By Erwin Busselot, Business Innovations & Solutions Director, Ricoh Europe
European consumers are falling back in love with print.
That is according to the Two Sides Trend Tracker 2023 survey, an assessment of consumers’ attitudes towards print and paper conducted by international research company Toluna. It collected responses from more than 10,000 consumers in 16 countries across the world, from South America and the United States to South Africa and Europe.
The findings show that at the height of the pandemic in 2021 many consumers switched from print on paper to the internet and reading more on digital devices. This was across all categories of print, including; newspapers, magazines, books, catalogues, bills and statements, tax statements, and personal health information.
That trend has now reversed with European consumer preference for print rising significantly over the past two years.
Since 2021 it found the preference for printed:
Magazines is 51%, up from 35%.
Books is 65%, up from 53%.
Newspapers is 31%, up from 26%.
Catalogues is 33%, up from 21%.
Paper bills and statements is 38%, up from 19%.
Printed personal health information, 39% up from 29%.
The survey also went on to consider the advantages of reading material in print with more than half (52%) of the respondents agreeing, or strongly agreeing, that children and students learn more when reading printed rather than digital books and course materials.
45% also agreed, or strongly agreed, that they get a better understanding of the story when reading news in print rather than online. This is something I explored more here.
All of this is great news for print but how can Print Service Providers capitalise on the opportunities presented?
Smithers’ The Future of Digital Printing to 2032 highlights greater use of personalisation as being a key driver for high spend consumers as well as big data and improved analytics delivering intelligent marketing insight into consumer preferences.
Personalisation and content customisation that provides consumers with information they are specifically interested in is made possible by our high speed inkjet and toner technologies. The addition of Digital Print Enhancement with our Ricoh Pro C7200SX digital colour sheetfed press with fifth colour capabilities, can also offer a highly visual and tactile dimension that grabs attention and aids memorability.
Adding digital capabilities such as QR codes and image recognition can support greater engagement as well, while reach can be enhanced with cross-promotion across different channels.
Vital to maximising investment in these versatile production possibilities and ensuring the best results are achieved is accurate data. Data is cleansed, and data accuracy is maintained, by solutions such as /data.mill software.
Despite ever more creative online communications physical print remains a firm favourite. Consumers like to see it, hold it, and keep it.
Responsive, accurate, digital print production plays a crucial role in meeting this need for visually engaging and relevant physical print.
www.ricoh-europe.com