.

It’s not as if these were new ideas. We have been talking about “selling the total solution” and “consultative selling” in the printing industry for at least 15 years. The launch of the Xerox DocuTech and the birth of print-on-demand in 1990 could be viewed as the starting point of the decline of offset printing and the beginning of the need to deploy a consultative, solutions-based selling approach, even before the Web began its onslaught. The concept of tracing print to the owners of the content and helping them understand new and different ways they can utilize that content is not new. The techniques for getting this done are not new.

What is new is the need for printers to offer a portfolio of services that incorporates alternative media. It will never be “them or us.” It is always going to be a mix—or, if we don’t do our job, it will merely be “them” at some point in the future.

Let me give you a recent example you might have read about where the situation is, at least at this point, all “them.” I can guarantee that this is not an isolated example, and that it is getting a lot of press in marketing circles.

By the Time They Get to Phoenix

When the Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau received a call from someone interested in visiting the area, they would mail one or more of several beautiful printed guides that contained information about everything you could possibly want to know about the Phoenix area. Unfortunately, delivery took up to eight weeks, and in reality, the material gave more information than most visitors needed. By the time the guides finally arrived, callers had probably even forgotten they made the call.

So, the Bureau decided to take a different approach. Now visitors to its Web site have the choice of requesting an “e-Brochure” customized to their specific interests. Visitors merely check off the areas they are interested in, provide a minimal amount of personal information, and almost instantly receive an e-mail with a link to a customized online brochure. I tried it—and so should you.

With the new process, not only is the information delivered instantly, but it is customized and relevant. As a result, the Bureau reports that it is getting a 70% open rate, and a 35% click-through rate. That’s in addition to the $60,000 in printing and mailing costs that the Bureau has saved in the first months of the program by not having to answer all those queries with printed brochures.

So, where were the printers in this deal? Was anyone talking to the Bureau about alternatives that might include print? Did they even notice the absence of requests for quotes on this project? (The Bureau goes out to bid when new printed brochures are needed.) Did anyone suggest the option of print-on- demand for customized or even personalized materials delivered within 48 hours, in case potential visitors might like a nice printed copy to peruse? I spoke to the interactive agency that implemented the e-brochure on behalf of the Bureau to get the scoop first-hand.

According to Jason Bear of Mighty Interactive, “Tourism is one of the major categories that the Internet has transformed in terms of making it easier to investigate options. A lot of people now tend to travel in a tighter window than before the Internet due to last-minute air fares and the whole culture of making travel easier than it used to be. We thought it was unfortunate that a potential visitor would request a guide, and by the time they received, it they have already been there or gone somewhere else. So we devised the e-brochure process.”

Bear points out that e-brochures were not designed to eliminate print and that both his agency and the Bureau have what he characterized as “great relationships” with their printers. But he agrees that there are probably many requestors whose needs are met by the e-brochure and who will never request the printed piece.”

He adds, “It is not a comprehensive publication, and for all intents and purposes, it is not a brochure. The e-brochure directs people to other resources available within the Web site that may be of interest to them. We see it as an augmentation to print, not a replacement, and from a CRM perspective, it lets us make that first touch immediate. Even if they could fulfill printed brochures within a week, I would still prefer to have a first touch within ten seconds. Getting something in their hands immediately, we believe, will result in a greater percentage of those people visiting Phoenix. It is difficult to measure, but we believe that will be true.”

Won’t “Pull the Trigger” on Print Just Yet

Bear notes that though there is a gain in speed from this process, there also is a loss in not having that tactile component, “especially when you are trying to sell the beauty of the area, one reason the Bureau has been reticent to pull the trigger on moving to a fully electronic process, but it is certainly something we have studied.”

To date, about 7,500 e-brochures have been sent. Bear was unable to comment on whether requests for printed brochures have declined accordingly. WhatTheyThink will follow up on this program as it matures to see what the metrics ultimately look like.

That being said, the Bureau is in the process of enhancing the e-brochure process, creating more content for the Web site by culling from the 2006 version of the printed pieces. The possibilities include adding coupons and offers from Bureau members so that in the event visitors don’t request the printed brochure, there is still a call to action; and rolling out a similar program dedicated to meeting planners.

Interestingly, Bear has been contacted by two printers from outside the area after having heard about the Phoenix program to learn how they might offer such a service in their territories. It was encouraging that two printers contacted Mighty Interactive, but two out of 30,000…

Control of Content: The Business We’re In

Sandy Alexander’s Grossman said, “Printers are going to have to get into the content business. There are no two ways about it. That is what any type of web-to-print or customized digital printing is all about—control of content. You have to be in the business of expanding uses of content beyond print. With today’s digital workflows, the output medium almost doesn’t matter. Digital workflow is designed so that whatever the output is, the production process is basically the same. We all need to be controllers of information and data, or managers of it.”

Grossman believes that The Print Council has a significant role to play in ensuring a healthy future for print. But he adds, “Although we have made progress, created a lot of discussion, and the industry has supported us, particularly journalists and the supplier community, we are all frustrated that more hasn’t been done. We all would have liked to have seen more happen in the first 18 months. But it is a huge undertaking, and we are all running businesses in addition to running The Print Council—and that has certainly retarded its development. We need an infrastructure that will be able to prepare us for the next stage of growth.”

A key part of that infrastructure is support from the printing community. If the printing community isn’t interested in supporting the effort, it will fail. Another key element, in my opinion, is articulation by The Print Council of a concise strategic plan with a detailed set of initiatives (with timelines) designed to achieve the organization’s goals. Without that, it will fail.

WhatTheyThink will be following this story as we roll into 2006. Let’s not sit back as a fragmented industry and let the opportunities pass us by. Let’s not let ourselves be relegated to being defined as Offline Media, or even worse Obsolete Media. Let’s pull ourselves together and “speak with one voice.” And let’s do so through support of The Print Council. But at the same time, let’s help them help us by giving them clear feedback about what they are—and should be—doing to make sure that our precious resources are being marshaled in a way that will deliver measurable results.

This report was written by Cary Sherburne. She can be reached via email at cary@sherburneassociates.com, online at www.sherburneassociates.com and by telephone at 603-430-5463.

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