No surprises for those that stay abreast of trends

The study commissioned by Kodak and carried out by US educational and research organisation Napco, unsurprisingly found that printers are better off when they can offer both digital and litho printing. The one provides unquestioned quality and efficiency on longer runs, the other efficiency on shorter runs and new opportunities such as personalisation. Kodak calls it the ‘and era’ for print, though for printers is a more accurate description. It is fair to say that customers rarely care how a job is printed so long as it’s on time, to the right quality and 10% less than what should be the right price.

The research though ought to have gone further and asked questions about the impact of commercial printers adding large format capability or pushing into cartons, offering a fulfilment or a mailing service. Plenty of printers have done at least one of these, some all of them. For to be a one-trick pony in this day and age, albeit a very agile and skilful pony, is asking for trouble. Just as those printers that derive three-quarters of their revenue from one client has found this to be a foolish move, those that cannot offer additional services to customers  find themselves outflanked by those that can deliver something more, hence Kodak’s ‘and era’.

What is also missing, and beyond the scope of a survey like this, is an ability to judge the impact of innovation and being able to market innovation in products, in technologies or indeed services. Customers do not expect their printers to come up with innovative ideas and suggestions, except where there has been a long and deep relationship where a printer has almost intimate knowledge of how the customer thinks and acts. These are the really fruitful, and over the long term profitable, relationships. Being able to offer litho and digital printing is as Kodak with its movie background will agree, just the beginning of a beautiful friendship.