As communications move beyond print, you must reposition your in-plant and expand its expertise.

By Jim Hamilton and Matt Swain

In-plants vs. Print-for-pay Operations

Figure 1:
Services Offered by In-plants and Print-for-pay Operations

• High-speed Black-and-white Printing
In-plant — 84.8%
Print-for-pay — 67.2%
• Digital Color Printing
In-plant — 80.4%
Print-for-pay — 79.4%
• Variable Data Printing
In-plant — 54.3%
Print-for-pay — 69.5%
• Direct Marketing Campaign Management
In-plant — 26.3%
Print-for-pay — 43.1%
• Digital Asset Management
In-plant — 29.5%
Print-for-pay — 42.4%

Figure 2:
Comparative Data for In-plants and Print-for-pay Operations

• Provide Mailing Services
In-plant — 62.6%
Print-for-pay — 74.9%
• Variable Insertion Capability
In-plant — 45.2%
Print-for-pay — 53.3%
• Ink-jet Addressing Capability
In-plant — 64.5%
Print-for-pay — 72.3%
• Familiarity with Transpromo
In-plant — 40.9%
Print-for-pay — 48%
• Positioned as a Marketing Services Provider
In-plant — 30.3%
Print-for-pay — 45.8%

WE LIVE in a multi-channel world where print is just one component of customer communications. As an in-plant printer in difficult economic times, you should consider how you can provide additional value to your organization. This may be through mailing and fulfillment services or a greater focus on applications that go into the mail stream—like direct mail, transaction and transpromo—using a personalized (1:1) communications strategy.

Where do in-plant operations land on this topic today? A recent InfoTrends/In-Plant Graphics survey of 521 printers in North America gives us valuable insight into what in-plant printers need to do to be successful in the future. The survey results allow us to see how in-plant operations compare to print-for-pay operations in terms of the equipment they have and the applications they serve.

Survey participants were asked which term best described their operation: "print-for-cost" (in-plant) or "print-for-pay." Of the respondents, 198 came from in-plants and 323 came from print-for-pay businesses. Slightly more than half of the respondents came from companies with fewer than 50 employees.

All participants were asked about the breakdown of their total annual print volumes. In-plant printers reported 21.2 percent of their volume is attributable to direct mail. About 13.6 percent of that volume comes from transaction documents and 65.3 percent of their volume comes from other sources (e.g. brochures, letterhead, business cards and other office documents). Print-for-pay respondents had comparable volume splits, with slightly more volume aimed at direct mail and less toward transaction document printing.

Survey participants were asked about the services they offered. Figure 1 highlights a few of those services and how in-plants compared to print-for-pay facilities. A much higher percentage of in-plants have high-speed black-and-white printing capabilities, and yet the two environments have virtually the same level of digital color printing capabilities. In-plants fall behind print-for-pay establishments for other services, but not that far. The trend is clear that both environments are moving toward more personalized communications, involvement of direct marketing efforts and the handling of electronic assets.

The survey went on to ask whether or not the operation provided mailing services, variable insertion and ink-jet addressing. In-plants lagged in these areas, and were also less familiar with the term "transpromo." Less than a third of in-plants have positioned themselves as providers of marketing services, while nearly half (46 percent) of commercial printers have done this. (See Figure 2, above.)

Take a Multi-channel Approach

It is understandable that fewer in-plant operations provide mailing services, or have variable insertion or ink-jet addressing capabilities; their internal clients may not be asking them for this support. Still, they shouldn't get too comfortable. As customer communications (internal or otherwise) continue to move beyond print, corporations will look to their internal operations to help them take more of a multi-channel approach. If they can't find the support they need internally, they will look elsewhere. And guess what? Their external partners will be able to provide print services as part of their offering.

Then we come to transpromo, a term used to describe a document that contains marketing, educational, informational or other messaging presented alongside valuable transactional data. When asked about their familiarity with transpromo, fewer in-plant respondents were familiar with the term. Less familiarity with transpromo among in-plants could be due to several factors—one of which is that they tend to have a much smaller customer base than their print-for-pay counterparts. The more customers a print service provider has, the more likely it will hear about emerging niche printing applications.

Interestingly enough, 18 percent of in-plant respondents are currently producing transpromo documents, compared to 10 percent of print-for-pay operations. While transpromo printing is light (representing 5 percent or less for nearly half of the in-plants producing these documents), implementation can spread quickly once the door is open. This market success fuels the growth projection outlined in InfoTrends' 2009 North American Transpromo Forecast.

InfoTrends predicts significant growth for transpromo. From a base of 3.8 billion impressions in 2008, this number is expected to grow to 27.5 billion printed transpromo impressions by 2013—representing a 47.5 percent compound annual growth rate.

Are You a Marketing Services Provider?

Another common discussion in this industry is the transition of printers to "marketing service providers." This foreshadows a transition to applications like transpromo and multi-channel marketing campaigns. So what else can you do with the transactions? Can you provide electronic presentment services? Can you help assist in other parts of the business and strategy?

This question represented the largest disparity in responses between in-plants and print-for-pay operations. Just 30.3 percent of in-plants currently position their operations as marketing services providers, compared to 45.8 percent of print-for-pay operations.

The survey also asked about desire to become a marketing services provider. Only another 10.1 percent of in-plants plan to make this transition. That leaves nearly 60 percent of in-plants content to be print providers. Therefore in-plants should wonder, is the "print shop" function going to be enough for your company's president to keep you around?

In-plants that consider themselves nothing more than print shops are in grave danger of becoming irrelevant. Playing a more active role in your company's document processes (print and electronic) is the clear market direction.

Refocus your efforts on where you will be most effective in three years. How much of it will be in print? To be successful in the future, in-plant operations should consider the bigger picture: print is but one component of customer communications. IPG

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Jim Hamilton Author's page Jim Hamilton is group director responsible for InfoTrends’ Production consulting services in the areas of production digital printing, wide-format signage, labels and packaging, functional and industrial printing, production workflow and variable data tools, document outsourcing, digital marketing and media, customer communications, and business development. Hamilton is responsible for conducting graphic arts market research, market forecasting, custom consulting projects, and creating editorial content for product and market analysis reports.

Matt Swain Author's page

Matt Swain is a recognized Customer Communications industry thought leader. From delivering keynotes around the world to defining best practices, hundreds of well-known companies have relied on Matt’s expertise and research for their current and future omni-channel communication initiatives.

As Managing Director and Practice Lead for Broadridge Communications Consulting, Matt brings invaluable market research and consulting expertise to clients relative to benchmarking, customer experience optimization, and digital transformation.

Prior to joining Broadridge, Matt spent more than a decade at Keypoint Intelligence – InfoTrends where he was a member of the senior management team with global responsibility for Business Development and Customer Communications advisory services. Matt is a graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology and holds a Master’s degree in Print Media.

Positioning Your In-plant For The Future