The words belonged to PODi Australia and New Zealand general manager Garry Knespal, who soon found his warning echoed by keynote speaker Kate Dunn in urging printers to consider utilising other media to add value to their product offering.

In a presentation entitled ‘Find your Blue Ocean of uncontested market space’, the Digital Innovations Group president told the audience that the industry needs to acknowledge the ‘brutal truths’ facing it right now in order to survive them.

Dunn quoted former US vice-presidential candidate and Vietnam POW Admiral James Bond Stockdale, who said after surviving his 8-year imprisonment that it was the blind optimists amongst the captured soldiers that in the end were the most negatively affected by the experience.

“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be,” Stockdale declared, which Dunn used to illustrated her point that printers who simply believe that everything will be okay without adapting to change will probably not survive the hardships facing the industry.

Some of the “brutal realities” Dunn cited are the global recession and shrinking print volumes, as well as the fact that “other forms of communications are proving effective and cost efficient”.

“At the end of this recession, the printing industry is going to look very different to how it did going into it,” Dunn said.

Dunn also noted problems with prices being pushed down, as printers race each other to the bottom in order to gain a competitive edge. The alternative, she said, is to “add value” to your offering.

“On any given day, there is always a printer more desperate than you,” she said.

“Profit comes from creating value, and the industry must find new ways to create value.”

The best way of adding value, she said, is for companies to look to other technologies to complement their media offering, even if it means “embracing methods which partially cannibalise print”.

“We need some blue ocean, in order to get out of the red ocean where we’re all competing with other media over price,” she said.

Dunn cited the example of US airline Southwest Airlines, which was unwilling to compete with its more established competitors by focusing on delivering airport lounges, hub cities, and meals on flights. Instead, it decided to adopt a business model which saw it compete with road transport by offering cheap, no-frills flights which avoided relying on hub cities. As a result, they are one of the few consistently profitable airlines in the US market.

“Airlines forgot about being different, they all settled on being the same,” Dunn explained.

“When you are one of the pack, what do you compete on? Price. As an industry, we need to be different from each other.”

“When you are remarkable, the market will reward you.”

“What we’re moving towards is integrated communication. I know that’s scary because you love print, but nothing works by itself anymore.”

Knespal, also known in the industry as the executive director of the Graphic Arts Association of Australia (GASAA), opened proceedings at the Sydney Masonic Centre, saying that the printing industry is in “a serious fight for attention and relevance in our marketplace”.

“The competition is not the next printer, but every other media outlet out there,” Knespal said

“Print is under attack, but relevant digital print can play a part in the fightback.”

“A mixed campaign of online and print captures everyone’s preference.”

However, Dashwood consulting managing director Brett Dashwood cautioned against launching into the transpromo space too recklessly, saying that “baby steps are okay”.

“It’s good to have a staged approach, you don’t need to do everything straight away.

“Incremental implementation is okay. Of course, there’s the chance of succeeding if you rush into it: but you can stand a baby up and give it a push and it might make a few steps, but it won’t be running properly.”

The event also saw Digitalpress take top honours in the inaugural PODi Australia and New Zealand Best Practice Awards, which won gold for its direct marketing campaign for Volkswagen Financial Services.

Honourable mentions were awarded to Prografica, Digital Logic, and Print Portal.

“It is exciting to see Australian and New Zealand printers producing such high quality and original work with the evolving technology and applications available to them,” said Knespal.

“I look forward to seeing the innovative work these forward-thinking printers will produce in the future.”

Kate Dunn’s feature article on merging print with other media can be found here.

Comment below to have your say on this story.

If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at editorial@sprinter.com.au.  

Sign up to the Sprinter newsletter