Bringing this blog back from the sports arena into the workplace I will now take a deeper look at how printing is perceived around the world. Living in Germany it is easy to point out cultural differences from my Spanish roots but looking at a recent study I am beginning to think we are a lot more similar than we think. At least when it comes to colour printing!
This past summer a study was conducted comparing similar groups of people in seven different countries all over the world to understand their needs and perceptions of printing. When and why people print, when does paper become essential and what makes them print in colour? HP quizzed businessmen and women from the US, Germany, Russia, Brazil, China, Thailand and India and the compiled results were quite insightful.
When measuring the type and volume of printing being conducted in the workplace we typically apply two types of analysis:
Monochrome remains the most common form of printing across all countries, largely due to the nature of the content (administrative/memorandums) or its intended use (draft or internal, for instance).
Not all 'print jobs' are the same . . . .
A prime example is Germany where 60% of the print jobs are entirely monochrome compared to only 28% in colour. However, when comparing page volumes, the proportions are 42% and 36% respectively.
What does this all mean? From the results we can see that monochrome print jobs are happening frequently but are shorter in terms of page length. Colour printing on the other hand does not happen as often, but when it does the number of pages printed is quite high.
These differing usage patterns have implications for the printing hardware, supplies and software used. High volumes of short print jobs will place different demands on a printer than a smaller volume of continuous print jobs in terms of supplies utilisation and, even, the level of energy consumed. HP's Instant-on Technology found in LaserJet printers, dramatically reduces the time (and energy) required to "warm up" a printer at the start of each individual job (http://h20271.www2.hp.com/SMB-AP/cache/380437-0-0-
Another trend - revealed from the US market - is a greater use of mixed colour printing. In the US 32% of print volumes are produced in a mixed monochrome and colour format, compared to just 22% in Germany. This difference could be due to a difference in working patterns or style - mixed printing is typically found within illustrated reports and Word-based documents dominated by text but with accompanying graphics and images. It is possible that this format suits one country's working style more than another. It could also be a question of user awareness or market education; perhaps European users are simply less aware of the possibilities of mixed printing and, therefore, use it less. Each trend will exert specific requirements in terms of print and supplies management.
Making the right impression
From some of my previous posts specifically my first and second blog we know that colour plays a huge role on how customers perceive your business. Whilst I could speculate all day on why Germans prefer green and Britons prefer red, one thing is clear, colour helps businesses make a good impression. Emerging markets such as Russia, Brazil and Thailand scored higher than all other countries on using printed documents for selling themselves and their business to potential and current customers. Brazil's number one request was for printers that produced documents that looked professional. Somehow I think HP can help with that!
Even though German respondent's didn´t score as high as Russians or Brazilians they still know the importance of printing. In fact 72% of those surveyed use printing to communicate with the customer and 39% of all printing volume is used for printing client presentations and marketing efforts. Recent trends are showing that most countries are choosing to print marketing communications in house. Germany only outsources 19% of creative printing development tasks and the United States scored similarly with 21% of respondents outsourcing creative development tasks. In developing markets this number rises slightly. For example, respondents from China outsource 31% of creative development tasks.
Creativity
Speaking of creativity, colour and creativity go hand in hand. Most people surveyed from all over the world felt they were a creative bunch. Seventy percent of Russians felt they were creative and 65% love to explore new ideas. Sixty one percent of the Chinese agree that creativity is core part of their business and India responded that printing helps them feel smart and can help leave a good personal impression.
Overall printing helps share ideas and can help your company leave a good impression. But by adding colour that impact can be increased exponentially. Even though we may come from different places we all can agree that colour printing works when applied in the right way at the right time.
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