Many of those, including myself, who put forward such a proposal can even point to certain printing companies that have made this change and who appear to be bucking the trend in the industry by expanding their businesses.
However, while it is easy for journalists and consultants to point out firms that have successfully made the jump, it is more difficult for printers to change what they are doing and how they operate without help.
Although the business of printing can be boiled down to the processes of putting ink on paper, the industry has done far more than this for many years. For example, many printers operate logistics services for their clients, providing warehousing and distribution of printed products. Others have their own creative departments handling the design work they will later print. When all these services are considered together, we can start to see the emergence of the 'integrated communications company'.
Take your partner
Simply adding services, however, is not the full answer. The real essence of an integrated communications company is in the way you deal with clients. As an illustration, a typical printer will work with buying departments and will quote for tendered work. The printer seldom knows anything about the job until the request for quotation arrives. In most cases, buyers will get quotes from multiple printers and the job is often awarded to the firm that offers the lowest price or the fastest turnaround time.
Conversely, an integrated communications company seeks to deal with the marketing and creative departments and get involved at a very early stage; they may be involved in test marketing, helping to create the collateral that includes both printed and electronic forms of information delivery. These firms don't win work by being the cheapest supplier, but by partnering their clients in the planning, testing and creative processes to the extent that they are, in the end, the most logical choice.
While there are printers who are working in this way, there are far more who have either failed to see the benefits or don't know how to progress. One of the world's leading creative companies announced at Ipex that it is no longer interested in printers who only work with buyers. It was looking for a partner to help it get the best out of its wider communications.
For many printers, dealing with creative and marketing departments as a partner is difficult to comprehend. Most print owners still work in the company on a day-to-day operational basis, but this is no longer the way to work. They should instead work on defining how the company should change and develop future business. This is the true role of the print owner.
Many small printers may find they don't have the resources to move into the new business areas. Many may have only just introduced digital printing and are perhaps finding it a tough environment as they still have a printing rather than a communications mindset. These small printers need to realise that they have to partner with other small companies in areas such as web design and IT, as well as creative agencies, to build an integrated communications offering for their clients.
To succeed in the future, printers have to change their ways: start working on their businesses rather than in them, find suitable partners in order to offer a total service and change how they deal with their clients. Without this printing will remain a low-margin industry of the past and not of the future.
Andrew Tribute is a journalist and consultant in digital pre-press and pre-media marketing technology. Visit www.attributes.co.uk
