PIA/GATF Converge Conference — 10 Ways to Become an MSP

FOR REASONS I don’t quite understand, lists seem to be one of the hottest media items. People want a quick solution for all that ills them—losing weight, getting rich, finding happiness, etc.

It seems the idea of lists is a magnet for catching our attention. When you walk past the newsstand, there is hardly a magazine cover that doesn’t have some sort of list prominently displayed. Even late night television talk show host David Letterman has his nightly lists mocking some person, idea or political thought.

So now it is time for me to succumb and offer my newly minted Steven Schnoll list, which deals with the topic of Marketing Service Provider (MSP). As I speak around the country illuminating the need for printers to morph from just being a printer to an MSP, people continually ask me, “How do I become a Marketing Service Provider?”

So, in the famous words of David Letterman, let’s get started with my 10 steps on “How a printer can become a Marketing Services Provider.”

1| Change your company name to remove any connection with print, graphics, lithography, etc. Printing is a declining business model. Every statistic we read, even in the most recently released PIA/GATF report “Looking Forward: What’s Next for the Economy and Print Markets in 2008-2009,” illustrates that the act of putting ink on paper is declining. Your name must reflect a more generic association—not just one associated with print.

The statistic quoted in this comprehensive report reveals that between 2005 to 2007, printing and prepress declined 5.2 percent as a part of total revenue, while ancillary services, the ones that are the core offerings of an MSP, grew by 2.6 percent in the same time period and are expected to grow by more than 10 percent by 2020. If you call yourself a printer, you are a printer.