Steve Lance likes to make his point about the language disconnect between marketers and creatives by borrowing from the book, Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus. It’s the marketers who are from Mars and the creatives who are from Venus, he says.

Okay, Steve. So what planet do printers come from?

In the presentations he gave at the May 17 Thought Leadership Workshop attended by about 70 creatives, print buyers and print providers, Steve sought to bridge the gap between these disciplines with observations and tips on what it takes to make these groups “play together” effectively. Truly, that was the point of the two-day seminar, it brought together these three groups. The topic: “Open New Opportunities with Digital Printing…Together.”

Xerox has been bringing creatives and print providers together for most of the decade. But this was the first time we’ve used our Thought Leadership Workshop format to deliberately develop a program for both groups. It’s an important connection, because creatives influence more than $26 billion of print buying every year. And the more creatives know about today’s digital printing capabilities, the more likely they are to specify it for their programs — to the benefit of their clients.

Does it work? At one lunch table a group of five creatives and print providers discussed their experiences selling and producing one-to-one marketing services. John Burton, a designer and partner in Burton Mackintosh, scored some points with the print providers by saying he always takes his designs to his printer of choice before showing it to the client, to be sure it can be done and perhaps pick up tips on how it can be improved. “An event like this is about the war stories, about finding out if what you’re doing is also working in Tempe and in Dallas,” he said.

The formal program was just as important for Ed Bodiford, chief executive officer of dgpress, Carrollton, Texas. “We get insights into how creatives work and how we can market to them,” he said.

Steve Lance’s opening (seemingly contradictory) point was that great creative is about great process, that process and measurement are, in fact, the common language among creatives and marketers. The program didn’t bring Mars and Venus together. But it appears to have helped creatives and print providers connect — right here on earth. What do you think? What’s your advice for a peaceful co-existence?

Bob Wagner
Vice President, Creative Services Business and Premier Partners Program
Xerox Corporation
robert.wagner@xerox.com

Posted by In The Balance at 04:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I presented to a room full of creative customers and partners last Thursday at our Thought Leadership Workshop for Creative Pros and Premier Partners and thought it was worth sharing the tips I shared with them:

1. Get involved at the design stage. Make sure there are open lines of communication between you, the designer(s) and the client(s). Understand the strategy, deadlines, budget and project complexity level.
2. Determine how the project will be produced. Offset, digital or both? If both, you’ll want to ensure color consistency between the multiple, mixed pieces.
3. Determine “what’s what.” That is, determine what’s static and what’s variable; whether it’s text and/or images.
4. Communicate maximum sheet-size for the digital printing equipment to be used for the project, along with the maximum image area.
5. Test images. Testing during the design of the application ensures “runability” during production. Color-correcting, while still in the design phase, enables smoother production.
6. Determine production timeframe(s) and budget(s). You’ll be prepared to offer better solutions for the production and bindery equipment to be used.
7. Find out how the data will be provided. Not all printers have the same software applications for handling variable information.
8. Test the shortest and longest pieces of data to ensure information flows correctly. Long pieces of variable information can cause re-flow, if proper fonts and point-sizes are not used.
9. Build-in integrity. Always recommend putting some sort of sequence number within each record of the database that will print on the piece during production. If jams happen or bindery mishaps occur during production, a record is identifiable and can be reprinted quickly.
10. Keep the number of different stocks used reasonable. Understand and effectively use available paper trays in the equipment you select.
11. Keep the finishing/bindery complexity reasonable. Using excessively complex finishing can create waste and could lead to re-printing of some records. If you have access to printing equipment with in-line finishing, use it.
12. Understand United Postal Service requirements. If you’re using a particular postage class, you’ll have to print records and keep them in a certain order. Always double-check that your project meets USPS mailing requirements. Even if the project is not a mailing, as if records need to be printed in a certain order (i.e. alphabetical).

Feel free to add tips and share experiences of your own when it comes to customized print projects.

Johnette H. Mongelli
Senior Document Advisor
Xerox Production Systems Group

Posted by In The Balance at 04:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On the second day of On Demand, Charlie Corr invited the big four in production print – Xerox (me) Kodak (Randy Vandagriff), HP (Larry Tracy) and IBM (George Promis) – onto the keynote panel that asked “Is Ink Jet the Technology Story of 2007?” These kinds of multi-vendor “confrontations” can sometimes get a little nasty, with speakers taking not-so-subtle digs at their fellow panelists’ products and making over-the-top claims for their own products. But this was no Jerry Springer event, due to a combination of the maturity of the panelists and the gravitas of the large audience drawn by this keynote event held in the main hall.

I was the lead off speaker and gave a comparative assessment of the various types of ink jet and electro photography – Chester Carlson always used that word instead of xerography. During my 37 year Xerox career I have worked with almost all these technologies, though most of the audience did not associate Xerox with ink jet. Xerox has at one time or another marketed piezo, thermal and continuous ink jet products. One of the observations I shared with the audience was that, while xerography is very complicated and difficult to understand, ink jet is the model of simplicity – some ink, a jet and paper – and it is very compact. But, once you get it working, xerography has a lot of self-stabilizing properties and is easy to control. With ink jet, there are alignment issues, maintenance systems, drying – the list keeps growing – that nullify the initial simplicity. And that is one of the reasons it has taken so long ink jet to move up market. A second point I spoke about is “the problem of water” – it takes more energy to dry an image made up of ink drops than to fuse one made up of toner particles. And water does terrible things to paper. Of course, I did not have a product to hawk, but some of the audience was aware of our solid ink products and how, since the acquisition of the Tektronix printer division, Xerox has been moving solid ink up the market in speed and quality.

When I took my seat after my talk, I opened the water bottle given to each on the panelists as we came on stage. As my luck would have it, it was carbonated sparkling water and it exploded all over me. I think the water heard the bad things I said about it and was getting back at me.

At the end of the talks, Charlie put a few questions to the panelists. On ink jet’s biggest challenges, we split 2-2 on reliability or substrate latitude. On which type of ink jet was superior – we all went for our own brand. And we all agreed that new technology in both electro photography and ink jet (all kinds) will offer customers a spectrum of Image Quality, print speed and price/page combinations than current offerings

Pete Crean
Xerox Senior Fellow

Posted by In The Balance at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was thrilled to moderate a panel of such caliber and as a result I am excited to announce the release of the podcast for all to hear. Printers today have to make fundamental decisions about business strategy; the discussions we engaged in on this digital printing roundtable that only touched the surface on these issues and these opportunities.

It is clear that companies can no longer count on quick fixes either in costs or process improvements to improve both the top and bottom line. We are challenged to drive better results from investments we make. Utilization should not be solely born to the productivity of the print engine but also to the maximization of personal resources which in reality is the best asset of a growing company.

I want to thank again all the participants of the roundtable. The launch of this podcast allows us the opportunity to extend the dialogue. I invite you to listen, enjoy and comment.

Gavin Jordan-Smith
Vice President, Commercial Print and Prepress Business
Xerox Production Systems Group

Posted by In The Balance at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)