Where Are The Young Guns in Quick Printing?

Industry consultant John Stewart recently released the 2011-2012 Quick Printing Industry Pricing Study. The document is packed with interesting pricing information, but to me one of the most striking observations was not in pricing, but in the Basic Company Data section. According to the report, the average age of the 350 printers participating in the report was 55 years old. The average age of the company was 28 years.

If this report is representative of the industry, then quick printing is going to go through some major changes in the next 10 years. The age factor raises more questions than answers.

Are younger people not coming into the industry? The baby boomers who started the quick printing industry are still here, but where are their replacements? Are their children going into other industries and forsaking the businesses their fathers and mothers built?

Why aren’t younger people attracted to owning a quick printing business? The industry has become more high tech over that past decade. Profitable shops are computer driven and integrated with the Internet. Don’t younger entrepreneurs see opportunity for their future in printing?

Has the core business changed and older owners just not recognized it? Much of the work that was once the bread and butter of print shops has disappeared. Today’s printing growth is in marketing related printing. This type of printing is integrated with Internet-based services such as social media. It includes variable data printing and data base management. Are younger owners attracted to a new business model where printing is only a minor component in the array of services offered?

Are younger owners just not attracted to associations that do these types of studies? Do the younger owners not see themselves as businesses that put ink on paper, but as more of a communications partner to help customers sell their products and services? Association membership in the printing industry is dwindling. Is it because there are fewer print shops or is it that there are fewer owners who see themselves as traditional printers?

Has the age of quick print owners hampered the advancements in the industry? Does the age of printers cause them to overlook the changes in the way people communicate?  Have older owners been too slow to adapt to business and cultural changes to keep their businesses viable for the future?

And the biggest question of all: if young entrepreneurs aren’t coming into the quick printing industry, who will be buying these quick print shops from the soon-to-be retiring owners?  Many of the 55 year old owners can probably make some money over the next few years, but can they sell their shop for enough to support their retirement? Have they modernized their business so it will sell? Do they have the trained people on staff? Are they selling the products and services that customers need and want?

There is always going to be printing, but how much printing will there be? I’m hoping the 55-year-old printers are concentrating on making their business something they can sell in the next few years because it doesn’t look like there are going to be many buyers available.

The Post Office Really Can Help

Mailing is a profit center for many printers and the U.S. Postal Service really is trying to make mailing easier and more profitable for printers.  To help, USPS has revamped its online magazine for marketers Website to Deliver. The new “how-to” website at www.delivermagazine.com offers all the direct mail and multichannel marketing strategy content of Deliver.

Delivermagazine.com provides direct marketers and agency professionals with scores of articles, case studies, white papers and online marketing tools to help them grow their businesses through acquisition, retention and brand-building. Delivermagazine.com features the latest research, news and commentary for the direct marketing industry. Article topics include brand marketing, prospecting and green marketing, among other direct marketing strategies.

The site also includes an array of online marketing tools, including a “Direct Marketing 101” series that teaches the basics of an effective marketing strategy, helping marketers make smart use of their resources. “Resource Wizard” helps users search for articles based on business size and marketing needs and includes information on using the Intelligent Mail Barcode. 

If you want to make mailing more profitable, check out what the USPS has to offer. They really do seem to be trying to help. 

Price Pressures Continue To Grow

A visit to the grocery store or gas pumps lets us know how quickly prices can change. Pricing are going up quickly and not just for consumers. Printing companies are seeing their costs rise. The question is whether or not printers will react and raise prices or eat the rising costs and suffer the consequences.

I'm continuing to get calls from printers who are complaining that their competitors are “giving work away.” They say they are forced into price wars because a few low-ball printers are messing up the market for everyone and making customers expect to get lower prices.

I can’t agree. Printers are notorious for being poor sales people. Most just wait for customers to call and then react by giving a price. Since studies show that most customers don’t have more than three vendors for any product or service, it is hard to believe that customers are getting that much pricing information to put pressure on a specific market. I can’t believe that print prices are the topic of conversation between business people over lunch or that some printer is actively calling on customers promising the lowest market price.

What I believe is happening is that all customers are looking for the best deal possible and are asking “is this your best price?” Price is only one of the considerations a customer has when selecting a printer, but printers think that since the customer asked the question, then price must be foremost in the decision.
There is always going to be a customer who only goes for the cheapest prices. There are always going to be printers who will do the job below costs just to have work for their employees. The best way to combat this is to get out of the shop, make sales calls, and build a customer base that will pay a fair price for your products and services.

Tom Crouser recently posted a video at his website at www.crouser.com that discusses how lowering your price doesn’t get you additional business or profits. The 18-minute video will help expose some of the myths about pricing and perhaps, keep printers from cutting their price just to get the job.

Printers have to raise prices. The cost pressures are increasing and to delay passing on price increases is unfair to printers and their employees. Printers are in business to make money. There is nothing wrong with asking customers to pay a fair price.

Finding PDF Answers Is Getting Easier

Ever have a questions about how to do something with a PDF file? A new web-based resource from Planet PDF will answer specific question about using PDF files.

The website provides answers about how to perform certain tasks, how to fix annoying problems or even which tools your peers recommend for your PDF-related projects. According to the creators, the primary goal behind the Planet PDF Q&A platform is to get the best possible answers to every answerable PDF question out there.

The prepress department in your shop will want to bookmark http://qa.planetpdf.com/. 

Learning Bindery Online

Every single facet of the printing industry is affected by the Internet – even bindery. Bindery is still a semi-automatic and manual function in most shops and the skill sets needed by an employee are specific. For most shops, training bindery workers is a time consuming task.

The Internet is making it easier. YouTube.com has a number of online videos that demonstrate different bindery tasks and offer the best practices. One in particular that caught my attention was FoldFactory.com.

Trish Witkowski, a graphic designer who says she has “a passion for folding,’ has created a website that offers video instructions about different folds, how to create and produce them in a production environment. Trish has a specialized expertise in the area of folding and finishing and is the creator of the FOLDRite brochure folding system.

Visit her site at http://www.foldfactory.com/ and learn about the best practices in folding and finishing. She even provides a free weekly email with a video on the “60-second Super-cool Fold of the Week.”

YouTube is a great source of training for the quick and small commercial printer and should be a regular stop when trying to find answers to production questions.

Are Printers Going To Lose Out Again?

Are printers going to let someone else make money off a cool communication idea and just sit around waiting to compete for the printing? It seems so as we see new social media support companies popping up around the country to handle the social media mechanics for businesses. These companies are charging premium fees and handling the print buying for their clients because print is important to use when creating followers and fans.

Why can’t printers offer social media services too? They already work with customers in creating and distributing the customer’s message with print. They know how to manage a customer’s printed brand. Why not use those same skills to help customers with their social media?
The printing industry has let this happen before. Graphic designers and ad agencies sell the print buying customer the perceived value part of a project (idea, design, concept, etc.) and leave printers to compete on price and service for the printing portion. Printers can do just as good work, but customers don’t think about printers when getting graphic design.


The same thing happened with PURLs. PODi, the organization that helps set strategic direction in the digital print industry, reported that on many PURL (personal URL) projects, printing costs made up only 10% of the total selling price. The people selling the idea to the customer took the other 90%. Printing became the commodity product in the mix. Someone else sold the value of the project to the customer and left the printer to compete for what was left.

The same thing could happen with social media unless printers get in front of the curve. Printers need to learn and use social media to increase their own sales as well as learn the mechanics so they can do social media services for their customers. It isn’t hard. It doesn’t require a major equipment investment. It is an opportunity that the printing industry shouldn’t let slip through its fingers.

Beyond QR Codes

You may have started noticing more and more QR (Quick Response) codes popping up around you. Since I started talking about QR codes more than two years ago, the little squares have gone mainstream in the U.S. This trend is expected to continue as more people purchase smart phones with the ability to read the codes. Many printers are reporting that the topic of QR codes helps them get past the gatekeeper and get  in front of a different type of print buyer.

Now that you can recognize a QR code, you need start watching for the new AR codes. AR code or Augmented Reality code allows a viewer to see a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated sensory input such as sound or graphics. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one’s current perception of reality.

If the AR code is viewed through a smart phone or computer-connected camera, the viewer sees something different. A business card becomes a three-dimensional object. A street can have an overlay of digital information over the scene that allows the user to find out more about what he is seeing. Characters and scenes can rise out of the pages of a children’s story book and dance across the pages. The possibilities are endless.

Youtube.com has hundreds of visual examples of AR code applications. Just search for Augmented Reality. For some quick examples of iPhone applications for AR, visit http://www.iphoneness.com/iphone-apps/best-augmented-reality-iphone-applications/. You may even have seen the new Hallmark card television ads for their new AR cards.

AR codes aren't as common as QR codes, but printers should start learning how to create them. They require special software, but they could be another way to make a printer different from his competitors.

If you are a printer or designer and haven't exposed your customers to QR codes, you are doing them a disservice. Any business with an Internet presence needs to be linking the Internet world with the print world. QR codes are easy to create. Printers should also be linking their own web information to any printed material they use to promote the printing company.

If you want to be the printing known for his technological know-how, then make sure you are getting customers to use QR codes on their printed marketing material.