DALE BECKER
Chief Executive, Westates, Automotive Promotions, Buena Park
As a producer of direct-mail marketing for automotive dealerships the past 40 years, the shift to digital marketing and communications by our customers should have had, by all accounts, a devastating impact on our business. Nonetheless, we have been able to thrive the past 10 years despite the emergence of email, automated phone calls, text messaging, website optimization, personalized URLs, Facebook and iPhone apps.
We ventured into all of these media as they emerged and once they were used for an extended period of time in the marketplace, their overall effectiveness and customer penetration as compared to direct mail was found to be lacking. And in many cases the intrusive nature of the media itself turned away clientele.
In the same period of time, we have watched the return rates for targeted direct mail nearly triple due primarily to advancements in computer software, graphic design and customer data availability. These are coupon times, and there is an intrinsic value in being able to put a coupon directly into the hand of a customer who needs or will need your product in the near future.
One of the greatest strengths of direct-mail marketing, and probably the greatest weakness of digital marketing, is the ability to specifically target new customers in a marketing area who have never used your product. Existing laws forbidding spam emails and texts and unsolicited phone calls limits the ability of this media to grow a business’s clientele, whereas direct mail can identify and reach that potential customer.
BRUCE CARSON
Chief Executive, The Dot, Irvine
We have worked with digital files for many years in our prepress operation. so offering what are now called cross-media services has not been too much of an adjustment. The challenge has been to replace, on a volume basis, the ink-on-paper solutions with equivalent volumes of cross media.
Our approach has been to diversify the business and redeploy assets into digital print, wide format, mailing and fulfillment. The net effect on our cost structure has been positive because of the higher value placed on multiple service offerings versus the print-only sale.
The cross media and other services portion of our business are also less capital intensive and over the long haul will reduce our fixed costs. The cross-media products also allow us the opportunity to get closer to the results generated by the programs and to provide our clients better solutions.
Like most challenges, the move to digital communications has sharpened our skills and strengthened our business. Today, we are a different business and a better business.
DOUG GRANT
President, Westamerica Graphics Corp., Foothill Ranch
After experimenting with alternative forms of electronic marketing, many of our clients are coming back home to print and enjoying bet-
ter results and im-proved response rates. We are big be-lievers in integrated marketing, or cross media as it’s sometimes called.
Campaigns get super-charged when targeted, personalized print is combined with other media such as personalized landing pages, email follow up, QR codes, and social media—in a coordinated effort. We’ve offered these integrated campaigns for a couple of years now, and we’re starting to see more traction in the market.
We’re also seeing more clients embrace the use of online digital “storefronts” to manage their marketing collateral. These print-on-demand, template-driven solutions are a great way for clients to ensure brand consistency, manage inventory, improve ordering efficiency and reduce costs.
Our costs have gone up, if you consider the investments we’ve made in technology, bandwidth and software. But the good news for clients is their costs have gone down in the form of improved ordering efficiency, reduced obsolescence, and overall better return on their marketing investment.
JAMES JOYCE
Chief Executive, Dual Graphics Inc., Brea
Dual Graphics anticipated the shifts in marketing and communications and added to our service offerings as new technologies and distribution channels become available. The world continues to evolve, and to succeed to-day you need to be very nimble.
The key to success at Dual Graph-ics this past year has been aligning the company with customers who are leaders in their in-dustries and who also need to leverage mul-tichannel expertise to their competitive advantage.
Dual Graphics’ offerings of traditional and digital printing methods (have been) combined with mailing; database management; fulfillment; kitting; photography; custom storefronts; and one-to-one marketing, integrating print to click. We have had these services in place for years.
What has brought us continued growth are the growing number of companies that understand the competitive advantage they achieve by having a team at hand that is an expert in all those areas. Many ‘printers’ are scrambling to add new services and diversify out of ink-on-paper. It’s a challenging path that requires a deep commitment and the ability to attract the right team of people that work together and individually have the expertise to connect all these disparate services.
TAREK KORRAA
President, OCPC, Irvine
Digital communications and print communications are far from being mutually exclusive. Recent advancements in digital printing technologies have improved the speed, size and quality of available variable print to rival traditional offset printing.
The customers that combine this expanded print versatility with digital communications in a highly targeted multichannel campaign are seeing ex-ceptional results and ROI. Remove print from this equation, and the results drop drastically.
For many recipients, print is still a highly valuable, tangible medium, creating trust and credibility that catapults online and mobile marketing efforts.
Recognizing this opportunity, OCPC was among the first offset printing companies to offer high-quality digital printing to our B2B customers, and now have three premium digital Kodak presses in addition to our offset presses on site—more significant than any commercial printer in Orange County.
Our parent company—Consolidated Graphics, based in Houston, Texas—is aggressively growing our digital device footprint and now boasts the largest fleet of digital and roll-fed inkjet presses in the world at nearly 300. Just as significantly, we enhance the marketing efforts of our clients by offering online technologies
that put digital marketing tools in their hands.
Contrary to certain sentiments, print is not disappearing; however, how it is being used has changed. It’s critical for printers to embrace the changes and provide innovative ways for their customers to realize improved results.
—Compiled by Kari Hamanaka
