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AnonymousInactiveValue judgment
Lower
cost, more fully-featured printers should entice people to print more.
As the industry strives to enhance the importance of printing supplies
as part of the customers’ printing experience, higher page counts may
lead to higher profitsThe manufacturers of printers and printing
supplies, the print cartridges and paper used to print photos and maps,
invoices and marketing proposals, have long understood that for many
customers supplies are considered a low involvement purchase – done out
of habit, without much thought. How little thought? When customers in
the UK and the US were asked to compare the purchase of ink and toner
cartridges to other goods they buy, they most frequently compared it to
buying toilet paper, explaining that: “You don’t really want to think
about it, and if you run out of it, you’re in trouble.”Because they
haven’t wanted to think about it, many customers fail to appreciate the
contributions that printing supplies make to the overall printing
experience – and that lack of appreciation has led some to wonder why
printing supplies cost what they do and to question whether they’re
good value for money. In 2005, industry leader Hewlett-Packard (HP)
addressed this issue and unveiled ‘The Science of Printing’, a
marketing campaign intended to decommoditise the printing supply, to
improve customers’ perceptions of value by pointing out the vast
amounts of technology contained within print cartridges.The campaign
was rich in detail. It pointed out that when designing inks, HP
scientists spend up to four years evaluating as many as 1,000 different
ink combinations in search of the right formula, that all inks are
subjected to more than 20 different tests for purity and more than 50
different tests for attributes such as water resistance, fade
resistance and colour accuracy. It explained that HP toner particles
are uniform in size – small and round – which results in more precise
toner placement for higher resolution, better colour transitions, and
glossier prints. And it revealed that HP Premium and Premium Plus photo
papers are made up of six micro-thin layers, each with a critical job
to do like controlling ink absorption to resist fading or creating a
moisture barrier to ensure that paper stays flat.The campaign made
great strides in improving consumers’ appreciation of the technology.
But to take advantage of a growing market – one which will see 2.7
trillion pages printed on ink and laser printers in 2010, so many pages
that if you stacked them one on top of the other, they’d reach
three-quarters of the way to the moon – the industry has to demonstrate
additional value in printing supplies by promoting features beyond the
core technology. So two years after the Science of Printing, HP has
begun just that, embarking on a simple and straightforward campaign to
project additional value, packaging the content so that it’s easy to
explain and easy to understand. As the rising tide lifts all boats, if
HP and the reseller community succeed in these efforts, customers will
experience greater satisfaction, increasing the likelihood of them
returning to buy more – and more.Perceptions of value
It’s
common for critics to refer to ink as the most expensive liquid in the
world, to compare it with luxury items such as champagne or perfume.
One critic went so far as to compare ink with gasoline, suggesting that
it would wipe out an entire year’s salary to fill his gas tank with it.
The comparisons aren’t logical, of course; none of the liquids are
substitutes for each other. But that doesn’t diminish the comparisons’
emotional charge because they tap into customers’ pre-conceived notions
of value.It’s unfortunate, too, because HP has dramatically decreased
the cost of printing – and even more dramatically increased performance
– in almost all facets over the past 15 years. Since the early 1990s:
•
The cost of printing, when measured as the cost of the printer in
addition to three years supply of ink or toner, has decreased 52
percent for black and white LaserJet printers and 68 percent for inkjet
printers
• Performance, when measured as improvements in speed and
quality, has increased 463 percent for black and white LaserJet
printers and 900 percent for inkjet printers
• The number of pages a
customer can print per ml of black ink has doubled, while the number of
pages a customer can print per ml of colour ink has almost tripled.
So
the first and most important explanation to offer a customer who
questions whether printing supplies are good value is to sell the
system – the printer plus the printing supply – to demonstrate that by
looking at the bigger picture, customers’ costs have gone down
considerably.Value in choice
Some
customers, those who print more frequently and many businesses,
perceive good value as being able to save in the long run, even if that
means spending more money up front while others, those who print less
frequently, perceive good value as being able to spend less money out
of pocket, saving now but spending more in the long run. The insight
that customers have multiple definitions of value isn’t new; it simply
hasn’t been applied broadly in the context of print cartridges, until
now.HP addressed the ‘low cost per page’ customer first, introducing
higher capacity “X” cartridges for LaserJet printers, and then
recently, adding toner cartridge dual packs. For customers who own
inkjet printers, HP has introduced 2-packs, 3-packs, high-capacity
cartridges, and photo value packs – all solutions that offer customers
an opportunity to achieve a lower cost per page, an average saving of
ten to 15 percent. In April 2007, HP introduced a solution for
customers who prefer to spend less money out-of-pocket by selling
inkjet cartridges that offer typical HP quality, but for less money
than before.The key here is making customers aware of the choices
available to them and helping them choose the type of cartridge that
best fits their definition of value for the money. HP is making it
easier for customers to choose the right cartridge by colour coding
packaging – for example, adding green accent colours to its traditional
blue packaging to signify ‘value’ cartridges, those designed for higher
use customers. Additionally in retail and on the web, HP is providing
prompts to get consumers to think about how they are going to use their
printer so that they can identify the most suitable cartridge for their
individual printing needs. Point-of-sale ink selection guides, printer
packaging, web search results and new displays all help to make the
process easier.Value and hassle
Money
is simply one dimension of value, so focusing the conversation on the
amount of currency exchanging hands is inadequate. Customers obviously
perceive value in quality and reliability, two of HP’s trademarks,
covered thoroughly in the Science of Printing. But more and more, as
people are getting busier and busier, they are also placing a lot of
value in convenience.The worst time to run out of ink or toner is in
the middle of a long print job when you’re past deadline, or when your
kids are working on a school project late at night when all of the
stores are closed. For most people, keeping an inventory of extra
cartridges on hand isn’t desirable – either the initial investment is
too large or the storage needs can be too great, a particular issue for
businesses that have many printers or many models of printers. The
solution, therefore, is a system that automates, or at least
simplifies, supplies ordering and ensures that new cartridges are
available as soon as they’re needed.HP offers software management tools
for individual consumers to large enterprises that allow customers to
monitor supplies levels, receive alerts on supplies status, and
pre-populate supplies order forms for easy reordering from their
preferred supplier. Depending upon the number and type of printers
involved, HP customers may utilise the following:
• For inkjet
printer users, HP offers the HP Solution Center, software that allows
customers to view supplies levels, view alternative cartridges that can
be used with their printer and print a personalised shopping list
•
For home and home office customers, HP offers SureSupply, a program
that helps them explore the range of cartridge options for supplies
repurchase and then select the right SKU. This information can be used
as a reference source for ordering or can be linked online to find a
local reseller, to discover a local telephone number for ordering, or
to place an order online with HP or a preferred online channel partner
•
For micro and small businesses, HP offers SureSupply and Easy Printer
Care, which lets office managers or administrative staff customise
alerts and consolidate supplies ordering information for up to 15 HP
LaserJet printers
• And then for larger businesses and enterprises,
HP offers Web JetAdmin, which provides supplies management capabilities
to IT managers with networked printer fleets.
The tools are
available but customers aren’t necessarily aware of them. Raising
awareness, and then helping with set up and use, is another simple way
to demonstrate added value in printing supply.Value and the environment
Environmental
responsibility is a growing trend. Issues related to climate change are
getting a high level of media coverage and are becoming relevant in the
printing supplies market – and for some customers, gaining relevance as
a purchasing criteria. These customers would like to recycle their used
print cartridges as long as the process is easy and as long as they’re
certain the cartridges are being recycled responsibly.For the channel,
many of whom collect empty cartridges from customers, the strongest
environmental solution is to take advantage of HP’s Planet Partners
recycling programme, which is easy to use and free. HP includes
pre-addressed, postage paid recycling envelopes and labels with many
original HP print cartridges. Or, if customers have many print
cartridges to return, they can request a free bulk collection box from
HP at http://www.hp.com/recycle. In the more than 40 countries the Planet
Partners recycling programme exists, HP accepts returns of virtually
every original HP print cartridge sold; and importantly, HP guarantees
that no original HP cartridges returned through the programme are sent
to landfill.Research indicates there’s growing confusion, and some
cynicism, regarding what happens to HP print cartridges when they are
returned through Planet Partners or any other recycling programmes.
It’s important to tell customers that HP offers a genuine recycling
programme, that it does not refill and resell any print cartridges it
collects, that all print cartridges returned to HP through Planet
Partners go through a multi-phase recycling process where they are
reduced to raw materials, which can then be used to make new metal and
plastic products.Conclusion
For
some customers, uncertainty about the value they’re getting from OEM
printing supplies has led them to consider generic or private-label
print cartridges, which seem less expensive because they typically sell
for less. The risk these customers take, and the risk resellers take by
suggesting alternative cartridges, is customer dissatisfaction. It
turns out that compared to aftermarket alternatives, original HP
supplies might be more expensive to buy, but they can be less expensive
to use, not just in money spent, but in time, aggravation and wasted
paper. So, remind customers that with original HP supplies, they not
only get reliable, trouble-free printing, but the ease-of-use and the
great, consistent print quality that HP is known for.And now, HP has
unveiled a number of new programmes to give customers a better sense of
getting real value from their purchase – programmes that are easy to
explain and easy to understand. By focusing on the system, by pointing
out the variety of available purchasing options, by streamlining the
supplies management and ordering process, and by directing customers
who want to recycle their used print cartridges through a genuine
recycling programme to HP Planet Partners, the industry can improve the
chances that customers’ experiences meet their definition of good value. -
AuthorMay 14, 2007 at 10:42 AM
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