At one time it was enough for a printer to invest in the right printing press to assure the success of their business. The possession of a new Heidelberg would be enough to mark out the business as having the right equipment to serve a customer base looking for four-colour printing. That was 40 or so years ago and today possession of the latest Heidelberg/Koenig & Bauer/RMGT or Komori counts for little of itself. If that new press can deliver new products thanks to inline coating, if it is competitive at miniscule runs, if has a different format, the press alone can make a difference to a printer and its customers.
But increasingly this is not the case. Few customers care how a job is printed, whether on a litho or digital machine any more than they worry about what car the taxi driver runs. In most cases it does not matter. Print technology today can deliver a predictable and high standard of print. There may be questions over consistency on longer runs and questions about suitability of a technology for a particular substrate, but largely few of today’s specifiers are able to distinguish one technology from the next. Buying the latest print technology does not confer an immediate advantage.
Instead that advantage is to be found outside the direct control of the print business. It is not the machinery, from CTP to perfect binder that maketh a stand out printer, but what many an entrepreneur from a generation ago would describe as ‘the fluffy stuff’. It is discoverability on Google, it is a slick ecommerce offering, it is juggling all the social media channels, it is cultivating a profile in the print industry as those you want to work in. As plans are being drawn up for a round of investment in 2027, printers need to remember that fluff can make a difference.
Heavy iron is beaten by what can’t be weighed
At one time it was enough for a printer to invest in the right printing press to assure the success of their business. The possession of a new Heidelberg would be enough to mark out the business as having the right equipment to serve a customer base looking for four-colour printing. That was 40 or so years ago and today possession of the latest Heidelberg/Koenig & Bauer/RMGT or Komori counts for little of itself. If that new press can deliver new products thanks to inline coating, if it is competitive at miniscule runs, if has a different format, the press alone can make a difference to a printer and its customers.
But increasingly this is not the case. Few customers care how a job is printed, whether on a litho or digital machine any more than they worry about what car the taxi driver runs. In most cases it does not matter. Print technology today can deliver a predictable and high standard of print. There may be questions over consistency on longer runs and questions about suitability of a technology for a particular substrate, but largely few of today’s specifiers are able to distinguish one technology from the next. Buying the latest print technology does not confer an immediate advantage.
Instead that advantage is to be found outside the direct control of the print business. It is not the machinery, from CTP to perfect binder that maketh a stand out printer, but what many an entrepreneur from a generation ago would describe as ‘the fluffy stuff’. It is discoverability on Google, it is a slick ecommerce offering, it is juggling all the social media channels, it is cultivating a profile in the print industry as those you want to work in. As plans are being drawn up for a round of investment in 2027, printers need to remember that fluff can make a difference.
Explore more...