Price Is a Big Deal…but Quality Is King!

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In late 2023, Keypoint Intelligence completed a comprehensive multi-client study to gain a better understanding of how the demand for print is changing in key vertical industries. This survey serves as an update to similar vertical market research that was conducted in 2020. The verticals we covered in depth included education, finance/banking, healthcare, hospitality, insurance, manufacturing, retail, and publishing.

In April 2024, we published a blog covering the survey’s findings on media mix and the importance of personalization. This blog explores the key considerations for selecting a print service provider (PSP). There is no question that price is important, but print quality is the top consideration by a wide margin.

Let’s start by talking about price. It may not be the top consideration, but Keypoint Intelligence’s research confirms that it is important. In fact, nearly 90% of respondents that used external printers for creating some of their collateral sometimes or frequently shopped around for sales/promotions offered by PSPs before making a purchase. In addition, 86% of these same respondents agreed that a sale might influence them to select a different provider when purchasing printed marketing collateral. 

When survey respondents were asked to specify their single most important consideration for choosing a PSP, the picture that emerged was a bit different. As shown in the Figure below, 44% of respondents that used external printers cited print quality as the top factor. It is also interesting to note that sustainability edged out price, which was actually ranked as the third most important consideration. This means that businesses are certainly keeping an eye on price, but it’s not their top determining factor when it comes to purchasing printed marketing collateral.

Since this is a vertical market study, it is also useful to dive deeper into this question to determine the importance of key factors among the various verticals. The table below shows respondents’ top three considerations in rank order by vertical industry. As you can see, print quality was the most important consideration for all of the verticals surveyed. At the same time, however, it was most important within the education and manufacturing verticals. Sustainability was particularly important for the insurance and retail industries. Finally, the hospitality and insurance respondents were the most price sensitive.

Most Important Consideration for Choosing a PSP (by Vertical)

The key message from this data is that while price is (and will always be) an important factor, it is frequently overshadowed by print quality and sometimes sustainability and/or variety of offerings. This means that PSPs can hopefully avoid the dreaded price wars by offering excellent print quality, sustainable solutions, and a wide variety of offerings.

This blog provides just a glimpse of the information that is available in our 2023 Vertical Visions research. Each of the 100+ questions that were posed to respondents are broken down by primary vertical industry in our Excel data tabs so readers can understand how print demand is changing among the different verticals.

Click here for more information on our in-depth and comprehensive Vertical Visions Multi-Client Study!