Last week’s blog on paper price increases prompted a lot of interest. I received a good number of emails and phone calls from printers who thanked me for asking hard questions. But what about the response from paper industry?
With some publishers settling their antitrust lawsuit with the government, prices for e-books are expected to come down. But how much of a change will we really see? The big change will be that retailers will be allowed to discount the price of e-books.
I have been working with my son Paul on our annual Ratio Reports/Studies for the printing industry. It’s a very tedious process, to say the least. However, I believe it’s a very important exercise for print shop owners and managers.
Your customers receive a barrage of marketing messages every day—just as you do. Use compelling personalization to stand out on such a crowded playing field. Consider creating a brochure template that allows you to quickly insert customization and get a follow-up piece in your prospects’ hands.
Over the years, I have found companies much more comfortable with taking “small steps” because they felt they were taking on less risk. Therein lies the major strategy misstep that companies fall prey to in the budgeting process.
I would like to send out a sincere and resounding “THANK YOU!” to my fellow print shop owners. You are probably down the street from me right now, angrily bossing around your minions. Or, you could be mistreating your valued vendors.
Decreasing demand for publication papers in the U.S. is apparently having a counterintuitive result: higher prices. Or, at the least, higher minimum price levels during down markets. There’s a logical explanation, and it doesn’t involve repealing the law of supply and demand.
With so many paper companies in or on the verge of bankruptcy, significant capital investments in existing machines are rare. The most efficient machines today are likely to remain the most efficient for years to come.
That means the industry’s efficiency gains are too meager to counter the impact of rising input costs.
The Department of Justice announced it has reached a settlement with Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster, but will continue to litigate against Apple and two other publishers—Holtzbrinck Publishers and Penguin Group—for conspiring to end eBook retailers’ freedom to compete on price, take control of pricing from eBook retailers and substantially increase the prices that consumers pay for eBooks.
If, like me, you received price increase letters last week from a couple of coated paper manufacturers, you’re probably really frustrated. Is this price increase demand-driven? Of course not! Then why are they doing it?
If you just need to convey a point-A-to-point-B message, feel free to use an inexpensive sheet. But other projects need to do more. They need to gain trust, convey the brand and—especially in this over-communicated world of ours—demand attention.
