About 70 percent of marketers told Target Marketing that in 2016, they didn’t use variable digital printing (VDP). Perhaps best known by one of its derivations, variable data printing — which allows personalization, VDP is by definition a cutting-edge technology in a traditional channel that’s seeing less and less marketing investment.
Print and direct mail marketing aren’t dying, but they’re losing weight—which means VDP only gained increased investment from 11 percent of marketers in 2016, finds Target Marketing research.
VDP could plump up its budget figures if marketers stopped treating it like a disease and married it to retail receipts, for instance, according to “Marketing Mix Trends 2010-2016,” Target Marketing’s analysis of six years of “Media Usage Survey” data. The report examines this tactic from 2011 to 2016. The “Variable Digital Printing (VDP)” section is part of a benchmarking of marketing media channels, technology and tactics included in the Target Marketing/NAPCO Research study. Both Target Marketing and NAPCO Research are NAPCO Media brands.
Variable Digital Printing (VDP)
This aspect of marketing has its own section in “Marketing Mix Trends 2010-2016.” Here’s the excerpt:
This image comes from the “Variable Digital Printing (VDP)” section of the Target Marketing report, “Marketing Mix Trends 2010-2016.”
It may be that as the direct mail channel’s fortunes go, so goes use of variable digital printing. Sure enough, marketers reported a pullback in both direct mail and VDP, with fewer (11 percent) indicating they increased their use of this technique over years past, more (70 percent) saying they don’t use it at all and roughly the same level (16 percent) saying they kept their use of it on-par with 2015.
The next step for growth in this technique may be harder pushes to tie it into point-of-sale systems, so customers are presented with customized offers or communications right at the point of checkout … or even before, via kiosks or retail check-in locations. Customized welcomes may well spur larger basket sizes during individual visits, and would help bring some of the online recommendation functions into the retail environment.
This article was published in Target Marketing.