WEB OFFSET REPORT -- Looking to Offset Losses
PI: Where do you expect web printers to look for sales opportunities? Do you think most will just focus on maximizing their share of available print sales? Are there any market segments you expect to show growth?
Keene: One direction we are going in is to become further ingrained with the customers we already have. It seems like every web printer I talk to is projecting larger growth than what is predicted for the industry. That means they plan on growing by taking work away from other printers.
Quadracci: The greatest opportunities for new sales come from existing clients. Our industry's best printers are more than purveyors of ink on paper; they are solutions providers. And, when a printer-client relationship advances into a true partnership, sales opportunities abound. Printers should be proactive in providing solutions that not only save their customers money, but also improve the client's overall business. Sales opportunities come through knowing your niche. Know what you're good at and exploit the sales potential by offering something no other printer is able to match.
Majerczak: In today's marketplace, trying to maximize your market share is a very dangerous proposition unless you have service-specific niches. In the current climate, incumbent suppliers are strategically fighting to maintain their business, and it will be very difficult to take it away from them. If you can develop specific niche capacities, you will at least be able to open new doors and maintain more stable pricing.
Demographic personalization and more specific utilization of data management will become very big issues. The evolution of digital printing into a higher-speed format and a more commercial type of approach will expand the use of one-to-one personalization. That will be a very significant product in the next few years.
PI: To what extent do you think web offset operations will expand beyond print?
