An article last Summer in WhatTheyThink.com by author Richard Romano (The Big Wide Word: Marketing Tips for Wide-Format Shops, 6/29/15) delivers some informative tips on how printers can win new wide-format print work. One of the challenges that a lot of traditional commercial printers have in making the transition to wide-format - either in part or in toto - is not in putting ink on substrate, but in understanding how [...]
As reported by the Smithers Pira Consultancy in "The Future of Digital Print for Packaging to 2018," the demand for corrugated packaging materials is expected to increase by more than 4% annually through the next three years. Leading this growth is a dramatic increase in requests from manufacturer and retailer customers for incorporating packaging diversification and personalization to better grab attention at point-of-sale. These customers want their printers to provide [...]
An article last Spring in WhatTheyThink.com by author Wayne Peterson (Recruiting Salespeople: Stop Hiring Retreads, 3/11/15) points out in great detail how many B2B businesses have failed to evolve in their hiring practices to take advantage of the growing importance of changing selling techniques when selecting future salespersons. Companies that don't understand how significantly business-to-business selling has changed over the last decade, or who deny that anything is different, tend [...]
A recent article authored by Barb Pellow for WhatTheyThink.com (Is it Time to Reinvent Your Business? Can You Afford NOT To? 4/2/15) captures her key takeaways after reading The Road to Reinvention by Josh Linkner and how they apply to the printing industry. Most notable in her interpretation is how the New York Times Bestselling author continually reinforces the importance of business owners being proactive. "Leaders disrupt the status quo long before there is a need to do [...]
FUJIFILM North America Corporation, Graphic Systems Division hosted a Wide Format Inkjet Tech Summit at the Chicago Technology Center, giving attendees the opportunity to experience inkjet innovations and wide format print applications. The three day event took place in both downtown Chicago and Hanover Park, IL, where Fujifilm's expanded Technology Center is located. This unique events gave guests the opportunity to have an in depth look at Wide Format solutions and innovations, while [...]
Recently I read an article posted on WhatTheyThink by Jane Mugford (December, 2014) entitled "Is Upgrading Worth the Risk?" In the article Jane points out that it's not whether the upgrade is worth the risk, but how you mitigate risk doing the upgrade that most challenges printers. She spends the majority of the article detailing some interesting and thought-provoking ideals to ensure the smoothest possible transition from version to version. [...]
In 2014, InfoTrends and NAPCO - the publisher of Printing Impressions - developed a survey targeting wide-format and commercial print shops, and the results uncovered some interesting metrics you may wish to benchmark for your company. Of the near 60 printers to fill out the extensive questionnaire, some interesting data sets emerged: Revenue per employee for ALL employees at the company: $174,000 Revenue per sales rep at the company: $965,000 [...]