We all hear international news every day, making it seem like we can keep up-to-date on things going on anywhere in the world just by turning on our computer, tv or satellite radio. Trends, however, rarely make the news--as they unfold over time. This is true of trends in color use, where people all over the world are increasingly using color to communicate with more creativity and effectiveness. However, you’ll never hear a “color commentator” actually saying anything about the use of color itself.

What we find in the printer business is that everyday office printing is moving to color printers and multifunction devices (MFPs) that provide print, scan, copy and fax (digital sending) functionality. In fact, there were about 21.6 billion color laser pages printed worldwide in 2003. Estimates for color laser pages printed in 2007 come in around 60 billion—a cumulative annual growth rate of 33%! (2005 IDC, Lyra Research, Inc, Second-Half 2005 Forecast)

The primary reasons people are moving to these color platforms is they deliver more effective communications capabilities in more efficient ways. For instance, the Toronto Blue Jays solved their season ticket printing challenges through on-demand printing with the HP Color LaserJet 9500. Many organizations are also starting to do in-house marketing, rather than send marketing collateral (brochures, flyers, etc.) out for production. This shows how customers are demanding solutions to their business problems, above and beyond the cool hardware. In both of these examples, color printing was used to produce ‘high value” pages – pages that were worth something (like Blue Jays tickets) or would cost more if outsourced (marketing collateral).

Color documents are easier to read, making it easier for organizations to sell their products and services. Color usage in printed materials increases readership by 80% and makes locating information 70% faster than in black and white, with average retention increased 65%. In many markets, color printing has become the competitive standard as color improves brand recognition up to 80% and people are 55% more likely to pick up a full-color mail piece first. As a result, 90% of organizations plan to purchase color printers or MFPs in the future.*

With these being the reasons why people go looking for color printing devices, there are still common denominators to the color printer purchase process that manufacturers have to deliver. To even be considered in today’s market, a color printing device has to deliver:

• Breakthrough price/performance
• Industry leading print quality
• Ease of use and manageability
• Reliability and support

Of course, we at HP feel that we deliver the right customer value with our HP Color LaserJets to help you create impressive color documents that are easiest and most reliable to use with industry-leading printer management tools—all at prices that scale to your budget. On the more subjective side, the output from a color printing device has to look great. HP has established leadership in this area, which we’ll discuss in depth in a near-term blog.

It will be very interesting to track how color printing use unfolds across the globe. Unlike with TVs or cameras, color printing is not yet dominant over black and white printing in the office, although all of the trends point to that eventuality. Right now, we see extensive use in North America and Western Europe, as well as other developed markets. In many of these markets we’re also seeing marketing materials being printed in-house. While monochrome use is growing, primarily in less-developed markets, you can expect increasing adoption over time in these markets as well.

Such international product life-cycles are a discussion for another day. However, it’s clear that as customer expectations increase, businesses will compete for these customers using color. The internationalization of information, often itself delivered in color, will only accelerate color adoption, and expectations at the same time.

*Sources: HP, CAP Ventures, White, Jan V. “Color for Impact”; CAPV “Organizations are Ready to Tackle Document Output Costs in the Office”, December 2004; “The Persuasive Properties of Color”, Robert E. Green, Marketing Communications; USA Today, Wharton Business School, Case & Company, Management Consultants; Bureau of Advertising, “Color in Newspaper Advertising”, “What’s Working in Direct Marketing.”