How Belgium-Based BARCO Graphics Penetrated the
North American Printing and Publishing Industries
The Situation
Barco Graphics of Gent, Belgium was a prepress technology company with sales and service offices in Atlanta, GA and Dayton, OH. Barco produced advanced design and prepress software for the commercial printing and publishing industries. Though popular in Europe, the Barco name was not well known in North America.
In the 1990s, Barco Graphics software was a modular, Unix-based solution that was sold as a purchase plus licensed product. Software cost ranged from $40,000 to $60,000 per workstation seat. The company’s nearest competitor was Israeli-based Scitex who dominated the North American market. Also in commercial use were Adobe products such as Illustrator and Photoshop which sold off-the-shelf for $400 to $600.
The Need
Barco had little or no name awareness in North America and the company was entering a market dominated by Scitex and Adobe. At the time, Barco sales representatives were telling prospects that their product was similar to Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop only much, much better. Unfortunately, this approach prompted the question–were the BARCO products one hundred times better? Barco needed to define their market niche and demonstrate sufficient value to overcome the purchase and licensing cost barriers.
“Barco needed to define their market niche and
demonstrate sufficient value to overcome
the purchase and licensing cost barriers.”
The Decision
Barco Graphics recognized that their product value was not obvious. The sales team was struggling with name awareness issues and price barriers. To penetrate the North American market, senior management determined that they needed the help of an American marketing communications firm to better define their opportunities and build brand value. Concept Company was selected for our analytical approach to the challenge.
The Process
Concept Company met with Barco Graphic executives to understand their desired business outcome and calibrate expectations. We then met with application managers to gain an understanding of the technology, its benefits and limitations.
Through interviews with mid-size and large commercial printers and publishers, we assessed the loyalty and frustration factors involved in changing prepress systems. These interviews also revealed unresolved challenges they were facing.
A simple campaign strategy was developed—clearly separating the Barco product from its competition, establishing value in terms of cost savings and selling the industry leaders first to define the benchmark of performance.
The Implementation
Research revealed that all design and prepress applications utilized a PostScript™ description language to convert native application graphics such as Adobe PhotoShop™ into printable dots and lines. Printers were constantly required to make text and graphic changes to digital artwork. Editing a production PostScript file was difficult and in some cases impossible. To effect a change, printers had to go back to the native application and reprocess the data. This represented millions of dollars of costs each year in lost time and scheduling changes.
Barco Graphics was the only application on the market that could seamlessly edit layered PostScript files—in effect, saving the printer millions in alteration related costs.
An advertising campaign was developed promoting the value of PostScript Editibility. Concept Company helped author technical articles on digital prepress work-flows and managing client alterations within the production process.
Concept Company successfully identified the product niche and a value proposition that clearly differentiated Barco Graphics from their competition.
Case Study Continued on Next Page
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