Avidprinting

While looking for a good printing company recently, the thought crossed my mind that I had no idea what lay beyond the company’s web site. Was this some guy with a fancy printer in his bedroom, running off sub-standard work to chumps like me? Or a proper company, with a professional offset press? So I decided to start asking some hard questions.

When talking to a printer, I’d ask what type of printing equipment they used. I soon learned about the different types of printing equipment out there, and their relative pros and cons. It pays to find a printer who offers both digital and offset printing. That way, your job will be printed on the machine most suited to the situation. This wasn’t always the case when asking a printer with only one type of press.

I also discovered that many print shops are franchises, and send their jobs off to a central point for printing. In other words, the guy I spoke to in the shop had zero control once my job had left the building. He had no idea how it was handled by the delivery company, the skill of the people doing the printing, when it was was scheduled to run, or what happened to it afterward.

That’s 4 chances for something to go wrong that are outside the control of the person I’m dealing with. I decided I’d rather deal with a printer that maintained his or her own equipment in house. That way, every step of my job is under the control of the person I deal with. And I don’t have to rely on a delivery company, or a remote printer with no direct accountability.

If I need the printing done in a real hurry, I can find out immediately whether or not this is possible. And so far, it always has been.

To summarize, this is what I think constitutes a good printing company…

• Local (in the same city as me, no delivery company required)
• Has both digital and traditional printing presses
• Can accept art work online (e.g. upload direct to his/her web site)
• Understands that I’m an ordinary person, and won’t be able to conform to some pretentious specification dreamed up by a professional graphic designer (some of the franchises are kidding themselves)
• Can deliver overnight if required
• Helps me to understand the baffling world of paper, boards and color

And yes, I’m happy to report that I found just such a print shop right here in London.

As you can imagine, revenues are down and continue to decline in the quick print environment. This decline started in 2008 and continued through 2009. Everyone is hopeful that 2010 will be a growth year, but hardly anyone expects revenues to return to the 2007 levels anytime soon. Print industry experts are predicting a continuing overall decline in the traditional revenue streams that have been the stalwart of the quick printing industry for years, namely: offset printing, high-speed duplicating, digital printing, bindery and graphic design.

Products such as letterhead, envelopes, business cards, fliers, newsletters, brochures, manuals, postcards, forms and direct mail have all seen declines due to the conversion to Internet marketing, the rise of Internet printing companies, or from companies purchasing equipment at the user level sufficient to produce these items in-house. Because of the overall decline of traditional printed items, there also is significant price pressure on those print shops that have survived this economic decline.

So, what is the future of your neighborhood print shop? Dr. Joseph Webb, a contributor to one of the industry’s think tanks, What They Think, has written a book entitled “Renewing the Printing Industry”. In addition, Barb Pellow, a contributor to InfoTrends, has also written many articles about the condition of print overall. Both of these individuals have analyzed the printing industry and have concluded that changes need to be made in order for all printing entities to survive.

There are several avenues that a quick print owner can consider. I will discuss two of them. The first is to fight the trend by being the best marketer of their service, to become more efficient than their competitors so they can compete on price, to implement on-line ordering to the general public, to acquire the business of closing print shops, and to, in fact, significantly reduce their pricing. I refer to this business plan as the commodity approach. Be the best in the traditional printing environment. There is still money to be made in the traditional printing environment for those who continue down this path. The biggest downside is that this market will continue to decline. The last maker of buggy whips was the most efficient of the bunch.

The second avenue of approach, and the one that most quick print franchisors are pushing is the conversion to becoming marketing and communications experts while milking the traditional printing area as much as possible. This approach also has significant risk for many reasons. At this point, there are few profit models to duplicate, there is little, to no recognition from outside the industry that a former quick printer can provide this expertise, there is a diverse expertise of franchise owners that does not include marketing training, and people that are already providing this service to businesses are also struggling to survive.

A couple of years ago, many in the quick printing industry developed personalized communications expertise. This allowed them to sell a 1-to-1 marketing piece for their customers, many of which were connected to personalized url’s (purl’s). This technique, combined with a targeted, well defined list allowed response rates to balloon from 1-3% to as much as 35%. What many in the industry found out is that the lead time to sell these projects were significantly extended over the time it took to sell traditional printed items and that not all customers could make the cost/benefit leap of faith. However, the ability to sell and produce these types of items led people to believe that they were now marketing and communications experts.

I personally believe that the second approach is the way to go for our industry. It will be a difficult road to travel and will probably see a lot of failed attempts along the way. Owners of these operations will need to commit to learning the marketing and communication business, will need to circulate within the marketing, advertising and public relations communities and will need to promote themselves as marketing experts within the business environment. It will be a long and slow path to profitability so the quick printer will need to rely on its traditional printing revenue to survive before the marketing area takes off.

So what is the future of your neighborhood print shop? It will depend on the path they take. If you are a customer, you should have a conversation with them to find out what road they are taking. A commodity printer or a marketing and communication expert. The downhill road or the uphill road.

Digital photography has made the dissemination of pictures much easier. If you have a good inkjet printer you can run off prints on quality photographic paper and get remarkable results even at home. However many people still prefer to send out for prints from the corner print shop, especially if they’ve chosen to shoot pictures on film.

Fortunately for tourists across the world, the quick print industry continues to boom, allowing them to develop and print their photos in virtually any city they may find themselves in. Print shops offer quick results at affordable prices and are not likely to go out of fashion in the near future. How many people, especially tourists, shooting on digital cameras have convenient access to computers and printers anyway?

Originally called copy shops, print shops now offer a range of services including traditional and digital printing, color copying, making presentations, and even binding and collating facilities. Efficient customer service and up-to-date technology are what determine a print shop’s success, especially in increasingly competitive times. Chances are there’s a print shop at every street corner, and to attract customers, each will have to offer something extra.

An alternative to high street print shops are online or web-based print shops that offer a variety of services including printing and delivery. All a customer has to do is mail a file of pictures that need printing, specifying size and type of paper, and for a fee, the pictures will be delivered to his doorstep.

Some print shops specialize in making quality fine art prints on different types of paper. With more and more artists and photographers opting to make art prints of their work, this is a growing industry, requiring precision and skill. Technology-intensive, it requires substantial capital, but once established, can prove to be pretty lucrative.

Prints provides detailed information on Digital Photo Prints, Prints, Art Prints, Print Shops and more. Prints is affiliated with Digital Art Schools [http://www.i-DigitalArt.com].