Business Management - Marketing/Sales

Ready to roll, presses in 2006 will be driven two-thirds by “now-or-never” consumer spending and first-in-history “wealth effect” redemptions of real estate. Previously sidelined intergenerational wealth, plus inbound repatriation of a more than $800 billion trade deficit, will push gross domestic product (GDP) growth to more than 6.5 percent, versus 3.8 percent growth in 2005 and 4.4 percent in 2004. A whopping $13.1 trillion should be the unprecedented GDP! More than one-half of both the consumer spend and the trade deficit proceed will likely be related to real estate (HM ‘06 Number 4) which, arguably, is not real product growth, but rather a hedge

by chris bauer Managing Editor If just looking at the sales figures of the top 400 printers in North America can tell us anything, 2005 has been a pretty good reporting year for the printing industry. Of the 400 companies on our annual list, 258 have seen an increase in sales for the past fiscal year. Additionally, 125 of those 258 have seen double-digit increases. Not bad for an industry some have pegged as gasping for its last breath. Here is a look at some printing firms that are on the fast track to success—and details on how they are getting to the front

BY MARK SMITH Technology Editor Marketers, it would seem, are every bit as intrepid as mail carriers. It will take more than a modest rate increase to keep the mail from going through, as the prevailing outlook for direct mail in 2006 calls for continued growth. Success will be database driven, with messaging getting ever more personal. By the time the ball drops in New York's Times Square, more than $161 billion will have been spent this year on direct marketing in the United States, projects an independent study commissioned by The Direct Marketing Association (DMA). According to its "U.S. Direct Marketing Today: Economic

BY MARK SMITH Technology Editor When it comes to physical format and production processes, catalogs and magazines have always been more alike than different. The introduction of the "magalog" concept extended the overlap to content and intent, albeit in a limited fashion. Now, as the industry looks forward to 2006, there are a lot of common threads in the business issues facing these two market sectors. Postal rate increases obviously are a challenge for much of the printing industry, but these two sectors bear the brunt, along with direct mail. Paper issues—including pricing, availability and sustainable manufacturing—also cut equally across both sectors. Their customers

You have been good readers this year and I am going to give you some Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa gifts, depending, of course, on your holiday persuasion. This is another "first ever" column. Giving readers beautifully gift-wrapped presents in a written medium has never been done before. You will recall I was the first columnist to ever hypnotize his readers in a column that I wrote back in 2001. Yeah, I think it was 2001? Some of those readers never came out of their stupors. Still others are permanently locked in a trance and, I might add, are better off. The meddling Food and

Oh great! This is just what we needed. More competition! New competition! The news item was all over the trade press during PRINT 05. This time it's our federal government. They bought a new five-unit sheetfed press. They paid cash. A few million for a new press is nothing to our officials in Washington, DC. After all, Congress just passed a Hurricane Katrina relief bill that is paying some cruise lines $2,500 per person per week to house Katrina victims. I don't mind that so much, but the weekly rate is about three times the regular price when the ships are actually cruising. Then there was

By Vincent Mallardi Forget 1-to-1, B-to-B and the like. Nowadays the foregoing are bipolar sales disorders. Instead, try a new formula. It can take sales to the third power, and is called triangular selling. This is where a "third party," besides the ordinary buyer and seller, is brought into the transaction. The results cube your sales as you step out of the square—the new math of marketing exponentially. Who's new? Three third parties may be invited: a benefactor [B] or payer who's independent of the buyer, a content provider [C] with a gift of graphic information, a distribution channel [D] with a place to place the print,

I've been in sales and marketing most of my career and was delighted to be invited to contribute to Printing Impressions on the subject of marketing in the printing industry. This column will appear every other month, and in it I will be offering advice, guidance and suggestions about how you can use marketing strategies to grow your business and make your sales- force more effective. Peter Drucker, an expert in strategy and policy, once made the comment that the purpose of marketing is to eliminate the need for sales. While I'm certainly not as smart, experienced or well-known as the esteemed Mr. Drucker, I

Marketing Is What Differentiates Us Don't wager your future on that brand-new offset or digital press your company just installed. Or even on those value-added, non-print services you've decided to embrace. They may help grow your business in the long run, but are no immediate sure bet if not supported by ongoing marketing efforts that help entice existing clients and prospects to buy your various service offerings.

Read this entire column and you could score $1,000 or a great Mañana Man golf shirt. Come on now. It's only 1,381 words. Our industry gets a bad rap. I know. It depresses some of you who are embarrassed and lie. You tell your friends and family that you're in IRS audit and collections, or in the sludge reclamation business, or you are involved in swamp- land real estate sales. Your mama can handle your brother being sent to the big house for 15 to 20, but would go into cardiac arrest if she knew you work for a printer. Print buyers take us