When you think Dunkin’ Donuts, you think coffee, right? Well, that wasn’t always the case.
Dunkin’ Donuts was known for being the most popular donut business until Krispy Kreme came around and stole its thunder with its sweet treats. Sadly, the Atkins’ carb-free diet gained popularity soon after Krispy Kreme’s expansion to the market, putting both of these companies into troubled waters. Why is Dunkin’ Donuts still found on every block in the East Coast, while Krispy Kreme closed stores as fast as it opened them? Adaptation.
Dunkin’ Donuts transformed its focus from donuts to coffee. By concentrating on beverages and offering them at a decent price, Dunkin’ Donuts came out on top. Rather than accepting the demise of the high-fat and calorie-ridden donut as the end of the company, Dunkin’ Donuts found another area to gain market share and appeal to consumers.
As Charles Darwin once said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Although Darwin originally created his theory of evolution to the animal kingdom, Social Darwinism applies to society, and in this case an industry’s survival and evolution in the global marketplace.
What do donuts have to do with the printing industry? Demand for paper is on the decline and printing consumables have never received more criticism for their high prices or subjected to so much competition from third parties. While many people predict that the printing industry will fall further down the hole to irrelevancy and eventually disappear altogether, the answer to saving the industry is simply: adaptation.
The challenges facing the printing industry do not discriminate – they range from the consumer market all the way up to the commercial printing space. Among the most wide-spread challenges for the commercial printing market are initiatives such as President Obama’s proposed Electronic Medical Records bill. While the transition to electronic medical records has the potential to greatly improve the way we are cared for, the impact to the printing industry will be substantial. This bill will be the first major initiative to collectively reduce the nation’s printing needs by millions of dollars. Some estimates show that if the US healthcare industry switched from paper to an electronic system, the country could save $30 billion annually.
Another government mandate that is posing obstacles to the commercial printing business is California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recently proposed Free Digital Textbook Initiative. The proposal will remove all text books from the state’s school system and replace them with digital alternatives. The goal of the initiative is to help California avoid bankruptcy as the state estimates that it spends approximately $350 million annually on text books.
The office printing segment is challenged to find ways to stay relevant as society pushes for the paperless office. Similarly, consumers are shying away from printing every email and note and saving them to hard drives. Even photo printing, which was expected to revive the consumer printing market has declined with the tough economy and the onset of online photo sharing sites.
Within both the consumer and office-focused printing segments, several companies are attempting to find ways to continue to grow print, even when it means changing.
Xerox has commented on the inevitable shift from paper to digital in the office. The company stresses that it is a document company and if documents change so will it. This is exactly the type of behavior that is necessary for the industry to maintain its size and relevance. While the average consumer may think Xerox is a copier company, Xerox defines itself as a document company. Xerox is working to develop tools to help companies with Paperless Document Management, an extension of the increasingly popular and important concept of Managed Print Services (MPS). As demand moves further away from the printed document and closer to digital, software surrounding Paperless Document Management will become increasingly more important and a core advantage of Xerox.
HP is the most recent printer company to take a leap of faith and bring new ideas to the consumer marketplace. Most recently, HP unveiled its latest inkjet printer, the Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart, which is the first printer to directly connect to the web without the need of a computer. The printer is among the most inventive devices to come out of the inkjet printer industry since its introduction in 1971.
The TouchSmart is the first device to offer HP’s App Store, which enables users to print various documents at the touch of a button and without the use of a PC. The open-source HP App Store, very similar to the Apple App Store, will give thousands of programmers the opportunity to create inventive applications and potentially give users new ways to use their printers. And that’s exactly what the consumer printer industry needs in order to survive: bring further ease of use and a fresh face to inkjet printing. Although this first generation product may not become the most popular printer on the block, it is sure to get HP’s competition to think about how they will compete with this latest innovation.
With the introduction of the new HP printer with TouchSmart, the entire way we think of printing may change in a way that is similar to how the iPhone changed the cell phone. The printer’s 4.33-inch LCD screen gives countless possibilities to the types of apps that will soon be available. While HP included such apps as ticket printing from Fandango and maps from Google, programmers will think of things to do with this printer that no one has thought of before. Since users do not need to use a PC to access certain documents, they may be more inclined to print something they may not otherwise. If it takes 25 seconds to pull up a recipe and print it compared to 3 minutes to start up the computer and get to the proper website, printing will be the more desirable action.
The most notable aspect of the innovation that was introduced with this new printer is that it really has nothing to do with the printer itself. The HP App Store does not promise the usual things that new printers bring such as faster print times, new ink formulations, larger paper trays, or the ability to easily fit different paper sizes. The technology HP introduced is not specific to printing, which may seem strange, but is actually HP’s entire strategy. The printer is simply the vehicle to introduce the HP App Store and this new way of making life easier to the general public. HP’s initial $399 offering is not going to appeal to the most basic printer customer, but it will start to make people see what is available and what they will eventually want. HP may make its App Store available on all of its devices in the future.
The Touchsmart is a sign that HP does not plan to lose its spot as the top inkjet printer company in the world. The company continues to bring new products, adapt, and innovate at a time when sales are not at their highest and consumer confidence remains low. The Photosmart Premium with Touchsmart will bring HP an exceptional amount of attention and while it will not be the company’s best seller, the Touchsmart will be the beginning to something great. If nothing else, the Photosmart Premium with Touchsmart is innovation at its best. HP is gambling with its App Store by offering this product first. The product may flop, but most likely it will lead to further innovation and get the industry moving once again.
The printing industry needs to find its sweet spot – it must identify ways to remain relevant in a changing society. The shift to digital format will bring other needs including data management, security, transport of the digital documents, etc. The industry has an opportunity to grow and prosper if it can identify its strengths, rid itself of its weaknesses, and adapt.
These words may have be spoken on this blog a couple of times before but it bears repeating – market intelligence companies don’t get lots of press***.Thick as Thieves divxFay Grim movie downloaddownload August Rush movie Public relations departments view us as the wolves circling the flock of their inside information and act as sheep dog to protect NDA products from getting into our hands.Because of that, gap intelligence rarely gets calls from the media, we aren’t invited to shot location for various television commercial ads, and we don’t ever, ever do product reviews.****
Speaking of product reviews – I really want one of these (Olympus, if you’re reading):
The E-P1 is the industry’s first serious attempt to bring to market a compact DSLR.
Professional and advanced photographers have long yearned for a pocket size camera that had the same shooting qualities as a big DSLR.Even the most expensive compact cameras have two fatal shortcomings – slow focusing speeds via contrast detection systems and small image sensors.While Panasonic was first to deliver a micro-DSLR, based on technology it developed with Olympus – Panasonic’s first two efforts were (adjective here).
With the launch E-P1 Digital Pen, Olympus took a cannon-ball dive into the shallow-end of the DSLR swimming pool.Dodsworth video The Pen is the first “real” micro DSLR that eliminates the shortcomings of compact cameras and brings with them the manual applications afforded by SLRs.The image below was taken by Derrick Story with a E-P1 Pen, which was then taken by Wired.com, and then taken by me (Creative Commons licensing OK).
I want a review unit, please.**
Outside of the above Pen, we don’t do product reviews.The few occasions that our hard work does get exposure is when we are used in fine print.
gap intelligence is usually the muscle behind the asterisks used in marketing materials from a number of our clients.Autopsy dvdPollyanna pspDon’t Come Knocking trailer Our most recent asterisk is also our biggest to date:
Notice that “gap intelligence” is just a few font sizes smaller than the “Xerox” logo itself.Our asterisk relationship with Xerox extends beyond the world-wide-web and we are proudly seen within the fine print of ads located in Business Week and Wired.In Old California dvdripMaster and Commander: The Far Side of the World downloadWhile fine print exposure like this is very, very flattering the devil in the details is something that should be brought to light.
(Excessive plugging our MFP / Copier Service)
gap intelligence MFP / Copier service includes a database that details over 13,000 copier cost-per-page service contracts.
Our warehouse of information is collected from the public, government, and education sectors but also includes active contracts through private dealers.download The International movie Simply put – nobody (not even Xerox) has our level of competitive copier contracts.*
If you are a copier company *, you’ll should call us (619-574-1100).If you’re a dealer who would like to participate in our information exchange panel (you can see all 13,000 contracts): analyst@gapintellgince.com.
*nobody has 13,000 purchase, maintenance and service copier contracts.Ours include Canon, Konica, Xerox, Kyocera Mita, Oce, HP, Ricoh, Savin, Lanier, Gestetner, Ikon, Toshiba, Panasonic, Sharp, Copystar and focus from segment 1 to 250-duplex pages per minute segment 6 systems.
Every single week, the gap intelligence team emabarks on a journey deep into the trenches of retail. We study every aisle, peak around every corner, and collect every price point while we are there. In addition to routine data collection, we rub elbows with store personnel, fight through the crowds around the X Box demonstrations, and notice the various displays merchants use to draw attention.
A couple for you this week that I thought were pretty neat:
We spotted an aquarium holding a very bored Beta fish at Best Buy. The aquarium was on display with an assortment of waterproof cameras from Olympus and FujiFilm. Turn your camera on, take a picture of the Beta fish, throw the camera at the Beta fish, and pull the camera out of the aquarium with absolutely no damage done.
Waterproof, rugged, durable cameras are the new rave and manufacturers are going to “flood” (ha!) the market with waterproof models in the near future. WIth that, interactive displays like this one at Best Buy will become far more common and as a result we expect to see a sharp increase in Beta fish job opportunities in the long term.
HP has made a huge investment in its business inkjet line of printers since their launch earlier this year. Outside of big (and expensive) magazine and newspaper advertisements, HP has dominated end-cap space at all of the major retailers. The running theme of HP’s message to customers is that its inkjet products are over 50% less costly to operate – in terms of both associated supplies and energy consumption.
While Kodak’s boastful low cost ink claims have filled headlines and reality television shows nationwide, few ripples have been made about HP’s assertions. Just for fun, we ran HP’s $499 Officejet Pro 8500 Premier against the company’s own $499 Color Laserjet CM1312NFI MFP and quickly realized that HP’s claims are absolutely, 100% true.
Officejet Pro 8500 Premier – $1,340.71
Color Laserjet CM1312NFI MFP – $2,791.70
(51.9%!)
From the infamous gapTCO.com calculator (clicky makes it biggy):
It’s funny, I’d been unknowingly getting prepped for this internship for weeks before even applying. A close friend of mine started working for Circuit City last winter, and throughout his time there I heard a lot about the retailer’s final months. I learned about the art behind retailing electronics including inventory, shelving, store design, and branding. Our conversations jabbed at the effectiveness of a solid marketing mix, developed from researching the customer in terms of both numbers and psychographics.
When I first learned that gap intelligence was a market research company aimed at providing market analysis for electronics retailers, I thought it was such a coincidence. Likewise, the timing could not be better! I am currently at San Diego State University and working through my last few semesters towards receiving my degree in Business Marketing. The nearness of graduating feels both exciting and resolute.
In my free time, I like keeping active and constantly learning. I love all types of art and music, spending time with friends and family, and traveling. My hobbies include shopping, running, drawing, writing, and learning guitar. (Can’t quite yet say I can actually play!) My dream is to find myself in a career that is interesting, challenging, and hopefully a bit creative. To me, success means to always have new goals to aspire to, and to surround myself amongst individuals who likewise inspire me.
I’m very excited to be here and to watch the growth of my own professional developments as well as those of the company. I have a lot to learn, and hopefully, a lot to give!Captain Corelli’s Mandolin movie full
Merchandising is a tough business. Thousands of hours are spent on brainstorming and creating displays that make products stand out on shelves. Then, of course, a company has to rent that space from a retailer (which is not cheap) and hire a small army of merchandisers to install, set up, and maintain those card board stands, billboards, stickers, and tear sheets. There are countless examples of great merchandising – as we mentioned in an earlier post about Beta Fish @ Best Buy – and there is bad merchandising.
….and then there is Micro Center. Behold, Micro Center’s toner aisle!!!!
Toner is small, expensive, and very, very, very, profitable. The margin that Micro Center could earn by selling a shoebox size toner cartridge is quite comprable to any desktop PC or television (or the acutal printer).
Organize. Group by manufacturer and then series and for goodness sake – stick a price on there!
HP has made a huge investment in its business inkjet line of printers since their launch earlier this year. Outside of big (and expensive) magazine and newspaper advertisements, HP has dominated end-cap space at all of the major retailers. The running theme of HP’s message to customers is that its inkjet products are over 50% less costly to operate – in terms of both associated supplies and energy consumption.
