Career Options For Print Media Specialists In Nigeria’s Marketing Communications Industry

The Internet: a Blessing in Disguise
The emergence of the Internet, to some people, signaled the doom of print. This is very far from the whole truth. In reality, there has been a decline in the demand for print; as users find an alternative medium for communication in the Internet, it is only natural that this medium replaces print in certain ways. But it does not mean the entire dumping of print as it is still very relevant in the communications industry especially when used in a mix with other media in what is referred to as cross-media communication.

So, rather than being a threat, the Internet has actually offered the age-long printers the opportunity to transform to print solutions providers. If printers expect to outshine competitors, make profit and survive in the present printing industry, then things can not simply be done the way they have always been done. Hype aside, the printing industry is in dire need of a renewal and this presents immense career opportunities for those who are quick in seeing the big picture. Indeed, there is a shift in paradigm in the business world that must be understood: Most clients now have communication, not printing problems.

Renewing the Printing Industry
Joe Webb, a print media expert of note, examined the need for a renewal of the printing industry extensively in his book, 'Renewing the Printing Industry: Strategies and Action Items for Success'. The scholar made a clear case for a strategy change - a move that requires effecting a process change. What exactly does Webb mean by 'effecting a process change?' He explained: 'To become truly valuable to customers, a print business need to understand what business it is really in. Then it needs to optimize its business structure, business practices and infrastructures to optimize its position in that market.'1

Several attempts have been made to reposition printing companies as communications service providers. The appellation 'Graphic Communication' has been adopted to name this new printing industry.

Becoming communications solutions providers is a strategy for survival in the modern printing industry. This, essentially, involves getting involved with customers' business. This strategy is captured by Webb as: 'Understanding how and why they (the customer) need to communicate and to whom they need to communicate are now vital to becoming part of the communication process.'

This cannot be done without a fundamental change in the thinking pattern of printers - thinking in terms of the widely held perception of printing as a manufacturing process. Lyman Handerson in his book 'Hands-On Marketing for the Printer' lamented that the main problem of the printing industry the world over is that of perception; the current faulty perception of the industry as a commodity industry. In other words, printers, Handerson argues, perceive themselves as manufacturers.2 However, the emerging thinking positions printers as communication service providers. Thankfully, the emergence of technology has eased out the old business model used in the printing industry which was built around manufacturing.

According to a report of the Innovation and Business Skills Australia (IBSA), the printing and graphic arts industry is passing through a phase of transformation driven by digital technologies. Consequently, there has been an emergence of new business models as well as opportunities created through an expansion of the traditional printing industry into a wide range of related fields like design, signage, marketing, packaging, public relations and multimedia.3

Career Opportunities in Marketing Communication
Marketing communications is a field consisting of several disciplines. As a multi-disciplinary field, practitioners and specialists from all walks of life have one role or the other to play. Specifically, marketing communication, according to Chris Hill, 'is concerned with the methods, processes, meanings, perception and actions associated with the ways in which organizations (and their brands) engage with their target audience.4

Certain words are regularly used in marketing communications; one is brand, another is branding.

A brand, Kotler and Armstrong explained, refers to a name, term, sign, symbol, design, or a combination of these that identifies the products or services of one seller or group of sellers and differentiates them from those of competitors.5 Branding, on the other hand, is 'endowing products and services with the power of a brand.'6

Branding is pivotal to the services of any organization - profit or non-profit. Thus, it is an activity that receives premium attention from organizations. To make branding a success, there must be serious long-term planning and execution of these blueprints which requires significant input from marketing communications.

Brands are built in different ways using a myriad of strategies. The implementation of these strategies offers career opportunities to print specialists in one way or the other. Some of the key areas include:

 Specialty/promotional printing
 Packaging
 Signage/Outdoor Advertising
 Direct marketing variable data printing
Opportunities in Specialty/Promotional Industry
Building brands entails making the brand elements (name, colour, logos, etc) achieve enhanced recognition and optimal memorability. To achieve this, the brand must be seen almost everywhere by the target audience. Specialty/promotional products like T-shirts, Faze caps, pens, bags etc have become veritable vehicles through which brands are built. Promotional products are any item that can be imprinted with a logo, a message or name that instills corporate identity.7

The printing industry and the promotional product industry are linked by the process of imprinting on promotional products. The screen printing process has been largely used for imprinting on items though imprinting techniques like heat transfer and monogramming have also become popular.

The promotional product industry, no doubt, is a burgeoning one, not only in Nigeria but world over. For instance, the promotional industry in the United States is a multi-billion dollar industry with sales exceeding $17billion. According to a report,

'While other industries have suffered as a result of the recession and other economic issues, the promotional products industry has remained robust. Companies recognize that marketing is important in good times as well as bad, and have focused their investment on the strategy that brings the most favorable result.'

Studies show that people who receive promo items could recall the name of advertisers as long as six months after they received them.8

The ad specialty industry is that is a path to entrepreneurship as it is a good arena for entrepreneurs to thrive. Those who have been in this line of business cite the numerous advantages of this aspect of advertising to include: possibility and flexibility of working from home, the flexible hours of work, a lower overhead and considerably low initial investment for starting up.

Careers in Packaging
The packaging industry provides enormous career opportunities, not just for printers, but for a wide array of workers. The reason; the industry is a thriving one going by the needs and demands from manufacturers of products that require packages. And without any doubt, the package has a crucial role to play in marketing products. It is described as 'the articulate salesman' for the product.9

Packaging is an art, science and technology of preparing goods for transport and sales. It is considered a link between production, distribution and marketing. The various form of packaging includes; cardboard, corrugated box, metal, plastic or paper wrapper. Packaging is a broad area and is indeed an industry quite distinct and different from the printing industry. Nonetheless, there are certain areas of overlap that present career opportunities for print media specialists. Interestingly, the spate of digital technology (especially the Internet) that has brought a cut in demand for printed products has had little effect on the packaging industry. In the words of Robert, Neubauer,

'In countless ways technology ha s cut us from experiencing life through our sense. But the package is a reassuring exception. It is physical and encourages contact. Because of its image, color and recognition value, it plays an essential role in all advertising media while being, in itself, the most immediate media.

With the demise of mass magazines and the consequent decrease in print advertising there is now an even greater dependence than ever on the package to tell the product's story.'10

Careers in Outdoor Advertising /Signage Industry
Outdoor advertising has had a long history in the advertising landscape. It is regarded as a unique and specialized form of advertising which has vital role in the concept of integrated marketing communications currently holding sway in the contemporary marketing communications industry. According to a report on the growth of outdoor advertising in Nigeria, 'its aggregate contribution to the marketing mix in ensuring brand visibility is immense. With its potentials for reaching a wide range of audience and the lasting impression it creates for the advertised goods and services, outdoor practice in Nigeria has come to stay'.11

The signage industry on the other hand is also a visual communications field that holds a lot promises now and in the future. In a lot of ways, it is related to the print media industry (both belong to the visual communications family), yet it is also different in terms of its scope and opportunities. According to John Bosio, 'Signage is more of a marketing tool than anything else'. He underscored the relevance of signage in the following words:

'When visitors can find their way easily, they're more likely to come back and tell other people about their experiences. Good facility signage adds positive experiences for the visitor.'12

Another pundit, Jeffrey Cook agrees with Bosio on the benefits of signage. He adds,

'Ideally, we try to express the organization's core values and brand through the signage system. It creates an environment that's more exciting, more pleasurable to work in and brings the company closer to together.'13

Careers in Direct marketing variable data printing
Direct marketing aims at creating a personal and intermediary-free dialogue with customers. This marketing communications tool is different from others (like advertising and public relations) in that it does not use mass media techniques (sending the same message to a large number of people).

Rather, it talks personally to individual customer. In achieving this, high premium is placed on customized communications. In other words, messages sent to customers bear their personal information; the more the level of personalized information, the higher the possible impact of the communication piece. Amongst other tools of direct marketing, direct mails play a dominant feature.

Printed direct mails are customized with clients' data and thus are not printed using the traditional printing process. The method used in the print production of such customized mails (like catalogues, brochures, newsletters etc) is variable data printing using digital printing presses. Unlike the conventional (traditional) offset printing process that makes use of a printing surface (the printing plate) with a static or permanent image, the digital printing process uses dynamic printing surfaces whereby the printer regenerates the image for every page to be printed. This way every page can be different thus giving rise to the term 'variable data printing'.

Technically, variable data printing means that each printed piece can be different and that customized and personalized printing can be produced for target marketing purposes. Customized means that documents can be assembled particular to selected audiences.14

In essence, a thousand copies of a brochure with the same design and message but with different recipient's data can be produced and sent out.

Meet Leke Adetomiwa and Dream up your Dream
Multi-skilled Leke Adetomiwa currently plies his trade at the renowned advertising agency, Insight Communications as the senior controller in print production. This energetic individual is a bundle of potentials and versatility. Adetomiwa discovered his love for advertising and publishing when he wrote a thesis on information technology in the printing industry to fulfill requirements for the award of Higher National Diploma in Printing Technology at Yaba College of Technology. His spectacular academic performance earned him not just the Diploma but also an award as the best overall graduating student in the school of Art, Design and Printing of the institution. The quest for more learning took him to the University of Calabar where he obtained a Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) in Management. He capped this effort with a Masters in Business Administration from the Lagos State University.

Learning for Adetomiwa should not be limited to the four walls of the classroom. He undertook practical training in printing for five years at Academy Press (based in Lagos) where he was exposed to the various technical aspects of print production. The garnered experience placed him on good stead to break into the advertising industry when he got an offer from USP Communications Ltd from where he pitched his tent with Insight Communications.

Adetomiwa's firm belief is that the only way to remain relevant in his industry is to continually update his skills and knowledge. Thus, he does not toy with seminars, workshops, exhibition, in-house training - in fact, any source of learning new things. This, he said, makes it possible for him to 'apply skill and knowledge to difficult and complex work assignments.'

Welcome on Board
A career as a print media specialist or what is popularly called the 'print production specialist' in Nigeria's marketing communication industry holds a lot of promises. So what are you waiting for? Jump on the train and enjoy a most exhilarating career life!

Notes
1. Webb Joe. W. (2008). Renewing the Printing Industry: Strategies and Action Items for Success (2ed). United States: Strategies for Management, Inc and WhatTheyThink.

2. Handerson, L. (2004). Hands-On Marketing for the Printer. New Jersey: National Association for Printing Leadership.

3. IBSA Environmental Scan - 2010: Printing and Graphic Arts Industry

4. Chris Fill,(2009). Marketing Communication: Interactivity, Communities and Content. (5ed) Essex: Prentice Hall, p.4

5. Kotler P. and Amstrong G.(2010). Principles of Marketing (13th ed). New Jersey: Pearson. p.255.

6. Kotler P. and Keller, K. (2006). Marketing Management (12ed). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

7. Opportunities in the Promotional Product Industry, Logo Studio, p. 1

8. Logos Studio Whitepaper, p.1
9. Neubaucer, Robert (1973). Packaging: the Cotemporary media. New York; Van Nostrand Reinhold Company

10. Ibid, p. 17
11. Steady Growth of Outdoor advertising, Printers Digest, August, 2009, p.6

12. Signage Leads the Way, Printers Digest Magazine, April 2010, p.18

13. Ibid
14. National Association for Printing Leadership, Digital Printing, p. 17

Afolabi teaches digital printing and publishing at the department of Printing Technology, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos. He blogs at http://graphiccomnigeria.wordpress.com