By Erwin Busselot, Director Business Innovation & Solutions, Ricoh Graphic Communications, Ricoh Europe
Ricoh Europe, London, August 2, 2024 – What would you consider to be the number one factor for print buyers when choosing their print provider for marketing collateral?
If you said price you might be surprised by the results of a Keypoint Intelligence survey of 1,200 businesses in the United States.
While price was a consideration, it ranked third most important among the respondents. For almost half, 44%, it was print quality that came top when deciding on an external provider. Next was sustainability with 16%. Price, with 15%, was edged into third place.
In Europe we see the deciding factors look a little different. High print quality is a given. It is expected.
But among the key drivers is seamless end to end production efficiency to meet demand for short run, fast turnaround applications. Understanding how to improve every step of the process from intelligent software to agile digital print production and dynamic responsive finishing, was the focus of many conversations we had at drupa 2024.
Where European buyers agree with their American counterparts is with regard to the importance of ensuring sustainable and responsible production where possible. Production transparency is a primary concern – for example some book publishers now insist on CO2 data for the shipment of the books to comply with reporting. Emphasis is also strengthening on localised production powered by fulfilment and logistics efficiency.
Pricing of course remains important with growing interest in online purchasing supported by companies such as Gelato and Cloudprinter.
Ricoh is committed to helping operations explore ways to manage these business pressures with advice and guidance, from responsible sourcing, such as identifying the most appropriate FSC papers, to application development that increases the effectiveness of print and reduces waste.
In fact our approach was recognised by Keypoint Intelligence, with the Buyers Lab (BLI) 2024-2025 Pacesetter Award for Production Print Sustainability. Vital to this is our collaboration with international environmental standards organisations and educational programmes. Important too, is our focus on reducing environmental impact through the recyclability of products, service parts, supplies, and packaging.
We are also committed to developing systems that respond to all these print buyer needs. At drupa many of the conversations we had were around how our new RICOH ProTM VC80000 high speed inkjet webfed press and RICOH ProTM Z75 B2+ sheetfed inkjet press technologies are focused on the efficient, versatile, and responsible production of a broad range of applications.
We also experienced significant interest in the abilities of our sheetfed toner platforms. Especially in the application versatility delivered by the highly productive RICOH ProTM C9500 and the five colour RICOH ProTM C7500 five coloursheetfed toner press. Plus, Digital Print Enhancement capabilities that elevate customised communications was also a recurring theme as was software that drives a fast and efficient end to end production processes.
So, whichever deciding factor you want to address talk to Ricoh to explore the various ways you can ensure you are the first choice for print buyers.
