Someone once observed that there are only two things in life: reasons or results. You either have the results you want—or a lot of good reasons why you didn’t get them.
How often have you heard:
“They were lucky.”
“Someone brought them a new product.”
“They hit the shelves just as the fad went national.”
“People were already doing it—they were in the right place at the right time.

Brand Managers, marketers and companies constantly struggle to break out…to find a new idea…to capture the public’s imagination. Yet most of them haven’t a clue how to do it. The unsuccessful ones think it’s all luck. But as those of you who’ve made the switch to digital printing already know, breaking the rules requires following a set of rules. They’re just different from the rules of same-old, same-old.

Paradigm Busting is a very real methodology. How successful could your business become if you could structure a way to develop, create and nurture new ideas that can become cultural and business phenomena? It can be done. In 7 ½ steps. And the first three are the most critical:

1. Get business buy-in. If the CEO isn’t comfortable with new ideas and new thinking, you’ve got a non-starter. Dead before arrival. The first step is figuring out if your company is truly committed—or can be committed—to change, innovation and new thinking. (Hint: If it isn’t, maybe it’s time to update your resume.)
2. Develop a paradigm-busting task force. If you use the existing structure to build a new model, you’re going to run into turf wars. Make sure the new-think team is interdisciplinary, the best and the brightest and report directly to the CEO. Make the Paradigm Busting team the team everyone wants to be on.
3. Fund the program. Thomas Edison had 3000 failures before his first success. If he didn’t have the capital, we’d all be reading this blog in the dark. There’s got to be R&D money in your company’s budget. If not, see #1 above.

Beyond that?

4. Put together a specific methodology;
5. Understand the new marketing and media;
6. Develop a plan, process & milestones; and
7. Monitor (and learn from) your successes and failures.

Easy? Not really. Frustrating? Occasionally. Challenging? Always. Fun? Definitely. Most important, it’s a process that will lead to success…for you and your company.
And what’s the “half step?” Well, it’s just “repeat, repeat, repeat.”

Paul Kurnit and Steve Lance
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Paul Kurnit and Steve Lance are co-authors and lecturers on the issues of advertising, marketing and management. You can join their conversation at PSInsights.com

Posted by In The Balance at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Printers keep stressing about "new markets" and "becoming solution providers" and keep missing the elephant in the room – the amount of money that is floating around education, health and government looking for a place to land. Maybe the real new market problem for printers comes from the fact that they have the wrong customers.

Advertising to sell stuff was great for the last 40 years. But that was then, this is now. If there are new better, faster and cheaper ways to sell stuff, then maybe it's time to get whatever is left on the table and move on to greener pastures. Businesses that sell goods and/or services succeed best when they focus on their ‘Most Valued Customer.’ Organizations in the EHG -
Education, Health and Government - space have to serve everyone. They can't afford the luxury of ‘Most Valued Customers.’ They are required by law and mission to only have ‘Equal Value Customers.’ When communicating with a market of ‘Equal Value Customers,’ print is not a "nice to have," it is a "must have."

Print works best in combination with the rest of whatever else is present in a real-world communication ecology. Digital print is able to integrate with that ecology in new and previously impossible ways. Being a solution provider that has the expertise to get the write marks on the right paper and then in the right place in a space where print is a "must have" makes a lot of sense. One would have to wonder what new opportunities might emerge if printers focus on solving their own problems as citizens, living in local communities with real challenges in making public education, community health and responsive government a practical reality.

Michael Josefowicz

www.josefowiczassociates.com
My day job is project based team building.


Posted by In The Balance at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So what's in your photo album? If you're like a growing number of people, it's probably a bunch of photos that were printed digitally, probably on the family inkjet printer.

But what about the big vacation trip or the 50th anniversary album of the couple who were married when Eisenhower was president? Then there are the baby books, weddings and landmark events that deserve something more than an album that spends its days stuffed in the closet by the back door. So you upload the photos to a website and pull out the credit card. A few days later "something more" arrives in the form of a one-off, customized album, ready to fuel smiles, tears and memories. There's no question, the age of the "run of one" photo book is upon us. And there's no shortage of players playing all the angles.

The recent announcement of Shutterfly's acquisition of an undisclosed number of Xerox iGen3s to support its expanding operations (presumably including the company's new operation in Charlotte, NC) is a coup for Xerox. Not only does it put the company in a new market, but Shutterfly has been using HP Indigo presses since it began, so this move no doubt rattles some cages at HP headquarters in Boise. And the arrival of Xerox on Kodak's turf probably has a few Kodak execs pacing their cages, too.

This is a all a good thing for Xerox, even though consumers don't know or care how their albums are printed. They just want the quality to be as good as it can be. Which is where the next race may be. Consumers will be the judge. (Which is actually something of a frightening thought.)

Hmmm. Kodak used to make a big deal out of images being printed on Kodak Paper. Will the next branding campaign in consumer photography be to drive the choice of device used to print one-off books of memories?

Noel Ward
Executive Editor
On Demand Journal

Posted by at 05:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The In The Balance Blog is a place for you as printing industry experts in your own right, to discuss the latest hot topics, and participate in discussions on the hidden opportunities and pitfalls that affect the future of printing and graphic communications.

Whether or not you already have registered for the In The Balance industry forum at IPEX, you are invited to participate in this open and ongoing conversation. This is your opportunity to be involved even if you don’t plan to attend the show.

All industry professionals—from printers to vendors to industry analysts and members of the media—from around the world and at all levels of management are invited to help guide and develop this blog according to your needs and desires.

Feel free to ask questions, exchange ideas, share concerns and successes. This is your space.

As a part of the registration process for the industry forum, attendees have the option to submit a question for consideration. To get the conversation started, let’s consider this question that was submitted from the UK…

“Reducing purchase costs of office-oriented printer and MFP hardware makes in-house short-run printing easier, quicker and potentially less costly than outsourcing to a commercial printer. How can the printing industry respond to this threat?”

Post Comment away!

Posted by In The Balance at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)