Feb 13
11
Welcome to Ricoh's Main Street!
By Kurt Konow, Production Print Marketing Strategist, Ricoh Americas Corporation
Graph Expo 2012 may seem like months ago—well actually, it was months ago—but news about Ricoh receiving top honors from the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals in its annual MarCom Awards competition was just announced in December – and we were very excited to get this news. We were a Platinum Award winner for the Graph Expo booth design, gaining notice among 6000 very qualified entries. Needless to say, we were thrilled to get this recognition.
Posted in Industry Events Ricoh News by .
By Graham Moore, Business Development Director, Ricoh Europe
At Ricoh we naturally talk about technology, products, speeds, feeds, dpi, and pages per minute, market leadership in transactional printing…… However while the reliability, productivity and quality of the technology is critical to print service providers like you to run your business, it’s only one part of what is needed for a profitable printing business.
So in this article I’d like to focus on the other areas that also need to be addressed more by the print service provider – namely the challenges of your own clients. They are the companies, both large and small, also faced with increasing their revenues, retaining their customers and keeping up with the accelerating rate of change that is driven by the impacts of technology.
Read the full post at the Ricoh Europe Production Print Blog.
Posted in Marketing Advice by .
Aug 12
14
College Business Management Institute Provides Comprehensive Study of College and University Model
By Mike Loyd, Production Marketing Manager, Ricoh Americas Corporation
I recently completed training at the Southern Association of College and University Business Officers (SACUBO) and the University of Kentucky’s (UK) College Business Management Institute (CBMI) held on the UK campus. This was the 60th Annual CBMI—which I believe is one of the major bargains in higher education today.
Of course print-for-pay providers need to know the print industry, but college and university printers need to be well versed in printing and also know the ins and outs of the peculiar working environment of colleges and universities. CBMI provides the opportunity to learn about all aspects of the financial workings of an institution—from accounting and budgeting to facility services and all in between. The program is one week each summer for three years, along with the ability to attend “refresher” years, if you so desire.
Posted in In-plant Support by .
By Mike Loyd, Production Marketing Manager, Ricoh Americas Corporation
As I have expressed in previous blogs, perception by your parent institution can be your major problem. Whether this perception is justifiably earned, inherited from previous management or erroneously placed upon your operation, it is important to turn those negative perceptions into positive ones.
When I attend conferences geared toward higher education upper management personnel (Auxiliary Managers, Business Managers, CFOs, VPs of Finance, etc.), I am struck by the absence of any positive presence of Printing Directors or In-plant Managers. It is almost as if printing is non-existent.
Many of the vendors, sessions and topics of discussion are wrapped around the outsourcing of support services—and in-plants have no one present to counter the bogus claims of better service, cheaper costs and more professional performance. Why is that?
Posted in In-plant Support by .
By Kurt Konow, Production Print Marketing Strategist, Ricoh Americas Corporation
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you were seriously expecting a camera crew to pop out from behind closed doors and the host of the show to yell “Smile—You’re on Candid Camera,” or better yet, Ashton Kutcher from “Punked” to rush out laughing hysterically at you for falling for such a stupid prank? Well, that was me just yesterday.
Let me set the scene—I’m having a quick lunch, by myself, between customer meetings at a fast-food restaurant (yellow arches encased the establishment). Luckily they had free Wi-Fi, so naturally I brought my laptop in with me to check emails while I was chowing down on a grilled chicken salad. What transpires next is when I started looking for the hidden cameras … A retired gentleman walks up to my table and proudly says to me, “I’m 67 years old, and just yesterday when I was here having lunch someone sitting at the next table was on his computer ‘communicating’ to another person in Tokyo—can you believe that?” He then walked away, sat down at his table and opened up his newspaper. Well, no hidden cameras appeared and no Ashton Kutcher to laugh in my face.
Posted in Marketing Advice by .
By Kurt Konow, Production Print Marketing Strategist, Ricoh Americas Corporation
It’s been a few weeks since we talked about the strategic value of print. I left you with the first two of five best practices to ensure print is successful in your operation. Today, I want to wrap up the topic with best practices numbers 3, 4 and 5. Here we go:
Posted in Marketing Advice by .
By Kurt Konow, Production Print Marketing Strategist, Ricoh Americas Corporation
Last week, I was in Indianapolis presenting a seminar on the topic of multichannel marketing, a favorite subject of mine. The room was packed with “commercial print professionals.” Yes, you read that correctly: “PRINT PROFESSIONALS.” Initially, I had a few very concerned people in the room wondering if I was going to be sharing the message that print was dead and it was time to convert to a full-service “e-Centric” operation. After about 10 minutes, the concerned faces drifted away when I highlighted that “Print is still a vital component of any well-thought-out multichannel communication program.” Whew! That was close. Everyone calmed down.
But let’s face it: The world of communicating has changed dramatically. It was less than a decade ago that the primary distribution channel for communications was traditional print. Whether you were in the business of preparing and distributing mission critical bills and statements, or were in the more creative world of designing and delivering direct mail, flyers and brochures, print was King. Then something happened: Tradition was socked with a one-two punch—the e-World—and the methods of communicating changed forever.
Posted in Marketing Advice by .
By Kurt Konow, Production Print Marketing Strategist, Ricoh Americas Corporation
It’s been a few weeks since I shared with you my initial steps to implementing an effective multichannel marketing program. Hopefully you had a chance to think about the process and now you’re ready for my Four Key Elements for Ultimate Success! Ready – Set – Read!
Posted in Marketing Advice by .
By Kurt Konow, Production Print Marketing Strategist, Ricoh Americas Corporation
I very much enjoy visiting customers and talking to them about their current business. I can be guaranteed that the topic of how to expand their portfolio in order to attract new customers and increase revenue is on their discussion list – and who doesn’t want to do that? One of the “hot” applications that I like to share with these forward-thinking businesses is multichannel marketing. While most theoretically understand the concept behind multichannel marketing, many companies are still challenged with implementing the strategy. Over the next few weeks I will discuss the strategy and steps it will take for you to start designing and implementing effective multichannel marketing campaigns. In fact, I will share with you a “live” campaign that I created and implemented at Ricoh – so, “YES,” I understand the challenges and effort it takes to deploy a multichannel marketing campaign.
Understanding multichannel marketing is fast becoming a requirement for commercial printers, franchise printers and print service providers of all sizes. The Internet and mobile technologies have triggered an explosion in the types of messaging media available, giving everyone no choice but to respond. For example, it has forced marketers to use different channels to attract different demographic groups in order to maximize the reach and response rates for their messages. The good news is of all this is that it presents print service providers with an excellent opportunity to expand their portfolio of products and services. However, there are a number of considerations to take into account when it comes to offering multichannel solutions broad enough to get results.
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By Scott Ginnett, Director, Digital Collaboration & Social Media, Ricoh Americas Corporation
Encyclopedia Britannica Ends Print, Goes Digital! They Were Ready For Change, Are You?
As we embark on our quest to embrace technology and find ways to improve our business with it, I came across this interesting article over my first cup of coffee this morning. It turns out even a printed tradition, something that has been on the shelves of millions of homes and libraries across this country, is moving on with technology as well.
Encyclopedia Britannica is going to end its printed editions and go to an entirely digital model. Now, this is no small change. Encyclopedia Britannica is the oldest English-language encyclopedia still in print. First published in 1768 in Edinburgh, Scotland, it’s moving to an all-digital version that will be available online. Talk about a dramatic change to this company’s business model!
Posted in Technology Trends by .
