Print Lives, But My Industry is Killin’ Me. A Response to the Response to President Obama.
Those of you who know me personally know that when it comes to politics, controversy and even food, I am pretty much like Switzerland. I try not to offend, and not be easily offended. I typically remain neutral. Industry communications over the past week, however, have caused me to become a little more outspoken.
In one instance, one of our trade associations issued a video response to cost cutting efforts by President Obama in his attempt to eliminate wasteful printing.
In another episode of outrageousness, our industry produced, and in my opinion, regrettably shared, a video titled “The Sexy Side of Print.”
I realize our industry has struggled, but there seem to be better ways to promote our efforts than these two examples.
Below is my video response to the first action that brought me out of neutrality.
Here is the video reply to the President’s message that prompted my response:
Here is the link to President Obama’s video. For some reason, I was unable to embed it properly here.
I am still too disturbed by what I saw on the “sexy print” video to have formulated a response to that!
1) According to Pira International, the total global digital printing market has grown 122% since 2002, and by 2012, it is expected to double again, accounting for 21% of the overall global printing market as a whole.
2) Today, 30% of print providers offer web-to-print services. (CAPV)
3) 30% of today’s digital work is versioned or personalized. (Interquest)
What I hear loud and clear from these facts is that the future of print is healthy. As the economic situation in our country continues to force companies to tighten their belts and their budgets, the efficiencies of digital printing become more and more critical to a company’s marketing strategy. Let’s take a brief look at the how and why:
By 2010 I was hoping I would be done talking about the recession. Over the past year I’ve had several friends ask me about how and why to market in a down economy. The fact is that most successful companies grow through marketing in the latter half of a recession. Even more amazing is that a large percentage of Fortune 100 companies were actually formed during an economic downtown.
By marketing in a down economy you can put yourself ahead of the competition when the economy recovers. The trick to marketing in a downturn is to market smart. Any idiot can market in a booming economy, when people are willing to spend money all you have to do is show them how. In a bad economy though you have to market smart and show people why to spend money. I typically give out 5 tips to market smart in a down economy:
Integrated marketing is what most forward thinking companies strive to achieve with marketing efforts. However a large gap exists between print and web making integration difficult. The use of QR codes in print advertising and marketing can help bridge this gap.
