What are the prospects for the world of printing in 2020? Apart from technological developments, the tools that companies and consumers use to communicate are also changing. While printing remains a communication tool, it’s going with the flow and changing in terms of how it’s used and produced. It's important for printers to perceive this change as an evolution and not a revolution. This attitude is permeating the leading companies in the national and international graphic design industry, which combine a strong presence in traditional printing with a propensity to become cross-technology and cross-application businesses, thus offering their client base a comprehensive range of printing and communication services. A propensity that stems from an understanding of a number of trends.

‘Print runs’ are smaller

Consumer demands, widespread multi-channel distribution and personalisation requirements are just some factors that will continue to drive the shift in printing demand for certain applications. Books will continue their migration to digital technology. In addition, applications like direct mail, magazines, catalogues and brochures will offer higher earning opportunities thanks to digital production. If we think of in-store communication, products now have shorter and shorter life spans, hence digital printing technologies will come increasingly into play for leaflets, posters and signage.

Emotion is the key to engagement

The main key to success for any communication campaign is to trigger an emotion in the target audience. It is increasingly possible to combine the requirements of low print runs with the possibilities of emotional printing. Numerous digital solutions are available with five, six or even seven-colour printing in their configurations. This allows printers to easily offer solutions that include flat colours, extended colour gamut, special inks (e.g. metallic, fluorescent, white), coating, texturisation and security printing. Thanks to the growing presence of sophisticated digital finishing solutions, it is now also possible to enhance printed materials in a personalised and variable way, thanks to finishing devices that employ inkjet printheads to create special effects like weaves, screening and lamination. These devices greatly simplify the previous silk screen printing processes required for these types of work, thus increasing opportunities for printing service providers.

Materials can make all the difference

In the field of materials, there is great progress in terms of solutions suitable for digital printing. The availability of a range of printable supports generates new profit opportunities. Digital printing is about much more than printing on paper. New substrates such as synthetic materials, magnetic media and fabrics allow printers and designers to offer clients graphic design options that weren’t previously feasible.

The people and organisation that make the difference

Technology is certainly a crucial element when it comes to increasing competitiveness, but another vital aspect in the printing trade in 2020 will be the ability to expand one's market and simplify one's production processes. Greater automation of processes and of repetitive operations is essential for optimising investments in printing and finishing machinery. Robotisation or cobotisation is an important step for enabling higher operating margins.

To boost commercial actions, it will be useful to continue focusing on the adoption of e-commerce (as evidence confirms the continuing migration of printing orders through online portals) and making the best use of this evolution towards cloud-based solutions.

Considering, however, that the majority of printers work with a B2B sales approach, it’s crucial that 2020 business plans incorporate an activity designed to develop ‘sales reps’. Above all to break away from a simple price-based logic. Today, when a client asks for a printing service, s/he has already had the chance to evaluate a range of prices (online web-to-print portals make this extremely easy) and so the sales rep’s job needs to go far beyond price negotiation, pitching to the client as a consultant who is able to provide unique ideas on how to achieve more value from the printing being purchased.