CATALOG & MAGAZINE PRINTING OUTLOOK -- Making Every Page Count

*RR Donnelley is not reflected on this list. The company no longer releases a breakdown of its segment sales.

"Healthy" is how Donald Treis, CEO of Arandell Corp., characterizes the outlook for the catalog market in 2006. One reason is because companies that have never used them before are now looking to catalogs as a tool to expand their businesses. Catalogs can help drive both Internet and retail store sales, he notes.

On the supplier side, "the marketplace continues to be most strong for companies that have invested in new technology," Treis continues. Printers that are forward-thinking in their approach to production will continue to grow in 2006.

"You can't compete in today's marketplace with old equipment. A key asset is having the best technology you can afford in order to win new business and maintain current customers," asserts the printing exec.

Strong Expectations

Mark Deterding, president of Banta Catalog Group, says that the marketers within its customer base are generally expecting business to be strong in 2006. Members of this group span a wide variety of both business-to-consumer and business-to-business catalogers.

"There is a lot of optimism about plans to implement new marketing tools, including personalization, market segmentation and increased database management," Deterding explains. "While there is concern about potential cost increases, this seems to be more than offset by the enthusiasm they (catalogers) have for driving new business growth."

Personalization/one-to-one marketing is really taking off now that there is credible data to support the notion that adding personalized messages can help catalogers drive sales and create customer loyalty, reports the company president. "For years, Banta has offered numerous options in personalization and we are continuing to advance our capabilities."

Increased focus on database management goes hand in hand with that trend. "Marketers understand the value of mining their databases, and we believe that our tools and expertise can help them take advantage of the customer data they have," Deterding says. "We are actively developing additional capabilities in this area."