Separate reports published this month highlight the need for change and for print to become more closely engaged with the mainstream adoption of online trading and marketing.
The first report from Drupa is the second in a series published in the run up to the 2016 show. It conducted research across the world with 240 detailed interviews to understand how printers were coping with the decline in commercial print volumes. These are down according to 46% of participants, with just 21% reporting an increase.
The declines in packaging were around 14%; 33% in commercial print and 42% in publishing where the impact of the internet has been greatest. The response in the f]last five years has been a negligible investment in IT, just 23% saying that they had invested in this area – less than 5% a year. Further investment has been held back by difficulties in recruiting staff with IT skills, but not why this is so.
The background in five years has been a “just astonishing” increase in commerce activity and while printers have added web to print the report says: “Print has struggled to exploit the opportunities.” It records that 51% of printers have web to print systems, but only 14% gain more than 25% of their orders in this way.
It is a missed opportunity (which attending Drupa in 18 months time will surely address). “The technology exists to help printers to come with the unprecedented change driven by digital media,” the report says. The full report is available from the Drupa website for €249.
Canon’s report is the latest in its series of Insight reports looking at changing trends across Europe, Middle East and Africa. It also involves an audience split between digital printers and print specifiers, in all 550 interviews.
The aim has been to compare how both sides think about the future use of print and therefore to help printers adjust to the new reality. Unfortunately while marketers and print specifiers are using print as an element in a campaign, more than two thirds are running cross channel campaigns, few printers are delivering these services. Just 20% are in this position says the report.
Worse printers seem reluctant to adapt. According to print specifiers, just 56% are told about new technologies by their printers, meaning that 44% either forget or prefer not to inform their customer base. It is a customer base that while it recognises the attributes of print in terms of tactility, permanence and so on, also expects to be buying less print in future.
The need says Canon is to go out and promote the qualities that print has. “Printers need to work to prevent migration,” it says. There is some recognition that change is needed, 80% believing this to be true, which is 8% up on the pre-recession 2008 survey. However, the report also finds that only 48% of printers have a development strategy in place and of these only half review this.
The report commissioned by Drupa will be used to help frame the direction of the 2016 show to ensure that it is relevant to printers from across the world.
