The Third Wave


Changes the relationship of printers to the marketplace


Dr. Joseph Webb, President, Strategies for Management, Inc. and Director, WhatTheyThink's Economics and Research Center; and Richard Romano, Managing Editor, WhatTheyThink.com


As we have become more digital and elec- tronic, time has accelerated. That is, no


one is willing to wait for things anymore. Time was, if you wanted, say, product information, you mailed in a reader service card and, a month later, literature would arrive in the mail. Today, we want that information immediately. Many people today never had to wait. Since


Google, we have instant access to any information we want—and it’s only speeding up. Just typing a search term is now too time-consuming; with new personal voice assistants like Siri or Alexa, we just shout out a question and a voice from the ether answers us instantaneously. As a printer, you have probably noticed that job


turnaround times have shortened dramatically. Some report that customers want jobs done the same day or, per the old joke, “yesterday.” That may happen!


Time Isn’t Money—


It’s Currency What we’re talking about are the buzzwords


“faster time to market.” The reason you have to turn jobs around faster— to accelerate the time to market of what you’re


Photo courtesy of TaxCredits.net The Magazine 6 Forecast | 2018


producing—is that your customers have to accelerate their time to market. Look at retail. Once upon a time, there were distinct


seasons, like Christmas or Back-to-School, around which marketing efforts were scheduled. Retail has now become less dependent on seasonality. A marketing campaign may revolve around a sudden event, like something a competitor did on social media, for example. At the same time, brand owners are launching


new product lines faster than ever, and marketing materials, signage, and related materials are needed more quickly. Time is accelerating for retailers, so their entire communications chain of suppliers needs to respond in a faster way. Facilitating this accelerated time to market is the


most important service printers can provide, and adopting digital technologies, data management, and marketing automation can be a real asset. Printers should be there to help customers get stuff done. As for what that “stuff” comprises, clients have


many needs beyond print. The role of today’s printer is to find out what those needs are and where they can help. For printers that serve retailers—be they major national brands or small local retailers—customers are looking not for simple output providers but overall


“brand managers” who can handle a wide variety of print and non-print applications that require a consistent look and feel.


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