Re: Effect of Web on demand for print

Bill Selmeier (telcon@shell.portal.com)
Thu, 29 Dec 1994 18:11:41 -0800

I'd be cautious about forecasting too much of a drop in demand for
brochures and catalogs. First, I'm old enough to remember the enthusiasm
for display terminal and the how many trees that was going to save. As
we all know the demand for paper went up as more display terminals were
put out.

Second, my sense is that the availability of a quality printed brochure
says "stability" and "real" to customers just getting to know you.
Our company, Net+Effects has had a URL since we started actively
providing Internet Servers, and we still fax out brochures, but I sensed
a stronger feeling of confidence when I could hand someone a document
prepared on something stiffer than copy paper. There is a lot of emotion
and "gut feeling" involved in making a significant business decision.

One area I do think will see a decrease in print collaterals will be with
demo packages. It seems it is so much more convenient to download a copy
of a demonstration program with the manual for the user to print locally
or refer to on-line. Distribution costs will drop from $10-20/copy to
much less than a $1.00/copy. Convenience for the user and savings for
the producer will make this one happen.

Bill Selmeier
Net+Effects
e-mail bills@net.effects.com

On Thu, 29 Dec 1994 chuckp@floathe.com wrote:

> "Does anyone have any statistics on what sort of effect
> installing a Web site has on the demand for print collaterals? My
> current assumption is that demand will diminish, but ...?"
>
> Installing "literature", catalogs, and brochures on a Web site
> will diminish the demand for printed materials, slowly at first
> as people get used to electronic literture and see the benefits
> of constantly up to date spec's, prices, etc.