Xeikon Café completes first year of European tour

The Xeikon Café, which brings together printing and marketing specialists, has completed its first year on the road.
The Xeikon Café began at the company’s headquarters in Lier, Belgium, in October 2010. The popularity of the event at each location – including Modena in Italy, Dusseldorf in Germany and Istanbul in Turkey – highlighted the need for printers and marketers to understand the changing dynamics of offline and online marketing. Presentations, panel forums and open discussion gave attendees insight into the importance of cross-media and personalized communication in effective retail marketing campaigns. They also learned how the speed, quality and personalization of digital printing can play a key role in achieving customized personal interaction with targeted customers.
‘We were very happy with the turnout in each of the cities we visited,’ said Danny Mertens, business development manager, document printing, at Xeikon. ‘It seems that many marketing managers are still grappling with the question of whether to go online or offline. Attendees at the Café all left with a clear answer to this question: they need to do both and implement an innovative, integrated print and digital communication strategy. The Xeikon Café proved to be the perfect platform for open sharing of ideas and insight. The mix of a great audience, strong content and being extremely informative seemed to really hit the nail on the head.’
Highlights for attendees included: customizing your store by presenting a product range based on what customers are specifically looking for; rewarding the behavior you want by offering tailor-made promotions; rewarding people for coming into your store and measuring actual conversion and unleashing the potential held in your customer data.
‘Listening to the panel discussion, the audience learned that data is the key to making products relevant,’ said Mertens. ‘When you combine high-quality digital printing and high-quality database mining you can achieve a customized, personal interaction with target customers. Print proves to be the most powerful medium when it comes to creating privacy time with the consumer. They also discovered that customer data can tell you what products customers are buying from the competition. By creating coupons based on the next best product, you can change buying behavior by offering promotions.’
The Café will continue its European tour in the coming months with stopovers in France and Bulgaria. For more information, please check www.xeikoncafe.com.
Pictured: Danny Mertens, business development manager, document printing, at Xeikon
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