Fresh as Spring?

Fresh as Spring?

Even in the relatively colder climate of New England, flowers are springing up and trees are turning green or beginning to bloom. Apple blossoms, dogwoods?and magnolia trees all provide colors worthy of a high fidelity inkjet print. But all that growth is supported by the spreading of a lot of mulch and “organic fertilizer.”? When manure is being spread liberally in your area, “fresh” is not likely the term that comes to mind.?

In any season, our business thrives when we can find something fresh despite the manure placed in our path.

For example, many printing segments are suffering due to a lack of printing paper as mills continue to convert to producing packaging substrates (which “stinks” for everyone else.) One particularly hard-hit industry is photo printing. Despite continued demand, the market for the silver halide paper necessary for photo development has dwindled to a single, global manufacturer. At the same time, inkjet technology has achieved suitable quality levels for photo printing within magazines, catalogs?and other graphic arts applications. However, it is challenging to deliver the weight, feel and appearance of developed photos without specialty papers as well as high-quality printing. Kyocera has entered the photo printing market with just such a paper and printer combination dubbed Belharra.?David Zwang shares the details.

Finding?your own strategy to overcome market challenges can be tricky. Customer research is the place to start but, with labor shortages and their own internal challenges, it can be difficult to get customers to participate. When you do get them to talk, sometimes they can’t think about anything but the way they do things now. If you want to help them, and yourself, generate fresh ideas,?check out two minutes of advice from Dan Adams.

If you are going to drupa, or just following along from home, there are a lot of new inkjet offerings coming to market that OEMs are hoping will be seen as a breath of fresh air. Ralf Schl?zer is rounding them all up so you can give them the sniff test. Check out the first of his?summaries for production print here.?

Happy spring.

Elizabeth

Dan Adams

Founder, AIM Institute | We'll train you in the world's leading B2B VOC, for exciting new products that drive your organic growth

10 个月

Great article, Elizabeth! And I love your perspective on "fresh" idea from customers. These are often the ones that spur true innovation!

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Elizabeth Gooding的更多文章

  • Ooh la la! Olympics in Paris?

    Ooh la la! Olympics in Paris?

    It’s been 100 years since Paris hosted the Olympic Games. It doesn’t sound as bad when you say 25 games ago, but still,…

  • I can't look!

    I can't look!

    If you, like me, just can’t bear to look at the news lately, we can take solace in all the cool inkjet stuff to learn…

  • Accept no substitutes!

    Accept no substitutes!

    I’m a pretty creative cook and I’ve managed to doctor up quite a few recipes either to make them healthier or because I…

    1 条评论
  • Independence, Death and Taxes

    Independence, Death and Taxes

    As we emerge from the United States Independence Day holiday amidst a bevy of Supreme Court controversies and the…

    5 条评论
  • I'm looking for a man in finance

    I'm looking for a man in finance

    Buckle up. I’m about to meander a bit.

    4 条评论
  • What a nightmare!

    What a nightmare!

    Apparently, there is a lot of commonality in the nightmares that people remember. Fun fact: the most common themes vary…

    3 条评论
  • That was a lot! See you in 4 years.

    That was a lot! See you in 4 years.

    Unless you have been living under a press, you know that the massive printing trade event known as drupa finished last…

    2 条评论
  • You can have it all . . .

    You can have it all . . .

    Betty Friedan, author of “The Feminine Mystique” once said: “You can have it all, just not at the same time.” The book…

    8 条评论
  • Home Alone

    Home Alone

    It’s a 1990 movie reference to that Christmas gem that is almost as violent as Die Hard. In the “drupa version” Mom and…

    1 条评论
  • More Chemistry than a Meth Lab

    More Chemistry than a Meth Lab

    "Breaking Bad" isn't the only chemistry happening in Hollywood. In a recent interview Jimmy Kimmel asked Emily Blunt…

    6 条评论

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了