Print Solutions Magazine

It seems like yesterday that I was preparing for my incoming president’s address at our 2005 annual meeting in Orlando. I remember one thing about that address very clearly—I was scared to death. Since then, I’ve traveled throughout the country, attending every DMIA event. I’ve renewed friendships, met lots of great people and enjoyed the experience immensely. Thank you for giving me this opportunity.

During my incoming president’s address, I suggested that the biggest barrier to DMIA’s growth is the lack of a distinct identity. Since then, we’ve gotten a lot of input from the membership. The association’s staff and the board have spent a lot of time on this issue, and we’ve developed a new strategic plan for the next three years. The plan’s objectives include the following:

Establish a Clear Identity that Differentiates DMIA in the Marketplace. This includes a name change for the association, as well as a total re-branding initiative.

Redesign Trade Show Models. Our trade shows, including the TRADEMarts and Print Solutions Expo, are being revamped to more effectively connect manufacturers and distributors. The goal is to ensure maximum value for exhibitors and attendees. You saw this at the 2006 Print Solutions Expo, and you’ll see significant changes to the 2007 TRADE Mart series.

Develop a New Association Financial Model. To keep the association vibrant, we’ll need new revenue streams to complement dues, media and events income.

Yes, it’s been a fast year. I’ve learned a lot, gained a lot and enjoyed every minute. I want to thank Peter Colaianni and the DMIA Staff for their efforts during the past year. I want to thank the Board of Directors for its support. I especially want to thank my brother Joe Mehl for doing all the heavy lifting at our company, Dispatch, while I attended to DMIA business.

But mostly I want to thank Jim Riley for agreeing to be DMIA’s 2006-2007 president. Jim will be an excellent DMIA president. His skill sets are uniquely qualified as we continue to develop a new identity and re-brand this association. With Jim’s leadership and collaborative style, I’m confident that the board and staff will successfully implement the strategic plan.

As time passes quickly for me and DMIA, it’s also moving quickly for you. Our marketplace is changing faster than ever. In the future, print will be procured online. Much of that print will be template based. Order and production workflows for print will be even more automated. And finally, print will be used in conjunction with other media so we’ll need to integrate print with other multimedia solutions.

There is no other association better positioned than DMIA to help guide you through this change. Take advantage of your membership to “Create the Opportunity.”

Most of my monthly columns during the past year were authored by other members who described how they created opportunities in their businesses. I want to thank all of the members who wrote these columns. This last column, by Bill English of Superior Business Solutions, Kalamazoo, Mich., is particularly poignant. Bill is a former DMIA Board Member and is always an active participant at DMIA meetings. Bill speaks to branding—relevant to you and your association.

Timothy J. Mehl, CDC, is CEO of Dispatch, a manufacturer in Erie, Pa., and DMIA’s president.

I’ve been in this industry for 29 years, and “the talk” as far back as I can remember inevitably turned to the end of paper. But we sold more paper every year during my first 19 years, and the notion of paperless businesses seemed light years away. In the last 10, emerging information technology and diminishing demand for traditional forms design and printing told quite another story.

Almost overnight, we found ourselves reinventing and repositioning our company. We created a new business model and changed our 70-plus years corporate brand identity from Superior Business Forms to Superior Business Solutions. We transformed our forms design and management expertise, utilizing the same technology that was killing off the forms industry. With the convergence of desktop publishing and high-speed copying, we introduced on-demand print and “stockless inventory.” We made just-in-time delivery, flat-cost structures and zero obsolescence our sales mantra. Encountering opportunities that didn’t fit the on-demand model, we added commercial print sales (not without some painful lessons), forging commercial manufacturer/distributor relationships.

While traditional suppliers struggled to revive the forms business, the Internet brought us e-commerce and—depending your business model—either insurmountable challenges or unimaginable opportunities. We entered this arena early, with the belief that adding value was the proper role for this technology. We quickly found ourselves leading with value-added e-commerce platforms—providing common interfaces for ordering, facilitating artwork generation, supporting efficient workflows and approvals, and ensuring brand enforcement.

We soon saw the need for Superior to brand e-commerce separately. We used multiple platforms to satisfy individual customer requirements and didn’t want to confuse customers with all the interface names. We didn’t want the risks associated with third-party e-commerce service providers. And we didn’t want competitors to easily identify which interfaces we used so they could imitate our proprietary solutions. So we began marketing our e-commerce products under the Corporate Kiosk brand. In the end, our clients know and trust our brand—not supplier brands. The client relationship remains with us. And we still fill our traditional role in the channel by sourcing the proper products to the proper vendors.

New software packages created the ability to dynamically assemble entire documents on the fly with database information: changing graphics, text, and the page count on entire documents, and integrating e-commerce capabilities. We saw another opportunity, realizing that few players in the printing industry really understood and added variable data printing (VDP) as a product extension to on-demand printing. Our strategy: Control the technology that produces images. Many manufactures own the “boxes” that produce VDP pieces, but can’t handle the software, hardware and web front-end.

Frankly, it was a tough sell because VDP was new. We spent more time than we would have liked educating clients and looking for problems they didn’t know they had. Selling the concept to long-term customers proved most difficult. They still associated Superior with the guys who sold forms. We even found ourselves re-educating our staff! Once again, we looked to branding for solutions and created the Scope1 brand.

We’ve invested heavily in branding Superior Business Solutions, Corporate Kiosk, and Scope1. Repositioning Superior Business from Forms to Solutions broadened corporate perceptions of scope of services. Corporate Kiosk branding got us audiences with prospects who previously pegged Superior as a forms supplier and wouldn’t give us the time of day. Branding Scope 1 helped us get the traction we needed to define our brand, gain internal alignment with our own people, and market it properly to customers. I’m convinced it’s why we’re still in business and growing.