4 Marketing Trends Printers Should Be Aware Of
We may not be able to predict what 2021 will look like, but we can take a moment to look at how marketers have been adapting to the recent uncertainty. It’s well worth it for print providers to pay attention to marketing trends because that allows you to anticipate changes in the market you serve and stay proactive in a very reactive industry. Stay on top of what’s popular so you can strike while the iron is hot.
What marketing tools and strategies are in the lead and which are on their way up? Let’s look at 4 trends in marketing in 2020 that printers should take notice of.
1. Minimalism
In all things design-related, popular taste tends to swing like a pendulum between sparse and flashy. Right now, flashy and crowded reads as overdesigned. Minimalism is the way to go for designers in 2020.
How does this relate to print? Jakub Kliszczak, Marketing Specialist at CrazyCall says, “in 2020, we’ll see less text-dominated prints, more well-thought layouts, colors that actually make sense in regards to the message, and—what’s the most important—design that encourages people to share those prints online.”1
This trend works in the favor of printers, as sparser designs tend to be easier to work with. This is especially true with digital, on-demand printing. The fewer colors and elements, the lower the chances of encountering a color issue.2
2. Sustainability
Calling sustainability a trend is an understatement. Regardless of the connotations, sustainability is something no industry can afford ignore, including the print industry.
More and more companies are starting green initiatives and that means producers have to compete in this field as well. This reality is amplified by the fact that companies that prioritize sustainability must embrace transparency in their supply chain as well. Any company can only be as responsibly sustainable as their supply chain vendors.
There’s a confluence here between the desire to be sustainable and the trend towards on-demand, small-run printing. Smaller runs with digital printing allow marketers to order only what they need to complete each campaign. Marketers don’t have to order huge quantities of print to keep prices down. This relationship between sustainability and digital printing applies to any printer with digital printing capabilities, but only the ones who are able to pitch themselves on this level will draw the attention of sustainability-minded marketers.
3. Printed Apparel
Retail has been hit hard by COVID-19, there’s no way to sugarcoat it. But tenacious companies around the world have been adapting. And one place this can be seen clearly is with printed apparel.
Printed apparel is taking off thanks in part to technology advancements that make custom, on-demand, affordable printed apparel an increasingly accessible product. Combine these widely available capabilities with the huge uptick in online shopping in 2020 and you’ve got yourself a trend.
Just to point to one statistic to back this up, according to BusinessInsider.com, in the UK during the lockdown, online demand for shirts and other apparel rose by 167% compared to the same time last year.3
Companies are taking advantage of this trend by using custom apparel as an additional revenue stream, in addition to more traditional uses of branded apparel such as freebies and employee gear. What does this mean for printers? Well, it means there are more reasons than ever for printers to fully embrace on-demand production workflows. As Graeme Richardson-Lock from FESPA puts it, “This type of micro-trend puts new pressures on supply chains to be far more agile, and to dynamically adapt manufacturing volumes and stock levels to sudden shifts in online buying patterns.”
4. Packaging As An Experience
For much of retail’s history, packaging was an afterthought, at least when it comes to design. In 2020, brands are competing not just on the basis of who has the better product, but who can tell a better story. Consumers are looking for an experience when they purchase something, not just a solution. See, for example, the stratospheric rise of subscription boxes as a business model
Thoughtful design is the name of the game and that extends to packaging. Think of the touch of luxury Apple adds to the experience of buying a new iPhone just because of the packaging. When designing packaging, there are many tools available to marketers and their vendors: color, material, texture, shape. All of these aspects can be turned into creative expressions of a brand’s story.
The rise of online shopping only amplifies this trend. There’s a reason why unboxing videos can sometimes amass hundreds of thousands of views on Youtube. It’s not enough to provide a good product anymore. Packaging that amplifies the luxury, the personality, and the excitement of the products they contain can leave a big impact.
Speed, Personalization, and Simplicity
In some ways, despite the unpredictability of this year, the qualities that printers need to adopt in order to thrive are the same qualities that we’ve been trending towards for years: speed, personalization, and simplicity.
Modern digital tools like web to print platforms enable printers to automate their workflows, reach bigger audiences, enable greater customization, and deliver a better experience to their customers. The printers who make the best use of these tools will get the most business.
1: https://blog.shawmutdelivers.com/6-experts-reveal-their-marketing-predictions-for-2020
2: https://www.printaction.com/print-trends-to-look-for-in-2020/
