Although Australia’s printing industry is still one of our biggest manufacturing sectors, it is beginning to stagnate.
IBISWorld says, ‘revenues are expected to rise just 1.4% in 2011-12. That follows decreases the previous three years.’
Leon Gettler, senior business journalists says that, ‘The printing industry needs new strategies to deal with the changing market.’
The Internet is fast and cheap while Print is slow and expensive. The printing industry is also a crowded and competitive one. This in turn, has driven down profit margins.
Although this seems like a grim picture for the printing industry, if a print company can precisely define what kind of services it offers to its customers, it should be able to adapt to the changing landscape of the market.
Gettler says a big mistake is for companies to confuse tactics with strategy. ‘Tactics are short term; strategy looks out over many years.’
A print company in West Melbourne might be competing with a company in South Melbourne. The South Melbourne company might have a sale to get rid of too much product and the West Melbourne company decides to run a sale to remain competitive. The following week things are back to normal. The company in West Melbourne has used tactics.
Strategy is when the print company in West Melbourne makes a statement like, ‘we will innovate with new products.’ Every effort will be focussed on achieving this goal of consistently providing the most innovative printing services for the customer such as digital Business Cards.
The market forces are changing but with a clearly defined strategy, print companies should be able adapt and remain a vital part of Australia’s manufacturing sector.
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