The Spotlight Is on . . . DNP Imagingcomm America Corporation

The Spotlight Is on . . . DNP Imagingcomm America Corporation

3059

Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) was established in 1876 as a full-scale printing company in Japan. Today, it is one of the largest printing/coating technologies companies in the world. Expanding printing technology has been a fundamental DNP policy since the 1950s. Its U.S. division, DNP Imagingcomm America Corporation (DNP IAM), formerly DNP IMSA, was renamed effective July 1, 2014. DNP IAM has more than 20 years of collective software development, kiosk deployment and systems integration experience to provide its retail customers and other professionals in the digital photo processing and printing space with innovative solutions.

I spoke with Belinda LoPresti, director of Marketing for DNP IAM, to learn more about the company and its goals. LoPresti joined DNP IMSA in 2011 with nearly 20 years of experience leading marketing, product management and finance initiatives and strategies for global brands such as Sony, Konica Minolta, Rolodex and Aetna. She has a proven track record of delivering results and leading change in organizations, particularly those in the consumer and professional photo business.

JG: Tell us about DNP.

BL: DNP (Dai Nippon Printing) is a 138-year-old corporation with worldwide headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. It started with letterpress printing and in 1950 broadened its reach into “expansion printing.” It went from printing books, magazines and commercial materials to packaging, decorative materials, displays, electronic devices and, of course, photos.

Our legacy has always been in printing and photography. Many years ago everything photographed had to be printed, and with that knowledge DNP began investing in dye-sublimation technology. Its U.S. operations opened in 1995 with a focus on three primary business segments: Photo, ID Card and Barcode. This investment became more important, especially when silver halide film began to become commercialized. 

So DNP made the printers?

They made the presses. When they got into the photo side of the house, they made components for manufacturers to use in cameras, TV screens and other products. With the decline of silver halide and the emergence of digital, we decided that printing is where we need to stay. We see the growth in printing and digital printing—so even though the overall market has gotten smaller, DNP is taking a bigger share. Manufacturers that didn’t embrace the digital revolution at the time weren’t able to make the switch fast enough later, enabling DNP to stay in the forefront.

Who are your main competitors?

In retail, certainly Fujifilm; Kodak has more of a legacy in silver halide, so we don’t compete with them as much. In event-based markets, we compete with Mitsubishi and HiTi. 

In addition to presses, DNP produces portable printers as well.

We sell portable dye-sub printers mainly in the U.S.; our large press printers are primarily in Tokyo. In the U.S., we primarily sell smaller format printers. We go from a consumer-level 4×6 inches all the way up to 8×12, our portrait size for event customers. For the U.S. event photographer, the size of choice is 6×8. It used to be 5×7 because of the consumer photo frames available, but 6×8 is recognized as more of a professional product today.

The event photographer is a big part of what you do?

Our business is split in half—retail and event. Retail is consumer-based printing. Customers take pictures and visit a retailer such as Walgreens, FedEx, Rite-Aid or Costco to get prints. The event side is centered on vacation/travel. If someone takes a photo of you, like at Universal Theme Parks or Circle Line in Manhattan, we support those businesses, too. 

Who are your largest customers in the U.S.?

Walgreens, Rite-Aid, Costco and FedEx in retail. We actually do some business with another very large drug chain, but we do that under a type of OEM relationship. In event, we have broad distribution via integrator partners for venues in Disney, Universal, mall Santa photos, amusement photo book applications, etc.

So when you walk into Walgreens, what is DNP?

The kiosk is DNP, the printers are DNP and the software is DNP, but it’s all branded Walgreens. In effect, we manage the entire interface for that account. All of the pieces that make a print come out of the printer are DNP on the back end.

Do you offer that software to others?

Yes, but in a different variety. If a retailer wants a complete solution, we can sell it to them, and we can also integrate into other large-format print products for posters and canvas—Canon or whatever they use.

So you sell back-end printers and front-end printers. Is your brand more important to consumers or to retailers?

We’re a well-entrenched brand for the retailer. We’ve had our legacy predominantly in retail where we sell back-end and front-end solutions. Many retailers that used to have big wet labs no longer have them primarily because they take a lot of floor space and they need people to run those machines. Labor and chemistry is not inexpensive. Today, retailers can go to inkjet or dry printing/dye-sub. Each has merits. With inkjet, the cost of a print is often confusing. Can you always count on the fact the 4×6 is a 4×6 price? There’s a lot of fluctuation in cost there. With dry printing, the print price is the print price. Once you put in the system and you’ve paid for it, the media price doesn’t really fluctuate. And overall lower maintenance costs provide a cost-effective TCO.

Retailers have done a great job of branding their own printing products to their end users. A consumer will go into Walgreens because they have an outstanding experience there, and they’ll go into FedEx for the same reason. DNP has never been a big brand powerhouse in the U.S. We haven’t put our name on consumer-based paper because we let the retailer brand to their customer. Our success and focus have been as an OEM product to the retailer and as a partner to our system integrators.

What about the photo specialty retailer? Are they an important channel for you?

Absolutely. As we all know, the photo specialty retailer used to be really powerful when they more or less owned the printing business. Now we find they’re being much more creative in their approach to the market. We reach them via our channel of 45 partners that work directly with them. It is easier to coordinate marketing programs and support with our channel partners and have them support the specialty retailers. It’s much more efficient for everyone.

Who are your channel partners?

We have a large network throughout the U.S., Canada and Latin America. We sell a set base of products at a set price to these partners. As a reseller, there are certain commitments to DNP and to the end-user community they need to abide by. We have channel partners that are focused on specific markets, like photo booth applications. We have products we sell to them that they integrate with specific software and then sell into this vertical market. That’s how our resellers are set up. If you have a specialty, DNP is a fantastic partner.

A few years ago DNP purchased Sony’s passport photo business. Tell me about that.

DNP bought Sony’s instant digital photo piece four years ago. We used to manufacture product for Sony as an OEM supplier. As Sony focused more on capture, gaming and movies, it decided to exit the digital printing business, as it wasn’t really their focus anymore. DNP saw it as a means to buy into the event business in the U.S. At that time, Sony was 90% event based, so it was a way to get in quickly with a proven solution.

Let’s talk about the printing business in general these days. Is DNP bullish?

We’re seeing our volumes across all channels going up. It’s not just printers, but the amount of media the industry is purchasing has grown. We saw an increase in the 2013 holiday season, despite reports to the contrary. We’re seeing it again this year. Our event customers are already planning their holiday, and we’re seeing new venues and trying to figure out what that volume will be. We expect it to be up. Retail is up as well. Consumers are rediscovering the power of photos, which ties into our “Memories Deserve Prints” message.

What are people printing?

The 4×6 print is still the retail leader, but we’ve seen a big uptick in retail on 5×7 and 8×10 prints. Photo books seem to be the niche that keeps growing. I think it’s because people are figuring out it’s not as hard as they thought. The software solution has simplified the end-user experience; now uploading pictures into a portal and laying out a whole book is much easier than it used to be. And it’s a great gift or keepsake of a vacation or an event. We’re bullish on that part of the printing business.

For retail, we have a duplex printer that we’re rolling out to Walgreens. If you look at a traditional photo book, it’s usually lower quality paper. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but now you can get the same high-quality glossy print in a photo book. Walgreens expects an increase in this SKU because the quality difference is so much better than what consumers were used to.

If a photo specialty dealer wants to do business with you, what do they have to do?

We would love to talk to them. They are the one piece of the industry that has gotten it right. They still talk to the customer who walks into their stores, which is a critical piece to increasing volume. It doesn’t always happen with others who have self-serve models. Photo specialty dealers work with their customers, and they have relationships that can lead to more printing and more margin, and that’s a big deal. What they see is new, unique and different. That’s what we want to be a part of.

What is your advice to photo retailers?

They need to be branding their printing applications. And they need to let people know that if a photo matters, then a print matters. It’s great that consumers are taking 1,000 pictures and they can scroll through them and show people, but we need to go back to the standard where the photos themselves—the photos that matter—should be a print. That should be the marketing message. 

What should dealer classes focus on?

We have to figure out how to burst the digital photo cloud to print the photos that seem to be stuck up there. Consumers are so confused as to how to get their images from their smart devices or from cloud storage. They just don’t know how to do it. As an industry, we need to teach them an easy solution exists. If we can teach them how to retrieve their images from the cloud, or from their iPhones, then they will be more likely to turn them into prints. Retailers will be actively participating in this trend.

Is it getting easier to do?

Kiosk solutions are powerful and efficient means to make it easier for consumers. Retailers can also demo the “to do” for first-time users, which is much simpler than trying to figure it out at home or on a mobile device. 

What do you want your brand to stand for among retailers?

Reliability above everything else. Given our history, there is a very high or prominent quality standard that DNP is known for. We hope retailers understand that DNP is in it for the long haul. We’ve been around a long time, and we’re not just going to embrace digital for a couple of years and move on. We continue to invest in the space with factories and R&D, and we are so deeply committed to it. We’ll be here tomorrow and beyond with products and support.

What keeps you up at night?

Knowing there is still a big portion of the market that DNP doesn’t have and that we should own. There are some key markets that the partners haven’t figured out yet.  For example, school photography has changed. The other vertical market is cruise ships, where they still have a large amount of spec printing. If you’ve ever been on a cruise, you know how many prints are made there. They take a lot of pictures. We’re taking a hard look at that market. dnpphoto.com

NO COMMENTS