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  • Wrong Audience?
    By Bob Hall - Monday April 13, 2009
    A couple of years ago, FedEx Kinko’s showed up at the On Demand show touting its printing capabilities. Evidently this was not a viable venue for them because their appearance was a one-shot deal. I guess they finally figured out that show attendees were printers who saw them as competition and who were not the least interested in how whiz-bang their operations were. Well, the Kinko’s name has been buried under the FedEx Office brand, and FedEx has said precious little about how the former “most recognized brand in the printing industry†is faring these days. So who should show up at this year’s On Demand show? None other than the UPS Store and its sister franchise Mail Boxes, Etc. (MBE). They were there...

  • Pleasantly Surprised at On Demand
    By Bob Hall - Monday April 6, 2009
    A while back there was a recurring bit on Mad TV called “Lowered Expectations.†That came to mind just before we departed for the On Demand show. After all, the economy sucks, credit is clogged, and the general mood is dark. Why exhibit or attend a trade show when nobody is in a buying mood? Or so I thought. I’m not saying that the show hearkened back to the glory days of yesteryear when hardware and software were being snapped up by ravenous printers. However, the show was much better than I had expected. Attendance was steady, vendors were busy, and people were selling things to people. Presstek sold a 52 DI off the show floor. Xanté sold several Ilumina Digital Envelope Presses. All in all, a pretty active...

  • Trade Show Future
    By Bob Hall - Monday March 30, 2009
    The On Demand show is running this week in Philadelphia. Considering the state of the economy, I doubt any attendance records will be broken. That said, I can't go along with those folks who are predicting the demise of printing trade shows as viable enterprises. Right now we have three major shows in our industry — Graph Expo/Print, Graphics of the Americas, and On Demand. I've heard some say that GOA is more of a show for South America, but that's another story for another time. In the franchise arena, the bigger trade shows are bundled with franchisees' conferences. Franchise Services (PIP, Sir Speedy, Signal Graphics), AlphaGraphics, Allegra, and Minuteman are the main ones. Granted, there used to be a lot more. NAQP...

  • HP Challenged on MarketSplash
    By Bob Hall - Monday March 23, 2009
    The heads of three major printing franchise systems and PIA have been in discussions with HP about MarketSplash, the Web-to-print offering that is seen as competing with printers. Thus far there hasn't been any resolution, but meetings are scheduled at On Demand and at HP headquarters. "The intent of this dialog with HP is to request they reconsider the positioning of MarketSplash before more damage is done to the HP name as they attempt to make further penetration into the print-for-pay market," according to a letter sent by Allegra CEO Carl Gerhardt, AlphaGraphics CEO Kevin Cushing, and Franchise Services president Rich Lowe. It remains to be seen if this effort will force HP to make any changes to MarketSplash. Back in 2007, Kodak...

  • MarketSplash Makes Waves
    By Bob Hall - Monday March 16, 2009
    What's MarketSplash? It's Hewlett Packard's Web-to-print service aimed at end users; in other words, aimed at those small businesses who are potential customers for quick printers. Their website notes: "MarketSplash by HP provides all the small business marketing materials, products, and design services you need in a single, easy-to-use interface. Our brand marketing solution includes award-winning design templates, professional business cards, standout websites, traffic-driven direct mail postcards, and many more marketing products." So here we have another case of a printing industry vendor selling directly to potential customers of that industry. Adding insult to injury, some print jobs are routed to Staples for output. Thus far...

  • Good Eats at On Demand
    By Bob Hall - Thursday March 12, 2009
    I have to say I was very pleased when the On Demand show moved back to Philadelphia from Boston. Don't get me wrong, I like Boston just fine, but I prefer Philadelphia for one reason—the Reading Terminal Market is right across the street from the convention center. While trade shows offer great opportunities to learn about the latest printing technologies, they seldom offer much in the way of decent food. Dunkin' Donuts and McDonalds are not my idea of good eats. Neither are gummy pretzels and overpriced pasta. However, good eats can be found at the Reading Terminal Market which houses some 80 merchants who offer lots of food choices, not to mention specialty groceries, baked goods, and produce. If you're planning to attend On...

  • The message was right on the money:
    By Bob Hall - Friday February 6, 2009
    "Sign up for paperless billing and join AT&T in its efforts to be more earth friendly and environmentally aware. View and store your monthly bills online instead of receiving paper bills in the mail. Going paperless is safe, secure, and easy...and you will save time and money each month. Visit att.com/actgreen to learn more and enroll today. It's free, and it's green!" The problem was that this well-intentioned message was given its own full-page of a nine page bill. It took up about a tenth of that page. Surely they could have fit it in somewhere in the other eight pages and saved some paper. Right message, wrong presentation.

  • Are You Being Scammed?
    By Bob Hall - Tuesday August 26, 2008
    Okay, we're all adults here so we should be able to handle the truth. The truth is that if you get an email saying you've won the German Postal Lottery or that somebody in Africa wants to give you millions of dollars, you'd be smart enough to immediately recognize it as a scam. However, I've heard about some printers lately who have nearly fallen for an equally unlikely pitch just because it has been posed as a request for proposal — in other words, new business that has come knocking without any effort. Free money. Yes, I know. In this Internet age, business in no longer restricted to geographic areas. If you have a Web presence, you are open to the whole wide world. But ask yourself, why would a missionary in Ghana or a...

  • Virtual Reality or the Virtue of Reality?
    By Bob Hall - Tuesday July 22, 2008
    Recently, there was an article this week on ComputerWorld.com titled "Have your avatar call my avatar: Doing business virtually." It led off with a report on a Xerox meeting and product rollout that was held simultaneously at Boston's Fenway Park and at Xerox Inspiration Island in Second Life. (One Xerox exec supposedly made a rather spectacular crash landing there in her virtual personal jetpack.) The object of this event was to both showcase the new product and to test out Second Life as a vehicle for meetings. While noting that the melding of the virtual world with the real world is still in its infancy, the author says: "Be warned. Many think it's just a matter of time before being 'in-world' becomes as important for business...

  • Last Odds and Ends From drupa
    By Bob Hall - Wednesday July 2, 2008
    * One of the concerns about inkjet production printing is the durability of the printing heads. Maybe that's why every vendor of said equipment was certain to mention their machine's robust heads. For some reason that made me think of sturdy plumbing in a Navy bathroom. * You can't really say some vendors were green-washing their offerings, but some did go out of their way to slap a green tag on everything but the kitchen sink. Our industry is based on putting marks on paper, so the real green is energy efficiency, sustainability, and recycling. The latter might put inkjet at a disadvantage since some substrates can't be recycled and inkjet ink is more difficult to deal with than other inks—at least for now. * In the...

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