Niche brands generate more opportunities for print providers

One size fits all…not any more. People are now on the look out for new products which are custom-made for them. This has given rise to many niche brands in the market. What are these niche brands? A niche is a distinct segment within any given market and often an area that is overlooked by other businesses. Examples of niches include handmade items, pet food, trendy t-shirts, eco-friendly products, beauty products, gadgets, or other trending products. With ecommerce sites, marketing of such products has become easy.

As consumer companies have reworked their product portfolios, more brands are on its way to the niche market. This is a good opportunity for designers and print providers. Every product needs packaging and so there is an increase in demand for short-run packaging solutions. As more and more digital printer manufacturers are seeing the trend of short-run packaging, they are coming up with new machines with an ability to print on different media, which can be used for packaging. For example, Kodak not only offers all-digital presses but also includes solutions which allow packaging printers to enhance traditional printing or packaging converting processes with the flexibility of digital.

Arrow Digital has recently launched ArrowJet Aqua 330R digital water-based pigment inkjet label printer. JN Arora Group has also introduced Pro1050 label printer for on-demand, short-run colour label printing. There are so many more.

Smithers, the provider of consulting and market research services, has predicted that the digital packaging and labels market will grow by almost 13% annually during the period from 2017 to 2022. From flexible packaging and labels to folding carton and corrugated boxes, digital is rapidly gaining popularity in packaging production.

Another example of niche segment is Zooboostory.com, a personalized storybook printing venture, which has the capability to ship out finished personalized storybooks within 24 hours. What’s more, currently as a platform, it’s much more than a storybook printing service. They have a second target audience that they communicate with – creators and artists.

So, while print runs might be shrinking literally but the number of print jobs are also increasing tremendously. The current pandemic situation has changed many dynamics of the industry but the situation seems to be improving and we hope our print fraternity rebounds with new business opportunities and successes.

Happy reading!

Sonal Khurana
sonal@smediagroup.in