Market Research: The Secret Competitive Advantage in Print

By Nathan Safran

Credit: Pixabay by Mediamodifier

Running a successful print business requires that executives oversee a variety of activities to ensure success. The plant must be run efficiently and produce a high-quality product. Marketing must produce a steady stream of prospects at the top of the sales funnel. Sales must close business and develop long-term customer relationships. And the list goes on.

With all that a print executive has to oversee, it’s understandable that conducting or commissioning market research/intelligence often falls down the priority list. However, understanding the benefits provided by market intelligence can lead print executives to make the informed decision on whether or not to invest in it. Done right, market research can reveal hidden opportunities for revenue growth, deliver customer insight and help read the tea leaves on where the industry is headed.

Identifying Market Needs, Wants, and White Space

One of the chief benefits market research can provide is insight into your market’s needs and wants. This insight can very often identify areas of opportunity or expansion.

For example, imagine that ABC Commercial Printer Co. commissions a market research study to identify print buyer needs and wants.

They select a market research firm by identifying the firm that:

Has print industry subject matter expertise
Has established market research expertise, including demonstrated experience designing a research methodological approach to meet their business objectives
Has the audience (in this case, print buyers) to survey and/or interview
Demonstrates an understanding of their objectives in commissioning the research and provides a clear roadmap of how they will meet their objectives.

After reviewing ABC Co’s objectives in commissioning the research, the research firm designs a research approach that includes:

A structured web survey of 250 print buyers from a cross-section of industries. The survey will ask a series of questions that probes how, why and when print buyers purchase print
Ten in-depth print buyer phone interviews designed to probe print buyers’ needs and wants and adds qualitative insight around the quantitative survey results.

The resulting insight from the study and corresponding action ABC Co. took is shown in the table below.

Research Insight	ABC Co. Action Items
Print buyers are increasingly wanting to work with a ‘one-stop-shop’ for print versus working with multiple providers	Launch an initiative to explore expanding print products to include sign and display graphics.
Print buyers want to work with a ‘partner’ (not vendor) and look to their print service provider to advise and educate them about print products and latest technologies	Form a task force to consider changing messaging and positioning to better emphasize partnership Engage with an external content expert to develop content plan including white papers, videos and social media to educate clients and prospects on the latest print technology advancements.
While most print buyers can purchase print services from any vendor, a substantial amount must purchase from vendors on an “approved vendor” list. Even so, the majority of print buyers report a vendor can be added to the approved vendor list via a number of means such as demonstrating unique expertise, providing exceptional service and competitive pricing.	Revise their sales materials to emphasize the unique capabilities and high customer satisfaction rates they have. Train sales staff on how to speak to these factors that make them uniquely qualified to be added to approved vendor lists.

More than Surveys and Interviews

While in-depth quantitative surveys and telephone interviews can be very valuable in identifying the state of the market and fleshing out market opportunities, there are other types of market research that can provide valuable and actionable insight.

Below are several examples of other research or consulting engagements that can support the print service provider in market expansion, landscape assessment and strategic decision making.

SWOT Analysis: A Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats analysis of the competitive landscape.
New Market Opportunity Analysis: Support in new market analysis and expansion.
Focus Groups: Conducting in person or virtual focus groups to gain insight into products or services
Data Gathering and Analysis: Desk research to gather data and analyze it to support strategic decision making.

Rethinking Investment in Market Intelligence

Print service provider executives are busy managers with significant responsibility across the organization. Although there is a lot competing for limited resources, investing in market research, can uncover new revenue opportunities, guide strategy, highlight new markets and benchmark against the competition. Print service providers who have not already done so should consider strategically investing in the secret competitive advantage of print: market research.

About Analyst Insights

Analyst Insights features research and analyst's insights from the NAPCO and PRINTING United Alliance research teams. Market research is valuable for making strategic business decisions, solving challenges, and pursuing opportunities and the NAPCO Media research teams survey, analyze, and monitor critical trends related to marketing, printing, packaging, non-profit organizations, promotional products, and retailing. To learn more about how the team can leverage its research and industry subject matter experts to support your organizations needs contact research@napco.com.

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Business Management - Industry Trends

Nathan Safran Author's page

Nathan Safran is Vice President, Research for NAPCO Media. Nathan is a former Forrester Research Analyst with deep experience designing custom research solutions that solve client business problems. Nathan works with the subject matter experts across NAPCO’s brands to design research solutions that leverage NAPCO’s engage audiences and provides deep insight. Nathan is a frequent speaker at industry events and his research has been cited in the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and Fortune Magazine.