The Printing Industries of America just released another economic and financial report this week on the future of the printing industry (free to members, another benefit of membership!). A Planning Guide for 2012-2013, outlines industry trends and impacts on printing markets, and provides strategies and tactics on how to handle possible difficulties and how to take advantage of opportunities in the year to come. The full report can be found on PIA’s website, while we have provided you with five tactics and strategies for doing business in this year’s printing industry.
Evaluate Print and the Economic Cycle
Every industry trends differently with the economic cycle. The printing industry closely follows the economic cycle, meaning that when the economy improves or declines the printing industry does comparatively the same. Knowing and understanding what position the printing industry is in the economic cycle is important and operational decisions, such
as investment, should be adjusted accordingly. It is important to note that the printing industry generally leads recessions and lags recovery and does best in the (economic) mature recovery stage.
Know Your Position in Competition and in Life Cycle
Although the printing industry has moved from a mature to a declining stage in the industry life cycle, this may not be true for every segment of the print market. Every product and process differs in life stage, meaning while some may be maturing or declining, other functions in print may be in the growth stage. This can be found by examining the relative sales change by sector compared to the total printing shipments. An example is digital toner and inkjet processes are still in the growth stage where as ancillary services are in the mature stage. The stage in the life cycle impacts strategic decisions and thus why understanding the life cycle your company is in is important.
In regards to understanding competitive position, companies can look at the total sales in a print sector compared to the number of firms. This is how opportunities can be discovered.
Prices, Sales, and Costs
It is general business knowledge that to increase profit is to decrease costs, increase sales, or increase prices. What we tend to ignore is the importance of pricing power. Pricing Power is when there is strong demand for a product due to at least one of the following factors: specialization, deep knowledge and understanding of customer needs, diversification, strong branding, well encouraged and rewarded sales team, and demand driven versus cost driven pricing. Pricing Power, although not typical for all firms to have, generally is the leader in cause of profit leadership, (compared to cutting costs and increasing sales).
It is very important to have a strategy for the year and to plan properly. As we just mentioned, specialization and diversification are two big factors in a companies’ profitability. Because specialization decreases costs and diversification increases price, it is best to have a plan for achieving both. It is essential to note that wherever your firm is in the printing spectrum it is important to think about the future. You may be facing a state of maturation in the printing life cycle and it would benefit to think ahead to the next step: (ie: possible opportunities?)
People and Attitude
While we expect the labor market to be on the rise it is going to be a slow process. It is a rule of thumb that the economy has to grow at about 5% for a full year for the unemployment rate to drop 1%. This results in opportunity for employers to hire skilled and qualified workers at a lower wage. However, don’t let this affect the need to spend time and money on employee education and training. One last thing: have a positive attitude. Having a positive can-do outlook and demonstrating this to your management and employees can go a long way during this time of economic difficulty.
Do you have any advice for approaching 2012 and what’s to come? Tell us your thoughts!








Due to the abundent misconceptions about print, 


”The Postal Service faces a difficult challenge and unless they hire the best in the business a restructuring may fall flat. In public sector restructurings, threading the political needle is as important as coming up with a great business solution.”


