Transpromo opportunities, Part 1 of 2
David Davis is a director for Interquest, Ltd. (Charlottesville, VA), a market and technology research and consulting firm focused on the digital printing industry. For more information or to order the Interquest study, “North American Transactional Printing: Market Update & Forecast (2009-2014),” see www.inter-quest.com.
Bring on the inkjet presses
Although black-and-white transactional printing has been declining in recent years, the trend has accelerated over the past 18 months due to the economic situation. The financial and economic crisis negatively impacted the overall transactional print volume (of which about 80% still is monochrome), and has caused companies to accelerate their migration to electronic distribution in an effort to cut costs. Although large service bureaus continue to see a small increase in their black-and-white volume, this is primarily due to an increase in corporate outsourcing; most in-house operations see a significant decline in monochrome output.
Full color remains the most promising segment of transactional printing, particularly when used in transpromo applications. Printing promotional messages on bills and statements is not, in and of itself, new. Transactional printers have done it for years using monochrome and highlight color printers. What is new and is providing a catalyst for the application is the use of continuous-feed full-color inkjet presses. These presses have made a big impact on the market over a relatively short period of time. Although inkjet equipment accounts for a small percentage of the transactional printing systems (monochrome, spot, and full color) used by transactional operations we surveyed late last year, they crank out a lot of volume and account for about 35% of the total transactional print volume reported.
Of course not all color transactional printing is for transpromo. In some cases, companies are primarily eliminating preprinted forms, or enhancing statements for high net worth customers. But overall, transpromo is a major application targeted with inkjet presses. In fact, in our most recent survey, more than three quarters of the full-color digital printing reported by transactional providers is for transpromo applications. So even though the case for transpromo has in many instances undoubtedly been overstated, we find that it is, indeed, growing.
