Jos van Ast is the Retail Director for Benelux and Nordic regions at Levi Strauss.

Over the course of your career what’s been the biggest change in media?The landscape of media. You now have so many means of communication. You can be on the web everywhere with your phone, or with your small computer.

Could you remove printed media from your retail space?Yes, I do see the possibility for instance we could have digital displays above items to show price, but for the moment this is still too expensive. Within 15 years I could see paperless stores. Because of a few reasons: you can act faster, you can avoid translation issues, and I can imagine in future advertising in store can be linked with the weather outside.

In future what is the role of print for your brand?I can imagine a future where the only printing on an item is a barcode to allow for flexible pricing.

Who for you is doing an outstanding job with integrated marketing?H&M. Driving in the city you see their campaigns on buses and when you then enter their store, advertised products are near the entrance on displays that are shot very beautifully. They do everything in a very integrated way.

Do you ‘tweet’?No.

What is the role of social media for brands?On Hyves (the local Dutch version of Facebook) people list the brands they are fans of in their profiles. So it does help show brands who their market is. The employees of some of our stores have created a Facebook page because they recognise it is a good way to communicate with their customers, especially the younger ones. And that is why a lot of companies and brands are busy creating their own Facebook pages.

Research shows that consumer brands are quicker to get into social media than business-to-business brands. Why do you think this is?With a business-to-business brand their market is smaller and you usually know who they are. Secondly for a business-to-business brand it’s more difficult to determine what your brand awareness is. Also, the interest from people is less, social media started as a place for friends to connect, so they are more interested in finding out about shoes, make-up or TV sets than discussing business deals.

Who is advising brand managers on the printed items of a campaign?I would call our internal Visual Merchandising department.

At what point would you say something needs to be printed? Digital is still seen as temporary. Print has a longer life cycle and maybe adds value. What we see as digital is just the latest news. When you want something to last it is printed. The environment is stil l an important factor, when it’s vital that all communication media becomes sustainable, it will drive people to go digital, instead of print.

What would you see as an evolution in print for your company?Integration of digital with print so everything is more personalised, like when you get a till receipt with your own name on it. It currently takes ages to produce and distribute new point of sale materials. Could I have print-on-demand facilities on every high street in Europe for point of sale materials?

Digital is still seen as temporary.

Question about print & paper? Ask the experts at hellopaper.com

“ …when it’s vital that all communication media becomes sustainable, it will drive people to go digital, instead of print.”

Jos

van

Ast