| Digital colour printing is the most dynamic segment of the digital print market. It has shown double-digit growth rates in recent years and is poised to remain on a steep growth path for many years to come. A steady flow of new colour devices and declines in equipment and running costs are fuelling this growth.
We fully understand that no product should be sold solely based on price, but by offering a unique, valueadded, and comprehensive service to a customer. Digital colour printing is a prime example of the opportunity to offer value-added services or to optimise the complete document chain rather than narrowing an order decision down to pricing only. Digital printing can offer just-in-time, personalised, localised, database-driven print, as well as many more benefits that other printing processes cannot achieve.
Nevertheless, today’s environment remains very competitive for digital short run colour printing. Offset is a strong contender as runs get longer and when ancillary factors like response time and personalisation are not important. In fact, the vast majority of print today is still produced in offset due to production costs— many jobs have run lengths above the threshold where the lower costs per piece in offset more than compensate for the fixed start-up costs. Since many print buyers do not focus on value-added services and have no plans to remodel their document chains, processes like offset and digital continue to be compared on a like-for-like basis. Because of this, the break-even point between digital and offset printing prices can have an important influence on the rate of digital colour print adoption.
Pricing in a competitive environment remains a sensitive issue, and most respondents are hesitant to provide quotes, pricing statements, and other cost-sensitive information. Because of this, many interviews remained incomplete among respondents that were unwilling to disclose all details. Nevertheless, we have collected a sufficient number of answers to provide a good overview of pricing trends by type of print service provider, company size, and country. |
