First Xeikon Café for Retail Marketing a Success

LIER, BELGIUM—October 29, 2010—The first Xeikon Café on “Effective communication in today’s retail market,” staged recently at the company's headquarters in Belgium, proved to be a success. The balanced program of expert speakers and a live printing demo struck the right chord with more than 100 local and international attendees.

The event underlined printers’ and retailers’ willingness to gain a better understanding of the changing dynamics in off-line and online retail marketing. With personal data gathered through the event subscription process, Xeikon welcomed every visitor with a personalized fashion folder, demonstrating the possibilities, speed and impact of customized digital printing and direct marketing.

Xeikon launched the Xeikon Café event to bring printing and communications professionals together in shared learning experience. Communication plays an essential role at every stage in a product’s lifecycle, from development through manufacturing, promotion and sales. With today’s technologies opening up a diverse array of communication channels, the possibilities have never been more exciting. However, understanding what is available and how it can be implemented, is the first step to successful retail marketing. Reveal cross-sector product communication opportunities and facilitate marketing innovation is then also the key objective of the Xeikon Café initiative.

Following the success of the first event, the Xeikon Café on retail marketing will now go on-tour across Europe. More information about the dates and locations can be found on www.xeikon.com.

A winning situation for all stakeholders
“We live in a world of information overload, where the new generation consumers decide when to ignore or listen to your message,” says Danny Mertens, Business Development Manager at Xeikon. “It’s crucial to target consumers with personalized, relevant messages. Each consumer has their own unique profile and should be addressed accordingly. This is certainly a challenge for retail marketers—but it also creates many new opportunities.”

The retail Xeikon Café underlined the importance of collaboration between all disciplines involved. All stakeholders must understand the concept of personalized communication and the benefits that can be gained.

“Ultimately, retailers want consumers to visit them more often and buy more. Consumers are more loyal to those that cater to their personal needs and improve their shopping experience,” continues Mertens.

This vision was also reflected in the presentation of ICA, Sweden’s largest retailer. The company uses an effective mix of direct marketing tools, including the ICA-customized loyalty card and personalized coupons, resulting in a much-appreciated bonus program for its customers. The success of such initiatives demonstrates the importance of data mining and data intelligence.

“Capturing and deploying variable data from your customer is one thing,” says Wim Hellemans, Manager at Enqio, a partner company of Xeikon and specialist in valuable business intelligence. “The next step is to turn your customer intelligence into tangible value for both the consumer and retailer. It is only when retailers have a clear understanding of consumers’ needs and preferences that they can offer personalized value propositions and targeted marketing incentives.”

Print: never more personal
The presentation of Gino Van Ossel, Professor at the Vlerick Management School, was a true eye opener for the audience. He emphasized the need for cross channeling, integrating and synchronizing the physical and virtual experience. Customization is the paradigm for both online and print marketing. In that respect, print is more alive than ever, as digital printing enables customized and very personal interaction with consumers.

“Adding intelligent full-color personalized information in a direct mailing, for example, can increase response rates up by to 35%. Our digital printing solutions are helping retailers to grab consumers’ attention faster and with greater impact,” concludes Mertens.

To find out more about the Xeikon Café, visit the www.xeikoncafe.com website with video's, images, and more information about the Xeikon solutions for retailers.

About Xeikon
A pioneer in digital printing, Xeikon designs, develops and delivers high-end digital colour printing systems for the industrial, document and commercial printing market segments. These systems are composed of advanced web-fed printing engines using LED-array-based, dry toner electrophotography, open workflow software, exclusive toner and other consumables. Xeikon’s production and R&D operations are based in Belgium and its solutions are distributed and supported through a worldwide sales and service network. Xeikon is a division of Punch Graphix. For more information, visit www.xeikon.com

About Punch Graphix
Punch Graphix provides innovative, competitive and environmentally friendly imaging and printing solutions for the global graphics industry. Under the Xeikon brand name, Punch Graphix designs, develops and delivers high-end digital colour printing systems, software and consumables for the industrial, document and commercial printing market segments. Under the basysPrint brand, Punch Graphix designs, develops and delivers mid to high-end UV-CTP imaging systems for the offset prepress commercial markets. With a clear-minded focus on R&D, Punch Graphix is dedicated to customer satisfaction and aims to deliver cost-effective graphic excellence that goes beyond all expectations. For more information, visit www.punchgraphix.com

Source: Company press release.