Business

What are the factors driving buyers' purchasing decisions in the current market? Price? Service? Dependability? This is what the second annual print buyer survey from Webmart's research division, Printelligence, sought to discover. And print management readers may find some of the findings less than encouraging.

The BPIF/PrintWeek backed report, which attracted around 300 responses from a wide cross-section of buyers across all sectors, found that there is a certain amount of scepticism surrounding the role of print managers in the industry.

However, the major players aren’t pressing the panic button just yet. This is because the report quashed the suspicion that price is the number one factor in the buying process.

According to the survey, buyers base their decisions on dependability and reliability of the supplier, followed by print quality and service levels (see table). Price is the next consideration, although the report points out that the market is still cost driven. But this evidence is enough for print management firms to argue that there’s a new way to do business.

“I think that we have seen a change from being completely price driven to a more mature attitude of looking for reliability of supply, with the environment moving up in terms of importance,” says Simon Biltcliffe, managing director at Webmart. “Price will always be important, but we are moving away from a cyclically low point on the cost of print. Therefore, everyone will have to end up paying more for their print in the near future, irrespective of who they use.”

Nevertheless, some in the market remain sceptical that price is not at the forefront of buyers’ minds. One subscriber to this viewpoint is Howitt chief executive Nick Dixon. “Price is important for them,” he argues. “Quality is a given and if you don’t have that then you’re not in the game. In reality, all four of these areas [in the survey] are important.”

Dixon adds that Howitt’s approach is to offer their clients three services. The first is pure manufacturing, the second is pure print management and the third is a hybrid approach. “It’s the benefits of print management, but linked to the manufacturing side, allowing us to manage the supply chain.”

An evolving model
Like Dixon, Alistair Cane, executive director of business development and marketing at Adare, believes that the model of print management has changed. “Version 1.0 of print management has worked well over the past nine years,” he says. “But people are looking for opportunities to drive efficiency, not just to buy cheap print. The conversations I have with clients are about how to make the whole of their marketing and communications more efficient.”

But that message doesn’t appear to be getting through to buyers in the survey. Attitudes towards print managers are sceptical to say the least, with 38% believing that print management firms are inferior in value compared to printers. And it’s worth pointing out that those that responded to the survey included specialist print buyers.

“It does depend on who has been surveyed,” says Trevor Weldon, group sales director at AccessPlus. “If you’re asking print buyers about print management firms then its like turkeys voting for Christmas; they would lose their jobs if print managers took over their role. But if you’re asking a procurement director then you would get a different response.”

If anything, the report suggests that the definition of a print buyer is a complex one to pin down. As the report’s author, Nicolas Virtsonis, explains: “A mistake made in many business markets is to try to define the average buyer. There is no such thing as an average buyer in the print industry. Printers ought to choose the battles they can win and avoid the ones they are bound to lose.”

He adds that buyers that do focus on price tend to have a higher than average emphasis on turnaround speed as well. They are also more proactive when seeking alternative suppliers. Virtsonis speculates that this approach could be related to the amount of experience those buyers have or may reflect the nature of their involvement in the buying process.

“Even though the industry is relatively technologically ‘fast paced’, buyer attitudes have shown little change,” he says. “It will be interesting to see what happens next year in terms of buyer attitudes and, in particular, to examine any real change in print buyer specifications for green print.”

Inconsistent approach
The green question has been occupying the industry for some time and with the amount of coverage it’s attracted, you’d think that it would be at the forefront of buyers’ minds too. To an extent it is; many large corporates are driving their supplier base to be greener. But the report spots an inconsistent approach from buyers.

“The high expectations of print buyers for the growth of green print is contrasted against the comparatively low importance of green requirements when choosing suppliers,” says Virtsonis. “This begs the question of whether green print is more hype than a reality at this point in time.”

Webmart’s Biltcliffe notes environmental concerns have risen in importance over the past year and in the next 12 months this is likely to be a key driver. However, according to Adare’s Cane, there is a stumbling block.

“Companies would love to jump on the green bandwagon, but they can’t pay for it,” he says. “The priority is to get through the credit crunch. But you still have to give them a choice. You show them the cheapest price for the product against the greenest price.”

Howitt’s Dixon adds that having environmental credentials is an absolute given if you want to win work – large organisations demand it – but he also believes that the industry needs to offer areas outside print. “We think about all the channels to market; both online and offline marketing,” he says. “It’s about making the other channels complement print; we are effectively a marketing communications company.”

That’s a reflection of where many manufacturers and print management firms want to be, but will that shift in focus be reflected in next year’s survey? Only time will tell.