PrintWeek India Conclave 2012
A report on sessions held at the PrintWeek India Conclave on 30 August, 2012.
01 Sep 2012 | 2328 Views | By PrintWeek India
“There are silver linings in the India Growth Story” Keynote by Dr Ajit Ranade
Dr. Ajit Ranade, well-known economist and head of Corporate Economics Cell (CEC) at Aditya Birla Group in his keynote speech during the first PrintWeek India conclave elucidated about macro-economic trends.
Breaking his keynote into three parts: macro trends of Indian economy, state of American and European economy, and the tremendous growth story of China, he said, “The growth rate of the print industry is double of the GDP of the country, which is a great news in the times of gloom and doom.”
Finally, focusing on the print industry he said, "Two things are going for the print Industry. Literacy is expanding, both in English and Indian languages. This would positively affect the readership, and in turn the print and packaging industry.
At Drupa, digital printing really become a part of the mainstream – Jo Francis, key speaker at PrintWeek India Conclave.
Drupa is an incredibly diverse showcase for the industry, said Jo Francis, contributing editor of PrintWeek and a key speaker at the PrintWeek India Conclave.
And as has now come to become a common place discussion, Francis began with Drupa 2012 being a Landa Drupa. “It sure generated a lot of excitement for something new,” she said. There were sample, which according to Francis were very vibrant but there were no tints or text and when one looked close-up at the samples, one could perhaps see why. “The Landa team was very honest saying that these were early prints and you could see some challenges that they had to overcome before they brought it to the market,” she said.
Describing how this Drupa could be termed, she went ahead naming them. It could be the Green Drupa, the Hybrid Drupa, the Inkjet Drupa (again), the B2 Digital Drupa, the Cloud Drupa, the Packaging Drupa, the Post-press Drupa. “Many of the technology shown were not only useful to the current state but also tuned to future potentials,” she said.
These are the list of things that one could say about the last Drupa, but most of it for Francis, as she said, was the Evolution Drupa. “Because digital printing has really become a part of the mainstream.”
Manufacturers during panel discussion on Drupa claim to enjoy Drupa success
The first of the two panel discussions of the day at the PrintWeek India Conclave, moderated by Ramu Ramanathan, group editor at Haymarket Media and editor, PrintWeek India had seven companies, who marked their presence at Drupa.
Vishnu Kamat of AGS, SK Roy of Bobst India, Puneet Dutta of Canon India, Peter Kirwan of Goss International, Anil Krishna of Henkel Adhesive, Mahesh Kode of Dupont India and P Sajith of Welbound Worldwide explained what they showcased and discussed their takeaways at Drupa, post-Drupa response in India in terms of sales and converting leads into deals, and the future of print in India.
On what was important for India at Drupa, the panellists said:
Peter Kirnan of Goss: Goss made major investment with more than 2,000 sq/mtr stand, which displayed new technology and demonstrated that we are leader in our segment, which is high volume printing.
Puneet Datta of Canon: It was exciting because of Canon-Oce being in the same stall. It was the fourth largest with 4,000 sq/mtr stall. The visitors were interested in the diversity of print solutions that Canon had on display.
Mahesh Kode of Dupont: Indian footfall was great. It was a very busy Drupa and successful one as well.
Subhasis Roy of Bobst: It was a successful Drupa for Bobst in recent years. Indians literally stole the show with number of handshakes completed in Drupa. Bobst displayed that it was active in flexo and gravure.
Anil Krishna of Henkel: Henkel’s focus at Drupa was on sustainability and technology. Among other products we saw a complete product range of Purmelt, Technomelt and Adhesive brand bookbinding adhesives. We look to bring ining the technology into India.
P Sajith of Welbound believes that Drupa 2012 was the last big one. I am not sure Drupa will look the same henceforth. I have been witnessing the change since 1995. The trend is of moving towards one equipment accomplishing a range of applications – be it complexity, funds and space. Take for example Wollenberg. The company has a machine which can do one book as well as one-million books.
During the discussion, Ramu raised the topic of flexo being the dark horse and wondered if it could be a major force at the next Drupa in 2016.
Mahesh Kode of Dupont agreed that flexo was making major inroads into the packaging segment. “It has actually taken over rotary presses,” he said. He however, did not think that digital technology will be a force to reckon with. “At most it will be a complementary,” he said. “Flexo will grow more.”
On the other hand Peter Kirwan of Goss said that Goss’ strategy will be towards challenging the flexo and gravure with cost-effectiveness of offset technology.
All the manufacturers agreed that Drupa led to substantial enquiries and order, most of them have been converted or are on the verge of confirmations. “With modernisation in education there’s a demand for books and textbooks,” said P Sajith of Welbound.
“Print is fluid. You can bend it the way you want,” says Josy Paul
Josy Paul, chairman and national creative director of BBDO India through various case studies talked about some leading brands and campaigns in India that used the power of print to accentuate and achieve their goals. Calling print as a liquid medium, he said, "Print is fluid. The power of print lies in this very characteristic of it. You can turn it into different forms, the way you want, by bending it. "
Citing various powerful campaigns that leveraged the power of print like the Unhate Campaign by United Color of Benetton, the latest Action is Now campaign of BlackBerry, among several others, Paul talked about the graphic value of print.
Touching upon how artistic packaging design plays an effective role in accentuating the brand differentiation, he talked about the packaging of the Nitco wood-finish tiles. The packaging design with roots on it further defined about the new wood finish product.
Before concluding his presentation, Paul spoke about the Great Wall of Books campaign, which was done for AVIVA. The campaign was a massive success, and Kapil Sibal, Union Human Resource Development Minister had then said, “This wall of books will open many doors.”
"Magazines are more engaging," says Tarun Rai
Tarun Rai, chief executive officer, Worldwide Media and president, The Association of Indian Magazines, delivered a riveting session on the power of engagement and the future of print. He talked about the magazine industry in India and the United States of America in depth and proved that print is alive and kicking.
Rai completely dismissed the notion of print’s demise as has been suggested by the popular media since the arrival of the internet and technological developments like the Ipad etc. and in order to validate his claim he provided the example of the magazine industry in India and United States.
Rai said, “The ever increasing readership of newspapers and magazines is testament to the power of print. Arrival of new technology doesn’t necessarily need to be at the cost of an existing technologies and the growth in readership of traditional magazines proves that contrasting technologies can co-exist in the same segment. But, it is also imperative not to complete disregard the technological developments.”
According to a PriceWaterCooperHouse report all media will register growth in the next five years, with print media growing approximately by 9.6%. While the average growth throughout all media will be 13.5%.
While talking about the importance of engagement he touched upon the explosion in media in the last decade and how it led to unconscious filtering of the content, paradox of choice and distracted audiences. According to Rai, “The mind-frame of accepting numbers as the only parameter to judge success needs to change. Emphasis on the need for better connectivity with the audiences and interactions should be increased.”
"The contribution of print towards OOH is huge," says Indrajit Sen
Indrajit Sen, chief executive director of Indian Outdoor Advertising Association and founder-director of Media Analytics and Designs and a jury member for the fourth edition of the PrintWeek India Awards 2012, gave an insight on the top trends in OOH.
The pre-lunch session was concentrated on aspects of OOH such as the total net worth of the industry, the regulations, available usage of outdoor media, digitization and the environment concerns.
“The contribution of printing towards OOH industry is huge as it demands wide format printing. There is not much emphasis on content, all you see is the advertisement which needs a perfect reproduction and at times an enhanced reproduction wherever necessary,” said Sen.
“Indian spends Rs 2000 crores on OOH and a similar amount for retail which includes signage and merchandising. Unfortunately this year, there has been stagnant growth below 5% as a result of the slowdown,“ he added.
He further implied that Its has been claimed that during the last ten years, 960 million sq/mt of pvc flex has been imported into India which is 0.3 % of the entire surface area of the country.
Karin Mayer, vice president, business line management and dry toner solutions at Canon deliberated over various pain-points that need to be addressed for India to become a major outsourcing in the world.
Throwing light at the big opportunity that lies ahead for the global print fraternity, she said that the global printing industry will touch 800bn USD by 2016. Of these, transactional printing would include 3% and publishing 19%. General commercial printing and packaging would form the major chunk; that is 38% and 40%, respectively.
“Digital transactional printing market is a growing area for India. Digital printing, especially colour, is growing at a CAGR of 19% in 2011. However, this is pegged to grow at CAGR of 29% by 2016. In the direct mail, we see offset being replaced by normal paper prints; especially, for one to one personalised campaigns. The response time is higher when you do it on paper,” she said.
For grabbing these rising opportunities, Mayer suggested that the Indian print companies should try to scale productivity, automate and concentrate on the management of human resource. She also asked the companies to focus on vertical specialization and beef-up security requirements to instil improved level of trust among the outsourcing partners.
Subodh Kulkarni, packaging material and supply chain director, Tetra Pak presented the green initiatives by Tetra Pak in India and globally. A package should save more than it costs is the mantra of the company. ”Environment is the key strategic priority at global level for the company,” said Kulkarni.
Tetra Pak which produces paper based packages is accredited with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. Kulkarni said, “FSC monitors the depletion of forests. Being FSC certified adds value to the products and is the major contributor in Tetra Pak’s commitment towards environment.”
Sharing the company’s green policy Kulkarni added, “We have set climate goals for 2020. Also, we are implementing Total Quality Management (TQM) to improve the efficiency levels of equipment and operations and reduce the wastage globally.” According to Kulkarni efficient operations save energy and the extra savings help to improve sustainability.
As a part of green initiative Tetra Pak has started to collect and recycle the used Tetra Pak cartons. For this they mapped the post consumption life of the carton and found that the cartons finally lands in landfill. Kulkarni said, “We started the process of collection of the used cartons in Delhi with the help of rag-pickers and the assistance of several NGOs. Then nodes were established where the waste was collected. The collected waste was then taken to the recycling units. The collection of cartons was started in 2004 but the actual recycling started in 2007.” In India, about 16-17% of the total Tetra Pak cartons produced are recycled by Tetra Pak.
The Tetra Pak cartons are produced from paper, plastic and aluminium. The recycled paper fibres are sent to the paper mills for manufacturing recycled paper. The recycled plastic and aluminium are used to produce poly-Al board which is an alternative for cement board. “In Gujarat, the poly-Al board is widely used and we are taking efforts to promote it as a viable alternative to be used in the market,” Kulkarni added.
As a part of educating the end-user about the importance of segregation and recycling of waste, Tetra Pak has tied-up with several schools to spread the word of recycling. “Educating the next generation will help to inculcate the thought process in favour of recycling,” concluded Kulkarni.
TISS and MMPIPTR join hands to combat skill management issues of the Indian print industry
Media owners turn heads with print that is packed with good ideas
Gokul Krishnamurthy, editor of Campaign India, a sister publication of PrintWeek India moderated the panel discussion on Print Power with Bharat Kapadia of ideas@Bharat. Kapadia.com; Indranil Roy of Outlook Group, Zubin Tatna of MEC, Sharad Haksar of 1pointsize.
Kapadia began his discussion by talking about how advertisers and publishers need to think beyond square centimeters. “Collective power of print provides readers with a ‘real touch’ experience and mentioned how readers are real consumers. He gave an example of Bru’s innovative advertisement in the Times of India. “Every new fragrance is fresh and can create a new experience. It gave the product an appeal and enhance brand identity.”
Zubin Tatna, national director, integrated planning, MEC India, who compared the printing industry currently to the half full or half empty glass scenario. He spoke about how magazines are currently facing a growth, with six among the top 10 magazines experiencing growth in the IRS Q1 2012. “Literacy has increased by nine per cent to 74. This has an effect on readership. People who have just learnt how to read, will not jump to tablets or the internet; the first step will be print,” said Tatna.
Outlook Group’s,president, Indranil Roy followed Tatna. He spoke about the influence of advertising on people and a recent survey conducted by Outlook. He said, “30% of our readers preferred reading the magazine on a tablet or other digital forms. 70%still prefer the physical copies.”
The final panelist, Sharad Haksar of 1pointsix give seven reasons why print prevails. He said, “Print can – provoke the world, make work stand out, tell a story, has a lasting impact, can make small look large, can make mundane, unboring, and can make local world global.”
Haksar demonstrated how clear design ideas and innovative treatment helped brands increase their sale.
Friends of Ambition was started by Ravi Kiran, Sanjay Barkataki, Subodh Srivastav and Suhail Kazmi, all are more than 20 years experienced professionals. Ravi Kiran is a specialist of marketing and communication consulting corporate on media negotiations, sports, entertainment, IP and wireless, peer2peer marketing and cause enabled marketing, education and training, out of home and ambient media solutions.
According to him Middle India is not the geographical middle part of the country but it is tier one and two cities of the country. He believes that the people from the areas are more ambitious.
He further added that the ambitious gap is narrowing between tier one, two and three cities. “Something is cooking there that’s why the Middle India is on everyone’s radar.” Explaining the processes of business, he said, “Every business passes through various stages including existence, survival, success, take off and resource maturity.”
Most of the companies in the tire two and three cities are family-owned business and the condition in the tier one cities is no different. He felt that creativity with the professionalism is utmost important but it’s easier said than done. “Now the customer is ready to pay so manufacturers must focus on upping the quality. It is imperative to impress more than ever and companies need to shed the exiting thought ‘me and myself’ and focus on ‘me and plus my company’ concept. This is because only if the people of the organisation will progress, so would you,” he added.
Questioning the preparation of the print companies in the middle India he said, “Now the time is for qualitative service with efficiency and innovation. Please ask a question to yourself that are you really an organisation of strategy, finance, customers, technology, human assets and operations?”
It is all about that what I want to be not what I am? Poor financial management is one of the problems that plague a majority of the companies. My suggestion for the organisations is be professional because there is no other way to do it.” He concluded his bit with the line ‘Chalta hai ab no longer chalta hai’.
Click here to view the PrintWeek India Conclave picture gallery
There is a tendency to pigeon-hole Drupa, the dotcom Drupa in 2000, the inkjet Drupa in 2008. I wonder what the industry would have felt about this one. Francis wondered what different people would thought Drupa would have been for them.
Vishnu Kamat of AGS: At Drupa, AGS represented X-Rite and Digital Information. Though we had quite a number of sales, the number of visitors from India was not as my other industry colleagues would state. That’s because colour management is not a popular technology in India.
“However the silver lining in this industry is when regulations are concerned, which are applicable for a longer time than before.”
The trend that is being followed is the use of indoor spaces at transit and entertainment spaces such malls and these spaces are developing faster than OOH spaces and have a scope for much more growth.
“However the biggest threat is digitization of Ooh which for India is yet to develop but the situation can change quite fast. Examples of building wraps such as the concept Chevy Volt, innovative displays such as that of Nivea, vehicles wraps for guess and Pringles are examples which will be replicated in India very fast,” added Sen.
In next two years, Asia and Oceania region market will be the biggest in the world
Mayer said that in next two years, Asia and Oceania region market will be the biggest in the world. Currently, the region accounts for 29% of the global print production. Talking about opportunities for the Indian print companies, she said there are two main trends in the industry – the increasing short-runs and the change from conventional to digital printing technologies.
Tetra Pak employs green initiatives for sustainability
Professor Neela Dabir from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) spoke at length over the lack of print industry related specialised training modules in India. Sharing her vision for active participation of companies, institutes and the government, she said: “Skill level and human resource management are the two big issues that need to be combated.”
She also announced that for the first time TISS has entered into technical course through School of Vocational Education (TISS-SVE) in December 2011. The target beneficiaries include organised and unorganised labour, women, children and special emphasis would be paid for the upliftment of dalits. For the same, TISS-SVE has collaborated with Maharashtra Mudran Parishad’s Institute Of Printing Technology and Researchers, (MMPIPTR).
“This pan-India program will include 60% practical and 40% theory classes. Training will be imparted by Hubs (town or city-level partners) and Spokes (industrial units). Each Hub will have practical training at different spokes. Hubs will be responsible for behavioural and orientation labs. Spokes will provide hands on work experience through practical trainings,” she explained.
The courses will start in September 2012, and later expand across country over next few years. She also shared that TISS-SVE and MMPIRTR looking for industry partners for developing this initiative. She appealed to the head-honchos of the print industry to participate in developing quality courses, funding for create quality text books and study materials.
She also encouraged them to register as hubs or spokes in different parts of the country and constantly provide feedback on current needs of the industry vis-a-vis the training content. Dabir said TISS was open to updation in the syllabus according to the changing needs and technology of industry. She said that the Hubs and Spokes will offer job opportunities to the trainees upon completion of training.
Middle India will be the new business vertical or path for growth as the big cities are now saturated and the people from middle India are more ambitious, said by Ravi Kiran, co-founder and managing partner of Friends of Ambition.
He shared all of these points during his presentation at Print Power 2012, a conclave organised by PrintWeek India, on the topic ‘What we can learn from businesses in middle India.