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Digital Printing Positioning

Digital Printing and the World's Most Beautiful Yacht

Print and online media are converging more closely than ever before, allowing for the highest standards in individual communications. One unprecedented project based on digital printing technology has already successfully mastered its launch: The premium brand Hapag-Lloyd Cruises set out on a voyage of discovery with the Canon imaging firm, in a project facilitated and supported by the Digital Printing Forum and the WSP Design agency.

Premium brands call for innovative premium communications, in order to meet the highest of customer demands. For this reason, companies like Hapag-Lloyd Cruises (HL Cruises) have long since relied on a CRM concept so sophisticated that it serves as a benchmark for the industry. Data Mining is just one of the key ingredients. The most important thing is a comprehensive approach that encompasses every type of communication and interaction with customers.

"For some time now, we have partnered with our service providers to realize the kind of integrated communications campaigns made possible by modern technology," explains Mike Kosbü, Director of Marketing Services and CRM at Hapag-Lloyd Cruises. In the past, this has only worked by focusing individual communications channels. Catalogs and mailings produced by the Marketing department easily prevail in major competitions. Likewise, HL Cruises's flagship, the 5-star-plus cruise liner MS EUROPA, has been named the world's best cruise ship (by the Berlitz Cruise Guide) every single year since its launch in 1999. In other words, the bar is already set very high in HL Cruises's case.

"The challenge for me lies in perfectly synchronizing all communications channels from now on, with the aim of being able to practice individualized communications with our customers in all phases and across all media. This will help us to achieve maximum customer loyalty and gains in customer recruitment," adds Kosbü. Though he can furnish sophisticated customer profiles, to date there is a lack of across-the-board expertise among service providers (in media production) when it comes to integrating this information. In other words: The Hapag-Lloyd Cruises executive lacks partners who can ensure comprehensive and complete workflow, production and campaign management in accordance with his database structure. And to do so in compliance with the highest quality standards, living up to the Hapag-Lloyd Cruises brand image.

One obvious solution would be to make ideal use of digital printing as a basic technology in linking print and online communications.

Since September 2006, a pilot project with Canon Germany – initiated and supported by the Digital Printing Forum – has been devoted to developing a sound Communications Reengineering concept for Hapag-Lloyd Cruises. In its capacity as a leading imaging-technology vendor, Canon is handling the programming behind the workflow integration and campaign management, and furnishing the production equipment (hardware and software). WSP Design, an agency in Heidelberg, is developing templates and content modules based on Hapag-Lloyd Cruises' CI Guidelines. The documentation to accompany the project – including strategic communications management – is being handled by Digital Printing Forum spokesman Andreas Weber. "Innovative solutions based on digital media technologies play a key role for us as technology developers," explains Michael Stock, the applications specialist in charge of the project at Canon Germany. Canon's involvement makes it a trailblazer in the technology sector, where the mapping of products and technology parameters generally plays a key role. The specialists leave it to the customer to develop real-life application scenarios– and then use them as case studies for press and PR purposes. This collaboration with the Hapag-Lloyd Cruises premium brand marks the first instance of a complete communications reengineering based on digital printing, and in combination with Web-to-Print applications.

At the heart of the innovative application Canon developed for Hapag-Lloyd is a complex, dialog-oriented Web-to-Print scenario that pulls out all the stops in digital printing: Perfectly tailored to customer based on their personal travel wishes, plus all the documents they need, across all media. The workflow and production management software uses a central data source that is fed by HLKR's CRM system and ensures that the information flows back to the Marketing department as well. Screenshots and photos: Canon, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises.

A committed team at Canon raises the digital printing bar to new heights. From left to right: Manuel Ramirez (EFI), Kai Neumann (Canon Germany), Dirk Schönwald (Canon Germany), Sasa Petkovics (Canon Switzerland), Colin Casey (Objectif Lune), Wolfgang Wagner (FKS Hamburg), Christian Handschuh (Canon Germany), Michael Stock (Canon Germany), Björn Babick (FKS Hamburg), Michael Kastka (Canon Germany), Reto Heiz (Canon Switzerland), Andreas Radwan (Canon Germany); Not shown: Thorsten Kuhla (Canon Germany), Holger Massente (Canon Germany), Uwe Neupert (Canon Germany), Karl-Heinz Kohls (Canon Germany). P: Canon

In a little over four weeks, the prototypes of roughly a dozen applications were realized. All in all, the team identified approximately 40 possible applications that are doable and could be put into practice. Their common denominator is that the static and variable data for all kinds of print products come from a single data source, which may be combined with Hapag-Lloyd Cruises' own CRM system. The communications campaign is controlled via a browser-accessed Web interface.

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As early as mid-October 2006, visitors to the Canon Concerto trade fair in Berlin could already see for themselves how a potential Hapag-Lloyd Cruises customer could be involved in a dialog. Each trade visitor wore a nametag with a barcode. Scanning the barcode or typing in their name would enter them in the central database, where they could then pick their preferred travel destination. At this point, the real-life scenario kicked in. An individualized travel planner, all travel documents (including an information booklet), the cruise ship's brochure, midsize and XXL posters, and even postcards and business cards were automatically generated in real-time at various stations at the Canon Concerto, ready for the "customers" to take home with them. Add to that the invoice or confirmation letter plus travel insurance document. "We are – and I believe rightly so – proud of having managed not only to optimize existing processes, but actually develop entirely new applications in such a short time. Our goal was to come up with solutions that could be immediately adapted in everyday customer dealings, which would support Hapag-Lloyd Cruises as well as customers booking a trip," explains Canon expert Michael Stock. Despite the success of the Hapag-Lloyd Cruises case study, Stock and his team of nine are careful not to succumb to daydreams and reveries. "We're not in the business of building castles in the air. We always make sure that every single application we develop can be realized using Canon software and hardware solutions currently available on the market," Stock continues. "This is the only way we can ensure their practicability and an excellent cost-value ratio." Another special treat: The feedback sheet that customers are requested to complete on board at the end of the cruise, shortly before leaving the cabin, usually consists of a preprinted form with a barcode sticker affixed to it. The Canon team had the idea of developing a colorful brochure instead, in the Look-and-Feel of the Hapag-Lloyd Cruises brand. The address field is already filled in, and the feedback sheet contains a barcode that allows the machine-readable document to be automatically entered and allocated in the system. "A phenomenal idea, as this usually represents a predetermined breaking point," said one trade visitor at the Canon Concerto, an elegant lady who turned out to be an experienced customer service professional in the cruises sector. "This feedback brochure really encourages people to answer the questions seriously and conscientiously, so that customer feedback can be captured and evaluated in its entirety." In the Cruise business, perfect customer service in the post-sales phase is crucial to ensure that customers have fond memories of their cruise, and feel that they are being taken seriously. This opens up a wealth of compelling approaches for other project ideas combining online and digital printing. This is an ideal way to get the brand and its customers talking in a dialog that benefits all sides. Customer-focused communications concepts are no longer defeated by technology barriers. Everyone involved in the process (programmers, database and digital-printing specialists, marketing and communications professionals, designers/advertising professionals) benefit from a close, constructive and creative collaboration that imposes no limits on the imagination. All of it serves the goal of providing optimum service to customers through custom communications. The pilot project has already been approved for continuation, and is designed such that Hapag-Lloyd Cruises can integrate new applications in its everyday communications at any time and as needed. The next few months will show how this can be done and what other applications may grow out of this. Incidentally, the Canon and Hapag-Lloyd Cruises' project was one of the most talked-about topics at the 6th Wertvolle Kommunikation ("Valuable Communications") Symposium, where nearly 30 top representatives from the brand, media and communications sectors were delighted to explore it in great detail. The bottom line: a perfect way to bring brands into dialog with each other!

Andreas Weber

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