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Market Outlook 2010
Opportunities lie in multichannel communications and new technologies.
While the worst of the recession may be behind us, it's still a troubled business environment for the printing industry. More print work is moving to electronic media. It's harder to squeeze the same sales volume out of the same customers. If distributors and trade printers are going to stay in business, they need to change their business models. But how? As we begin to understand just how much print left the buying cycle during the recession, we must face the reality that much of it may not be coming back.
Distributors and trade printers should respond by reaching deeper into those niches where print is still strong. They must build new applications, develop higher margin services and expand into new areas, such as QR codes and other multichannel marketing services.
One bright spot is digital printing, the only segment of the printing industry showing growth. InfoTrends forecasts a 17.8 percent compound annual growth rate in digital
color impressions between 2008 and 2013. If you're going to invest, this is the place to do it. If print professionals are going to keep pace with changing market realities, they need to change their technologies and business models to provide the kinds of marketing solutions end users need.
Keeping Pace with Changing Needs
Since last year, marketers have been cutting their budgets and reallocating what money they had left to different media mixes. Often the shift was to electronic media. But this doesn't necessarily mean that print is being kicked out of the house. The CMO (Chief Marketing Officers) Council's 2009 Marketing Outlook notes that the top priorities of marketing professionals are to grow market share, improve operational efficiencies, increase customer insight and drive revenue growth.
Print can help do all of these things. In fact, effectiveness and efficiency in graphic communications means helping your end user customers save (or even make) money. Print professionals can help them do this by:
• Developing internet-enabled strategic sourcing customer programs (like web-to-print) that serve small and large businesses
• Leveraging multichannel communications programs with demonstrable ROI
• Focusing on recession-proof markets
• Helping end users market their capabilities
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