How can sheetfed offset products in advertising, publishing, and packaging assert themselves in the media market? By Dr. Markus Rall
Sheetfed Offset: Its Place in the Media Market
How can sheetfed offset products in advertising, publishing, and packaging assert themselves in the media market? What's the best way to assure their importance, and how do we make them better? The printing industry has been proactive in this new environment, engaging society and the media economy in order to assert print's position in the market.
There's no doubt about it: the Internet and mobile telephony have had a measurable effect on the importance of print, television, and radio. After the requisite consolidation phase, though, every medium finds its place. Inevitably, all sides will suffer losses in the fight to gain market share, increase sales, and win over consumers. After all, among the printed products that have lost are forms, greeting cards, and newsletters, while television battles with an increasing number of TV-totallers; in addition, cash isn't exactly accumulating exponentially in the multimedia sector. Consumers are just as dismissive of fee-based web content as they are of banner ads.
Still, what the media have to offer has consolidated, and media coexistence is a reality. The evolution of the media has spawned a lively market in which all disciplines will have to evolve - and often they'll have to evolve together. When this happens the result is a colourful media mix that offers new products. This is how printed products adapt to the market environment. But they don't adapt like a flag at the whim of the winds. Instead, as the alpha member of the group, print is innovative and takes on the challenges that other media just can't cope with. Paradoxical as it sounds, print, from its unique position of strength, must support and enhance other media in order to find its own unassailable place in the contemporary media mix. It has been clear for some time now that the media market is not about players crowding each other out. Each media fulfils specific functions. So the challenge of printed media in the big mix is to discern its own unique functions as well as to find new challenges, particularly in the largely saturated markets of the industrialised nations.
Printed products in competition The requirements and the market environment of individual printed products vary. Media volume in the printing industry will increase worldwide to 1130 billion Euro from 909 billion Euro - though growth rates in industrialised nations will be at modest levels. Sheetfed offset products in publishing printing such as books, calendars, and magazines are resilient. Their very nature means that they can't be replaced by other media, and are singularly appealing thanks to their tactile and visual properties. It's this very appeal that we need to strengthen. Producing high quality economically is the challenge for printing companies and this is the very challenge that printing press manufacturers need to take into account. And they do so by innovating and providing the resulting technological benefits. This means innovative press technology, such as shorter makereadies, and more efficient inline finishing capabilities.
Packaging products, because of their practical character, are less easily supplanted by other media. The significance of packaging as a communication and advertising medium is increasing, and with it the need for more sophisticated printing processes. In contrast, the competition for commercial printing is much tougher. TV, radio, the Internet, sponsoring campaigns and print are all fighting for market shares in the advertising sector, and in turn for sales. Now, consumers and how they interact with the media have repositioned the mix. The Internet is increasingly living up to its role as a dominant medium. Still, despite increasing advertising revenue - with an annual growth of 15 per cent from 2005 to 2010 - revenues still haven't reached desired levels. Print media's great advantage is that consumers themselves decide when and how they'll interact with the media, and in turn with advertising. Consumers put specific information aside in order to refer to it later; they zero in on information on the Internet that they first read about in print.
To a large degree, the task is in the overall design of printed products, to strengthen their position and relevance in the media market, to make them more legitimate, and to widen their field. Printing press manufacturers, printing companies and their customers recognise that they have to spurn each other to action and deliver ideas that will benefit all. Without a doubt, the interaction between printing press manufacturer and printing company has to be seen as a unique driving force. The printing press manufacturer today has evolved into a consultancy business that provides printing companies with the necessary technical tools while incorporating market trends and developing its own innovative ideas. This means the continuous development of printing technology, how that technology is applied within the overall business context, such as trademark protection, and the collaboration between print and electronic media.
Quality enhancement: a bright future The prices consumers pay for printed products have to be competitive, and the advantages of these products have to be skillfully put to use through creative ideas and quality workmanship. Printing technology over the years has been driven by this necessity. One technological innovation, which ensures fast, efficient production and in turn keeps prices competitive, is our new DirectDrive technology. This entirely new drive concept for sheetfed offset presses significantly reduces makeready times and increases press production times accordingly. In conjunction with other developments, such as the QuickChange modules, and technical solutions that further shorten makeready times, reduce waste, and increase productivity, printers can process more jobs and generate higher revenue. When linked to printnet, the production management system for printers and publishers, production efficiency and flexibility can be increased enormously.
Applying inline enhancement processes gives printed products a new appeal and unique selling properties. Contrast-rich matt-glossy coatings, optical effects using pigments or daylight colours, fragrances, embossing and foil lamination are just a few of the product enhancement capabilities that are available. Besides the increasing importance of UV coating, with its photo-like quality, inline cold foil lamination with the Roland InlineFoiler Prindor is becoming increasingly important. Together with different colours, forms and materials, it can create products that awaken consumers' primal instincts. People have long been fascinated by anything that glitters and shines; they love rub- off tickets and handling embossed cards. These are all original print characteristics that must be pushed in order to strengthen the market position of printed products.
Each printed product is unique. It's precisely in the growth markets, such as direct marketing and in packaging, that these characteristics are being consciously and skillfully cultivated. In the meantime, product sectors in which such enhancements and the exploitation of the multisensory possibilities don't make sense are shrinking in the western industrialised countries. The reason is that electronic media can replace these products, such as forms and newsletters. Luxury articles in particular prefer enhanced packaging, often combined with new shapes.
Product and trademark protection Enhancement doesn't only mean pretty. It can also mean instilling into a printed product added value, such as the protection of a trademark. The globalisation of markets requires ever more vigilance against brand pirates. In Germany alone, this kind of piracy causes almost Euro 30 billion of lost revenue per year. The global figure comes to around Euro 300 billion. Building up a brand name only to lose it to pirates is a path to ruin. This is why trademark protection strategies, particularly in the packaging sector, are becoming more important. A system with different security characteristics is difficult to copy. For this reason, a secured product should have, at the very least, an open as well as a hidden security feature, and a number that allows logistical tracing. Product security means a comprehensive workflow that includes all the parties in a product's value-adding chain, from product planning and package development and trade, to the end consumer.
Accordingly, specific verification levels exist, each with a different security process: features for the consumer, features for the authorities and customs, and features for the trademark owner. The first level includes characteristics like pigments, watermarks, or holograms. The latter for example can be printed on a label, and is loved in the upmarket clothing industry. The second level includes invisible features, such as infrared and UV characteristics, liquid crystal technology, and taggants. These are marking substances that are mixed with the printing ink and are therefore below the surface of normal wear and tear. The third level are forensic characteristics like DNA taggants and RFID transponder smart labels. The RFID chip can be given a product code, and thus a digital signature. This makes it possible to verify the authenticity, origin and history of a product. This is not a small matter: counterfeit drugs can pose a grave danger to consumers. It is estimated that 7 per cent to 10 per cent of the drugs being traded around the world are counterfeit. Very few people feel compelled to act as medical guinea pigs, and for this reason trademark protection features in this sector are being vigorously pursued. Such features include holographic strips, intricate Guilloché patterns, and a ‘fingerprint’ process in which a unique profile can be read using a spectroscopic reader.
Print, new media and electronics Printed products now routinely include the link to a homepage on the Internet. We can enter a number code printed on a common beverage label into our mobile phone and receive amusing ringtones. Opening a birthday card can often launch a squawking rendition of the classic ‘Happy Birthday To You’. These examples show that in everyday life, the link between print, new media and electronics are primarily static in nature. But the way RFID codes support trademark protection illustrates how important the function of electronics will be taken in the future. The disciplines of printing and electronics are merging. MAN Roland is participating in the evolution through its active work with the oe-a (Organic Electronics Association) in the field of printed electronics, with a focus on printed conductors and structuring processes. Here, development is on photovoltaic cells, flexible microbatteries for supplying electricity, an OLED (organic light-emitting diode) display and printed keyboards. Printed products combined with electronics can give birth to new types of games, for example. One practical example of how beneficial the morphing of print and electronics can be comes from the pharmaceutical industry: sensors can be integrated into the packages of flu medicines, for example, allowing consumers to take their temperatures.
Upcode Upcode technology is giving fresh impetus to mobile marketing because it conveniently links print and mobile telephony. Consumers use their mobile phones to photograph a printed code, and the information file, unique to the code, is transmitted to the mobile phone - whether that file is in the form of videos, photos, or text news articles. The advantage of Upcode technology is the seamless link between the mobile phone and media, the independence of the application from operating personnel on the supply side and from add-on devices on the customer side, the variability of the supported data formats, the possibility of gathering customer data, and the high degree of data security. Upcode's areas of application are therefore quite numerous. Getting the news or theatre tickets makes just as much sense as requesting vouchers in consumer marketing initiatives, or ordering games and videos. And in industry, service support via Upcode in user manuals is conceivable. The customer photographs the code in the manual, and gets help by SMS.
Exploiting opportunity High-quality products from the world of publishing printing, such as art books, special interest magazines, and calendars easily find their buyers. This is true even if production runs are split down in order to address a given target group as specifically as possible. Consumers are always won over as long as a printed product and its content form a symbiosis. In selected commercials production, using attractively enhanced and emotionally appealing advertisements, target groups can be addressed using address data, thus excluding costly waste coverage. This is something TV, radio and the Internet cannot do. And this is why printed advertising matter remains an integral part of advertising campaigns. The field of packaging printing illustrates just how versatile and profitable print-specific features can be. Enhanced, attractive packages promote sales, and assume a logistical function. In the struggle against brand piracy, the printing industry remains a reliable partner of manufacturing companies. Media consumers today have become independent in the ways in which they interact with the media. They cannot be manipulated like they used to be. If consumers don't like it, they discard it. Printed products will continue to exist in our experience-oriented society - because printed products are a tactile and emotional experience.
Pictured above: Dr. Markus Rall, board member responsible for sheetfed presses at MAN Roland, ‘It has been clear for some time now that the media market is not about players crowding each other out. Each media fulfils specific functions.’
Pic 2: Mont Blanc pic High-grade packaging emphasises the image of exclusive brands and is thus a genuine marketing instrument. (Picture source: rob. leunis & chapman group, Leunisman GmbH, Hanover, Germany)
Pic 3: Seeing, touching, feeling, smelling, hearing: the many possibilities that product packaging has to appeal to all the senses make it irreplaceable. (Picture source: rob. leunis & chapman group, Leunisman GmbH, Hanover, Germany)
Pic 4: Trademark protection is greatly strengthened by a combination of different security features: the three-dimensional PEAK Anticopy Key (left) contains different pictures; the hologram (right, Trustseal) contains Nanotext which can only be read using a microscope.
Pic 5: Whether it be a label or a magazine title: print products enhanced by the InlineFoiler Prindor cold foil transfer process stand out with an incomparable attractiveness.
How can sheetfed offset products in advertising, publishing, and packaging assert themselves in the media market? What's the best way to assure their importance, and how do we make them better? The printing industry has been proactive in this new environment, engaging society and the media economy in order to assert print's position in the market.
The requirements and the market environment of individual printed products vary. Media volume in the printing industry will increase worldwide to 1130 billion Euro from 909 billion Euro - though growth rates in industrialised nations will be at modest levels. Sheetfed offset products in publishing printing such as books, calendars, and magazines are resilient. Their very nature means that they can't be replaced by other media, and are singularly appealing thanks to their tactile and visual properties. It's this very appeal that we need to strengthen. Producing high quality economically is the challenge for printing companies and this is the very challenge that printing press manufacturers need to take into account. And they do so by innovating and providing the resulting technological benefits. This means innovative press technology, such as shorter makereadies, and more efficient inline finishing capabilities. 
The prices consumers pay for printed products have to be competitive, and the advantages of these products have to be skillfully put to use through creative ideas and quality workmanship. Printing technology over the years has been driven by this necessity. One technological innovation, which ensures fast, efficient production and in turn keeps prices competitive, is our new DirectDrive technology. This entirely new drive concept for sheetfed offset presses significantly reduces makeready times and increases press production times accordingly. In conjunction with other developments, such as the QuickChange modules, and technical solutions that further shorten makeready times, reduce waste, and increase productivity, printers can process more jobs and generate higher revenue. When linked to printnet, the production management system for printers and publishers, production efficiency and flexibility can be increased enormously.
Applying inline enhancement processes gives printed products a new appeal and unique selling properties. Contrast-rich matt-glossy coatings, optical effects using pigments or daylight colours, fragrances, embossing and 
Accordingly, specific verification levels exist, each with a different security process: features for the consumer, features for the authorities and customs, and features for the trademark owner. The first level includes characteristics like pigments, watermarks, or holograms. The latter for example can be printed on a label, and is loved in the upmarket clothing industry. The second level includes invisible features, such as infrared and UV characteristics, liquid crystal technology, and taggants. These are marking substances that are mixed with the printing ink and are therefore below the surface of normal wear and tear. The third level are forensic characteristics like DNA taggants and RFID transponder smart labels. The RFID chip can be given a product code, and thus a digital signature. This makes it possible to verify the authenticity, origin and history of a product. This is not a small matter: counterfeit drugs can pose a grave danger to consumers. It is estimated that 7 per cent to 10 per cent of the drugs being traded around the world are counterfeit. Very few people feel compelled to act as medical guinea pigs, and for this reason trademark protection features in this sector are being vigorously pursued. Such features include holographic strips, intricate Guilloché patterns, and a ‘fingerprint’ process in which a unique profile can be read using a spectroscopic reader.