Printer, or Marketing Services Provider? —Michelson

A RECENT blog on PIworld.com by Margie Dana, founder of Print Buyers International, set off a firestorm of responses from printers... er, marketing services providers (MSPs). You can read her blog post and a few of the online responses on page 16 in this issue or, better yet, check out all of the comments at PIworld.com by clicking on the "Blogs" tab. Although Dana primarily expressed her displeasure with commercial printer Websites which try to hide the fact that their core competency is manufacturing printed products, the discussion opened up a broader issue. Is identifying oneself as a printer something to be ashamed of—a dirty word that relegates your company to competing for work based solely on price? Conversely, does positioning your firm as a MSP get you past traditional print buyer "gatekeepers" and, hence, the opportunity to discuss overall marketing strategies and solutions, not just print pricing, with corporate-level decision makers?