NAPLBizBuzz

On Demand: MindFireInc, Marketing's Missing Link - Adding Added Value for HP and Canon

I love it when technology's a verb - not a noun - adding real value, and that's what I saw when I stopped by the HP booth and met with Carrie Driscoll, Program Manager for MindFireInc.  While HP and Canon are focused on selling presses, MindFireInc, a strategic partner with both companies, is a solid added-value menu addition for these companies.  Licensing their web-based service (their flagship product is LookWho'sClicking) to printers, ad agencies and marketing firms, MindFireInc is a leading provider of personalized urls (one of the hottest new paths in 1:1 marketing) and VIP landing pages, with solutions that include web-based configuration, tracking, a reporting dashboard for customers, and more. With nearly half the users wanting a response channel online, MindFireInc gives them that.  And what I really liked (and what I think you will too) is how MindFireInc's web-based service can quickly, simply and easily capture customer data, support dialog, and measure results in real time. They're well worth a look at www.mindfireinc.com.

Richard S. Papale

On Demand: This Year's Busy-ness Buzzword - Can You Say "Marketing"?

So it's the last day and I'm preparing in my a.m. war room - a lone table in the corner at one of the On Demand food courts (by the way, can someone save me the Google time and tell me who came up with the name "food court"?).  Boston has been the wonderful walking city it is (only place I can find Wasabi ice cream at J. C Licks on Newbury Street near the Trident Bookstore) and the weather has been kind, if you don't mind a bit of rain and a slap or two of wind.  I used to live here, so that's no big deal to me.  On Demand has been nicely attended - good people traffic - although I don't think it's as well attended by the international community as they hyped. Fudged figures to me but I could be wrong, as my continuous tale of the tape is just an eye view from the aisles.  Presentations and booth conversations have seemingly been dominated by technology and marketing (communications), the latter bridging with existing and new technologies to increase personalization and the relevancy of marketing communications to (monitor, quantify) maximize ROI. The new buzzword is not TransPromo, but seems to be "marketing."  Marketers have been pushing for the limelight and now they seem to have gotten what they've wanted, and now it's their time to step up the game.  This was evident in yesterday's keynotes: "Emerging Technologies and What to Expect in 2008" and "The Changing Marketing Mix: A Marketing Perspective." Top areas where marketers expect to spend in '08 include: email campaign management; CRM; marketing performance measurement; customer intelligence and analytics; search engine marketing; and sales and marketing integration.  With the exception of the last area, it's metrics, metrics, metrics.  Key items: improving your customer db for personalization and using digital, db-driven channels (email, web, contact centers) to get insight into what customers value to be able to execute relevant messaging. But here's a couple of interesting numbers from yesterday's marketing keynote, "...despite interest and increased efforts, 50% of marketers report having fair, poor or little knowledge of customers and 47% rate their companies data integration capabilities as deficient or needing improvement."  Stay tuned in '08 -- to answer the needs of customers, marketers are looking to seize the day (ROI) with new technologies and channels available for the capture of customer info so that they can dialog with "relevance" with individual consumers - creating marketing initiatives that are valued, which will be the way to increase ROI, or what I like to call metrical ROM (return on marketing).  It always was and always will be all about the customer - and two-way (not one- way) messaging, something called dialog, or what we netizens refer to as continuous conversation (relationship building) in a fast and flexible media world, is of max importance.

Richard S. Papale

On Demand: International Flavor and Buzzwords

International Flavor The World Is Flat author Thomas Friedman deliberated on the "networked" world, and On Demand's international delegates are testament to the "connected" world.  International printing delegations from China, Italy, Japan, and Russia (show organizers say that over 60 countries are represented here) are here this week. Senior execs from these different regions are joined with more than 10K printing pros and print service providers in discovering new strategies to find, attract, retain, and grow new business with digital technology. Hope they get a glimpse at NAPL's forthcoming publication, Digital Paths to Profit, which can help them with answers about integrating digital print technology into their workflow....On Demand Buzzwords Here are a few words filling the halls - web-to-print; variable data printing; multichannel marketing (mc is such a 60s retro term in this fast and flexible media world); marketing (spoken of as if it were born yesterday); TransPromo (see today's TransPromo blog entry); and I hear and see content management inserted in a few pockets of literature. Like to hear more about how printers can help publishers and professionals leverage (not manage) content outside of delivery, and while I'm on the topic of delivery, l'd like to hear more about protecting copyrights via e-distribution - that's a signifciant area for all. More to come.

Richard S. Papale

On Demand: Printers Are Breaking Out of the Shackles - Marketing is in the Vocabulary

Marketing.  Printers do understand it; they live it every day, so let's get beyond this, or better yet, maybe you should talk with John Foley, President/CEO of interlinkONE (innovative marketing solutions).  I just did.  While it's very easy to get lost in the tower of babel of the new generation marketing metalanguage (for example, the preceding nine words!), John Foley wouldn't let that happen. Marketing is toooooooo important to him.  And what's iron-clad cool is that John not only really understands marketing and delivers, he undertands the sales timeline, how to shorten it, and how to maximize full profit potential. With 12 years experience, and an impressive customer list, interlinkONE is a software company that provides web-based solutions to help print service providers expand their biz offerings to include a full range of end-to-end personalized marketing services. These folks roll up their sleeves.  I asked John what he thought about On Demand and he said that he's truly excited and encouraged that through the help of industry info disseminators, folks are beginning to understand technology, and it's a wonderful time in the print space to offer greater value and services from people like interlinkONE.  According to John, those who get it, get it, and are really moving forward.  If you're looking to break out of the shackles and increase print fulfillment and volume immediately, which in turn benefits your customers with increased responses, improved lead flow, reduced marketing expenses, and improved sales conversion rates, this may be the guy to call, or send a Dear John email.  He's got a track record of helping companies become marketing service providers.

Richard S. Papale

On Demand: TransPromo Promo...and a bit on Trans and Mobile Devices

There's so much promo about TransPromo that it seems like it's echoing throughout this show.   It's the new buzzword, that's for sure.  At least here.  But it's not really new; it's been around for years (as has the software and printing technology), especially used by credit card and utilities companies.  But it seems to have had a new life pumped into it as the word is running through the aisles of On Demand and within the industry at large.  While it simply means combining and incorporating promo content into transactional docs, what's really new is its potential for targeted messages, where you can get a response rate 20 times greater than a generic message. I visited with Ricoh/IBM (InfoPrint Solutions) and got a wealth of info on cross-selling and up-selling messages on commonly read everyday materials, like receipts, hotel statements, and loyalty program portfolios.  They seem to be at the head of the pack trying to help companies create focused communications. If you're interested, check out InfoPrint.com.  And oh, if you really want to learn something about large companies ridding inserts in favor of TransPromo and about TransPromo opportunity for printers, get on the net and look at what's happening with TransPromo via cross media in the mobile device space.  You'll be pleasantly surprised.

Richard S. Papale

On Demand: Some First Day Key Scribblings in the Margin You Should Know

"Make dust or eat dust." I heard that line awhile back and it couldn't be any truer than it is today. Although cost is always an important metric, as Infotrends reported here, and it's apparent as you weave in and out of the OnDemand booths, many are looking for more effective, multichannel ways to communicate with their prospects and existing customers (see my blog yesterday on Konica Minolta).  As noted in Charlie Pesko's Keynote address, State of the Industry Address: From Megatrends to Microtrends, and sundry supporting Infotrends docs, if service providers are going to keep up with changes in the graphic arts communications market, not only will they have to strive for greater efficiency, more importantly they MUST demonstrate their (industry) knowledge and (marketing) skills. They must extend themselves beyond print services to supply chain management, multichannel communication, and specific vertical markets.  With changes presenting growth opps and challenges to meet market needs, the emerging service opps for PSPs seem to be value-added services (especially mailing and fulfillment whose familiarity loans itself to an easier transition), web-to-print, content management (ah, this one is finally catching up to PSPs and PSPs are catching on to the immense revenue opps here), 1:1 variable data (personalization), and multichannel marketing campaigns (what I spoke of two years ago as building the intent to be able to dynamically message through print, digital and online media, or a relevant combination thereof; today tagged as new generation marketing/publishing - a vital area of product development for PSP's publishing customers).  As noted in presentations and reading here, deployment of these services requires major transformation of the business model, organization structure, and skillsets of service providers - something I consistently read about in reports generated by my colleagues and friends, NAPL's economists, Andy Paparozzi and Joe Vincenzino.  Yesterday, when thinking about this blog, I spoke with and swapped emails with a couple Infotrends folks and then took a look at their new multi-client study where they mentioned the top three future purchase items being: 1) color digital print hardware, 2) computers servers, and 3) network hardware.  Many respondents also noted plans to increase marketing efforts via the creation of more dynamic (frequency of content change - what I hammer into people's ears as the invaluable "delta" of relevance that will keep folks coming back) websites, increasing of personalization (which needs to be more sophisticated and parallel human behavior -something I learned from my days developing a dot com called Travelocity), e-mail blasts, and web-to-print technology.  Also mentioned in presentations here and bolstered by the multi-client study is improving overall efficiency by using Lean Six Sigma, right-sizing staff, investing in software and programming, creating an integrated workflow, and increasing focus on soft proofing.  See a pattern here?  Just look at how the language of tech and hard and software applications has and continues to permeate our industry, not unlike any other industry, to help us with sustainability and growth, to help businesses, as one respondent quoted "to offer lots of services under one roof and retain repeat business with 80% of your customers."  Business is indeed evolving, and it's quite evident at this event that smart commercial printers are embracing the changes and they are in the path or getting in the path to "make dust."

Richard S. Papale

    

On Demand: Solid iGen3 Numbers from Xerox; Howie Fenton Security-Enabled Printing Tidbit

I wandered into the Xerox booth to get the latest numbers on the iGen3 Digital Production Presses and they're impressive, as I thought they would be.  So here they are.  With 126 Xerox customers worldwide now printing 1 million or more pages per month per machine on their iGen3 Digital Production Presses, Xerox is staying in the path to continue to help their customers boost their sales in the lucrative digital color printing market, where more pages mean more profit.  One customer has gone beyond 3 million pages in a single month on a single iGen3 press.  There are now more than 2000 iGen3 presses installed worldwide with 275 customers having installed two or more iGen3 presses to meet their increased demand for full-color jobs, such as marketing brochures, photo books, catalogs, personalized direct-mail pieces and invoices and statements that include customized marketing messages.  Aside from Xerox's iGen3 numbers, I had what seemed like a lunch break (blogging to the tune of a handful of chocolates) with Howie Fenton as my guest.  Howie was on the Security-Enabled Printing panel and shared with me that Kodak has mixed toner and varnish that can authenticate products.  Not sure, but I think the product is called Trace and it's available, but you'll have to check me on this faction.  It's a fairly new technology but as Howie said, "Can you imagine mixing this substance with toner on your digital press? It would automatically confirm whether or not the piece that was printed was authentic or not. This would immediately show you that the name brand product you are buying is legitimate and not a knockoff."  Amazing!  Hope to catch up with Howie tomorrow as he's on another panel - Super Efficiency: Enabling In-Plant Growth.

Richard S. Papale

On Demand: Quark Ups the Ante; Up Front + Personal with XMPie

Quark certainly isn't standing still!  Last week in Miami at the Graphics of the Americas Show, I asked the burning question of Quark, "Why is it that it seems like everyone is migrating to InDesign"?  Well, here at On Demand, Quark is stepping into the limelight. I just spoke with Julie Fouque, Corporate Communications Manager, and learned that at 4:00 today Quark will make a major announcement .  They are leveraging their existing desktop publishing, server and collaborative workflow expertise to launch a new enterprise solution in the emerging dynamic publishing market. While Quark was an innovator in the desktop publishing market, with changing demands, they are now looking to revolutionize publishing again for professionals (publishers) and marketing groups with their Dynamic Publishing Solution.  What's really revolutionary about what Quark is doing here?  It's in the cross media application - their move in this solution to publish to any channel (media).  This is large!  With Quark extending the benefits of advanced technologies across the publishing process, I hope they don't stop there and take the leap forward and address e-distribution and digital rights management to protect copyrights....I stopped by for a glimpse at XMPie and they have a full day-long schedule - 10:45 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. - of VDP, Cross Media Marketing and Personalized Web to Print demonstrations.  No more to be said there regarding what's under their microscope.   

Richard S. Papale

On Demand: Konica Minolta - Cool Guys Who Have Fun...and a Customer Having "Variable" Fun with KM Technology....and Mobile Blackberry Printing.

What can you say about a company that has its own band?  The CEO plays the ukelele; the director of logistics plays the drums; and the vice president of marketing and product planning plays the (rhythm) guitar.  But don't be fooled by this band of cool guys who have fun; they're also smart, socially conscious, and in the growth groove.  Aside from their new announcements that include: 1) the debut of bizhub PRO 2500P (rollout to market mid to late summer); 2) the intro of the perfect binder for the bizhub PRO 6500 Series; 3) the intro of the Advanced Version of IC-304 Print Controller - a CREO color server for the bizhub PRO 6500, and more, what is absolutely cool is that they invited and gave their press function over to a customer who, using KM technology, has nearly doubled his revenue! How? By communicating with customers differently - using personalized url technology that makes direct marketing interactive marketing. Everything is variable, as the customer is driven to a personalized website with their own personalized information; it's a place also where the customer can dialog (integrated relationship marketing) and share information (integrated viral marketing).  Hats off to KM on this "variable" ness customer success.  And here's another pearl of KM wisdom to pay attention to. If you get a chance, check out what KM is doing with Mobile Blackberry Technology, where, for the mobile executive, print CAN be ubiquitous! If you want to learn more, try Steve Pearl (I prefer Purl, but...) spearl@kmbs.konicaminolta.us

Richard S. Papale

   

On Demand: What's (Not) In A Name

We're about a 15 minutes away from the opening of the 2008 On Demand Conference ( I think that's the name of it) - the Daily is running one of those half one-way printed dailies with half the daily about On Demand Today and the other half printed upside down so you have to turn it upside down to continue reading (like a bilingual book) about AIIM Today.  I know what the show is about but ,ouch, is this naming convention (branding of this show) a tad confusing. But aside from what's in a name, I'm certainly looking forward to learning more about the latest and what's coming in digital printing, digital delivery and content management, and how these areas of interest will result in effectvieness, efficiencies and sales.  Yep, and mostly I want to hear more about digital ROI and the pursuit of full profit-potential from digital apps, printing and content management.  Like many, I'm too looking for the digital "return" - the payoffs from investments made or to be made.  So here we go because this show has always been A show for the industry in my one dot in the industry universe opinion, as it wrestles with and addresses the digital universe - the world we exist in today.  So aside from the usual software, scanners and other applicable announcements, I'll be wearing out my heels, sifting though the aisles to see and hear what key points I can glean from the state of the industry address from this tech/digital point of view; what apps Kodak is showcasing for growing digital print businesses; how Canon's imagePress technology will help grow digital business; and much more. 

By the way, I hope some day they'll do away with this name and brand this show for what is really is - which I'm about to experience over the next three days. More to come.

Richard S. Papale