drupa 2008 – Keys for success in going digital

Will Mansfield, Kodak’s marketing director for digital printing solutions EAMER, offers some market predictions for 2008, He identifies five different business trends that are clearly emerging and warrant close attention from printers:
1. “The market for consumer-oriented photographic products will significantly expand (photo albums, calendars, mugs, T-shirts...)
2. Transpromo: a rapidly growing application used by companies to convey messages, often marketing messages. Adding promotional content to transactional materials is a very important trend that is generating the production of a large volume of printed documents. Europe is leading this field, with an annual growth rate of 13 percent.
3. New web technologies, aimed at bringing significant improvements to printing work; the result will be a rise in web-based proofing, as well as order handling and monitoring done the same way. This trend is in its infancy now, but shows tremendous future potential.
4. Environmental trends: ever-greater efforts are being made to reduce energy consumption and waste generation, and digital printing is very environmentally friendly. For example, Kodak is doing a lot of work in this field and all the materials used in its systems are recyclable. Eco-friendly production is a growing trend.
5. Business development for printing firms: Kodak is working at improving the way printing service providers operate, so that they reach their clients and promote photographic printing more effectively.