PrintPower

"We are no longer talking about print in isolation - it is just one of the output channels we offer," Young says. "We have had to become channel 'agnostic', embracing e-solutions, too, including email, SMS and personalised websites. We have to talk the same language as the client and have the appropriate tools in the toolbox." Ideally, IOS gets inv... olved as early as possible with the client to understand what it is trying to achieve, and then suggests methods of communication that will be most effective and cost efficient. "We ask, 'how can we help you solve your business problem?' Then we produce a solution. and there may be some print work at the end of it," Young adds. The UK is now considered a mature market for this holistic approach to communications management and one that is, in many ways, ahead of the game globally. IOS, for example, is in the process of exporting its UK model to the US. Meanwhile, specialisation has been the route to success for North Yorkshire's Ryedale Group. According to marketing director, James Buffoni, this family firm saw the writing on the wall in the 1980s. "Basically it was realised that to develop the business we needed to talk with our customers," he says. Out of this dialogue came the company's core specialism - printing on to plastics for plant labels and plastic cards. "The process involves highly engineered ink and substrates. It is product engineering, not just printing, and that's where our business has been ever since. Now we are not printers, we are communicators in niche markets." He believes the way forward is to link print with electronic technologies and select the most relevant communications route for his customers: "We have to be open minded, seeking out whatever technology is appropriate and packaging it up for the clients. Print on its own is just a commodity."Read More