A prominent printing press manufacturer without a press exhibit at one of the most important trade shows. This is a surprise. Please briefly explain this decision?

Dr Markus Rall: We have chosen this new, different approach deliberately. The industry is changing and customers’ expectations have changed, too. He, the customer, is searching for holistic, integrated solutions when contacting a printing press manufacturer. We are living this process competence claiming to be a high-performance business partner. It’s high time to show this clearly and distinctly at shows, too. We are consciously moving away from the traditional show concept: because we have many more topics to offer than can be covered in two or three presses.

What exactly is the customer’s benefit?

To satisfy all customers we had a selection of eight press configurations to choose, which we could have shown. With the present presentation we do justice to the business model of each customer. After all, we also know about the possibilities of live demonstrations on-site, around Birmingham. Our philosophy there is “15 minutes undivided attention“. The customer gives them to us when he is visiting the presentation. We bring the interested printer from the hectic show business into a pleasant conversation atmosphere. Professionally moderated and presented, the direct context between the demands of the customers and our performance spectrum is created. Which solution to which demand leads to concrete economical success? This question will be answered vividly and comprehensibly.

Which contents can the customer expect from the booth?

On theme areas and in the virtual world we are covering the whole portfolio. The sheetfed sector focuses on Value Added Printing and the VAP tunnel in which experts are going to explain value added applications with the help of exhibits; the webfed sector concentrates on the highly-automated autoprint press series and on APL logistics. A comprehensive presentation will deal with environmentally-compatible printing production as well as our Printvalue services portfolio.

What can the customer expect personally?

Next to the knowledge transfer in an intoxicating show the customer gets individual consultancy and concrete solutions to his special challenges, no matter which press type, format, configuration, or equipment.

How do you demonstrate the show visitors that your presses can print well?

Here of course Ipex is great. Within a radius of a 90 minutes drive we can cover the whole palette in sheetfed offset as well as in commercial and newspaper printing with presentations at customers. Moreover we have daily events in our Offenbach Print Technology Center. To give you an impression: around the NEC the portfolio of our sheetfed presses as well as an impressive range of heatset and newspaper presses are installed. It is up to us to make our customers benefit from this production environment.

Will you use the concept of your new show performance worldwide?

Here at Ipex this is how we set the focus VAP, Value Added Printing. The show, the customers there, the surroundings – we consider the conditions at Ipex to be very good for exactly this performance. We expect interactive customer discussions on a high level. Of course this does not mean we are never going to exhibit a printing press on other shows any more.

How did the manroland colleagues react to the new show concept?

Well, you obviously have to do some convincing internally as well as externally at the customers. Internally, this means for me the sales force in the different markets, too. With our large press portfolio and the PRINTVALUE brands we have an extremely widespread offer. It is a challenge to convey this portfolio comprehensively as a business partner. With the current concept we fulfill this demand.

Those walking new paths have to justify themselves more often. What are you telling doubtful customers who are missing a printing press on the manroland Ipex booth?

We receive a lot of positive feedback from our customers. They mention reasons like, “we know your machinery and your technology” and “for detailed information we will come to the Print Technology Center”. Customers notice that it is them who after all have to pay the bill for the costs of the trade fair. These statements and perceptions show us that we are right with our concept.

Evidently the customer has to come to the booth and be open for something new – but our customers have this openness. Our customers are looking for success and to achieve it they permanently examine new paths. With our show the consultancy, the whole way of knowledge transfer, we have an agenda: we want to inspire the customer as we did during last drupa with the new manroland.

Evoking enthusiasm means be distinctly different and thus not comparable. We are sure we will succeed. Should a customer disagree we’ll appreciate his criticism as much as a praise. We need feedback, it is after all our customers we are doing shows for.

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