Ricoh 1to1 Create Review

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1 Insight Ricoh 1to1 Create: Helping Small Printers Offer Sophisticated Cross-Media Marketing Services Amy Machado IDC OPINION Ricoh's new 1to1 Create Marketing Services is a cloud-based cross-media solution aimed at small to medium-sized print service providers (PSPs). 1to1 Create is the first offering coming from the Ricoh and PTI Marketing Technologies partnership, formed two year ago. Using 1to1 Create, a PSP can become a marketing service provider by offering its customers integrated marketed campaigns with variable data. A part of Ricoh's Business Booster program, 1to1 Create is noteworthy because: 1to1 Create is a turnkey solution. It is template based, and templates include both printed material and edelivery options. This solution has a vertical industry focus and currently covers the healthcare, education, retail, commercial print, and financial sectors. 1to1 Create uses a partnership with USA Data to enable businesses to purchase customer lists for improved targeting. 1to1 Create's $3,800 price tag opens the cross-media door to PSPs that cannot afford to invest in developing their own software or to add in-house designers to their payroll. IN THIS INSIGHT This IDC Insight covers Ricoh's new 1to1 Create Marketing Services, a cross-media marketing solution. SITUATION OVERVIEW In 2012, Ricoh made a strategic move by becoming a minority investor in PTI Marketing Technologies, an SaaS Web-to-print solution provider whose flagship products include MarcomCentral and FusionPro VDP. MarcomCentral is a turnkey product aimed at PSPs, creative agencies, and the enterprise that uses PDF templates to help to create, print, and manage customer communications, whether they are static or include variable data. FusionPro VDP is a personalized online and print graphic communications suite for variable data, geared more toward production printers and the inplant. This investment was an important move for Ricoh because it opened up a competitive technology the company did not have access to. It was also valuable in growing Ricoh's marketing efforts toward the PSP, from the small to the large. October 2014, IDC #252208

2 Now two years after the partnership was formed, we have the first solution offering from Ricoh and PTI Ricoh's 1to1 Create Marketing Services. First announced in mid-2013, Ricoh launched 1to1 Create in June 2014, and at the most recent Graph Expo event, IDC got to sit down with Kurt Konow, Director, Vertical Marketing, at Ricoh, to get an in-depth demo of Ricoh's new cross-media offering. 1to1 Create is a cloud-based subscription solution for cross-media marketing campaigns. 1to1 Create is a vendor-neutral, turnkey solution that is aimed at the small to medium-sized print shop. The real value proposition for 1to1 Create and what makes it turnkey is that it is template driven and requires very little training to get it up and running. The other value proposition is that 1to1 Create has a vertical focus, with specific images and templates aimed at the healthcare, education, retail, commercial print, and financial sectors. 1to1 Create currently comes with 45 templates, 100 images, and multiple palette choices. And to keep the product fresh, Ricoh will add new templates to the catalog each quarter. In fact, Ricoh already expects to have four new templates released by the end of the year. The 1to1 Create software allows for the insertion of PURLS or QR codes, and the templates include both hardcopy output and edelivery options: Printed document Brochure Flyer Business card Calendar Rack or counter card Microsite The templates can be customized and personalized according to each campaign, and the customer can choose the output it wants. For example, the customer might want to have a campaign just using a brochure, blast, and microsite output. The printer can customize the customer's color palette, logo upload, photos on both the front and back of the brochure, and the text. The printer can also personalize the images and text per certain demographics on the customer's list. And once the campaign is launched, the PSP can deliver to the client reporting data for click-throughs and microsite activity. Figure 1 is an example of a campaign aimed at the dental (healthcare) vertical IDC #

3 FIGURE 1 Example of Dental Campaign Source: Ricoh, 2014 During the demo, Konow walked us through setting up our mock campaign, allowing us to see how you can select images from the library, upload a company logo, and select various color options. We also inserted our own text and offers as well as segmented the list and variable data according to different demographic options. While it was a guided demo, the navigation was easy and the user interface was simple with obvious prompts. For value-add, Ricoh is using partnerships to tackle some of the challenges associated with a marketing campaign: A business can use its own internal house list, but not everyone has access to that kind of data. So 1to1 Create can acquire a list for the customer via USA Data, which has both consumer and business lists. solutions are enabled via a partnership with ExactTarget, a digital marketing company IDC #

4 To help PSPs promote and sell the use of cross-media campaigns to its customers, Ricoh has case studies available from PODi for the different verticals, as well as calculators for ROI and pricing. The 1to1 Create solution falls within Ricoh's Business Booster portfolio, whose goal is to help PSPs increase their offerings and grow their business revenue. FUTURE OUTLOOK PSPs are constantly being told they must become a marketing service provider if they want to survive in today's business environment. But not every print shop can afford to add an in-house designer to the payroll or to create and build its own customized marketing software solutions. 1to1 Create can be the entry point into cross-media campaigns for that small to medium-sized PSP without a lot of investment capital, one that wants to increase its offerings but can't afford to do so. The templates are sleek and well designed. Guided self-training is also part of the value proposition for 1to1 Create, and from what we experienced during our demo, manpower won't be wasted in getting the PSP acclimated to using the software. The learning curve should be minimal. The number of templates being offered means that PSPs can cast a large net in trying to get new customers into using cross-media marketing. A chiropractor may want to offer a discount for new patients. A charter school has opened enrollment. A local vet wants to remind owners to keep their dogs warm in the winter. With 1to1 Create, the printer can use one product to address these unique customers. However, Ricoh needs to continue to expand its vertical coverage in order to continue to grow 1to1 Create and ensure it remains relevant. Some PSPs might have a large set of customers within a certain vertical and find that, at its current state, 1to1 doesn't work for them. Hospitality and automotive seem like two obvious verticals for Ricoh to expand into. But what really made us take notice was the low cost. 1to1 Create is priced at $3,800 for a one-year subscription (for a company seat). For a very small investment, a PSP can start selling cross-media solutions as soon as it purchases the software. So it's not a surprise that 1to1 Create won a 2014 GRAPH EXPO MUST SEE 'EMS award in the Variable, Transactional and Multi-Channel category. It's an affordable and simple solution that allows PSPs to offer integrated campaigns, using print and electronic delivery together IDC #

5 About IDC International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make factbased decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,100 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries worldwide. For 50 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. Global Headquarters 5 Speen Street Framingham, MA USA idc-insights-community.com Copyright Notice This IDC research document was published as part of an IDC continuous intelligence service, providing written research, analyst interactions, telebriefings, and conferences. Visit to learn more about IDC subscription and consulting services. To view a list of IDC offices worldwide, visit Please contact the IDC Hotline at , ext (or ) or [email protected] for information on applying the price of this document toward the purchase of an IDC service or for information on additional copies or Web rights. Copyright 2014 IDC. Reproduction is forbidden unless authorized. All rights reserved.