Beverages The USP of crystal-clear mountain spring water is intended to distinguish Calanda as a beer for connoisseurs After the summer of the century, the Swiss beer market has collapsed again slightly: in 2003/2004, per capita beer consumption fell by 0.7 liters to 57.5 liters. The decline is more significant over a longer time horizon. According to the Swiss Brewers Association, the beer market has shrunk by 17 percent in 13 years. Even new specialty beers for the younger segments were unable to compensate for this negative trend, and it was in this difficult market environment that Calanda Bräu in Chur, part of the Heineken Group, launched the trendy Calanda Viva beer two years ago - with an animal-themed launch campaign, merchandise and an online presence. A wide-ranging marketing strategy with a clear lifestyle outline, which was apparently also intended to give the traditional lager a new lease of life.
At the same time, the advertising expenditure for the Calanda umbrella brand was reduced. In order to make the beer brand stand out from the competition and grow beyond the core region, a distinctive positioning was needed. Those responsible found this in the product characteristic: Graubünden mountain spring water. A raw material that few other breweries have the privilege of using and one that fits perfectly with the emotional image of nature.
That's why the Bernese agency Contexta went to the Alps as a first step for the TV and cinema spot to dramatize the USP with a quaint and funny short story: A group of mountain bikers quenching their thirst at a wooden fountain in Graubünden watch, puzzled and languishing, as a local outdoorsman holds an empty beer glass to the fountain pipe and taps a cool Calanda. The Morricone soundalike also twinkles with Grisons mischief. According to consultant Nadine Borter, further print versions will follow in this style during the thirsty season. Luca Aloisi
Nature in the throat: For Calanda, Contexta has translated the uniqueness of its beer one-to-one into a TV commercial.
Beverages The USP of crystal-clear mountain spring water is intended to distinguish Calanda as a beer for connoisseurs.

WorkflowEsko-Graphics has announced the release of the BackStage 2.0 server, providing a major upgrade for scope automation. Backstage integrates all design and production components into one and automates routine processing tasks. The system streamlines all communication in the graphics environment, communicating with management systems, customer service and directly with the customer.

Marketing The balancing act between good service and low prices is putting graphic companies under increasing pressure.
Customers are becoming increasingly unpredictable: for example, they afford an exquisite dinner with expensive wine, drive a BMW, but shop at discount stores. For many, the constant search for the cheapest offer or a "bargain" has become an obsession. "Stinginess is cool!" is the slogan for this behavior in Germany. This trend also has an impact on business between companies.
Meeting customer needsWe live in a demand-driven customer economy. Graphic companies are also feeling this. King Customer is courted by many suppliers. Often with low prices. There is not a lack of prepress capacity or printing presses, but a lack of customers and orders. The question arises as to how graphic arts companies can react to this?
One of the most important imperatives in marketing is to uncover and satisfy needs. Companies try to do this by asking their customers, listening to them and then adapting their offers and solutions. Examples of how to meet the widespread desire for the cheapest offer can be found in many industries: Airlines adjust their fares daily according to load factors and demand, reducing in-flight service and seat pitch for low-cost customers, while first-class and business customers are treated to even more comfort. Banks are pushing small savers onto the Internet and getting them to carry out their transactions themselves. At the same time, they punish those who don't with high fees. Discounters such as Aldi in Germany or, in some cases, Denner and PickPay are doing away with any in-store shopping convenience, offers and goods are presented on pallets and customers only have a limited choice. Newspaper publishers persuade their readers to arrange vacation redirects for their subscribed newspaper on the Internet themselves. Those who do not want to or cannot do this are charged a fee.
The widespread desire of print customers for low prices is putting graphic arts companies under pressure. They need to find an appropriate response. One solution may mean no longer offering the same service to all customers and learning the art of saying no. "It's important to serve all customers well, but that doesn't mean that all customers have to be served equally well," says marketing pope Prof. Dr. Philip Kotler. Graphic companies can divide their customers into two groups: service-conscious and price-conscious. In other words, those who want production advice and service (and are also prepared to pay a reasonable price for this), and finally those who only look at the price (and want to do a lot themselves).
Marketing does not mean offering all customers the same amount or always more. To put it provocatively, it means that, if necessary, you have to take something away from certain customers in order to be able to offer more to others.
Focusing on customersMany print customers place little value on advice and support, they mainly look at the price. Others want in-depth advice and excellent service. Graphic companies must learn to listen to these wishes - and they must consider which customers they want to work for and can then consistently adapt to these needs.
Andreas Käppeli

Watches This is a real sign of the times: the Swiss watch industry continued to soar in January 2005.+19.1% It increased the value of its exports by 19.1 percent to 784.8 million francs compared to January 2004. The number of watches exported rose by 11.6 percent to a good 2.3 million. The increase was mainly due to strong exports of steel watches, which rose by 29 percent. The number of bimetal and gold watches exported also rose sharply. Exports to the USA, the most important country for Swiss watches, rose by more than a third, while China is now in fourth place thanks to an increase of almost 150 percent. Exports exceeded the eleven billion Swiss franc mark for the first time.

Photo printing Printer Konica Minolta Printing Solutions is expanding its portfolio of color laser printers with the Magicolor 2430 DeskLaser.Printer Konica Minolta Printing Solutions is expanding its portfolio of color laser printers with the Magicolor 2430 DeskLaser. The device features the PictBridge standard as standard for printing digital photos directly from a PictBridge-supporting digital camera via a USB interface. Up to 5 pages per minute in color and 20 pages in black and white can be printed on the compact color laser.

Further trainingUnder the title "Print Media Competence", the Heidelberg Print Media Academy (PMA) presents its s and qualification offers for the first time in a cross-thematic general catalog. The spectrum ranges from sales and management seminars to product training courses; PMA also offers individual in-house seminars. The current program can be ordered immediately by e-mail ([email protected]), telephone (0049 62 21 92 50 11) or fax (0049 62 21 92 49 29).

Advertising rates What prompted Tamedia to offer "compensation" to agencies that book directly, thereby upsetting the entire industry? Jürg Brauchli, Head of Newspapers at Tamedia, explains.
WW A month ago, PubliPresse General Director Otto Meier sat in your office and warned you in vain about your direct booking discount. Jürg Brauchli It's not a discount, but an expense allowance, the introduction of which has been in the pipeline for some time.
was in the pipeline. Mr. Meier also came to us because of the
terminated Commission agreement. We submitted a new proposal to him and have been waiting for a response ever since.
Nevertheless, one gets the impression that you have rashly instigated an industry merger.
That's what P says; it also claims that we are undermining the current tariff system. In fact, however, it was the P that in recent years has increasingly provided services that were previously the responsibility of traditional media agencies. The agencies, which are under great cost pressure, took on services such as booking or billing checks in order to reduce their own costs. For in-house publishers, this meant that order volumes that used to be handled directly with the publisher were increasingly handled via the P. However, this is not in the interests of an in-house publisher. However, this is not in the interest of a self-publishing house because it has to pay a commission to the P. That is why we think it is right, in the interests of similar lengths and freer competition, that an agency can choose whether it wants to have the booking work carried out by the P free of charge or whether it takes on the work and is then compensated by the publisher.
What proportion of Tamedia's total advertising volume comes from P? In Swiss francs, it is currently around 50 percent. If you look at individual orders, the P accounts for significantly less than 50 percent. Agency sales booked via the P have risen by around 15 percentage points in the last five years.
Why has Tamedia stirred up this hornet's nest right now?
P felt more and more strongly. In addition - and I admit this - there is the new situation in the Zurich area: because P is now closely linked to NZZ, it will no longer be actively doing anything for Tamedia. The time of neutral advertising sales is now also over in Zurich.
An old cliché that doesn't become any truer simply by repeating it.
Believe me or not, there are statements from PubliGroupe to this effect.
From Otto Meier? let me say from PubliGroupe (laughs). I don't want to personalize it.
So last year, someone from the P said or wrote that they would do less for you than before.
No, not like that, it was on the occasion of director negotiations. It is clear that the P is trying to positively influence the market for these titles within the framework of directing contracts. But that's only the second reason for our proposal - the third point is that more and more agencies are outsourcing not only the booking but also the actual planning to the P, which is what worries me personally the most. Because from this moment on, it becomes dangerous for self-directed titles, because the P and its subsidiaries will try to place orders where it has the highest commission or has made the biggest commitments.
Nevertheless, back to PubliGroupe's statement: who said what exactly and when? The accusation that PubliGroupe is not neutral is heard time and again, but hardly anyone puts their cards on the table.
I don't want to say any more at the moment. I just wanted to make it clear earlier that there are such statements from the P. And I don't want to mention any names of agencies that assign their planning to the P either. But it's no secret that P actively offers planning free of charge. I would also keep an eye on this as an advertising client, because it can't be in their interest if such mechanisms start to play out.
What do you fear for Tamedia if the P starts to "positively influence" the market for the NZZ titles? If it shifts a certain advertising budget in favor of a certain title, this can only be to the detriment of another title. How effectively it can do this and whether this will lead to a drop in sales for us is an open question. I'm not particularly worried about this, but it's not something that should leave us cold.
The agencies were already asking for a direct booking fee 20 years ago. Why has Tamedia done nothing so far?
Because Publimedia did not yet offer agencies so many free services. This has increased significantly in recent years. In addition, the P in Zurich has been more or less neutral up to now.
Tamedia therefore waived the compensation out of concern that P would "positively influence" the market for NZZ if it went it alone.
No, not so much because of that, but because P would probably have seen such a move as an unfriendly act. Today, things are different in that we are the only publishing house in the Zurich area that is not leased by P - with the exception of the Ringier titles, which are not solely focused on the Zurich area.
What basic commission did the P receive for your titles under the previous agreement? >> Page 16>> We give 2 percent everywhere. This is also provided for in our new proposal.
In other words, 0.5 percent more than the agencies that book directly. For what?
For the delcredere, which P takes over. We also pay a certain amount of compensation to the P branch network.
Otto Meier says this is not enough for the Delcredere (WW 5/05).
The delcredere at our company does not account for more than 0.3 percent for the P - because the orders are well diversified. Perhaps Otto Meier should take another look at the accounts. In the Erb case, for example, we bore the entire del credere ourselves, as Erb was a direct customer of Tamedia.
What is new about your proposal, which lies with the P? In addition to the basic commission, we have also granted the P sales-related bonuses for each title to date. We no longer want this, because if it no longer actively does anything for us, we don't want to reward it for additional sales that it doesn't influence. We are therefore proposing market share-related bonuses: You jointly define certain market participants, and if the market share then changes in our favor, that's worth a bonus. Otherwise not. Simply going with the flow of the advertising market is not an additional effort; the P has the commission for that.
What do you want to achieve specifically with the direct booking discount? First and foremost, we want to use the expense allowance to prevent more orders from moving from the agencies to P and to ensure that they do not outsource even more tasks to P, but that they provide the service themselves again because it is worthwhile for them. That is clearly the most important point for us. We also hope to see a slight increase in directly booked orders. However, there will hardly be any major shifts or even additional turnover as a result.
Do you also want to reduce costs with the discount? After all, you pay the agencies less than the P.
If you do the math honestly, it will be more expensive for us, at least in the short term. After all, we now have to compensate those agencies that have already booked directly. Conversely, we did not ask any agencies to promise that they would change their booking behavior. This is therefore not a cost-cutting measure, but a longer-term measure for market liberalization. It would not make sense if everything ended up going through the P.
Why is Tamedia trying to stop the migration of orders to P on its own? The independent publishers have often discussed possible measures, including within the Swiss Press Association (VSP). Ultimately, however, a company can only ever act as a single entity.
Specifically: Have you spoken to Ringier or Jean Frey about this in the last six months?
Of course, but more informative. Because otherwise there are just discussions about a model, that's all that happens, and nothing happens on the market. That is precisely the advantage of P: it operates as a stand-alone company and can present everyone with new facts. But I do know that other publishing houses are thinking along similar lines to us. I don't know whether they will do the same.
I have made enquiries (see box above), but nothing seems to be moving. The VSP is also cautious.
The P is an important market player, even for the VSP. It is an associate member and also sponsors events. I understand that you don't like to mess things up with a good sponsor.
Did 13 of the 15 media agencies approached actually sign the agreement with Tamedia?
We could have introduced the compensation without any formalities. But in the interests of transparency, we wanted to make a commitment. We approached the SWA just as openly. I can't blame SWA Director Jürg Siegrist for saying that the compensation was a discount and belonged to the customer. However, he did not take into account the fact that P does not pass on its commission to customers.
Some agencies accuse Tamedia of having communicated naively in this case.
One agency or another would have preferred it if we hadn't said anything. Other publishers do it that way, I know. But that's not in the interests of the necessary market transparency.
Tamedia may also have been unofficially granting agencies direct booking compensation for a long time. So the only new thing is that you are now officially offering it?
I have to disagree with that. We didn't have that.
Otto Meier says that the agencies are giving up their neutral, fiduciary stance with the agreement.
(laughs) I would say the same if I were him. He obviously fears that agencies will now increasingly book directly. But the agencies act in the customer's interest first and are professional enough not to be influenced by us.
Publimedia is threatening to provide fewer services to these agencies. It is also considering abolishing the delcredere at Tamedia, or "measures" regarding payment deadlines or in the processing area. How are you reacting?
I don't think the threatening gestures against the agencies are sovereign. The P is admitting that it wants to influence them and make them dependent on it. And if it rejects the delcredere, we will just have to talk about the level of the commission. We didn't actually want to touch this. We will have to discuss the other points with Otto Meier in due course. But I do want to emphasize something: Our compensation offer was not a declaration of war on the P. We simply want to prevent one party from ending up booking everything on its own.
FuW and 20 Minuten with special regulationAlthough Finanz und Wirtschaft (FuW) and 20 Minuten are also Tamedia titles, they do not grant direct booking compensation. Jürg Brauchli explains this as follows: When the compensation was launched at the end of 2004, 20 Minuten was not yet a 100 percent subsidiary of Tamedia and negotiations for the complete takeover were still ongoing.
FuW is different: this publishing house is deliberately run as an independent division. In addition, the marketing and booking mechanisms for this title would be completely different to those elsewhere. "But it cannot be ruled out that one of these titles - or both - will also grant the compensation at some point in the future," says Brauchli.
Cautious interest and restraintFor the time being at least, Tamedia is not finding any imitators among other large independent publishers. "We are observing what Tamedia is doing and find their impulse interesting. However, a direct booking discount is not an issue for us at the moment," says Myrta Bugini, Head of Communications at Ringier. It sounds very similar at Förrlibuckstrasse: "For Jean Frey AG
there is no need for action as a result of Tamedia's measure," says CEO Filippo Leutenegger.
And what does the Swiss Press Association think about Tamedia's initiative and the P reactions? "We have to exercise restraint, for better or worse, when it comes to such potential conflicts between members. In this sense, it is not an issue at the moment," says Managing Director Daniel Kaczynski. (mk)
At loggerheads with the P: Jürg Brauchli, Head of Newspapers at Tamedia.
Interview: Markus Knöpfli

Large format printersAgfa is running a special promotion until the end of March 2005 for the large format inkjet printing systems (LFP) of the :Grand Sherpa Universal family, which includes two different and favorable package offers for complete LFP solutions. Agfa is also offering special conditions to users of LFP systems from other manufacturers who want to replace their installed systems with modern, environmentally friendly Eco-Solvent Plus printing systems from Agfa. Both special offers are limited in time and in the number of units that can be delivered.

Column Defensive corporate communication is often justified on legal grounds. A lazy and sometimes fatal excuse." A panel discussion on the question "Priority of law or priority of communication?" recently took place in Winterthur as part of the "Executive MBA Marketing" program. The focus was on differences of opinion between lawyers and communication experts, particularly in crisis situations. The most frequently mentioned case on the podium was, of course, that of the temporary employment agency Adecco, where the Board of Directors launched an investigation in 2004 due to suspected accounting deficiencies and then went into hiding. As a result, unsettled investors destroyed five billion dollars worth of Adecco capital within a few days. Quite unnecessarily, as it turned out, because the investigation revealed no irregularities whatsoever, for which it would be wrong to blame the lawyers who had advised the Board of Directors to temporarily "omerta". After all, it is in the nature of things that lawyers plead for the most defensive communication possible in critical cases. They are guided in their assessment of the situation by the presumption of innocence, a cornerstone of our legal system.
Unfortunately, the "real world" in which we communicate no longer has much to do with this principle. In the public eye today, the presumption of guilt rather than innocence applies. The media do not usually publish and pass judgment "in dubio pro reo", but follow the adage "where there is smoke, there is bound to be fire".
A CEO accused of sexual harassment, for example, may be legally innocent until proven otherwise. But if he becomes the subject of headlines, he is usually finished long before the investigation is completed and completely regardless of the outcome. The fact that this makes companies and their exponents vulnerable to blackmail is deplorable, but ultimately a fact of life. The most recent example of this is the recent resignation of UN refugee commissioner Ruud Lubers, who was confronted with allegations of sexual harassment.
Even when top managers actually make mistakes, lawyers and communication experts are divided on how to deal with them - which is also completely normal. Lawyers always have a possible lawsuit in mind in such cases. And they fear that their client's position in court will deteriorate if he openly admits his guilt. Communications consultants, on the other hand, know that in the case of serious mistakes, only an unapologetic admission, and possibly even an apology, can help to avert or at least reduce the damage to the company's reputation.
Nevertheless, both lawyers and PR professionals are needed in crisis communication cases. Listed companies in particular operate today in an environment characterized by legal requirements and litigious investors. It would be irresponsible to forego legal advice here, as one wrong word can often lead to multimillion-dollar claims for damages.
However, the future and value of a company depend not only on compliance with stock market regulations, but also on the expectations of the public. And this follows the laws of the media. This is why management and boards of directors must take both into account in their decisions: the legal risks and just as much the reputational risks.
This brings us to the key point: it's all about decision-making. The Code of Obligations leaves nothing to be desired in terms of clarity here: the operational management of a company is the responsibility of the Executive Board, and supervision is the responsibility of the Board of Directors. In other words, not the lawyers and not the communications consultants.
In the case of those in positions of responsibility such as those at Adecco, who justified their silence with advice from lawyers, there is therefore only one thing for the shareholders to do: vote them out immediately. Firstly, because they have not fulfilled their duties under the Swiss Code of Obligations. Secondly, anyone who tries to pass the buck in such a cheap way does not belong on a Board of Directors. And thirdly, they have not understood that in addition to the legal analysis of the situation, today's corporate governance also includes an assessment from a communications perspective.
> Sacha Wigdorovits is head of the Zurich-based communications agency
Contract Media.

Advertising market The advertising holding company Omnicom made significant gains in the 2004 financial year. Sales rose by 13 percent to 9.747 billion dollars, with the US home market lagging behind the euro zone (+15%) with an increase of 11 percent. Just over half of the increase in turnover was achieved through organic growth, around one seventh through acquisitions and the remainder through currency effects. The holding company's net profit grew by 15 percent to 723.5 million dollars.

Magazines The Ringier Group has entered into a partnership with the Indian publishing house Infomedia India.Ringier's subsidiary in Hong Kong, Ringier Pacific Ltd, and Infomedia are launching five specialist magazines in the plastics, packaging, food processing, textiles and pharmaceuticals sectors this year. The print products will be complemented by specialist conferences and an Internet platform. Ringier is contributing its publishing expertise to the partnership and, among other things, is taking over the international advertising sales and international marketing of Infomedia India's existing directories, trade and consumer magazines.

With the new CG220, Eizo has developed a color-calibrated LCD that can display two A4 pages completely side by side in 16:10 format. Another highlight is the extremely precise display of both the RGB and sRGB color spaces. With the microprocessor specially developed by Eizo, darker tonal values are displayed with an accuracy of 14 bits, so that dark colors and tonal values as well as drawings and structures are more finely resolved and therefore more visible.