Continued growth will come from capturing more valuable pages, targeting vertical industries and applications, and creating unique solutions for small, medium, and large corporate businesses, as well as from new and technologically-enhanced printer- and copier-based products.

Many customers still view colour as a specialised application for select jobs where additional print expenses can be justified. Often these jobs are outsourced to production print environments. Vendors need to convince customers that office colour devices are appropriate for all of their business and marketing documents and they need to offer more targeted solutions that focus on specific industries, departments, and applications.

“Colour presents a critical window of opportunity to gain share and establish new sources of revenue in an increasingly competitive and maturing market,” commented Catherine Charlery, a Director at InfoTrends/CAP Ventures. “Our study provides companies with the in-depth research and analysis necessary to guide your product development, pricing, marketing, and distribution strategies to capitalise on the colour opportunity.”

InfoTrends/CAP Ventures’ study will answer several critical questions, including:

• What is necessary to make colour mainstream among small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and the large/corporate offices?
• What trade-offs do document owners face when deciding to print in colour vs. black & white?
• What trade-offs do purchase decision-makers face when deciding to buy colour vs. black & white office equipment?
• What is the optimal product design and pricing model for different market segments?
• What are the most lucrative vertical markets and applications for office colour?
• How can we shift production colour pages to workgroup products?
• What opportunities exist for inkjet and laser-based products? For printer-based and copier-based products?
• To what extent will colour page volume and revenue compensate for declining black & white volume?

InfoTrends/CAP Ventures will conduct primary market research with 1,000 office equipment users, decision-makers, and influencers across North America and Western Europe. The end-user research will be essential in determining market interest, product requirements, price sensitivity, applications, brand preferences, channel preferences, and other factors influencing the adoption of a colour output device.

InfoTrends/CAP Ventures will also conduct 40 in-depth personal interviews with end-users to gain a deeper understanding of their preferences and challenges.

“Ultimately, our research will identify market segments, critical success factors, customer requirements, usage patterns, purchase plans, and other items that will drive your product, service, marketing, and sales activities,” continued Charlery.

To learn more about this study or to sign up as a participant, contact Jason Russell at + or via e-mail at . Early subscriber discounts are available until August 1, 2005.