You have big goals for your company. How much do you know about your customers, your products or services, your competitors, and the market you serve? There’s a high value in big data insights that provide a clearer focus, helping you determine where your company stands and where you need to go. Yet, if you are like the majority of companies, you don’t have professional custom surveying, analyzing, and reporting capabilities in-house. That’s why more and more companies are turning to our Economic and Market Research department at Printing Industries of America for custom market research services. In this market research case study, learn how Magner Sanborn, a full-service advertising and brand design agency, worked one on one with their market research team to find vital solutions for their digital printing client. Custom Market Research Case Study Background: An industrial commercial press manufacturer had a problem. Their agency, Magner Sanborn, as Ed Gleeson, director, Economic and Market Research described, “wanted to leverage their brand, but first they needed to know where they stood in the market.” Magner Sanborn partnered with the Printing Industries of America Economic and Market Research team to determine the current market awareness of their client’s digital printing technology in the commercial printing industry. The team developed a baseline brand awareness benchmark in each of the major channels of the commercial printing industry to measure the progress of various advertising campaigns over the next twelve months.   Method: Magner Sanborn “started the conversation with a well-defined marketing problem and primary study objectives,” Gleeson said. “In most cases we help companies better define their marketing problem and hone in on their research objectives. However, Magner Sanborn came to Printing Industries of America to take advantage of our knowledge of the printing industry. We helped them craft an online survey to collect the necessary intelligence to meet their primary study objectives.” After the data was collected, the team worked with Magner Sanborn to develop the necessary banners and crosstabs to present the findings to their client’s senior management. Results: Magnor Sanborn met their goal to establish a benchmark for brand awareness and consideration for their client. They are now able to measure their progress against these metrics. Their client “is now more motivated to have an active and visible role in 2014—to build the brand and drive sales,” said Jill Hulswit, account supervisor at Magner Sanborn More insights—Read the full interview with Jill Hulswit of Manger Sanborn to learn more about how you can leverage custom market research to reach your business goals. Find out how the research team works with you to develop a custom strategy, how data is analyzed, and to what measures they will go...

You have big goals for your company. How much do you know about your customers, your products or services, your competitors, and the market you serve? There’s a high value in big data insights that provide a clearer focus, helping you determine where your company stands and where you need to go. Yet, if you are like the majority of companies, you don’t have professional custom surveying, analyzing, and reporting capabilities in-house. That’s why more and more companies are turning to our Economic and Market Research department at Printing Industries of America for custom market research services. In this market research case study, learn how Magner Sanborn, a full-service advertising and brand design agency, worked one on one with their market research team to find vital solutions for their digital printing client. Custom Market Research Case Study Background: An industrial commercial press manufacturer had a problem. Their agency, Magner Sanborn, as Ed Gleeson, director, Economic and Market Research described, “wanted to leverage their brand, but first they needed to know where they stood in the market.” Magner Sanborn partnered with the Printing Industries of America Economic and Market Research team to determine the current market awareness of their client’s digital printing technology in the commercial printing industry. The team developed a baseline brand awareness benchmark in each of the major channels of the commercial printing industry to measure the progress of various advertising campaigns over the next twelve months.   Method: Magner Sanborn “started the conversation with a well-defined marketing problem and primary study objectives,” Gleeson said. “In most cases we help companies better define their marketing problem and hone in on their research objectives. However, Magner Sanborn came to Printing Industries of America to take advantage of our knowledge of the printing industry. We helped them craft an online survey to collect the necessary intelligence to meet their primary study objectives.” After the data was collected, the team worked with Magner Sanborn to develop the necessary banners and crosstabs to present the findings to their client’s senior management. Results: Magnor Sanborn met their goal to establish a benchmark for brand awareness and consideration for their client. They are now able to measure their progress against these metrics. Their client “is now more motivated to have an active and visible role in 2014—to build the brand and drive sales,” said Jill Hulswit, account supervisor at Magner Sanborn More insights—Read the full interview with Jill Hulswit of Manger Sanborn to learn more about how you can leverage custom market research to reach your business goals. Find out how the research team works with you to develop a custom strategy, how data is analyzed, and to what measures they will go...

The latest Custom Market Research Case Study told how the Printing Industries of America Economic and Market Research team developed, analyzed, troubleshot, and delivered solutions for Magner Sanborn, a full service advertising and brand design agency. Fully aware of the value of big data insights, Magner Sanborn “wanted to leverage their client’s brand, but first they needed to know where they stood in the market,” according to Ed Gleeson, director, Economic and Market Research. Jill Hulswit can tell you how she and her associates did just that. As account supervisor at Magner Sanborn since 2008, she is responsible for maintaining client relationships and managing projects internally for her company. The goal was to determine the current market awareness of their client’s digital printing technology in the commercial printing industry. Unfamiliar with the industry, they partnered with the Printing Industries of America’s Economic and Market Research team, tapping into their industry expertise to craft a survey relevant to the target market. What market information did they uncover? How can companies use custom market research from Printing Industries of America to reach their goals? We asked Ms. Hulswit to share her experience. Q: What was the challenge your company was facing, and what prompted you to contact the Printing Industries of America Economic and Market Research department for a solution? Jill Hulswit: We needed to gauge levels of awareness and interest about a client brand in order to provide guidance for their 2014 marketing activities and a benchmark to measure against in the future. The client’s market is a very niche, hard-to-reach audience: industrial-commercial press manufacturers.  We were on a tight timeline and could not identify or purchase reliable lists of OEM contacts. So we contracted Printing Industries of America to help us with development of a respondent list—plus, we leveraged their services and expertise to code and send the survey, manage response, and deliver crosstabs for our final analysis. Q: How did you and your researcher, Ed Gleeson work together from the start of the project? JH: Ed is great. He listened to our needs and the challenges we were facing in this project and helped work through issues with custom solutions. We didn’t have all of the answers at the beginning, because that’s the nature of research—there’s no telling who or how people will respond. But as we ran into hurdles (i.e., super compressed timelines and very low response), Ed worked with us to find solutions and get responses—in some cases, this meant manual work and personally calling qualified respondents. There was never a concern about whether we’d be able to get this job done, it was just a matter of figuring out how. In the end, we got...

The latest Custom Market Research Case Study told how the Printing Industries of America Economic and Market Research team developed, analyzed, troubleshot, and delivered solutions for Magner Sanborn, a full service advertising and brand design agency. Fully aware of the value of big data insights, Magner Sanborn “wanted to leverage their client’s brand, but first they needed to know where they stood in the market,” according to Ed Gleeson, director, Economic and Market Research. Jill Hulswit can tell you how she and her associates did just that. As account supervisor at Magner Sanborn since 2008, she is responsible for maintaining client relationships and managing projects internally for her company. The goal was to determine the current market awareness of their client’s digital printing technology in the commercial printing industry. Unfamiliar with the industry, they partnered with the Printing Industries of America’s Economic and Market Research team, tapping into their industry expertise to craft a survey relevant to the target market. What market information did they uncover? How can companies use custom market research from Printing Industries of America to reach their goals? We asked Ms. Hulswit to share her experience. Q: What was the challenge your company was facing, and what prompted you to contact the Printing Industries of America Economic and Market Research department for a solution? Jill Hulswit: We needed to gauge levels of awareness and interest about a client brand in order to provide guidance for their 2014 marketing activities and a benchmark to measure against in the future. The client’s market is a very niche, hard-to-reach audience: industrial-commercial press manufacturers.  We were on a tight timeline and could not identify or purchase reliable lists of OEM contacts. So we contracted Printing Industries of America to help us with development of a respondent list—plus, we leveraged their services and expertise to code and send the survey, manage response, and deliver crosstabs for our final analysis. Q: How did you and your researcher, Ed Gleeson work together from the start of the project? JH: Ed is great. He listened to our needs and the challenges we were facing in this project and helped work through issues with custom solutions. We didn’t have all of the answers at the beginning, because that’s the nature of research—there’s no telling who or how people will respond. But as we ran into hurdles (i.e., super compressed timelines and very low response), Ed worked with us to find solutions and get responses—in some cases, this meant manual work and personally calling qualified respondents. There was never a concern about whether we’d be able to get this job done, it was just a matter of figuring out how. In the end, we got...

Even when dealing with top-line challenges with help from the Printing Industry Financial Executives (PIFE) group and other professional resources, firms can still greatly improve profitability. How do you step up your game? In this article, adapted from “Boosting Your Bottom Line” by Dr. Ronnie H. Davis, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, Printing Industries of America, learn how to improve your financial performance from the bottom line up. How’s your company ranking on the profitability playing field? If you’re looking to boost your firm’s bottom line and gain competitive advantage, sales, cost, and pricing have the biggest impact on performance and profitability. The 2013 Ratios survey showed a major financial performance gap between profit leaders and the industry average. For you, this indicates there are many opportunities for increasing profits! So how do you bridge the gap from the “have-nots” to the “haves”? Step up your three key functions: sales, cost, and pricing. Here is some helpful advice you can apply to your firm: Increase sales: Add to your top line – Specialize by focusing on particular segments – Diversify by providing more value-added services – Gain process advantage using hybrid printing—its growing at a fast rate! – Offer ancillary services along with print, like Web-to-print and fulfillment Lower Your Costs: Benchmark – Benchmark costs with industry metrics – Shift fixed to variable costs by reducing overhead and using part-time and temporary employees – Substitute capital for labor by investing in employee development Improve Your Pricing: Compete for price, not on price – Specialize to reduce competition and allow pricing leverage – Develop strong branding and target customer awareness – Follow demand-driven rather than cost driven pricing – Provide sales comp incentives Want to learn more and connect with other printing industry financial leaders? Come to the 2014 PIFE Conference, March 30–April 1, 2014, at The Fairmont Dallas Hotel, Dallas, TX. Information about the event will be available soon. Find the complete article from Dr. Davis in the October 2013 issue of from Printing Industries of America: The Magazine under Archives: The Magazine(Member login...

Even when dealing with top-line challenges with help from the Printing Industry Financial Executives (PIFE) group and other professional resources, firms can still greatly improve profitability. How do you step up your game? In this article, adapted from “Boosting Your Bottom Line” by Dr. Ronnie H. Davis, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, Printing Industries of America, learn how to improve your financial performance from the bottom line up. How’s your company ranking on the profitability playing field? If you’re looking to boost your firm’s bottom line and gain competitive advantage, sales, cost, and pricing have the biggest impact on performance and profitability. The 2013 Ratios survey showed a major financial performance gap between profit leaders and the industry average. For you, this indicates there are many opportunities for increasing profits! So how do you bridge the gap from the “have-nots” to the “haves”? Step up your three key functions: sales, cost, and pricing. Here is some helpful advice you can apply to your firm: Increase sales: Add to your top line – Specialize by focusing on particular segments – Diversify by providing more value-added services – Gain process advantage using hybrid printing—its growing at a fast rate! – Offer ancillary services along with print, like Web-to-print and fulfillment Lower Your Costs: Benchmark – Benchmark costs with industry metrics – Shift fixed to variable costs by reducing overhead and using part-time and temporary employees – Substitute capital for labor by investing in employee development Improve Your Pricing: Compete for price, not on price – Specialize to reduce competition and allow pricing leverage – Develop strong branding and target customer awareness – Follow demand-driven rather than cost driven pricing – Provide sales comp incentives Want to learn more and connect with other printing industry financial leaders? Come to the 2014 PIFE Conference, March 30–April 1, 2014, at The Fairmont Dallas Hotel, Dallas, TX. Information about the event will be available soon. Find the complete article from Dr. Davis in the October 2013 issue of from Printing Industries of America: The Magazine under Archives: The Magazine(Member login...