The Fespa Print Census 2014/2015 collected more than 1,200 completed surveys from respondents including screen and digital printers (34%), commercial, quick printers and reprographic shops (15%), signmakers (13%), industrial manufacturers (8%), graphic designers (7%) and advertising agencies (5%).
The second edition of the research will delve further into the six overarching trends to emerge from the analysis of the 2014/2015 census.
These were: optimism, customer demands, changing product mix, digital technology as change enabler, textile print growth, and the future of sign and display. Additional questions on the topic of sustainability will also be incorporated.
Fespa will use the research to update its insight into key market trends, support its understanding of the challenges and opportunities printers are facing and help to shape its own product offering for the future.
By keeping key survey topics the same as last time, Fespa said it will be able to track longer-term trends while also identifying new drivers of change and opportunity for the community.
Speaking at the Fespa Fest event in Hamburg, Germany last week, Fespa chief executive Neil Felton said: “This will be the largest print survey in the print industry and bigger than 2015. It will go round the world and ask between 40 and 45 questions about what the future holds; what technologies will people be using, what inks and what substrates?
“We’ll be able to break it down in terms of what the trends are continent by continent and it will highlight business growth opportunities for our members. 2015 was very successful and this will give us even more information about the direction of the market.”
Fespa will work with its 37 national associations to maximise responses from their local membership bases. By launching to a pan-Asian visitor audience in Bangkok the census hopes to extend its international reach further with additional insights from printers in South East Asia.
Visitors to Fespa exhibitions throughout 2017 in Europe, Africa, Eurasia and Latin America will be able to complete the new census onsite at these events and printers can also complete the survey online at: fespa.com/completemycensus.
The census will close for entries on 31 December 2017. A summary of the results will be announced in May next year at Fespa 2018 in Berlin.
The full census analysis will then be made available free of charge to members of a Fespa national association while non-members will be able to purchase the census results.
Fespa has also just announced that its flagship global print expo will become an annual event from 2017 onwards.
