New Industry Developments
Learn how new industry developments fit your business. New markets and new product areas are challenging, but they also mean new opportunities. Don't miss out! Stay ahead of your competition with research from PRINTING United Alliance.
If you have any questions please contact PRINTING United Alliance Research, ResearchTeam@printing.org
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Printing Industry Market Atlas
This report is a first step toward building an economic profile of the American printing industry. Sources include both U.S. Census Bureau data and the results of proprietary PRINTING United Alliance/NAPCO research studies.
Data is organized by North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code. An explanation of the codes is on page 8.
The broadest NAICS definition of printing, NAICS 323: Printing and Related Support Activities, is covered first. Number of establishments, number of employees, and annual payroll are presented at the national, regional, state, and county levels to pinpoint the location of printing activity and from 2019 (most recently published) back five years to capture trends. Estimates for 2020 are included to approximate the effects of the COVID-19 crisis.
Date for narrower definitions of printing, such as NAICS 32311: Commercial Printing Screen and NAICS 323117: Books Printing, come next.
We also begin to account for companies that print but do not consider printing their primary business. Direct mail printers who also create marketing campaigns for clients, graphic and sign producers who manufacture the substrates on which they print, and a range of package printers/converters are examples. These companies are not included in NAICS 323. Identifying them — their numbers are growing — is a primary goal of this research.
Convergence in Print: A Shift to the New Normal
In 2018, NAPCO Research and PRINTING United Alliance conducted the first print industry convergence study. The analysis of commercial, in-plant, packaging, wide-format, garment, and industrial PSPs validated the convergence phenomenon. Three years
later, with industry forces such as digital adoption, service provider contraction, increased e-commerce demand, and external factors such as a global pandemic impacting the industry, this subsequent study reassessed the degree to which convergence
is occurring across print segments and have redrawn migration patterns across segments. This study provides valuable insights for commercial printers including:
- An assessment of current convergence trends in the print industry and the differences in trends in 2021 versus 2018
- Key areas with the most growth opportunities cross-segment for the commercial printers
- How organizations are effectively evaluating expansion and investing into other segments to increase profitability
- How continued convergence will impact the future of the industry
Production Inkjet Printing: Consideration, Deployment and End Results
SGIA and NAPCO Media conducted research during the summer of 2017 to address SGIA’s questions concerning: How do printers navigate the end-to-end process of considering, evaluating, purchasing, and operating a production inkjet press? What is the impact of including production inkjet capabilities on their internal processes, product and application development, workflow, training, sales, ROI, etc.?
Digital Package Printing: the Time is NOW!
SGIA and NAPCO Media's research is focused on market and technology trends in the digital package printing industry. Packager printers/converters and brand owners were surveyed and the following questions were addressed. What are the top reasons
package printers/converters are migrating to digital? What challenges do key brand owners face? How to accelerate the process of digital adoption? What are the best strategies for selling packaging to brand owners?
Digital Printing for Folding Carton Converting: An Analysis of User Adoption Practices and Opportunity
SGIA and its market research partner Keypoint Intelligence completed a structured survey of folding carton converters in North America. The goal of that research is to understand folding carton converters’ printing habits, preferences, and
plans, as well as to describe the role and prospect of production-level color digital printing at such companies.
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Digital Printing for Flexible Packaging Converting: An Analysis of User Adoption Practices and Opportunity
SGIA and its market research partner Keypoint Intelligence recently completed a structured survey of flexible packaging converters in North America. The goal of that research is to understand flexible packaging converters’ printing habits,
preferences, and plans, as well as to describe the role and prospect of production-level color digital printing at such companies.
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Digital Printing for Corrugated Converting: An Analysis of User Adoption Practices and Opportunity
SGIA and its market research partner, Keypoint Intelligence, recently completed a structured survey of corrugated converters in North America. The goal of that research is to understand corrugated converters’ printing habits, preferences, and plans,
as well as to describe the role and prospect of production-level color digital printing at such companies.
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Digital Printing for Packaging: Folding Cartons. How and Why Decisions are Made
SGIA and Karstedt Partners researched the decision-making and evaluation processes folding carton converters go through to make their digital investments. What value does the digital bring to the folding cartons market? Are packagers ready to invest?
What was the main driver for going digital for early adopters? These are just some of the questions we explore in this study that provides some insight about how investing in software and in the finishing equipment may smooth the process of digital
adoption for the folding carton converters.
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Digital Printing for Packaging: Flexible Packaging. How and Why Decisions are Made
SGIA and Karstedt Partners researched the decision-making and evaluation processes flexible packaging converters go through to make their digital investments. What value does digital bring to the flexible packaging market? Are packagers ready to
invest? What are the main drivers for going digital for early adopters? Does investing in software and in finishing equipment smooth the process of digital adoption for the flexible packagers? Those are just some of the questions we explore.
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Digital Printing for Packaging: Corrugated Converters. How and Why Decisions are Made
SGIA and Karstedt Partners researched the decision-making and evaluation processes corrugated converters go through to make their digital investment. What value does digital bring to the corrugated market? Why do some converters invest while others
do not? What drives the adoption? Is digital investment the only way to connect to digital? What are the current developments in the industry that drive converters’ decision making from the tactical to the strategic level. The study provides
insight about the process of digital adoption for corrugated packagers.
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Industrial Digital Print Markets: North America. An Analysis of User Adoption Practices and Opportunities
What is the status of digital production print in North America today? What are the barriers and opportunities for digital
printing? This research by IT Strategies, on behalf of SGIA, is about the economics and functionality of digital technology, the relationship between digital and analog production in the industrial markets, the uniqueness of digital printing and new
developments that emerging applications bring to the market. The five industrial markets under review: decorative print, pressure-sensitive labels, direct-to-shape product markings (Part 1), digital textiles and wide-format display graphics (Part
2).
Learn how new industry developments fit your business. New markets and new product areas are challenging, but they also mean new opportunities. Don't miss out! Stay ahead of your competition with research from PRINTING United Alliance.
If you have any questions please contact PRINTING United Alliance Research, ResearchTeam@printing.org