http://en.wikipedia.org

A printing press is a device for evenly printing ink onto a print medium such as paper or cloth. The device applies pressure to a print medium that rests on an inked surface made of moveable type, thereby transferring the ink. Typically used for texts, the invention and spread of the printing press are widely regarded as among the most influential events in the second millennium[1] revolutionizing the way people conceive and describe the world they live in, and ushering in the period of modernity.

Printing is the making of lots of copies of the same document using movable

characters or letters. Before the idea of printing, everything published needed to be

written by hand. Letters, newspapers, and even books had to be copied by hand.

Most of the time this was done by monks. Soon, the monks, and everyone else,

realized that handwriting everything took way too long. People needed a way to

make printing faster and the printing press was invented.

The printing press was invented in the Holy Roman Empire by the German Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, based on existing screw presses. The printing press displaced earlier methods of printing and led to the first assembly line-style mass production of books.[3] A single Renaissance printing press could produce 3,600 pages per workday,[4] compared to forty by typographic hand-printing and a few by hand-copying.[5] Books of bestselling authors like Luther or Erasmus were sold by the hundreds of thousands in their lifetime

The printing press was also a factor in the establishment of a community of scientists who could easily communicate their discoveries through the establishment of widely disseminated scholarly journals, helping to bring on the scientific revolution.[citation needed] Because of the printing press,authorship became more meaningful and profitable. 

Book printing as art form

The printing press was also a factor in the establishment of a community of scientists who could easily communicate their discoveries through the establishment of widely disseminated scholarly journals, helping to bring on the scientific revolution. The printing press was an important step towards the democratization of knowledge.

Digital printing is synonymous for short run, fast printing, so it must be marketed as such. We find a lot of success in being able to to turn around jobs usually within a day and with almost offset quality. 

The first thing to do is to optimise your website with certain keywords or phrases that are particular to this question. Do not necessarily use the term 'digital

printing' as it is a fairly jargon based term that we in the industry tend to use. How about 'fast printing' or 'quick printing', etc.

All your marketing in terms of flyers, brochures, etc should emaphasise the nature of digital printing and how it benefits the end user (quick turn around, smaller runs, etc).

Another fast growing area is in variable data. This essentially means that there is static images on the print as per conventional printing but with the added benefit of individually adding text or numbers that change for each print i.e. invitations. Variable data seems to be the future in digital printing. We are already seeing the results of it with our bills. All individually printed with our details and usages. Explore the world of variable data and opportunities are abundant.

http://www.marketingprofs.com

Printers all over the world have seen declining business. 

I would start by talking with current and recent clients to find out why they are using less of your services. Your company MUST understand

this before you can put together a new campaign to increase sales. Obviously, something has changed and your company has to respond to it.

Maybe you need to offer different services. Maybe your customer service is a problem. 

Whatever, you can't be very successful with growing the business until you know why it declined in the first place.

From my experience printing companies can be of two type (a) the ones who work on volumes and can provide a cheaper deal or (b) the ones who work on bespoke jobs and command a higher price. 

I have worked with both kinds - asking the former to print leaflets or flyers for me or asking the latter to create a 36 page, 210*297mm, 400 gsm glossy brochure. 

If you really want to grow your business then I would suggest firstly, divide your tasks into strategic and tactical tasks. Let me explain:

On the strategic side - call a meeting with your management or your team and conduct a gap analysis i.e simply ask two questions - where are we now? and where do we want to be?

link this gap analysis to a ansoff matrix strategy

On the other hand work on some tactical tasks: for example if you have an existing website use it like an online brochure - add all your product details, specs, prices and even types of formats available. 

fish around - look what your competitors are doing, scan through their websites, call for their brochures, see what new discount schemes they are working on, improve time efficiency and provide a express service and charge a premium price for it... 

do you provide a designing service? if not then

start, as many companies opt for printing companies which provide this service... it all about one stop shop service..

I am not sure which country you are from and what is your current position but what i can tell you is your gap analysis will help you deicde if you want to penetrate or diversify... once that is decided... then its action time... start with your tactical tasks and try improving all areas of your business... just remember there is no magical formula to turn around things... so give it time and considerable planning... 

Thomson press

Thomson Press has been in operation for over 40 years and is part of the India Today Group a major multimedia

company having interests in printing, publishing, internet, television and radio.

Thomson Digital is among the leading global service providers in India for end-to-end Content Creation, Content Processing and Conversion for Publishers Worldwide. It is part of a 4 decades old company which is a diversified group and a known brand in the media segments. Our larger group is known as the "India Today Group".

The Largest Commercial Printer in South

Asia

Offers both Printing and Typesetting

services

Having four Printing Units, two Repro Units

and a Typesetting Unit

Sales Offices in major Indian and

International locations

Has won numerous Prestigious Awards

Thomson Press is a member of two

prestigious world bodies GATF and PIRA.

Businesses Own Brands India today

Business TodayIndia today Travel PlusMoney Today

   

Subsidiaries

Television Today Network (NSE ticker - TVTODAY.NS) owns

Aaj TakHeadlines TodayDilli Aaj TakTezMeow FM

Thomson Press (India) ltd. prints commercial print products and magazines for several contemporaries and Today Competition Network (NSE ticker – TVTODAY.NS).

 

Joint Ventures /

Foreign Brands

LMI, also has several Joint ventures / Licensing agreements with prominent brands for

Mail Today, a joint Venture with Daily Mail (UK)Harper Collins India, a joint venture with Harper CollinsCosmopolitan

their Indian editions

Prevention

Thomson Press has its operations in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Chennai.

Type Privately Held

Founded 1975

Headquarters

New Delhi, Delhi, India

Key PeopleAroon Purie, Chairman, Editor-in-Chief Ashish Bagga, CEO

IndustryBroadcasting, publishing, Internet

Employees 4,000 (31/03/2008)

Websitehttp://www.indiatodaygroup.com

 To recognize the customer's right to Quality, Services, Timely Delivery and Cost

To ensure maximum satisfaction to the clients

To continue to maintain ethical practices, legal, social, personal conscience framework

To encourage individual growth to fullest potential

To maintain high degree of efficiency and attain international standards

Quality through people and technology

 

Discipline and respect for commitment

Ownership of organization's goals and interests; Taking accountability and responsibility

Trust, sensitivity and professional conduct

Quality orientation and pursuit of excellence

The 'training school' was started in 1995 with an aim to produce printing professionals to meet requirements of quality manpower. It provides a one year course in printing technology where both theoretical inputs and practical training is imparted by professionals from the industry as per the syllabi prepared by the Thomson Press School governing body. 

Students are given a monthly stipend and are absorbed in various units on successful completion of the course.

Eligibility

Graphic Technician Course.

Diploma in Printing Technology from recognized

Institutes.

Machine Operation Course.

ITI Certificate in Printing/Fitter/Electrician Trade.

Prepress Strength

   

Capability to handle multiple customers for campaign work.

Continuous up-gradation of hardware and software.

Fast adaptability to new technology.

Regular Training & Technical Workshops for workmen & Supervisory

Staff.

24 hour service.

Weekly Kaizen Meeting for continuous improvement.

  

 Prepress Facilities

Some of the major facilities available at our prepress unit are : 

 Scanners

A high-end Screen SG8060P MarkII from Dai Nippon Printing

to obtain higher degree of colour accuracy and precision.

 High End Work Stations

High end Macs and PCs with original softwares of latest

versions. Most of the Macs are equipped with 6GB RAM and

1TB HDD, where PCs are having 4GB RAM and 500GB HDD.

High end Macs are loaded with latest softwares like Adobe

CS5, QXD7.0, freehand11, PitStop10.0 and the processor is

QUADCORE INTEL XEON with a speed of 2x2.4GHZ.

PC’s are loaded with latest softwares like CS5, QXD7.0,

Pagemaker7.0, CorelDraw15.0, freehand11, PitStop10.0 and

the processor is CORE2DUO 3.16GHZ.

Electronic Imposition

Pixel Stream Impose 2000 is used to impose the digital files

through software as per job planning and producing single

flat as output, resulting in accuracy, swift work and client

satisfaction.

CTP

From Dainippon Screen (Model No. PTR 8600S, 8800S and

Ultima 16000). Total Capacity: 140 Thermal Plates per hour.

Digital Proofing

We are equipped with EPSON Stylus10600, 9880,

9600 Digital Proofers. All proofers are capable to print with

resolution of 1440 dpi. These machines are calibrated with

our printing standard.

Colour Management System

We are using GMG Color Management Systems. It maintains

colour consistency and standardization throughout

the Prepress and printing process.

Cip 3

A digital ink management software, supplying digital ink

profiles to the printing press, cutting down make-ready time.

CTP Using Thermal Plates

An innovative feature that gives first generation dots on

plate and produces sharper images, by exposing directly on

to thermal plate.

Wide Area Network

All our Units/Sales Offices are connected with ISDN/High

bandwidth leased lines to transfer digital data from one

location to another for better service.

Proofing

Digital proofing on Epson 9880 & HP Indigo.

Press

Multiple printing machines - web and sheetfed - gives us the flexibility to offer the most cost effective and efficientprinting solutions to meet all your needs.

Continuous investment in printing technology ensure that the latest techniques and effects can be employed. The high-speed, hi-tech equipment provides you with a fast turnaround and consistently superior quality. 

 Press Strength

 Multiple printing machines - Web, Sheetfed and

Perfectors

 Most cost effective and efficient printing solution to

meet all your needs.

Continuous investment in printing technology to

ensure the application of latest techniques and effects.

The high-speed, hi-tech equipment provides you with a

fast turnaround.

Consistent superior quality.

 Press Facilities

 Sheetfed Presses

The sheet-fed press prints on individual sheets of paper, as opposed to continuous rolls of paper used on web presses. A sheet-fed press may consist of multiple print units that each

print a different color of ink. Sheet-fed presses come in different sizes.

 Web Presses

Web printing doesn't use sheets of paper. Instead, large rolls

of paper are fed through a printing press. Generally only

economic for large print runs.

Perfectors

A flatbed press for printing both sides of a sheet in one

operation

 Capacities

 1.4 million impressions per day on

Web

 0.75 million impressions per day on

Sheet fed

 0.3 million impressions per day on

Perfector

Thomson Press has the latest technology in finishing equipment. To compliment our printing, we have adequate capacities in cutting, folding, collating and sewing.

No matter how large or small your project is, it will receive the highest standard of care and attention from our fully trained finishing operators, ensuring the result you want is achieved.

Finishing Services - Please take the cursor over the bullet points to view the details

UV Varnish

Spot Varnish

Aqueous Varnish

Film Lamination

Hot Foil Stamping

Embossing

Creasing

Die Cutting

Index Cutting

Gilding

Folding

Sewing

Saddle Stitching

Tipping and Gathering

Wire-o Binding

Spico Binding

Spiral Binding

Microperforation

Silk Screen Printing

 Book Binding Strength

Thomson Press has an extensive array of automated

binderies dedicated to provide quality binding services to

meet the exacting demands of our customers.

 Binding Facilities

 Periodical/Journal Binding

 Hardcover and Edition Binding

 Perfect Binding (paperback)

 Saddle Stitch and Loop Stitch

 Library Binding

 Leather Binding

 Sewing

 Wire-o Binding and Spiral Binding

 Slipcases

 Capacities

 Hardcase 40,000 books per day

 Perfect bound 150,000 books per day

 Sewn Books 18750 books per day

 Saddle Stitch 300,000 books per day

 QUALITY POLICY

Thomson Press; pioneer in printing related activities, is committed to provide world class printing services by

 Continually upgrading the technology with motivated trained employees

 Providing services as per customer requirements

Continual improvement to achieve customer satisfaction

Appropriate, Measurable and Time bound Quality Objectives in line with this policy are established at functional levels

 

 

 EHS POLICY

Thomson Press (India) Limited, in the business of Printing, is fully committed to Safety at workplace and the Protection of Environment & Health of its employees.We shall achieve this by ongoing:

 Adoption of an Environmental, Health and Safety Management System (EHSMS) in line with International Standards

Compliance with applicable Legal and other requirements

Training and Motivation of personnel at work place to enthusiastically adopt EHSMS

We shall continually strive to improve our Environmental, Health & Safety performance by adopting New and Innovative technologies & work practices.

 ROLE OF QUALITY ASSURANCE

 Defect Prevention

By Setting Standard: Standard has been set as per the ISO 9001:2008 International Quality Systems and has been certified from BSI Management Systems India Pvt. Ltd. The standard is being revised from time to time whenever there is some improvement or modification in the system.

Ensuring adherence of the Standard: Periodical audit of the system standard is being conducted to check the compliance of the standard. 

Corrective and Preventive Action:Every complaint is being thoroughly investigated by QA for its origin and reason. Necessary corrective & preventive action is being taken in consultation with the concerned departments.

 

 Defect Detection

By gathering data constantly on occurrence of defect: Every job undergoes thorough inspection by QA before dispatch as per the inspection plan & defect checklist. 

By sending information about defects to relevant departments: Daily, Weekly & Monthly reports are being sent to the relevant departments and the same are being reviewed periodically with the concerned departments

Thomson Press has been in international business for over two decades and in a focused manner for last 15 years. In line with becoming global player, Thomson has made substantial investments. Essential facilities and equipment in the plant will make it a cost efficient solution provider, that will match the best in the world and will be acknowledged by customers abroad.

Mumbai which is 50 kms or 31miles from Sea port and 25 kms or 16 miles from Airport, offers the advantage of shorter time for imported material as well as export of finished cargo.

 

Thomson PressPlot no. 5/5A, TTC Industrial Area, Thane Belapur Road, Airoli,Navi Mumbai - 400 708 

Areas Thomson has exported so far:

TRANSIT TIME from Mumbai port to various

international ports 

Adelaide Algiers AntwerpCape town

Copenhagen DurbanEritrea, Asmara

Ethiopia, Djibouti

25 days 28-30 days20-21 days

25 days 24-27 days 14 days 28-32 days28-30 days

Hamburg Johannesburg Kampala Lagos Le HavreMauritania, Nouakchott

Melbourne Mombasa

18-23 days 21 days30-35 days

28-32 days

20-23 days 30-35 days 24 days11-13 days

Morocco, Casablanca

Sydney UK USA  

24-28 days 23 days17-19 days

24-28 days

 

Driven by people, over 1000 employees

Thomson Press, is a People's Company.The belief that

'Human Resources are the main drivers of the

organization' helped us build a pool of workforce, which is

talented, dynamic, innovative, creative and ready to accept

challenges.

We at Thomson Press believe in exploring, nurturing and

developing the blooming buds into corporate giants.

If you have the drive for being the 'BEST' then come and join

hands with the leader in Printing Technology.

Fresh recruits in the company are taken under a set of

Corporate Training Schemes 

Equipments

Repro

Input

Drum Scanner (Screen SG8060P Mark II, S3900) 2

Flatbed Scanner (Eversmart Supreme, 4

CEZANNE, Umax Astra 2200, Smart 342)

Digital Camera 1

Copy Dot Scanner (Renaissance II, Renaissance II Plus)

2

printing

Web Oset (Heat Set)

Goss M 600D (5/5c, Width 38" & Cut Off 22.75") 1

Mitsubishi Lithopia 2 web (5/5c or 2/2c, Width 32.7" & Cut Off 19.7") 1

E Q U I P M E N T L I S T

DESCRIPTION QUANTITY

Harris NCH 400 (5/5c, Two Reel Stand, Width 36" & Cut Off 22.75") 1, etc

Binding

Folding

Shoei Star SPK 66-4 KTL (23.6") 3

Shoei Star SPB 82-4 KTL (23.6") 5

Rollem CD Inlay Fabrication Machine (28" x 40") 1

Stahl Folding Machine type RF-78 (30.7") 1

Stahl Folding Machine - Buckel folder (32.28”) 1

Since its earliest days, Thomson Digital has been driven to break new grounds in more ways than one. Moving up the value chain was a natural outcome of the outstanding efforts of the team that envisioned the future of technology in providing publishing solutions. We have successfully transitioned client processes with unmatched pace & perfection and have thus become instrumental in their productivities and cost cuts.

 

 

Starting with conventional composition services, Thomson Digital has strategically branched out into offering extended services and forayed into new segments. The expansion has always been well thought out with an intention to allow the publishers to concentrate on their core activities. In addition to the traditional typesetting services that service providers have been offering, Thomson Digital currently offers the following niche services to publishers worldwide:

 

 

Editorial services

Content creation for school curriculum & children books

Illustration creation

Specialised medical illustrations

Design services

e-learning services

Multimedia services

Image research and acquisition

Software development

Multilingual publishing services

Our clients are serviced out of India from two units in the National Capital Region of Delhi and one in Chennai. A team of about 1500 people makes us one of the largest specialist teams in the industry with our offices all over the globe, which provide local coordination.

 

Thomson Digital also has overseas production Facility and its fourth unit in Mauritius for French language. This is strategically based out of Mauritius to tap into the French language resources available in the country. 

This unit also serves as a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery site for the organization.

Culture

Our people are passionate, motivated and proud of their own work. They are dedicated, stable and reliable because the company culture strictly upholds and fulfills its employees’ needs. They are the

powerful weapons to win our business battles. They are more than just employees and we view our employees as valuable competitive assets. 

Life at TD is buzzing with activities such as sports, cultural events, quizzes and competitions. The entire TD family dynamically participates in these activities.

 

 

What sets TD apart is the ability to compete, ability to deliver a high – quality product faster and more cost effectively, professionalism, communication, attention to detail, support, encouragement, dedication, passion and mutual respect.

“Our organizational culture is not totally focused on creation of wealth but building a sound organization."

Composition & prepress

Our services involve converting raw, unformatted information of multiple types into a consistent, defined, and directly publishable document format using customer-defined rules.

We also provide value additions such as artwork and table resizing and touch-up, scanning and fresh design and localization

of content.

Blending technology with skills honed by more than four decades of specialization in composing pages for the best names in publishing fraternity, over an array of specialization like:

School Education

Children's Books

Higher Education

Vocational

Fiction

Professional/Trade

Religious/Technological

SSTM

Project management’

Experience Infused with fresh energies makes a good combination for effective communication and successful project management at Thomson Digital. 

 

Our state of the art Design Studio is a rich blend of creativity and technology. The expertise of our resources is visible in the fact that today we are one of the most admired art creators.

Thomson Digital takes immense pride in creating a world of priceless designs with an everlasting impression. From visualizing the layout to conceptualizing the Prototype, our dedicated and highly skilled in-house team of Designers, Illustrators and Image Research specialists work together to provide par excellence services.

Image research

The skilled team at Thomson Digital researches and finds the right photo

options based on briefs, content, audience profile and other inputs. These

options are provided to authors and production editors as a “light box” to

choose from. 

Our inhouse-created Web interface facilitates and smoothens the entire

process of uploading image options and receiving approvals/comments

from our clients.

The volume agreements we have with all major image banks enable us to

pass on to our clients substantial discounts on listed prices for them to

reap the financial benefit. 

Conversion & digitization for consumers

Our conversion team is well equipped to handle volumes and large projects in converting one form of data to another. This team works hand in glove with the software team and we are the proud developers of proprietary workflows and processes, real-time validators and parsers.

We use contemporary digitization and indexing techniques to meet the customer expectations for both web and print deliverables. Our team has a successful track record of digitizing complex multi-colour projects ensuring fidelity to the original. Our qualified team and state of the art infrastructure ensures customer satisfaction and retention. 

 Some of the benefits of our services are:

     

 

A large pool of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in various academic disciplines, with post-graduate level qualifications, armed with informed understanding of the content to analyze, organize, abstract and metatag data

 

Software tools developed by in-house team which automate data-conversion into web-ready electronic formats using SGML, XML, etc and print ready formats using TeX, Adobe, 3B2, Quark, etc.

 Data archiving and updating services with multi-location servers and data back-ups for complete redundancy

 Translation services, and high quality print-on-demand services for hardcopy requests

 High speed and high quality OCR scanning and digital artwork conversion services

Strategic initiatives / strategy

Quality

We are an ISO 9001:2008 (Quality Management System) and ISO 27001:2005 (Information Security Management System) certified company, where qualified processes and systems are adhered to, with focus on their constant enrichment. 

 

 

The company has a four-tier Quality Management Structure:

Core Production - Right The First Time (RTFT) is a practiced way of life at Thomson. Here

Kaizen practices and Quality Circle forums enable grass-root-level participation and build a

culture of cooperation and positive thinking for performance and quality improvement. Open

upward communication is encouraged through Suggestion Schemes. 

In-process Quality Control or Peer Review – Produced output is validated against product-

specific requirements through these measures.

 

Process Quality - Process study, analysis of data, and process improvement are done using Statistical Quality Control tools. 

Corporate Quality - Gap Analysis audits are conducted to review compliance

 

with the standards and procedures to be followed. The Deming Cycle of Plan-Do-Check-Act is followed for standardization and improvement.

Rewards & Recognition for the best performers - groups and individuals - is periodically organized. 

 

We have also inbuilt Six Sigma data-driven methodology for process

improvements and as a pioneer in this, we embarked on our journey of

achieving Six Sigma in March 2001. 

For us at Thomson, process quality certifications are just one of many

things.  Quality at Thomson emanates from everything we do – our

products, our services, our processes, our structure, our attitude, our

culture, and our people.

Resources/ infrastructure part

Thomson digital has multiple lease lines for the smooth and continuous functioning. This insures against any breakdown and support timely upload and download of data without any time loss.

We also have our own FTP server based locally in our datacenters and in Chicago (US) datacenter for quicker accessibility, which allows easy access to information round the clock.

Backup facility

We have a dedicated server for backup at the main production unit. These backups are

maintained on daily/ weekly/ monthly basis. This allows easy retrieval of data. Along side a

backup is also maintained on an additional server, which doubly ensures the backup security.

    

Dedicated high bandwidth inter unit connectivity through owned OFC cable connectivityReal time data backup with 24 – 48 hrs disaster recovery plans

Offshore data storage facilities

 

    

Automatically updated anti virus software for all nodes and servers on hourly basis

Security

We have strict security and safeguards, and procedures for unauthorized access to

customer’s data. Safety of the customer’s data is of prime importance to us. At Thomson

digital we are able to maintain the required checks, as we are located in a Regulated zone

and have restricted materials movement. Our business units also plan to attain the ISMS

certification.

   Physical Security is through the stringent checks by trained security guards, round the clock.ISMS: ISO 27001: We hold ISMS ISO 27001:2005 and comply with regulatory requirements for Digital Data Processing and Allied ServicesDisaster Recovery Plan is in place and circulated to relevant people.

 

    

Closely monitored and restricted data handling by authorized personnel

People

Thomson Digital has one of the largest pools of more than 1500 skilled, dedicated, and motivated and technically

qualified workforce.

Printing Industry Marketing Strategy...

Printing Industry Marketing Strategy -

How many at the latest IPEX asked a fellow printer for a business card and got the age-old reply, "too busy to print our own cards"? Printers, marketing is the key in this economy and economic environment. Read onward to see why and oh, yes, please print some business cards...

Marketing Strategy for Success

All organisations in the Printing Industry need aMarketing Strategy to be successful.

Marketing is the process of planning and executing the development, pricing, promotion and distribution of products and services to targeted customers. Using this standard everyone in your organisation is ultimately involved in marketing in some way, not just some narrowly defined "marketing department."

Marketing-oriented organisations focus like a laser beam on customer needs and wants. They anticipate demand. They enlarge demand through promotions and advertising. Then they satisfy that demand.

Unfortunately, too many companies either do not understand this basic principle or lack the resolve to see their strategies through to completion. In fact, many businesses start thinking about marketing campaigns only after sales have begun to sag.

Other reasons why marketing plans fail:

 No sense of the future. Successful marketing is an `investment` in your organisation's future. Be creative. Focus on new opportunities. Always think of new ways to enhance exposure for your product.

 No measurement of results. Like any other initiative, marketing projects must be tested and measured. To measure results, assign someone to capture sales and customer information and give them access to all revenue and expense data. Once results are measured, analyse them and share them throughout the organisation. Then spend money on what generates the best return.

 Too much interference. Some CEOs approve a marketing plan, then insist on constantly making adjustments. Sometimes, the best approach is to wait until marketing efforts can be suitably measured and then fine-tune the plan. Constant meddling only distorts results and demoralises the people in charge of driving the campaign.

For some printing industry organisations, maintaining a full-blown marketing department may be too costly and impractical to justify itself. One option in these circumstances is hiring a `professional` marketing consultant to ensure that your product meets customer demands the way it should.

We suggest the following to ensure getting the most out of a marketing consultant:

 Start with clear goals. Define what you want from him or her, and `do not` hold things back. Keep in mind that no one understands your company's culture or history as thoroughly as you do. Offer all the details you can so the consultant has more to work with.

 Do not leave the consultant dangling. The marketing consultant you hire is a technical expert; he or she uses specialised tools to solve the problems you know intimately from your day-to-day business dealings. If you take the time to work together, you'll see better results than if the consultant is left trying to figure out everything on his or her own.

Marketing Strategy

Effective marketing doesn't come naturally to most businesses.

When reaching out to customers, many companies describe what the product/service is, explain their product better, and then explain to the customer why they should buy it. This is also how most salespeople make sales presentations. All too often, however, they leave out the part about how the product benefits the customer. But the only time the customer is ever interested is when you tell him how the product will improve his life.

Of course, it's impossible to highlight your product's/service benefits if you do not know what your customers want. That's where market research comes in.

Step one in market research is determining what you genuinely need to find out. Are you considering entering a new market? A new market area? A new product line mix? The kind of information you're after will influence the type of research you want to do.

Other key questions:

What's the current size of the market?

How fast is it growing?

How can we hope to reach it?

Can the market be segmented into targeted customer groups?

What makes our product distinctive among others in the marketplace?

What types of people buy our product or service?

What's most important to buyers when choosing a product (price, quality, delivery time, etc.)?

What do customers like about our competitor's products that we're not offering?

The Marketing Plan

The best marketing plans always focus on the customer; especially for print-shops. Therefore, the plan should be organised to address specific questions:

What does the customer really need?

Where do they want to buy it?

How do they want to buy it?

How much are they willing to pay?

A solid marketing communications strategy is also crucial as well. Do you know what your target customers read and listen to? What are the best ways to get their attention? This aspect of the plan should address your organisation's promotional goals ("promotions" include everything from advertising to public relations). Other key questions:

How can you communicate more about your product's/service specific benefits? How much money are you willing to spend to get your message across? What media would work best for your specific product? How will you evaluate the results of your promotional efforts?

Plan ambitiously but be realistic about your objectives. Consider what you hope to accomplish in terms of what can be realistically achieved. Ask yourself:

How can we want to set ourselves apart from our competition? By price? Product benefits? Other attributes?

Is our ultimate goal improving sales of a specific product or service or do we want to focus on generating more qualified leads?

Is customer retention our real objective?

General statements like "We're committed to getting more business" or "We want to boost sales" are essentially meaningless. Ask questions in order to clarify your goals. Keep working on your answers until you've identified your most important objectives.

Customer Focus

To think like your print-buying customers, your company must encourage a customer-oriented culture. Your decision-making process should include a mechanism for collecting and understanding customer input. Before you design, test and sell your product/service, make sure you've gathered, interpreted and synthesised all the customer information you can find. That way, you're not making the product in a vacuum, but backed up instead by solid data.

Where does this information come from? Below are several fundamental sources:

 Customer complaints. Look at complaints your business has received over the past few weeks and months. Does your management team seriously examine what's behind these complaints? Does the team offer solutions to reduce the number of complaints?

 Customer surveys. This is still considered among the most effective methods for collecting reliable, objective data about your customers.

 Industry trends. Study patterns in your industry. Read trade publications. Monitor new trends and approaches to customer care. Especially in the printing industry is this vital.

 Face to face contact. Do you know -- really know -- how your customers buy your products and exactly what they do with them? Nothing beats getting out of the office and meeting with customers directly.

Market research offers crucial information about customers' buying habits, needs, preferences and opinions. Below are five basic methods used by most businesses:

 Survey. With a well-designed questionnaire, you can evaluate a sample group that represents your target market. (The greater the sample, the more trustworthy are the results.) One-to-one surveys -- usually conducted in high-traffic areas like shopping malls -- offer an opportunity to distribute samples of your product and gather immediate feedback.

 Focus groups. In this format, a trained facilitator uses a scripted series of questions to lead a discussion among a group of selected individuals. These sessions are held in a "neutral" location (often at a place with videotaping equipment and an observation room with one-way mirrors).

 Personal interviews. This method is more concentrated than surveys, and while the results aren't statistically reliable, they can yield valuable insights into customer buying habits. They also unearth unexpected concerns that may lead to improvements in customer service or product design and distribution.

 Field trials. In this situation, the company places a new product in selected outlets to test customer response under authentic selling conditions. It's a valuable opportunity to modify product or packaging before final rollout.

The best customer benefit is worth more than all of your product's features combined. Do you know how your product/service benefits your customers? This should always be the focus for your marketing campaigns.

To keep that goal in sharp focus, We suggest asking these questions:

How do our customers profit from using our product?

How much money does it save for our customers?

How much money can it earn for our customers?

Does our product have built-in intangible benefits? Is there a way to quantify these intangibles?

"Identify the benefits your customers get from your product/service and then make those the centrepiece of your company's message."

The CEO and Marketing

A marketing-oriented print CEO works hard at intimately understanding the customer's needs. Broadly speaking, these needs fall into three categories:

How to increase productivity

How to reduce the cost of doing business

How to improve their competitive status

The CEO is -- or should be -- the chief marketing officer. He or she should avoid getting stuck in a 'product-thing' mentality that asks, 'What are our customers buying from us? Why should they buy from me instead of my competition?' Instead, the question should be: 'What value or benefits do my products/service provide? That's the only question that truly matters.

CEOs spend a substantial amount of time out in the field, meeting with customers and prospects -- "not for the purpose of selling, but to better understand their needs, wants and demands. CEOs are uniquely equipped to do this. They know their own business, so they'll likely understand what their business can do to address customers' issues. Many CEOs think this is what they've hired salespeople to do, but in the 8 years I've been advising CEOs, every single one has said it's the best thing they've ever done.

Above all, the CEO has the power and influence to ensure that marketing is considered a primary function within the organisation. Do not look at marketing efforts as an expense. Sales is an expense. Marketing is an `investment` in your company's future. Do everything possible to get the best people involved in marketing activities and see that this ethic is incorporated into the culture as a whole.

Direct Marketing

Direct marketing is a system by which a business communicates directly with targeted groups of customers in order to generate a response and/or conduct a transaction. Most printers provide a lot of these marketing services to their customers but forget to use them themselves! Despite changes in technology affecting virtually all aspects of marketing today, direct marketing remains one of the most measurable and cost-effective ways to sell products and services.

Should your company include direct marketing in its promotional mix? Here are the guidelines:

 Your primary, or significant, method of distributing your product is through the mail or directly to your customers. The key to doing this effectively is acquiring and maintaining an accurate database of targeted customers. The most successful direct marketing businesses make having excellent databases a number-one priority.

 Your product offers a variety of benefits. Trying to convey multiple product benefits in a print or electronic medium can result in confusion for your customers. Instead, a well-composed direct mail letter can communicate all of these benefits and announce special promotions like discounts or contests.

 Your product is expensive. Again, a direct mail letter offers greater opportunity to expand your product's appeal (and convince potential customers to spend a little extra) than the limited space of advertising.

E-mail marketing has become an increasingly valuable form of direct mail. E-mail ads are a great supplement to traditional methods, primarily for three reasons:

They are, in essence, free.

They can be changed quickly.

They aren't confined in shape or length.

other tips include:

Know whom you're talking to. One way to make your e-mail message stand out from the flood of others is by speaking to your customers in their own language. Through the use of industry buzzwords, you demonstrate that you know who they are, what they need and what you can offer them.

Include a meaningful offer. Customers are more likely to respond when they're offered something free (an industry "white paper," for example, or free seminar). Other eye-catching offers include coupons for discounts, free shipping, reward or points program.

Do not overdo it! Because of its ease of use, you could fall prey to sending "exciting" e-mail messages every day or many times a week. That's overload. A cogent, well-designed e-mail message sent once (or, at most, a few times) is preferable. And only send it when you have something worthwhile to share. Like this piece on Marketing Strategy. 

"Direct response" marketing invites the customer to take action by:

Placing an offer directly in front of the customer

Asking the customer for additional information or to make the decision to buy

Tracking customer response in order to measure the return on your marketing investment

All organisations will benefit from a Marketing Strategy by increasing their `bottom-line`, so visit the knowledge bank at http://www.cavendish-mr.org.uk for powerful products and services to help you become more successful.

For a free comprehensive report on the `Challenges for the Printing Industry` email your request to colin@cavendish-mr.org.uk

Do your customers need me to share with them skills and experience to raise their `bottom-line`? Please give me a call.

It's all about the Printing Industry Marketing Strategy... 

Heidelberg – A Strategy for Succeeding in Digital Printing

By Andrew Tribute

Published: February 23, 2011

[Special commentary on the news that Heidelberg and Ricoh announce global strategic

cooperation]

When Bernhard Schreier, the Chairman and CEO of Heidelberg Druckmaschinen AG announced at

IPEX last year that Heidelberg would be re-entering the digital printing market through an

alliance with a partner organization, I felt somewhat apprehensive as to just what sort of

agreement this would be, or even if such an agreement on Heidelberg's terms would be possible.

I know that I, and many others in the analyst community were somewhat dubious if such an

agreement would be possible with a suitable partner, and also if Heidelberg really understood the

digital market they planned to re-enter.

Mr. Shiro Kondo (left), Ricoh CEO and Mr. Bernhard Schreier (right), Heidelberg CEO

One has to look back at the previous time that Heidelberg was in the digital market. This was

when they partnered with Kodak to develop the Nexpress. Heidelberg brought its knowledge of

offset printing and heavy engineering and produced the Nexpress 2100 that utilized imaging and

toner technology from Kodak in a printing platform developed and engineered by Heidelberg.

While the Nexpress was a great imaging engine it was greatly over engineered with a

manufacturing cost that was around the targeted planned sales price. The product also did not fit

the needs of the market in that it could not connect to inline finishing systems nor could it run

more than one substrate at a time. It was not suited to the traditional Heidelberg customer in

being too expensive and with too great a duty cycle. It was in fact a typical engineering driven

rather than market driven product. Since the product was taken over by Kodak they have

rectified through re-engineering most of the initial problems with the Nexpress, and it is now a

highly competitive product line.

I was therefore delighted to find that Heidelberg's re-entry into digital printing is via a market

driven approach. The company has carried out a major amount of research into the commercial

printing market and has looked at all the different segments of the market to ascertain the area

where it is most likely to succeed in providing a suitable package for the substantial Heidelberg

worldwide user base. In this it is not going head to head in the "professional" or "high-volume"

digital markets, nor does it plan to compete in the highly competitive office market. The market

Heidelberg is targeting is the "Value" segment of the market. This is the area where digital

presses would have a speed from 60 up to 90 A4/Letter pages per minute with a monthly target

volume between 80,000 up to 300,000 pages/month or even more and with a price of €100,000.

This market therefore does not include the presses from HP Indigo, the Xerox iGen4 and

800/1000 presses, the Canon ImagePress 7010, and the Kodak Nexpress and Xeikon presses.

Heidelberg's requirements in entering this market are for the press to conform to the Value

segment specification, but also to have a quality that is the equivalent of that available in four-

color offset and "Performance" digital printing segment. The other unique selling point of the

Heidelberg digital printing offering is that while the press may be sold separately, it is ideally

configured as a package with the Heidelberg Speedmaster 52 Anicolor short run offset press.

Both presses would be driven from the same color management system to give comparable color

output. Heidelberg has analyzed the short run color market and found that the true economics of

digital printing show a crossover point of digital and the Anicolor at around 200 - 300 pages. They

see that when both the digital and Anicolor presses are driven from the same Prinect workflow

system that the true economics of every job can be ascertained prior to printing, allowing the

printing company to choose the best system for the job.

Now this may sound all very good but how will it work in reality. Well I think it is the ideal solution

for the small and medium sized printer entering the digital field and is in fact something I have

been suggesting for many years. A key factor however in this is quality and can the digital and

offset presses give the same quality of work. With a few exceptions, such as working with some

special substrates, they can. The work I have seen produced off the Heidelberg digital press

during an analyst meeting end of December 2010 was exceptional and I could not easily tell the

difference with offset printing. What was also significant was I could not tell the difference

between the Heidelberg digital press output and from the same output produced by an HP Indigo

customer on one of the latest HP Indigo presses. This is the press that is that has set the

standard for digital printing quality and which cost three to four times the cost of the Heidelberg

press while having a lower pages per minute output.

Ricoh Pro C901 Graphic Arts Edition

I think Heidelberg in choosing Ricoh as its partner for re-entry into the digital printing business

has been a very astute and excellent decision. The Ricoh C901 Graphic Arts Edition press is an

excellent press that is really challenging the established players in the market for both speed and

quality. While Ricoh has a great distribution channel into the enterprise and office markets for

both sheet fed and continuous feed printers and presses, it has a limited presence in commercial

printing. This provides a great opportunity for Heidelberg to use its worldwide distribution as the

leading supplier in the commercial printing industry to really establish itself as a key digital

player. Heidelberg will also move slowly into the market as it develops its expertise and offerings.

It is not aiming at the specialized personalization markets of sophisticated direct mail leaving

these to other suppliers, but it will no doubt offer software to allow its customers to handle

personalization of output. Initially it will partner with Ricoh for service while it builds up expertise

in key markets. It will however adopt the usual digital printing practice of click charging for prints,

and will provide Saphira toner for the presses.

The agreement with Ricoh should not however just be looked at for just the initial offering.

Heidelberg and Ricoh see this as a long term partnering agreement where Heidelberg will work

with Ricoh on the development of future presses to expand the product range, perhaps

incorporating Heidelberg's expertise in paper handling and color control. One must also look

ahead to think what may happen. Ricoh is a key player through Ricoh Infoprint in the high-speed

continuous feed market. This currently uses the Screen Truepress Jet520 engines, but one must

expect that Ricoh, through its Hitachi Printing Systems division is developing its own inkjet print

engines. I could envisage that such engines could be sold through Heidelberg into the graphic

arts markets for publishing applications. One must also look at what Heidelberg could do for

Ricoh. Heidelberg is a leading supplier of finishing systems for commercial printing, but makes

nothing at this stage for digital print finishing. I could see that if Heidelberg moves into

continuous feed inkjet printing with Ricoh that it could become a key supplier of finishing systems

for this market.

While the big news is that Heidelberg is making a major move to re-establish itself in the

commercial digital printing market, one must not forget that the company is already operating in

the continuous feed inkjet market through its Linoprint division. This provides specialized

systems for packaging applications using UV curable inks. There are plans to expand the

Linoprint product line to possibly move into other areas, and this would expand Heidelberg's role

in digital printing.

Overall I am pleased to say I have been delighted to see the change in role of Heidelberg, to

switch from being an engineering driven company to a market driven company. I like the strategy

they are adopting and think the partnership with Ricoh gives them great opportunities for the

future. I think that it shows that offset and digital printing work together, and that offset has a

major part to play in the future of the industry.