By Eef De Ridder, Vice President, Graphic Communications Group, Ricoh Europe
Creative print, beyond CMYK, is engaging.
It helps grab attention, spark imagination, and evoke emotion. It also delivers attractive margins and wins new business.
These are some of the key takeaways of Ricoh’s recent Going For Gold webinar.
During the event I shared compelling findings from a Ricoh commissioned survey conducted by NAPCO Research. We found brand owners expect to pay up to 33% more for coatings and textures, 33% more for special colours, such as white, metallic, or fluorescent and 31% more for secure print such as UV or infrared ink.
We also learned 55% of respondents considered it very important that Print Service Providers (PSPs) presented unique ideas to enhance print and 51% felt proactive education on new technologies and special effects was important. 52% also looked to providers that offered the latest in environmentally sustainable technologies.
Marketers expected printing enhancements to:
Give their brand a premium look.
Capture the attention of recipients.
Differentiate them from the competition.
Enhance their brand or corporate image.
This is something Steve Palmer, Co-founder Paperhat Creative, works with brands to achieve. In the webinar he shared his perspective on digital print enhancements, thoughts on the wider marketing communication challenges, and his ideas on the opportunities for PSPs.
He suggested that PSPs should think like a startup to enable them to remain agile, focus on the basics, stay lean, and look for productive partnerships. He highlighted the Color-Logic and Touch 7 systems as great tools for Digital Print Enhancement (DPE).
Webinar attendees were also given several top tips including:
Act as a consultant and get involved as early as possible in the process to understand what clients are trying to achieve.
Get the pricing right. Don’t be afraid to charge for a premium product.
Start small, master the technique, and grow from there.
Use the free Ricoh Business Booster resource and its array of templates.
Promote your DPE capability with business cards, direct mail, samples, an open house, or on social media.
Opening up this new world of opportunity is the class leading five colour Ricoh Pro C7200x digital press. It is now equipped to run both gold and silver toners. The new additions join fluorescent yellow and pink, white, clear gloss, and invisible red in delivering a wide range of print enhancements.
The technology is perfectly placed to spearhead a new drive in to added value high margin services and applications and reflects our commitment to supporting transformational innovation – something we call Henkaku.
www.ricoh-europe.com
