RSS
If print is dead, who killed it?
The most likely culprits, most would say, are the internet and the current economic downturn.
And as someone who has been involved in print production for more than two decades—long before anyone had ever heard of PDFs, e-anything, or the World Wide Web—the headline on this post of course gives me great pause.
But now, at the risk of sounding totally self-serving, I’ll assert that print is NOT dead. It is, however, going through some radical changes and people everywhere are taking a hard(er) look at every dollar. The challenge is to hone in on where and how print best fits in and partners with online efforts (what is often called the “marketing mix”).
When we think of the wide range of printed communications we come in contact with each week—from a grocery store’s circular to the newspaper that brought it to you to the book you take to the beach and the seed catalog you use to plan your summer garden—we realize how intimate an experience we have with print. We carry it with us, keep it by our bed, and look forward to its arrival with great anticipation.
Print has substance and weight—it is in my hand; it is reality. Print has texture and thus affects more senses.
Print is one channel in a multi-channel world. Once, it was the only channel. Its role today is to integrate with other media and deliver results for its users. Too many marketers see an either/or role for print and other media.
Frank Romano, Professor Emeritus, School of Print Media, Rochester Institute of Technology, quoted in “Print with Purpose,” published by Appleton Coated
A few more statistics from “Print with Purpose” put things into perspective. 67% of online action is driven by offline messages1, including print, and consumers receiving a printed catalog are twice as likely to buy online than those consumers who do not receive a catalog2.
What these statistics bear out is that print not only has a purpose, but a place in this new-fangled world of ours that often seems overwhelmed with bytes.
As my colleague and former client Tamsen has rightly pointed out, while it is not fair to automatically assume that a reader will choose to download a 60-something-page PDF of a previously printed annual report, neither is it fair to assume that they will not. As with any kind of communication, we need to think about how to reach our audiences where and how they will be most receptive and most likely to become engaged.
Lastly, as we’re learning to become good stewards of our clients’ dollars by perfecting the “marketing mix” of print and electronic media, we are also learning to be good stewards of our environment by making sustainability part of our everyday decision-making when thinking about print. More on that in my next blog post.
So, see, no one killed print. It’s just finding its way in this new century and learning to get along with others.
1“iProspect Offline Channel Influence on Search Behavior Study.” Print in the Mix—A Clearinghouse of Research on Print Media Effectiveness. http://printinthemix.rit.edu
2“Household Diary Study” United States Postal Service, 2007
Categories Design
Twitter
LinkedIn