Print is Far From Dead - COVID 19 Edition

Working in the print industry, it’s not uncommon to hear the popular phrase “Print is Dead”. Print has changed over the years and is no longer the only method to getting your message out, but during the COVID-19 outbreak it can be essential.
Print is credible years after its first inception, print is still trusted, studies suggest this is due to the fact it is real. The realness shows an investment both in time and in cost, this breeds trust. It goes without saying that trust is incredibly important in a brand, trust generates sales.

Print is Direct
​From point of sale to in your letterbox, there is no denying that print is where it needs to be. It can access the exact market you are targeting without need for complex audience building that you would experience with digital marketing. When used print is always in the right place at the right time.

Print is Tangible
Whilst at the moment we are being told not to touch anything with our hands, there is a reason that people engage with more luxurious finishes, and a reason why people select soft-touch lamination on their business cards. It is because of the tactility of the product. The tangibility of the product stimulates more of the senses and this in turn is what people enjoy, the feel of the paper and the smell of ink is something you cannot get from the digital form, at least not yet anyway.

Print is Memorable
Typically, people spend much longer looking at a printed product than a digital version of the same thing. This engagement rate hugely supports the recognition of the brand whether it is linked to seeing emblems, patterns, logos or colours. And it actually goes a lot further than that, this engagement and recognition actually results in a faster and more confident recall of what has been seen.

Print is More than you Think
People traditionally think of print being the newspaper your parents have delivered, or the takeaway menu that you get from the local Chinese or Indian restaurant, but it is much more wide reaching than that. I took a moment of reflection whilst writing this to note the print in my home (remote working) and there is a multitude of print from the packaging from my daughters new OXO highchair to the letter from HSBC updating me with their support, to the notebook and metal pen on my desk. But also, more than that, it is the food packaging, it is POS in supermarkets, it is floor stickers, it is street signs and safety information and photographs . Needless to say, imagining a world without any print, is close to impossible.

Print is Essential
Now onto COVID-19, during this pandemic, we have seen our orders change quite dramatically. People are adapting to the changing world and the marketplace that is in front of them.

We have seen a much larger uptake in Takeaway Menus, Roller Banners with the latest coronavirus information, Save the Date Cards for postponed Weddings, several Books from self publishers, people having the time to think about their food and drink packaging with a lot of Labels being produced and Letterheads from people deeming it essential to contact their customers at this time.

Print is not just a marketing tool, but in times of crisis, in particular, it is for essential communication.
These messages and this style of message are being used because of the benefits that print already offers, because it is credible, direct and memorable.
People say that print is dead, but it is a far cry from that, print has adapted and changed to the nature of the world we live in, and it is now just as important as it has ever been.