Offset Printing
Award-Winning Innovative Business Model and Entrepreneurial
Monday 21. January 2008 - targetmedia and OZ Druck & Medien successfully implement value added idea
Added value instead of cheap – this concept has proved successful for targetmedia GmbH in Rheinfelden, Germany not only with customers. At the 2007 Druck & Medien Awards it was the winner as most innovative enterprise. The Managing Director of targetmedia and OZ Druck & Medien, Michael Medweth, became Printing Company Manager of the Year.
How does one stand out against competitors? How can one avoid price competition and comparability? These questions ask many in the industry. MAN Roland has been relying on the value added strategy for some years now, proving its power of innovation by continuously advanced and application-oriented products with which sheet and web offset customers can offer their customers added value.
It was early in the new millennium that MAN Roland customer OZ Druck & Medien also decided for the value added strategy in order to escape the steadily growing cost pressure and price competition in webfed printing. The deliberations of Managing Director Michael Medweth resulted in the corporate strategy Vision 2012, which had as core objectives: concentration on the stationary trade and conversion of the single-stage webfed printing operation to a multi-stage media enterprise offering the full spectrum of graphic art services in prepress and postpress. Contrary to the trend, the company in 2004 invested 16 million Euros in new space facilities and modern production technology including one of the first 72-page LITHOMAN. This alone, though, would surely not have been prize-worthy for the jury of the Druck & Medien Awards.
Competence in trade marketing
What decided the jury was the realization of the value added strategy. Because the questions to be solved were how to sell the customers on added value and how to transform, virtually from one day to the next, the image of a web printer into that of a competent full-service provider. A difficult if not impossible course of action. And it was ruled out by Managing Director Michael Medweth. Instead, he founded a new company: targetmedia, a media consultancy and full-service agency that, independent of production machinery, concentrates exclusively on satisfying the communication needs of the stationary trade. The modular service portfolio ranges from media consultancy to concept and creative work through to data management, production and distribution.
The core competence of targetmedia lies in print-based trade advertising and is concerned with creative work, data management, production service and distribution. In production service and distribution, targetmedia cooperates with network partners. For the production of handbills for the stationary trade, the OZ Druck & Medien GmbH is available. At two sites, in Rheinfelden and Cologne, a total of four LITHOMAN print three 32-pagers and one 72-pager. With this equipment, the company can produce any page count and format important for the trade – in one continuous process, as press end product.
Individual solutions
At targetmedia, added value for the customer means offering individual solutions. For this, the company requires high competence in understanding the communication needs of the individual dealer – competence the full-service provider recruited with the right personnel concept. In addition to printing professionals, targetmedia employs management consultants from the media environment and advertising experts from the trade sector. “It was important for us to get people possessing high social and professional competence, with whom we could establish the idea of media consultancy and full-service agency for the stationary trade in a credible and competent way,” as targetmedia Managing Director Oliver Cynamon explains the strategy. He proudly points out that targetmedia is by now not only the leading producer of handbills in Germany and Switzerland. It has recently become active also in Poland, and more countries are to follow.
The award as most innovative company is a great success for the young company. Even more important is the success that is apparent every day: the printing partner OZ Druck & Medien is constantly working to capacity. And for targetmedia itself this business model opens up new fields of business with attractive profit potentials and opportunities for strong growth. After all: added value pays – for the customers and the provider.