How the Graphics Communications Buyer Landscape is Changing

January 31, 2017

Blog-GraphicCommunication

A recent Compu-mail blog titled “25 Direct Mail Statistics for 2016” post last year by Allison Jensen sheds light on a trend in the Graphic Communications market: The buying population is changing. While the blog regards direct mail, it indicates that who we sell to — and who our customers are selling to — has changed.

Consider some of the survey’s results:

Millennials will have an anticipated cumulative 1.4 trillion in spending power by 2020

  • 36% of people under 30 look forward to checking the mail each day
  • 23% bought or ordered something as a result of receiving a printed direct mail piece in the last 12 months

Women, who have significant purchasing power, have the most interaction with day to day household mail

  • 91% of mail is picked up by the same person each day; 80% of them are women.
  • Women make more than 80% of all purchasing decisions in any given household with 22% of them shop online at least once a day

Being an Omni-channel provider and being easily integrated across multiple channels is key 

  • 44% of marketers are using three or more channels for their marketing efforts
  • Direct mail household response rate to print is on average ~3.7% (compared to .2% mobile, .1% email, .1% social media, and .02% internet display).

 

Whether you’re in the Direct Mail, Commercial Print, Publishing/Book Market, Transactional, Packaging, Labeling or a different industry, these results clearly show that millennials and women have a major impact on our business just as much being an Omni-Channel Provider does. And if our customers and their customers have changed and are in a constant state of change, how does one make the most significant impact to their business? More importantly, how do we ensure that we’re strategically relevant to their business and the way they work?

So don’t assume that a “one size fits all” approach is going to work. Take the time to understand what business they’re in and what are their pain points? Is there room to improve current manufacturing processes and, if so, can you improve their efficiency and effectiveness while improving their profits and margins? Can you easily enable new business and/or revenue streams? Are you truly relevant or a “one trick pony”?

At Konica Minolta, we identified this and continue to transform into being a top provider of unique solutions, be it in our innovative technology solutions, workflow and software portfolio, technical and professional services portfolio, or a combination of them. Our value is that we provide solutions which are customized, automated and fully integrated with any Graphic Communications, Industrial Print or Specialty Print client to enable the greatest value to their customers.

Yasmina Ben Bouchta
Vice President, Sales Operations & Optimization, Industrial Print and Graphic Communications

Yasmina Ben Bouchta is responsible for leading the Industrial Print and Graphic Communications segment businesses serving both Konica Minolta’s Dealer and Direct Sales Channels. A graduate of Bryn Mawr College, her multi-cultural and multi-national background translates to a strong ability to communicate, be flexible and persuasive, while being creative and innovative.