LEXMARK PARTNERS WITH CIRCUIT CITY / NEW INKJET ADV CAMPAIGN

[Anonymous]

http://www.kentucky.com/101/story/493501.html
Lexmark partners with Circuit City in new ad campaign
Lexmark
International has partnered with retailer Circuit City to pitch its
newest wireless inkjet printers in an offbeat television advertising
campaign.Ads airing on cable networks throughout August tout the
benefit of being cord-free, as a family plays on its laptops but finds
itself tangled in the mess of cords needed to print.”We come in as the
perfect solution to liberate you from that, to break the chains from
the printers,“ said José Chacon, a Lexmark senior manager of brand
marketing who helped develop the ad.The campaign focuses around the
company’s home and student inkjet printer products, said Todd Hamblin,
vice president of sales and marketing for the company’s inkjet
division.Other elements of the campaign include placements in Circuit
City’s weekly newspaper circulars, mentions on circuitcity.com, and
highly visible in-store displays, Hamblin said.

The TV ads,
which promote a $30 discount on Lexmark wireless printers at Circuit
City, began Aug. 10 and will run for three weeks. They’re airing on
cable networks including USA, TBS, TNT, the Discovery Channel and the
Weather Channel.Hamblin said the company has also purchased some spots
locally in Lexington.”That’s something that every time we do a major
initiative like this, we buy some local airtime to continue to support
our local community,“ he said.

Coping with cartridges
Speaking
of wireless, Chief Financial Officer John Gamble Jr. addressed the
issue of dwindling ink cartridge sales and the expected impact from
wireless printers during a recent investor conference call.Gamble told
listeners to a July 25 call hosted by FTN Midwest that the company
thinks its ink cartridge revenue has dropped steeply because of its
decision to lower its installed base of printers by pulling out of
underperforming areas.The company has pulled out of 20 percent of its
sales and then 30 percent of its remaining sales since 2006, as it
seeks to stop selling printers to people who don’t print enough.

Its
decision to focus on products like all-in-ones, which feature copying,
scanning and sometimes faxing features, as well as wireless printers,
”should result in higher usage per placement,“ Gamble said.”We think
the trend should be that as we do better and better in placing a higher
and higher percentage of wireless and higher-end product and
business-class product that our overall usage should improve,“ he said

[Author]

August 19, 2008 at 5:15 PM