Pretty much every time I speak to an audience of printers or print buyers, this topic comes up:

Should print service providers go around print buyers to get to C-level executives, such as a CMO?

If I ask print buyers this question, the answer is always no. If I ask printers, the answer is usually yes.

What do I think? It's not that black-and-white.

Employees who handle their company's printing may be highly experienced and knowledgeable print production professionals who have final authority on which service providers to use, and for what. They are the in-house printing experts. Anything and everything related to printing services must go through them. They consider print buying their career.

Such high-level "print buyers" tend to work in marketing, creative, corporate communications, or procurement.

At the other end of the spectrum are thousands of "print buyers" who have little if any print knowledge. The job of getting printing done has been assigned to them. They're not "into" print and treat it like other corporate purchases. They don't consider themselves professional print buyers. They tend to work in purchasing units, but this is still a bit of a generalization. Print buyers can be found in multiple departments from firm to firm, and they have a wide range of experience and responsibilities. This is why it's so difficult making blanket statements about them.

Enter the New Printers.

New printers are evolving into marketing services providers. Somewhere along the line, the term "printer" became a 4-letter word. Do not blame the printers; blame society for taking commercial printing for granted. Today, most people equate "printer" with "laser printer." How sad is that?

The new generation of printers (I mean "marketing services providers," or Printer 2.0) has a whole new set of tools to help companies with marketing and business development. VDP programs and multi-channel campaigns come to mind. They've moved away from "selling printing" to offering "marketing services," so of course, marketing execs are the perfect prospects.

Therein lies the dilemma. Does a printer get to the marketing group via the "print buyer" or does he or she bypass the buyer and head straight for marketing?

I will tell you what I tell every audience of printers: be very careful with this decision. Depending on the particular organization, the buyers may be all-powerful (and part of marketing), and by doing an end-run, you kill your chances with that company, or at least dim them.

You need to know how a company's print campaigns are handled and by whom. You need to know how much authority the on-staff print buying professionals have. Back in my days of buying print, my boss Roger always came running to me when he got a call or a visit from a printer. He left the decision of whether or not to consider working with them up to me.