Introduction

The photo merchandise market has experienced strong growth over the last few years with products like photo books, photo calendars and photo cards. While these more traditional photo-centric personalized products continue to deliver solid growth rates, print vendors must look ahead to new consumer product types that will bolster unit and revenue growth while retaining existing customers and also catering to new buyers.

This “next generation” of printed products is being driven not only by the creativity of consumers, but also by advancements in printing and production technologies, developments in software and apps, and an improved consumer mobile experience. Today, there’s no shortage of Web-based, print on demand solutions that allow creative consumers to express themselves in unique ways.  In addition, new links between physical products and digital products are beginning to emerge that are making the market even more dynamic to track. While there are growth opportunities in many segments of consumer custom printed products, InfoTrends is focusing on developments in the following categories through this research study:

• Custom Printed Cards
• Custom Stationery
• Photo-Based Wall Décor
• Select Photo-Based Novelty Products

With the new “Next-generation Personalized Printed Products” study, InfoTrends will provide valuable and relevant information on this market to clients through detailed research that will identify and profile buyers and non-buyers, study interest levels and needs, examine workflow issues and the creative process, analyze the purchase decision-making process, look at the impact of pricing, and more.  The study will also provide market size estimates and forecasts for the card, stationery, and wall décor categories.  As a B2C only study, it will not focus on custom printed promotional products, nor will it focus on the opportunity for “content owners” to generate revenue from this line of business.  It will, however, offer an “add-on survey” of SMB marketers that focuses on their development and use of photo-centric promotional and publishing material. Read on for more details.

Project Objectives

This study is designed to provide both technology vendors and service providers with information that will help them to better understand the market for the next generation of products, and to develop product and marketing strategies that will allow them to grow their businesses.

It will:

• Examine and profile buyers of next-generation personalized photo products and analyze their product preferences, buying patterns, and unmet needs
• Examine the impact of smartphones and tablets on the design and development of these products
• Consider the relationship between “digital products” and “printed products” among consumers
• Develop U.S. consumer market size and forecast figures (units, revenue, ASP) by product categories, including:
     o Custom printed cards
     o Custom stationery
     o Photo-Centric Wall Décor
• Profile key service providers and industry players

SMB Photo Supplement

While the report’s main research will focus on short-run, B2C personalized printed products, InfoTrends will also address how small, micro, and home-based businesses are generating photo-centric promotional and publishing pieces through its “SMB Photo Supplement.”  This mini-project is based on InfoTrends’ 2009 “Business Applications for Photo Publishing Study,” and will examine through survey research with marketers how the B2B photo category has evolved.  We’ll look at what applications are being printed and how, which applications are growing and which ones are shrinking, and what volumes are being generated. InfoTrends will survey 500 SMB marketers and/or decision makers across key vertical industries. We will tabulate, chart and analyze the findings as part of a PowerPoint supplement to the main report.

Analysis & Project Deliverables

There will be extensive analysis of the desk research, in-depth interviews and structured survey for the main project to develop a comprehensive understanding of the opportunities and issues in the market for next-generation personalized printed products.

Clients will receive the following:

• A written report detailing key findings with recommendations and vendor profiles
• PowerPoint summary slides
• Data cross tabulations from the consumer survey for additional analysis of key market segments
• Optional on-site presentation

Getting Started

For more information on the study, contact Matt O'Keefe at +1 781 616 2115 or
via e-mail at matt_okeefe@infotrends.com.