Printing companies branch out as they adjust to economic shifts

It's not often that an entire industry has the chance to reinvent itself. But local printing companies are facing this very “opportunity.”

“Over the past two years, we've felt the effects of the down economy, as has the printing industry as a whole,” said Eric Van Kerckhove, sales manager at Allegra in Cedar Rapids, which employs 20. “But we've maintained much of our sales by diversifying our product mix and focusing on service.”

Allegra was established as Insty-Prints in 1981, so the company has been around to watch the printing industry change.

Other local printers also are using the invasion of online offerings, at-home technology and the weak economy to reinvent their products and services.

“We don't consider ourselves a printer,” said Kate Guess, director of marketing at POS Corp. in Cedar Rapids, which has been in business since 1970 and employs 400 at locations in Cedar Rapids, Florida, Utah and Minnesota. “We now position ourselves as ‘patient-customer experience experts.' A printed product is often the byproduct of the solutions we present.”

About a year ago, business started to slow down for Cedar Graphics in Hiawatha.

“We've been generally slower, and our numbers have declined for the last two and a half years,” CEO Hassan Igram said. “By 2015, we anticipate that only about half our revenue will be generated by print.”

Printing companies such as Cedar Graphics are reacting to the shift by offering services beyond traditional printing services. Several printers are now focusing on helping clients reach their own customers in new ways via integrated marketing campaigns.

Cedar Graphics is implementing a new sales process to accomplish this. As part of the new structure, his sales folk are focused on reaching chief marketing officers and vice presidents of sales to go beyond discussions of buying and selling print and instead focus on marketing strategies.

“We're also doing more lead generation and lead qualifying,” Igram said. “Just as our customers would qualify us to determine whether we're the right printer for the job, we also need to qualify our customers to make sure they're a good fit and that we're not wasting anyone's time.”

Igram has an interest in growing Cedar Graphics's work in education, not-for-profits, insurance and health care industries. “These are the ones we're targeting because they're going to remain strong going forward.

“Industries like automotive and real estate might be shaky, so we have to be careful.”

To grow business at POS, the company is focusing on referrals. To get those referrals, current customers have to be satisfied enough to refer their colleagues and peers. And to keep current customers happy, Guess says POS changes the way it operates based upon the way customers change the way they do business.

She gave this example: Two years ago, POS started offering electronic statement processing, but customers aren't being forced to move to e-statements.

“The decision to move behavior online should be the preference of the end-user,” Guess said.

“If your customer wants you to communicate electronically, then communicate electronically. If your customer wants you to communicate via paper, then communicate via paper.

“It should be driven by customer preference.”

Van Kerckhove said Allegra focuses on these things as well, but the company also grows its business through co-marketing sponsorships with local not-for-profits. Allegra offers print services to select non-profits that extend their printing budgets.

By offering these services, the non-profits increase visibility. In exchange, these organizations hopefully will remember Allegra for other printing and marketing solutions.

Van Kerckhove said Allegra increased its wide-format offerings - items such as posters, banners, canvas prints and vehicle graphics that aren't easily replaced by online options - expanded its direct-mail department, added fulfillment services and started offering promotional products.

With Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, QR codes and pURLs - persistent uniform resource locaters - added to the mix of today's marketing options, print hasn't faded away - it's taking on another dimension. Print now serves as one piece of an integrated marketing plan.

“The beauty of today's marketing is using a magnitude of mediums to reach the customer,” Guess said. “When printed pieces and electronic pieces come together to reach the customer with a level of frequency and relevancy needed in today's marketplace, it's a beautiful thing.”

“We can put together plans that include pURLs, email messages and QR codes,” Igram noted, “but those campaigns also needed to be measured and monitored to find out if the results meet the expectations of the customer.”

Cedar Graphics works with customers to not only set up integrated marketing plans, but also to manage these plans and campaigns on the back end. These offerings may not even involve any printed pieces, which is an even bigger sign that local printers are serving up much more than brochures and business cards.