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Let’s celebrate what we can so easily overlook

Print. You are immersed in it. It’s probably literally all around you right now.

It’s what you spend all day managing, coordinating, scheduling, and, I can imagine, much of the night dreaming about.

Yet, a recent online interview has an important message for most of us, certainly for those of you who live and breathe print as you run your professional print businesses.

It’s a simple one: don’t lose sight of what a wonderful communications medium print is.

It’s too easy, in the white heat of a typically busy day – taking, printing and fulfilling orders – to forget the importance of what you are doing. Take a step back and reflect on the fact that you are a vital cog in a chain that ultimately generates demand, new business, wealth and contentment.

The interview I referred to was between Ube Jelluma, MD of Print Power in Europe, an organization dedicated to evangelising the medium of print to brand owners and their agencies and Eef de Ridder, Ricoh Europe’s vice-president of Graphic Communications.

Ulbe showed Eef some fresh examples of print, drawing attention to how they met the needs of the brands behind them. A Nespresso DM piece and various supermarket magazines illustrated important points about personalization boosting effectiveness, and quick links to e-commerce platforms enabling print to become highly accountable.

The main, overriding point, though, was that print can be an outstandingly effective communication medium, a vital resource, especially when harnessed to digital marketing techniques.

We all would do well to remember and cherish this thought, and proudly spread the message at every opportunity.

John Blyth is marketing and communications manager, Graphic Communications Group, Ricoh Europe.