May 09
27
perception is a funny thing
I am a green printer that loves the opportunity to provide the market place with a product that is much greener than the alternatives currently available. One of the biggest hurdles I’ve faced is perception. First, let me explain a little about our green printing.
Our commercial printing machine is inkjet based and uses up to 95% less energy than conventional laser printing and even more energy is saved in comparison to offset printing. But what drew me to purchase this machine is the minimal amount of resources and materials actually required to keep the machine running.
This link will take you to a chart comparing the three most commonly available printing methods, their energy consumption and material/resource usages. It’s a powerful insight into the behind the scenes requirements that laser and offset require. This is something that the print industry do not want you to know about. Printing on recycled paper is green enough isn’t it? Sure, to the uninformed consumer it is. But this is something I want to talk about in another post.
Back to the topic about perceptions. One of my customers was having a dilemma about the print quality of their flyer, they were holding our inkjet printed flyer in one hand, and a laser printed copy in the other. The concern was that our inkjet printed flyer didn’t look as bright and as sharp as the laser printed copy.
Long story short, having brought this customer around to the environmental benefits, they decided to conduct a test within the office. Our inkjet printed flyer was taken to various people in the office and they were asked to comment on it. Surprisingly, the comments received were only on the content of the flyer, not the quality.
This encouraged them to proceed with the job. Unbeknown to me, they had taken this method of inquiry one step further, by contacting various people who had received the flyer and asked them what they thought of it. Again, comments were on content as opposed to quality.
The point I’m trying to make is that sometimes perception can be easily influenced or changed. The print industry has us too fixated on quality that we’ve forgotten that the most important thing about any print work, regardless of it’s method of print is always going to be content.
Sure our environmentally friendly printed flyer won’t look like a laser or offset printed flyer. But you can’t compare the two, it’s like comparing chalk and cheese.
It all boils down to this; One is for the environment and the other is against.
When it comes down to that I know which one I would choose without any doubt.
