m-Bossed

Print's Darwinian Evolution: Vendors

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Print's Darwinian Evolution: Overview | Printers | Vendors

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The current US housing supply is at roughly a 9 month supply. The good news is that this is down from an 11 month supply at the end of November of 2009. The housing bubble, which carries the bulk of the blame for our recent economic struggles, is a cautionary tale of simple supply and demand economics. In boom times, developers rush to capitalize their profits due to housing demand with a formula of build more houses to reap more profit. A gold rush ensues as all developers ramp up the supply to meet demand. Then the bubble bursts and the demand goes to zero, yet supply still increases beyond current levels due to the builder's ongoing projects. The real estate industries are on a path of struggle until recover when inventory levels drop and demand returns. After a couple of years, the US housing market is showing blips of this recovery process now.

What, you ask, does this have to do with print vendors?

After years of overcapacity coupled with technology changes and media buying shifts, traditional printing press manufacturers have seen a similar correction period. Supply was high and demand fell. A tightened credit market and reluctance to invest in capital equipment have also caused stress for new equipment purchases while bolstering used equipment. Tim Kirkland even posed this question on LinkedIn, "Are used equipment sales stalling technical advancements in printing?" To date, there are 24 comments.

Both manroland and Heidelberg have been increasing their services and consultative services. This is a continuation of the overall spike in consultative services and business support seen at Print09. Heidelberg has also expressed intentions to re-enter the digital printing market through a strategic partnership to be announced by the end of the year. As a corrective measure, most industry analysts think there will be consolidation in this space. (video, registration required)

Although software and digital press vendors have shown resiliency, this marketplace is just as competitive. Agfa, Screen, and Fuji, have all moved beyond prepress to digital presses. The vendor activity in this space is a true vote of confidence on the future of digital printing as a growth opportunity. Not to be left out, Canon recently shook the space up further by buying Oce.

There as also been a flurry of partnerships forged from Canon & HP to Kodak & Ricoh, et. al. Both Xerox and HP jumped into the IT services game through acquisitions of ACS and EDS, respectively.

The result is that all print media vendors are reshaping their business plans and offerings to match economic and competitive forces. As with printers, print vendors will likely see more consolidation going forward. Ultimately, printers will reap the benefits from more "fit" and more innovative vendor relationships.

Print's Darwinian Evolution: Printers

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Print's Darwinian Evolution: Overview | Printers | Vendors

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Taking the most desirable traits, whether by brute force, adaptation, or mimicry, is the key to survival according to Darwin's natural selection. Nature's evolutionary tactics range from the practical like opposable thumbs to the whimsical like sickly sweet, stinky, plant odor. The Amorphophallus titanum, or "corpse plants", attracts pollinators by mimicking the smell of rotting flesh - perfect for attracting all sorts of pests.

Businesses must equally pick and exploit their unique competitive advantages to not only ensure survival, but prosper. Each printer operates within their own area of expertise, but there are industry wide trends appearing as ways to out smart, out grow, and out live the competition.

Brute Force
The business merger and acquisition market within printing has been active lately with the announcement of the Quad Graphics - World Color merger. Naturally, companies look for synergies within each organization that would benefit from a combined operation. The acquisitions at the top end of the industry are all about creating economies of scale, consolidating customer base, and reducing competition. Industry consolidation will continue as the more "fit" companies acquire competitors.

Adaptation
The most successful adaptation of printers and print over the past decade has been due to technology gains. Companies, like VistaPrint, Mimeo, and Hotcards to name a few, have narrowly focused on the use of web technologies and presence to grow their business beyond the industry norms. The technology used in print media is also adapting by integrating variable data, personalization, QR codes, and augmented reality. The later two, in particular, represent a growing trend of analog (print) to digital (web) or vice versa to extend the user experience. It is where print can bring the web to life just as easily as the web can enliven print.

Mimicry
It has been said that there are no new ideas just new uses for old ones. New ideas are brought about from knowledge and the desire to create something better. For this reason, businesses must strive to be information mavens who seek out best practices, trends, and technology shifts. Looking outside of the print industry for inspiration and opportunities provides a greater perspective to implement change. iPhone apps released by RR Donnelly, Neenah Papers, and EFI, are an example of copying an idea but applying it to your own business or industry.

photo by: j.g. in S.F.

How are you evolving?

Print's Darwinian Evolution

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Print's Darwinian Evolution: Overview | Printers | Vendors

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Charles Darwin taught us that the smarter, faster, and stronger are the winners in the game of life. The process of natural selection ensures the "survival of the fittest." These changes, spanning millennia, in human evolution are often categorized by ages. The Stone Age where humans mastered the use of rudimentary tools is personified by the recent Capitol One commercials. Stones were eventually replaced by the Copper, Bronze, and Iron Ages, as our knowledge base and mastery of tools progressed.

Every Age has disruptors along the way. These "revolutions" are marked by relatively short periods of rapid change. The Industrial Revolution during the 18th and 19th centuries had profound and lasting effects on society, cultures, and economies. According to Wikipedia, "It started with the mechanisation of the textile industries, the development of iron-making techniques and the increased use of refined coal. Trade expansion was enabled by the introduction of canals, improved roads and railways. The introduction of steam power fueled primarily by coal, wider utilization of water wheels and powered machinery (mainly in textile manufacturing) underpinned the dramatic increases in production capacity. The development of all-metal machine tools in the first two decades of the 19th century facilitated the manufacture of more production machines for manufacturing in other industries. The effects spread throughout Western Europe and North America during the 19th century, eventually affecting most of the world, a process that continues as industrialisation. The impact of this change on society was enormous."

The Industrial Revolution conveniently coincided with the Golden Age of Print. The tremendous changes and knowledge of this period needed to be shared, debated, and recorded for posterity. Print was the perfect medium for the job. Print was relatively fast and cheap as compared with previous methods and could be easily distributed. As a result, print as a communication platform flourished and would remain a dominant medium until the dawn of the Information Age.

Blame the microprocessor and the Internet for the rapid change in communication and information exchange. The Internet as a distribution network has been adept at reducing the need for printed material. Online forms with back end databases have replaced form printing. Advertising collateral such as direct mailers, posters, flyers, are supplemented by social media and mobile campaigns (text, QR, apps). A portion, yet to be determined, of book and magazine printers' work is being distributed digitally on Kindles and the soon to be released iPad. No amount of optimism or dreaming will revert the tide of printing lost to bits and bytes, but stop blaming what cannot be controlled and contained. Companies and individuals involved in print need to quit dwelling on recent "woes" and focus on getting "fit."

This is not a sad story, nor is it printing's swan song. Contrary to The Buggles song, video did not kill the radio star. Just as TV did not kill radio, all-things-digital will not kill printing. New technology simply causes existing technology to adapt - to evolve.  After all, the medium that delivers the intended message to the targeted audience with the best cost to action ratio is the winner.

How are you getting fit?

photo by: Corey Ann

A Book of Tweets

Continuing in the trend of bytes becoming things, there is a service that allows you to print a 200 page book of your tweets. A Tweetbookz is roughly 28,000 characters on 200 pages wrapped in a hardbound cover. For around $30, a Twitterer can save their tweets from the "fail whale."

Personally, I think the price and customization are lacking for Tweetbookz as compared to photo book offerings. More importantly, Tweetbookz represents a larger trend of users wanting to print their digital lives for sharing and archiving.

Since our tweets are not necessarily poetic masterpieces, most of us will probably not shell out the money for this printed record. Looking back at your tweets, after all, is probably like looking at your school yearbooks - shockingly funny and disturbing at once.

Watch this guy unwrapping his Tweetbookz to get the idea.

Sharing Twitter Tweet Book with the world from TweetBookz on Vimeo.