New printing technologies and business models go by a range of names: on–demand printing, web to print, short run printing, variable printing. They’re more than just new names – they represent new ways of doing business and of providing services to customers. They are also the heralds of new compensation models, since printing is only a small part of the value that the client receives in an on–demand printing environment.
Technology ties it together
What is short–run printing? More specifically, what is a short run? Is it a quantity under 1000 copies? Or a job that uses fewer than 500 sheets?
Defining short–run printing, or deciding whether to use a short–run workflow, is more than figuring out the minimum quantity that offset printing can produce economically. Most printers who get into on–demand digital printing find that the decision of whether to go to offset or digital output is more often about speed than cost.
“With business cards, we can print 10,000 on our iGen easily because we can put six or eight cards on a sheet,” says Rajith Rao of Sherwood Printers in Mississauga. “With an 8.5 x 11 flyer in four colours, a quantity under 1000 should definitely go to the iGen; 2,000 to 3,000 is [still] a good range [for digital]; between 3,000 and 5,000 copies, it [the press we use] depends on the job and the customer and how fast they want the job; and over 5,000 usually should go to the offset press.
“But then, the job on the iGen can be done right away, while the press takes two or three days, and another day if it has to be folded. With theiGen, we can print, fold, trim, and stitch immediately, all in the same day. It depends how quickly the customer needs the job.”
In the realm of web–to–print solutions, instant printing and variable printing are very different applications, although they do use some of the same technology: high–speed digital presses and printers like Xerox’s iGen3, Hewlett–Packard’s Indigo line, Kodak’s NexPress, and the Xeikon line; high–speed copiers and printers like the ImageRunner from Canon, the BizHub series from Konica Minolta, and others. The instant printing capabilities of such technologies enable them to handle extremely short–run, on–demand printing, and variable printing—which is, in essence, the shortest run of all: one copy.
These different types of printing enable many different models of customer interaction. Consider, for example, the combination of print and other media that’s enabled by short–run and variable printing.
Web to print is a unique way of doing printing: it puts primary control of design and content, as well as production scheduling, into the client’s hands.
In web to print systems, the client navigates to a web site that contains design templates, text templates, and images. Using the web browser, the client can select the design, images and text, and sometimes can edit the text or upload new images.
Once satisfied with the layout, the client then fills out a web form, choosing the quantity to be printed and in some cases the location for printing, and fills in billing and shipping information. This information is transferred to the printer, and in some systems, automated workflow systems start the production process; in other cases, a customer service person receives an e–mail with details on the requested print job.
The software generates a file to be printed, which includes all text and graphics. The system can produce a hard copy or a soft proof, which is then sent to the customer. Once the client signs off (which can also be done through the web or e–mail), the workflow system sends the job to output.
The printer can set up the design templates and can guide the development of the website that allows such customer autonomy, or the printer can merely be the output provider in a system set up by programming or marketing experts.
Regardless, the primary value of web to print products, and the service for which the client pays the most, is not the actual printing. Rather, it’s the intelligence that set up the system, and the services involved in keeping it functioning and improving. The pricing model is thus very different from that of traditional printing.
Using print as just one component of a multi–media communications campaign is nothing new, but a new version of that involves “personalized URLs,” (universal resource locators)—that is, a unique web address.
This kind of marketing communication requires qualified leads, complete with proper names and addresses. The prospect gets a personalized mailer informing him or her of a unique website with an address based on the prospect’s name (like www.marketingcompany.com/ prospectsname), and a unique user name and password. Once the prospect visits the website and enters his or her user name and password, he or she is usually rewarded with some kind of premium or gift and given more marketing information. These sorts of initiatives have proven very successful for insurance companies and similar businesses. But they’re also difficult to set up, and require strict adherence to design and communications standards.
“Web to print is here, but it works really well only in very select ways,” says Frank McPherson, president of Custom Data Imaging of Markham, ON. “It will take a few more years before the market is really using it effectively.”
Printers can assume a central role in web to print by managing all of the different processes involved in developing the messages, developing the website, managing the mailing, and more. If you’re not ready for a major web to print initiative, try taking on something relatively minor, such as variable printing of some postcards.
Why do customers want on–demand printing?
Printers know that customers select digital, on–demand printing for two reasons: favourable pricing for short runs and faster turnaround. However, more and more customers are selecting it because the quality is acceptable compared to offset printing. “A lot of people who don’t want digital printing just aren’t familiar with it,” says Rajith Rao of Sherwood Printers. “But once they see the results off the digital press, and understand that the “proof” is an example of the actual output, they start to see the light.”
One of the biggest users of on–demand and variable printing is the university sector. Universities have been using short–run, on–demand printing for many years to produce sets of readings and specialized textbooks that contain only the material the professor determines necessary; it reduces costs of textbooks, paper consumption, storage and ordering time, benefiting both students and the university.
But that just scratches the surface of the capabilities of on–demand printing. Every university has to do fundraising to make ends meet, even Canada’s largest, the University of Toronto. They found an 80 percent increase in the number of donors to their annual alumni direct–mail donation drive when they started using personalized direct mail.
In 2004, the U of T fundraising committee tested variable printing with their print provider, Custom Data Imaging. The university and the printer worked closely together to develop a direct mail piece that had a personalized letter to each alumnus from his or her graduating faculty, plus a return donation slip also imprinted with the donor’s name, address, graduating faculty, and amount of la
st donation, and another full–colour slip that showed the impact of donor support on that same faculty. Each of 32,500 individuals could receive up to five pieces of personalized mail—a huge undertaking for a printer.
The initial test worked: the number of individual donors who responded increased by 80 percent over the year previous, when the university did not use personalized mail. And the gross donation total increased by 30 percent as well. And that was with a mailing list half the size of the one used the year before.
Custom Data Imaging did a lot to make U of T’s campaign successful. It has two Indigo digital presses—the model 1000 and the model 5000—as well as a Heidelberg 9110 offset press, two Konica Minolta single–colour copiers, a Konica Minolta BizHub black–and–white high–speed printer, and a Konica Minolta 3800 four–colour printer. The company specializes in short runs, but has the capacity for longer runs upon client demand.
“Most of our production is on–demand printing, and of that, 60 to 65 percent is variable printing,” says Frank McPherson, president and “head decision maker.” Their jobs vary widely, from postcards, to brochures, to folders, to direct mail. “I don’t track sheets per month or clicks or anything like that; I’m not interested in that,” McPherson explains. “I have a different mindset about this business. I see our equipment as a facilitator for making money in design, output and mailing services, and [for] delivering value to our customers.”
“I don’t sell on price, either,” he continues. “We give a quality of service, and I will walk away from a project when a customer is looking for the cheapest price.”
It’s an approach that works: Custom Data Imaging has grown every year since McPherson started six years ago. “We offer solutions, a way to satisfy customers’ needs,” he says. “Unfortunately, in the printing industry, value added is usually seen in its financial connection—what you get when you take out the manufacturing costs. But you can’t make money in this business selling that kind of value added. The real added value has got to do with service.”
Finding your value added
There are obvious similarities between short–run, on–demand, and variable printing. Once the technology is in place, many printers find it difficult to resist the temptation to offer the full range of variable printing services.
But success in on–demand printing requires a different approach to customer relations than traditional offset printing does. Business success and growth aren’t based on the cheapest price per sheet or the best ink coverage on the sheet anymore: they’re judged according to a much more complex formula that accounts for speed, accuracy and “value added.” The abilities of the printer to solve challenges and to create new products and new opportunities for clients are what clients are willing to pay for.
The last word belongs to Frank McPherson of Custom Data Imaging: “The industry is waking up to the fact that they’ll have to make money by adding value for the customer—offering solutions, a way to reach their customers.”
