The following is an excerpt from Disrupting the Future, a book about changes in the printing industry written by print industry analyst and consultant Joe Webb and Richard Romano. This excerpt is taken form Chapter 8, in which the authors discuss ways printers can face the future. To download a copy of the book, click here.
Here’s where we build on the previous chapters, get down to the nitty-gritty, and proceed to draw up some “new rules” for the printing business.
Printers need to become outsourced communications providers.
That is, not just “printers.” For example, if you buy a machine in Staples that functions as a printer, scanner, and fax machine, should it simply be called a printer? Or is it more appropriately a multifunction device? Commercial print providers need to see themselves in a similar fashion. That is, they should be concentrating—psychologically as well as practically—on becoming communications providers, with all that the word “communications” implies.
So the first rule is to stop referring to it as the “printing” business. It’s the “communications” business. So, from now on, we are going to be using the term “communications providers” instead of “printers.” Eventually, it will catch on.
A “new” print communications business that cannot execute new media for its own business will not have credibility selling those services to others.
There is a classic logic puzzle that runs this way:
A man was in a small town for the day, and needed a haircut. He noticed that there were only two barbers in town, and decided to apply a bit of logical deduction to choosing the best one. Looking at their shops, he saw that the first one was very neat and the barber was clean shaven with a nice haircut. The other shop was a mess, and the barber there needed a shave and had a bad cut besides. Which barber did he choose?
The answer, of course, is the messy barber. Since barbers can’t cut their own hair, obviously the one who had the great haircut was barbered by the messy guy. And vice versa. We mention this because those shops that use their own services effectively for their own purposes have more credibility than those that don’t—or which simply talk about it.
Stay ahead of the clients; ignore the competitors.
Since the early 2000s, one increasing complaint of graphic designers has been that their own clients have become their biggest competition. After all, the “graphic design” capabilities of Microsoft Office (such as they are) are available to anyone who owns Office—which is, we feel it safe to say, most businesses and individuals. It may not be great graphic design, but what all that Comic Sans means is that people are quite happy to not spend a great deal on “real” design services if they can just whip something up in Word. Sure, a major communications campaign is not going to get created this way (or at least not yet), but most everyday design and printing needs likely will be.
The solution for designers—and this includes Web designers as well—has been to stay ahead of what the clients can do themselves. There is a paradoxical quote from Mahatma Gandhi that seems apt: “There go my people. I must follow them, for I am their leader.” It’s important to see where your customers (that is, the market) are going, but it’s even more important to be able to stay ahead of them. It’s a tricky balancing act, but successful companies can do it.
Traditions and the mismatch of capital with the marketplace limit the ability to implement change.
This is a recurring theme throughout this book: planning for the past rather than the present or the future. As we have said repeatedly, the balance must be struck between being able to provide what the marketplace currently demands, but not be so rigid that the company can’t respond to changes in the marketplace.
Focus on client’s total communications ROI, especially for non-print initiatives.
Most printers communications providers have absolutely no idea about customers’ ROI. Heck, they rarely have any real clue about their own, so it shouldn’t seem surprising that they are even more clueless about their clients’. But it’s an important conversation to have. We’ve been print buyers long enough to know that printers rarely have any follow-up on projects, and even fewer bid on a job and then follow up on why they didn’t get the job. They probably assume someone else quoted a cheaper price, but is that really the case?
Here’s an actual case in point. (We’ll leave names out, to protect the innocent.) A few months ago, a company that had existed 100% online asked us to look into producing a printed newsletter for its “elite” clients. We solicited a few bids from printers, but for a variety of reasons the project never happened. However, none of the printers who had bid on the job ever followed up and asked “So is the project happening? Did you go with someone else?” Sure, there are a variety of assumptions the printers could have made, if they even made any at all. But a simple phone call or e-mail could have gone a long way toward understanding the needs of their potential clients (i.e., us). And, to indulge in a bit of blue-skying here, if they were really proactive they could have sought to understand that our client, not ever having printed things before, got “sticker shock” at the cost of printing and mailing a newsletter. They could have tried to assess this company’s current communications strategy and perhaps even offered ways of supplying some portion of it—with the option of print still existing at some point down the road.
But instead, they all decided to leave us to our own devices (so to speak) and not bother themselves with understanding where we are and where we want to go. More fool them.
Multichannel Has Multichallenges
How does a monochannel industry move toward becoming a multichannel one? Granted it’s not without its challenges, but here are some ideas:
Consistency and persistence are essential virtues.
Success is not going to happen overnight, and it’s not going to be a case “if you build it, they will come.” People who have achieved success in new media have done so because they were persistent and consistent.
Bloggers “catch on” because they post frequently and consistently and say valuable things that people want to read. Nothing is more frustrating for an Internet user to keep checking a site, or a Facebook page, or a Twitter feed only to find that it has been weeks since it was last updated. Successful new media users talk to their constituents regularly and predictably.
So may call it “babbling,” but it’s important to generate content that is worth coming back and reading. Some folks find this easier than others.
This is nothing new; has anyone ever subscribed to a print magazine or newspaper because they hated reading what was in it?
The best prospects are small and mid-sized businesses in need of a “communications coach.”
Like communications providers of similar size, these types of companies are likely beset by the same challenges of navigating these new media waters, and smaller companies often lack the resources to explore these topics on their own. Therefore, what they require is a trusted advisor to guide them through the process and offer solutions and action items.
Think of it as business coaching, which is a lucrative niche for some people. Or, perhaps, we can think of it as “communications coaching.”
Understand media choice opportunities.
The sheer number of choices that a recipient or information seeker has can make deployment of content a nightmare. As a result, the content creator has to make content “work” in multiple formats in terms of viewability and intelligibility, let alone consistency of branding. Taking content and producing a printed magazine, an e-mail blast, a Web site, a blog post, a Twitter feed, a Facebook fan page, and mobile versions of any or all of these things seemingly requires more staff and resources than most publications can afford. (This isn’t limited to publications, but we’ll use them as an example because they are the archetypal content creators.) The trick is to automate as much of the process as possible. There are software tools that will automatically send a blog post to Twitter or Facebook, and other automation schemes are possible. XML-based content management systems are also one way that large publishers manage masses of content and its simultaneous deployment.
Most businesses—and even most publishers—don’t have the rigorous demands of that much content, but the issue of simultaneous deployment still exists. Advisors and service providers who understand how to do this effectively and efficiently are, and will continue to be, a valuable commodity.
Business is retainer-based, not task-based.
Remember, the future of the printing communications industry is in offering a service, not a product. On that basis, the businesses needs to shift from being task-based to strategy-based. You need to be on call to offer service on an ongoing basis, not just at discrete points when they need something printed. Think of it like the attorney-client relationship; attorneys are often kept on retainer and are there when needed to offer a service, usually an unpleasant one. And you don’t even need to go to law school!
Staffing is a critical issue; create a network of freelance practitioners.
We’ve said before that picking the right mix of employees is a crucial building block of the printing communications industry of tomorrow. Staff who understand and can execute your business strategy are vital, far more vital than that sales guy bringing his Rolodex or Outlook address book from ABC Printing. You obviously need certain mechanical, technological, marketing, sales and management skills full-time, but as with equipment you don’t want your employee mix to be so inflexible that you can’t respond to change.
The best way to keep your printing communications business flexible is to build a network of freelancers. It’s also a cost-effective way of being able to offer a wide variety of communications services without making a substantial investment. Don’t want to hire a full-time Web designer?
Hook up with an independent contractor who specializes in Web design and can be “on call” when your own clients need Web design work. Most freelance designers are very happy to be freelancers, and will be even happier when they can forge strategic relationships with what could very well be called “design brokers” that funnel them a steady stream of work. The same applies to print designers, marketing service experts, and others who may specialize in their own particular communications niches. Since these folks are not part of your full-time staff, you are perfectly free to not use them when the market for what they do changes.
Stay on top of new media and media trends.
We can’t emphasize enough that the media we are talking about today are not written in stone. As we all know painfully well, media change.
The world is more dynamic than we like to think. Therefore, it behooves the smart printing communications business to stay on top of the market.
There are many information sources but a few of the ones we like are Smartbrief.com, which offers free e-newsletters for social media, interactive media, and the advertising business. eMarketer.com has a free daily e-letter that tracks the latest media and marketing trends.