If this was a weather forecast, the prediction would be clear and sunny with little chance of wind, rain or snow.
No bad news here. Or that's what the commercial printers are saying.
When these guys talk about the current state of the commercial printing industry, it's all blue skies.
"This may be the best time to be a commercial printer," announced Gene Toepfer, vice president of sales for Michigan City, Indiana-based Foster Printing Service. "There are still waves of technology changes impacting the industry. Print is still alive albeit being challenged by many other channels of communications. Just walk in to a box store or travel center and be overwhelmed with all the printed products; the question is, 'do we own that space?'"
Bill Tignanelli, general manager of Admore, a division of Midlothian, Texas-based Ennis, couldn't agree more, proclaiming, "printing is alive."
"Look around each day, there are printed products everywhere, from office-related products, business-related products, direct mail advertising (have you looked in your mailbox today?), P.O.P. signage," Tignanelli said. "Even though the state of the economy has reduced the overall volume, printing is still strong. It may be different types of printing, but it is there. Printing today is what, a $[XYZ] billion industry. Other industries would love to have this type of volume."
Hope Schmidt, marketing coordinator for Crestview Hills, Kentucky-headquartered Flottman Company, has a more conservative outlook.
"Things are looking up for the printing industry, but there is still a lot of upheaval," she noted. "Companies and consumers are trying to understand where printing fits in the current business climate, but print does fit. The industry will never be the same as it was, just like any business. The needs and wants of the consumer change and so must the business. The trick is trying to anticipate those changes."
Though things appear pretty bright right now that doesn't mean changes aren't on the horizon.
Toepfer and his colleagues believe the big change will be the "rate of change."
"Trends develop, happen and evolve so fast that often by the time we see them, respond to them, we are a step behind the needs of our clients," Toepfer remarked.
Schmidt believes there will be a continuation of a familiar theme. According to her, printing companies—if they aren't completely reinventing themselves—will, at the least, be embracing the idea that they need to change as their customers' needs change.
"This is certainly the case at Flottman. Our sales and profitability have been growing thanks to our strategic planning and our niche in the pharmaceutical industry," Schmidt added. "But to continue this growth, we are changing. We are offering our customers new solutions like variable data printing, personalized URLs, QR codes, design [and] marketing strateg[ies]. We also just rolled out a new marketing campaign, Communicate Brilliantly, to center and explain these changes. At times I am overwhelmed because there is so much to learn and do and excel in, but it is what our customers want and need and we are going to be there to give it to them."
Commercial printers also are expected to be challenged this year and in the next few years.
Adapting to new technologies within the company and acclimating to the new technologies available to customers/businesses like social media and multimedia will be the toughest challenges for Admore.
"[Reports suggest] direct marketing is still your best source of getting your business out to masses," Tignanelli said. "You may keep them via social media, or transact via [the] Web, but you still need some sort of printed material or avenue to get to them. You have to help customers tie all forms of available media together."
In addition, there are the changing technologies for printing companies.
"Digital print keeps changing, major offset press manufacturers are working on digital options or some type of hybrid option," Tignanelli explained. "Offset presses are getting technology upgrades, which make it competitive at lower quantities than say just five years ago. This will help traditional offset commercial printers stay competitive."
Schmidt finds understanding customers and correctly identifying how to best serve them as a potential hurdle for Flottman.
"It is easy to write about change, but after 90 years in business, we tend to get a little set in our ways," Schmidt commented. "As I mentioned, we are one of those companies [that] is reinventing themselves and incorporating new solutions into our repertoire and that is challenging and will continue to be a challenge. It is also really exciting. We recently started working on a project with an investment firm. After a few discussions, we presented to them the idea of doing a personalized URL to help generate leads. They were so excited. It was new, it was different and it couldn't happen fast enough. There is nothing better than seeing a customer so excited about something you can do for them."
Challenges may be ahead but there are plenty of positives, too.
Toepfer foresees many bright spots. For example, he believes there are some great chances to use electronic marketing to support the traditional sales process. Recently, Foster Printing picked up several print projects that are direct mail projects, which help to drive consumers back to online store fronts—a perfect example of cross-channel marketing.
As the economy slowly begins to rebuild itself, Schmidt said customers and businesses begin to rebuild their confidence.
"As people are feeling more confident they are willing not only to spend more on services like printing, but they are also willing to try new techniques like personalized URLs, QR codes and variable data printing. Flottman's customers have begun to try these new techniques and each time they do they see success. It is wonderful to be able to show a customer real return on investment because they are then eager for more," she enthused.
And, each of these companies has managed to weather the struggling economy though overall they feel the industry has suffered.
"What industry hasn't been impacted?" Schmidt asked. "But yes, it has and I think it sped up some of the inevitable pain of change. Printing was not going to remain the same, since the consumer was not going to remain the same. When times got hard, the inevitable change came more quickly. I also think a lot of businesses inside and outside the printing industry really had an opportunity to evaluate themselves during the stale economy, prioritize and realize what they had to do to become stronger. There is nothing like a little pressure to get things really rolling. When the same old, same old wasn't good enough, the printing industry started to embrace some really fantastic ideas and technologies."
Toepfer added that it looked like the economy has reduced the dollars available for marketing/print budgets.
"For decades, when economies slowed, companies used to advertise, market communicate (print) more," he explained. "This downturn did not follow that model; marketing dollars were slashed, advertising cut and all of us in the communications niche suffered for it."
Regardless of a shaky economy, challenges and changes, these companies believe they are in better shape than ever.
"We have found ways to keep reinventing ourselves," Tignanelli announced. "The economic slowdown should have helped you find ways to be innovative and develop new ideas to keep cost[s] controlled so you can keep prices down for your customers. Gone are the days of 'we always do [it] this way,' when each day you should be thinking 'there's always a better way to do this.'"
Foster Printing is in an even better position than it was just two years ago.
"We dominated the magazine article reprint niche for over 30 years as the leader in the market, but in doing so, we were branded as only reprint printers. Today, we have rebranded to include custom and short run publishing, direct mail, budget stretching four over four brochure and flyer printers. We have enhanced our role in the publishing niche, established foot holds in associations, trade and specialty vertical markets, as well. But the underlayment in all these is the chance in our culture, our sales support team, our customer-centric production team and our vision to evolve and adjust as we go forward."
Schmidt said Flottman has always been attuned to the future. "I believe that the spirit of innovation and development continues and grows stronger. I think investing in new technologies like variable data printing, personalized URLs, web-to-print and by focusing on our own marketing efforts, we are well prepared for the present and it has sharpened our outlook on the future. Once you start, it is hard to stop."