Let’s take a quick look back at three trends in the printing industry that shaped the last 365 days in the Printerverse and what we can learn from them moving forward. 2024 was a year of innovation, consolidation, and frustration.
Innovation
After an 8-year gap, drupa, the world’s largest and most comprehensive printing event, returned to Messe Dusseldorf from May 28 to June 7. The energy was high, and printing innovation was on display for 11 days across 18 halls of the vast fairground.
Noticeable trends in the printing industry included product launches focused on helping printers do their work faster, more efficiently, and with fewer people through hardware and software. Finishing, flexible packaging, and sustainability were topical for exhibitors and visitors. So were sales.
Attendees came with shopping lists, spoke with vendors, and did their final round of research before signing contracts. Plenty of printers made purchases for things they discovered while walking around.
Why this matters? drupa is a bellwether for things to come and where many trends in the printing industry are born. Some of the OEMs will be building equipment for the next 3 years to fulfill orders from the show. With the impending threat of imposing tariffs from the US and the potential for limited inventory due to supply and demand, I suggest you get in the pipeline NOW if you are in the market for new equipment.
#ICYMI
3 Critical Takeaways from drupa 2024 for Printing and Marketing Businesses
PODCASTS
Playlist: The Print Report LIVE at drupa. Interviews, intel, and more.
LIVE at drupa 2024 with Mr. Benny Landa
The Print Report: Cool Collabs at drupa 2024
The Print Report: Focused on Finishing at drupa 2024
The Print Report: We Are drupa
The Print Report: drupa 2024 Wrap-Up
Consolidation
Mergers, acquisitions, downsizing, and closures were prevalent 2024 trends in the printing industry. This was felt on the customer side, too. EVERYONE is operating with less time, money, and people.
Why this matters? Adjusting how to communicate, educate, and market to customers and consumers will require embracing empathy and patience and delivering it. Provide non-human customer convenience as much as possible, including learning about what you do, who you help, what you sell, why it matters to that business (vertical), how it can help that business (vertical) generate results, an easy way to order and pay, and manage assets if that applies. If you can’t do it all, ask your customers which is most important to them, and make decisions from there.
Frustration
Workforce development ranks high as a collectively shared problem and one of the top trends in the printing industry. We don’t do a great job of changing the perception of print from an antiquated communication channel that kills trees and contributes to climate change to a modern, data-driven, and innovative technology that invests heavily in producing products to be used, reused, recycled, and reclaimed. Getting people excited to work in print is challenging if they think it’s a dead-end industry for a career. That is a high hurdle to get over.
Why it matters? Beyond employment lies a larger issue: the perception of print as a viable channel for sales, marketing, education, and communication. If people see print as outdated, harmful to the environment, and ineffective, why would they allocate any budget to producing it?
We must step outside our echo chamber and launch a global PR campaign to address these misperceptions. For example, in the U.S., the paper industry could file an FCC lawsuit challenging ‘go green, go paperless’ advertising. If the environmental benefits of paper are factual, ‘go green, go paperless’ claims could result in FCC fines for misinformation. While costly, a lawsuit would spark global awareness and provide an opportunity to share facts with the masses.
The problem? Utilities and financial institutions, frequent users of ‘go green, go paperless,’ are also major paper and print buyers. Industry organizations don’t want to publicly call them out and upset them, prioritizing industry business relationships over consumer protection from misleading environmental claims. How is that working out for you?
As far as trends in the printing industry go, I’d like to see this shift to all of our interests versus the interests of some paper and printing companies with greenwashing customers. If we can start a meaningful conversation with the world to illustrate that print is not the enemy of the environment, we are in a much better position to keep the focus on the value of print with print customers, and the value of a career in print with potential employees.
Moving Forward
2025 is going to test our resolve individually and as an industry. Get ready to go into survival mode and prepare for higher-priced supplies, supply chain disruptions, tighter marketing budgets, and more industry consolidation. Whether or not US-imposed tariffs and retaliatory tariffs come to be, the threat has created a ‘wait and see what happens before spending money’ atmosphere. Everything you learned from the pandemic can be proactively applied now. Get on it so you are well prepared to meet the moment.
PRINT LONG AND PROSPER!
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See Deborah’s featured post: Adopt the 24-hour Rule To Win More Print Business
Deborah Corn is the Intergalactic Ambassador to the Printerverse at Print Media Centr, a Print Buyerologist, international industry speaker and blogger, and the cultivator of Print Production Professionals, the #1 print group on LinkedIn. She provides printspiration and resources to print and marketing professionals through education, events, Podcasts From The Printerverse, ProjectPeacock.TV, and an array of community-lifting initiatives including Girls Who Print and International Print Day,
Deborah also helps companies create more meaningful and profitable customer relationships by utilizing 25+ years of experience as an agency, brand, and corporate print buyer who has assessed, hired, and worked with hundreds of printers and service providers.
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