This page is from the WhatTheyThink Archive. For the latest Printing Industry News, Commentary&Analysis, and Economics visit the WhatTheyThink homepage.
If you're looking for a specific article try searching for it:
| - |
March 11, 2004 -- To paraphrase Barb Pellow in an OnDemandJournal.com article, posted last June 23, “The quality is good enough and the presses are fast enough. The software is robust enough and the costs are in line. Printers are implementing JDF, VDP and mailing and fulfillment services and marketing executives and print buyers are talking 1:1 marketing and integrated marketing (my addition).” Does that mean the stars are aligned and we will all go happily into the warm sunset glow of success? Maybe not… but this year's On Demand did deliver some new and innovative ways to get there. The exhibit hall flowed seamlessly from On Demand (production) to AIIM (software and IT) to the Digital Marketing Symposium (strategies for integrated digital customer communication). That is, if you didn't wander a little too far south in the Javits Convention Center and get lost a maze of glittering booths full of satins, silks, feathers, and leathers (the International Fashion Fabric Exposition). Oops – back to where we belong! The integration of the three exhibits into one delivers an important message: marketing is clearly not separate from IT and/or production. Xerox's Anne Mulcahy, Chairman/CEO, kicked off the Expos with a keynote describing the Big ‘I,' Little ‘T' in which she said that the focus has shifted from technology to information. Ms. Mulcahy also noted that documents are becoming “smarter” with the addition of personalized information, targeted content, and powerful graphics.
Hmmm… “Anticipated, personal, and relevant…” Now that sounds suspiciously like the message I heard in a Digital Marketing Symposium session titled “Three Men and a Baby” presented by Michael Nelson and Joel Hoefle (president and executive vice president, respectively, of Digital Marketing out of Minneapolis), Mark Schlief (senior partner and managing director of e-marketing at OgilvyOne Worldwide) and Janice Reese (president, NetworkPDF). Please note that there were indeed three men on the panel; however, I can attest, no infants were present! The context of the presentation: it takes cooperation to implement a sophisticated, personalized marketing program that “delivers the right product to the right customer, at the right time, for the right price, and through the right communication channel.” Sure seems like the definition of “anticipated, personal, and relevant,” doesn't it? Let's talk tech You can have all the great marketing strategies in the world, but if the underlying technology won't support short runs, quick turns and variable data printing, you're limited in your ability to create “personal and relevant” print communication. JDF Tour
Crowded around the stops on the JDF Tour, viewers were “walked through” imaginary print projects produced using technology from Creo, EFI, HP, Objective Advantage, Printable, and WAVE Corporation. The tour integrated various workflows and produced output to the EFI Fiery and Xerox DocuColor, Creo's Spire Server and Xerox FreeFlow, and an HP Indigo. A total success and crowd pleaser! Creo
EFI Another company with a list of products, solutions, and equipment as long as your arm, EFI's demonstrations of improved workflow and powerful variable data printing solutions included EFI PrintSmith 7.0 and PrintSmith Site, an e-commerce add-on module.
An extremely well-kept secret is the power of Fiery controllers to support variable data printing. While there are more than 1,000,000 Fiery servers installed, probably 999,000 users of those servers don't know that they already have a solution that could support an extensive range of variable data output languages, including PPML and Fiery FreeForm, to produce high quality, full color, variable data documents on high-speed digital printers at rated speeds – up to 2000 pages per minute! If you didn't pick up your copy of the “ABCs of VDP,” a guide to help printers successfully implement a personalized printing program by choosing the best authoring tools and digital printing servers and engines, get your copy at EFI's web site by clicking here. More next week!
Gail Nickel-Kailing, a nationally known analyst and consultant, provides counsel to commercial and digital printers and the marketing executives who use their services. Gail's clients benefit from her knowledge of business and strategic planning, new market identification, solution selling, marketing communications, and product management. Prior to launching her consulting practice, Ms. Nickel-Kailing held senior management positions at CAP Ventures (Norwell MA), ImageX (Kirkland WA), and Firstlogic (formerly known as Postalsoft, LaCrosse WI), an international developer and marketer of Internet-enabled data quality and postal automation software and services. Gail is an accomplished writer and public speaker, business process analyst, and market researcher with a special interest in the use of networks for the acquisition, production and distribution of printed materials. She can be reached at gail@business-strategies-etc.com. | - |
In Monday's second keynote, taking this concept to its logical – or
knowing his penchant for looking at things differently: “illogical” – conclusion,
Seth Godin (founder and CEO of Yoyodyne, an interactive direct marketing
company, which Yahoo! acquired in late 1998) talked about purple cows
in his rapid-fire, slightly frenetic way. Why purple cows? Because if
there were such a thing, they would be remarkable, that is, worth making
a remark about. Marketing is not about saying boring things in clever
ways, but is about making something worth talking about. And then talking
to the prospective customer in the way they want to be talked to – in
an anticipated, personal, and relevant manner.
Creo's integration of Xerox's FreeFlow Print Manager as an option in
the 2.2 release of Prinergy workflow management system got a lot of attention.
The result is a single interface to both digital and offset presses that
can direct jobs to the most efficient press for the job. Darwin 6.0,
Creo's variable data printing application, includes all the features
required to design, author and manage personalized variable information
documents to increase differentiation, stimulate business growth and
generate increased revenues. Can you say “anticipated, personal and relevant?” 