Quark Forums

Hi, all,

here you find an ABC interview with Quark's CEO Ray Schiavone about Quark Promote:
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=9100840

And here's the interview with Fox Business:
http://www.vmsdigital.com/download/newsdigital/ingestedfile/wmv480/TCH120355_01.wmv

Enjoy!
Matthias

Hmmmmmmm.....

 Quark sells layout software to Design and printing companies, and is now selling design and printing directly to the end user.  Kinda sounds like Quark is bitting the hand that feeds it.

 Don't like the looks of this.

Hi, ronwel,

Quark values and respects its customer base and Quark Promote can help both groups you mentioned.

If you design with QuarkXPress 8, you can join the community of professional designers expanding their portfolios by creating matching template sets for Quark Promote and the millions of small and midsized businesses who require professional design expertise.
Please see here: http://quarkpromote.quark.com/Designer.aspx and http://quarkpromote.quark.com/Invite.aspx 

And as Quark itself doesn't print (printing is done via partners), so whether you’re a franchise with hundreds of locations or a locally owned print shop, Quark Promote can help bring more customers to you.
Please see here: http://quarkpromote.quark.com/NeighborhoodPrints.aspx

Best
Matthias

I've looked at the website and if I were looking at it as an end user...it looks fantastic.  Simple, easy and hassle free.  Looking at it from a designer/printer stand-point, it is a direct threat to the comany that I work for.

 As a designer....you are asking us to provide free work (templates) in order to "expand" our portfilio.  (At least...this is what I got from the website).  "Great"...Quark gets FREE templates, and I get yet another sample to put in my portfolio.  Not to mention, several organizations do not permit "free" work like this to be done by their memebers. (Such as RGD...Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario.  It is against their charter.)

 As a printer...it would only benefit me if I were to become one of your "prefered" partners.  And it is true that you do not directly do the printing, but you (in essence) control who get the print work via "prefered" partners.  You also offer the choice to purchase online and have it shipped to the user....thus directly selling to the end user.

From what I can see...you are asking for free templates from designers, selling their work and outsourcing the print work to print vendors that are a part of your "QuarkAlliance output provider program".

 As an end user...it is a great idea.  As a designer/printer...it is a direct threat.

Interesting to see that my latest response was blocked.

- UPDATE....previous post now added

Hi, ronwel,

please have a look here, maybe that makes things clearer how everybody can participate and benefit: http://quark.com/pressdetail.aspx?nid=2443&lang=us

ronwel:

Interesting to see that my latest response was blocked.

No conspiracy, just coincidence... The spam filter of the forums software marked your post as suspicious, I have no idea why. Anyhow, I released it.

Best regards
Matthias

This reminds me of when FedEx bought Kinkos, and then partnered with Adobe to put a direct print link to print to Kinkos directly out of Acrobat/Reader.  The printing industry went NUTS.  Eventually Adobe was forced to remove the FedEx link from Acrobat/Reader.

 From my standpoint, Kinkos is a major competitor to me.  So...I decided to close my account with FedEx and started to ship all of my packages with another national courier.  Why support a company that owns my competitor?  Why give them the capital to invest and take away my clients/work.

 So...I have to wonder if the next step for Quark will be to put a direct link inside Quark that will send people to it's own print service. (I can just imaging the reaction from the printing community over that type of move.)

Hi, ronwei,

good point and that's exactly why Quark Promote allows every neighbourhood printer, which fulfills quality standards, to participate.

This way you can find new customers, e.g. a Barber shop who currently prints cheaply designed templates on his own ink jet or the next door Spa using a "free templates" service.

Now with Quark Promote they can use nice looking and professionally designed templates and print professionally on your printing machines.

Best
Matthias

 

P.S: Maybe - instead of ping ponging in a forum - it would be more efficient if we call you to explain it in detail. Send me an email with your phone number via the Contact button please.

I am just as concerned as Ronwei is. We have enough to battle with all of the low priced on-line printers not to mention all of the "dealers" that can now have a print button on their website. Why would you want to further push custom printing into the realm of the commodity??? It seems that with the flat rate pricing you are price fixing and forcing all of your print providers to squeeze profit or they can't participate. On top of that we have to pay a healthy chunk to get a chance to maybe get a piece of the pie. My prediction is that you are going to have lots of independents screaming just like we did when Adobe pulled their fast one with their alliance with FedEx. My guess is that if you asked the individual owners of the franchises you have on board you might get a different story. The franchise corporate offices are thrilled to have yet another thing to offer their franchisees -- "on paper". Just like the individual owners of the fast food joints hate the dollar menu - but they have no choice if corporate says give it away they have to.

Hi IndiPrinter,

please look at the information about QuarkPromote again.

It is specifically tailored to help independent printers like you to find more customers in your neighbourhood and help you generate additional revenue. And it also includes benefits for designers. 

If you have further questions, please send me your phone number (by using the Contact button above this post) and we will call you to explain you how you can participate.

Thanks
Matthias