Katelyn Bohr, Colordyne: Inkjet Innovation for a Multitude of Markets

Katelyn Bohr is the Director of Marketing for Colordyne Technologies, who are one of the innovative new FuturePrint partners for 2021. In this interview, we talk to Katelyn about her thoughts on print, inkjet, marketing and her view of the future. As a business, Colordyne designs, engineers and manufactures cutting-edge digital inkjet print engines for strategic integration partners across the full spectrum of inkjet printing markets.

Tell us a little about your background.

I have a BA in Advertising and PR which led me into marketing. And last spring I completed my MBA which was an interesting experience during the first COVID lockdown. After University in 2014, my first job was working for a boutique advertising agency in Milwaukee and we helped clients with a variety of projects including graphic design, which gave me some direct experience working with clients. While it was a great starting point, I wanted to work in a marketing role for a business and become more strategically involved by working as part of a team. I joined Colordyne 4.5 years ago in Marcomms and immediately really liked the company, its culture and the products with a focus on tech for label printing production technologies. Since then, I have grown from a Marcomms Specialist into the role of Director of Marketing.

What are the key elements of the role you enjoy most?

I enjoy working with people, my teammates, and customers. I enjoy learning about their businesses, and working with industry partners such as FuturePrint, SIPs, channel partners and supplier partners like Memjet. It is rewarding to build and bring products to market with a collaborative approach as this creates better products for customers.

On a personal level, I also like to translate technical information into relatable information. We are a technology-focused company, and it takes technical knowledge to understand what we do. I like that challenge; I find it rewarding. 

How would you describe the Colordyne brand and story?

Our core vision at Colordyne is to empower businesses through the adoption of digital inkjet printing. Initially, this was focused on labels, but it is broadening now to include commercial printing, corrugated packaging printing and flexible packaging.

For the last 10 years, I would use the words ‘adaptive’ and ‘innovative’ as key themes of our story. Initially, this was focused on helping brands and converters who needed high quality and affordable label and tag printing solutions.

Today, we have expanded to include SIPs, strategic integration partners, who want to expand their businesses by adding inkjet technology to their equipment. We always focus on customer needs and aim to provide them with knowledge, leadership, value and collaboration. 

Throughout this time, we have been transitioning from reselling label printing equipment to engineering and manufacturing print engine technology for a wide market range. We have been successful with this change because of our vision and values. 

In your view is marketing an integral role for printing or is it often overlooked in favour of technical roles?

Marketing can be overlooked as well as misunderstood. It is seen by some as a costly ‘nice to have’ activity - but not essential. Thankfully, with Colordyne we see the importance of marketing. For instance, from a commercial perspective, it can help a company to break through the noise and enter new markets successfully. I also think that effective marketing can communicate two ways, through external messaging and by bringing the customer into the business helping to design solutions closely around their needs. 

Would you describe Colordyne as an innovator?

Yes, initially with a focus on label technology but increasingly into commercial print, flexible and corrugated packaging. As a marketing professional, I help our technical team understand these new markets so that we develop the right products that solve the right problems. In our company, marketing and technical departments have a great relationship. Colordyne has a very collaborative culture and this delivers great results.

What have been the challenges for Colordyne in 2020?

The key challenges have been the unexpected and prolonged uncertainty - it makes it hard for people to make large capital purchases. Having said that, in Q4 we started seeing an uptick, particularly for packaging and labels. The flexibility you get from having inkjet as part of your production strategy can add so much value, which suits the current and future market needs. Inkjet has helped deliver value to customers during this tough time. We expect interest and investment in inkjet to continue to accelerate, particularly with labels and packaging as the shift to e-commerce shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. Digital gives users more options and faster response times, which is appealing for production that is challenged by fast-changing demand linked to this uncertainty.

Tell us more about the markets you will be developing in the future?

For the first quarter of 2021, we will be taking our technology into the commercial print market and are evaluating a path forward with SIPs in flexible and corrugated packaging. To make sure we create the right technology, we are always looking for strategic integration partners who have great knowledge and understanding of each sector so we can bring our inkjet expertise and align it with the experience of the SIP in each specific market which is always unique and requires a different approach.

What role do you think that inkjet will play in the future when we are past the COVID pandemic?

New pressures are being placed on all manufacturing and largely this is requiring a more responsive ability to align to this fast-changing demand. Inkjet is already playing its role. Inkjet allows greater flexibility enabling customers to be more adaptable and agile, and this is for both digital only and hybrid systems. It enables faster turnarounds, changes on the fly, shorter run lengths, versioning and customisation which are now becoming more affordable. We also see inkjet becoming more affordable for medium run lengths as well.

For labels and packaging, the shifting trends before the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to accelerate - we expect more product proliferation and also an integration of online shopping and omnichannel marketing. This will lead to greater demand for inkjet systems.

Register for Colordyne’s session at the FuturePrint Virtual Conference here.

Find out more about Colordyne here.