Print creates emotion

Catalogues, mailings, postcards, coupons and books, but also outdoor advertising work better if they are tailored to the customer’s need. Various studies prove that the willingness to buy increases. For example, 44 per cent of consumers are more likely to buy when they see individualised advertising. 74 per cent are even more willing to try a product they have not bought before. Print is once again playing a leading role in the customer journey.

In order to reach the customer in a specific way, approaches from online marketing are transferred to the print industry: Next Best Offers, Recommendation Marketing or Dynamic Printing are no longer uncommon.

There are various recommendations for implementation. Many companies first want to complete the digital transformation so that customer data can be used. In its entirety, however, this process takes a very long time before individual advertising can take hold. Some entrepreneurs from the IT sector have taken advantage of this circumstance and help to quickly reach the goal from existing databases. The data pools can already be used via interfaces.

On the other side are the printers. In the print shops, digitisation should be completed so that the data can be used. At the same time, a print shop can also offer full service for precisely those companies that are still in the process of transformation. Software-as-a-Service is the magic word.

For printing companies, Zaikio offers customised solutions using modular software. Zaikio has found a way to link existing software via interfaces and apps so that digitisation within printing companies progresses more quickly. They focus on the automation of administration. From ordering raw materials to invoicing, processes can be digitally automated. Calculations and warehouse management also take place automatically. The digital transformation reduces the administrative effort from 80 per cent to 40 to 20 per cent.

This opens many possibilities for printing companies. They offer novel processes such as Programmatic Printing.

With Programmatic Printing, the printing industry is now reaching its peak in individualisation and putting itself back on a par with online marketing. All content is designed automatically. All content, such as text, graphics, images and offers, are automatically put on paper by VDP and delivered directly to the customer. The great advantage of the process is its speed, as it usually takes no more than two to three days. This means that advertisers can also act quickly offline and reach customers in the customer journey in a more targeted way.

Companies need space not only in administrative expenses and in the form of advertising. Storage capacity for packaging is often in short supply. By networking the systems, digitalised printers also provide support here.

Whether it’s the pharmaceutical industry or online trade: our fast-moving world makes it increasingly difficult for companies to plan. In the last two years in particular, it has happened time and again that the outer packaging in industry has turned out to be the eye of the needle. Products were produced, but the packaging was missing to deliver them to the customer or to the point of sale. Printing companies can remedy this with vendor-managed inventory. The printing company takes over the responsibility of the packaging inventory at the customer’s premises and thus offers an exceptional service. Sales and inventory figures flow automatically into the printer’s ordering programme. Packaging is thus produced automatically and delivered to the customer. The customer reuses his storage capacity for value-added products. The networking of systems ensures a reduction in costs and prevents a standstill in production output.

The interaction of technology and data enables us to bring the advantages of the digital world into the haptic world. The editorial credibility of print products is many times higher than in digital media. The viewer perceives the information more consciously and engages with the messages. This is achieved through aesthetics and haptics. Finally, print offers much more room for design.

Individualised print products are nothing new. The speed and the design possibilities, however, are.